Bridging the Gap with Flower Remedies

Dr Edward Bach understood that where there was ‘dis-ease’ in the body, there was lack of harmony within the personality.  As a respected and highly successful medical practitioner, he felt that the conventional forms of medical treatment for his patients were inadequate, and often presented a new set of symptoms to be dealt with.  He spent many years researching vaccines and found that these, too, had unwanted side-effects.  A highly sensitive person himself, Dr Bach extended his work into Homeopathy, but found this form of treatment also lacked what he was seeking – a completely natural form of treatment with no side-effects whatsoever.

Dr Bach firmly believed that Nature held the answer, and refined his work with homeopathy.  He came to the realisation that the finer vibration of the plant, the essence of the flower, could be captured in a homeopathic-type preparation where the imprint of the flower’s healing properties were captured in the water and potentised by the sun’s life-giving energy.

Many people are familiar with Rescue Remedy, Dr Bach’s most popular flower remedy formula, yet feel their understanding of Flower Therapy is quite limited.  Through our common understanding of flowers and their meanings, we all know more than we realise.

In the Language of Flowers, we know that the Rose represents love.  In the language of Flower Therapy, the flower essences of the Rose family relates to aspects of love.  The colour of a flower also provides indications of its properties.  Purple flowers relate to spiritual energy and the crown chakra, whereas red flowers are often related to action and more physical aspects of life.

It is with these basic, yet often traditional uses of flowers, that we are further able to understand the Essence of the plant.  For example, Aloe as a herb is used to treat hot and inflamed physical conditions and as a flower remedy Aloe helps those who are ‘hot-headed’ to maintain a cool and calm disposition, and assists in cooling the body.  The leaves of Aspen quiver, as if trembling, even on the stillest of days.  The flower remedy of Aspen is for the vague and unknown fears, the thoughts of “what if?”  Those who need Aspen display these characteristics in their behaviour.

The Doctrine of Signatures, the ancient system of recognising a plant's properties by observing its shape and form, also gives indications of the qualities of a flower's essence.  Yarrow and Dill flowers resemble umbrellas, and both remedies are protective to the aura and the senses. As the Kangaroo Paw flowers, it blooms from a tight-lipped mouth to an elongated throat that reaches out and opens up to you.  The essence of the plant encourages one to communicate openly and with a welcoming spirit.

More clues to the qualities of a flower’s essence can be found in its name.  Water Violet reminds us of the shrinking violet, and is for those who are shy and reserved. Impatiens is the flower remedy for impatience, not just on the physical level, but for impatience on a soul level. This remedy is said to be Dr Bach’s personality type as he was constantly working long hours to research his findings, driven by a pure desire to find a holistic healing system for his patients.

Dr Bach’s foundation work on Flower Therapy has opened the doorway for many practitioners to expand upon his research, understanding and development of flower remedies.  There are those who believe that Dr Bach’s original set of flower remedies cover every aspect of emotional, mental and spiritual imbalance.  I believe had he lived a longer life he would have brought into being many more remedies for our use today.

Many are also are of the opinion that we would benefit most by taking remedies made from plants that are indigenous to the country and area in which we live.  With modernization we find that very few of us live in our native country, therefore I feel we cannot limit ourselves to one range of remedies.

It has been my personal experience that the Bach flower remedies have a gentler impact than those of the Australian bush.  Why?  If you look at the weather conditions in both countries, England’s weather is quite mild and making a flower remedy takes longer due to the lack of intensity in the heat of the sun.  Australia’s landscape, its diversity and its weather, is by contrast quite dramatic.  The indigenous Peoples of Australia also have a very strong affinity with the land on which they live.  I have found through years of using and preparing a variety of flower remedies, that the harsher the environment, the more ‘punch’ the flower remedy will have.  For some, like Dr Bach, this impact may be too great.  My personal experiences with many of the Australian native flower remedies is that they have quite a dramatic physical impact, whereas the English flower remedies are ‘softer’.

Being a sensitive person like Dr Bach, I find myself drawn to particular plants for the making of its essence.  It is not surprising to see how these remedies are being called into being as they have their time and place in our society to balance the needs of today.