The gift of nature

 

The Mighty Elder

The elder bushes are in flower now and this is just the right time to pick the bundles of flowers to make elder flower cordial. Recently I read that it is better to pick the flowers on a cloudy day because there would be fewer bugs in them than on a sunny day, so you would have to wait a bit, if you can. Make sure that you handle the flowers carefully because you need the pollen for your cordial. It is so refreshing in this weather. 

The other option is to leave the flowers until the black berries are ripe and make elder berry syrup out of them. This is a very good folklore remedy for coughs and colds in winter. Make sure that you obtain the juice of the elder berries with heat by either steaming the berries or boil them in hot water and put them through a muslin cloths because cold extracted juice might lead to poisoning symptoms. The elder bush was always a plant which had to be handled with a bit of caution.  

My mother reckoned that it would bring bad luck to cut an elder bush down and in some folklore it was said that the elder bush is the place where the fairies live. I don't know about any of that but I do know that there is a homoeopathic remedy made out of the elder bush, Sambucus nigra. I think all of us have experienced the situation where you have a cold and want to go to bed. You feel tired and you head aches. Sleep is the best medicine in this situation and all you want to do is go to bed. Lying down feels good and you are really tired and ready to go to sleep but you cannot breathe through your nose. So that was the end of a restful and restoring night. Here is where the homoeopathic remedy Sambucus nigra might help. I've tried it myself many times with good results and restful nights.

But the remedy can be of more assistance, particularly with breathing problems where symptoms match, because don't forget that Homoeopathy is a very individual medicine which treats the whole person. In Homoeopathy everything is taken into account, not only the symptoms. The mental-emotional state of a person is as important as the physical state. A lot more information is needed about the person, the childhood of the person and the medical history or the family as well to find the right remedy. We are also interested in the potential cause of the symptoms and what happened at the time the symptoms showed up first. So it is not an easy way to find the right remedy, you have to know what you are doing. Getting back to health is also an process so treatment might take some time and in little steps. Contact me on 07813 195468 if you want to know a bit more about Homoeopathy and how it might help you. Looking forward to hearing from you and in the meantime enjoy making elder flower cordial and drinking it.