Chapter 12 

The Remedies 

CHICORY 

     RESTRAINT     LOVE 

Are you one of those who long to serve the world: who long to open out both arms and bless all around you; who wish to help and comfort and sympathise, and yet for some reason circumstances or people stop you? Do you find that instead of serving many you are held in the grip of but a few, so that your opportunity of giving as fully as you wish is limited: are you getting to that stage when you wish to realise that it is, “when all men count with you, but none too much?” 

Then that beautiful blue Chicory of the cornfields will help you to your freedom, the freedom so necessary to us all before we can serve the world. 

MIMULUS 

     FEAR     SYMPATHY 

Are you one of those who are afraid; afraid of people or of circumstances: who go bravely on and yet your life is robbed of joy through fear; fear of those things that never happen; fear of people who really have no power over you; fear of tomorrow and what it may bring; fear of being ill or of losing friends; fear of convention; fear of a hundred things? 

Do you wish to make a stand for your freedom, and yet have not the courage to break away from your bonds; if so Mimulus, found growing on the sides of the crystal streams, will set you free to love your life, and teach you to have the tenderest sympathy for others. 

AGRIMONY 

    RESTLESSNESS     PEACE 

Are you one of those who suffer torments; who soul is restless: who can find no peace, and yet bravely face the world and hide your torture from your fellow-men: who laugh and smile and jest, and help those around you to keep a cheery heart whilst you are suffering. Do you seek to soothe your sorrows by taking wine and drugs to help you face your trials: do you feel that you must have some stimulant in life to keep you going? 

If so, that beautiful plant Agrimony, growing along the sides of our lanes and in our meadows, with its church-like spire, and its seeds like bells, will bring you peace, the peace that ‘passeth understanding.’ The lesson of this plant is to enable you to hold peace in the presence of all trials and difficulties until no one has the power to cause you irritation. 

SCLERANTHUS 

    INDECISION     STEADFASTNESS 

Are you one of those who find it difficult to make decisions; to form opinions when conflicting thoughts enter your mind so that it is hard to decide on the right course: when indecision dogs your path and delays your progress: does first one thing seem right and then another? 

If so you are learning prompt action under trying circumstances; to form correct opinions and be steadfast in following them; and the little green Scleranthus of the cornfields will help you to this end. 

CLEMATIS 

    INDIFFERENCE     GENTLENESS 

Are you one of those who find that life has not much interest: who wake almost wishing there were not another day to face: that life is so difficult, so hard, and has so little joy: that nothing really seems worth while, and how good it would be just to go to sleep: that it is scarcely worth the effort to try and get well? Have your eyes that far-away look as though you live in dreams and find the dreams so much more beautiful than life itself: or are your thoughts, perhaps, more often with someone who has passed out of this life? If you feel this way you are learning “to hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to you - hold on!” and it is a very great victory to win through. 

That beautiful plant which adorns our hedges where there is chalk, the Clematis, better known as Traveller’s Joy, and whose feathery seeds are. always longing to be blown away and start again, will help you so much to come back and face life and find your work, and bring you joy. 

CENTAURY 

    WEAKNESS     STRENGTH 

Are you one of those people whom everybody uses, because in the kindness of your heart you do not like to refuse them anything: do you just give in for the sake of peace rather than do what you know is right, because you do not wish to struggle: whose motive is good, but who are being passively used instead of actively choosing your own work. Those of you who are door-mats are a very long way along the road to being of great service once you can realise that you must be a little more positive in your life. 

Centaury, that grows in our pastures, will help you to find your real self, so that you may become an active, positive worker instead of a passive agent. 

GENTIAN 

    DOUBT     UNDERSTANDING 

Are you one of those with high ideals, with hopes of doing good; who find yourself discouraged when your ambitions are not quickly realised? When success is in your path are you elated, but when difficulties occur easily depressed? 

If so, the little Gentian of our hilly pastures will help you to keep your firmness of purpose, and a happier and more hopeful outlook even when the sky is over-cast. It will bring you encouragement at all times, and the understanding that there is no failure when you are doing your utmost, whatever the apparent result. 

VERVAIN 

    OVER-ENTHUSIASM     TOLERANCE 

Are you one of those burning with enthusiasm: longing to do big things, and wishing all done in a moment of time? Do you find it difficult patiently to work out your scheme because you want the result as soon as you start? Do you find your very enthusiasm making you strict with others; wishing them to see things as you see them; trying to force them to your own opinions, and being impatient when they do not follow? 

If so, you have within you the power of being a leader and a teacher of men. Vervain, the little mauve flower of the hedge-banks, will help you to the qualities you need, kindness for your brothers, and tolerance for the opinions of others: it will help you to realise that the big things of life are done gently and quietly without strain or stress. 

CERATO 

IGNORANCE     WISDOM 

Are you one of those who feel that you have wisdom; that you could be a philosopher and a guide to your fellow-men? Do you feel the power within you to advise them in their difficulties, to soothe their sorrows, and at all times to be a help to them in their troubles; and yet, through lack of confidence in yourself, you are unable to accomplish this, possibly because you are listening too much to the voice of others and paying too great attention to the conventions of the world? ‘Do you realise that it is only this lack of confidence in yourself, this ignorance of your own wisdom and knowledge, that tempts you to listen too intently to the advice of others? 

Then Cerato will help you to find your individuality, your personality, and, freed from outside influences, enable you to use the great gift of wisdom that you possess for the good of mankind. 

IMPATIENS 

    IMPATIENCE     FORGIVENESS 

Are you one of those who know that deep down in your nature there is still a trace of cruelty; when buffeted and harassed you find it difficult not to have a little malice? Have you still left within you the desire to use force to bring another to your way of thinking: are you impatient and does that impatience sometimes make you cruel: have you left in your nature any trace of the inquisitor? 

If so, you are striving for exquisite gentleness and forgiveness, and that beautiful mauve flower, Impatiens, which grows along the sides of some of the Welsh streams, will, with its blessing, help you along the road. 

ROCK ROSE 

    TERROR     COURAGE 

Are you one of those in absolute despair, in terror: who feel that you can bear nothing more; terrified as to what will happen: of death; of suicide; of insanity; of some awful disease: or fearful of facing the hopelessness of material circumstances? 

If so, you are learning to be brave against great odds, and fighting for your freedom, and the beautiful little yellow Rock Rose, which grows so abundantly on our hilly pastures, will give you the courage to win through. 

WATER VIOLET 

    GRIEF     JOY 

Are you one of those great souls who bravely and without complaint, still endeavouring to serve your brother-men, bear suffering calmly and with resignation, not allowing your grief to interfere with your daily work? Have you had real losses, sad times, and yet go quietly on? 

If so, the beautiful Water Violet, which floats so freely on the surface of our clearest streams, will help you to understand that you are being purified through your grief, uplifted to a great ideal, so that you may learn to serve your fellow-men even in the hour of your affliction: that you are learning to stand absolutely alone in the world, gaining the intense joy of complete freedom, and therefore of perfect service to mankind. And when this is realised it is no longer sacrifice but the exquisite joy of helpfulness even under all conditions. Moreover that little plant will help you to the understanding that so much you think of in life as being cruel and sad, is truly for the good of those you pity. 

We can all take courage and keep a stout heart, for He Who placed us in this world, did so for a great purpose. 

He wants us to know that we are His children, to know our own Divinity; to be perfect; to have health and to have happiness. He wants us to know that, through His Love, we can accomplish all things, remembering that it is only when we forget this that we suffer and are unhappy. He wants the life of each one of us to be one of joy and health, and loving service, for as Christ told us: 

“My yoke is easy, My burden is light.” 

Stocks of these remedies can be obtained from the leading London Homoeopathic chemists, though they can be prepared as follows by anyone who cares to make their own. 

Take a thin glass bowl, fill with clear water from a stream or spring for preference, and float enough of the blooms of the plant to cover the surface. Allow this to stand in bright sunshine until the flowers begin to wilt. Very gently pick out the blooms, pour the water into bottles and add an equal quantity of brandy as a preservative. One drop alone of this is sufficient to make potent an eight ounce bottle of water, from which doses may be taken by the tea-spoonful as required. 

The doses should be taken as the patient feels necessary: hourly in acute cases; three or four times a day in chronic cases until relief occurs when they can be dispensed with. 

And may we ever give thanks to God Who, in His Love for us,
placed the herbs in the fields for our healing.