Every day at lunchtime I go out to a spot next to our house to pick weeds. Specifically, I’m looking for Plantain leaf, which I chop up and sprinkle on our dog Griffin’s lunch. Plantain has been a great ally of our sweet but digestively-challenged boy, and I’ve relied on it since he was a pup to keep his gut in balance. As I wrote in this post, we have several types of Plantain growing on our property, the result of disturbance of the soil and the transport of their seeds from their native Europe, probably many decades ago by now.
We also make an Essence of Plantain, which enhances its anti-inflammatory and tissue-healing properties, and Griff gets some of that, too, when he’s feeling under the weather. Our Plantain Essence is also a great tonic to the other mucus membranes of the body, from the throat to the gut and urinary tract. Along with its food-like and tonic properties, Plantain is a gentle but strong anti-microbial and immune booster, and a good plant to know in your local area, and use as a Spagyric for Spring.
Another herb that we rely on for dog and human health is Chamomile. This well-known flower looks like little daisies and smells like green apples, and is beloved for its relaxing properties for the mind and the digestive system. We have quite a bit of it growing randomly around our garden, mostly because Griffin loves to rub his face in the flowers and cover his head with their tiny seeds, spreading them around as he moves, as you can see here.
Although you might not realize it if you mainly use Chamomile as a tea with honey (delicious!), Chamomile is also a bitter herb if it’s extracted well, as with our Chamomile Essence. This Solar-ruled Spagyric is aromatic and cheering, with a stimulating bitter undertone that stimulates appetite and digestion, while also relaxing the digestive system. This makes it useful for bloating, stomach cramps, sluggish digestion, or any condition of tightness or restriction in the gut. It’s also both relaxing and uplifting, and a good ally for anxiety and depression.
Calendula is yet another healing herb we have in our garden, also self-seeding freely and spreading throughout our vegetable beds. It’s is an excellent companion plant for many veggies, and an important first aid and basic herbal medicine plant to have around. Topically, oil infusions, salves, and washes of Calendula can cleanse and heal most minor skin injuries and irritations, especially if you grow one of the high resin types like the “Resina” variety we have.
On a higher level, as I discussed in my talk Power to the (Plant) People, I think of Calendula as an ally for connecting to the time and place that you find yourself in, since it blooms in all seasons of the year. It has a steady presence to the way it’s always out there, shining its orange beauty up at the gloomiest skies and bringing its medicine to us year-round.
As a Spagyric Essence, it’s also very useful internally for tissue damage or irritation, from the mouth, through the throat, into the stomach and out the intestines, where it reduces inflammation, prevents infection, and stimulates rebuilding. This can be healing to such diverse issues as cold sores, sore throats, ulcers, recovery from food poisoning, hemorrhoids, and more.
Outside of the mucus membranes, Calendula is also a lymphatic tonic, increasing the cleanup actions of the whole body in a way that’s different from other lymphatics like Red Root, but which combines well with it for greater effect.
Another plant I talked about in Power to the (Plant) People is Dandelion. This tenacious, resilient plant represents the idea of blooming where you’re planted, of thriving despite difficult conditions, and of leaving the world better than you found it. Dandelion improves the soil where it lives by sending a strong, deep taproot into the earth and bringing up minerals, especially potassium. It’s also a dynamic accumulator of calcium, which attracts earthworms and helps break up damaged and compacted soils.
Those minerals are also useful to anyone who consumes the dandelion, from the bees that rely on its early nectar and pollen, to the deer, birds, and humans that eat the bitter but tasty leaves, to the roots that can be brewed into a nourishing drink. Since much of Dandelion’s medicine is in its minerals, Spagyric processing is uniquely effective at extracting it for medicinal use, since we include the mineral Salts in our Spagyrics to carry the Body of the plant.
Dandelion is also a bitter herb, and so our Dandelion Essence stimulates digestion, assimilation, and elimination of waste by increasing the efficiency of the digestive process. This makes it a great tonic for the spring, when we transition from the more sedentary winter months of heavier foods to more activity and fresher meals of the warmer seasons.
One of my favourite plants to collect in spring and early summer is Nettles. I haven’t been able to get a patch of it established on our property, but it grows in abundance in a few places nearby, and I start watching for its new leaves to come up in early March. Nettles are an intensely nutritious plant, equally intense in their famous sting, and they require care to collect- but they are worth it!
Nettles are also a dynamic accumulator, concentrating calcium, potassium, silicon, and especially iron. This, and their famous sting, make them a classic plant of Mars, expressing that planet’s heat, forceful intelligence, defenses, and fire of vitality. In my talk Inner Talismans, Outer Medicines, I demonstrated a protective magickal salt I made from local Nettles and our Essence of Nettles, drawing together this Martial plant’s mundane and magickal intelligence.
Nettle’s nutrition, also extracted well in our Spagyric work, makes it a superior spring tonic, as does its sting. That sting is from formic acid, which is also the source of the sting of bees and fire ants. Although those creatures can cause allergies, using Nettles as a tonic can actually help alleviate allergic response and decrease histamine. This time of year, when pollen starts to fly, I rely on our Nettles Essence to keep my immune system reacting in a balanced way, and many customers report the same support from it.
Burdock is another food and medicine plant, known as Gobo in Japan, and enjoyed as a vegetable, especially pickled. I like to grate it and add it to my sauerkraut ferment, where it adds an earthy note, almost like olives, as well as a nutritional and medicinal punch. Burdock is a moving tonic- bitter and stimulating to digestion, assimilation, and elimination, and also works its magic in the lymphatic system. Our Essence of Burdock is a reliable tonic for many chronic conditions of infection or inflammation, especially in the digestive system, joints, and skin.
A little more bitter and specific to the liver is Milk Thistle. This herb gets its name from both its appearance and use, each a reflection of the other. Its leaves are green, speckled with white droplets like milk, and this is the signature of its use as a galactagogue, or lactation support.
Acting through the liver’s role in balancing hormones, Milk Thistle supports abundant and nutritious milk supply, but it is also very beneficial for any person’s liver health. It’s a mild laxative as well, and the bitterness in our Milk Thistle Essence wakes up the digestive and metabolic system into more efficient action.
Finally, a polarizing flavour but very cleansing herb: Cilantro. A key ingredient in Thai and Mexican cooking, it’s intense taste is loved and hated, depending on who you ask. I enjoy it in small amounts in those cuisines, but we both take our Cilantro Essence for the strong detoxifying properties it has on the heavy metals we work with in our Alchemical lab. It’s also an excellent digestive tonic, as well as being anti-bacterial and protective to the digestive system.
