We are surrounded by wild Gorse (or Furze) here on coast in North Cornwall, such a happy looking sunshine yellow flower with its spiky limbs, always blossoming throughout the year.
Traditionally it was used to provide fuel for bread ovens (a gorse plant contains 2-4% of flammable oils!), fodder for livestock, to make floor and chimney brushes and was used as a colourant for painting Easter Eggs.
It’s said it is good for magical protection and its yellow blossoms are used in money magic. In the 19th century, people kept gorse around their beds to ward off fairies and stuffed it up their chimneys in the summer to stop magical powers from entering the home. In Wales, they planted gorse hedges to ward off fairies.
In folk medicine, it was widely used to treat coughs, colds, sore throats, consumption, asthma, heartburn, hiccups, jaundice, heart problems, dermatitis, ringworm, swellings, and as a general tonic.
Amazing artwork by © Iris Compiet.
People once used gorse flowers to make wine and tea. Here in Cornwall, there is a Wild Gorse Flower chocolate by Chocolarder and Cornish forager Rachel Lambert has an array of different gorse recipes available here.
I use Gorse Bach Flower remedy in my work. It’s for when people feel uncertainty, a loss of faith, those who have given up belief and hope. Gorse brings back your hope, it helps you see things in a different light, enabling you to see a way forward.
Flower essences work by helping to raise your vibration from the lower vibration of the human body to the higher gentler vibration of the flower. I wonder if that is why Cornwall feels such a wonderful place, because it is filled with the vibration of the Gorse flower’s hope?
If you would be interested in a bespoke flower remedy without having to have a full kinesiology session, you can purchase one here.