Virtue Birth Heart: Tiger Lily 老虎百合花精

Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily – Lilium humboldtii (orange/brown spots)

Patricia in FES, showing us Tiger Lily in the forest

Positive qualities: Positive social interaction; collaboration derived from dynamic balance of feminine and masculine soul forces

Patterns of imbalance: Overly aggressive “yang” forces, excessive competition rather than cooperation

正面特質: 積極的社會互動，源自和諧陰性能量的動態性合作

不平衡模式: 過於侵略性"陽"的力量，競爭勝過合作

I am writing a report about Motherline to talk about myself and mothers' stories. It is a womanist study that to look at ourselves from maternal HERstory. Is it hard to write? Yes, pretty hard. Almost all classmates resist to start this process. We are struggling how to present, something need to write, something we don't want to talk about. It is a opened-mind academic environment in CIIS for me, but there is still something I don't want to touch deeply yet.

However, last week I went to join a lecture in Jung institute of SF. There were three female Jungians sharing their experiences of Jungian way. One lady I met in front of the door was the author of Motherline I read now(Her name is Naomi Ruth Lowinsky). What a coincident ! Or I should say what a "synchronicity" as term Jungian may use. Therefore, I knew I can not run away from the chance to dig darkness in motherline. Who knows what I will find eventually. I may find the deepest source of suffering in me, in the gene of maternal family members. So, how do I start? To read more English books about motherline and try to analyse the chapters and elements is never a good way for me as foreigner. But I can start from the Flower-Essence-Line and feminine and maternal archetype. After all, I stared to use flower essence because my menstrual disorder, which connected with the issues of mother, female/ gender role and womb I have as a woman body.

So, here we go to start my Motherline journey, with first flower essence- Tiger Lily. I started to use this flower essence in 2007 which flower essence indicated the character about aggressive yang energy, also combined with Holy flower remedy for anger and envy simultaneously. It was my very beginning for spiritual journey. I saw so many anger in my maternal family. It was about the background of more than fifty years after World word two when Taiwanese was colonized by Japanese, and about KMT party moving to Taiwan. How were my mothers life at the time?

There were some stories I heard from my mother. My mother was a very tough women to fight for sexism though she never agree the concept I use from western. She fought for her fate and became a teacher in elementary school. But her mother, my grandmom, was a weak women who knew only cooking and taking care kids and grandkids. Grandpa past away when my mom was junior high school student. So my mom, as the oldest sister in the family, she fought for sexism from society and from her brothers, from her grandmom. My mom expressed many time HOW MUCH she hated her grandmom. "She was mean, so bad and so conventional to abuse girls in this family, so I had to fight for my mother and my sisters. " my mother said to me, showing how hard she survived in that period around 1960s. I though my mom is super women to save her family when I was little, but now, I felt huge anger in my body from her since I was born as baby girl, existing in my gene and cells. By studying the signature of Tiger Lily, I realized where my anger came from clearly.

Why can't women be tough for survival in such hostile society ? I wondered. I survived in architecture department. I did pretty well and graduated as rewarded student. But, who was I ? What I was fighting for? The motivation pushed me to fight was the anger, not only mine but also my mom's anger, my grandmom's anger and great-grandmom's anger. They were both anger to society, to their fate, and worse, to each other. This aggression energy was in me, and my life was lead totally by Yang, negative and angry energy. When I used Tiger Lily, in the beginning stage, I felt very uncomfortable. More angry energy came out everyday. My doctor gave me combination and homeopathic remedy to be sure I was taken care well mentally and physically. It was time I hardly beard anymore for the enormous wound. Did Tiger Lily work? Did flower essence work? To me, the answer was Yes! Because of menstrual disease, I stopped my struggling like men to fight. I stopped and thought "How did I become a women?" and "What message did my womb want to say to me?" It has been a very long-long way to embrace and balance the energy of Yin and Yang inside. It is not the question anymore how to become a 100 % real woman (if we use the narrow standard of conventional, patriarchal, dominant Chinese culture), but the issue how I recognize the dynamic balancing process of female and male archetype. Tiger Lily opened the path to me. I always appreciate her companion.

Botanical Detail 植物學特徵

Lilium humboldtii Roezl & Leichtlin

Humboldt's lily

Lilium humboldtii, a monocot, is a perennial herb that is native to California and is endemic (limited) to California alone.

Communities:	Chaparral, Yellow Pine Forest
Toxicity:	MINOR, DERMATITIS [California Poison Control System 2010]
Elevation:	between 0 and 4500 feet
Family:	LILIACEAE
Related:	See a list of other species in the genus Lilium found in California.
	This is a parent record; distribution data is an aggregate of data for subspecies and varieties: Lilium humboldtii ssp. humboldtii Lilium humboldtii ssp. ocellatum