Australian bush flower essences are some of my favourites. I feel so much more connected to them than the Bach flowers given they are native to the land I grew up in and love. Now flower essences have less of a scientific logic to them and more of a spiritual and energetic one. The only evidence that the principles of flower essences can be linked to is the work by Masaru Emoto, the groundbreaking author of “Messages from Water”, found from his research in photographing the crystalline structure of melting frozen water, that both gratitude and love were equally the highest vibrations of any word or feeling. Showing that energies can be imprinted in water. And these energies from the flowers are what is used for healing. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed or transferred, from one form to another. Richard Gerber and Gurudus have tried to show evidence of this effect but I cannot say its of a robust nature or of the quality seen in randomised double blind placebo controlled trials.

Gurudus claims that flower essences cleans the aura and subtle bodies so that balances will stop bringing about ill health. So it's not so much a logical healing system but an emotional/spiritual one.

What are flower essences?

For thousands of years Australian Aborigines have used flowers to heal emotional imbalances and physical injuries. The Australian aborigines obtained he beneficial effects from the flower essence by eating the whole flower. The essence in the form of dew made potent by the sun would thus be consumed with the flower. At the same time the aborigines benefited from the nutritive properties of the flower. Often they didn’t distinguish between the flower and plant and ate both or simply ate it for its taste (especially if it was rich in honey). If the flower was inedible they would sit in a clump of flowers to absorbs its healing energies and vibrations of the flower. The use of flowers for the purpose of healing was always seen by aborigines as a pleasurable rite. They certainly know of many flowers that could be used for resolving specific emotional imbalances.

Flower Essences were also used in Ancient Egypt, as well as India, Asia, Europe and South America. The earliest European recorded use of Flower Essences was by Abbess Hildegard von Bingen in the twelfth century.

This system of healing was rediscovered and popularised eighty years ago by Dr.Edward Bach with his use of English flowering plants. Naturopath, Ian White, a 5th generation Australian herbalist, has further developed this method using plants from all over Australia. Ian grew up in the bush and was taught from an early age the healing power of Australian plants. He has spent many years travelling Australia researching and developing a range of 69 specific Bush Essences.

Why Australian Bush flowers?

The Bush Essences are a system of healing that anyone can use for themselves or prescribe for others. Although Flower Remedies have been used by many cultures for thousands of years, the Australian Bush Flower Essences meet the great need for remedies that help people address the issues of the 21st century - sexuality, communication skills and spirituality to name but a few.

Australia has the world's oldest and highest number of flowering plants exhibiting tremendous beauty and strength. Also Australia is relatively unpolluted and metaphysically has a very wise, old energy.

At this time there is a tremendous new vitality in this country. This, combined with the inherent power of the land, is why the Australian Bush Flower Essences are unique. Practitioners and prescribers world wide are now incorporating the Australian Essences to form an integral part of their therapy.

How do they work?

We all have gut feelings or what some people call an inner knowing which helps guide us. If we choose to ignore this and continue on the wrong path these intuitions usually become louder and more noticeable until finally if we fail to notice we feel like we have been “run over by a semitrailer” - metaphorically speaking. We have all had moments in our lives where we look back with hindsight and see the tremendous advantages that flowed from the seeming bad event or was a major turning point in our lives. The bush essences help you by keeping your life running on course, keeping you away of and acting on your intuition so that you can avoid being flattened so often haha. And if you do experience a crisis then bush flower essences are available to help you work through your feelings and experiences and recover more quickly. The bush flower essences bring forth the positive qualities that are deep within each of us. The activation allows us to replace fear with love, insecurity with self-confidence etc. It works on the subconscious and higher self rather than the conscious mind.

We are constantly creating situations to reinforce the particular beliefs that we hold. We rarely have conscious awareness of those beliefs formulated early in our lives or even later. This is why your mental monologue and the words you use matter as well as the intention of how you speak to and about yourself.

A person can be viewed as having many emotional layers and bush essences hep you work through those layers. They operate as a gentle catalyst and only work up to the point a person is willing to go. Of course the more self aware people are and growth orientated through parties such as meditation and a willingness to explore their feelings the faster the remedies will work. They are completely safe and can be used in adults, children, the elderly and pets. As this is working on energies not the physical body.

Aboriginal Tjukurpa a term that was misconstrued by early white people as meaning “dreaming” or “Dreamtime”- which was not an adequate translation. The Anangu aborigines describe Tjukurpa as existence itself, in the past, present and future. It is the law that governs all behaviour.

What are flower essences used for?

Flower Essences are produced by imprinting a flower's unique vibrational healing signature onto the carrier solution and are used to treat imbalances at a higher level, bringing about emotional and spiritual balance and wellbeing in the whole person. Flower Essences are the best and most effective modality to reach and treat the subtle-energy bodies, along with the meridians.

How is that different to herbal tinctures and essential oils?

Herbal extracts and tinctures are derived after macerating parts of plants and trees i.e. root, bark, leaves in alcohol for a period of time before straining and bottling. Herbal remedies are generally recommended for a specific ailment and only work on the physical body, they are far cruder in nature and their chemical constituents can be analysed and measured.

Essential Oils are extracted from the flower, bark, sap and leaves of plants and are aromatic /scented residues that work via the olfactory sense. Essential Oils are far less specific in addressing emotional imbalances. Flower Essences can be effectively used in conjunction with all of these other modalities.

How long do they take to work?

The Australian Bush Flower Essence remedies can work immediately in certain situations, but as the effects of flower essences are cumulative, for long-term issues, it will take a couple of weeks to one month to see changes.

How many Australian Bush flower essences are there?

Currently there are 69 that have been researched from elders and traditional use to form the current Australian bush flower essences available.

How do you pick which one to use?

There are so many ways: using insight cards, statements a person makes can help guide you to what they need, by a particular concern emotional or physical, by feeling draw to a particular flower image or if you have a strong reaction to the image (even feeling repulsed), by reading about the flower and seeing what you feel you need the most etc. There is no right or wrong you will be guided to what you need by your intuition.

For example today I asked myself what do I need ? I shuffled my card deck and this card jumped out for Freshwater Mangrove.

Freshwater Mangrove when pounded crushed and then placed in water- the bark and leaf of the tree release a substance that aboriginal people use to temporarily stun fish making them easier to catch. This flower essence is as shakespeare said “nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. It heals and releases mental prejudice often sown from generation to generation or when you have a concept of someone you haven’t even met yet formed an opinion without giving them a chance. It helps open the heart when it has been closed due to mental prejudice or you have predetermined expectations of people. It helps you to be open to new experiences and new experiences with people without judgement. It opens us to the awareness that there are other ways of doing and perceiving things from what we have done before.

We are constantly bombarded with information and stimuli and only let through with our filters that which confirms our beliefs. The early Portuguese explorer Magellan recorded in his log book that when he sailed in to Tierra del Fuego the native people were oblivious to his ship for the first 3 days of arrival- it was invisible to them. The totally unfamiliar large object was so foreign and different to their reality that they physically could not see it. Not until their canoes kept bumping into the boat and they fell in the water and climbed aboard, could they see the ship for the first time. It then became visible to the rest of the tribe! How crazy is that for what we can filter out with our minds! What does that have to do with this flower essence? Freshwater mangrove has the potential to allow us to fully experience and be open on a heart level to all the changes occurring.

Negative condition it addresses