Cherry Plum
We’ve all heard of art treasures being concealed during
times of war and other emergencies.
People have buried money and disguised jewels in order for them not to
be discovered. Tara Brach referred to
this recently[1]
when she described how a solid gold Buddha went unrecognised for centuries
because it had been shrouded in plaster and clay. In all these cases, fear of losing something
valuable had caused people to hide their precious belongings.
When we struggle to deal with difficult times it’s fear
which causes us to bury the treasure of our divine selves under the clay of
emotional reactions. It’s the equivalent of when
someone is being physically beaten, they curl into a ball to protect their important
organs. The Cherry Plum fear which urges
us to lash out, verbally or physically, is rooted in an extreme sense of
vulnerability. Tessa Jordan BFRP gives
the example of a disabled person who strikes out, perhaps while a new carer is
trying to undress them, because they are frightened and vulnerable. The gold of
our higher self becomes buried under a survival response of anger.
When a car drives onto the pavement, almost running us down,
the temptation to key the side as we walk past is another example. It feels as
though we might do ‘fearful and dreaded things, not wished and known wrong’[2]
which in a less vulnerable state we would never dream of doing. I speak from experience …
Cherry Plum helps us to transcend fear and the vulnerability
which goes with it, and prompts us to remember that essentially we are all
souls with hearts of gold. All 38 remedies work to raise our vibrations so that
in bringing our best selves to the surface we can shine love and light out into
a dark world.
Photo: Ally Matson
