Nora Weeks - The Bach Flower Remedies - Illustrations And Preparations

Contents

About the Book

Flower healing is the simple and natural method of healing through personality by means of wild flowers, discovered by the late Dr Edward Bach, MB, BS, MRCS, LRCP, DPH. He was a great physician who combined compassion for all who suffer, with a deep love for Nature, her trees and plants.

Dr Bach practised for many years as a Harley Street consultant and bacteriologist but gave up his lucrative practice in 1930 to devote his full time to perfecting this system of healing described in full in his booklet The Twelve Healers and OtherRemedies.

Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen worked with Dr Bach and it was to them that the responsibility of his work was bequeathed. In 1964, as a tribute to the doctors work they published this book to share with others the essence of Nature within the Bach Flower Remedies.

This new edition, with coloured photographs, was published in 1990 and then revised and reprinted in 1998.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Edward Bach, physician, with the love and gratitude of those who knew and worked with him for many years, and in compliance with his wish that every detail of the knowledge he had gained for the alleviation of suffering and unhappiness should be freely available for everyone.

Edward Bach, born in Moseley, Warwickshire in 1886, trained and qualified at University College Hospital, London, gaining the Diploma of Public Health at Cambridge in 1914. He then practised as consultant, bacteriologist and homoeopath for over sixteen years in London.

It was during his medical training that he first came to the conclusion that sickness and disease were not primarily due to physical causes, but to some deeper disharmony within the sufferer himself. That distress of mind, such as fear, worry, over-anxiety, impatience, so depletes the vitality of the individual that the body loses its natural resistance to disease and is then an easy prey to any infection, any form of illness.

These conclusions were strengthened and confirmed by Dr. Bachs observations during his sixteen years of medical practice, and in 1930 he determined to devote his whole time to the search for a simple method of treatment and harmless Remedies amongst the wild flowers of the countryside.

He gave up his big London practice and during the next seven years until his death in 1936, he perfected this system of healing and found thirty-eight Remedies, all, with one exception, the flowers of plants, trees and bushes.

With the help of the healing properties of these flowers, the sufferer can gain strength to overcome his anxieties, his fears and depressions, and so assist in his own healing, and can take the flower Remedies, if he wishes, at the same time as any other medicine or treatment.

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to describe the two methods used in the preparation of the 38 Remedies.

The photograph accompanying the botanical description of each remedy illustrates which part of the plant, tree or bush is used. The botanical descriptions are simple but, it is hoped, sufficient for the seeker to identify the plant. It should be remembered that colour and growth vary greatly with the soil, climate and conditions in which the plant is found, as also does the flowering time. The times are given for an average year.

With each remedy there is a brief indication of its use. The fuller description written by Dr. Edward Bach can be found in his booklet The Twelve Healers andOther Remedies which should always be referred to when selecting the Remedies.

It was Dr. Bachs great wish that all possible help should be given to those who would be using this system of medicine and we hope that this book will fulfil that wish.

Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen 1964

Preface

This book, written by Dr. Bachs long-serving and devoted successors, Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen, was originally published in 1964. Its intention was to help those who wished to experience the pleasure of preparing a remedy for themselves. Dr. Bach wanted his work to be easily understood and available to everyone. He wrote The Twelve Healers & Other Remedies which describes the indications for each remedy in simple, straightforward language so that people could choose for themselves which remedy or remedies they need. He also believed that as nature is the provider of the flowers and therefore the healing energy itself, knowledge of how to make the remedy preparations should also be available to all.

It was to fulfil Dr. Bachs wish that Nora and Victor decided to write The BachFlower Remedies: Illustrations & Preparations. Little did they know at the time that, less than thirty years later, Dr. Bachs work would be so well known and his remedies used by millions of people throughout the world.

With the exception of Vine and Olive, Dr. Bach found all the plants in England and Wales. Nora and Victors intention was that only people living in Britain would attempt to make their own remedies, although they knew the information would be of general interest to anyone interested in Dr. Bachs work as a mental image of the plants and the remedies being made, even if only in theory, helps to create a sense of closeness to the natural source.

As it was, the information contained in the book, which had been so freely and explicitly given, was used for the development of other collections of remedies in which Dr. Bachs methods of preparation were adopted, but for a whole range of different plants. For this reason, in 1977, Nora Weeks gave instructions for the book to be withdrawn. The following is an excerpt from a letter she wrote to the publisher:

We have decided not to send any more of the Illustrated Books to Americafor many people are preparing them from the wrong flowers and preparingthem in the wrong way, and selling them as Bach Remedies and this wecannot have.

Nora Weeks, 16th June 1977

Shortly after her death in 1978, Illustrations & Preparations was due for reprinting, but in keeping with Noras wishes, that edition was never published.

Now that Dr. Bachs methods are so well established, having been spoken about and widely documented in various publications over the years, it is our pleasure to re-introduce the book. In so doing, we hope it will achieve its original aims: to give people the opportunity to know how the remedies they may be taking have actually been made, and to enable them to prepare a remedy for themselves if they choose to do so.

The methods are simple, but care must be taken to identify the correct plants as only those which are absolutely true to the plants chosen by Dr. Bach will hold the correct healing properties. Preparing a remedy from the wrong plant even if it is a very close relative will not have the desired results. The following passages were written by Nora Weeks shortly before she died:

We would like to emphasize that the book is essentially for those who wishto prepare their own essences from the actual wild flowers for their own use.

Most of our flowers have many varieties and care is necessary to select