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Don't you love the sight of a crab deliberately coming out of its hiding place and observing the world before him? These tiny brave crabs live in tide pool rocks in Costa Rica, emerging only when the tide is low. Crab helps us 'come out of our shell' so that we may bring our gifts into the world and assume our place. With observation, stillness + gentle awareness, we can support this within ourselves and others. Rather than hiding or clinging to expectations of how things 'should be', we embody a regal presence.
Read more here!
Working with Crab helps us to 'come out of hiding'. So for this month, notice when you find yourself retreating back into a hole versus wanting to emerge and take your place in the world. Also, being observant of your own cyclical nature ~ when do you feel the need to recharge alone? And when do you want to be out engaging in activities?
By being intentional when taking our flower essences, we remind ourselves, our guides and the universe what it is we want to embody. Choose one of the phrases below that most resonates, or make up your own! Every time you take your elixir, close your eyes and set your intention:
I am majestic.
I love being myself.
It’s safe for me to come out of hiding.
When I'm at my most authentic, I free others up to do the same.
I love being quietly in tune with others.
To take it one step further, as you take your elixir and set your intention, visualize everyone else in this program, all around the world, feeling light and free. By connecting with others in our group, we exponentially multiply the benefit + ripple effect!
In what situations do I feel repressed and unable to speak from a place of power?
When does my curiosity of what I bring to the world overwhelm my fear of being enough? Have I ever experienced that?
What am I holding on to?
When do I feel like it’s not safe to expose who I am or come out of hiding?
What situations or environments do I have the tendency to “crawl back into my shell”?
When do I experience supreme silence + peace? How can I invite more of that into my life?
What is my most precious work?
What is one way I could bring my greatest gift to the world?
Prefer to have a printed sheet with the writing prompts, exquisite practices + a calendar to track your month?
Download the Emerald Crab Support Guide here.
You as majestic - what are you like?
Envision yourself as a crab. What impetus brings you out hiding? What makes you want to crawl back in?
Practice observing the space whenever you walk into a room or a new environment. Before interacting or speaking, see what it feels like to quietly observe the space around you.
(USE FOR 15% OFF YOUR PURCHASE SITE-WIDE ALL THROUGH DECEMBER!)
I will help you:
Use me when:
This month we are working with the emerald crab. It's another creature essence. It was collected in Nosara, Costa Rica. They are tidal creatures. So, this is a type of crab that it's not like a hermit crab where it crawls into a shell. When they come out, they are fully exposed. They are very cyclical in nature because they live in the rocks in the ocean, so when the tide is low, the ocean moves out, and the crabs get to come out of their little holes in the rock and eat.
And then when the tide is high, they go back and hide into the their little hiding spots in the rock, and they are totally submerged for six hours. And this happens... like two of these cycles, two low tide cycles and two high tide cycles, in one 24 hour period. So, they're really interesting creatures, as are all tidal creatures. I'm always just fascinated by tide pools and the whole culture, and the whole living environment of them. Again, as a reminder, no creatures have been harmed in the making, so after making the essence, the crab was... cute crab was released back into the rocks in the ocean.
The emerald crab is such a beautiful crab. In some ways it reminds me... I'm not sure why it reminds me of a frog. I think because of the shape, because the shape of its body and its eyes, and it also has this sort of... as crabs go, I would say it's more of a brave crab. It is not like some of the crabs you see on the beach that just dart into a hole at the slightest movement, or like hermit crabs that just dart into their shells when they perceive movement.
These crabs are a little more... they're still shy, but they're a little more sort of like king of the mountain or queen of the mountain. When it's their time to be out, they're just like teaming in the rocks and they kind of also remind me of ants, not in a sort of like robotic, army troops way, but more just like because there are so many of them in one area, there is a sense of sort of unity or inseparability, or let's just say like one mind, in a sense.
It's like being so in tune that you sort of know the people around you, their thoughts, their motivations, what they're aiming for, what's important to them, if they're hungry or thirsty, just sort of like what's happening with them. So, you may find that crab makes you feel... the crab essence makes you feel more aware of other's needs around you. But the main dynamic with crab is your own emergence. So, like coming into being of who you are in a sort of a majestic sense.
I like to think of it as like claiming your place on the throne, and it's like the throne of whatever you've created in your life, of your aspirations, of your vision for yourself, of you fully owning yourself and your uniqueness and individuality and independence. It is not like getting on the throne in like a, "Look at me, look at me, look at me," way. It is with softness and gentleness, dissolving shyness or a tendency to crawl back into your shell, a tendency to crawl back into a hole or to crawl back into your rock, and is encouraging us to, "Okay, now is the time. Now is the time."
We have a big year coming up. 2020 is coming up. Now is the time to dissolve any shyness or fear of our own capacity, and be willing to emerge, be willing to come out from the rock, be willing to step front and center with gentleness, with tenderness, with understanding of what other people's needs are. But a willingness to dissolve our hesitation and holding back and playing small in order to... it's like last month when we were working with scorpion, that we were sort of recommitting, re-devoting to our greatest aspirations, and now we are letting go of any shyness or fear of not being capable, or just in general a tendency to hold back.
We're letting that go so we can just step forward and step into who we are and step into our place, like fully take our place in our lives and emerge as the brilliant beings that we are ~ in a sort of regal way. Regal means confident, so those are all the things that we're working with this month.
And the question of this week is: is there anything in what I said in this recording that either rubs you the wrong way or makes you feel freaked out or gives you pause? Is there any part of you that's like, "Eugh," about stepping front and front center and forward and emerging and taking your place on the throne of your life?
An aspect of the Emerald Crab that you may come to experience with the elixir is a different sensation or experience of how you allocate your resources, meaning your energetic space, your energy, your time and attention. So, this has a lot to do with relationships. It has a lot to do with expenditure of energy. When you think about the Emerald Crab, its existence is very cyclic in nature. So again, for six hours it crawls into a rock and waits as the wild tides roll in and the waves crash over the rocks, and they just hang on inside the rock. Then for the next six hours, the tide releases, they come out of the rock, they eat, they see the sunlight and the moonlight and the other crabs and the whole sort of like ecosystem kind of wakes up, and then flipping again six hours and six hours following the tides.
So, there is this sense the Crab is a master of timing and resources and when is the right time to do the right thing. When you're in the rock, you're quiet. When the tide is out, it's time to come out and eat and do what you need to do. And the crab is also a great teacher of engagement. You may come to notice in working with crab that you feel more of a desire or sensation to engage or simply that the other things – situations that previously may have felt like a drain on your energy, no longer seem like a drain. For example: you may have to do some speaking. You may need to teach a class. You may need to hold a group. You may need to answer 10 really important emails that are sort of mission critical. You may need to communicate well. You may need to speak with people or have meetings or negotiate or dialogue. Or, spend more time with family or friends, or colleagues at work.
In any of these situations, there are times, especially if you are introverted, if you recharge your energy when you are alone, you may tend to feel like being active or extroverted or talking with people or engaging with people is sort of a drain on your energy. So that can lead to dread of doing those things I mentioned before, like, "Oh, I have to answer all these emails. I have to engage with all these people. I have to respond. I have to have meetings. I have to make decisions. I have to gather details and go back and forth, and have hard conversations, and negotiate things and compromise." All of these things may seem like a drain on your energy.
And when working with Crab, Crab is like this wonderful teacher at how to allocate resources. You know, when is the moment for you to be quiet? You might notice that, gosh, you just feel like taking 10 minutes to sit down and have a hot tea and do nothing other than just sit down and have a hot tea. And then you may also notice on the flip side that there are all these things that you need to do that you've been putting off because you felt like they would be a drain, and suddenly you feel willing to engage, and you could just sink your teeth in, and get it all done and be effective, and it wasn't as bad as you thought it was. It actually was quite simple. You just got in and you did what you needed to do, and you got out.
So transversely, you may experience that there is a more clear signal, a more clear impetus, a more clear cyclic understanding of your own body's rhythms of your own, "Ahh, I need to take a breath. I need to take time out. I need to eat lunch. I need to make time to shit. I need to make time to wash my clothes, clean my room, tidy up." Whatever those things are, "I need to make time to just sit here and drink coffee, or to sit outside and listen to the trees." Whatever those things are that recharge you, you know, it's like going in the rock to make time for your practice, your meditation, your movement practices. And being able to sort of pull your energy inward and recharge, understanding the needs of your own body and the needs of your energetic framework for pulling in for when you need to go into your rock.
And then conversely, how much easier it is then to also engage, to be effective in communicating with people without feeling like it's draining your energy. To be able to engage and to have desire to engage, and when it's time to come out into the world, to see the sun and the moon, and negotiate the circumstances of life, that you are then that much more... It's like I want to say efficient in your usage of energy and resources. There's more clear awareness and signaling of you to yourself when you need to go into the rock and when you need to come out and really engage with the world. We need both if we want to make an impact while we're here.
So, allowing yourself to really listen and take action when you need to kind of pull in, inward, withdraw your energy. You need to pull your energy inward, withdraw from all of the sources that you're plugging it into, withdraw and pull that into the center of yourself to recharge and revitalize yourself. And then likewise, in the opposite fashion that you'll also be able to use that energy more efficiently when you need to engage; and you'll feel desire to engage, and it will seem easier, and that there is an effortless projection of energy without feeling like you're being sucked dry.
So, that's one of the things that we're working with, with crab, and that you may notice and become aware of in terms of working with the elixir; your allocation of resources, time, attention and energy. Your energy is precious and it's limited, and it also needs recharging, just like you have this silly phone, right? You have this silly phone that you need to plug in and recharge, otherwise the battery dies. Crab is helping us be aware of our own battery storage systems. When is it that we need to plug in and when is it that we're ready for operation, execution and action? When are we taking time to be quiet, to pull in, to recharge, but really taking that time, not scrolling on social media or checking emails, but really being able to tune in with what is it that recharges you. Not engaging in mindless activities, not, "Oh, I have a space so I'm going to fill it with doing this other thing." Streamlining so that you do have that time to recharge.
And now with that extra recharge time, you feel more able to engage with the world and in a way that is very quick and easy and streamlined, and is allowing you to give in proportion to ... like in the right proportions, not right meaning right, wrong, but like allowing you to not…. to be equal about how you distribute your energy. So giving more energy where you want to, placing value, attention, resources in a more expanded way to those who really deserve it, and pulling back your energy to those who aren't so deserving of that.
Let's just give a really simple example. Silly example, not a real-life example. Just an example. The person who is the cashier working in the gas station when you go in to pay for gas or buy a lottery ticket or buy a bottle of water. That person is obviously a different relationship to you than say your niece or nephew, or someone that you're working with as a colleague, or someone that's requesting your help or your wisdom or your insight in some area. You will feel more apt, let's say, with the latter. If someone is asking you sincerely for your help or your insight, that's a place where you're going to want to allocate a lot of energy, resources, time and attention. It's deserved. There's a spaciousness. There is like a pull, a magnetic pull from sincerity, purity. Whereas let's say the person who you're buying gas from or a lottery ticket or whatever, you're not going to energetically give as much to that person.
Maybe this is a bad example. Hopefully you understand the intent around what I'm saying. If you don't, you can always ask through email, or on Facebook and in the group, and then I could help clarify; or on Instagram of course. But I think that when you're taking Crab elixir, you'll understand where I'm coming from with this, that you will have a visceral, tangible, experiential sensation around allocation of resources, around how much you engage with specific individuals. Those of us who are givers, we just want to give our energy everywhere, just give it away to everyone, and Crab is helping us have a more discerning capacity with how we manage our energy. And I think it's happening on a very subtle level in the sense that if we could see our energy, if we could see our auras, we would probably notice that in some ways with certain people, they contract a little bit more and with other people, they expand more.
For example, let's say you see 50 people in a day or 100 people in a day or 500 people in a day. For those people who do not need your help or service and/or who would either take advantage of your energy or drain you, or just simply there's no need for it. There's a neutrality. They don't need anything from you. You're going to pull back and contract your subtle energetic body from those people more, which will then in turn recharge you or leave more there to work with, so that you can then inject more, engage more energy on a subtle level to those who are asking for it, who are requiring it or needing it, who are sincere and pure, sincere and pure are the keywords about their desire to engage with you.
It's a lovely practice of justice and fairness. It just kind of happens naturally in working with the Crabs. It really just helps you kind of sort things out in a way that's so effortless. That's just what I love about the essences, is they're so effortless. You just keep taking it. Make sure you're taking it five or more times a day. Just keep putting that elixir in your mouth, and you will have this tangible experience of noticing how you allocate your resources. Just go through one day. This is sort of like the question for the week, but perhaps not phrased in a question format.
As you move through one day, notice how you are engaging with people. Notice how you are speaking with people. Notice who you engage with and who you don't engage with, not as a judgment or criticism. Just simply noticing, ah, this person, I might normally expand more energy and I feel okay contracting and just saying, "Goodbye, see you later," or, "Bye," and that's it. Normally I would engage more, but I'm pulling back and contracting more, and I notice that I'm engaging less with this person. And likewise, other situations noticing, "Whoa, I really gave a lot. I really engaged a lot with this other person." And noticing the differences in terms of allocating your energy and your resources.
How are you allocating your energy, your time, your attention? How do you notice yourself pulling inward? How do you make time to recharge? And how are you seeing your ability to engage with the world? Expand as you deepen into your practice of making time to go inward and recharge. Just like you can expand like the tides in the ocean. If you can expand your capacity to recharge, then you can expand your capacity to engage with the world.
Some other thoughts about crab elixir. It is typically one of those essences that brings out your regal presence, right? There's sort of like this majestic element to that and I was thinking about that. You know, if you were a Queen or King, what that means is that you're of service. It doesn't mean that you're sitting on some throne somewhere. Although part of that is like owning part of the ... the sense around that is like owning your qualities. But when you think about Royal families, their main job is to be of service to the community that they serve, that they lead. And so it got me thinking about contribution as well as just observing my own behavior in the last week or so.
And that is the deeper realization of what your contribution is – like what are you really good at? How are you best of service? Like literally, what are you doing when you are most of service to people? And not of service in a way that you think is being of service. It's like genuinely other people are receiving something from your actions, your words or something that you're contributing. And are you okay or becoming more okay with Crab elixir, being seen as a contributor that you are, and how can you deepen into the value that you offer?
I mean, just a silly example to make this concrete: I realized that I need to focus more on recording more videos for YouTube and IGTV around flower essences. And sometimes the topics that I think are interesting maybe aren't actually the most of “service”. And so, making this huge list of what might be the ways that I would either answer questions, or teach, or educate, or be of service around the different flowers that exist in the world and essences that we've made and how they benefit people.
But oftentimes I'll think like, "Oh well, this is you know… I should do something new for this workshop. So instead of teaching about flower essences, I'm going to teach about meditation, which is something I also love and feel qualified to teach because I have a lot of years doing it and practicing it, and then maybe I'll do a smoke offering. And then maybe we’ll do.. We've really experimented with some of the workshops that we've done in New York city. And ironically, I had some feedback from a woman. She gave us feedback from workshop we did almost a year ago, so we've grown a lot since then. And her main feedback was, "Gee.. I really wanted to know more about the flower essences, and which one was for what, and how I could get them." And what am I experienced. And she said, "I know you don't want to seem like a salesy person, but I really just genuinely wanted to know." And that's where I felt like could have improved. “But just tell me what to get and how to get it.”
And although I feel like we've grown a lot in that area over the last year, there are still opportunities where I think, "There is still a lot of people out there who just don't know what flower essences are, and how they work, and maybe the top five flower essences for jealousy, or grief, or pain, or heartbreak, or coordination, or for dogs." There's so many different topics obviously. So, in some ways what we think is going to be of service is different than what actually is of service. And oftentimes keeping it really simple and basic, like bringing it back to the basics of what you do, it makes it a more profound contribution just simply because there are more people that are needing and craving that information.
So it's funny because we did a flower essence circle at SAN Center for Full Moon and one of the flower essences that kept coming up a lot in the group was Shower of Orchids. And granted we don't use the current Flowervolution elixirs are not part of the mix, so they don't have access to those because maybe they would be getting crap if they did have access to it. But the one that kept coming up a lot was Shower of Orchids, and that is around your contribution and your value in the world.
And so part of the questioning, the line of questioning, because I'm just so into asking questions lately, maybe you don't have the answer now, but maybe it will pop into your head in a week or so – is how do you offer value? What's the best way that you offer value? And this is not like some transcendent enlightenment, woo woo question. I mean some people make food for other people and that is an incredible service and the food is delicious, and it's healthy, and it's a blessing, and it keeps us well. I mean I'm even forever fascinated by this whole sourdough conversation and just, "How is it possible that I could eat bread and be less inflamed and feel skinnier? None of this is making sense to me." But the magic of someone who creates food that's healing to the body in this day and age with so much chronic illness – it's huge.
So I'm not talking about some lofty, something or other. You might do marketing, and you might do writing, or you might drive a truck, or you might deliver mail. It doesn't really matter what you do for a living. It's more like how is your contribution and your value expressed into the world, whether it's through what you do in your work or what you do with your friends, or your family, or at home, or in your personal time.
What is your greatest value into the world? What's your greatest contribution? And are you okay being seen more – whether that's offering that to more people, whether that is if you're used to presenting in groups of 10, are you more comfortable presenting to 40 or to a hundred? Maybe it's cliche, but I do feel like there's something special about 2020 and all of us are sort of being asked to kind of step up to the next level. Are you okay being seen as the expert in what you are the expert at? Are you okay being seen to a greater capacity, whether by more people or at scale digitally? Are you okay being on video, or film, or selfies, or images, or social media? Can you widen your circle of impact by being more okay being seen in whatever it is that you're contributing? Can you hold a woman's circle or teach a class? Whatever it may be. These are just simple examples.
Start a podcast, write a blog post, send out an email, something that is allowing you to be okay being seen as an expert or for the valuable contribution that you offer that makes impact. How are you best of service? And is there a way that you can contemplate scaling the way that you are of service, whether that's depth, like in a deeper format, or that's quantity like numbers.
It's just some of the things that I'm contemplating with Crab elixir as you are, assuming your role as you are embodying this regal presence, this majestic emergence. What are you emerging into? You are emerging. You are being seen. Your contribution is widening or deepening its impact. What would need to happen in order to have you feel more okay with that or more okay being seen to a greater or a grander degree? Because the world needs you.
The first time I traveled to Costa Rica on a flower essence collection trip, we started in the mountains of Monteverde and then traveled west to Nosara on the Pacific coast. The beach experience in Nosara was the most magical I’ve ever experienced. The tide pools were warm from the sun. The salt content of the ocean was so high that it was possible to relax every last little muscle while floating on your back, without sinking.
In these tide pools live many types of crabs that we’d watch for hours. The largest crabs lived in golf ball sized holes in the sand, and wrote beautiful poems in some form of movement language across the sand. They would appear shyly in a regalia of beautiful translucent greens, yellows and pinks, until they sensed us and popped back down into the sand.
My favorite crabs, however, were the emerald green ones that looked slightly like frogs. They lived at our favorite tide pool and only emerged during low tide. During high tide, they crawled inside the holes of the big black rocks. When the moon pulls the tides back out to sea, they emerge from their holes. Climbing up to the top of the rocks, eating algae in the cutest way, with a tiny, audible clack-clack as their claws hit the rock and brought the algae up into their mouth, one claw after another.
Typically found in the Carribean or Gulf of Mexico, these brave little Emerald Crabs are also found in the Pacific, but only in the tiniest area of Costa Rica ~ exactly where we host our retreat every year. They live in the tide pool rocks, emerging only when the tide is low to eat -- and observe the world around them.
In the world of crabs, there are more than 4,500 different species and nearly all of them are found in coastal areas with no preference for salt, fresh or brackish water. They’ve been around since the Jurassic period, over 200 million years ago!
A crab can use its front claws as a vice for crushing or cutting like scissors, which is also their main form of defense in a fight. Most species of crabs work closely together to gather food and protect their families. Groups of crabs living together are known as casts, and they communicate with each other by flapping their pincers and drumming their claws.
If you’re attracted to Crab essence, you may have a tendency to stay in the background - in general or within particular environments and situations. You may feel shy, or prefer to stay in your quiet, safe space. However, it’s likely you are feeling ready for an emergence - no more hiding! It’s time. It’s time to bring your most precious work out into the world.
Each of us have amazing gifts to offer this world, but we often stay hidden, unsure of how to express our most authentic selves. Often we have expectations of how we ‘should’ show up in the world, which holds us back from our truly fearless expression.
Or, we hold onto and keep certain aspects of ourselves hidden, unwilling to share them -- either out of fear that it’s not safe to be ourselves in this world, or that we will not be embraced by others when we emerge as all of who we are.
Crab elixir helps us ‘come out of hiding’. It quiets the mind, and we perceive the world as a benevolent and supportive place. We’re able to be our unique selves and assume our place in the world. With a soft and gentle approach, we emerge into the world in all our majestic display. We rise to the top. We take our place at the throne of our lives. We experience the confidence that comes from not hiding anything, from being our authentic selves.
This is not a ‘look-at-me’, attention-seeking emergence, rather one of gentle awareness. We come out of hiding with our eyes open. We observe everything around us, and we know that what we bring into the world is needed.
There is an understanding of unity and interconnectedness. As the dualistic distinctions of ‘you and me’ dissolve, we feel safe to be all of who we are. As a result of being ourselves, we support others in being their most authentic selves.
Crabs teach us how to be more in tune with others and access the ‘one mind’ or collective ‘groupthink’. It’s as if you don’t need words to understand the joy and delight of another being or beings. As we tap into the collective we experience accompaniment, safety and protection. We have moments of feeling that we’ve ‘found our tribe’, because we have a visceral experience of profound shared humanity.
Along with interconnectedness, Crab essence helps us see things from a bird’s-eye perspective; we gain a big picture viewpoint, rather than get stuck in the details. Instead of getting wrapped up in the minutia, we’re able to lean back, relax into expansive observation, and feel into -- or intuit our way through our experience. It dissolves holding onto things, allowing us to feel more freedom.
{Magnifies}: Majestic emergence. Unity. Stillness. Supreme peace. Tenderness. Gentle observation of the world around us. Lifting others up by being ourselves. Authenticity. ‘One mind’ and in tune with ‘groupthink’. Sense of safety, protection, ease. Ability to rise to the top and assume our place.
{Dissolves}: Shyness. Wanting to crawl back into hiding. Fear of being all of ourselves in the world. Holding onto expectations of how we ‘should’ be. Hiding aspects of ourselves or being tentative to ‘own it’.
