Know your source – I say this to my essential oil classes all the time. A couple of weeks ago I took that idea to a new level when I participated in an advanced training with the essential oil company I work with in my practice – Wisdom of the Earth. I already knew a lot about them, but I went to where the magic happens in Arizona, met the owners, and was trained on a whole new level – Level II Medicinal Aromatherapy Certification in fact. Now, I’m even more in love with this company, their mission, their practices, their essential oils, the owners, and just every little single thing about them! I thought I’d share my experiences and what I learned with you today, so you’d “know your source” better too!

When I first walked on to the property, I immediately felt the awesome vibe, tons of plants growing everywhere, including many of the plants the essential oils come.

Some of you may know that most essential oils come from other countries, outside the U.S., because medicinal plants and trees grow all over the planet. I was excited to find so many of the these special plants right there on their property, like Laurel Leaf, Cedarwood, Juniper, Cistus, Sages, Pines, Firs, Rose and on and on. They have extensive medicinal herb gardens surrounding their home and the business. I felt right at home with all the plants and trees!

As the class met for the first time, we did the usual get to know each other stuff, but we also were invited to share which essential oil we had written our Level I Certification papers on (WOTE requires a paper for any of their certification courses). The Level I Cert paper is about one essence you choose to go on a personal journey and experience with. It was a great way to get to know everyone as we immediately had a sense of who they were by the essence they resonated with – kind of like learning someone’s astrological sign (we did that too) but in such a more personal and deeper internal way.

From there we immediately focused on learning about love, the aspects of love, and how WOTE’s true mission is to spread love from the plants and trees through the essences. You can feel that in their mission statement, “Essences support our individual journeys in our self-love, self-compassion and self-forgiveness work, and then out to others from a deep heart space.” They teased (but weren’t really joking) that they are an ascension school wrapped in an essential oil company. How special is that? I’m here to tell you it’s true! How many essential oil training courses are all about love (as opposed to this chemical constituent does this or that)? Yes, we learned about essences, but that was just one piece of the incredibly enlightening education we received.

Getting down to the nitty gritty of “knowing your source”, I learned that they know 80% of their farmers personally and have a deep relationship with them.

The remaining 20% have all been vouched for by someone in the 80%. Do you know how incredibly rare that is in an essential oil company these days? It’s unheard of. Some companies may know a few farmers, but most essential oils come from these huge coops. That’s why it can be funny when one company is putting down another, because more often than not they are all getting their essential oils from the same coops, so they’re really just putting themselves down at the same time.

All of WOTE’s farmers use the essences themselves, with their families, so they are completely tuned into the plants and the medicine they provide. They aren’t just farmers but are users too, so they talk to the plants, know the plants, and many of them have been growing and distilling essential oils for generations, so it is their calling and purpose. These aren’t just people capitalizing on the immense growth in popularity of essential oils recently, focusing on making a buck or getting into this as newbies. It takes a special person to get some of the plants to offer up their essences using traditional methods that have been honed and practiced and taught for 100’s if not 1000’s of years. To even further boost their vibration, many of the essential oils for WOTE are “wild-crafted or bio-dynamically (in accordance with the natural rhythms of the Earth) farmed…which are a “step up” from organic.” (From their own words.)

To further illustrate how special these farmers are, the Blue Spruce essence comes from a Native American family in Canada. The wife is the Medicine Woman for the tribe. They collect the plant matter and distill in ceremony. That’s huge! That goes right into the essence, right into your body, right into your Soul. Side note, I wrote my Level I paper on Blue Spruce essence, so now you have a little window into me and my heart.

When the essential oils arrive at WOTE, they immediately are placed on granite slabs for 24-48 hours to rest, settle, and ground from all that jarring travel. You never know what they went through on their travels to get to Arizona! That sounds good to me, may I sit on a grounding stone the next time I have to fly halfway around the country, let alone across the world.

WOTE hand pours every single bottle in a sacred space, with intention and love.

I’m not aware of another company giving this type of reverence to the essences. Can you imagine the high level of vibration that is not only kept but elevated by this practice? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it is 100% different than machine pouring (which is the common practice). If you’ve had the pleasure to experience these essences first hand, you know exactly what I mean. They are just different, feel different, and work so deeply within you

Lastly, another unusual thing about WOTE (that honestly drew me to them initially) is they sell only single, pure essences. They don’t do blends. I’ve always found singles to be so much more powerful and effective than blends, and now I know why. From WOTE, “We believe in the pure, perfect, light lineage of the Plants and Trees, which is why we do not blend our oils.  The frequency and vibration of a single essence helps the body raise its vibration to align with the Ascension frequency.” We want to honor each plant and tree and the medicine it offers for its uniqueness and individuality (or vibration for those scientifically minded) and use each medicine on its own. You can layer and use multiple essences at the same time. They love that and it ups the healing, but you don’t throw a bunch into a bottle and let them sit all muddled together. That misses honoring the specialness of each one.

I could go on and on about my experiences there, but I just wanted to give you a taste so you know more about your source for the precious essences we use! I hope you can go to the Level II retreat yourself some time and come back a changed person like I am! Love to you all!