Seeing this beautiful stand of willows in their new green leaf, I hurried home to consult my books* as there are over 300 varieties and the Bach Flower Remedy is made from Salix vitellina. It may not always be the ‘weeping’ variety but this one, with its drooping foliage really epitomises the emotional state when we need Willow.
Those needing Willow are unlikely to say, ‘I’m weeping with self-pity’ for they do not see their response as clearly as that. Usually Willow’s resentment is articulated by comparing their situation to others’, to their own disadvantage. The self-pity stems from resentment – other people never have such bad luck, such poor health, so little money, so few friends or such an unloving family, “as I always seem to suffer”. It is a Martha-like attitude: in the Bible Martha was too busy doing the housework to sit down, like her sister Mary, and listen to Jesus, and Martha resented that. Willow types have a martyrish attitude (it even sounds like Martha!): ‘It’s alright for you, but I’m always the one who has to do all the work, even though I’m tired out and no-one ever gives me a hand or thinks I would like time off. It’s so unfair.’ From this we can see how a critical element reminiscent of Beech creeps in, although Beech is a remedy for those in a ‘controlling’ mood (being in the Group Overcare for the Welfare of Others) whereas Willow is in the Despair Group. Beech actively wants to ‘improve’ others; Willow despairs that life will ever improve.
Gwenda states in her book* that willow trees excrete a
compound into the soil to discourage other plants from growing near them and
taking the available nutrients. In this
sense willow trees are similar to beech trees which also prevent other trees
growing close by – and indeed, both remedy states find other people avoid them,
deterred by their negative and destructive emotions. But just as all trees are
beautiful, so too do the flower essences transform us from a negative mind-set
to a state of positive, glowing, sunshiny, new growth.
* One Person’s Journey, Nicola Hanefeld, BFRP
*The Plants of Dr Bach, Gwenda Kyd, BFRP
