From observing a flower to embracing resistance in those changing times…

I have been feeling a lot of stagnation over the last few months. Time flies, giving an impression of not going forward. I sense a transition coming, but I’m not able to grasp it.

So, waking up this morning with a knot in my stomach and the urge to go into nature with my camera. This is an activity that makes me happy. I have noticed that each time I am in a transition phase, I pick up my camera again.
Walking on the sand path, I think of a friend telling me that she never feels alone. It reminds me of the allegory of the man walking in the desert, seeing his own footprints and asking where God has been al the time. “There were no other footprints because God carried you”. How beautiful it is to feel supported by a higher power that shows you the way. I feel deeply supported by Nature, flowers, and trees.

On my way back home, I observed a little flower. One of those flowers that you don’t take time to observe because they look very common. Looking more closely, I had to think of my daughter for its pink color and heart-shaped petals.
But observing it with a zoom lens, I could recognize patterns, sacred geometry, the golden ratio, chirality, the optical illusion of movement, connection with Spirit, and the TAO. So here is my fascinating story about encountering a paradox while meeting Silene dioica, also known as red campion and red catchfly.

From observing a flower to embracing resistance.

Silene dioica reading

From observing a flower to embracing resistance.

Reading Silene dioica from its signature, I see bold pink, heart-shaped petals symbolising harmony in the heart. But what triggers me the most is its center: a pentagon shape with side branches, and how the center line of the petal touches each pentagram point….

So I draw the flower center with lines to understand what it has to say. What I see is a regular pentagon, with side brackets all pointing in the same direction (right). It has repetitive patterns and is symmetric if you fold it into five from the center (fivefold symmetry).

In mathematics, the pentagon is linked to the golden ratio and its sense of harmony. Unlike minerals, living organisms favour five-fold geometry, the proportions of life and creation. Like the Vitruvian Man of Da Vinci, we are five-pointed stars when we open our arms, legs (and heart). In botany, five is linked to the rose family, the apple stands for renewal, and the rose for higher energy…. A pentagon in 3D becomes a Dodecahedron. In Plato’s philosophy, this symbolizes the cosmos or the universe as a whole. Spiritually, it represents the fifth dimension, ascension, and the highest consciousness.

I understand from Silene dioica’s pentagon message is about embracing life, life on earth, all forms of life, our own life force, despite our displeasures or maybe thanks to them, because they make us change and adjust for the best. Change involves perfect instability, which we shouldn’t be afraid of. Au contraire, change involves new possibilities, new ways of thinking, and dissolves old patterns to create what we really want.

Now my mind focuses on the mirror shape of this figure. The flower shares its geometry, but from the flower’s perspective—from within—the image is similar, except the external branches point in the other direction (left). This is called chirality. This shows us how perspectives (in and out), duality of life, coexist and can eventually harmonize. It’s like this inner feeling of change, but nothing is changing from the outside… yet.

From observing a flower to embracing resistance.

Now, about those black brackets, looking like little legs: they gave me an impression of movement. Things are moving! But on which side? Visually, I say right, but it’s moving left. When imagining a wind blowing, this little windmill turns left. Again, a lesson on illusion, an invitation to look beyond the first impression and dive into the deeper laws of the universe.

So Silene dioica shows a Counter-clockwise movement, which represents moving beyond linear time to an eternal present. I always feel a dissolution of time when I am in nature, in the presence of botanical beauty, or absorbed in writing or weaving. So the invitation is to do things that make you lose track of time.

And as I erase a paragraph written in linear time, I am coming back to this state of flow called intuitive writing. Defying AI and ChatGPT. Returning to the core of who I am, what I stand for, as a plant talk with a geeky edge, seeing patterns and always finding ways to connect with the divine. The divine feminine, the one we can see in plants and in life itself.

This is my way of working. Leaving my projects to start new ones, returning to an old project with more insights to complete it.
And this is how I juggle different projects at the same time. It does not give immediate results; it “doesn’t look productive”, but it takes time to ripen, like a cuvée tardive, yielding the sweetest wine.

And here I draw the pink lines, radiating outward from the center, as if emitting energy. My time will come to shine my light in all five directions, regardless of whether the journey leads inward or outward.

And this is what observing a plant does to me. Imagine the world filled with those wonders, each one a living expression of the divine, each carrying its own wisdom and medicine to share with us if only we slow down, pay attention, and take our time.