New Age Gathering

Flower Essences ~ Make Your Own Tinctures


Flower Essences ~ Make Your Own Tinctures

© T. Darlene Cheek

Feb 15, 2001

The discovery of the amazing holistic healing power of flower essences was brought to us by Dr. Edward Bach. Dr. Bach was stationed in a homeopathic hospital in London shortly after the First World War when he first began to notice that certain personality traits contributed to ill health. He then traveled the English countryside in search of natural remedies, testing each remedy on himself first, and then continuing on to create 38 flower essence remedies.

Dr. Bach discovered that people with certain attitudes had the same conflicts within their bodies. His approach was very holistic. Moods, negative attitudes, and negative emotions can create disharmony and illness within the body, and Dr. Bach started with the original cause of the illness when treating the client.

The flower remedies are grouped into categories based on these negative emotions:

# Fear
# Uncertainty
# Insufficient interest in present circumstances
# Loneliness
# Oversensitivity to influences and ideas
# Despondency or despair
# Over-care for the welfare of others

Dr. Bach's flower essences are designed to create:

* Peace * Hope * Joy * Faith * Certainty * Wisdom * Love *

Because of the way that flower essences are designed to work, it is important to be truthful with yourself and ask yourself questions about why you are feeling the way you are. You can begin this soul searching by asking yourself the following questions:

# How do you feel?
# Why are you feeling this way?
# How do the symptoms affect you?
# What could have caused this problem?

Flower essences can be used:

# For support in times of crisis
# To treat emotional outlook produced by illness
# To address a particular recurring emotional or behavioral problem
# To give strength during a temporary emotional setback
# As a preventive remedy when things begin to become unbalanced

The remedies are made using the "Sun Method" and the "Boiling Method."

First of all, you will want to make certain that you have the right classification of the plant you are using. This is very important. If the tincture calls for impatiens, for example, find out which strain of impatiens. In flower remedies, Impatiens glandulifera is used, and you MUST use this exact flower.

Secondly, you must insure absolute cleanliness. Wash your hands, and rinse them well. Boil all of your utensils in the same quality water you use for the remedy itself. You also will not want the plants for the remedy to touch your hands, even after you have cleaned them. Take a large leaf from the plant to put your pickings on. When you handle them, you might want to take a twig from the plant to move them around with. This will make sure that there are no oils from your skin on the plants you are using for the remedy.

The plants for flower essences must also be picked at exactly the proper time of day. No, this isn't as much of a pain in the behind as it sounds like. Simply scout out your area that you are going to pick your plant from the day before you plan to do it. For sun remedy plants, you want to pick them on a sunny day with no clouds. Any bright day is good for boiling remedy plants. The best time of day to pick most of the plants is in the morning between 9:00 a.m. and midday. You want to pick the plants just after the dew has started to dry but before they have become "sun-exhausted."

Each plant also has a season that it is at its very best:

Sun Method

Early Spring ~ oak, borse, olive, vine

Late Spring ~ water chestnut, water violet

Summer ~ rock water, mimulus, agrimony, rock rose, centaury

Late Summer ~ scleranthus, wild oat, impatiens, chicory, vervain, clematis, heather

Fall ~ cerato, gentian

Boiling Method

Eary Spring ~ cherry plum

Spring ~ elm, aspen

Late Spring ~ beach, chestnut bud, hornbeam, larch, walnut, Star of Bethlehem, holly, crab apple, willow

Early Summer ~ red chestnut, pine, mustard

Summer ~ honeysuckle, sweet chestnut, wild rose

The Sun Method:

You will need ~
# A bottle of spring or mineral water
# A plain glass bowl
# 3 fl oz amber dropper bottles
# 1 1/2 fl oz brandy
# Natural, unbleached filter paper (coffee filters do fine)
# Pen & Label

Pick your flowers at the moment they dry from the dew, but aren't sun touched. Put the flowers in the bowl of water, covering the entire surface. Use a twig to arrange them, not your fingers. You want to place this bowl directly in the sunlight for 3 hours. Then remove the flowers with a twig and filter the liquid.

Pour 1 1/2 fl oz (50ml.) of the water into the 3 oz bottle, filling the rest of the way with brandy. Shake and label "flower essence mother tincture" and date.

This mother tincture will prepare many bottles of tincture over the years. This recipe will make up to 6 of the diluted tinctures. To make the individual tincture, put 2 drops of mother tincture into a 1 fl oz (30ml.) dropper bottle, and top with brandy. Then take 2 drops of the individual tincture and add it back into the mother tincture bottle.

The Boiling Method:

You will need ~

# 6 pt (3l.) saucepan with lid (avoid copper, aluminum and teflon pans)
# 2 pt (1l.) of cold spring or mineral water
# 3 fl oz amber glass bottles (up to 6)
# 1 1/2 fl oz brandy
# Natural, unbleached filter paper (coffee filters will do)
# Pen & Label

Carry your saucepan to your place where you are picking, and fill the saucepan 3/4 full with your plant (twigs, leaves, flowers, etc). Place the lid on. When you have your pan at your heat source, remove the lid, cover it with the water, and bring to a boil. After it has reached boiling point, simmer for half an hour.

Use a twig to push the twigs, leaves and flowers under the water while simmering. After 1/2 hour, remove from heat, cover with the lid, and stand outside to cool. When cool, remove the twigs and filter into a clean container.

Put 1 1/2 fl oz of the flower water into the 3 fl oz bottles, filling the rest of the way with brandy. This will make your mother tincture. Again, to make your remedy tinctures, put 2 drops of mother tincture into a 1 fl oz dropper bottle, and top with brandy. The put 2 drops of that mixture back into the mother tincture bottle to keep her fed. (It's kind of like your sour dough starter.)

Posted by Cougar Sunday, July 20, 2008 (11:01:17)