Book Nook

Flower Therapy: Welcome the Angels of Nature into Your Life by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves is a phenomenal resource guide for anyone who loves flowers and wants to learn more about their healing properties.
I am especially excited about how practical this book is. It gives information about 88 common flowers and their healing properties. Most important for me are the very concrete ideas the authors share about how to bring these healing energies into your life and the life of friends and family.

You can work with this book to help you know exactly which flowers to pick when sending bouquets to loved ones who are ill, those who have experienced a loss or to people who need encouragement or support. This book can guide you in flower selections for your garden or for energy healings. This book can be a reference for you to look up the meaning of flowers that are given to you.

From my limited experience with this book I can imagine my relationship with it to be very similar to the one I have with Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life. I imagine a long term relationship referring back to this book every time I receive or want to give flowers; every time I am planning what flowers to plant in my garden.
I imagine I will think about what I learned in this book every time I walk past flowers (like on my journeys through Pikes Market in Seattle) or through flower gardens.

This book brings a fresh imagination and perspective to my life. It deepens my experience and relationships with flowers and fairies and angels in a healing way just through the sublime beauty of the photographs it holds.
For this I am grateful to the authors Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves and to the creative force energy that supported their writing.

Their book, Flower Therapy, is available at HayHouse.com
Dr. Eleniak
Art Therapist; Clinical Social Worker; Philosopher of Consciousness Studies
I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for review purposes.

I was excited to get started on Flower Therapy by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves, though I wasn't sure what to expect. It is only recently I became interested in reading books by Doreen Virtue, I was interested in learning about her ideas on Angels.

Some people may find it strange, as both authors speak candidly about angels and fairies, which can be slightly shocking, unless you’ve read some of Doreen’s other works. But I assure you, this book is well worth the read.

What is it about?
“Flower Therapy” is the art of working with flowers, flower essences, and angels for healing, manifestation, and abundance. The two authors go in depth, describing 88 common flowers, and describe how they can help you, and how to take care of them. They tell you how flowers can bring healing and joy into your everyday life, at the same time associating angels with each flower. They also give the chakra(s) that each flower is connected too, in this guide they’ve also included messages from each flower, meaning they give each flower a voice.
The information in this book was very informative outlining various types, use and care of flowers. The images of the flowers were beautiful. I could go on and on about it. The information in this book can be helpful to any gardener, or a friend who may be going through something difficult. You do not have to believe in angels or fairies to benefit from this book, I think that anyone can benefit from this book because reading through it is incredibly calming, and the information held in it can be of use to anyone.

My reasons for reading it:
I'm always looking for alternative methods of healing, relaxation, and health promotion, wellness, and peace in daily life. I’ve always felt very strongly that nature has profound healing powers. I've always found that flowers, trees—all nature is healing.

Review
I'm in pain most of the time, and I fight against anxiety and depression along side that, I'm always on the lookout for new and different ways of coping with difficulties of daily life. And ever since I was fourteen I've always found nature very awe-inspiring, mysterious, and magical.
Just seeing the book cover I felt my soul lighten. The book was absolutely beautiful, stunning, the photographs were clear, and they had a genuine calming effect to them. The breathtaking photos are only one aspect of this book that made me fall in love with it. I also loved their approach to the various subjects they discussed. This handy little guide held some recipes, knowing that one of the authors is accredited naturopath made me feel comfortable with following their recipes. I loved the respect for nature that these individuals place so much emphasis on.

I did find some of their ideas a little out there, but that is one of the reasons I liked this book so much; for their unique ideas and interpretations of flowers, most of which rung true for me. They both have a totally unique way of looking at the world, for example they give instructions of ceremonies they perform when picking flowers. They do it in order to respect nature. This I found fascinating, the fact that they said they perform these ceremonies is very telling of them, they tie ribbon around the plant, where they are going to sever it. They do this so that, essentially, the plant will know and ready itself to be cut. This reminded me of an experiment I once watched, where scientists studied plants, they went on to find that plants responded to being cut, or seeing scissors. I’ve also heard of plants responding to music, or talking. I love the respect for nature they have.
Doreen Virtue has stated in previous books that she can see and speak with angels. She believes that they are all around us, and her methods and beliefs transcend religion. Robert Reeves seems to agree with this, believing that they are all around us.
Whether you believe in angels or not, I believe that you can still benefit from this book. It was beautiful to read through, calming and wonderful. Even just simply looking through this book, and following some of their suggested meditations may help with your journey to wellness. I loved that they included a glossary, showing you the names and uses for some flowers that can help you.

This book gives recipes as well as information, since Robert Reeves is a fully accredited Naturopath, and he is fully trained in herbal medicine I would feel comfortable using his recipes.
This book includes some aspects that may seem too out-there for some people, as it talks about angels and fairies but even though it is difficult to wrap your head around, this book is truly beautiful. I think that most people can take comfort in this book because of how calming it is, and how you end up feeling. It would make a beautiful gift for anyone. This book has some very interesting and helpful information about different types of flowers, and what they can be used for.

I suggest that you pick it up, as it is worth the read.

Flower Therapy: Welcome the Angels of Nature into Your Life by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves is similar to flower essence books in that it focuses on energetic or vibrational healing, and incorporates Doreen’s background working with angels and chakras.

In part one, the authors briefly introduce “flower therapy” — working with the blossoms and their associated angels and faeries for personal healing. Part two is a directory of relatively common flowers, such as daisy, magnolia, pine, rose, and sweet pea. Part three is comprised of three lists where you can look up a flower by archangel, chakra, or condition, such as sleep (lavender).

Each flower entry lists its botanical name, energetic properties, associated archangel, associated chakra, healing description, and message from the flower. Each entry is one to two pages long with a small photo.

There is quite a bit of information here. It’s refreshing and lovely to work with the flowers themselves. That being said, I am still somewhat disappointed with this book because there are so many online sources of flower essence descriptions and more, such as the company websites of Bach, FES, Findhorn, Star, Perelandra, Greenhope, Desert Essence, and Spirit-in-Nature; just search for “flower essences”. Flower Therapy could have distinguished itself by greatly expanding its section on flower therapy, including more exercises and case studies.

Following an exercise in the book, I have asked some pink lilies to help me strengthen my commitment to living my soul’s purpose. The bouquet, along with being beautiful, is now a constant reminder of my intention. We shall see what transpires.

Pros
1. Full-color bleed pages on heavy-weight paper throughout.
2. Clearly written entries on 88 commonly accessible flowers.
3. New-to-me ideas, such as house clearing with a bouquet of flowers (white roses for cleansing and purification).

Cons
1. Slim pickings. The section on how to actually do flower therapy is short, logging in at 45 pages. And the pages themselves are small, 5" x 7". I would have preferred so much more information.
2. Almost no stories. I sorely missed examples. For example, it would have been great to have a story that described someone’s dream coming true using flower therapy. Where is the anecdotal evidence? I love both success stories as well as case studies where the prescription did not work — and what could be done in that situation. In this book, there are precious few stories, which makes me a little suspicious.
3. Small photos. The photos are 1.75 inches by 2 inches. For meditation, I would have liked much larger photos.

In summary, a pretty but brief introduction to working with flowers and faeries, for beginners.

I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for review purposes.

This past week I spent some time with "Flower Therapy: Welcoming the Angles of Nature into Your Life" by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves*. It's a lovely little book that's part instructional guide to the art of working with flower essences and part identification guide to common garden flowers.

The first half of the book introduces readers to the healing capabilities of flowers. It includes methods for respectfully harvesting flowers, caring for cut flowers, using blossoms to make infusions and essences, chakra clearing, divination, and more. The text is thorough and comprehensive, and delightfully free of filler.

Small in stature with thick glossy pages, the book certainly feels more like a field guide than your average paperback. It's the ideal size and shape to carry along in a bag out to a garden or park. Lovely full color photographs grace the pages, letting readers tune in visually to each of the flowers. The authors include the common and botanical names, archangels, chakras, energetic information, healing attributes, and intuitive messages associated with each of the 88 plants.

I personally love "Flower Therapy," and look forward to its guidance in working with the few remaining blossoms before autumn officially takes over the gardens. It's just the sort of reference I've been wanting for; a book rooted in down to earth advice and inspiration for further exploration. Even though I am not especially connected to the Archangels themselves, Virtue and Reeves include plenty of other useful information regarding the different plants and how to mindfully integrate them into everyday life. When spring rolls around next year, this book will be one of the first that I pull off of my shelf as I greet the new blossoms with a greater awareness and appreciation.

You can find this book available for purchase at Hay House Publishing

*I received "Flower Thearpy" for free from Hay House Publishing for review purposes.

I had no idea what to expect when I received this book. I had read books talking about angels and alternative medicine and therapies before and was somewhat skeptical about the content of Flower Therapy - Welcome the Angels of Nature into Your Life.

Surprisingly, the book is amazingly light and fun to read, and it's also a beautiful volume, with high quality illustrations of 88 different flowers, highlighting their benefits and what they can do to help heal or improve a specific area of our lives.

The flowers are listed in alphabetical order, and the pictures help identify the type of plant. The correlation with the respective angel that is associated with the flower completes the description of the flower and how to utilize it for our benefit. There are also hints on how to make infusions with the flowers for different purposes and all to help clear the body, mind and spirit.

You don't have to believe in angels to read this book. You can still find lots of interesting information about the flowers, and how to clean and energize your house and your environment, including yourself. It is an inspirational book that providers beautiful insight into the flowers and the benefits nature can provide us!

Flower Therapy is a “how to” guide for adding real FLOWER POWER to your life! When focused on through meditation, appreciating their natural beauty, or given as a gift to brighten someone’s day, flower therapy can provide comfort and joy.

Defined as “a method of using different blossoms for specific needs and desires,” the authors provide several great ways to use flower treatments including:

• flower meditations
• prayers
• working with angels and fairies
• cutting and caring for flowers
• giving flowers to others
• chakra balancing
• how to pick wildflowers
• even how to care for wilted flowers
 
Flower Infusions

Since I make mostly all of my natural hair and skin care products, I was particularly interested in the chapter on Flower Essences and Infusions. I use organic roses and hibiscus flowers in my homemade clay wash, rinses, and bath salts. In addition to extra softening, conditioning, and fabulousness, I learned that red roses have:

• motivating energy
• promote healing
• attracts more love
• and boosts passion

Pink roses:
• provide comfort
• beauty
• self-confidence
• being content with yourself
 
When my husband filled our kitchen with a bouquet of fresh orange lilies and yellow daisies, I couldn’t wait to open to the Flower Therapy Chart to read the full list of each flower’s personality, energetic properties and message (after hugs and kisses of course:)
 
Lily (Orange)
• good for calmness
• releasing excess baggage
• and weight loss (– who knew?)

Daisy
• great for removing drama and stress
• relaxation
• self-care

What’s also nice about this book is that each page is filled with vibrant colors. This was great for flowers I wasn’t familiar with and for opening to a random page and enjoying a nice bouquet. The flowers are beautiful and the authors explain that if you don’t have fresh flowers, a picture works just as well!
 
My Favorite Part: The Directory

About a month ago, I gave a friend a Bougainvillea plant as a housewarming gift. She’s always enjoyed the big bright color it gives our yard and it's very easy to care for. I was pleasantly surprised when I read about the protective nature of this plant--I just thought it was beautiful! All 88 flowers are presented by their alternative name, botanical name, energetic property, associated archangel, associated chakra, healing description and message from the flower. Now A flower can't pass my eyes without me checking what it's saying in this book! Check out the Bougainvillea's healing description:

"Contrary to what you might think, the flower of the Bougainvillea is actually the small, almost insignificant white blossoms. The colored leaves that look like petals are called bracts, and they aren’t’ flowers at all. This is talking botanically–energetically it’s another story. The leaves act as protective forces around the small flower. Bougainvillea vines are excellent to plant along fences. They prevent lower energy from entering your property, and keep you and your family protected. Envisioning your home completely surrounded by Bougainvillea is a powerful means of shielding against lower energy" (p. 78).

Flower Therapy is a brief yet encyclopedic guide for anyone interested in accessing the healing essence of flowers. I find it to be a fun, uncommon way to enhance your happiness practice–lavishly!

I often love to have fresh flowers in my studio. Piano lessons feel so bright and cheerful when I look up and see fresh flowers. The students love them as well. So when this book came up for review, I could wait to read it. This book is like a little encyclopeida with beautiful color photos and descriptions for flowers. There is a informative section at the beginning regarding the care of flowers and ways to preserve them, dispose of them, and use them in our lives.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I would use the book but it so happened the secretary at my Dr.’s office was just diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. She was very shaken and on a super strict diet. Of course, my first thought was to bring her something to eat but I didn’t want to give her a food she was avoiding. I immediately thought of my Flower Therapy book! The index in the back includes flowers for healing, another index for Archangels, and yet another index for chakras! I cross referenced each and was able to give her flowers that reflected my intentions for her life. As I read the healing descriptions and messages regarding the flowers I was so moved. It was truly a unique and thoughtful way to show love for someone. For example, one flower, gladiolus, was a match for all three of my intentions. Here is part of the message concerning the gladiolus, “I’ll lift your spirits in the blink of an eye. ” and the Healing Description said “Gladious is perfect for easing heavy emotions and energies such as sadness; this makes it a wonderful gift for a friend in need.”

One of my favorite practical tips in the book was how to keep my cut flowers happy in their vase. Five tips are listed but the one I loved most is this one, “Add 2 teaspoons of sugar to the water for food, and 1 teaspoon of vinegar to prevent bacteria from growing.” Sure enough my flowers stays beautiful longer and my vase was a cinch to clean.

This book is so beautiful and informative. Flower enthusiasts will love it, no doubt. I was someone who thought flowers, even the ones you buy in the store that are inexpensive, are a luxury. After seeing this book and seeing flowers as such beautiful, natural gifts of healing I am using them in my every day life more and more. It has been a blessing to me and others.
Hay House sent me this book for my review.

What a beautiful book! Its cover is a photograph of beautiful flowers of many varieties and colors. The size is similar to that of a well-used wildlife or bird guide and fits easily in the hand. It is not only visually attractive, but has very helpful information to guide one in emotional and physical benefits of each flower. Reeves is from Australia and so there are some fascinating plants outlined in the resource area of the book that those of us in the West are unfamiliar with.

I found that my beloved hydrangea (the "Twist and Shout" variety appropriate for Northern climates like mine here in Vermont) that is planted in the front yard of my home is supportive for "transformation, life-changing decisions, clearing procrastination, and releasing lower emotions." This is the third hydrangea that I have tried to grow in this cool area of the United States, and I'm happy to say that the Twist and Shout variety has done very well in this growing zone. I find it fascinating that the benefits this bush brings are very much in line with my work helping clients navigate through transition!

The resource section of the book includes a wide variety of species. There isn't enough room to include all species of course, but the reader can find many varieties that are native to their part of the world. Each plant in this section is described in full, including botanical name, common varieties, energetic properties, associated chakra, and healing description.

The end of the book lists specific issues or challenges and recommends the proper plant to address each malady. There is also a list of each chakra and the flowers closely associated with these areas of the body.

I highly recommend this mode of healing and this beautiful book, whether you have your own garden, have an opportunity to buy flowers from a locally-owned florist, or enjoy using pure, organic essentials oils.?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Flower Therapy" by Doreen Virtue and Robert Reeves. They collaborated to create a wonderful book about angels, fairies and flowers.

This book describes 88 common flowers and how they can bring healing and joy into your life. There are beautiful photos of each flower with a detailed description of the angels that are associated with each, the chakra or chakras that each can affect and a message from each flower.

Being a gardener myself, I was drawn to read this book and learn why I favored some flowers over others. I was suprised to learn that some of the particular blooms I enjoy are because, subconciously, I needed them in my life!

This book is an easy read and a welcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys gardening, flowers and angels. The authors even decribe how to obtain the essences from the flowers and how to do a flower reading for yourself or loved ones. They also describe the best flowers to give to loved ones who may be grieving or just need a boost.