It’s February in Iquitos, and the Poma Rosa trees are spilling their flowers, blanketing the ground in vibrant pink petals. I love the Poma Rosa blooms… it feels like being held inside of a blooming, beating heart… which always brings my contemplations back to yet another plant, equal in her beauty, and masterful in her healing art.
Bobinsana.
Even her name carries a melody, which is fitting as she is well known for appearing to curanderos as a mermaid, and gifting beautifully melodic icaros to those who become still enough to receive them.
I don’t know if it’s true, but it is a beautiful possibility that the name comes from a widely used Latin American term for heart, “bobo,” and the Spanish verb “sanar”—to heal.
And that’s exactly what Bobinsana does— she heals the heart.
Bobinsana sana el bobo.
And if you follow the “Doctrine of Signatures” which states that the plants offer physical clues of the healing powers they contain, Bobinsana’s signatures are unmistakable.
Her flowers are soft and radiant pink puffs that are a beautiful physical metaphor for an opening heart.
She thrives on the banks of rivers, which are a potent symbol for flowing emotions. Water is also a universal symbol of the subconscious, which hints at her other talent of opening and bringing lucidity to the dream space.
While Bobinsana is often considered to have a gentle nature, it is wise to approach her without mistaking her softness for a lack of power. She is a Maestra— a Master Plant— of many lineages. I often think of her as the “Gentle Penetrating Wind” described in the I-Ching (Hexagram 57). Persistence and subtlety have their own magic and potency. She clears the heaviness of loss and grief, but she does not do the work for you…
She opens doors you may have spent years bolting shut…
She sensitizes the places from which you have dissociated…
She invites a deep surrender to flowing emotions,
Washing away what is stagnant in the heart,
Making room for a New Kind of Love.
