A Druid's Handbook to the Spiritual Power of Plants: Spagyrics in Magical and Sexual Rituals - Jon G. Hughes 2014

Flower Remedies
The Principles of Arriving at the Complex and the Incense
Alchemy: Its Relationship to the Druidic Tradition

By the early part of the twentieth century, the British physician Edward Bach had developed some of these principles to arrive at his famous Bach Flower Remedies.

Edward Bach (1880—1936) developed his range of remedies from a belief that they are infused with healing energies absorbed from the flowers from which they are prepared. He maintained that all disease is the result of imbalance between the soul and the mind and that his flower remedies redress this internal conflict.

The Bach Flower Remedies were originally created from dew collected from a variety of flowers that Bach considered to have healing properties, the dew having absorbed the healing energies of the flowers upon which it had formed. Bach simplified the overly laborious task of collecting this dew from the selected flowers by introducing the process of floating the same flowers on a bath of water in sunlight, thereby extracting their healing energies in a more productive fashion. This energized water was then further diluted with brandy to produce the cure as it is now sold. The remedy is then once more diluted with a high proportion of water or wine before it is taken.

This method of preparation is very similar to that in the Druidic tradition, and it is no surprise to discover that Bach spent much of his time in the north of Wales searching for new ingredients for his remedies and exploring Welsh folk traditions and the ancient herbal cures of the Welsh culture. One does not have to stretch the imagination too far to envisage that Bach would have come into contact with the Druidic tradition during his wanderings and absorbed the ancient Druidic techniques into his burgeoning theories.

He then appears to have married this Druidic technique with the more conventional homeopathic theory of the Doctrine of Infinitesimals by diluting these energized waters with large quantities of brandy. Bach also aligned some of his techniques and theories of the administration of his remedies with those of conventional homeopathy, arguing that his Bach Flower Remedies redress an imbalance in the body’s equilibrium, thus allowing the body to cure itself. In the case of Bach’s remedy, it acts on the emotions rather than on the physical body.

So whether Bach created a new form of treatment or effected a union among the three existing traditions of Druidic remedies, homeopathy, and alchemy is for the reader to decide. Whatever the case may be, Bach Flower Remedies continue to be very popular and may be purchased in most countries of the world. They are used extensively as an alternative therapy in the treatment of stress-related ailments, for which they appear to be particularly appropriate.

In comparison, while Druidic practice shares some of its methods for extracting the vital energies and attributes from the plants it employs with both homeopathy and Bach’s techniques, it does not subscribe to the two basic principles of homeopathy and Bach’s Flower Remedies—namely, “Like cures like” and the concept of the Doctrine of Infinitesimals.

One of the greatest aspects of the Doctrine of Infinitesimals is, of course, its infallibility. If Hahnemann’s theory is correct and dilution equates to purification and an increase in potency, then it is the right thing to do. If it is not, then at least the remedies are so dilute as to be harmless.

In stark contrast to Hahnemann’s theory, Druidic plant lore tends to advocate the concentration of its essences and complexes as a means of focusing the attributes and increasing the potency of the plant’s natural benefits.