Elder
The name Elder has to do with “Eld”, fire. It is a fever remedy.
Sambucus comes from the latin term for a musical instrument – The Pan Pipes – which were originally made from the hollow stems of Elder.
This hollow signature is reflected as Elder used as a remedy opens all tubes of the body (skin, lungs, colon, kidneys, blood vessels) improving oxygenation, blood flow, perspiration, and elimination by the colon or kidneys. Elder is a relaxant, helpful in spasmodic cough and spasm in the stomach.
The berries are blood building and together with the flowers are healing when you have a fever. Also helpful in red dry irritated skin of the cheeks, as it opens the tubes and pores and lubricates the skin. It improves respiration, digestion and kidney function.
Imagination is the channel of communication from another dimension. Tubular plants such as Elder and Angelica have long been associated with the shamanic journey to the Underworld. The lore surrounding the Elder is immense and mysterious. The Elder serves as a doorway to the Underworld, or magical faery realm.
I start to prepare the Elixir in July when I distilled the flowers and let them macerate until I collected the berries and let them macerate together with the flowers, creating a double tincture from the white flowers that look like five pointed stars and the dark purple almost black berries. These are signatures of saturn, the polar qualities of father time and mother of death and rebirth.
The spagyric tincture is a great antioxidant and aids to improve immunity in winter time. It is also a gatekeeper to the spirit world. It is called Elder for a reason! It is a teacher of nature, of time, life and death.
Hyssop
“Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.”
Psalm 51:7, The Bible
Hyssop is a fever remedy, indicated in “slow fever” where nerves are affected so reactions and movements are slow, numb and weak. It is deeply penetrating, opening pores and passage ways deep inside the body, releasing heat through the skin. It acts cooling, lubricating, cleansing fluids, removing heat and congestion.
Mold growing on the leaves of hyssop produces penicillin.
David Dalton developed a profile for the mental state associated with hyssop that may owe something to the biblical concept. He recommends it for people who feel guilty, feel undeserving of happiness, fear punishment , fear pleasure and engage in self-sabotage.
Herbalist Juliette de Bairacli Levy recommends hyssop as a highly effective remedial agent in all forms of poisoning. Foxes are said to seek out this plant when poisoned.
If you feel you may be carrying some ancestral programming or karmic patterns, hyssop may bring clarity and clear this kind of metaphorically poisoning of the soul.
Linden
“Love is space and time measured by the heart.” – Marcel Proust
Hjärtats minne
Lindblom kyler inre hetta, feber och när huden hettar. Den är också behjälplig vid rastlöshet, hyperaktivitet och panikångest.
Lindblom stödjer andningsvägarna, bra att ta till vid influensa och för att få upp slem och snor som sitter djupt.
Lindblom lugnar nerverna och hjärtat och är bra för att drömma lucida drömmar. Lindblom är bra för den typ av ångest som känns i hjärtat, sömnlöshet och stress. Lindblom verkar sederande.
Marcel Proust var den första att mynta begreppet “Ofrivilliga minnen” i romansviten “På spaning efter de tid som flytt”. Proust såg dessa ofrivilliga minnen innehålla det förgågnas essenss, som han ansåg saknades i ett frivilligt minne. I romanen beskriver han en händelse där han äter en lindblomstedoppad madeleinekaka, och ett barndomsminne av att äta en lindblomstedoppad madeleinekaka uppenbaras för honom. Från detta minne följer minnen av hela hans barndom, huset han bodde i, den lilla staden och dess invånare. Detta är temat genom romansviten , via känselportalerna öppnas portaler i minnet.
Yarrow
The Wounded Warrior/The Wounded Healer
Yarrow is a fever remedy, It is also a bitter tonic that promotes digestion. The application as a wound remedy is prehistoric.
Because yarrow has such a strong affinity to the blood and bleeding, it is an important female remedy. It works both ways, to staunch excessive bleeding and to break up stagnant blood. Yarrow is a menstrual regulator. It is useful for irregular menstruation, mental restlessness in menopausal women and inflammation of the ovaries.
Yarrow is indicated for bleeding hemorrhoids. Use a compress with an infusion or hydrosol of yarrow topically and the spagyric tincture internally.
Yarrow both dulls pain and heightens consciousness. In a similar manner, it causes bleeding, stops bleeding, and breaks up stagnant, coagulated blood. Paradox is common in herbal medicine.
It is a warrior remedy. Named after the immortal Greek warrior, with the exception of his weak spot on his ankle (the Achilles tendon), it gives us the strength to face our weakness. Yarrow goes to this spot and strengthens it, turning our weaknesses into strengths and talents.
This is also reflected in the myth of Chiron, the wounded healer. The union of paradox and the union of the feminine and the masculine. (venus: female reproductive system and kidneys , mars: blood, fever, immune system) The transmutation from the warrior into the healer.
The teaching of yarrow is that it is a healer of the sacred wound. It is the sacred wounds that heal us on a deeper level.