Flower Essences: Medicine for the Soul

By Kerry Ford

Flowers have played a significant role in our human existence—socially and culturally—for quite some time.

Bouquets of flowers are gifted as expressions and extensions of thanks, celebration and joy; at baby showers, weddings, birthdays and christenings.

We offer them up as gestures of compassion in moments of grief, sorrow and heartache. We cook with them and adorn our homes with them. We shower our yards with roses and hydrangeas, and use their qualities to non-verbally communicate a friendship, a new love, an acknowledgement of heartbreak.

Flowers Used Holistically

In the holistic realm, we take advantage of the flower’s healing components in aroma therapeutics, essential oils and herbal concoctions. They are used to treat ailments from the common cold to cancer.

As healers on both the physical and emotional planes, we gravitate naturally toward their inherent beauty. Our connection with plant life reaches beyond the tangible, five sensory benefits of their beauty and nature.

There is a level of healing that flowers provide beyond the physical realm, touching the inner dialogue of our emotional and spiritual bodies—they have the ability to heal at the soul level.

At the Heart of Healing

The discovery of flowers as a healing tool on this subtle, non-physical plane was originally uncovered by an innovator in the field of vibrational medicine, Dr. Edward Bach.

Dr. Bach pioneered this revolutionary concept in healing over 70 years ago. He had over twenty years of training as a surgeon and practitioner of allopathic medicine. After further research in immunology, he began developing an interest in homeopathy and alternative modes of healing outside of the allopathic field.

He believed that illness is the effect of disharmony between body and mind; that physical symptoms of an imbalance are explained as externalized expressions of negative emotional states.

He began to notice that states of mind such as loneliness, depression, boredom, worry, hopelessness and fear, not only preceded illness, but inhibited the body’s natural healing abilities (“innate wisdom” as it is referred to on the subtle plane) to overcome illness and disease.

Through years of personal research and study, Bach developed an entire system of vibrational floral remedies that are today, used around the world with great success and transformation.

They are now used singularly and in conjunction with other healing modalities to provide support in reaching higher states of awareness and health; an expansive definition of what it means to truly heal and be well.

Health in Harmony

Dr. Bach was a highly sensitive and intuitive man with a strong connection to the natural world. As his study of and work with flower remedies expanded, so did his intuitive faculties.

There is a great deal of wisdom to gain from this process.

It is inherent within us to long for a connection to the natural world, as it is an extension and mirror image of our internal Universe. Both worlds—our internal environment/innate wisdom/higher consciousness/self (however you wish to define it), and the natural environment that surrounds us—can be tapped into at a moment’s notice.

Here, we gain wisdom and knowledge about ourselves, our choices and our paths in life. Both the intuitive nature of environment and our own innate intuitive faculties, provide answers to life’s questions that can release us from the struggles caused by engaging in external chatter and adopted belief systems that no longer work for us,  stifling creativity and self expression through fear.

There is no striving when we look within before going out.

Because of this connection, flower remedies have a profound effect on our overall lives. They are powerful yet subtle companions and teachers along our journey.

Whatever ails you, there is a partner in soil to guide you.

What Are Flower Remedies?

Flower essences are subtle liquid extracts that have the ability to address profound issues of emotional well-being, soul development and mind/body health. The power of this therapy lies in the life forces derived from the plant.

FES Flower Remedies is a reputable and longstanding flower essence company in Northern California that believes they bridge body and soul.

In the holistic world, we refer to this ‘subtle healing’ modality as Vibrational Medicine. Here, flowers fulfill an entirely different role for us.

How Do Flower Remedies Work?

To understand this, we must first be able to acknowledge that, as human beings, we are more than our physical bodies; we are a “body” of life energy, a “body” of sensitivity and feelings, and a spiritual essence or Self—so eloquently expressed by the Flower Essence Society in Nevada City California.

Flower essences are energetic imprints of the life force of plants. These life force energies interact with the subtle bodies of the human being to evoke specific qualities within us.

The Flower Essence

Similar in the way music carries its message through sound, or art through light, flower essences carry their message to the human body through the medium of water~ influencing the physical and energetic bodies, bringing greater awareness and powerful shifts to one’s state of well-being, level of peace and ability to go forth and create in the physical world.

There are approximately 160 different flower essences to choose from in the FES Repertory .

The original 38 Bach flower essences can also be chosen from to address a particular emotional state.

Other reputable  flower essences repertories can be found in the Alaskan, Australian Flower Essences companies, and the Perelandra series, which hones in on rebalancing the body’s electrical system and it’s circuits in conjunction with environment; a very interesting healing system unto itself, even outside the flower essence world.

The main difference between each company’s essence formulations is geography; each essence brand focuses on plants and flowers indigenous to specific world regions.

Australian bush flower essences are going to display a different repertoire than North American Essences (FES) and the Alaskan essences.

Some may argue that it is most beneficial to remain loyal to what is closest to either personal heritage or current geographical location. Your intuitive instincts and what resonates most with your heart, is always the best compass, in any choice.

Emotions and Essences

Larch is commonly used for fears relating to the judgment of others, of failure and a lack of confidence or self censorship in one’s own abilities. Larch brings about self confidence and impels the soul from a self- limiting to a self-transcending mode of behavior.

Wild Oat relates to any confusion or indecision in life direction; a lack of commitment or focus due to a loss of fulfillment in one’s life’s work. It helps bring about an awareness of inner calling, compelling one to be motivated by this calling as a sense of one’s life purpose.

The internal and subsequently external changes in one’s life and environment as a result of working with these formulas, is both powerful yet gentle; subtle yet profound, all at once.

It is a healing relationship that works with your internal system in a respectful and loving manner. Non invasive and non toxic, safely used with newborns, animals and children, it is truly a re-connection to self and environment, and can be an exciting, enlightening journey in self evolution.

Get Started with Flower Essences

• Get Quiet and Listen—As a practitioner, I find it best for clients to journal, meditate or spend some time in quiet solitude, listening to what comes up in the mind as a priority for you in the current moment. As you read through the emotional states listed either in the front of the FES Resource Bible, or scan through Bach’s list of 7 flower groups, you will notice that one (or more) in particular will resonate with you. Conversely, you may already be very clear what needs to be addressed. Either process is valid.
• Personality—It is also a choice to choose a remedy based on your personality type, much like  a technique used in homeopathics (note: flower essences and homeopathics are two different classes of vibrational medicines)

For example, Mimulus is aligned with a very shy, timid and quiet personality type who does not enjoy social environments or meeting new people. The only caveat with this process lies in the fact that you may not yet be fully aware of who your true self and nature is, until layers begin to peel back.

One With the Earth

Shamans have known for centuries, the endless benefits of honoring the intelligence of plant life in our natural environment.

Plants have a proven ability to communicate messages to human life that could heal beyond individual well being—to heal the state and health of our environment.

A relationship of this magnitude is essential as we step forward into a new world; as we now know we are not separate from our natural environment, in fact we are a reflection of its own state of well being.

This old, wise system of healing is becoming a part of a movement towards a new paradigm in “living.”

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References:

1.FES Flower Essence Repertory, “A Comprehensive Guide to the Flower Essences Researched by Dr. Edward Bach and by The Flower Essence Society”; By Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz; www.flowersociety.org.

2. “The Original Writings of Dr. Edward Bach”; By Judy Howard & John Ramsell

3. Subtle Aspect, Flower Essence Therapies; Dr. Diane Chung, Naturopathic Dr., Clairvoyant, Bodytalk Practitioner; Practitioner mentorship Archives/Lecture Series—June 23, 2012.

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Kerry Ford is a R.H.N. Holistic Nutritional Consultant & Educator and Bodytalk Practitioner, with additional training in Mindscape (www.bodytalkcentral.com). She runs workshops, distance healing sessions and works in private practice out of the Chung Centre for Vibrant Health, Toronto. She also has a background in yoga (Kundalini instructor), yogic nutrition, meditation sciences, raw foods (owner of raw dessert business), TCM and Ayurveda. Visit her website.