Its now the Holiday Season and time to honor two plants of the season, Pine and Holly.  Both Pine and Holly keep their green all winter long, which has made them popular for winter celebrations.  Their green presence throughout the winter make them symbols for eternal, they  are  also two key Bach flower essences.  According to Mechthild Scheffer* they treat “one of the most profound and deeply human negative archetypal states.”  The negative states that Pine and Holly address are Guilt and Envy.

Pine Flower Essence works to shine a light on guilt and guilt complexes whether self imposed or institutionally inherited.  Pine helps us to shed feelings of guilt related to the past, these feelings may arise  from failures of  judgement or from actions taken or not taken.   Pine fosters a feeling of  love and acceptance for self and others, it also helps us with personally accepting gifts, compliments and praise.

Pine flower essence lessens guilt complexes, bad conscience and the unrelenting drive for perfectionism. It assists in our ability to enjoy life without guilt.  This is important because enjoying life without feeling guilty is a self affirmation.  Being that guilt implies a form of punishment and a fear of punishment, living free of guilt complexes and fear of punishment offers us emotional freedom.  Guilt and fear play upon our lower emotional nature and by freeing ourselves from these shackles we can express more life affirming emotions which inevitably brings us closer to the Divine.

Holly  flower essence treats a condition of hard heartedness exemplified by Ebenezer Scrooge.  This essence is a wonderful heart opening gift, it helps to show us that we live in a stream of love.  This is what helps to sustain life and is a gift from the Divine.  According to Dr. Bach “Holly opens the heart and unites us with Divine love.”

Holly Flower Essence is a great softener of the heart, helping to ease feelings of jealousy, anger and discontent.  There are times when our discontent gives us the feeling that our emotions are poisoned.  Holly can help us to get back in touch with the warmth in our hearts and express this as good will towards others.

These two flower essences are remarkable for fostering Acceptance and Love.  Love and Acceptance are emotional gifts to  be embraced. Because it is not about what we get its about what we give. By learning to love and accept ourselves gives a gift to the world, for these qualities make us better people.  The gifts we truly have and can infinitely give is ourselves and our ability to spread good will.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours and may the Gift of Flowers blossom in your Heart.

*Mechthild Sheffer “The Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Therapy”

Large Format Easy To Understand Excellent Reference

In this easy to use reference guide, Mechthild takes us through each remedy individually offering keen insights on the positive potential of each flower. She clearly explains each plants range of use and healing potential.

Ms. Sheffer brings a wealth of knowledge to the topic gleaned from years as a therapist and head of the Swiss and German Bach Flower Therapy Research and Education centers. This type of hands on experience makes her highly qualified to expand on Bach’s work. The reader is led through Bach’s vision and philosophy, then goes on to explain in clear terms how the remedies work on a soul level. She provides diagrams and examples to illustrate and convey her points.

It contains full color photographs and tag lines for each flower followed by two full pages of how the flower works with the personality. She conclude each definition with a table of “Behavior Patterns in the Blocked State” and “Key Symptoms”.

For example:
Agrimony: The Honesty Flower From Pretend Harmony to Inner Peace

Key Symptoms: attempts are made to conceal disturbing thoughts and inner restlessness behind a cheerful face and a life free of worry.

Behavior Patterns in the Blocked State: (the book contains a list of up to 20 for each flower)
You try to please all the people all the time, you look through rose colored glasses, you want to live in an ideal world so you intentionally ignore flaws in a partner.

Positive Potential:
You are able to deal with both positive and negative situations and grow from them

At the end of the book the reader will find a table to use when trying to decide between two remedies. This easy to use tool is brought to life by featuring kirilian photographs of the energy signature of each flower.

This book is a great addition to any reference library, for the beginner or advanced student alike