The Healing Power of Flowers

For centuries, flower essences have been used to heal many ills.

While the health food shop versions are handy, they are also very spendy. You can make your own flower essences at home. Start by making a mother tincture– the most concentrated form of the essence – which can then be used to make stock bottles. The stock bottles are used to make dosage bottles for the most diluted form of the essence, which is the one you actually take.

What you will need to make a sun-infused essence:

★ Fresh pure water or distilled water, 3 quarts

★ Clear glass 2 ½ quart mixing bowl
★ A dark green, blue or green glass 8 ounce sealable bottle
★ Organic brandy or vodka
★ Freshly picked flower specific to the malady being treated

★ Clean, dry cheesecloth for straining.

Ideally, you begin early in the morning with your chosen flowers picked by 9 am at the latest. This all ensures three hours of sunlight before the noon hour, after which the sunlight is less effective, even draining.

Fill the bowl with the fresh water; to avoid touching them, gingerly place the flowers on the surface of the water, using tweezers or chopsticks very carefully add until the surface is covered. Let the bowl sit in the sun for three to four hours or until the flowers begin to fade.

Now, delicately remove the flowers, being careful not to touch the water. Fill your colored glass bottle with the strained flower essence water and top the other half off with the organic brandy or vodka (40% proof is advised to prolong the shelf life to three months if stored in a cool, dark cupboard.). This is your mother tincture; label it with the date and the name of the flower such as “Rose Water, July 14^th, 2018.” Use any remaining essence water to the water the flowers you’ve been working with and murmur a prayer of gratitude for the beauty and healing power.

To make a stock bottle from your mother tincture, fill a 30ml dropper bottle 3/4 with brandy and 1/4 with spring water, then add three drops of the mother tincture. This will last at least three months and enable you to make lots of dosage bottles which are the ones you actually take.

To make the dosage bottle for any flower essence just add 2 or 3 drops of the stock bottle to another 30ml dropper bottle of 1/4 brandy and 3/4 distilled water. Anytime, you need some of this gentle medicine, place 4 drops of this under your tongue or sip in a glass of water 4 times a day or as often as you feel the need. You canʼt overdose on flower remedies, though more frequent, rather than larger, doses are much more effective.

Flower essences mixed with 30 millimeters distilled water can also be used as the following remedies:

Addiction: skullcap, agrimony

Anger: nettle, blue flag, chamomile

Anxiety: garlic, rosemary, aspen, periwinkle, lemon balm, white chestnut, gentian

Bereavement: honeysuckle

Depression: borage, sunflower, larch, chamomile, geranium, yerba santa, black cohosh, lavender, mustard

Exhaustion: aloe, yarrow, olive, sweet chestnut

Fear: poppy, mallow, ginger, peony, water lily, basil, datura

Heartbreak: heartsease, hawthorn, borage

Lethargy: aloe, thyme, peppermint

Stress: dill, echinacea, thyme, mistletoe, lemon balm

Spiritual blocks: oak, ginseng, lady’s slipper