The Twelve Healers
The Twelve Healers were what Dr Edward Bach called the first twelve flower remedies that he discovered. He understood that "fundamentally there are twelve primary types of personality, and there is a positive and negative of each". He felt that the twelve states that these remedies worked with represented the great life lessons that we had come to learn as a personality. His research led him to believe that as individuals we have come into this incarnation with the specific purpose of working with one of these soul patterns. As we begin to master our particular pattern and the lessons that go with it, so that aspect of our personality that is in difficulty begins to let the light in again, and we begin to feel more whole and we become a truer expression of who we really are.
Which Remedies are the Twelve Healers
What Dr Bach termed the Twelve Healers were the first twelve remedies that he discovered and they are as follows:
The Twelve Primary Personality Types
Here is a chart of the twelve primary types of personality that Dr Bach identified and the indications and benefits for each and the related Bach Flower Remedy.
Indication
Remedy
Benefit
Understanding the Twelve Personality Types
Dr Bach believed that there were "definite groups of mankind, each group performing its own function, that is, manifesting in the material world the particular lesson that he has learnt". He believed that if you have a a personality type that carries a lot of impatience, then part of what you are doing in this life time is to try and develop the qualities of forgiveness. Or if you are a Chicory type, you are looking to ground the virtue of love into the world. If you look at this in the context of each personality group grounding and developing their respective virtues, it creates a tapestry of positive virtues that help humankind to evolve into a more loving and harmonious society. Each of us as individuals then has a part to play in weaving this tapestry and it empowers each of us to know just how much our individual clearing and inner work can form part of the richer, broader evolutionary journey that we are all on.
The Importance of the Personality & Human Health
Dr Edward Bach was driven by a deep desire to find the truth about human illness & disease and to find a simple, natural set of remedies that could be available for all. Through his research and his developing ideas around understanding illness and disease at a deeper level, Edward Bach came to the understanding that the true cause of illness and disease in human beings lies in the personality - in the mental and emotional patterns through which we view ourselves and the world around us. Bach developed his theory about personality types while observing his fellow diners at a banquet he was attending. He began to understand that humanity was made up of a definite number of personality groups or types and that “the individuals of each group would not suffer from the same kinds of diseases, but that all those in one group would react in the same or nearly the same manner to any type of illness”. This was a key understanding for Bach, that it is the state of mind and emotion that is of most importance not what condition the patient is suffering from. Since the body is a direct reflection of the mind, transforming negative vibrations into positive good vibrations allows the body to respond naturally with better health.
The Twelve Personality Types and Astrology
Interestingly Dr Bach also related these twelve personality types to the twelve astrological signs, believing that the sign the moon was in at the time of birth was significant ( you can find out more here: Bach Flower Remedies and Astrology ). While these understandings were discussed in his book the Twelve Healers ( 1933 ), by the time of his last, definitive book, The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies, it has disappeared. This is most likely because he wanted to make understanding the Bach Flower Remedies as simple, approachable and easy for as many people as possible.
Find Out More
You can find out more about the Twelve Healers and the personality groups in Dr. Bach's original work, and a great resource for this is the book the "Collected Writings of Edward Bach" edited by Julian Barnard. Another wonderful book "Bach Flower Remedies, Form & Function" by Julian Barnard is the best interpretation of Dr. Bach’s understandings on this subject that you will find, and is definitely worth reading anyway, but particularly if you'd like to find out more about this subject.
