• For the shy who do not dare, do not know how to say no, let themselves be dominated.

Centaury improves self-assertion, helps to follow one's own path. Small centaury, a common wayside plant, belongs to the gentian botanical family, from which it gets its bitter taste. Discreet in appearance, it is sometimes difficult to spot, especially before its flowers, arranged in umbels, bloom in a lovely soft pink. They close as soon as the weather turns grey. It is the wind that disperses its tiny seeds. This self-effacement is to be paralleled with the emotional states associated with the centaury elixir, intended, according to Bach, for those who "are so eager to help that they become servants rather than willing helpers. Their good nature leads them to do more than their fair share of work and, in doing so, they may neglect their own particular mission in life." Devotion and self-forgetfulness, too weak will, passivity are also character traits of the "centaury" personality, one of the twelve archetypes defined by Bach. The remedy makes one aware of one's own desires, allowing them to be asserted and to say no when necessary.

"For kind, calm, gentle people who are over-anxious to please others and who sacrifice their own needs to the needs of others. Their desire to help is so great that they often do more than they can, and in so doing, often neglect their own health and wishes. " Excerpt from the 1936 edition of "The Twelve Healers", translated into French by C. Lévi and G. Wolf.