The light that never goes out

 

When Dr Bach was recovering from an emergency operation he was told he only had three months to live. His determination to find a simple, gentle healing method drove him to work night and day on his research, to such an extent that the light shining from his lab window was called ‘the light that never goes out.’[1]  How prophetic – since the flower remedies hold out a shining ray of comfort that has never gone out.

Poet John O’Donohue[2] writes: “Love is the light in which we see light. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature and destiny.… The loving eye sees through and beyond images and affects the deepest change. To recognise how you see things can bring you self-knowledge and enable you to glimpse the treasures your life secretly holds.”

Of course the only way our eyes are able to see at all is in the presence of light. O’Donohue continues, “The human eye is always … evading what it does not want to see…. Many limited and negative lives issue directly from this narrowness of vision.… how you see and what you see determines how and who you will be….To the fearful eye, all is threatening… all you see and concentrate on are things that can damage and threaten you… the judgemental eye… is always excluding and separating, and therefore it never sees in a compassionate or celebratory way.“

The flower remedies can change our fearful eye into one of peace and calm.  Beech helps us to see in a compassionate and tolerant way.  And other essences restore our ability to see with patience, clarity, love and so on. 

The flower remedies come to us from the power of sunlight.  On our darkest days, they let in the light.

 

Photo: Willrad von Doomenstein on Flickr

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[1] The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach by Nora Weeks

[2] Anam Cara by John O’Donohue

Why the Resentment?

 

Dr Bach wanted his system to be as simple and easy as possible and in fact it is quick to learn. But sometimes it can be hard to decide on a remedy for ourselves because we are so close to the problem. Advice from The Astrotwins this week read, ‘… examine your own feelings around playing mother to your loved ones.  Giving a bit less will lessen resentment.’  Many of us might be so busy trying to work out how to ‘fix’ things that we don’t pause to remember that Willow can help us reframe the challenge. We take the situation at its face value – the people or problems that need to be resolved – rather than check if it’s our emotional mood which needs lifting or transforming.

Whenever there is resentment, self-pity or a feeling that life is unfair, Willow is the first essence to turn to.  But once we’ve recovered our equilibrium, we should reflect on what caused us to feel like that.  Examining our emotional lows might reveal to us that it was our over-mothering (Chicory) or inability to say no to helping others (Centaury) that has brought on the resentment.  Or maybe Elm for instance, because we’ve taken on too much responsibility, or Impatiens (‘It’ll be quicker if I do it’, rather than delegating it).

This is why we talk about the remedies having an onion-peeling effect.  We initially only see the need for Willow but as we gain more self-knowledge and self-awareness we go a bit deeper in our psyche and perceive the need for other remedies, including all the ones NOT mentioned above!