Everything that exists in the material world is simply the manifestation of a certain idea behind it: an archetypal idea. The archetype determines size, form, color and character of everything it creates. In the 1930's, it was the Swiss psychoanalyst, C.G. Jung, who took up the concept of archetypes, defining them as blueprints of the human soul.

Jungian psychology claims that each person has not only an individual unconsciousness based on archetypes, but that there is also a collective unconsciousness that contains ideas and images common to every human being on Earth, no matter their age, sex or place of origin. The collective unconscious can be understood as the home of the archetypes in everyone. This home has, for example, original images of women and men that help with the orientation of being part of the human society.

My kit of Archetypal Flower Essences is made from plants representing the archetypes to the highest degree on the plant level. Taking these remedies reminds the soul of the original archetypes within and their energy and vibration, so that we can regain our original balanced personality. Archetypal essences in this kit include The Pilgrim; The Warrior; the Magician; The Trickster; The Heroine Within; and The Orphan. One special section, quite universal, is the Archetypal Essences of the Family.

Archetypal essences do not work on the emotional level but on the unconscious level. They are not prescribed according to a patient's emotional needs but to his weakest archetypes. If a client is anxious, for example, a Bach flower therapist might prescribe him Mimulus to assist him to find access to his inner courage. In archetypal flower essence therapy, however, we look for a basic weakness of an archetype, which causes the symptom of 'anxiety'. As we will see in the example given later, identifying the archetype operating in a particular situation will show the source of the anxiety and lead to the correct remedy choice.

Just as every single person should keep an inner balance to stay in good health, the same applies to the family as a whole in order to keep its stability. One's health stays stable as long as one finds access to balancing forces--for example, the archetypal male and the archetypal female within. Then one can be more flexible and able to show an appropriate reaction to whatever happens.

The more inner resources one has, represented by the various archetypes, and the more willing one is to use these resources, the more easily one can adapt to new and/or challenging situations. That means he or she will be less prone to diseases and accidents.

There are eight remedies in the archetypal family essences among the Horus Flower Essences, representing the inner female, inner male, the mother, grandmother, grandfather, sister and brother within, and the inner healer of the male and female. There are over two dozen more available resonating to other archetypes. Let's consider two Archetypal Flower Essences of the family.

Originating from South America where the sunflower played its role as 'the sun of the Incas', it has been established in Europe and almost every country in the world for decades. The sunflower has a special relationship to the sun, which it shows by turning its flowerheads in the direction of the sun as long as it is young and its stems have not become wooden and rigid.

Sunflower essence supports male self worth, strengthens one's back (and the related Governor meridian in Chinese acupuncture), brings out honesty and stability, and improves fertility. In prehistoric times when people still did not understand the relationship of sexuality and fertility, they had no idea at all of what a father was and had no word for him. Accordingly there is no explicit father archetype. Sunflower essence can bring men to their own inner balance. Well-balanced men can be good fathers. To strengthen the father archetype, we recommend a combination of Sunflower and Spruce essence.

Pomegranate has been a symbol of womanhood since earliest times in human history. In ancient Egypt its fruit was regarded as so precious, that they would not have buried a pharaoh without putting this fruit into his grave. Pomegranate was also the fruit that made the discovery of sexuality in the Garden of Eden possible. Reliable evidence can be found in old Christian as well as in old Muslim sources.

In Greece, pomegranate was symbolic of Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and beauty. In Rome she was called Venus, as well as Persephone, the Goddess of the underworld, whom the Romans later called Proserpina. The legend of Proserpina interestingly coincided with the Christian Adam and Eve legend--Proserpina was seduced by Hades with the help of this very fruit.

This essence helps a woman regain female self worth, self-esteem and self-confidence, and to enjoy being a woman in full understanding of the power of her female sexuality. A lack of female strength could produce a variety of symptoms like anxiety, anger, frustration, or hysteria. If the underlying pattern is one of too little inner female energy, we give Pomegranate no matter which of the above emotional states one is in. When given to men, this essence helps them develop their inner feminine nature and better understand their partners.

For an example of how the archetypal essences work, let us say a woman is anxious because she lacks self confidence, which means her "anima" or "yin" needs to be strengthened. We can do this with Pomegranate essence. In order to reach wholeness in therapy, we recommend combining work on the emotional level (by giving Mimulus) and that on the archetypal level (by adding Pomegranate).

The anxious woman would then receive a combination of both Pomegranate and Mimulus essences. She will gain access to her "inner woman" by taking essences, and she will appreciate being a woman herself and love to express herself in a new self-confident way. In other words, she strengthens herself by strengthening her inner core.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DIRK ALBRODT is the maker of several essence kits and the author of several books on essences, including the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Domestic Flower Essences and Essences in Pregnancy (both in German). He runs the Bluetenessenzen Buero, offering essence education and counseling services. He distributes several lines of essences at www.floweressences.de. He lives and works in Germany and the Netherlands and can be emailed at dalbrodt@web.de.

ART CREDITS: The graphics for this article were made from photos in a clip art disk by Micrografx.

The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.