Making Flower Essences Ourselves
Increasing numbers of people are using flower essence remedies these days: especially the original remedies of Dr Bach, but also perhaps the 'California Essences', those produced by Ellie Web of Harebell Remedies in Scotland, Dr Arthur Bailey's Yorkshire Dales essences - there are probably twenty or more different sets of flower remedies available now.
What I want to do here is to encourage those who use and/or prescribe flower remedies to consider the idea of making your own. The ability to make a remedy is not some special and mysterious gift! The qualities needed are probably no more than three: a sense of contact with the natural world; a willingness to 'follow one's hunches', to take intuition seriously; and, perhaps a certain sense of self-worth, of having the same right to engage with flower remedies as anyone else.
Why make more remedies when so many are already available? Well, a good place to start might be making remedies which have already been written up by someone else. There are great gifts to be had by doing it ourselves: instead of a commercial transaction of buying someone else's product, we are engaging directly and physically with the flower itself - forming our own relationship with it, a relationship of respect and intimacy. In making remedies, I've learnt so much about flowers and plants - how to recognise them, their habitat and habits, their seasons, their 'signatures' (more of this in a minute). It's been an intensely rewarding and nourishing process; and even if you're making a well-known remedy, it's bound to deepen your understanding of how that remedy functions and what effects it has.
As for making new remedies - well, there are so many flowers out there; and so many distinct human emotional states and positions to work with. One of the exciting things for me about flower remedies is that there is no objective criterion: no authority, no one who Knows the Right Answer. (Just because someone is a channelled discarnate spirit doesn't mean they Know.) All the information about a new remedy and its function is in the relationship that you manage to create between you and the plant. Making flower remedies and deciding how to use them is, for me, a very special place where the material and the spiritual come together in perfect balance.
How To Make An Essence
(This is the way I do it; it isn't the only way, or the best way - the best way is the way that you develop for yourself through experience and intuition. However, it might be worth trying this way a few times if you haven't made essences before.)
1. Equipment
Very simple, really. You'll need a small, plain glass bowl or tumbler (if some other sort of bowl, like ceramic, feels better, by all means try it out, but most people use glass); some good water - clear, uncontaminated and alive: local or bottled spring water; a dropper bottle; some brandy (brandy preserves the essence, and also seems to have more subtle catalysing properties. Cider vinegar is a possible alternative if you dislike using alcohol); and some sticky labels that will fit on the bottle.
2. The Flowers
You may already know what essence you want to make; or you may wander and let a plant speak to you. Either way, you certainly want a clump, so that you can take a few blossoms from each plant without stripping them.
3. The Spot
Ideally, a 'special' place, a beautiful and/or powerful spot where the view is magical or the earth energy runs strong. A place you can remember when you are potentising or using the essence; a place you can return to for the same essence in later years, or to seek out other flowers in other seasons... More practically, you need a place where the sun will come for a few hours - not overhung by branches, or where the shade will soon move across. A spot where passers-by, human or animal, won't tread on the essence while it ripens! You also want to be able to find it again; and not to have to walk further than is comfortable.
4. Preparing
Ask the flowers. Are they willing to be picked? Are they interested in helping humans? Just how you ask them is up to you, but there seems little point - and some potential for harm - in proceeding before you have a 'Yes' answer. How you get this signal will be a personal thing; but the 'No' answer, in my experience, is clear and unmistakeable. Centre yourself and sit with the flowers for a minute, gathering your energy and attention.
5. Starting
Put a little water in the bowl or tumbler (I mean a little - one dropper bottle will probably last you for years). Then pick the flowers: gently, respectfully and with awareness. How would you like to be picked? Choose the blossoms that offer themselves. The less violence, the less physical touch, the better. With large flower heads it's sometimes possible to bend them over so that they are in contact with the water, without having to pluck them. You want enough to cover the whole surface of the water, floating on it as they will naturally do.
It seems to me important to stay in the here and now while picking the flowers: if your attention wanders, bring it back, as in meditation. This is part of respecting the gift of the flowers. And it's also a time when the flowers may tell you a lot about how their essence can be used.
6. Ripening
Position the bowl of blossoms where the direct rays of the sun will reach them for at least a couple of hours. Sunshine is a well-known, obvious and powerful way of imbuing the water with the subtle essence of the flowers. But it's not the only way; I've made some very successful essences on overcast days, and some seem to suit moonlight (Honesty, Mullein). Obviously you can't answer for the weather, but you will have chosen a day that seems hopeful. The flowers should be near their plants: still in touch. Maybe sit with them for a minute or two while things settle down; then you can leave. If you decide to stay around, it seems best to leave the process alone, both physically and mentally; but either way, I try to hold the flowers in my mind while I get on with other things.
7. Bottling
After however long feels right - at least a couple of hours - come back and see if the essence is brewed. I find that I can tell by holding my hand over it: there's a lively tingle in the air, that unmistakeable sense of subtle energy. The water in the bowl looks very clear and sparkly, often with a few bubbles. You will have brought a dropper bottle - 10 ml is quite sufficient - half full of brandy. Using the dropper, and again in a state of mindfulness, fill the bottle to near the top from the bowl. (Leave space for the dropper to go back in!) Having filled the bottle, screw the top back on and give it a really good shake! Then hold the bottle in both hands for a few moments and 'bless' it in whatever way comes naturally to you, dedicating it for healing and growth, and asking the power of the plants and the place to reside in it. You now have your Mother Essence. Before you leave, label it! Also before you leave, thank the plants again, and return the blossoms and spare water to the earth around the plants. While you are bottling is another time to gather information about the essence's function.
8. Potentising
Keep the Mother Essence somewhere clean and clear for a few days while it gets used to itself - away from heat, cooking, accident etc. Then you can make a Stock Bottle. Take another dropper bottle, fill it with about 1/3 brandy and 2/3 good water (leaving a bit of space) Hold and tune into the Mother Essence; give it another good shake; then put seven drops in the Stock Bottle, close it and shake well. Thank the Mother. Leave the two bottles together for a day or so. Don't forget to label the Stock Bottle.
9. Remedies
When you want to use the remedy, take another dropper bottle full of water with a little brandy. Tune in, shake the Stock Bottle, and add seven drops from it to the Remedy Bottle. Thank the Stock, close the Remedy Bottle and shake it. Label the remedy Bottle; ideally but not necessarily, leave it with the Stock Bottle for a while. The Remedy Bottle should be used over the next few weeks.
10. If Something 'Goes Wrong'
This process doesn't always go as smoothly as I have described it! If fate intervenes in some way, it may well be unimportant or even an improvement: one remedy I made while a snake sunned itself a few inches away from the bowl, and I still don't know if it's a flower essence or a 'flower-and-snake essence'.... It certainly doesn't worry me, for instance, if insects or raindrops end up in the bowl. But it would feel like a disturbance if some human innocently picked up the bowl and moved it. What to do? Usually I would re-centre myself and the situation, and start again from the point that had been reached. I would also certainly want to include the disturbing event - like any other synchronous happening - in my understanding of how the essence functions. (For example, perhaps this essence is to help one re-centre after disturbance...)
11. Working Out What the Essence is For
This is the place where I could say lots and lots - and I'm choosing not to say much. This is partly because of space, but much more because this is where you have to find out for yourself. There are two main aspects. One is gathering all the information you can about the plant: its appearance, habitat and seasons, and patterns of growth; its name and alternate names; any folklore, herbal and medical use, appearance in myth or fairytale...Digest all this material, let it sit inside you and see what it suggests.
The other aspect - which for me is more important - is what emerges directly from the relationship you have with the flower while making the essence. What thoughts and feelings pass through you while you're doing it? What state do you get into? What synchronous events occur? What, in other words, is the flower telling you?
Good luck.
Copyright © Nick Totton 1996
Flower Essence Properties