the Bach Flower Remedy:
Vervain

Vervain: Remedy from the set of the Twelve Healers

About this music

Realised for saxophone, piano bass and drums and performed on several occasions.

Complex harmonic opening in a slow 2/2 leading to a syncopated bass line with Aeolian mode improvisation on sax.

This in turn leads to a slower syncopated melody which builds to a climax.
The Aeolian section and syncopated melody is all repeated before a return to the opening, transformed by the journey that has been made.

Lyrics for Vervain

Vervain is an instrumental piece.

About Vervain, the Bach Flower Remedy

A counterpart to Chicory and Agrimony, Vervain is dissatisfied with the outer world, looking for the cause and release by pushing at the external form of things. Bach talks of over-enthusiasm, puritanism, rigidity

‘The person may be too stern, too rigid in principle, too narrow-minded in outlook, endeavouring to mould the world too much to his own ideals. Of highest principle, yet intolerant of faults in others; too severe on himself………’

Rather than being based in the sensing and feeling of a person, the Vervain state is more mental, based upon theories and ideas about how life should be.

Vervain grows where the ground has been disturbed – by the roadside, on the edge of a cultivated field, by a farm track or in stony soil where grass might find it harder to take hold. Vervain is a traveller.

Vervain types like new beginnings and when they find themselves in a new community they will quickly establish themselves as people with opinions and with something to say about daily affairs.

‘You have within you the power of being a leader and a teacher’

A keyword for Vervain must be simplicity. The plant starts simply enough in its growth and bas structure. A single unbranched stem has leaves in opposite pairs spaced regularly up the stalk; leaves are simple with uneven lobes but broadly symmetrical. The plant has a mechanism of sensing where it may form a new side shoot and grow into clear space : it is self-aware. Then after growing to a certain height, it modifies its growing tips and with no further leaves pushes out a spike of flowers. These flowers open progressively along the spike throughout July, August and September.

A perennial, Vervain repeats this pattern of surging growth each year, with the root becoming thicker and stronger and the plants putting out more and more young shoots in the spring. But eventually the process can become self-defeating – the new shoots cannot find a new way through the old dried stalks from the previous year. The plant can choke itself to death by overgrowing…

Are you one of those burning with enthusiasm: longing to do big things, and wishing all done in a moment of time? Do you find it difficult patiently to work out your scheme because you want the result as soon as you start? Do you find your very enthusiasm making you strict with others; wishing them to see things as you see them; trying to force them to your own opinions, and being impatient when they do not follow?

Vervain types like to be with people; they like to control others and direct their lives. They are strong willed – in the plant we may say that the will is represented by the stalk and the stem. The will in Vervain people is strong and directed; they know what they want to do.

The flowers express the way Vervain comes to the simplicity and elegance of doing things ‘gently without strain and stress’. Pale mauve and five petalled, the flowers are as understated as the foliage is overgrown.

The perennial rootstock shows a link to the past, the family and karma. Vervain souls have knowledge and experience. They come into life with a view of how it should be – in some respects this is their problem.

They are people who have advanced sufficiently to realise……
But now they must learn ‘.that big ideals are only attained without stress and hurry’.

Vervain plants are tough, deep-rooted and hard to pull out from the ground. Vervain people are inflexible, wrong-willed and do not find it easy to change their mind. The obstruction of the ego is such that they cannot view themselves objectively.

Vervain’s perennial taproot gives continuity below ground and this may indicate a continuity through life, death and rebirth. But above ground, the stalks remain long, tough and dry, sticking up when the other plants around have fallen back to earth. Bach saw Vervain people as:

’Struggling on long after many would have given up their duties’

But this also connects with a desire which Vervain could have for reputation and fame – a desire to leave a lasting mark in the world. Those who wish to change the world often hope more for posthumous fame and recognition : the stalks may be dead but they show where the plant grew and will act to support the tender shoots of the next generation. Indeed it is this intention, to be a guide and teacher to the new generation, which characterises Vervain types: they try to convert others to their point of view and to use their courage and will to convince others.

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→.

Products in our Store that include the musical remedy Vervain: