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”

Bach had been working with the 12 Healers and 7 Helpers for years when he began developing his second generation of flower essences known as the second 19.  These remedies were developed over an arduous 6 month period during which Bach would suffer the mental and physical symptoms the remedies addressed before discovering the new remedy.  Dr. Bach’s life long goal was to alleviate the suffering of man and his persistence in finding the most natural way to do so along with his deep faith in the creator guided his life and work.

In 1934 Bach settled in a village in the Thames valley called Sotwell, this is where he would develop the last 19 of his remedies and eventually pass on.  Life in this quite village allowed him the time to complete the writing of The 12 Helpers and 7 Healers a pamphlet he had published and distributed  for a small sum of money. And, all the profit from this publication went towards the next publishing.  His goal was to get the information out there very inexpensively for the betterment of his fellow humans.

Prior to the discovery of each of the new 19 remedies, Bach would experience the corresponding mental, emotional and physical states of disharmony that the remedy he was about to discover would treat.  With the making of the second 19 Bach also discovered a new way of preparing remedies known as the boiling method.  The first of the 19 new remedies he developed was cherry plum, Bach had been suffering from such physical pain in sinuses, face and head that he though to go on with such pain he might lose his mind.   One morning in March of 1935 he was out walking and saw a hedge of cherry plum rich with white blossoms.  The early spring sun was not yet strong enough to make a remedy so he took a sprigs to his cottage and boiled them over a fire for an hour.  Once cooled he strained the preparation and took a few drop of the new remedy and experienced a relief to the mental and physical anguish he had been suffering with.

This process of suffering and discovering went on until all 19 of the remedies listed below had been discovered, the Second 19 represented a completion to Bach’s work and ultimately his life.  These remedies are wonderful tools for many stages of transformation of the personality.

Aspen- Use for unknown fears, anxiety and nightmares, this essence helps one feel secure, fearless and protected

Beech-This essence is for when you are feeling overly critical of yourself, others or situations. Use this essence when these feelings originate from a sense of high ideals and perfectionism, judgemental attitudes and intolerance.

Cherry Plum- Use this essence when feeling like you are losing control and at a breaking point, this essence carries a lot of light and cheerful energy. It will help with feeling calm, progressive inner growth.

Chestnut Bud- Are you making the same mistakes and failing to learn from them? This essence helps you to become more receptive to learning from your mistakes. This essence is great for learning with this be from the past or present situation, it helps one to learn the lesson of the mistake and move on.

Crab Apple- Cleanliness, inner and outer, use this essence when you feel unclean in any way, this is also helpful for people who tend towards obsessive compulsive behavior.  It restores a sense of order, cleanliness and purity, also great to use during fasting, for food poisoning or apply it topicaly to any skin disorders.

Elm- This essence is indicated for times when we feel utterly overwhelmed, we may be capable of the task at hand but feel like we are reaching a breaking point in our ability to deal with the responsibilities in our life.  Elm helps us during times of temporary overload and loss of strength, showing us we have the strength and capabilities to face the challenge.

Holly- Feelings of bitterness, jealousy, anger and hatred, when these become dominate in our emotional expression they block the flow of love.  Use holly to regain and enhance feelings of compassion, caring and love and to help manage intense feelings in a more harmonious way, like channeling hatred into passion.

Honeysuckle- Do you long for the good old days? Feeling sentimental and attached to the past?  Are these feelings hindering you from the present?  Honeysuckle helps us to get more in touch with the present, complete the past and accept the past so we can move forward feeling ready for life.

Hornbeam- Procrastination got you down?  Feeling unmotivated and mentally lethargic when looking at what you need to do?  Hornbeam helps one feel more inner vitality so we move past procrastination with a sense of freshness, encouraging us to take action and move forward.

Larch- Is a lack of confidence giving you feelings of inferiority? Larch is helpful when confronting inner feelings of inferiority, larch aids confidence and perseverence, helping us to overcome patterns of self sabotage.

Mustard- Do you feel like a dark cloud has settled over you?  Mustard fosters feelings of lightness, its uplifting and cheerful energy is helpful for getting past gloom and feelings of oppression.  Also good for seasonal affective disorder.

Pine- Has a sense of guilt led to feelings of inadequacy and self reproach?  Pine is an essential essence for transcending guilt, it is the essence of self forgiveness.

Red Chestnut- Troubled by feelings of worry and over concern for the ones you love?  This essence brings ease to worry fostering deeper humanitarian love while building kindness.

Star of Bethlehem- Feeling off kilter from recent or past shock and trauma?  Star of Bethlehem helps to bring peace to the soul be aiding in the gentle release of traumas from the system.

Sweet Chestnut- Feeling like you are going a period of ‘The Dark Night of Soul’, despair, sorrow or heartbreak?  This essence helps bring serenity with the release of despair and sorrow.  This is powerful remedy in assisting with completing the healing process.

Walnut- Going through a big life change, feeling oversensitive and vulnerable?  Walnut is the key essence for all cycles of change helping us make a clean break from the past, so we can move forward unencumbered by what was and make a clear fresh new start.  This essence is great for moving, breaking up or embarking on a new direction.

Wild Rose- Feeling listless, like giving up the inertia and boredom of life got you down? Wild Rose is a tremendous essence for freshening your mental attitude fostering positive motivation.  This essence helps you to re-engage with life with greater enthusiasm and excitement

Willow- Feeling bitter, holding onto a grudge, resentful of someone or something?  Wilow allows a letting go a yielding to the flow.  This essence helps us overcome grudges and old hurts that now are only hurting us and hindering our ability to forgive and move on.  This essence is about letting go of the old hurts, enhancing feelings of self responsibility, no longer being victim to the old wound.

White Chestnut-  You lie down for bed and your mind is awash in thoughts, circling, scattered, relentless . . . White chestnut brings a quality of clarity to the mind helping it be more focused and tranquil. This essence also eases obsessive repetitive thought patterns.