The importance of the botanical families for the
Flower Essence Therapy practice
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Summary of the lecture presented at the Brazilian Flower Essence Practitioners Conference, in August 2004
Rosana Souto S. Vieira |
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Edward Bach was a true pioneer in the art of healing through plants. Since ancient times, the plant kingdom has been serving the animal kingdom in the material, medicinal, and even spiritual levels. Nevertheless, it was through the tireless search of Edward Bach to find a non-aggressive method of healing that humanity saw, in the last century, the emerging of a completely new plant kingdom use from the state of the art - the healing through the subtle qualities of flowers.
Through reports from his assistant, Nora Weeks, in The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach (1989) we have learned that Dr. Edward Bach, in the first phase of his research, used to spend hours and hours observing plants, their habitat and gestures until finding the one that would match to the mental or emotional negative states he wanted to heal. Unfortunately, he left us little information about each plant chosen for his flower essence remedies, basically sticking to the mental or emotional negative states addressed by them.
Initially, this function was left to Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen, in The Bach Flower Remedies – Illustrations and Preparations ( 1984 – 1st edition 1964 ) and, more recently, to great researchers of his work as Julian Barnard, The Healing Herbs of Edward Bach – an illustrated Guide to the Flower Remedies ( 1988) and Mechthild Sheffer, Die Seelenpflanzen des Edward Bach – (1991). Gradually we have begun to have more information about the botanic and the symbolism associated to the flowers chosen by Edward Bach. We have started to decipher the attunement process with the plant kingdom and to dive into his work.
Nevertheless, we owe Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski, founders and directors of the Flower Essence Society (1979), California, great researchers and connoisseurs of Edward Bach’s work, for their important contribution in the research of the subtle qualities of flowers of the same botanical family. This has built a bridge between the traditional scientific botanical knowledge and the intuitive knowledge. Through the understanding of how the properties of plants are translated into the flower essence healing properties and the virtues associated to each botanical family, FES has established a spiritual scientific language, which extends the therapeutic focus and creates the basis for a larger acceptance of flower essence therapy in the academic world.
The botanical families and the therapeutic practice – “The peeling of the onion”
At the first contact with flower essences, it’s common to have interest only in their use. The more incipient our stage as flower essence therapists, the greater the interest in knowing: - “What is this for?”- “How and when am I going to use it?”
At the beginning, many of us neglect the botanical information of the plant that gave origin to a specific flower essence. Normally, the family it belongs to is just another datum (an odd one!), without importance. Hydrophyllaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Onagraceae…”What is the need to know that?”
Similarly, when we analyze the development of flower essence therapy in our country, we realize that this attitude is also reflected in the group perspective and in what we have experienced.
We know that nowadays, Brazil is one of the largest user of flower essences of the world and that our experience in flower essence therapy is stellar. However, at first, most of us were concerned only about using the flower essences. We were far from realizing what would come in our own personal and collective development. We were far from practicing the true soul therapy.
We took courses and received training from researchers from several parts of the world. Besides that, the continuous use of the flower essences in ourselves has awakened another need: the need to understand a most comprehensive “how” and “why”. We were reaching deeper levels of healing, getting closer to a greater understanding of the world, of nature, and awakening to the perception that we and nature were One. We were becoming to realize the unit of all things – the unconditional love and the highest goal of flower essence therapy.
Here again, if we observe this process under a large perspective, we will see that this is similar to “the peeling of the onion”. We know that flower essence therapy removes the layers, little by little, that prevent the full manifestation of our great Self, of our Divine and loving Presence.
Not only did Edward Bach find a loving way to heal human suffering through flowers, he, as well, subtlety showed us, through this peeling process, that the way out to our healing is the development of Love, the love for ourselves, for the next and for nature.
Coincidently, in Edward Bach’s work, we find the predominance of the Rosaceae family flowers; Agrimony, Cherry Plum, Crab Apple and Wild Rose – four examples of the same botanical family. Certainly it is not by chance that Cherry Plum and Wild Rose, important flower essences to be considered in suicidal tendencies, are part of this family.
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As rosáceas do sistema Bach – fotos Julian Barnard |
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Being one of the biggest families of dicotyledonous, the Rosaceae gifts us with tasty fruits, and beautiful softly perfumed five-petal flowers. Its exemplars are well rooted, showing a strong connection with the Earth. Some, like the Rosa canina, present heart-shaped petals, a clear association to Venus, the love, beauty and relationship goddess.
What drives the person in the negative Cherry Plum state to commit terrible acts against himself/herself? What drives a person in the Wild Rose negative state to give up from life? If we analyze the species from this botanical family in the Bach system and in other flower systems, we will realize that the flower essences prepared from these flowers act in the harmonization of negative expressions of one single virtue – Love.
“Birds of a feather flock together” in Portuguese, we would say something like:
“Tell me with whom you walk and will tell you who you are”.
Similarly to the Rosaceae family, all the botanical families present virtues or subtle qualities that resonates with the evolutional needs of the human soul. Liliaceae, Composite, Boraginaceae, Fagaceae, Primulaceae...
The famous popular saying finds here its most positive meaning. The knowledge of the subtle virtues of each botanical family enables us to create synergic flower essence combinations to address a particular theme, to orient the research of new flower essences or, simply, to broaden our understanding about the healing properties of a particular flower essence, thus helping us in the diagnosis and selection process.
Differently from the beginning of flower essence therapy in Brazil, nowadays, the one who begins one’s studies in this healing art counts on a vast literature and courses that emphasize the look at nature. Thus, let us be detectives of the plant kingdom, so that our practice as flower essence therapists may reach even higher levels of development!
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Rosana Souto Sobral Vieira – Director of Instituto Cosmos de Terapia Floral, Campinas, SP, Authorized instructor from the Flower Essence Society and Bach Healingherbs, Chemical Engineer and Astrologer.
Bibliography
BACH, Edward – Os Remédios Florais do Dr. Bach – Ed Pensamento, SP, 1992.
BARNARD, Julian & Martine – The Healing Herbs of Edward Bach: An Illustrated Guide to the Flower Remedies – Ashgrove Press, Bath, England, 1988
JOLY, Aylton – Botânica, Introdução à taxonomia vegetal – Cia. Editora Nacional, SP, 2002.
KAMINSKI, Patricia & KATZ, Richard – Repertório das Essências Florais – Ed. Triom, SP, 1998.
KAMINSKI, Patricia – Flores que Curam, como usar essências florais – Ed.Triom, SP, 2000.
SHEFFER, Mechthild & STORL, W-Dieter – Die Seelenpflanzen des Edward Bach – Hugendubel/Irisiana, Munique, Germany, 1991.
WEEKS, Nora – Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach Physician, The C.W.Daniel Co. Ltd, England, 1989.
WEEKS, Nora & BULLEN, Victor – The Bach Flower Remedies, Illustrations and Preparations – The C.W.Daniel Co. Ltd, England, 1990
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