FLOWER and GEM ESSENCES:
21st Century Medicine
by : Eileen Nauman, DHM(UK)
Many people are familiar with Bach Flower Remedies. Most have used Rescue Remedy and know of it's value. There is so much more to these wonderful healers. Flowers and gems are usually made in the tradition of Dr. Edward Bach's method. A clear glass bowl is used, blossoms of a flower are cut with natural instruments (wooden sticks or quartz crystal) but never with one's fingers or with a knife or scissors. This is so the plant is not tainted with other energy. The flower is then allowed to sit out in direct sunlight, near the plant, for at least an hour.
From a more scientific angle, water has memory and it holds the energy essence, signature or unique frequency of that particular flower or gem. Once the essence is made, it is then mixed with alcohol, usually brandy, to hold the energy of the essence. This is called the mother essence and it is from this bottle that is now half water impregnated with the flower or gem's energy, and suspended in alcohol to hold it, that the over-the-counter essences are sold around the world. Usually, a certain amount of drops of a particular flower or gem essence are put into a one-ounce (or less) eye-dropper bottle. It is then filled with part alcohol, usually brandy, and water (living or distilled). It is then packaged and sold to the consumer. This bottle is known as a stock bottle. Mother essence is rarely sold to the public. Only stock formula is.
To personalize this introduction to flower and gem essences, I'd like to invite you to follow me as I make my rounds where we raise flowers,trees, bushes and cactus to make our essences. Most are grown at La Casa de Madre Tierra, The House of Mother Earth, near Sedona, Arizona. I began to work with them in 1993 on a serious, business basis. Being a practicing homeopath for twenty-nine years, I had been looking for more than just Bach Flower Remedies to help my patients through certain cycles of discomfort known as Hering's Law of Cure. Although the Bach flower remedies did help in some cases, they certainly did not cover all of them--especially cases where there was distinct spiritual or physical symptoms that needed to be addressed. Bach's only address emotions and mental states.
I decided to strike out on my own, begin using flowers, trees, bushes and gemstones to find the answers for my patients who suffered returning symptoms. I did not want to use an acute homeopathic remedy and disturb their Vital Force while it wrestled on a much deeper level with deep,chronic symptoms. I wanted to seek out a source of healing that would alleviate a person's returning symptoms with another 'tool' or modality which could get in there and work and not disturb the Vital Force from its main work within the person's body. Flower and gem essences, I felt, held that answer to this dilemma. And indeed, they did!
Many flower essences and what they can address or are good for, get their information from anecdotal information or feedback from people who have used them. This is one way to gain knowledge of what a particular essence can address, symptom-wise, in a person. As a homeopath, I wanted something more substantial and solid. More scientific. I decided to perform provings in the time-honored homeopathic methodology, to find out just exactly what a particular essence could address symptom-wise in a sick person. With the help of a male and female provers, (volunteers who take an unknown essence for 2 weeks and record the symptoms they get from taking it) from around the world, I began to test chosen essences to see just what kind of symptoms they would bring on in a healthy individual who took it day after day. That information is available on the Internet at:
If you visit La Casa de Madre Tierra as a student to learn about flower and gem essence, you'll see a number of huge, red brick planters where many of the wildflowers are grown, harvested and made into Blue Turtle Natural Essences. Each planter holds a certain type of wild or traditional flowers, such as the Lake Tahoe and Plains planter which hold White Yarrow, St. John's Wort (known as Klamath weed and found at Donner's Pass in California), California Fuschia, and Mountain Paintbrush. The English Garden planter contains Cottage Pinks, towering Foxglove, and bulbs such as Yellow and Purple Iris.
The Southwest Garden planter has red, yellow, and pink Yarrow, Coreopsis, Bee-Balm, Spanish Bayonet Yucca, and Crested Prickle Poppy. Another area hosts the desert plants, Ocotillo, cholla cactus, white evening primrose and Crested Prickle Poppy. These plants are lovingly cared for around the year and given natural compost,which brings them to their fullest strength and potential.
Each Natural Essence is made by hand, and filled to order by hand. This is no mechanical, state-of-the-art assembly line. No unfeeling metals or machinery do the work. Due to my Eastern Cherokee heritage, and having been raised in a medicine family, I understand the importance of humans working with this incredible essence energy. As a result, it may take a day or two to fill your request, but it will get full, undivided and devoted attention when it is made. And intent is everything. Being in a harmonious state of mind and emotions contributes to the creation of making an essence.
Flower and gem essences can be used with or without homeopathic treatment and are designed to help in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sphere of an individual's life. For example: if you're suffering from acute depression (and may or may not being seeing a doctor about this and may or may not be on drug medication) there are several flower essences for feelings of depression, such as sunflower and almond blossom, to name a few. You can use the one or several that apply to your specific set ofsymptoms. They do NOT interfere with a homeopathic remedy, nor will they antidote one.
Each essence has a particular personality, skills or talent, and these definitions below will help you decide if one or more are for you.
They are of immense help during homeopathic treatment on a constitutional level, with children animals or anyone experiencing an acute crisis.
How do I know which essence(s) I may need? And what base should I use?
Choose essences that fit your PRESENT physical, mental, spiritual or emotional symptoms. Or choose an essence that will help you tackle a particular issue presently in your life. For those who are alcohol sensitive, infants or young children, we offer vegetable glycerine as a preservative base. Unless otherwise specified, all Blue Turtle Natural Essences are in a traditional brandy base. If you order the vegetable glycerine based essences, you MUST keep them refrigerated. They have a much shorter shelf life, approximately 3 weeks. If you order a brandy base, then it does not have to be refrigerated.
Diabetics should not order vegetable glycerine because it's almost pure sugar, and can potentially affect your blood sugar levels. Order the brandy base essence, instead. You can steam off the alcohol if you are sensitive to alcohol or if your diabetes simply will not allow any consumption of alcohol in any form. Here's what you can do:
Place a small pan with 1 cup of water in it, on the stove. Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling. Place 4 drops of the essence into the water.
Allow it to steam for 5 minutes. The steam will convert the alcohol such that it is removed and only the energy of the flower or gem essence remains. Remove the saucepan and once cool, pour the contents into a class and sip on an as needed basis throughout the day. Continue this practice until your symptoms go away, and then stop taking it.
Dosage
Routinely, I suggest 4 drops of an essence beneath your tongue, 4 times daily. In acute cases, you may want to take drops every 5 to 10 minutes until the symptoms subside. With our essences, once your symptoms go away, stop taking the essence. Our experience is that it's rare that the person will need a second bottle of an essence to deal with their symptoms--unless it is a chronic condition. If you can't carry the stock bottle on your person, you may mix twelve drops of each essence into an 8 ounces of water and place it in a thermos to take to work with you. It can be sipped throughout the day.
Not all flower and gem essences are created equal
Because some flower or gem essences are much more powerful than the others that you may have had experience with, we recommend the following:
Stop taking the Blue Turtle Natural Essence when your symptoms disappear.
Do NOT continue to take it after that. If your symptoms reappear, take it at that time. When the symptoms go away, stop taking the Natural Essence.
We have found with our essences, for whatever reason, behave more like a homeopathic remedy. If you continue to take the flower or gem essence after your symptoms disappear, then you will begin to prove or bring back the very symptoms you were trying to cure. And that is highly uncomfortable,
to say the least.
The physical effects of flower and gem essences
One of the great misconceptions of flower and gem essences is that they only work on the emotional and mental plane. That may be true for the Bach essences, but it is not true, generally speaking of other essences.
They do have physical and profound spiritual affects upon a person. In our proving we have thousands of symptoms that they can addressed physically.
In order to find the correct flower or gem essence for yourself, you should go through the Natural Essence Quick Guide, which is online, and match your symptom(s) to that of those essences on the list. Find out which one addresses the most intense or important of your symptoms. You might want to choose a second or third essence, if needed, but if not, one will do fine that responds to the bulk of your major symptoms or what we refer to as your chief complaint.
