Herbal Allies for the Uprising

Hello Every Body, Every Heart, Every Spirit!

I’ve been thinking about how I could be of service right now and I was reminded by a friend of what I could share during this time, and what she suggested was this: Are there any Northeast plants that we can draw healing and wisdom from at this time of uncertainty and uprising? In other words, which plants can help us sustain our minds, bodies, and spirits through the long haul of doing The Work?*

So how can the plants help? Our green allies offer us guidance, nourishment, and healing so that we can show up in the ways we are needed while also reducing the risk of burning out. They help us stay grounded and allow us to better perceive universal truths.

I believe that it is essential to know and partner with the community of plants growing in our own backyards. These plants contain information for us about the land where we live.

And the plants we need also often grow close to us, showing up just when we need them. So I’m sharing plants that grow where I live, in northeastern North America. All of them can be found in Northeast Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 111 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness (Timber Press). Many of these plants grow in other parts of the world, too. If you aren’t in the Northeast, seek out the plants that grow near you, find the plant folk who live in your area, or look for related species to the plants listed here.

Agrimony (Agrimonia species)

The leaves, flowers, and burs of Agrimony in tea (infusion) or tincture from, as well as the flower essence, bring relief to those who hide their pain beneath a cheerful disposition. Agrimony leaves can be burned as an agent of cleansing and purification, to remove any energies projected onto us.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

This beautiful flowering plant is closely related to Echinacea and has similar immune stimulating properties. The flower essence allows our old trauma and shadows to come to the surface so that we may process them with compassion. Jordan Pagán of Ostara Apothecary describes it as an “anti-repressor,” making Black-eyed Susan a very fitting essence for the times.

Black-eyed Susan

Borage (Borago officinalis)

Borage for courage! Both Borage leaf infusion helps restore the nervous system when we become depleted and exhausted. The flower essence instills courage while lightening our hearts when we experience heaviness and grief.

Burdock (Arctium species)

Drinking a daily Burdock root decoction or infusion for several weeks at a time has the power to clear deep seated anger and toxicity in the blood. According to herbalist-yogini-doula Sokhna Mabin Burdock can bring healing to deep ancestral wounds. So deep your great-great granny will feel it.

Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

Have you seen this prickly plant? Pretty fierce looking. The funny thing is, it’s a signal to us that this plant relieves pain. The leaves and roots in tincture would be beneficial for this. The flower essence helps those who are being bullied or are in conflict with authority figures stand in their power.

Cinquefoil (Potentilla species)

Cinquefoil can be used similarly to Agrimony (see above). It also has a history of being used in Hoodoo. It can be used for unbinding. The plant sends a message to those meddling in our lives to keep their hands off. (Its 5 leaflets are reminiscent of the hand shape.)

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Comfrey is a powerful wound healer. So powerful you must take care when using it topically as it can heal the skin over a wound, potentially trapping in infection. Use comfrey topically only on well cleaned superficial (not puncture) wounds. The flower essence can be partnered with for healing deep emotional wounds. Take care with using Comfrey internally (especially the root), particularly if there is a pre-existing liver condition.

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

The Tree of Peace of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Instills peace in our hearts and our nerves. Wound healing. Pine flower essence promotes self acceptance and helps one to release long held guilt. Learn more information on the Bach Pine essence here. Eastern White Pine flower essence, according to Woodland Essences offers “the Foundation of ancient wisdom to help us remember how to ‘put the pieces back together.’ A guiding light to illuminate and support one's re-membering. Stability and balance in thought and action.”

Hawthorn (Crataegus species)

Hawthorn is a guardian tree offering us tender heart healing and protection. Check out those thorns – they are formidable. Birds nest in Hawthorn branches for a good reason. Protection. Also, each thorn has the potential to become a branch – sit with that metaphor for a while. Hawthorn leaves and flowers are gently calming and her fruit gently regulates heart rhythm, helps to move fat through the blood and digestive tract, and balances blood pressure.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

This gorgeous wild bitter mint soothes the heart and nervous system. She calms heart palpitations and eases hypertension. Whenever I feel like freaking out, Motherwort cools my nervous anxiety and tension. Tincture form is my favorite way to take this medicine. Take care to use low doses if you have hypothyroidism (the herb is used to calm hyperthyroidism).

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Mugwort initiates us into the ways of the medicine plants. She helps shift our perception so that we can see the world from a fresh perspective, one more aligned with the natural world. In other words, she help help you get and stay woke. Drinking Mugwort infusion, taking the tincture, or using the infused oil topically enhances our ability to dream (dreaming is happening all the time, dreaming is really waking up). With Mugwort’s help we can dream the new world we know is possible. Do not use Mugwort during pregnancy, it is stimulating to the uterus (which makes it helpful for regulating menstruation and stirring creativity).

Mugwort

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Standing tall like a beacon, Mullein activates and heals the physical and energetic spine. Drinking the infusion or tincture is calming to the nerves and helps us process grief, which is held in the lungs.

Rose (Rosa species)

One of my favorite spirit nurturing herbs. Rose shifts our mood, cools anger, and stimulates our senses. She is a powerful healer who opens us up to our true, peaceful, sensual selves.

Skullcap (Scutellaria species)

If you are looking to slow incessant mental chatter, Skullcap is a good friend to have around. Taking a bit of the tincture before bedtime slows the mental roll and eases us into restful sleep and healing dreams.

Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum species)

Solomon’s Seal is a gently restorative tonic for building the body and spirit back up after illness or exhaustion. The flower essence is used for protection and wise decision making. It is also said to enhance synchronicity. According to Healing Spirits Herb Farm, it helps us adapt to changes that have already occurred.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Everyone deserves a good night’s rest and Valerian does the job, for most people. For a small percentage of folks, Valerian is more activating than relaxing, so do a test on a day where you don’t have a lot of commitments to see if you are one of the rare few who don’t benefit from the relaxing effects of Valerian.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Last but certainly not least, Yarrow is a favorite herb for protection and clearing energy. The flower essence helps us establish and maintain healthy boundaries. The herb in poultice or salve form helps to stop injuries from bleeding. It’s an essential ally for every revolutionist’s first aid kit.

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I dedicate this post to those with boots on the ground, doing the heavy lifting around undoing racial oppression. May you find your favorite green allies, may you find the ones to lean on when you need to nourish and restore your being.

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*From my view, the work includes the reconfiguring of our perceptions, in concert with rebuilding and restructuring the systems and structures to be beneficial to all humans. The work is staying with the awareness of how we relate to the world, staying with the practice of relating to each other with care, and of being vulnerable and open to the ways we relate with regard to the construct of race. For me and other white folks, it’s opening our eyes to the ways in which we benefit from the systems and structures of racial oppression and how we can leverage our privilege to bring more awareness to this raw and gaping wound.

I am by no means an expert on this topic and this post is not meant as an education about the history of racial constructs and white supremacy. So I’m sharing a few organizations and resources to educate yourself on this topic. It is deep and there are many more to explore – this is just the tip of the iceberg to get you started.

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond

Brownicity

The Action PAC

75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

Green Is in the Heart

This is the 4th post I’m sharing on the Communication of Color, particularly through the lens of the plant realm. You can find the previous posts here:

The Power of Red in Times of Disruption

Orange ya glad? How Orange Stimulates Joy

Yellow Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

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Hello!

How are you doing?

By my count it’s day 72 of the “quarantine”* (or whatever you’d like to call it).

It’s also the 10th week of distance learning for my 7 year old, and his teachers are trying to keep it fresh. One of the teachers recently sprung an impromptu dance party on the class. She played “Groove Is in the Heart,” one of my favorite 90s hits by Deee-Lite. Maybe you know it (if not, or if you want to take a trip down memory lane, the video is below). Well, it took me back and got me moving, my heart pumping. And it got me thinking about the heart and about this week’s post about the color Green.

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Green is in the heart, according to the chakra system. The fourth chakra (Sanskrit: anahata for “unhurt,” “unbeaten,” or “unstruck”) lives at the heart center, the place where love, compassion, and caring are expressed. This is also where past hurts, jealousy, and relationship wounds live. When there is wounding in our hearts, we may have difficulty empathizing, we may find it difficult to be kind with ourselves and with others. There might be a lot of negative self talk or limits set around our perceived ability to express love. We may feel that the “grass is greener” on the other side, in other words we may be green with envy.

As Kermit says, it ain’t easy being green. Maybe that’s because many of us are living in our heads, cut off from our hearts. It’s always the right time to work on healing our hearts to nurture self love so that we can create a compassionate, loving society. I always look to the Earth for inspiration and guidance for healing. It’s a lovely synchronicity that Earth and Heart are anagrams in the English language.

The first thing I do when I feel disconnected from my heart is tap into the energy of the Earth. I bring awareness to my heart and then I let that awareness dive down through my body and into the soil. I let it continue to travel down through all of the layers of this magnificent planet right down to the core. The core is the heart (cuore, Italian for “heart”) and our Great Mother’s heart beats out the electromagnetic field to nurture us with her energy, and to shield us from the powerful rays of the Sun. Tap into that energy of fierce love and protection when your heart is aching and see what happens.

There are a lot of beautiful treasures from the Earth (aka, stones) to sit with when you are needing a boost of heart energy. You can call on their energy if you don’t have them on hand. Do your best to obtain them from a sustainable source if you seek to sit with them physically. Here are a few that resonate with the heart: green calcite, malachite, moss agate, tree agate, green garnet, fuchsite, fluorite, and chrysocolla. Pink is another heart centered color and stones that feature pink also light up the heart, including rose quartz, pink calcite, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, and ruby in zoisite (which also features green). I find it interesting that pink and green vibrate on a similar frequency - my dad and son are both color blind (deuteranopic) and sometimes have trouble differentiating colors in the pink-green color range, depending on the value.

And of course, the plants! Just being outside communing with the green ones is enough to restore some balance to the heart. If I’m feeling a little stuck or fatigued, simply looking out my apartment window at the lushly leafed-out trees gives me a little boost of heart energy and refreshes my spirit. Houseplants could do the same.

There are so many beautiful herbs that resonate with the heart, some more specifically than others. Many of them feature the colors green, pink, or red prominently. Green often indicates nourishing and cleansing, while red and pink speak to the blood and the heart, both physically and energetically. Here are just a few lovely green allies that soothe the heart.

Hawthorn (Crataegus species)

She’s a fiercely protective tree whose leaves, flowers, and fruit are most often employed for healing the physical and energetic heart. The berries help break down fat in the blood and digestive tract, and the fruit, leaves, and flowers lower blood cholesterol, regulate the heart rate, and balance blood pressure Her sharp thorns are also a signature for her protective nature and her action on the heart.

Beach rose (Rosa rugosa)

Rose (Rosa species)

Swoon! Rose has my heart all a-flutter. We know her well for her love-invoking abilities, her renown as a romance enhancer, her transportive perfume. Rose is also a protector of the heart being antioxidant and cooling to the blood. Her thorns – technically prickles – like the thorns of Hawthorn, are another signature of her cardio-protective properties.

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

The flowers of most cherry species have a gentle soporific quality and the bark of P. serotina in particular is used traditionally to induce sleep, often where there is a cough that keeps one up at night. Like Hawthorn, black cherry regulates the heart’s rhythm and helps lower blood pressure.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

This gorgeous bitter mint is well known for its heart regulating properties. It’s even right there in the species name, cardiaca. Motherwort alleviates hypertension and heart palpitations while soothing the nervous system. One of the signatures of this plant is the way the leaves grow in a rhythmic or syncopated pattern up the stem. (Thank you Julia Graves for sharing that signature)

My favorite perch, in Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

One of my favorite trees, Eastern White Pine soothes the heart’s rhythm and brings peace to the nerves. Like Motherwort, the signature is in the syncopated pattern of the whorled branches. Simple spending time with this tree offers a reassurance that everything is going to be okay.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Deeply nourishing and restorative Stinging Nettle is like the magnet in our heart’s compass leading us to our True North. Rich in chlorophyll, plant proteins, and other compounds that balance our bodies in just about all of the ways, this plant is a great foundational herb. It has been relied upon for millennia for its life-sustaining properties, notably by ascetic monks living in caves, like Milarepa, who turned green from consuming so much of the stuff.

Unfurling heart-shaped leaves of Violet (Viola sororia)

Violet (Viola species)

This forest-edge-dwelling cutie emerges in spring to wake our hearts up to the season of new beginnings. Drinking the leaves daily for a few consecutive weeks helps to cleanse the blood and nourish the body. Heart-shaped leaves tip us off to this plant’s ability to ease a grieving heart.

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*The quarantine, La Quarantena, a term coined by Venetians during the Black Death is derived from the 40 days (quaranta giorni) of isolation of a ship’s crew and cargo to prevent the spread of disease. Our quaranta giorni has now reached settantadue and will likely continue a few more settimana before we shift to a new stage of coming out of our bubbles.

In next week’s post we’ll move on up the rainbow body to the color Blue. Stay tuned…