If you’ve been following this blog, you know that recently I’ve been focusing on the subject of writing as a craft instead of my earlier blogs on Dr. Bach’s flower remedies.  However,  yesterday’s Facebook post by a friend regarding the distressing news of yet another young boy taking his life after relentless bullying because he is gay has caused me to take pause here and briefly return to the subject of Bach’s remedies and particularly Bach’s Holly which I blogged on last year.

 I’ve always found the dynamics of Dr. Bach’s Holly to be among one of the more fascinating of the 38.  Classically, Bach described it for ‘those things that vex the mind’; specifically, greed, envy and jealously.  But additionally, Holly, like many of the remedies, has a much deeper back story. 

 To begin, the leaves of the Holly bush reach out with sharp stickers that can be viewed(and experienced painfully!) as a protective barrier against danger, while the Holly berries are a vibrant red, perhaps reflecting rage and anger.  Over the years of working with people through private practice, workshops and training retail staff, I’ve observed a consistency of drivers behind those who manifest the negative Holly state of ‘in your face anger and rage’… it’s a deep wounding and sensitivity within the person, typically at the unconscious level. 

Somewhere in their emotional history, these people have experienced some type of aggression themselves.  It could be physical, emotion or both; it could be in this life, in a past life or both.  The bottom line is that the heart Chakra has closed down, fear is the driver and the agenda is emotional protection at all costs. 

In the case of bullies (and others) the perception is skewed as it is in all negative states of Bach’s 38 remedies.  In the negative Holly state, the interpretation ironically, is that everyone around them is on the attack toward them; danger is in the air.  Thus, the protective reaction becomes outwardly defensive through aggression and vindictive behavior…it can manifest as emotional manipulation, taunting or ridiculing as Kenneth Weishuhn in Iowa experienced and/or physical abuse. The negative Holly state IS THE BULLY ON THE PLAYGROUND.

However, the positive action of the Holly remedy is one that softens the reactive fear driving the aggressive behavior and opens the heart Chakra…the perception is shifted to reality versus a skewed interpretation of both the internal and external personal landscape.  Holly gives permission to ‘step back’ and reconsider our reality. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could put Holly in our water source!

HOLLY

Photography ©Dr. Edward Bach Foundation