Turk’s Cap: My Summer Flower

This year I befriended a Texas hibiscus flower called Turk’s Cap. Turk’s cap is a perennial shrub that is native to the South, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

When I first met them I was NOT impressed. I always felt like they were kinda ugly and shrubby looking, and I was turned off by the intensity of the orangish red flowers. One day I was picking my son up from daycare and they subtly called me over to let me know that their flowers are blooming. I took a close look and I was like, “okay I didn’t know y’all was poppin like that!” The stamen of the flower had bloomed out, something I hadn’t seen when I first met the flower. Later that night they appeared to me in a dream and gave me a healing. I’m so thankful they noticed me.

After tuning into the healing I received, I wanted to know more about the soul-matrix of this flower. In my dream, I received a subtle healing and messages about breaking generational curses. I began to search online if this variation of hibiscus was made into a flower essence, and I found one source that matched my experience with the flower. With the intensity of the flower showing up for me everywhere I went, I felt called to make a flower essence out of Turk’s Cap myself! I called my flower friend Angela Holmes-Abrams of “The Mighty Pixie” who is a flower essence maker and practitioner, and made my first flower essence ever! As my Lion’s Gate ritual, we made the essence from the Turk’s Cap in her garden.

Making flower essences may seem easy, but it’s actually hard work, especially when you’re in right relationship with the flower. I remember that I had a terrible headache that day from moving lots of energy through my body. There was so much being shifted within in me from that interaction alone.

We made two 1 oz bottles: one with restructured spring water and another with “power water” that Mrs. Angela collected from the Summer Solstice thunderstorm. I would use 8 drops of the power water flower essence every morning in my shower until it ran out.

The intensity of Turk’s Cap is no joke. During my experience with the essence, I was able to look in the face of a lot of deep rooted anger that I hadn’t realized I had been suppressing in my body! And not only was I able to feel my own anger, I also felt the generational anger, especially from the women in my bloodline. My Southern Native American ancestors were coming in strong. I felt my great-grandmother’s grandmothers’ energy and their displaced expressions through out my family history. Though this was uncomfortable to experience, acknowledging this anger and allowed me to really sort out what is no longer serving me to make room for what I do want to receive. I feel so much more freedom now, instead of feeling like a victim.

This beauty of this plant that reflects in the essence of it’s soul-matrix is it’s ability to thrive in harsh conditions. Turk’s cap is a drought tolerant plant in a Texas environment that is very desert like. Texas energy is very rough.
This is a great flower to work with if you’ve been experiencing a build up of anger that needs to be expressed. If you’re a chronic nice person like me, this flower helps you to examine the areas in your life where you’ve put off your own needs to the side in order to people please. At first you will get mad like, “I can’t believe I let [ _ ] happen”, for me, the list of personal offenses was endless. After I experienced my rage, I then began to sort things out, creating a plan on how to fix the mess I made. I then began to feel like my own hero, which I know my soul had been wanting to feel for a long time. This flower also helped me to be real about my parts in creating my own sufferings. Taking ownership like that has been really empowering.

I found a pink Turk’s cap the other day while going out to eat with my family, and I got a whole different vibe from this flower than from the passionate red flower that is more common. The Pink Turk’s cap comes off as poetic, much softer and gentler than the red. I would say that the pink flower is probably a healer of the heart - anahata, while the red flower is a healer of the root - muladhara.

I love how I found the pink flower AFTER going through such an intense transformation experience with the red one! I learned with the red bunch just how my own repressed anger can actually hurt me. Meeting the pink flowers felt like a direct response to choosing softness.

I still have a whole bottle Turk’s Cap essence left. I don’t plan on using it right now because that other bottle took me through a RIDE, okaaay? Lol. Maybe we gone pull her back out…maybe next summer? Idk because Fall is here and things are cooling down! This “tievine” Morning Glory is blooming here in Texas and she’s got some things to say…especially about my bad habits…