Love, light and Holly

 

When we need a dose or two of the Holly flower remedy, it’s because our minds are full of vengeance, suspicion, or other hate-full thoughts. If our emotions are negative or afflictive in any way, our outlook becomes distorted, we are unable to see clearly. “Kathleen Raine, the Scottish poet, says that unless you see a thing in the light of love, you do not see it at all. Love is the light in which we see light,” wrote John O’Donohue.  In Celtic folklore the holly tree is sacred and symbolises peace and goodwill – qualities that are missing in us when we need to take Holly.

Today, December 13^th, is St Lucy’s Day – a day marked as a festival of light in Sweden and elsewhere.  St Lucy is also the patron saint of sight, for without light our eyes are unable to see.  Her colour (in the church liturgy) is the same as that of the holly berry – bright red, a colour we always associate with heart love.  The Holly remedy reminds us that love is about giving: giving away ego. Forgiving.  Giving one’s best self to others. 

“Holly connects us with the fundamental unity in the universe.  There can be no hatred of others when we and they are part of the same whole,” writes Stefan Ball in his book Bloom (available from the Bach Centre).

Love is the heart knowledge that we are all one, all part of the same cosmic unity.

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