I would love to share some musings here about my most favorite conifer, the magnificent Larix decidua or European Larch. I fell in love with its essential oil on one of my visits to the distillery Les Senteurs du Claut about 20 years ago. On that day, I discovered piles of its branches with their soft needles lying on the distillery floor and I stayed whilst the precious essential oil was extracted.
My first scent experience of the oil took me far away to another place and space in time. I felt vertically suspended between heaven and earth, with my feet touching the ground and my head in the clouds. And since that moment, Larch became my personal oil of alignment.
For many, conifer essential oils play an important aromatherapeutic role, often in the respiratory or tonifying domains. But for me, Larch has other precious messages to convey and I rarely use it for physical ails.
Over the past 20 years, both the tree and its essential oil have helped me recalibrate and get back on track with my inner path. I have also used Larch with clients to help them develop a sense of self and connection to their true nature or for those existential “who am I?” moments. Its Bach remedy has also helped with periods where my lack of confidence or self-doubt holds me back from seizing opportunities.
As the only native deciduous conifer species in Europe, Larch is remarkable in that its needles/ leaves change colour in the autumn, gradually turning a burnished gold before finally being shed. The leaves then form a soft mulch that enriches the poor and rocky ground in which it grows, permitting swathes of other plants to grow at its feet.
In Spring, the baby-soft light green new needles appear, spiralling the branches in clusters and then the vibrant red Larch female cones make their appearance. Often, on the cones and needles, especially as the days get warmer, a whitish exudate occurs that carries the name ‘manne’ – manna – a substance that has healing gifts; indeed the ‘manne de Briancon’ was once-upon revered for its protective and healing properties.
Larch is a vigorous high-altitude conifer that thrives in conditions of low pollution. It is extremely resilient as its trunk and bare branches can bear extreme weights of winter snow without breaking.
Larch’s quality is especially visible when it is ‘naked’ – when the needles have dropped and the tree’s bare structure is revealed in its verticality, connecting heaven with earth (reaching up to 45m in height) and its lower branches graciously sweeping downwards. Alignment. The tree is marvelously evolved to weather harsh conditions and wide temperature fluctuations and uses several strategies for its survival. Thanks to its flexibility and its bare branches, Larch bends rather than breaks in winter storms.
The mountain opposite my home used to be covered by a larch forest that was gradually felled for its tough, waterproof and durable wood. Much of that timber ended up in the boat yards of Toulon for ship building at the turn of the century. Today, only a few specimens remain on the mountain.
Each year, my husband Marcel and I have a special ritual for our wedding anniversary – we hike up to the lac d’Allos in the Alpes de Haute Provence – the largest natural high-altitude lake in Europe (2228m). To get to the lake itself, one has to first pass through an enchanted Larch forest and the experience never fails to take me to another place within myself – a place of quiet and wonder in the presence of these incredible trees. I use the time in the forest to recalibrate, breath in the pure air and check in with my heart path. Walking in silence is an automatic response for most who hike the trail.
The Larch forest I am talking about is like something you would imagine straight out of Lord of the Rings or similar – you can almost see the forest faes dancing under the trees and the tumbling mountain streams echo their twinkling laughter. You might even think you could catch a glimpse of the Salgfraulein from Tyrolian legends, dressed all in white, hiding between the rocks and singing under a large forest Larch. According to other beliefs in other countries like Austria, Larch was considered a sacred tree, a protector against evil forces.
So why talk about Larch today?
I have been thinking a lot about alignment and the need to shed that which does not serve my heart path or that which is holding me back, compromising my progress and resilience.
For me, authenticity, integrity, honesty, transparency, accountability, morality, ethics, respect, compassion, kindness and trust are the guiding stars and values that keep me on track.
What are your guiding stars for alignment?
As 2024 gradually draws to a close, the Larch forests are once again ‘naked’ and getting ready to welcome the long period of snow and ice in the Alps.
Like Larch, I see the necessity of letting go of situations, patterns, perspectives, people and places that are no longer coherent with those core values that keep me upright and alignment.
Choices need to be made in order to remain resilient and healthy. Shedding those old leaves that no longer serve me are needed for mental and emotional survival and the life experience gained from them can then lay at my feet to further enrich my personal growth.
I may be a work-in-progress but I am thankful to be able to call on Larch to remind me of who I am at my core, humbly suspended betwixt heaven and earth.
