Agrimony
“Torturedly cheerful”
An astringent that tones the tissues but is used to relax the tissues. It is this paradox that is the magic that agrimony shares with many other medicinal plants.
States of stress such as spasms of the stomach, tension headaches, menstrual cramps where the person tries to hide it by pretending that everything is ok, “torturedly cheerful”
Pain in the spine, flu when you have pain in your joints.
Agrimony is also good for the kidneys and liver, poor digestion (indication: fat and undigested pieces of food in the poo), prevention of gall and kidney stones.
Incontinence, cystitis, urinary tract infection.
Agrimoy is superior for releasing tension and spasm, both on a physical and a psychological level. Agrimony is specifically indicated for those who try to hide their pain with a smile, behind a sophisticated and easy-going facade. Matthew Wood (The Earth Wise Herbal Vol 1) uses the phrase “torturedly cheerful” and it is very fitting.
Agrimony supports the connection between the brain and the other brain – the gut feeling, the enteric system. Agrimony is about strengthening the gut and is good for people who get pain in the belly out of concern and worry, around meals and eating or nervous, tense social situations. Pressing the emotions down into the gut.
80% of Serotonin is produced in the gut, far more than in the brain. One should never underestimate the gut feeling.
Fireweed
Rising from the ashes like a phoenix – the survivor
Fireweed is good for candida overgrowth and works on our small intestine and colon to create a healthy environment where beneficial digestive bacteria can flourish, nutrients can flow into our body, and waste products can easily move out. It supports our intestines in discriminating between what we need to absorb and what we need to let go of. This helps keep our whole system in a state of balance.
Fireweed is a survivor. It is the often one of the first plants to reestablish itself after an environmental disaster such as a clear-cut or a forest fire. It works similarly for a person who has gone through an emotional forest fire, where everything seems to have crumbled or fallen apart around you or when you feel cut off from what you were used to. Fireweed helps to let go of the last bits of what is no longer serves our good so we can come back and let the secret fire in our hearts initiate a new beginning. It is like the sunrise after the dark night of the soul.
Fireweed is a good long-term remedy. Often, long-standing imbalances do not show up over night but develop over time, and our body, mind and soul take time to recover. Fireweed represents the promise that beauty will return after bodily sickness or environmental destruction. When woodlands are damaged from fire, or clear-cutting, it is fireweed that brings the first promise of recovery. It reminds us that nature has her healing cycle too.
Milky Oats
“Joy all creatures drink
At nature's bosoms…” ~ Friedrich von Schiller
The oat is harvested in its milky stage when it is green and contains a milky substance which is highly nourishing. It is especially soothing for a burnt-out nervous system. It is deeply healing for the frazzled nerves and also for a crashed stomach, perhaps if the gut is unbalanced after antibiotics.
Milky oats is also beneficial for persons with deficiencies or malnourishment. It is also a demulcent. Milky oats is a nervine tonic and trophorestorative.
A burned-out person needs to rest and does not benefit from adaptogenes, to come back to the same stressful life that caused the burn-out. A burned-out person benefits from nourishing the body, mind and soul to be able to handle life with an inner calm and knowing when it is time to slow down and how to make priorities.
Milky oats is ideal for people with overactive crown chakras, tending towards nervousness, anxiety, and high levels of sensitivity to the environment. Milky oats is also helpful when dealing with depression.
Milky oats is often helpful for people struggling with addiction. Addiction is often at the root about lack of nourishment on a soul level. One thinks that there is something lacking to be able to be satisfied without the addiction, because one is afraid there is not enough nourishment in other ways.
Milky oats is an energizer, but it does this cumulatively, building energy slowly and consistently by deeply nourishing the entire body. It alleviates both physical and nervous fatigue. It is metaphorically nursing directly from Mother Earth.
St John´s Wort
Prepared on the Solar Return of St John the Baptist the 24th of june.
St John´s wort is used for melancholia, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and is also good for mental burnout.
It is a stomach normalizer applicable in both hyperacidity and hypoacidity. When the gut is in balance – intuitions are stronger.
St John´s wort lights up the solar plexus chakra, the inner sun. The signature of this flower is also indicating this, the yellow color and it´s rays of light-looking little antennas in the centre of the flower. It gives a centered energy, joy, focus and has a powerful effect on the nervous system. It strengthens the animal instinct in the gut, to trust the intuition.
The petals are dotted with little perforations. This indicates another one of Hypericum Perforatum´s properties: It is used for leaky energy. When energy is leaking from us, it becomes easier to pick up on the energy of others, making us feel tired and drained. This magical plant fills up these energetic holes and centers us so our energy stays within us and we no longer pick up on unwanted vibes or fall under the domination of untoward people.
Wood Betony
Sell your coat and buy Betony!
Old italian proverb
Wood Betony is a herb for the head. Tension, new and older injuries to the head, headache and to strengthen the connection between gut and brain. It is a relaxant for the muscles, mucous membranes and of the nerves. It is good for ulcers and other digestive complaints.
it is a nervine, good for spaced-out people with a solar plexus deficiency. It helps the gut coordinating the digestive process and is grounding.
Wood Betony is said to protect from evil projections, jealousy and envy. Perhaps by strengthening the solar plexus, the will and survival instincts get stronger so they have no effect.