After Bach developed the original 12 remedies he went on to creating a second set collectively known as ‘The Seven Helpers’. The Seven Helpers differ from the 12 Healers in that they are used for issues related to life responses and resonance with life. They treat states of mind that have become more persistent almost to the point where the negative states become seemingly inseparable from personal expression.

Some correlations can be made between some of the 12 Healers and 7 Helpers, such as gorse/gentian. Both deal with areas of despair and hopelessness. Vine/vervain both deal with strong energy in the personality such as dominance and dogmatism. While these two pairs of essences share similar signatures, the other 5 remedies function separately and offer unique energies for balancing the personality.

Wild Oat-(bromus ramosus)

This essence deals with purposeful directed action, in regards to vocation and life direction. It helps us to find our true calling by showing us how we can serve the world. It works to align the will with spiritual purpose, it is about finding the thing that comes natural to us, what we do effortlessly. Wild oat is useful when we feel unfulfilled and dissatisfied by our job. It helps us shift frustration in a way that frees up the energy tied within it making this energy available for change.

Rock Water (solarized spring water)

Rock water is the essence of all essences it is solarized spring water from the spring that all the Bach essences are made with. ‘Rock Water’ is a Celtic term for the water flowing from the earth, they recognized that fresh living spring water has potent healing qualities. Dr. Bach also recognized the healing properties of living spring water and felt it was the ideal base for flower essences. To prepare Rock Water a bowl of freshly drawn spring water is set to charge in the sun. This solarization of naked water, water that has been swimming in the womb of the earth and is birthed to the light carries the qualities of flexibility and greater ease.

Vine (vitis vinifera)

Vine is one of the two essences that was made outside of England, vine was prepared in Italy by a friend of Dr. Bach’s. Dr. Bach gave full instructions for the preparation and it was sent to him for research and testing. Upon testing Bach noted that Vine helps the strong/dominant leader access their Higher Self. This access with higher self serves to temper the ego and selfish tendencies. This fosters more self less service helping the leader to go beyond ego identification.

Olive (Olea Europaea)

Olive is the other remedy that was prepared outside of England, it was also prepared in Italy by a friend of Dr. Bach. Those needing olive essence have gone through a period of physical struggle and now are experiencing a period deep exhaustion. This period of exhaustion allows the person to access their soul and realize there are forces beyond the body that serve to support the energy and health of the person. Olive essence helps to build the vital forces of the body and aid in rest and recuperation.

Heather (Calluna Vulgaris)

This remedy supports tranquility of the mind and emotions. The delicate pink flowers help one to access inner quite and use this space as food for the emotions. The person needing this remedy may not even know it, as one main characteristic is self absorbtion. Being so self absorbed they feel a need to always talk about their problems and when in conversation they turn the conversation back to themselves. This essence helps such people access the space within themselves where they can find the inner quite which fosters more balanced emotional self sufficiency.

Gorse (Ulex Europaeus)

Gorse has some similarities with Gentian, as they both work to treat discouragement doubt. Gorse deals with a more persistent doubt one that sets in when a person has been dealing with an illness for a long period of time and resigns themselves giving up hope. This essence fosters greater optimism and trust in a positive outcome and is of great benefit to those suffering from debilitating conditions or diseases.

Proceeding past procrastination.

Inertia is a great force a condensed energy, that keeps our plant spinning and all the elements of the solar system moving in their prescribed ways. Inertia is manifest in our bodies in a number of ways, the flow of fluids in our bodies for example proceed along their routes through blood vessels, arteries and chambers. This constant movement serves to keep the organism functioning in way that maintains overall health.

There is another type of inertia that exists in the human body, this though relates more to feelings and states of mind. There are times when the inertia of certain thoughts and feelings stymie our overall health and well being. Whether this be dwelling upon the less uplifting events or feelings we have experienced. Or feeling stuck in our ability to translate thoughts/emotions into action. When these ‘ruts’ get lodged in our consciousness and we feel them holding us back, inertia ceases to become our ally.

There are a few essences we can use to shift this type of unhealthy inertia and reconnect with passion and positive forward evolution. The three I will talk about today are blackberry, cayenne and larch. They address different qualities of the way inertia can manifest in our personal experience. The two areas they address are the mind and the emotions.

Blackberry: This is a powerful bush full of thorns and tasty fruits left unchecked this plant will literally dominate the area where it grows. Its power to proliferate is a testament to the qualities of the essence. Blackberry assists one to take ideas and put them into concrete action, this assistance is made by helping one to contact the will forces necessary for action.

When sluggishness dominates the mind and frustrations take hold blackberry will assist to transform these elements. It helps by forging a greater connection to the will, the internal power we use to project thoughts, ideas and goals. By assisting to bridge thoughts to will and will to external action movement is created, conscious movement towards a reality we desire.

Cayenne: This flower essence deals more with stagnation in growth/soul evolution. There are times in life when we reach certain plateau. These plateaus allow us moments of reflection before we move on to the next stage in our evolution. But there are times when we get stuck at these platues and just seem to idle on. This comfortable feeling may even start to express its self as resistance to growth. Or we may have just a general resistance to growth based on faulty conditioning.

Cayenne can be used at these times to breakthrough our own internal resistance to change. The action of this essence serves to ignite the emotions helping us use these powerful energies to move us forward in our soul evolution. Cayenne works through ignition of the fiery forces within us. This force helps to unite the body and soul, which helps us to forge a greater connection with life and overcome inertia.

Larch: Larch is a type of conifer tree, being a tree larch conveys the energy of confidence standing in our own power. Larch is a useful essence, when inertia centers around feeling related to our self esteem. States of low self esteem hold us back from life in many ways for example we may not apply for a job which we are qualified for.

Larch helps us to access states of confidence and/or renew flagging states of confidence. It increases our belief in ourselves, which serves to spark creativity and action. It also helps us to recilibrate what success means, so we are acting from our own definition and not from the definition of forces outside of use. Which interestingly enough may be the cause of our esteem issues in the first place.

All three essences serve a similar structure/function yet they deal with the challenges of motivation in different ways. There are many other essences which could have been listed here and will be featured in future posts. The immedieate action of the essences listed above is why they were choosen. They can be used alone or together, for immediate action it is suggested to use the essence at stock level 2 drops 3 times a day for a week. For more long term use it is suggested to make a dosage bottle and use that for 3-4 weeks.

Is there sensory capabilities that extend beyond the mind? I am sure we all have heard about seeing with the heart but what does that mean? The heart is a muscle and according to western occult sciences the heart is our actual solar center. Behind the heart is a nerve complex known as the cardiac ganglion which is connected to the sympathetic nervous system. A ganglion is a clump of nerve cells located outside of the brain, these clumps exist in other areas of the body. Totaled up the human body has more nerve cells outside of the brain than in the brain. So this idea that the brain is our main perception organ may not be entirely accurate.

So what does this mean? For one it is evidence that we have the ability to use different areas of the body to perceive with. There is a common phrase referring to that familiar sensation we experience in the stomach when things just ain’t right, the gut feeling. This is perceiving without the mind and reflects our ability to sense and perceive with the body. This is very basic stuff here our brain is only one of many ‘organs of perception’.

Our society values the brain and its decision making capabilities , it is an amazing organ that we can’t do without. But maybe we don’t need to do so much with it or use it as our sole organ of perception. We’ve done this neat thing with the brain and perception we create our reality. We started doing it so long ago that we don’t even know we are doing it. We do it partly through filters which serve to filter and categorize the perceptions we receive. These filters are related to our beliefs and values. But these beliefs and values maybe only remnants of what we learned from an early age and have nothing to do with us now. We pick them up as we go along and we cherish them because that is our proof in a sense, our proof that our perceptions of the world are ‘right’.

Pick any of the limiting beliefs you have and observe how you prove them to yourself daily. This whole belief/perception structure is great it is integral in creating our reality but there are times when they may fail us. Fail us in the sense of placing limits upon something truly unlimited, perception. But we need structure you may say and I agree, without structure and limits things won’t grow. So all these limits have helped us immensely in getting to where we are now.

But where we are now may not be where we want to be . . . so maybe we need to discard some old beliefs in exchange for some new ones. This is where getting in touch with greater perceptions of the body becomes useful. Learning to shift sensory perception from the mind to the heart is a powerful exercise that opens one up to new vistas. It takes practice and you can do it at any time. Place your attention on your heart and feel how it looks to see from this new perspective. You may feel immense comfort or relaxation flow through you, it also gives your mind a rest. This simple action serves to put us back into our bodies, to function more as whole body being.

This piece was inspired by my recent use of the foxglove flower essence from Blossem Remedies of Holland. Foxglove-digitalis purpurea, contains a glycoside (sugar) that is used by the pharmaceutical industry to treat heart issues. Its use as a heart medicine dates back to the days of ‘witches’ and folk herbalism. As a flower remedy it is for ‘going beyond thinking’. “It eases the mental process so you are able to contact your heart again. Helps you let go of thinking structures and patterns of how we think we should behave. . . . Foxglove opens you step by step to higher realms beyond thinking.” I am finding coming out of the mind to access information is easy yet seems unfamiliar because it goes against all that I was taught.

Yet the more I do it the more I learn to accept the value of insights gained from the heart and higher realms. I am learning to value it as one might value a key that unlocks many doors leading to lands and frontiers we never thought we could perceive.