Carrie & Alpine Lily Flower Essence
by Penny Kelleher
As I began to write about Alpine Lily, it was a pristine white flower in my mind, like the snowy place it describes so I was completely amazed when I saw in a picture rich, orange-red petals flaring open from a buttery yellow center, with scattered, slightly ominous looking brownish-black stippling. Red flowers are known in the doctrine of signatures for their affinity to blood and bleeding.
Photo Credit: Richard Katz
Like most lilies, the Alpine Lily is six-petaled. In sacred numerology the number six symbolizes wholeness and balance, and in lilies six petals are symbolic of the energetic union of yin and yang. Yin absorbs and reflects yang while yang protects and carries yin. One must coexist with the other to bring greater spiritual awareness. Lilies are mostly energetically ‘yin’, they bring grace and feminine intuition to the heart and the womb center.
Julia Graves in her book, The Lily Circle – Practical Guide & Repertory, says: “coming from a bulb, a whole; womb-like from a cosmic egg - the sprout grows towards the light. It unfolds into a set of rhythmically structured leaves. The set of flowers opens its petals revealing the signature of their healing power: the six-fold star, union of two opposing triangles, symbol of the spiritual heart”.
The film Carrie was made in 1976, at the peak of the women’s liberation movement. It tells the story of a bullied teenage girl with special powers who finally retaliates with devastating results. The fragile teenager herself, and her evangelical Christian mother are Alpine Lily archetypes that need healing.
We meet Carrie as a high school senior, about to graduate. She is slight, with a childlike face, lightly freckled skin, and long silky red hair. In the change room after gym, the girls cavort and play in a wild reverie while Carrie shyly makes her way to the shower alone.
Carrie enters the clean, white shower cubicle where she blissfully and sensually soaps herself, letting the warm water cascade over her body, until she sees, with horror, that blood is trickling down her leg. In confusion and terror, she screams for help and rushes to the other girls, who quickly gang up and cruelly taunt her. She is finally rescued by the gym teacher, Miss Buckley. Miss Buckley reprimands the gang of girls, and gently explains to Carrie that she has her period.
In this first scene, we understand Carrie is still very innocent, yet a more physical, sexually embodied kind of expression is beginning to emerge, just as her first menstrual period begins.Cruelly, this is ridiculed and disowned by her female peers. Poor Carrie is shamed and punished again when she goes home. Her God-fearing mother is disgusted that she’s now a fully menstruating woman and after chanting aloud the story of Eve’s fall from grace, she locks Carrie in a cupboard to pray.
The most important indication for Alpine Lily is the physical, emotional, and spiritual disconnection from the natural rhythms of the female reproductive system. This lily’s blood-red hue tells us it can warm up the circulation, as well as strengthen the root chakra and improve somatic awareness. Carrie’s long, silky red hair and lightly freckled face even resemble the flower’s vivid petals. The wide-spread arrangement suggests the womb’s opening and releasing every month, and the black stippling is an indication that this flower brings to light all that is in shadow.
From the FES cross-reference of symptoms of the Alpine Lily essence:
• Alienation: feeling estranged from the female body and deeper feminine Self, especially from the experience of menstrual period and other reproductive or biological functions.
• Shame: deep alienation from the female body; shame based on distorted cultural images of female sexuality, or on beliefs absorbed from one's family, particularly the mother.
• Self-acceptance: acceptance of female self; as expressed in the female body, often relating to lack of acceptance by the mother.
• Sexuality: full engagement of female energies in sexual expression; integration of sexuality with spiritual feminine self.
• Perfectionism: attached to spiritual pole of femininity; viewing bodily organs or female sexuality as lower or imperfect.
Along with her blossoming sexuality, Carrie’s emerging womanhood is emboldening in other ways; it’s accompanied by the gift of telekinesis. As the bullying continues, she begins to react in anger by moving objects with her mind. She also grows closer to her gym teacher, Miss Buckley, who offers Carrie maternal guidance in the art of being a woman. Miss Buckley embodies the healthy, integrated Alpine Lily archetype. She radiates yang-like physical and emotional confidence, yet has many gentle, nurturing yin qualities.
Meanwhile, Chris, the leader of the shower incident, who’s still on detention, is determined to make Carrie pay. Chris’ friend Sue regrets the cruel game and instead resolves help, so she asksher popular boyfriend, Tommy, to invite Carrie to the prom. After much persuasion, Carrie agrees to go, but soon everyone at school knows about the strange pairing, prompting Chris and her friends plot a malicious stunt.
Though Carrie’s mother is convinced the prom is the work of the devil, under Miss Buckley’s care, this disturbing influence and the intimidation of the other girls finally fades into the shadows.
Carrie prepares to face the light; practicing putting on makeup, and sewing a beautiful, white dress, symbolic of her pure heart.
But on the night of the prom, Chris orchestrates a gruesome finale to the evening. She makes sure all the votes for King and Queen go to Carrie and Tommy and while they’re receiving their crowns, she and her friends drench them with a bucket of pig’s blood. In shock and fear, Carrie unleashes her mind-bending powers, destroying the school gymnasium, and eventually the whole school. She flees home but there she finds her mother in a state of religious delirium. Admitting she liked having sex with Carrie’s father, she attempts to stab her daughter, the product of her lust, and in terrified self-defense Carrie crucifies and killsher. Finally, unseen forces annihilate them both.
As a horror film about female power Carrie is disturbing to say the least. The suppressed, unrecognized feminine becomes a dark force that does great harm. Except for Miss Buckley and Sue, the women in this film have been indoctrinated by religiousand cultural prejudice, which shames the bodily and sexual aspects of femininity. In fact, women who are out of touch with their physical, sexual selves can experience persistent feelings of humiliation, guilt, or alienation and may have accompanying menstrual problems or infertility. Men too, suffer when the feminine is not fully integrated with the masculine. Alpine Lily can beautifully heal these emotional imbalances, bringingwholeness and abundance. We see the healing embodiment of the sixfold star, of heartfelt, spiritual incarnation, in the character of Carrie’s teacher, protector and nurturer, Miss Buckley.
Bibliography:
Graves, Julia. The Lily Circle – Practical Guide & Repertory.2013.
Graves, Julia. The Language of Plants: A guide to the doctrine of signatures. Lindisfarne Books. Great Barrington, 2012.
Archetypal Essay by Penny Kelleher
