Flower Remedies:

Flower essences have been in use throughout the world since the 1930’s. There are now an abundance of essences made from a wide variety of substances, but the original set consists of 38 essences of flowers mainly native to the British Isles.

They were discovered by Dr. Edward Bach over a period of six years from 1930 to his death in 1936. He was born at Moseley, near Birmingham, in 1886 and trained as a doctor in London. For several years he worked investigating the role of bacteriology in chronic disease. His researches led him to recognize that there were clear personality types that related to the various patterns of ill health, irrespective of the physical symptoms being presented by the patient. Working with vaccine therapy and later with homeopathic principles, he moved towards the discovery of the flower remedies. These he felt could help to harmonize the emotional imbalances that he came to see as the real causes of physical illness.

By 1930 he was prepared to give up his successful medical practice in order to search for the plants and trees that became known as The Twelve Healers & Other Remedies. Each flower was found to embody the positive and harmonizing force for a negative emotional state, be it fear, resentment or despair (to name a few). In order to transfer this healing force to a patient Bach prepared essences from the flowers. This essence, diluted to some extent, could then be taken as a medicine. He found that the negative moods changed so the person would return towards health. He then went on to discover 26 more remedies to cover a wider range of emotional imbalances, and in addition, Rescue Remedy – a combination of five of the remedies for emergency situations. There are now several new versions of this, some called Emergency Essence. Edward Bach would be interested to see the expansion of his work over the past 70 years, I believe.

The healing properties of the remedies were explained by Bach in terms of a philosophy of life that saw a person as much more than the outward physical body that is treated by conventional medicine. Illness, he suggested, was a message from our inner being calling for a change in our way of living and our mental outlook. The primary purpose of the flower remedies is to help us to change and bring us back to a genuinely happy experience of life.

The flower essences are usually made by a method known as the Sun Method, whereby the flowers are picked and set in a glass bowl of spring water close to the source plant in constant sunshine over a period of between 2 to 7 hours. This was designed to be the closest possible method to the gathering of dew from the plants in question. The quality of the glass bowl and the water used is also very important, as is the attitude of the gatherer.

A quote from Dr. Bach:

“ Let it be noticed in this that the four elements are involved: the earth to nurture the plant; the air from which it feeds; the sun or fire to enable it to impart its power; and water to collect and to be enriched with its beneficent magnetic healing properties.” (see notes)

Once the water is solarised with the essence of the flower used, the water is drawn from the glass bowl and mixed with equal parts of brandy to preserve it – this becomes the ‘mother essence’, the first level of dilution.

The second level of dilution is called ‘stock’, and it is from this that the dosage bottle is made, the third level of dilution. This is similar to the homeopathic preparation of remedies, without the shaking or succussion. The dosage bottle may contain up to seven different individual essences, which go to make up the individual preparation for the person in need.

The combination is more than the sum of its separate ingredients, and is a very powerful but subtle force in the person’s healing process.
The practitioners at the Healing Clinic who use the flower essences in their work include them alongside the other therapies that they offer in order to augment the treatment given, or for the person to continue the process of self-healing at home. The remedies are rarely given as a sole therapy in its own right.

They are all very experienced practitioners and are available to answer questions about the flower essences, as well as offering occasional courses to teach how to make your own essences.

Notes: With acknowledgements to Julian Barnard, author of several books on the Bach Flower Remedies, contact Healing Herbs, PO Box 65, Hereford HR2 0UW. Tel: 01873 890218.