the Bach Flower Remedy:
Chestnut Bud

Chestnut Bud: Remedy from the set of the Second Nineteen

About this music

Realised as a song with lyrics by Harriet Edwards, and performed with voice, flute, sax, piano, bass and drums on several occasions.

A through-composed song with an extended instrumental interlude in the middle. Conventional harmonic and rhythmic language.

Lyrics for Chestnut Bud

Lyrics by Harriet Edwards. Show lyrics

About Chestnut Bud, the Bach Flower Remedy

A Chestnut Bud situation is like the game of Snakes and Ladders: one can fall back into old ways of thinking and acting, slip away from knowledge and experience achieved through hard work. Bach said life is ‘for the purpose of gaining all the knowledge and experience which can be obtained through earthly existence’, but at times we fail to see that. If experience is repeated without gaining knowledge, it must be repeated yet again.

Error, fault and failing are words which appear frequently in Bach’s writing. ‘Our whole object is to realise our faults. Disease is due to faults within. The only cure is to correct our faults… Recognising these personal failings is the most important task for life on earth.

An understanding of where we are making an error (which is so often not realised by us) and an earnest endeavour to correct the fault will lead not only to a life of joy and peace but also to health.

The remedy is prepared not from flowers but from the opening buds of the Horse Chestnut tree. The Chestnut is emblematic of all trees in every spring. Each bud has formed in the previous season; we can even see the scar of the last leaf. Within the closed bud lies all the potential for new growth and development – miniature leaves, stems and flowers lie closely folded inside. As the bud opens and the shoot explores its unique pathway into space, it unfolds individually within a wet pattern of potential. Each bud is from the same blueprint but expresses a single and unique form. It is like the individual person exploring the potentials within a life. There are opportunities to learn, and the only question is whether the opportunity to learn is taken. This is where the Chestnut Bud remedy comes in. Those who fail to learn and grow into their potential ‘do not take full advantage of observation and experience’

Chestnut Bud is often described as a remedy for children, either slow learners or for the foolish person who does not make supposed progress in life. Young buds may equal young people. But anyone can become stuck in life and need help. And this way of freeing up learning for the soul means a person can take Chestnut Bud right up to the day before death. Most of life, after all, is spent repeating the pattern of the past.

This account of this Bach Flower Remedy is based on the book Bach Flower Remedies : Form and Function by Julian Barnard.

For full information see HealingHerbs.co.uk→.

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