Online Class: Flower Essences

Flower essences are extremely diluted extracts from flowers that are used to improve the emotional, spiritual, and physical health of people and animals.  This type of treatment falls under the umbrella of vibrational medicine and is related to the use of acupuncture, aromatherapy, and crystals.  Rather than using the herbal properties of flowers for healing purposes, the process actually imbues a tincture with the energetic signature of the plant life.

This course teaches the aspiring practitioner about the history, use, and effects of flower essences.  Students will learn about Dr. Bach, the modern pioneer of flower essences.  More importantly, this course goes in-depth to describe each of the standard flower essences, and includes Dr. Bach's own words when teaching how to utilize the energies of each flower.

Finally, this course also offers practical advice on a variety of problems that are often treated with flower essences.  Depression and stress relief are both covered thoroughly, and there is also an overview of how to use flower essences in hospice care, during labor and childbirth, and to treat animals.

While individual flower essences can be used to treat numerous ailments, combinations of essences can be created to treat problems in a holistic manner. This course encourages practitioners to thoroughly investigate the causes and histories of ailments in order to treat them most effectively.  Focus is placed on the idea that many physical ailments are the result of emotional and energetic problems, and treating the cause will lead to improved physical health as well. There is also an introduction to additional activities that can be used to make the treatment more effective. 

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Flower essences have been used in healing for centuries, but the practice was more recently brought to light through the work of Dr. Edward Bach. While the process is somewhat related to other therapies that utilize plants for healing, there are some very specific aspects to flower essences that set the practice apart. Most practitioners use them to treat emotional, mental, and spiritual problems, although, there are some physical ailments that can also be treated through the use of flower essences.

Flower essences are often referred to as "floral essences" and as "Bach flower remedies," named for the English doctor who pioneered their modern use in the 1930s. His idea was to use the very essence of a plant to bring about healing, especially for emotional and spiritual states. 

Flower essences are not the same as perfumes. In fact, the final product will often not smell or taste anything like the plant from which it was derived. This is because the process is not about extracting the scent, rather it's about extracting the "energetic signature" of the flower. It is commonly thought that flower essences and aromatherapy are the same thing, but this is false.

In order to determine the energetic signature of a plant, Bach experimented to see how holding his hand over the flower would affect his mood. He believed, as do proponents of flower essences for healing, that disease and illness are caused by "conflict between the Soul and Mind." Therefore, it takes something more than Western medicine to effectively treat these ailments. His answer was to look to nature and the healing capabilities of flower essences.

Bach attempted to harness nature's power in several ways when preparing his remedies. Flowers were suspended in spring water and natural sunlight was filtered through in order to infuse the water with the flowers' properties. Often, this water would then be combined with 50% brandy to create a tincture that would later be diluted before use. This meant that all four elements were present: earth and air to nourish the flower, water to make the tincture, and fire in the form of sunlight.

Flower essences are only one aspect of how plants may be used for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing, but this course will strive to focusing most heavily on the use of flower essences as originally prescribed by Dr. Bach.

What Are the Most Common Uses for Flower essences?

Flower essences are most commonly used for spiritual, mental, and emotional ailments. According to this theory, if someone is experiencing a negative mood, they would be able to feel more positive by using a floral essence. Dr. Bach found 38 remedies through his experimentation, which relied heavily on his own intuition.

For example, someone experiencing a strong fear of unknown things might treat the ailment with the essence of aspen. Crab apple has been used to treat self-hatred. Unsurprisingly, floral essence derived from impatiens flowers is used to treat impatience. Depression is a common complaint treated with flower essences such as mustard, sweet chestnut, or willow. We will examine some of these treatments in further detail throughout the course.

What Is the Eastern Philosophy on Using Plants in Healing?

While the use of flower essences wasn't "discovered" until the 1930s, plants have been used for their healing properties throughout history. In fact, they have been used both externally and internally for thousands upon thousands of years. Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, is at least 3,000 years old.

Many Eastern medicine techniques are beginning to get more exposure in the Western world. Acupuncture is one such technique that has gained popularity. Herbal remedies are another. Like flower essences, herbal remedies use various portions of plants to treat physical, emotional, and spiritual ailments. Flower essences and other plant-based treatments also share the fact that practitioners are able to combine a number of herbs that can work together to treat multiple symptoms.

There are even mentions of medicinal practices in Mesopotamia that date back as far as 3000 BCE. That's 5,000 years of traditional practices! There were two types of practitioners described in ancient texts. One was the "ashipu," whose job it was to diagnose an illness and determine what god or demon was causing it, as well as to prescribe charms and spells to cure the disease. This person was considered to be sort of a witch doctor. More difficult cases were referred to the "asu," who specialized in herbal remedies and was considered to be a physician.

What Is the Western Philosophy on Using Plants in Healing?

Western medicine relies much more upon synthetic medications and therapies than Eastern medicine does. The fact that the use of flower essences seems to have originated in England in the 1930s is almost a fluke, as most popular plant-based medical techniques began in the Eastern hemisphere thousands of years ago. For this reason, among others, the use of flower essences is truly a unique approach to treating ailments in both humans and animals.

Of course, that's not to say that plant remedies haven't been used in the Western hemisphere throughout history. We will touch on some of this history later, but the Native Americans, for instance knew that willow bark could be used to treat headaches, and various poultices and plasters have long been used for the treatment of physical ailments.

As with acupuncture, floral and herbal remedies are slowly catching on in the Western world. Even aromatherapy, with its use of essential oils to affect mood has come into somewhat common usage in the West in the past few decades.