Motherwort Part 2: The Great Balancer

I wrote about Motherwort several months ago. Motherwort is one of the Plants that I have been working/playing with for my Plant Spirit Healing Apprenticeship. The more time I share with ki, the deeper our relationship grows, and the more I learn. I have always thought that ki is a wonderful and rich Plant with so many gifts. I mentioned earlier that I use the Flower Essence to help with boundaries, to express things that need to be said, to help with Anxiety and bring one back to the center, and to help discern what the real issues are.

Motherwort is a Heart protector. Ki also helps people going through menopause/peri-menopause, among many other gifts.

What Motherwort recently taught me is that ki is a great balancer. Motherwort is particularly helpful to balance assertiveness and softness. So for people who are more demure or tend to put others first, Motherwort can help you stand up for yourself and be strong. For those who tend to be more aggressive or even rigid, Motherwort can help you soften and be more nurturing. (I should mention that since Motherwort is an excellent Heart Plant, ki helps to bring this balance with Heart energy.) To me, this is Motherwort’s most important gift and why I believe ki is so important now.

We all know that our world is changing and our world needs to change. One of the major areas of change is to bring more nurturing, loving energy into our society. For too long, we have lived in a male-dominated, warring, destructive, constrictive society, which has not served anyone: not Nature, not women, not children, and definitely not men.

It is time that the patriarchal paradigm shifts. Motherwort can help facilitate balance by bringing more nurturing and loving energies into the world.

You might ask, How? Well, first of all, for those of you who have space, Plant Motherwort. Now, know that ki is generous in all aspects, so Motherwort does spread. If you can, sit with ki, spend time with ki, dream with Motherwort, love ki. Get to know Motherwort in any way possible. If you are feeling out of balance, call on ki. Motherwort recommended that I infuse Honey with ki. Motherwort is bitter; therefore, the sweetness of the honey will help to add to ki’s balancing effect. Yes, you can take Motherwort Flower Essence, tincture, and tea. Of course, while you spend time with ki, recognize the areas of your life that need balancing.

Flower Essences to Navigate Anxiety, Stress and the Changes Ahead

We are living during a great time of change. I can feel the frenetic energy, which seems to have been building for quite some time. While change is ultimately beneficial, it often is accompanied by anxiety and stress. We know that anxiety and stress cause many health crises. How many books are written to help us reduce our stress and worries? How many talk shows are there? Yet, we continue to lead our fast paced lives.

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, we need to make lifestyle changes. Fortunately, Flower Essences can help us make these changes. There are many Essences that can help with anxiety and stress; however, I think Blue Vervain, Eastern Hemlock, and Motherwort are particularly important for our changes ahead.

One note, these Essences are great for getting to the root of the stress and bringing sustaining relief and support for change. In an acute situation: an anxiety attack, an accident, a major injury, a stressful meeting, etc, I would (and do) use Bach’s Rescue Remedy. I carry this on me wherever I go and have a bottle in the car. I have seen it prevent people from going into shock after major injuries. Rescue Remedy comes in different forms, my preference is the spray as it is quick and easy to use.

Blue Vervain

Blue Vervain is my number one choice for a person suffering from anxiety. This essence is great for people who are doing too much, always on the go, always doing for everyone else, or who can’t sit still. Blue Vervain helps people who are “wound too tight”, who look like they are about to spring or burst.

We believe that Blue Vervain activates our Blue Channel. Simply put, we have the 7 major chakras. These are connected by a red channel and a blue channel. The red channel is moving upwards and helps to fire all the chakras, to get them moving faster. The blue channel is moving downwards and helps to calm the chakras. As you can imagine in our society, many people have very active red channels. Blue Vervain helps to calm this and bring the chakras into balance.

What I notice is that Blue Vervain is like a breath of fresh air. It gives a person the ability to take a pause and relax. During this time, she realizes how much better and more peaceful she feels; which then encourages her to make the lifestyle changes necessary to remain in this calmer place.

In general, I give an Essence to a person for a 3-5 week cycle, normally I feel that is enough time. Sometimes, we may revisit an Essence down the road. However, I often use Blue Vervain for several cycles. Rarely do I give Blue Vervain to a person for 1 cycle and not revisit ki. People often have very strong reactions to Blue Vervain. In this instance, strong is positive. They return feeling like a new person, or more appropriately, like their true selves. They feel stronger, happier, and calmer.

Eastern Hemlock

Eastern Hemlock is the Flower Essence to help with transition and change. Hemlock is the state tree of Pennsylvania. I first got to know him, when we built our straw-bale house. We chose to use him to enclose our foundation and as the ceiling in our bedrooms. Now, I live in a house made out of hemlock posts and beams. I love to look at him. He is so beautiful and strong. I constantly see figures and faces in his beams. While I love his wood, the tree is even more beautiful. He is slow growing and lives for a long time, up to 800 years! Imagine the wisdom contained in the Hemlock.

All Tree Essences have an affinity for the root chakra. They give support, strength, and protection. The Eastern Hemlock adds his wisdom to help us move through all forms of change. It can be a concrete change like switching a job. Or more abstract such as the planetary changes we are experiencing. Whatever the change, Eastern Hemlock can offer support.

Motherwort

Motherwort is an incredible herb. She is one of the first herbs that I started working with when I seriously began my herbal path. Even though I have been working with her for many years, I am constantly learning more of her gifts. She is amazing.

Motherwort’s form greatly describes her use to help with stress. For the non-herbie, she is a fairly non-descript, green plant. Her flowers form on tall spires. The flowers are small and pinkish-purplish. On close inspection they are amazingly beautiful. Motherwort’s signature is that she is gentle and soft until her flowers and seeds appear, then her spires become very spiky. She becomes the mother protecting her babies.

It is this edginess, this fierceness that makes her Flower Essence so wonderful. Motherwort Flower Essence helps us with our boundaries. Often when we are stressed, we are doing more than we want or should be doing. We are saying yes, when we don’t want to. What Motherwort does is helps us to strengthen our boundaries and learn that it is okay to say no. She helps us to fight for ourselves.

When we suffer from anxiety, often we feel disconnected, like we are all over the place. Motherwort helps to bring ourselves back together and gives us that strong protective place around us. I believe she gives us the ability to know what OUR problems and OUR requirements really are. Which helps one to feel centered.

As I said, there are many Essences that can help with stress and anxiety. These are the Essences that I think are helpful for the anxiety surrounding our planetary changes. Of course, if you have anxiety or want support to make lifestyle changes, I recommend meeting with a Flower Essence Practitioner or other healer.

Motherwort

Motherwort is an amazing Plant.  Ki is used for so many things.  I work with ki as an herb and as a Flower Essence.  In fact, Motherwort is one of the Essences that I use the most. One of my first herb teachers, Susan Hess from Farm at Coventry, taught me that Motherwort is for any time you want your mother’s arms around you.  She shared with us that ki is also for when you want your arms around your child.  I love those images and they have stuck with me.

Motherwort has these beautiful, sweet little flowers; however, when her seeds develop she gets very prickly (or protective).  This physicality is a good description of how I work with ki as a Flower Essence.  Motherwort Flower Essence is protective and strengthening.  She helps us with our boundaries.  So often, our boundaries are weak or two expansive.  So we say yes, when we really want to say no.  Or we allow people to treat us in ways that aren’t healthy.  Motherwort helps us to change this and to create healthy boundaries.

Why am I sharing this Essence with you now?  Well, for two reasons.  First, as I mentioned previously, I have a new garden this year.  Several Plants have become guardians of this garden (Ragweed was the most insistent and visual; however, that is a story for another time.)  This fall as I was working, I discovered that Motherwort was voluntarily growing all along the outer rim of my garden.  To me this was another example of Plants’ sense of humor and another reason for gratitude.  As I spent more time with Motherwort, it was evident that I needed to share ki with you.

I also chose this time because we are heading into the holidays and big family celebrations.  I know that families are wonderful and tend to push our buttons (and our boundaries).  So I thought Motherwort may help you at those prickly times.