the Bach Flower Remedy:
Oak

Oak: Remedy from the set of the Seven Helpers

About this music

Performed once only in version for flute, sax, piano bass and drums.

Oak is undergoing further development. One of the larger scale Remedy pieces; this could well be developed into a jazz band version, gaining the musical energy and colour of the trumpet.

The same musical material recurs at different speeds and there is a general movement through the piece to a strong renewal of energy.

Lyrics for Oak

Oak is an instrumental piece.

About Oak, the Bach Flower Remedy

Oak is for people who though they feel hopeless of any cure still struggle and are irritated that they are ill. Oak people appear to be very positive making a strong attempt to keep going. But the state is damaging because Oak people ignore the warning signs of a breakdown in their health and they need to limit their activity. This is an acquired behaviour, not the true soul type. Struggling against the odds is a way to disguise the true problem. It is a kind of suppression, an unwillingness to face reality.

Oak trees are written about more than any other trees. But for Bach it was direct experience of the tree that was the important thing which leads to understanding of the Remedy state. Oak types and Oak trees endure everything that life brings, struggling without complaint.

Oaks are very long lived. In a 300 year lifetime, a single Oak may produce 25 million acorns, though only a handful will actually develop into mature trees. Most acorns are eaten as soon as they fall. The few that germinate and grow create young shoots that are attractive to mice and rabbits and are likely to be eaten in the first two years of life. The survivors are still unlikely to have sufficient growing space and light.

It would seem that more pests attack Oak trees than any others. But then maybe they are not seen as pests after all. Evidence suggests that Oak adapts its life cycle to provide for predators – you can count several hundred different insect species among the Oak’s fellow inhabitants.

In the Oak remedy state people seek the responsibilities that test their endurance. They thereby avoid the real issue of facing their soul lesson. They attract to themselves all those who need help and offer to take on their burdens for them.

The Oak tree has a habit of producing secondary growth in the late summer. They can produce new growth from buds which have been dormant for many years. Similarly, Oak people adapt to living with problems and work hard as if to show that the problem isn’t really there at all.

The idea of the ‘selfish gene’ does not seem to fit with the Oak’s reality. The Oak adapts its behaviour to help others rather than to oppose them. The Oak is like an arm-spreading Atlas shouldering the weight of the world.

People in need of the Oak remedy do not need the remedy to gain in strength and determination, but in order to gain understanding which allows them to look afresh at the chronic life difficulty which they face.

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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