Bach Flower Remedies
Bach Flower Remedies are a powerful set of 38 different remedies that help to relieve some of the stress in our lives. They help to release stressful feelings and uncomfortable mental patterns in the moment.
These 38 remedies are all made from flowers found in the British countryside. They can be taken individually or in combination as powerful healing tools.
The discovery of Flower Remedies
Bach Flower Remedies were discovered in the 1930’s by Dr Edward Bach, a pioneer of wholistic medicine. Dr. Bach was a doctor with a busy practice in Harley Street, London. He was famous in the medical profession as an immunologist and bacteriologist, developing a series of Nosodes or vaccines that are now known as the Bach Nosodes.
Despite having a very busy practice he was frustrated at the tools and techniques at his disposal and longed for a more natural cure for the illness he was treating in his patients.
In 1928 he left his busy practice in London to find the cures he was looking for. He spent many spring and summer months in Norfolk, living in Cromer, and later in Wales, searching the countryside for his remedies.
Dr. Edward Bach
Dr Bach was a deeply spiritual man. He had always dreamed since childhood of finding a simple and natural cure for people’s illness, and that healing energies would flow from his hands, both of which he succeeded in doing in his short life.
He had noticed increasingly that cures did not work in the same way with every person, yet they did work in a similar way when the persons involved had similar emotional and mental patterns.
This was the start of his journey towards wholistic medicine in which he began treating the person rather than focusing on the disease. At that time, this was an extremely radical idea. To be treating disease by treating the emotional/mental framework of a person rather than focusing on the symptomology or disease, was new to modern mainstream medicine.
Discovering Flower Essences
His inspiration came from a dew drop in a flower. This pure rain water (rain was a lot cleaner in the1930’s than it is today!) had been sitting on the surface of the flower in the sunshine for several hours. He found that it had a profound effect on his wellbeing, and he realised that water could ‘hold’ the energy of something it comes in contact with. (In recent years this have been proven by the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto.)
This was the start of his understanding that water could be ‘potentised’ in this way. He saw that the sun’s rays had helped to put the energy of the flower into the water. Realising this, he started to make his own potentised water by placing flowers on the surface of pure water, in a glass bowl, in the sun.
His sensitivity to subtle energies was so refined by that time that he could put his hand over plants and flowers and feel how they could heal the personality patterns. In his search he would often experience the negative state he was looking to cure very acutely for several days beforehand. When his searching came across the right flower, taking the essence would bring relief from the negative state and in this way he was able to ‘prove’ the remedy.
38 Bach Flower Remedies
As you work with these essences you discover their depths. These brief descriptions do not do them justice, but rather give you a flavour of their range.
- Agrimony – smiles hide inner worry
- Aspen – Apprehension, unknown fears
- Beech – Over critical, intolerant, lacking flexibility
- Centaury – Weak willed, subservient to the will of others
- Cerato – Lack of faith in ones own judgement
- Cherry Plum – Panic, fear of losing control, suicidal
- Chestnut Bud – Inability to learn ones lessons, repeating the same mistakes
- Chicory – Possessive, needing attention, sometimes controlling
- Clematis – Dreamy, absent minded, ungrounded
- Crab Apple – Cleansing – physically & mentally
- Elm – Overwhelmed by responsibility
- Gentian – Despondency, disappointment, lack of faith
- Gorse – Hopelessness, despair
- Heather – Overtalkative
- Holly – Anger, Jealousy, Suspicion
- Honeysuckle – Living in the past, homesickness
- Hornbeam – Mental tiredness, procrastination
- Impatiens – Impatience, irritability
- Larch – Lack of confidence
- Mimulus – Known fears, nervousness
- Mustard – Gloom, depression for no apparent reason
- Oak – The strengthener
- Olive – Physical & metal tiredness, exhaustion
- Pine – Feelings of guilt, unworthiness
- Red Chestnut – Fear for others
- Rock Rose – Extreme fear, nightmares
- Rock Water – Self punishment, rigidity
- Scleranthus – Indecision, inability to choose, balance
- Star of Bethlehem – Shock, Trauma, Accidents
- Sweet Chestnut– Extreme anguish, despair
- Vervain – Over enthusiasm, perfectionism
- Vine – Dominating, need for control over others
- Walnut – Change, need for adaptability, protection
- Water Violet – Pride, feeling of superiority
- White Chestnut – Thoughts buzzing around in head
- Wild Oat – Inability to see ones direction
- Wild Rose – Apathy, lack of enthusiasm
- Willow – Resentment, bitterness
- Revival Remedy – Combination for Emergency Situation