Reflecting on the powerful lineage of female herbalists in my family, from the goldfields to modern times and the impact they have had on my work with the Australian Bush Flower Essences. The Essences also provide tremendous support for women.
I’m writing this newsletter straight after International Women’s Day, where I took some time to reflect on the massive role that women in my family have played in my work with and in developing the Australian Bush Flower Essences.
Some of you may know of my family lineage encompassing many generations of herbalists. My great-great-grandmother came to Australia in the 1850s to work as a herbalist on the goldfields. I can only imagine the healing benefit a female herbalist would have brought to the mostly male miners with their traumatic injuries and health problems from poor nutrition and alcohol consumption.
My great-grandmother was a nurse and herbalist and along with my grandmother were some of the first white people to research and work with the medicinal properties of Australian plants. The story passed down through the family was that they were supported in their work by a British Doctor who was sent to the colonies to keep out of the public eye because he was the illegitimate son of a British prince. If only the Australian Women’s Weekly had been in circulation then! Nothing like a bit of royal gossip. My grandmother, known as ID, also had a special children-only herbal clinic that operated in Liverpool Street in the city for many decades. It was here that my mother, when she was a three-year-old, was brought in to see her future mother-in-law, with a chest infection. Little did either realise that years later ID’s son would marry this young girl.
Ian's grandmother working her land at Terrey Hills
When I was only a one-year-old, my parents moved from the beach at Avalon to Terrey Hills. In the adjoining block, which was accessed by either a dirt road or clambering down a cliff, was ID’s land and both properties backed onto National Park. As a young boy, I spent as much time as I could going on bush walks with ID and learning about the plants she worked with and helping her make her herbal extracts and tinctures. She opened my eyes and awareness to the incredible healing power of nature. Both my parents and ID cleared their land and built their houses giving them a very intimate knowledge of the land and plants. I regularly avoided going to school by pretending to be sick, usually after my father, a pharmacist and herbalist, had already left for work. I usually complained of stomach pains and if I did this, when my father was around, I would be given a dose of castor oil and sent to school. Mum was an easier touch and she would take me down to my grandmother to be looked after before she left for work as a bookkeeper.
ID enjoyed my company and she never let on to my parents that I recovered as soon as I realised mum had left for work. ID and I would spend an enjoyable day together. The downside was mum was convinced I had some serious stomach problem and took me to every gastrointestinal specialist in Sydney. Treatment back then consisted of barium enema meals followed by x-rays. It’s a wonder my intestines still function! Anyway, it was a small price to pay for being out in the bush with my grandmother.
The front gate where Ian was dropped after school
On arriving home on the days I did go to school, I would be dropped off at the gate and spend the remaining daylight hours in the bush with my dog, only coming back when it was dark. Fortunately, I was never bitten by a snake while out alone in the bush in the middle of nowhere.
Unfortunately, my grandmother died when I was 10 and we had just moved to the Eastern suburbs. The awareness of the healing power of the bush never left me. At the end of high school, I decided I was going to study marine biology at university. Thankfully my English teacher, Mr. Whitehurst, planted a seed in trying to convince me that I was more a people person than an animal person. Nevertheless, I started my science degree, but a trip to India during Uni holidays at the end of my first year left me in physical and emotional disarray. However, it led me to exploring yoga, tai chi, meditation, naturopathy and working with herbal medicine as I attempted to rebuild my health. When I finished my degree, I realised that what I was really interested in was natural medicine so I enrolled in the only available full-time naturopathy degree. Though predominantly interested in homoeopathy and herbs I was very excited to learn about Flower Essences. It struck me as very strange at the time that there was no one researching Australian flowers. The only essence range available was from England, having been developed by Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930s, 40 years earlier.
After graduating and establishing my clinic, Jim, a good friend told me he had been diagnosed with cancer. He asked if I’d lead a healing circle for him, with all our mutual friends, the night before they were scheduled to operate on him. Unfortunately, the next day the surgeon found that the cancer had spread everywhere and told Jim he only had a few months left to live. I then continued holding the healing circle weekly, consisting of prayer, meditation and directing healing energy. A few months later, during the meditation section of the circle, I started receiving images of flowers, told what their healing properties were and the best place to prepare them. For the next two years I spent every spare moment in the bush researching these essences and using them on my patients in the clinic. The results were spectacular and I started sharing them with medical, acupuncture and herbal friends and colleagues to use with their patients. After two years I was very satisfied with the results and started publishing information about the Bush Essences.
My main goal from the very beginning of the Bush Essences was for every household to have them, so that all children could be brought up with them, making their lives so much easier and better. This was two years before the birth of my daughter Grace in 1988.
Ian holding Grace
Watching Grace’s birth, left me with such an appreciation of what the divine feminine is capable of and the immensity in being able to give life. This is something I reflect on every International Women’s Day.
Grace was brought up on the Bush Essences. There’s a lovely photo of her at an early age, trying to get the mother tincture of Black Boy by licking the huge flowering stem. At age 5, at her Steiner kindergarten, one of the other girls was sick. Grace gathered all the other children and told them that they were going to make her better and instructed them to collect flowers, which were put into glasses of water and left in the sun. After an hour Grace had the sick girl drink the water. I was convinced the sixth-generation herbalist was on its way! Grace however didn’t follow this path – she has achieved great success in her career as an event manager, both in the private sector and with the state government and is now undertaking a new job, as a manager, organising budgets and event investment for the NSW state government.
Grace going for Black Boy mother tincture!
Life has turned full circle with Grace herself becoming a mother last month, with the birth of her son Hudson (Sonny to the family). She took lots of essence throughout the pregnancy, especially Emergency Essence, as there were many complications. Grace and her husband Lachlan had many Bush Essences in their birthing bag for any possible outcome, including, of course, Space Clearing mist to psychically cleanse and uplift the area where she gave birth.
Ian and Grace with a one-day-old Sonny
When my wife Jane and I saw our new grandchild a few hours after his birth, Grace proudly told us that she had already made a cross over Sonny’s anterior fontanel with drops of Fringed Violet, to seal off his aura. A baby’s aura is wide open through the open anterior fontanel for six weeks after birth. This is why, in some cultures, a child is not put on the ground in that first six weeks nor taken outside the house as they are very susceptible to negative energy and you don’t know who or what the baby might encounter.
Bush Essences for a Birth Preparation Kit
Some of the other Essences in the birth kit were: Kapok Bush to help a woman if she feels like she can’t go on; Bauhinia, to make sure all the stages of the labour flow; Emergency Essence for extra support; Bottlebrush to help with the bond between the mother and the child, especially needed if there’s a complication and the baby is taken away and doesn’t get to go on the breast in the first six hours and Slender Rice Flower in case of an episiotomy or tearing. So many women have commented and expressed great gratitude that one of the best aspects of the Bush Essences is that they can confidently use them with their family as they do no harm to a child – or anyone taking them.
I’d love to receive your experiences of using the Bush Essences during pregnancy, labour and in a child’s early years. In fact, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to send in any testimonial.
Very shortly we will be moving into new seasons. Those in the southern hemisphere will be moving into autumn on March 21, while the northern hemisphere will be moving into spring on that day. I always recommend working with the relevant White Light Essence to help you align to the change of season. For autumn, take the Earth Essence for two weeks at the beginning of the season and for moving more smoothly into spring, I suggest taking the Water Essence.
Another event happening in many countries in the next few weeks is the ending or commencing of daylight saving. For this, Bush Iris, even for a week, is a wonderful remedy to help you readjust to the new time.
Much Love, Light and Respect
Ian White
Founder & Director
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Harnessing the healing power of the Australian bush created by Ian White, a 5th generation Australian herbalist.
