Drifting? Seize those oars with Wild Rose

 “A man must stand erect not be kept erect by others.”  Marcus Aurelius

Wild Rose is one of the quiet remedies, the need for which can be so subtle it may be hard to spot when it would help. To those around us it may appear as though we’re drifting along through life without much difficulty, when in fact ‘drifting’ is the operative word. We aren’t steering or rowing our boat but just letting the current (circumstances, people in our lives) decide our direction.  When we need Wild Rose we let others shape our wishes, our lives, our routines.  There is no personal development in that!  We need to seize the oars of our life.

There may be understandable reasons why sufferers of this inertia have become the way they are: bullying parents, for example, or a partner who is possessive or manipulative.  So it’s perfectly possible that faced with such a passive individual we might start by thinking, ‘Is it Larch they need, for more confidence? Are they plain indecisive (Cerato or Scleranthus)? Are they held stuck by past guilt (Pine)?’ without initially perceiving that this person is ‘dead’ to life and what it can offer.  They are out of touch with themselves, their reality and their true feelings, merely functioning on a vegetative level, almost like someone in a state of shock or concussion. 

As practitioners we may come to learn some of their history but we’re only interested in their current emotions. At this moment all we know is that they are apathetic, resigned to everything ‘because that’s just the way it is – I can’t do anything about that.’ They have given up their agency and power to change things.  They have ground to a halt in their lives, and stagnation always leads to decay.

But when the Wild Rose remedy works its magic we become – like the plant scrambling up through the hedge to bloom in the sun – enthusiastic for life, for action, fulfilment and upward growth.

Photo: Jeff Isaack on Unsplash