The beauty of the Iris plant can be said to be focussed in the eye of the beholder. For the Iris in the eye acts to create the aperture through which we bring our subject into focus. Certain Iris or Flag plants are used to create perfume and to flavour and colour Gin. The techniques to extract Iris Butter can take up to five years to produce the required oils. Do be aware that some Iris plants are toxic.
The Iris can sit right at the edge of the waters and the land. It can clean the waters in which it grows and bring beauty to the banks which it adorns. The plant seems happy to span the watery cusp at the side of lakes and can grow where many plants are unable to take the changeable conditions between the wet and dry. This adaptability and the sheer variety of Iris plants has lead to the link between the Iris plant and the Greek Rainbow Goddess.
Ancient Greeks called the Goddess of the Rainbow Iris. The uniting of heaven and earth by the ephemeral rainbow gave rise to the attribution of this beautiful phenomenon to Iris who was able to freely travel over land or through water. She was able to speedily shift from the height of the heavens to the depths of the underworld. Iris was sometimes seen as link between the material world and the spiritual. She was therefore seen as conduit between humanity and the gods.
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©2010 PHH Sykes
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