Reflections:
Preparing the Mustard Flower Essence
40 years ago

It was late in the winter of 1978, and I was living just north of San Francisco. I was training as an herbal apprentice at that time, and deeply immersed in the work of Dr. Edward Bach, both for my own personal healing and to help others. It was a particularly cold and rainy season, and it seemed the sun would never return. The winter rains and clouds filled me with a longing for light. Then traveling along the coast, I saw the bright yellow Mustard flowers in full bloom, covering the rolling hills. Here was the solar light I was seeking!

I had read the handful of books available on Dr. Bach’s life, philosophy and flower remedies. I had experienced the transformative power of Bach remedies I had taken. Yet, nowhere in these books could I find a clue about how Dr. Bach made the connection between the flowering plant and the healing message of the flower essence. So, when I saw the Mustard in full radiant bloom, Dr. Edward Bach’s words came vividly alive.

I knew this feeling all too well, having grown up with a mother who suffered from severe bouts of depression. The antidote was to find an inner source of light, one that could bring equanimity no matter what clouds and storms we meet. That was the message the Mustard flower was speaking to me.

I felt deeply inspired to make this remedy, for I sensed a communion of my own mind and heart with its very essence. In preparing this flower remedy, I felt I had stepped not only into the mustard field growing with such radiance along the Pacific ocean, I felt I was also stepping into the “field” or larger matrix that surrounded Dr. Bach’s work – that of understanding plants at a deeper level, and intuiting how these soul gestures resonated within the human soul.

I noted the bright lemon yellow color of the mustard flower, a light suffused with sulfur that is able to break through the dark incrustation of winter. One sees this in the whole of the Cruciferae family, with so many members that bloom in the early spring. They are named Cruciferae with their fourfold cross-like gesture, that speaks of a mighty strength that works through the four-foldness of the earth herself (the four directions, the four seasons as so forth). As I contemplated this simple but extraordinary flower, I began to see how the human soul could speak with and through the language of Nature.

As the light of this flower poured into me I felt a movement deep in my own soul, an inner knowing of the healing work I was here to do. Dr. Bach was an extraordinary pioneer in mind-body medicine. Yet, even more significant than the amazing flower remedies he discovered, he demonstrated a human potential for developing insight, understanding and communion with the spiritual essence of Nature. I felt that the ecological crisis of modern culture demands such an awakening, and I dedicated my life’s work to finding the path to unlock that latent capacity.

That seminal inspiration formed the foundation for the plant science research we have developed through the Flower Essence Society during these past 40 years, and continues to guide our work into the future. As I look back on that day four decades ago, I think of the reference to Mustard seed in the Bible: “...if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed .... Nothing would be impossible.” (Matthew 17:20)