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Star of Bethlehem – Form and Function

It is not difficult to imagine that Bach would have occasion to need, or to see the need for, such a remedy, although there is no record of any particular event that prompted its discovery. Nor can we be sure that it came before or after Walnut and Holly in the sequence. It flowers from April through to June, reaching a peak in mid-May. Star of Bethlehem is one of the most significant remedies in the whole Bach system. It is a vital ingredient in Bach’s five flower rescue combination. The action of the remedy brings balance and calm when we are caught up in the swirling whirlpool of life trauma – just such a picture as Leonardo drew. It is the geometry of the flowers that helps us to reassemble the structure of our life when it has been tumbled and broken by shock.

The six-pointed star of this plant is unique among Bach’s flowers. The others are mostly five-petalled, like the rose family (Crab Apple and Wild Rose) or four-petalled (like Mustard and Holly). To see the significance of this, take a piece of paper and a pair of compasses; draw a circle. This circle is one. It is a perfect construction, a line without beginning or end, symbol of unity, complete in itself.

Place the point of the compasses upon the circumference of the circle, anywhere on the circumference and using exactly the same setting (radius) draw another circle. The second circle passes precisely through the centre of the first. One leads to both two and three since there are now two circles and the area between where they overlap – that which joins them. Where the second circle crosses the line of the first there are two more points on which a circle may be drawn. Continue in this way and you will find, if the setting of the compasses is maintained, that six circle fit precisely around the first.