![]() ![]() Rubbed on the vulva by riding a broomstick, aconite was a heart-racing ingredient in witches’ flying ointments. Though the plant flourishes in such idyllic landscapes, it thrives in wasteland locations where healing and balance are in desperate need. The plant’s sterols act as hormones to help harmonize the menstrual cycles whether the flow be scanty or excessive.Ĭows grazing in meadows and pastures where yarrow abounds are more docile. Acting dually, it staunches the loss of blood and encourages blood flow to promote healing. Aided by anti-inflammatory and antiseptic oils, astringent tannins, resins, and silica, yarrow boosts tissue repair. Soldiers have used it up through the First World War to stop blood loss, and it’s also known as woundwort or staunchweed. Yarrow’s effects on blood are evidenced even in its name- achillea, for Achilles who carried it to Troy to treat his troops. For the Miwok and Pawnee it also served as a powerful painkiller. Considered “Life Medicine” by the Navajo, it was chewed for toothaches and made into infusions for earaches. The Ojibwe smoked its florets for ritual and ceremonial purposes. Dried heads and stalks are still integral to the Chinese divination ritual, I Ching, and in the American Southwest, Zuni peoples chewed blossoms and roots before fire-walking or fire-eating. Sprinkling it at the door blocked the entrance of any witches. In the fen country of East Anglia, devil’s nettle, as it’s called, repelled evil spells. Hebridean druids rubbed their eyes with a leaf of yarrow for second sight, clairvoyance. Pressing it to the forehead cleanses the third eye and brings chakras into balance. Reputedly, simply holding the energetic achillea millefolium grants psychic protection. Today, yarrow’s tiny white or pink flowers and feathery leaves are found around the world, testimony to the plant’s importance and reverence by many cultures. If true, herbal plant medicine is older than homo sapiens. At Shanidar, the plants at the site-from yarrow to ragwort and hollyhock-have long been known to have medicinal uses, suggesting that one of those buried was a medicine man, a doctor. Found in the “flower burial” at Shanidar Cave, a Neanderthal site in Kurdistan (60,000 to 35,000 BCE), aromatic yarrow with its gentle essence of anise and licorice has long been a beneficial friend to hominids. ![]()
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