The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [72]
METHODS OF PREPARATION
There are three stages in the preparation of flower essence infusions before a dose is administered to an individual: the first preparation is what I will refer to as the Mother Essence; the second is the Stock Water; and the third is the Medicine Water.
There are two basic methods for preparing the Mother Essence: the sun method, used for flowers that bloom during the late spring, summer, and early autumn when the sun is often overhead, full and hot, and the boiling method, used for the flowers and twigs of plants that bloom at times other than when the sun is at the most intense phases of its solar cycle.
Wildflowers growing in their natural habitat rather than cultivated flowers are preferable (with the exception of Cerato, Olive, and Vine found in Dr. Bach’s materia medica).
Each individual essence should be made with blossoms gathered from as many different plants of the same kind as possible.
ABOUT THE EQUIPMENT
When preparing flower essences by either the sun method or the boiling method, all equipment to be used must be first sterilized by placing it in a container of cold water, slowly heating it, and gently boiling it for 20 minutes, then carefully drying it and wrapping it in a clean cloth. Dr. Bach felt it was important to tend to these details.
PREPARING THE MOTHER ESSENCE BY THE SUN METHOD
Equipment
• One thin-gauge, plain glass bowl, approximately 8 fl. oz. (Do not use an etched, cut glass, or otherwise ornate bowl or a Pyrex type oven glass bowl.)
• A quart jar with a lid to carry water to the flower site
• A 30 ml (1 oz.), amber dropper bottle with a glass pipette
Method
1. When the dropper bottle and pipette have cooled from the sterilizing process, fill half the bottle with brandy (or half fill many bottles with brandy; you will be creating a relatively large amount of Mother Essence), cap it tightly, and label it with the name of the flower to be prepared. Note on the label that this is the Mother Essence. Dr. Bach preferred to use brandy as a preservative, considering it a purer and more natural agent than rectified spirit.
2. Decide beforehand which plant community you are going to harvest, and choose a perfectly sunny morning when there are no clouds in the sky that might obscure the sun’s light, therein immersing the bowl and its contents in the most animated energy of Earth’s crystal clear air element.
3. Take your bowl, jar, and dropper bottle and arrive at the site a little before 9 A.M. (Pick the flowers at about 9 A.M., SO they are floating in place as the sun is gaining intensity during the hours between 9 and noon. By 9 A.M. the flowers will be freshly opened in full bloom, and most airborne, pollen-spreading creatures will have not yet arrived.)
4. Sit with the flowers for a few minutes and focus on your intent; honor and extend gratitude to the plant community. You’ll probably be feeling pretty good right now; you couldn’t be in a better place than you are at this moment.
5. Place the bowl on the ground near the flowering plants, thereby connecting the subtle essence to the stabilizing energy of the Earth element. Choose a location for the bowl that is well away from trees, bushes, tall grasses, fences—anything that might cast a shadow over the bowl of basking flowers as the sunlight brushes across the Earth’s surface.
6. Fill the bowl to the brim with the water you transported in the jar, or water from a clear stream, if one is nearby. Empty any unused water from the jar. Do not drink from this jar; it needs to remain sterile, as it will be used again later.
6. Pick some leaves, preferably from the plant you are preparing, or from some broadleaf plant, and