Love Lies Bleeding:
The Benediction of Deep Autumn
The Love-Lies-Bleeding flower (Amaranthus caudatus) has a stunning presence in our late autumn garden here at Terra Flora. This plant begins as a fast-growing annual, flourishing in summer’s warmth and light, reaching heights of five feet (1.5 m) or more. As it begins to flower, it also initiates a curving movement earthward—becoming ever more pronounced as the season progresses. The mature plant bears thousands of tiny red-magenta blossoms densely packed, each with a fringe at the top and a few stamens that protrude from their enclosures. The single blossoms are minuscule, but en masse they form glorious cascades bending in graceful benediction to the earth. As autumn deepens, the ruby red essence of the Love Lies Bleeding streams ever more vividly throughout the plant, not only in the striking intensity of its pendulous cymes, but also suffused throughout the stalk, leaves, and emerging seeds. The very name of this plant is at the same time a picture of its essence: Love Lies Bleeding. It is a profound reflection of all that the season of autumn engenders within Nature’s cycle and for the Human Soul: the process of release and surrender; the giving over of substance and form to the earth, so that new cycles of life can arise in the future.
The Amaranth: A Sacred Food and
Ceremonial Substance of Indigenous Peoples
The seeds of many varieties of Amaranth are a high-protein grain and part of a nutritious diet in many parts of the world. The Amaranth is an especially valued food and sacred substance in the indigenous cultures of Central and South America. It was wild-harvested for centuries before being domesticated around 4,000 BC in central Mexico and spreading to many other regions, including the Southwestern United States.
The Aztecs regarded Amaranth as a precious substance and received Amaranth tribute payments from provinces surrounding their empire. The flowering amaranth was part of altar offerings and ceremonies.
The leaves and seeds were mixed with honey or agave and consumed or otherwise offered ritualistically in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli, a fire god. In the Hopi tribe, the red color of the “komo” Amaranth was used to make “piki” wafers. These wafer-like breads were eaten ceremonially to invoke the Katsinas, the benevolent beings who dwell in mountain springs and lakes and bring elemental blessings.
Richly saturated “jewel” colors are a notable feature in this family, such as the Globe Amaranth, Celosia, Cockscomb, as well as the Love Lies Bleeding. Dye substances are derived from several varieties of Amaranth, the most notable being the Hopi Dye Amaranth, Amaranthus cruentas. It is used by the Hopi for its strong penetrating color to imbue fabric as well as ceremonial food with various hues of red. This “bleeding out” quality of the Amaranth is truly a part of its signature, suggesting a transcendent spirituality, a streaming blood-like essence that moves beyond form, to release or “sacrifice” its substance.
Love Lies Bleeding Flower Essence:
Soul Surrender and Sacrifice
As its intriguing gesture suggests, the essence of Love-Lies-Bleeding speaks to the healing power of release, surrender, and sacrifice. This is a profound foundational teaching in all spiritual traditions. Perhaps it is expressed in its most archetypal truth in the picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke describes this event, writing, “And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground”(Luke 22:44). Matthew relates further, “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me…..He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this Cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:38-39).
Early Research with Love Lies Bleeding:
The Ministry of Sister Mercedes Reygadas
Our initial research for Love Lies Bleeding flower essence was through the ministry of Sister Mercedes Reygadas, a member of the Society of Helpers, an international Christian community. In the mid- to late 1980s, Sister Mercedes was based in San Francisco, California. She devoted her practice in particular to those suffering from AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome), doing the majority of her service in the AIDS Unit at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco. In those early years, the fear of AIDS was overwhelming. Those afflicted with AIDS were usually abandoned by family, friends, and partners due to fear of contagion. They were shunned and condemned not only by their families, but also representatives of institutional religions who regarded AIDS as a consequence of the “sin of homosexuality.” Moreover, the disease progression of AIDS was full of physical agony and inexplicable suffering, with few beneficial medical interventions.
Sister Mercedes often characterized the soul condition of those she was helping as enduring a “Gethsemane experience,” filled with the anguish of being abandoned, along with excruciating physical pain—in many cases literally bleeding to death from Kaposi sarcoma and related mucosal ulcerations. Love Lies Bleeding flower essence was one of the core remedies that dramatically helped the AIDS community that Sister Mercedes served. The most notable changes involving Love Lies Bleeding were those of surrender, new-found inner peace, and spiritual transcendence. The experiences of physical pain often lessened as the soul expanded and patients embraced the experience of suffering and/or conscious dying, with the recognition of a spiritual process of opening, despite the dissolution of the physical body.
Love Lies Bleeding: A Foundational Remedy for
Grief, Pain, and Depression
Love Lies Bleeding is now used widely in many different circumstances. It is an especially important remedy for grief and loss of any kind and is part of the Grief Relief formula. What this flower imparts is a gift that is not always recognized or valued in modern culture: the insight that suffering, deprivation, or bereavement are often the pathway of the heart growing toward greater love and transcendence. Surrendering the personal will to the working of a greater spiritual destiny is at the heart of all spiritual teachings; yet it is often the one most unwelcome. This bending, yielding, and releasing aspect is what the Love Lies Bleeding bestows as her supreme spiritual gift. By allowing a process of surrender, the soul can experience the reality of a Higher Will working within it. A greater awareness and strength of the true spiritual Self is anchored in the soul. 
This flower essence is often a key component in treating various forms of depression as well as those who need excessive pain or sedative medication . Here the Love Lies Bleeding is especially important in helping such individuals incorporate feelings of suffering, unhappiness, or misfortune as part of the human soul spectrum. Learning to accept, endure, and be with pain and suffering is often—counter-intuitively—the very process that can actually lessen such agony. These trials are typically the way in which the soul is trying to give birth to a new part of itself. It can be likened to the experience of pain when giving birth to a child. It is often the case that conscious breath work with labor
pain yields way to lessening its intensity.
Living Into Dying: Helping the Soul Cross the Threshold from Body to Spirit
Love Lies Bleeding is used extensively in hospice settings or by those caring for loved ones at home. It is a key component of two hospice blends: Compassionate Care Giver and Peace-Full Passage. Many practitioners have noted that the need for pain medications is often lessened when the soul can breathe positively into the soul experience of conscious dying. They also observed that the dying process is less wrenching and more grace-filled with this more receptive attitude. This happens not in the sense of lessening the heartache and sorrow of death, but in the acceptance and gentle nurturing of that process.
This is true not only for human beings but also for beloved animal companions. For example, the following report was recently shared regarding Love Lies Bleeding: “When our dear cat, Mitzy, of 18 years was dying, our whole family was initially in denial. We tried to treat her with various medications and coax her into eating. We were considering an expensive surgical operation for her. Finally, I sat with Mitzy and asked her from my heart, ‘What do you need?’ She answered me in her soul language, “It is my time to die.” I remembered the Love Lies Bleeding in my flower kit. I felt it was the one that best reflected what we were all going through. Our whole family took the flower essence and, as well, we gave it to Mitzy. In a few hours, she breathed her last breath and died peacefully in our arms. Yes, all of this was accompanied by tears of grief, but we knew and accepted that pain as part of our heart experience. We were grateful for the incredible 18 years we had with Mitzy; the sorrow came with the joy.”
Another insight came from a woman using Grief Relief, which contains Love Lies Bleeding, to cope with the sudden loss of her mother. During this time, a small bird flew into her window and instantly died. She picked up the bird, still warm, and held it in her hands, letting her tears flow. Then she tenderly buried the bird in her backyard. She noted that this same event had happened a few times previously over the years, and she quickly disposed of the bird, not wanting to “deal with death.” She was astonished to reflect later how her heart “wanted to, needed to be with the sorrow of this bird’s death.” By consciously experiencing the grief of her mother’s passing, she felt her heart had become stronger, not weaker, and more capable of compassion for all of life.
Distinctions with Similar Flower Essences
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