extract from our book

oil and water

Bugloss
Echium lycopsis
Bugloss is the remedy for those amongst us who are too easily discouraged by the inevitable setbacks encountered in life and are unwilling or unable to try again. They may well have developed a mental attitude that they will fail again so there is little point in trying. They still possess the desire to take action but their past experiences inform them that further efforts would be futile; they have indeed come to expect failure. Rather than view their setbacks as worthwhile attempts from which they can learn and improve, they perceive them as signs that they can not succeed. These folk develop this attitude because at their core they are not fully grounded and therefore have difficulty in grounding their aims and objectives. They possess in their hearts a sense of being unsettled, displaced or uprooted; a feeling that rarely leaves them. It is a subtle feeling, not easy to define or pin down, yet it permeates through into their lives, like water soaking through stone, to inhibit their true expressions. The Bugloss folk are extremely reluctant to commit to anything major and many possess a fair degree of the proverbial "rolling stone" about them. Their ungroundedness can also manifest as a nervous disposition or anxiety. For some of these folk there is a desire to search for something yet they have no idea what it is they are looking for.
Suggested uses for Bugloss:

• for those who have been displaced or uprooted from familiar
• surroundings
• to help us pick up the threads of something we put down some time ago
• to give full respect to what we have learnt and achieved in the past
• when we have not succeeded but want to try again
• when we are travelling
• when we are unsettled by the feeling that our roots have been lifted out of the ground
• to help us realise on the emotional level that there are no mistakes, only experiences from which we can learn
• the alleviation of guilt
• when we feel deflated by our setbacks.

The bugloss used in this remedy is the Purple Viper's. Its signature arises from the fact that it is a very variable plant which has to be dug up for the purposes of identification as the roots have a distinguishing purple tint to them. It is the only plant I have lifted out of the ground when making into a flower remedy.