Human body ~ soil body ~ Yarrow is calling us back.
Everything at the herbal apiary garden is looking lush after the much needed rain. Holly has been helping me harvest Yarrow leaves between the downpours. She only let me put one leaf in the basket at a time and got really upset if I tried to speed things up by putting handfuls in. I’m grateful (in hindsight!). She’s a natural at harvesting honourably. Toddler life is slowing harvests down to a mindfulness for each and every leaf ~ constantly bringing me back to the present moment.
Yarrow is established in patches across most of the herbal apiary beds, growing up between whatever else is growing. I‘ve been purposeful in initiating and tending to this pattern over a few years. Having this ancient protective ally in as many root communities as possible is great for the health of the whole soil body of the garden.
In the human body, Yarrow tones tiny blood vessels and it gives us a visual clue to its medicine with its many tiny bloodvessel-like leaves. Its Latin name is millefolium which means a thousand leaves.
Yarrow has a particular affinity with the blood vessels of the pelvic bowl which is one of the many reasons I include it in my womb nourish tea and most of my bespoke vaginal steam blends.
Mixed in any blend, Yarrow guides the medicine of other herbs through the blood vessels to where they are most needed. And she does the same thing for the herbal apiary garden by aiding the flow of nutrients through the soil body.
So often I observe herbs doing for the soil body what they do for the human body ~ and of course! This makes sense if you see through the lens of us as interconnected human animals. The earth is an animate, living, breathing body system that we are more closely connected than we might be ready to perceive or admit. And let’s forgive ourselves for forgetting – it’s not easy to stay connected to our greater soil body living in a post-colonial culture rewarding separation.
And Yarrow is guiding the medicine we need for reconnection to the places we most need it through ancient bloodways … to the places in our body that remember. Yarrow is calling us back.