About the history of the Monthly Flower

Originally the monthly flower was born out of an inspiration I had after my last Bach flower seminar in April 2006 in the monastery of Schoental in Germany. It was as a result of the lasting joy of the deep experiences that the participants had and passionately shared when meditating with the Bach flowers on big flower posters.

I started pondering: “This is so wholesome and healing, how could as many people as possible benefit from the wonderful power of flowers radiating from the photographs? How could they get to know about this possibility in the first place and then use it in their journey towards self knowledge and healing of the past?”

My inner voice answered very quickly: “Start offering a monthly flower. Use your gift of intuition and choose individually for everyone who asks for a flower that holds the energy he or she needs at that moment,”

And so it happened increasingly over the last 11 months! In May 2006 I received 23 inquiries. From September onwards this increased to about 100 a month, and since January 07 I continued to receive about 150 inquiries every month. 48% were from Germany, 27% from Switzerland, 11% from France, 5% from Ireland, with the rest being shared out between England, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Denmark, Italy and Spain.

As I work full time as a naturopath for psychotherapy, relationship therapy and flower counselling, by the end of 2006 the increasing demand for flower photos started to put a strain on my spare time. I needed help and in January I found a new assistant, Kerstin. She has been in charge of processing and posting flower photos and flyers ever since. Without her support I would not have been able to continue the monthly flower.

As the monthly flower has created a job which needs to be financed, it will not be possible to continue delivering it for free (please see below). Until today some people have been very surprised and could not understand at all how this service have been offered for free. So I started to ask myself why I was doing this.

The inner answer was “GRATITUDE”. I do it as an expression of gratitude for all the healing, the insights and the guidance I have received through and from the flowers over time; and for the fact that they have given me the gift of their wonderful energies in my photographs.

I am also doing this out of gratitude to all the people who have helped me with tips on locations of the Bach flowers, with comments and contacts, with lodgings and organising lectures during the five years while these flower photos were taken in England, France, Germany and Switzerland. Offering the monthly flower gives me the possibility to create a balance: to give to the world something in return for what I have created with her help.

And of course I also wanted to reach as many people as possible, to introduce the new possibilities of working with flower PHOTOS: to demonstrate through direct experience that it is not always necessary to take an essence - although it can be useful to take the essence as well as working with the photo.

 Looking at a flower photo in a meditative way opens up a new dimension of communication with the flower and the energy that comes through it. This meditative connection allows us to exchange and resonate together, and the more we open up to this process, the deeper and more effective it is. Continuous communcation evokes and enables to feel on an energetic level the qualities that the flowers serve.

Finally the Bach flowers help us to develop our pure Soul qualities and give them as a gift to life. This happens when we consciously and continuously free ourselves from our unsolved (negative) aspects that hide them. In 1936, just before his death, Edward Bach wrote his last publication “Heal thyself” and worded it as follows:

„We must earnestly learn to develop individuality according to the dictates of our own Soul, to fear no man and to see that no one interferes with, or dissuades us from, the development of our evolution, the fulfilment of our duty and the rendering of help to our own fellow-men, remembering that the further we advance, the greater blessing we become to those around. Especially must we be on guard in the giving of help to other people, no matter whom they be, to be certain that the desire to help comes from the dictates of the Inner Self and is not a false sense of duty imposed by the suggestion or persuasion of a more dominant personality. ... It is the dictates of our conscience alone which can tell us whether our duty lies with one or many, how and whom we should serve; but whichever it may be, we should obey that command to the utmost of our ability. ... We must refuse to be under the slavery of greed, which compels in us the wish to possess others. We must encourage in ourselves the art of giving, and develop this until it has washed out by its sacrifice every trace of adverse action.“

Flower energies are an invaluable help on this path. Today, in the 3rd millennium, Bach flowers on an energetic level are not always enough. Additional measures are required, like orchid or other essences with higher energy frequencies to achieve a lasting liberation from our deepest ego structures of negativity. But the Bach flowers will always continue to be a mirror, a sign post and transform energies for us.

Looking into ourselves and around us there is hardly anyone to find who has enduringly transformed the 38 archetypes of negative states of mind into their positive qualities. We all find ourselves somewhere on the 7 paths - according to the 7 groups Edward Bach arranged the flowers in.

We could call them the 7 FLOWER PATHS OF TRANSFORMATION, each one giving us a subject and its solution:

1) From fear and anxiety to Courage and Trust
with * Rock Rose * Mimulus * Cherry Plum * Aspen * Red Chestnut

2) From insecurity and indecisiveness to Certainty and Determination
with * Cerato * Scleranthus * Gentian * Gorse * Hornbeam* Wild Oat

3) From insufficient interest in present circumstances and escaping from life to active Participation in Life
with * Clematis * Honeysuckle * Wild Rose * Olive * White Chestnut * Mustard * Chestnut Bud

4) From loneliness and keeping back feelings to Sharing Feelings and
Harmonic Community
with * Water Violet * Impatiens * Heather

5) From suppressed feelings and oversensitive reactions to influences and ideas to True Self Expression and Harmonic Independence
with * Agrimony * Centaury * Walnut * Holly

6) From underestimating oneself, feelings of guilt, despondency and despair to Self worth, Confidence and Delight
with * Larch * Pine * Elm * Sweet Chestnut * Star of Bethlehem * Willow * Oak * Crap Apple

7) From over-care for welfare of others and suppressing others to Natural Authority and Inner Freedom
with * Chicory * Vervain * Vine * Beech
* Rock Water

The full development of these quality may well take a lifetime to accomplish. But this should certainly not discourage us, seeing that we have already developed so many good qualities over life times and we now regard them as natural and integrated parts of our being.

We have all incarnated on earth at this critical time for a particular reason and to fulfil a particular task. In Edward BACH's words:

"It cannot be too firmly realised that every soul in incarnation is down here for the specific purpose of gaining experience and understanding, and of perfecting his personality towards those ideals laid down by the soul."

These times are about a fundamental change of consciousness and total responsibility for oneself , about deep understanding and acting according to the fact that we are all ONE. In recognising our higher SELF and its wonderful qualities and abilities lies the power to create a newly orientated world, built on the basis of Love, Compassion, Trust and joyful Realisation of our individuality whilst serving the higher purpose of the Whole.

In this way I would be very happy if through the monthly flower I could continue to be your intuitive flower companion !

Here are the options to get a Monthly flower