Sun-Infused Flower Essences

For centuries, flower essences have been used to heal many infirmities (see list below). 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 essence—the most concentrated form of the essence—which can then be used to make stock bottles. The stock bottles are used to make dosing bottles for the most diluted form of the essence, which is what you actually take.

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

• 3 quarts of fresh pure spring water or distilled water, 3 quarts
• Clear glass 2½-quart mixing bowl
• An 8-ounce sealable bottle made of dark green, blue, or green glass
• Organic brandy or vodka
• Freshly picked flowers specific to the malady being treated
• Clean, dry cheesecloth for straining.

Ideally, you begin early in the morning and pick your chosen flowers by nine o’clock at the latest. This all ensures three hours of sunlight before the noon hour, after which the sunlight is less effective, or even draining.

Fill the bowl with the fresh water; to avoid touching them, place the flowers very carefully on the surface of the water using tweezers or chopsticks to gently add blooms until the water’s 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 with your fingers. Fill your colored glass bottle with the strained flower essence water and top the other half off with the organic brandy or vodka (40 percent 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, 2021.” Use any remaining essence water to water the flowers you’ve been working with and murmur a prayer of gratitude for their beauty and healing power.

To make a stock bottle from your mother tincture, fill a one ounce (thirty ml) dropper bottle ¾ full of brandy, top it up with ¼ spring water, then add three drops of the mother tincture. This will last at least three months, enabling you to make lots of dosing bottles, which are the ones from which you actually take the flower essence.

To make the dosage bottle for any flower essence just add two or three drops of the stock bottle to another thirty ml dropper bottle of ¼ brandy and ¾ distilled water. Anytime, you need some of this gentle medicine, place four drops of this under your tongue or sip in a glass of water four times a day or as often as you feel the need. You can’t overdose on flower remedies, though more frequent, rather than larger, doses are much more effective.

Flower essences mixed with one ounce (thirty ml) of pure spring water or distilled water can also be used to help the following conditions:

• 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