About Forest Floor Essences The forest floor is part of an integrated cycle of the basic elements, called the Shen Cycle.  In this, an element is called the 'mother' of the element it feeds.  For example, fire needs wood for fuel which is provided by broken branches falling on the forest floor.  Thus wood is the mother of the fire element.  In turn, fire creates and is, therefore, the mother of ash which nourishes the earth.  Earth contains ores or metals.  These minerals dissolve in an nourish the water that flows over and through it providing valuable micro-nutrients for the growing plants.  These enable the trees, that dominate the other flora, to lay down wood as they grow.  In this way, water feeds, or is the mother, of wood. The second cycle represented in these essences is the Ko cycle which constraints any element from controlling a weaker partner.  For example, wood covers the earth, earth displaces water, water puts out fire, fire melts metal and metal cuts wood.  We know from the Shen cycle that excess wood element in a person might overpower deficient fire.  One solution is, therefore, to control wood by treating the metal element which would 'cut'or temper the power of the wood and allow the fire to flourish. This connection and interplay of the elements which maintains equilibrium is part of the theme of the Forest Floor Essences.  But they also reflect life on the forest floor, which is very different from the canopy above.  Light is in short supply and plants must either be shade tolerant or, in deciduous forest, complete their life cycles early in the year before the leaves develop.  Alternatively, they may develop strategies which enable them to compete effectively for available light and/or food - climbing high or living symbiotically or parasitically on the trees and other plants.  For animals, the forest floor is a rich source of both foods and predators and, like life, challenges survival skills.  Forest Floor essences offer support for all such needs and problems.