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Barnard
proposes that the sun and boiling method are alchemical polarities.
The sun method incarnates fire from the sun radiating down to the earth.
By contrast, Barnard posits that the boiling method catalyzes fire within
the earth, radiating out to the cosmos. This leads to Barnard's insight
about the groupings of Bach's essences.
Three Therapeutic Groups of Bach Remedies
A central
thesis in Barnard's work is that the chronological development of Bach's
essences mirrors their therapeutic use. First there were the "Twelve
Healers," considered as constitutional "type remedies," prepared from
1928 to 1932 (with the Impatiens, Mimulus, and Clematis re-made in 1930
using the sun method). Then there were the "Seven Helpers," for chronic
and habitual emotional conditions that can mask the soul type, prepared
in 1933 and 1934. Finally, there is the second group of 19 remedies,
all prepared from March to July of 1935 by the boiling method. These
are the remedies for emotionally reactive states resulting from trauma
and pain.
Barnard
finds great value in the 12+7+19 grouping, though he does not unquestioningly
accept all of Bach's attempts at numerological categories. For example,
Barnard does not give credence to Bach's earlier correlations (later
abandoned) with the seven chakras or the 12 zodiacal signs, or the seven
categories described in subsequent writings. However, it is evident
that Bach was quite interested in the esoteric significance of numerological
patterns. This research may very well have led Bach to work with groupings
of flower remedies in patterns of 12 and 7, then a final combination
of 12 plus 7 again (19), for a total of 38 remedies.
(Editor's note: We invite case reports and commentary
from practitioners regarding Barnard's hypothesis about the three groups
of Bach essences, especially the application of the general theory to
clinical experience.)
Reading the Gesture of Bach's Plant Remedies
Form
& Function is an especially significant contribution for its detailed
and perceptive descriptions of the Bach flower plants. We know from
Nora Weeks that Bach "spent the day examining a great variety of plants,
noting where they grew, what soil they chose to grow upon, the colour,
shape and number of their petals, whether they spread by tuber, root
or seed..." He devoted hours studying "the habits and characteristics
of each flower plant and tree." Bach urged Weeks to recognize each of
the remedy plants at every stage of its growth. But Barnard admits that
precisely how Bach worked with these observations "is not clear from
any records he published."
In these
few words, Julian Barnard has summed up the key enigma of Dr. Bach's
work, one that has challenged the research standards for flower essence
development ever since. Barnard addressed this conundrum in 1988 when
he stated in Patterns of Life Force
(pp. 66-67):
Well,
we have a choice. We may decide to leave him on his side and say
his was an insight and inspiration that is beyond us, or we may
choose to build a bridge that will take us across to a deeper understanding
of how it works and why. Those who prefer the first course of action
are left with his system of healing and can rejoice in the fruits
of this work. An explanation such as it is will be that he was an
extraordinarily sensitive man who had wandered and was led, who
found through suffering and personal affliction: a blind and painful
discovery. But Bach's work, his writings and his flower remedies
invite another view, and while it is more demanding, it is also
more rewarding.
If we
truly understand the importance of Bach's work, it is not simply a "system"
of 38 flower remedies. It is the possibility that we humans can become
fluent in the healing language of Nature. We are challenged to open
our eyes to the wonder of the natural world as a living script, a soul-imbued
life that can speak intimately to the human soul.
Placing Bach's Work in Historical Context
We know
that Bach was familiar with the work of the Swiss alchemist/physician
Paracelsus (1493-1541) due to the brief mention he makes of him, along
with Hippocrates and Hahnemann, in the first chapter of Heal Thyself
(Collected Writings, p.
127) and in addresses such as Ye Suffer from Yourselves
(Collected Writings, p.
111). However, it is not accurate to say that Paracelsus "discovered"
flower essences, as claimed by some flower essence writers. Julian Barnard
clearly establishes the originality of Dr. Bach's discoveries, and its
place in history as more than a replication of prior alchemical approaches.
Nevertheless,
Form & Function does not adequately address the larger historical
and cultural context for Bach's discoveries, or even the precedent for
Barnard's own approach to plant gesture. Bach was a student of esoteric
Masonic teachings that belong to a larger alchemical stream in history.
He also was clearly cognizant of Paracelsus, who established the idea
of the "Doctrine of Signatures." Thus it is likely that Bach recognized
correspondences of form and function between the soul gestures of plants
and human beings.
The alchemical/Rosicrucian
tradition was also significantly advanced in Europe by the German poet/scientist
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who emphasized the "gesture"
of a plant as the quality of its expression through form, color, growth,
and other patterns, in contrast to the prevailing quantitative
and materialistic bias of the time. The Goethean approach to nature
science has developed over the last two centuries into a diverse, worldwide
school of professional scientific research and methodology, with significant
contributions to many fields of science, including agriculture,
medicinal plants, and botany.
We cannot
ascertain from Bach's own writings to what extent he worked consciously
with alchemical or Goethean influences in his study of plant gestures,
nor can we gauge the precise impact of research from contemporary colleagues
such as Dr. Robert Cooper's arborivital remedies.*
Nonetheless, it is clear that Bach's healing methods and plant discoveries
belong to a larger alchemical, historical development of nature science
that places value not on physical substance alone, but also on the soul
archetypes that shape and form substance into "gesture."
The overriding
goal of Form & Function is to establish a wider context for Bach's
healing work. Barnard argues that Bach's work evolved through various
stages of personal insight and research. Similarly, we can also see
the progressive development of Bach's research in relationship to a
larger evolutionary stream of spiritual and natural science. Establishing
such context does not minimize the individual and unique contribution
of Dr. Bach, but rather expands our understanding of its significance
for our time.
Barnard
is right to give prominence to the observation of plant qualities in
Form & Function. The concept of plant gesture is the central
thesis of Form & Function and, indeed, it is the "bridge" to building
the new plant science that Barnard first wrote about in Patterns of
Life Force. The Healing Herbs of
Edward Bach, first published in 1988, was Barnard's first discussion
of plant gestures in the Bach remedies, providing photographs, clear
botanical information, and some correlation of plant characteristics
to essence qualities. In Form & Function, that work has matured. Barnard
weaves together detailed plant observations, based upon Bach's scant
commentary, and with his own perceptive insights. Barnard's work is
an outstanding contribution by an author who has spent many hours in
the field in devoted contemplation of Bach's plants. Consider, for example,
these excerpts from his portrait of Water Violet:
Water Violet grows, not just by the river, like
Mimulus and Impatiens, but actually submerged in water... Only in May
and June do the stems rise clear of the water, straight and elegant,
as they lift flowers into the sunlight. Bach wrote of the Water Violet
soul:
These
are very beautiful people in mind and often in body. They are gentle,
quiet, very refined and cultured and yet are masters of their fate
and lead their lives with a quiet determination and certainly.
This statement is apt as a description of the
plant, too. For these are flowers which lead their lives with great
precision, clarity and purpose.
Water Violet has always been relatively scarce,
growing only in slow-moving but pure water, in ditches and ponds where
it will not be disturbed. By nature it is fastidious and cannot abide
any form of pollution. Perhaps it does not like competition and that
is why it withdraws to water where it can spread out undisturbed. Certainly,
Water Violet people will withdraw into their own space and do not like
intrusion — like a cat, some say. But the withdrawal from land to a
water habitat signals more than a desire for peace and solitude; it
is symbol of the transition to a higher plane of being...Water Violet
is a plant which has only the slightest contact with earth, living in
water and pushing a stem to open flowers in the air... Although it is
a perennial, it has only the frailest of roots — a few fine white threads
which dangle from the green stems. They serve only to absorb minerals
from the plant and do not anchor it to the land: Water Violet has freedom.
The leaves and stems are ‘spongy', containing many air spaces which
allow the plant to float, just below the surface. The rosette of leaves,
pinnatifid (deeply cut into segments), looks like a green star in the
water, delicate and refined, yet somehow inspiring and exciting.
 But
interesting changes in behaviour occur as the water level drops, if
the pool dries in July or August. The roots then play a more important
part, anchoring the plan to the mud, keeping it alive by transmitting
moisture. In these conditions, the leafy stems grow rapidly and spread
outwards to prevent any other plant or seedling from obtaining light
and space. Water Violets are capable of asserting themselves and will
not tolerate interference from others. Equally, this is indicative of
the growth and gain for Water Violet people if ever they involve themselves
in the physical world. When the water rises again the rooted plant releases
the individual stems and leaves through a process called ‘stolon budding'
and the float upward to cover the available space.
Bach commented directly on this pattern of growth
with unattached roots and freedom to float:
If
so, the beautiful Water Violet, which floats so freely on the surface
of our clearest streams, will help you...to stand absolutely alone
in the world, gaining the intense joy of complete freedom.
And later:
They
do not often form strong attachments even to those nearest them.
This may
be the clearest indication yet that Bach was looking at the plants as
a literal emblem of the soul condition.
(from
Bach Flower Remedies: Form & Function, Chapter 7, pp. 123-125)
Water
Violet photos by Julian Barnard, line drawing by Catalina O'Brien
Bach's Legacy:
A Spiritual Understanding of Nature and the Human Soul
Barnard
begins his book speaking of Bach's belief in the "Grand Design behind
the physical world of living beings." He ends it with Bach's contention
that the key for overcoming disease is found within the transformation
of our own lives. In other words, Bach's legacy is a spiritual understanding
of Nature, and a path for the spiritual transformation of the soul.
Yet, can we truly say that these spiritual teachings are what most people
today seek from the Bach flower remedies?
In discussing
Bach's philosophical treatise, Heal Thyself, Barnard comments:
From the perspective of a new century
it begins to be clear that Bach was intent on two separate purposes.
One the one hand he had discovered a new set of remedies and he wanted
people to use them... On the other, he was the herald for a new world,
a voice crying in the medical wilderness of materialism and ignorance.
The second purpose is easy to forget and hard to accept. The two became
separated at an early stage, maybe well before Bach died. The message
from spiritual reality became subsumed into the opportunity for people
to avail themselves of floral healing.
—Julian Barnard, from Chapter
4, pp 80-81
Form
& Function is a major contribution to re-enlivening the spiritual
legacy of Dr. Bach. It is a call to flower essence therapists and researchers
to continue the unfinished task of learning the healing language of
the flowers and helping troubled humanity find the path to soul awakening.
This is a book that should be read by every serious practitioner of
flower essence therapy.
* Matthew Wood and Peter
Morrel have researched possible influences on Dr. Bach's work, relating
to the arborivital remedies of Dr. Robert Cooper and LeHunte Cooper.
For more information see the references cited
below.
References:
The following links will take you the online store for Flower Essence
Services
Barnard, Julian, Bach Flower Remedies: Form & Function (Great Britain:
Flower Remedy Programme, 2002)
Barnard, Julian, ed., Collected Writings (London: Ashgrove Publishing,
1999)
Barnard, Julian, The Healing Herbs of Edward Bach (Bath: Ashgrove Press,
1995)
Barnard, Julian, Patterns of Life Force, (Hereford: Flower Remedy Program,
1987)
Miller, Douglas, ed. and trans., Goethe: Scientific Studies - Volume
12 of Goethe, The Collected Works (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1995)
Morrel, Peter, "From Cooper Club To Flower Essences:
A Portrait Of British Homeopathy 1870-1930,"August 1998, Homeopathy
Online #6
Wood, Matthew, Vitalism: The History of Herbalism, Homeopathy, and Flower
Essences
(Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2000)
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There is only one brief and somewhat sentimental biography, written
by his assistant, Nora Weeks. Furthermore, Weeks reveals that Bach burned
his research papers in a great bonfire during the last year of his life.
