This article is an extract from our book

Oil and Water

Field Marigold
Calendula arvensis
Close and intimate relationships are for many of us the single most influential factor in life. As social creatures our requirement for the warmth and companionship of others leads us to behave in ways which do not always serve our own needs. Some of us not only need help with personal issues but the pain we experience within our dysfunctional relationships. In some cases painful relationships are such a major contributing factor to personal health issues that until they are addressed the healing process is seriously impaired.

It is not uncommon for relationship difficulties to surface, sometimes quite unexpectedly, when other issues were thought to be the problem. We are then forced to look at different needs in a different light and even question if a different treatment would be more appropriate. Such is the power of our relationships over our individuality that those in need of Field Marigold will often come for treatment in the belief that it is their friends or relations who should be seeking help, not themselves - the projection of personal problems onto others is a very common trait.

Suggested uses for Field Marigold:

• to ease suffering in all types of relationships, no matter how it is caused
• to help in the discovery of the common ground between two individuals
• for those who feel cut off from the warmth of human relationships
• for those who focus on the faults or problems of others rather than their own healing process
• if the suffering is brought about primarily by the action of others.

Relationships stimulate a tremendous amount of energy within the human aura, much of which is used in the energy exchange between the auras during interaction. The energy we give out and take into our being can be either positive and nourishing or negative and destructive. When the vibrational impulse of Field Marigold is applied to the skin it affects the subtle anatomy as if the individual had been involved in an energetic exchange where a powerful meeting of hearts and minds had occurred.