While we’re decking the halls with holly, it goes without saying that the holidays are always stressful, no matter how much we look forward to them and want to enjoy them. Aside from Mercury going direct on Tuesday after its approximate three week retrograde, the on-going Pluto/Uranus Square and tomorrow’s Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Gemini (which is ruled by Mercury by the way), Mars has been ratcheting up its warrior energy in nit-picky Virgo since mid-November.
No question, we need Mars’ energy; when it squares the Sun as it has been doing since November 20th it can rocket us out of a rut or…affect us negatively by acting as an impulsive hair trigger that gets us into deep water, pisses us off or just simply aggravates us about everything. So, if you’ve been feeling the latter energy with this square, there’s help on the way.
First of all, we have just one more day of this square and then we can exhale for a bit. However, owing to the stresses of the season, we might continue to feel aggressive and agitated. If so, this is where Dr. Bach’s wonderful Holly flower remedy comes in.
Like all of the 38 remedies, Holly has beautiful facets to it. Additionally, it’s a deep remedy which warrants much longer discussion than this space allows, but I can talk about some of the indications that tell us when we’re in a negative Holly state and how the remedy can shift us.
In the broad sense, negative Holly is about aggression, jealousy, envy, greed and rage; simply, its anger is very much in the spirit of Mars’ shadow energy. Holly will go on the offense as a defense (think road rage, the bully on the playground, emotional and/or physical vindictiveness) because the individual’s emotional interpretation is that they’re being attacked in some way, either by an individual, circumstances or the world at large, even when there’s no indication this is the case. You cannot miss negative Holly energy…it’s in your face, not like smoldering Willow which I’ll blog on at some point.
The irony here is that at the core, whether the state is temporary or chronic, the individual is extremely sensitive. If you’re familiar with the ‘doctrine of signatures’ so often referred to in herbal studies, you’ll see what I mean by looking at the plant’s leaves which are protected by the very prominent ‘stickers’ surrounding them.
From the remedy perspective Holly’s life force, prana, Qi, vibration, softens the perception of being attacked; it helps us to step back and reinterpret the reality around us and at the same time supports us with a feeling of safety that promotes a willingness to open the heart center…and what could be more appropriate at this time of the year?
HOLLY
Photography©Dr. Edward Bach Foundation