Yarrow Transcript

Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to the Aromatic Medicine Garden. I'm Erika
Galentin with the Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine. And today I am going to
speak to you about an incredible plant. I mean, they're all incredible. I think I start every
single plant talk off with a similar sentiment. But this plant in particular is really quite
phenomenal and this plant talk was inspired by one of our recent live Q&A sessions
where I told a little story about this plant. And folks who were there at our live session
were very excited for me to actually do a plant talk on it.

So today we are going to be chatting about Yarrow. Yarrow, also known as Achillea
millefolium. Achillea, like the Achilles, like Achilles heel, but also like the God Achilles.
We'll talk about him a little bit more in a minute. Achillea millefolium. The
"millefolium," meaning "thousand-leaved," is actually because of the leaves themselves,
which you can see hopefully are very feather-like. And each one of these tiny leaflets, or
excuse me, each one of these tiny leaves itself is very deeply cut, very deeply serrated.
They each have their own little leaflets as well. And so it's known as the Thousand-leaved
Yarrow.

I often think about, you know, especially the first thing in the spring when these come
up, they kind of look like squirrel tails everywhere. So just, definitely quite a feature. Now
there are other plants that definitely have similar foliage, but there's nothing quite like
the Yarrow. It definitely is quite unique in its feathery squirrel tail-like ways.

So Achillea millefolium, this is in the Asteraceae family or the Daisy family, which is a
huge family. Like lots and lots and lots and lots of plants are in that family. And it's
interesting, its common name, Yarrow, comes to us from Anglo Saxon and from Dutch.
And so it's sort of a combination of those two Western European dialects that have
created this word Yarrow, which is what we know the plant to be.

Now, interestingly, it's got other really super fun names in English, especially in some of
the older British herbal literature and, you know, older like translations of literature
coming from Western Europe from hundreds of years ago in the herbalism tradition. But
other names that also highlight some of its traditional use. Staunch Weed. So to like,
staunch something is to kind of stop it from flowing. Okay. So Staunch Weed.

Herb militaris. Herb militaris, meaning like herb of the military. Bloodwort, also. So
something about having an affinity with the blood, as was this other name in the
Sanguinary. So to be Sanguine, if you remember from our Temperaments, this is our talk

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on the Temperaments and the Elements. To be Sanguine, it's of the blood. To be
Sanguine in nature is sort of represented by that particular humour, the blood. So, to be
sanguinary. Sanguinary being, this is a blood herb. So to Staunch Weed, Bloodwort,
Sanguinary and then Herb militaris comes from, or militaris comes from some of its
traditional use. So I'll share a little bit more about that in a second.

Interestingly enough, we have a similar sentiment in some of the translations from

Scott's Gaelic from this plant as well. We have "that which closed the earth," "the plant
that staunches bleeding," and Bloodweed. So there's definitely something going on with
blood and bleeding and staunching bleeding and Yarrow. I'll just put that out there and
we'll go into those.

So like I mentioned, this is in the Daisy family, which is a huge family and it's got these
really wonderful, very obvious sort of leaves that are just feathery-like and beautiful. And
these corymbs I think are what they are called, these sort of like flat topped racemes of
flowers that come out. And of course as an aromatic has quite a scent and in some ways
it's easier to detect than others. I always find, you know, you've got to do some pinching
and smelling sometimes in order to get the aromatics out of a plant.

This one here in particular is just about to go to seed, so it doesn't have a lot of its ray
florets left, but it's been, it's a nice one, and it's quite a wonderful strong scent. And I've
got a little spider as well that's hanging out right there. It's wonderful. I just harvested
this from outside. I will say the other little creature that came with the Yarrow today was
a tiny little snail. The snail was on the leaves. So I'm going to put this, pop the snail back
on the leaves and see if we can. It'll enjoy itself there. So snails and spiders have an
affinity for Yarrow also. Okay.

Native Habitat & Distribution

Talking about native habitat for Yarrow, like where it is native to, is such an interesting
story because some people say that it's native all across the sort of temperate regions in
the world. So, you know, if you were to kind of draw a circle around the Northern
Hemisphere where the United States lies, sort of that whole belt, okay, that they say that
Yarrow is native.

Now, there's lots of different Yarrow species across the world, but millefolium in
particular is said to be native to this whole kind of like, circum-planetary belt. However,
there are other folks who say that that's actually not the case and that Achillea
millefolium and that which we know of from the European, Western European herbal
tradition and Western European sort of homelands is native to there, but that actually
there was a very, very similar species native to North America known as Achillea
lanulosa, which are so similar in their physical characteristics that the only way that you
can tell them apart is by looking at their chromosomes.

And actually what happened was that Yarrow millefolium, being brought over during the
colonial times, easily hybridized with one of the Yarrows that was here. And so what we

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kind of have growing as a native Yarrow is really sort of a hybrid of these. And who's to
say, really, what's right, and what's wrong about it? I'm not entirely sure. I have a feeling
that there's going to be a botanist out there someday that's really going to tackle the
phylogeny of Yarrow and let us know really where it hails from.

But what I think is interesting is that there is a tradition of use of Yarrow from the
Western European tradition that I feel very closely related to, that is very similar to a
tradition of use with First Nations peoples in the United States. And that these, you
know, plants being similar, the lanulosa and the millefolium being so very similar, that
these traditions kind of grew up in their respective places as a result of the plant being
present in both of these sort of kinds of cultural landscapes at the same time.

And that it's interesting that the crossover maybe happened, you know, as a part of the
colonizing piece, but that the knowledge base from Western European tradition came
from its own tradition of use and whereby, you know, a lot of plants that are native to
North America, the Western European use came via sort of the appropriation of that
knowledge from Indigenous people, First Nations people here.

So Yarrow had its own tradition in Europe, as, you know, Achillea millefolium, while it
also had its own traditions here in the United States as Achillea lanulosa, or who knows,
maybe they're the same plant. I don't know. It's a bit confusing for me.

But I do think it's interesting, you know, when very, very similar herbs, you know, grow in
different regions of the world and evolve with human culture in those places and that
those human cultures, independent of each other, come to the same conclusions about
the medicine of that plant. So I think that Yarrow really spans space and time like this
and in many ways, and I think that's really beautiful.

Aromatherapy Uses
So I think some, you know, introductory themes. Gosh, this plant, for me, is so powerfully
archetypal, and in many ways it's become a symbol of the herbalist for me. You know,
taking this from my own perception of things, I see Yarrow as a totem herb for all plant
medicine people, aromatic medicine practitioners, herbalists. You name it. It is almost a
totem, if you will. And it's a totem specifically because of its association as a wound
healing herb, but also its association with healers in general.

And there's a story that I'm going to tell you about Yarrow in particular that comes to us
from Greco Roman mythology in the story of Chiron or the wounded healer. And that
story resonates in the psyche with me so much because it is very much like,
representative of my philosophy of practice and the role that I feel I have to play for
myself in doing this work that I do with plants and people and that self reflection. So I'm
going to tell you a little bit more about that. But it is the wounded healer's herb.

Interestingly enough, as a wound healer, it also has, as some of its common names have,
and even its Gallic names translated in English have identified, this is an herb that has a

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really significant affinity for the blood as a tissue. It also has an affinity for the vascular
system in particular, you know, the venous return, but also, you know, sort of the
capillaries and the arterioles and the arteries and the quality of the blood vessels
themselves.

And then it also has an affinity, as we're going to find out, this is an herb of Venus. There
is also an affinity for the, for healing in the genitourinary system. So this is kind of
urinary and reproductive as well. So a wound healer and a blood herb and all these other
things.

But I think we'll start first with just a couple of stories about this plant and why it means
so much to me as sort of a totem herb for the herbalist, totem herb for the aromatic
medicine practitioner, and a symbol of our work in the world. This name, Achillea
millefolium, its botanical binomial. The genus name Achillea comes from Achilles,
named after Achilles. Achilles, God of the sun. And also quarrelsome war hero. Right.

And he would lead. He led his armies into battle. And it is said that Yarrow was named
after him because this was the herb that he used to treat his soldiers' bleeding wounds in
the battlefield. And again, this is this idea of Yarrow being able to staunch. Right. And to
help to quell bleeding, excess bleeding.

But what's even further interesting about that is that in the stories as they roll out,
Achilles actually learned about this plant from his teacher, Chiron, the greatest of all
centaurs. And Chiron, being a centaur, was immortal. And part of Chiron's story, which
is significant to me regarding the archetype of Yarrow being the wounded healer's herb
and identifying the herbalist and the aromatic medicine practitioner as the wounded
healer.

This is the story, and I'll get into a little bit more about how that's impacted my
philosophy, practice. So Chiron was playing around one day, I believe the story is with
Hercules, and was accidentally shot by Hercules. And deeply wounded. Deeply wounded.
Severely wounded, we'll say. And the thing about Chiron being a centaur is that he was
immortal, so he wasn't going to die from his wound. But the wound was so significant
that it never healed. And it stood as sort of a constant source of pain for him throughout
the course of his life.

And it was through this experience of pain, they say, and through this experience of
tending to this wound that would never heal – you can imagine the metaphors are
building here – that Chiron learned how to help heal and support other people's wounds
and other people's pain.

So Chiron, who also taught Asclepius. Asclepius is thought to be the Father of Medicine,
right, in the Greco Roman tradition and the Western European tradition. Chiron taught
Asclepius medicine. Chiron taught Achilles medicine. Chiron, who could never heal from
his wounds, spent a lifetime in pain and used that experience to learn how to help
others.

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And the story of Chiron, for me, is significant because I think a lot about my work as an
herbalist, as an aromatic medicine practitioner, in clinical practice, the role that I play in
people's lives, and I also think about what that requires of me as a human being in order
to be able to remain a safe person for my clients, in order to remain a healthy
practitioner for my clients, it means that I have to constantly also be working on myself. I
have to be working on my own wounds. I have to be working on my own pain.

And it is oftentimes through the story of our own healing journeys that we learn to
become healers. I often say to my mentees and folks who want to listen, like you all, that
I feel like, you know, a lot of us come to the plants through our own healing journeys,
through our own health and wellness challenges. We come to the plants because we
have been left with no other options. We've been abandoned, we've been gaslit, we've
been shamed.

And we come to the plants to find healing for our own lives and our own bodies. And it is
through that work, that learning to work with plants to heal ourselves, that we become
that much more knowledgeable about holding that space, and supporting others in their
own healing work as well, just like Chiron did. And that in tending to our own wounds,
tending to our own pain, we become the healer.

And when I say healer, when I'm talking about working with other people and being an
herbalist, being an aromatic medicine practitioner, I'm not talking about me healing
them. I don't do that healing work on them or to them. The plants do that healing work,
and my client does the healing work. My clients become the healers. I only refer to
myself as a healer, and a wounded healer at that. When I'm referring to the work that I'm
doing on myself, that's when I become a healer.

And that knowledge base of learning how to work on myself, how to take care of my
body, how to take care of my emotional realm, how to evolve in my spirit. That work, and
focusing on that work, brings me a set of tools that I can then also help facilitate that
work in other people, if that makes sense.

So Yarrow, to me, is very much the archetype of this. This work, this inner work, this
reflective practice work, this humility that goes into understanding that my role as an
herbalist is not about healing others, it's about facilitating them becoming their own
healers, and that the plants are the guides. Yarrow is sort of, I don't know, it's sort of a
talisman to all of that.

And what's really interesting, you know, I studied herbalism and herbal medicine over in
the UK, in Scotland. I did my four year degree program there at the University of Wales,
Cardiff, and the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine was actually based in Glasgow. And I
remember, you know, it was going on about eight years and I decided to move back to the
United States. And when I did, I wanted to sort of memorialize my experience by getting
a tattoo, because that's what I do.

And of course I was, I spent a lot of time thinking about what tattoo I wanted to get, what
did I want it to mean. And so I was thinking about something very poignant regarding
the story of Yarrow and, you know, me leaving Scotland and leaving, I had a full time

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clinical practice over there and I was going to be starting my life all over. I had no idea
what it was going to be like here, you know, in the United States as far as trying to set up
a practice and to do the work that I was doing. And I was afraid I was going to forget. I
was afraid I was going to forget who I had become and why I had become that person.

And I wanted to, sort of demarcate my origin story as an herbalist and my origin story on
my work as a wounded healer. And so I scoured the library at the University of Glasgow
and I found an old book which itself had come from, you know, going through archives
of old churches and whatnot. And it told the story of how in Scotland, before there were
hospitals, it was the priests in the monasteries who were the herbalists. They were
physicians. They were responsible for taking care of the people when they were sick.

And as part of a spiritual practice, according to this particular source, as part of a

spiritual practice in that role of healer, very sacred role of herbalist as physician, when
they would go out to harvest the plants, there would be prayer involved.

And it was interesting because I found one for Yarrow and it was in Gaelic, Scots Gaelic.
And of course I couldn't pronounce it to save my life, but the translation of it was potent
enough for me to feel like, ah, that's that tattoo I'm going to get. And it talked about this
prayer that would go out. And it was of course, sometimes some of the versions of the
prayer have the Virgin Mary in it, some don't.

But the version that I have as a tattoo basically translates as "I will pull the Yarrow. I will
pull it with my strength. I will pull it with the hollow of my hand." "I will pull the Yarrow.
I will pull it with my strength, I will pull it with the hollow of my hand." And to me, that
was… It gives me chills every time I think about it. It was my way of saying, I will not
forget. I will not forget this journey that I am on as a wounded healer.

And so, in many ways, this is exactly how I feel about Yarrow, and this is how I feel about
the role that it plays in the emotional realm and the work that it plays. So we're going to
talk a little bit more about that, and then I'm going to dive into how it is used in
herbalism as well, internally to support the blood and internal wounds.

History & Folklore

I've talked a lot about Chiron and Achilles and the wounded healer archetype and how
Yarrow sort of represents that for me. And it's become this talisman of the humility of
working in this role as herbalist, as aromatic medicine practitioner. But there's definitely
a few other sort of, like, folkloric slash, I don't know, archetypal traditions that come
across about Yarrow and its sort of affinities for the emotional realm and affinities for
the spiritual realm.

I'll start off by saying that in medical astrology, Yarrow is considered an herb of Venus,
and Venus also is Aphrodite. There is a sort of physical affinity for the genitourinary
system. It's part of the categorization of Venus itself. But what's really also very
wonderful about Venus is that many of us know her as the Goddess of Love. And there's

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all of these. It's so interesting because on one side, it's all about this wound and this
bleeding and staunching bleeding, and the wounded healer and, you know, learning to
help others through your own suffering.

And then on the other side is love. This idea of love, which really spoke to me. I found a
few sort of, I don't know, beautiful sayings that came through from "The Scots Herbal,"
which is a really lovely book. But one that was, in particular, that I thought was really
super fun was that there's a tradition of sewing an ounce of Yarrow, it says specifically an
ounce, up into some flannel and placing it under your pillow before going to bed, having
repeated the following words, it would bring a vision of the future husband or wife.

And it says, "Thou pretty herb of Venus's tree, Thy true name is Yarrow. Now who will
my bosom friend must be, Pray tell thou me tomorrow." And so there's quite a few
different traditions of sort of love divination, love charms, you know, yeah, that come
through the literature about this plant and using this plant in this particular way.

It is also considered, you know, in some, a remedy. So it's a remedy for the warrior. It's a
remedy for the war torn, the battle torn. But there's also a tradition of using the flower
essence. And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about flower essences today because it's
not something that we've really touched on much here in the Aromatic Medicine Garden.
And I think that in the cases of really metaphorical medicine like Yarrow, doing a flower
essence can be really, really powerful way of working with the plant. So I'm going to talk
to you just a little bit about that in a second.

But the Flower Essence Society talks about Yarrow for people who are too delicate or too
susceptible to their environment, who are needing some warrior energy or warrior
protection. And so, you know, it's not just about like, you know, going out there and being
like "raaawr" on the battlefield and being able to, like, chop heads off. It's also about the
protection that we get from that sort of that divine warrior energy.

I think that there's also a really beautiful tradition of that protection coming from, again,
Scottish lore about, you know, before you go on a trip, before you go on a journey
somewhere that you go have a little conversation with the Yarrow and maybe take a little
bit to carry with you in your pocket and you say a prayer, you know, for safe travel, safe
return. So, there is some, there's a real protective energy here.

So there's warrior, you know, thinking about Herb militaris, as one of its names, not only
does it have that sort of, oh, I've been wounded in battle and my wounds need healing,
but it's also the protector, it's also the warrior, and it's also the lover. It's also love as well.
It's kind of these beautiful things.

Flower Essence
So the flower essence. I just want to talk to you about flower essences briefly, because I
just think they're really, I mean, and you can do this with any plant, any plant, aromatic
medicine plant, you name it. So the tradition of making a flower essence is that you

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harvest the flowers and you let them sit in spring water. So you don't want to use tap
water, you want to use some kind of spring water if you can. And depending on who you
talk to or what sort of energetics you're trying to get into some say you expose that water
and that flowers floating in the water.

It's just a few, sometimes just one, floating in a little dish with the water, and you expose
that to the sun and you let that sit in the sunlight for several hours. There are some folks
who do it in full moonlight. I, in particular, do all of my flower essences by full
moonlight. I have a little altar space set up outside in my woods where I can get some
full moon energy. Not every moon, but some. And so I will set up, you know, a space
where I do all my flower essences on this altar space. And I use full moonlight as sort of
the energizer for that essence.

And then once the cycle of the moon is done, I will go and I will bring it inside. So just for
the evening, by the way, I'll bring it inside and I will bottle that up, preserve it with
alcohol so it's at least 25% alcohol, and that becomes your mother flower essence. And
then sort of in the realm of homeopathy, you put one drop into a small bottle, you fill the
rest with brandy, you succuss it.

And I will often, you know, if I'm thinking about a particular purpose for a flower
essence, I will oftentimes I will think about that purpose as I'm doing the secussion, and
then I will put it down and I will label it, and that is my flower essence. And the idea here
is that you're capturing sort of the energetic imprint of the flower of that plant. And, you
know, whether this is real or is measurable by sort of earthly means or scientific means is
sort of up for debate.

But I tend to think of flower essences, for me, they're all about intention. They're all
about metaphor, the medicine of the metaphor. So this means that you can go out into
your garden and you can have a relationship with any plant that's in your garden, let's
say. Or maybe you've got a Basil that's flowering on your windowsill and you want to do a
flower essence with that Basil. You can make that essence, whatever it is you want it to
be. Now there is a database out there that says this flower essence is for this thing, and
this flower essence is for this thing. And I go, hogwash. My thoughts are that the plants
tell you what those essences are for.

And in the case of Yarrow, this is a plant that I use as a flower essence a lot, and I use it
as a flower essence specifically for the wounded healer's work. And so while I have a
client who is going through and processing an enormous amount of trauma and they're
not processing necessarily with me because I'm not a therapist, but the trauma speaks
through their body and their body's lived experience. And they're, you know, working in a
safe environment with a therapist and they're working with somatics, they're doing other
things.

I'm going to bring in some herbs to support your nervous system. Let's bring in some
herbs to support your body as it's been impacted by this trauma. And let's bring in this
flower essence to just honor the wounded healer, you know, to honor the fact that you
are on the battlefield. And this is the wounded healers. And, so I'll just put a drop in their
tincture blend. So flower essences can be really, really lovely.

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And you can add them to tincture blends. You can add them to your teacup. You can just
do one drop straight in the mouth. Sometimes, you know, you can put them on pulse
points, so it's just like a drop here, you can do that. You can rub it into your temples, you
can put them into your bath, you can even put them into, you know, if you use any
particular lotion body product, you can put them into your shampoo if you wanted or
your conditioner, depending on.

So flower essences are really, really versatile and they're very safe and they're very gentle.
And I think that they're an opportunity for you to start building a one-on-one
relationship with a plant. And whilst it's important, I think, to sort of honor the
traditions that have come before us, I also want to invite you to explore creating meaning
and metaphorical medicine out of flowers that are around you that speak to you about a
specific thing.

And maybe that's joy, maybe that's grief, maybe that's, you know, overcoming jealousy,
maybe that's, you know, who knows what it is? But that flower speaks to you and you
make an essence from that flower and work with that medicine, work with that
metaphor in that way. And it's very tangible. It's very cool. So I do love flower essences
for this kind of work. And I do love Yarrow as a flower essence for sure.

Aromatic Medicine Preparations

Okay, so let's talk about some of the aromatic medicine preparations that are available
for Yarrow. I will absolutely say that this is for sure an herb to try as an incense or as part
of an incense blend. It has a really deep aroma when it's burnt. You know, I don't know if
it's really intelligible from other burnt plant material, to be honest with you, but I find
that Yarrow, dried Yarrow on a charcoal has a very, very particular – there's a richness to
it, there's a depth to it that's really quite beautiful and there's even a little bit of
sweetness there.

So I highly recommend for those of you who are incense makers that you give this a go as
an incense. And I would say, you know, the flowering tops are great. They have a
different scent to them when they're burned than the leaves. The leaves are not as
unique in their aroma as the flowers are. I'll say that. So I tend to use dried flowering tops
the most for incense. It's really quite good.

But then I'll also say one of the most common forms of, well, it's becoming more
common, I'll say. What's becoming more common is the hydrosol. And then of course we
have the essential oil. I'll talk about them sort of together, but for the most part, one of
the things that makes Yarrow hydrosol so cool and what makes Yarrow essential oil so
cool is that most of the time, not all of the time, but most of the time when you distill
Yarrow, it distills bright blue. I don't know if you can see that. It may just look black to
you on your... And, it looks like it's in a green bottle, but I promise you this is in a clear
glass bottle.

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So this is caused by a compound in the essential oil known as chamazulene. And
chamazulene is an incredible anti-inflammatory. And so that definitely, you know, kind
of brings us to the discussion of topical use on the skin. But what I'll say is that the
Yarrow, when it distills, is just absolutely gorgeous.

Now not all Yarrow is going to have blue oil. It depends on where it was grown, how old
the plant is, as far as where it is in its life cycle for the year, and the amount of sun
exposure it has. There's like, a whole bunch of different elements that come into why
Yarrow might be blue. You might also see white, or like not white, a clear Yarrow
essential oil as well – doesn't mean that it's not as good. It just doesn't have the
chamazulene in it that some of these other varieties do or growing conditions produced.

I was really fortunate to be at Oshala Farm earlier this year out in the Applegate Valley in
Oregon where they're cultivating Yarrow for the herbal industry and the supply chain
there and producing. It's a beautiful organic regenerative organic herb farm. It's
gorgeous. And they just, there's so much love that they put into their work out there,
really. And so they have these fields of Yarrow. And I was blessed enough to be able to
distill the Yarrow and I harvested by hand 15 pounds of, well, it was probably more like 16
pounds of the flowering tops.

And I packed it into the column and I was able to get out of a 60 liter still. I was able to
get 4 gallons of absolutely gorgeous hydrosol where, you know, the essential oil was still
kind of mixed in and floating on top, but the hydrosol was just this beautiful oceanic
blue. It was gorgeous. And there was something about that blue color that just kept
making me think about justice and purity and, I just... Those are the words that kept kind
of coming to me with that blue. So really, really beautiful for sure. The hydrosol and the
essential oil.

And then of course, you can also work with Yarrow as an infused oil. I think it makes an
incredible infused oil. This is something that you can do from dried, which is ideal with
infused oils. There's only a few outliers when it comes to fresh and using fresh plant
material for infused oils. I think that Yarrow does really well as a dried infused oil. And
sometimes I'll use an alcohol intermediary, which is sort of an advanced technique. And
that really brings a lot of the aromatics into the oil as well.

But I will use the Yarrow infused oil for this for the aromatic medicine purposes of
protection and also for that sort of divine, wounded healer, slash warrior need. And it's a
lot less intense than the essential oil is. But I'll say this, whether it be the essential oil, the
infused oil or the hydrosol, some people get pretty irritated by Yarrow on the skin. They
may have a history of having an Asteraceae plant family allergy. But Yarrow in particular
seems to irritate some people.

So if you're going to be using Yarrow topically on the skin, it's always best to sort of do
like a test patch where, you know, I'm just putting a little bit of what you're going to use
on the skin and letting it sit there for, you know, a little while and see what the skin does,
just to make sure. Because Yarrow doesn't do well for some people, it makes them itchy
and gives them rashes and stuff.

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That being said, when it comes to the essential oil, I don't tend to actually diffuse this in
the air. It's too precious. I will use the Yarrow essential oil as a component of a botanical
perfume again or like what I call botanical perfume. If you take the botanical perfuming
course, you'll probably learn way better techniques than what I use. But this is really sort
of like a blend in a little bit of oil that is quite strong that a person can sort of go through
a ritual of anointing oneself every day with a mantra or something like that.

And so I will often put Yarrow into that blend, you know, again, just for that energy of
protection and warrior nature and the wounded healer and these things. So I don't really
diffuse this.

Some people use the essential oil topically for troubled skin. So skin that's sort of
congested and we're going to learn a little bit more about how Yarrow is really quite
cutting and quite thinning to congested states. And so, you know, skin that's kind of oily
and congested and you know, maybe troubled because it's congested and oily or stuck or
stagnant, a little bit of Yarrow can be used. It has a really powerful anti-inflammatory
action. So it can really help support the healthy resolution of inflammation on the skin. If
it doesn't irritate your skin.

I will say that, you know, more often than not I'm using the essential oil as part of a
botanical perfume. It's got a really good base note to it as well. And it's more the hydrosol
that I'd be using for skin support and skin care. It's a very rich oil and it's like, it's got, it
reminds me of Chamomile because Chamomile goes blue as well. It's got some deep
rich, sort of deep Chamomile tones to it, but there's also something about it that's kind
of minty at the top. It's quite an interesting combination, the Yarrow. I love it for sure, for
that botanical perfume and that kind of lower layer, that base note layer that you fill in
with your palette. So really good for that.

The hydrosol is wonderful. I mean, I use the hydrosol so much. Oftentimes it's like I've
got, you know, in my office, in the other building, I've got a bottle that sits right by my
computer. So in between clients, when I'm just, you know, if I'm flagging a bit or if I'm,
you know, just got through a really difficult session or something like that, I can just grab
the bottle and I can just spritz the whole area and I feel cleansed and I feel protected and
I feel invigorated. And it's just always there for me. Like, you got this, Erika. You can do
this, you can keep going. You've got this.

But that being said, you know, when it comes to skin care and like, congested skin and
troubled skin and things like that inflammation of the skin, Yarrow hydrosol is really
lovely because it's super gentle. And of course, if your skin gets along with it and doesn't
irritate your skin it can really help with that congestion and support of that wound
healing.

Especially, one of the things that Yarrow does really well, as we're going to learn about, is
it helps to really staunch discharges, it helps to thin things out. And so if you've got, like,
really kind of heavy, greasy skin and it's congested and troublesome, you know, Yarrow
can really help to kind of keep everything flowing and moving and not stagnate. And so
that's really, really wonderful.

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As far as the infused oil is concerned. There is a long history in the British Isles of
actually using Yarrow in tallow and other things to make ointments. And specifically for
wounds that are sort of boggy or have excess moisture. So they're just, it's like wet
wounds, wounds that aren't, because it's drying and toning.

That being said, you know, wound care with first aid, wound care and herbalism are… It's
kind of a gray area when it comes to applying things to the skin, especially if, you know,
for example, you've got a really wet situation, like a really wet eczema or something like
that. You may not be inclined to want to put an oil on that because it just traps all of that
wetness in. But instead you might want to use something like the hydrosol for example,
to see if you can sort of dry that up and staunch some of that oozing.

Another reason why I use the infused oil and will also sometimes use the essential oil
topically diluted as well, is for massage oil for the legs, for people who have sort of, you
know, venous insufficiency, a tendency towards varicose veins where return circulation
from the legs up into the body is very stagnant, where blood pools in the veins
themselves causing varicosities, etc.

And so I usually suggest a combination of dry skin brushing and oiling the body. And I
might use a Yarrow infused oil as a basis for that oiling just because it adds a little extra
toning action to the cardiovascular system. And the veins in particular, so we'll learn a
little bit more about that with its internal use.

But as far as topical uses in those aromatic preparations, there's this really beautiful
sentiment of the talisman of Yarrow and what it represents and some of the stories I told.
But also of course its capacity to really staunch bleeding, to staunch oozing of things, to
help sort of tone and astringe and support the inflammatory process.

And of course it also has some antimicrobial components to it which can assist the skin
in really performing its immune system duties. And I don't want to say preventing
infection because I don't think that's accurate. But it can definitely give the body some
extra resources and tools so that infection doesn't set in necessarily. It is a really
beautiful topical plant as well as a beautiful medicine for the psyche.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

So from there let's talk a little bit about how Yarrow is used internally in my herbal
practice and some of the things that we can do with it, some of the different preparations
we can make with it. As I mentioned earlier, Yarrow in medical astrology is considered an
herb of Venus. An herb of Venus, meaning that it has an affinity for the reproductive
system and the urinary system. And I will say that I find this absolutely to be true in my
herbal practice and my aromatic medicine practice.

And also there is an incredible affinity for the blood as a tissue. So interestingly enough,
we think about blood as a fluid, but blood is actually a tissue made up of cells and its

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affinity for the blood, but also the blood vessels as well. So there's some sun energy as
well as some Venus energy going on, as far as I'm concerned.

And so we're looking at sort of the traditional use of Yarrow outside of its topical use. So
there's a lot of tradition in, you know, Western European literature. I'm going to focus on
that specifically about using Yarrow to staunch bleeding; nosebleeds, crazy things like
dry the leaves, powder them up, snort it, you know, to like. Not that I'm saying you should
do this, don't do that, but to staunch, like, nosebleeds.

So anytime that there's like, excess fluxes and discharges and, you know, like things
oozing out of the body technically from the genitourinary system, perhaps mucoidal,
perhaps, maybe there's blood involved, perhaps Yarrow would have been used. Now, if
we are leaking fluids out of our genitourinary system, to be fair, you should probably go
see a doctor and not just go for the Yarrow, because usually that's a sign of infection,
right? And severe mucous membrane irritation.

And we wouldn't want to start using herbs to support ourselves or those we care about
until we understand the underlying stuff that's going on and make sure that the right
tools are being used. You know, so, for example, if I get bit by a snake, I'm going to want
to go to the hospital, probably.

So there's a long history of use for supporting the genitourinary system. I think when it
comes to my modern practice, I use Yarrow tea a lot when it comes to things like
recurrent UTIs. And people talk about them being recurrent. I kind of tend to think of
them as a sort of irritation in the urinary system that's never really resolved and makes
the environment that much more susceptible to being reinfected.

And so I think about Yarrow as sort of a tonic astringent, antimicrobial astringent for the
mucosa of the genitourinary system. And the urinary system, in this case, as it assists in
that toning up, can change the terrain or the environment of the urinary system to be
able to get ahead of that sort of chronic reinfection cycle. So I use it for that as a tea.

In particular, when it comes to the reproductive system, there's a very long tradition of
using Yarrow usually as a tea, sometimes decocted in wine to help reduce excessive
menstrual bleeding. So if there's flooding involved, if there's sometimes like, you know,
mid-cycle bleeding, these things, Yarrow may be an herb that I would reach for if the
underlying cause of those phenomena has been identified.

You know, flooding, that severe menstrual loss, can be life threatening. And so it's
important to make sure that you're seeking proper care so you understand what's going
on and then you bring herbs in. So as long as the underlying phenomenon has been
identified, I do find that when it comes to the menstrual cycle itself, and this is sort of
akin to Yarrow having this affinity for the blood that it can really prevent the body from
leaking too much out. Right.

So in the case of the reproductive system, menstrual loss, you know, excess menstrual
heavy periods, interestingly enough, because one of the things we're going to learn about
Yarrow is that it does one thing, but it also does the opposite thing, is that in its capacity

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to sort of quell bleeding, it is also incredibly decongesting to the blood and thinning to
the blood. So while it can stop excess bleeding from happening and dry things up, it also
has a way of sort of liquefying or thinning out of the blood as well.

And so this comes in handy when we're looking at situations, again, looking at the
reproductive system, you know, for folks who have really sort of chronically congested,
painful periods where there's a lot of clotting, there's a lot of just really intense uterine
contractions. Everything feels really full and heavy.

I will bring Yarrow in, sort of supporting the menstrual cycle. And I'll usually do that as a
tincture. In one way, it helps excess bleeding and the other it helps thin the blood. And so
we have this, what's called an amphoteric effect, amphoteric, meaning that it does both,
and that sort of ties in a little bit more to sort of its use in the cardiovascular system as
well.

So when I'm thinking about general pelvic congestion, pelvic congestion can show up in
a variety of different ways in different bodies. You know, maybe it's painful, clotty
periods. Maybe it's endometriosis again, that would be, endometriosis is in particular a
phenomenon that may make me think of Yarrow.

Maybe it's, you know, pelvic congestion can show up in ways with the digestive system
and the lower bowel. It can also show up as a result of what is often referred to in
herbalism as sort of like backup in the portal vein or the draining of the abdominal
organs. And so we have all of the blood that returns from the lower body kind of getting
stuck and not really being able to move easily or move well.

And so in that case, that's like heavy blood in the legs. And that pelvic congestion is like,
it's just not able to get up and get through that. And, you know, that sort of draining of
the abdominal organs and the blood from that has a lot to do with efficiency of digestion
and toning of the vasculature. And so I'm not explaining this very well. It is more of a
sort of an advanced energetic lens to look through when we're looking at some of our
clients' issues.

But I'll say that, you know, it's this idea of it having an affinity for the vascular system
and for the blood vessels themselves. So it's this toning action. We can have leaky, boggy
tissues that are just not able to hold the blood. And you know, you're getting a lot of
swelling in the legs and you're getting a lot of inflammation in the veins and everything's
just kind of like bleh. Yarrow can kind of help tone a lot of that up.

And if that's also happening in the vasculature, that's draining the digestive system as
well. And maybe there's a history of constipation. Maybe there's SIBO. Maybe there's just
chronic bloating and gas. There could be a lot of reasons why we might consider, you
know, pelvic congestion as a phenomenon and why we might bring Yarrow in to help
decongest.

And a lot of it has to do with this real wonderful toning action that it has on the
vasculature and this capacity to simultaneously thin the blood in the body. It can stop

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bleeding, but it can also break up clotted blood, which is just blood that's thick and too
thick and too heavy.

As an example of this idea of, you know, the viscera and the circulation around the
abdominal organs, herbalist Matt Wood talks about a few things. Well, he talks about,
honestly, he talks about more than a few things.

The idea that Yarrow is very good for excess heat in the blood. So this is where we get,
again, heat creates dryness, which creates congealing. Right. And consolidation. And that
is this idea of heat in the blood. The blood becomes kind of thick and coagulative. And
that Yarrow being a cooling bitter, it's considered a cooling bitter tonic, can actually thin
the blood down and reduce some of that heat in the blood.

And when you have excess heat in the blood through this energetic lens, there can be all
kinds of physical experiences associated with that. Ones that I think of in particular are
sort of eruptive diseases from the skin. So, you know, boils, carbuncles, acne, these kinds
of things can sometimes be an expression of heat in the blood. Other skin things as well,
like eczema or sometimes even psoriasis might be. You know, some of these more
autoimmune conditions can sometimes be interpreted as excess heat in the blood.

So it's thought to be when there's, you know, or being hot blooded, a person is chronically
angry and needs to chill out a little bit. I don't know, maybe. So kind of circling back,
though, with Matt Wood, what he talks about with the thinning of the blood and pelvic
congestion is he talks about a decongesting problem, portal circulation in particular,
which is what drains the abdominal viscera. And portal circulation has to do with the
hepatic portal vein. This is the vein that drains the blood out of the liver, right.

So when all the blood is passing through the liver to be cleansed, it comes out the hepatic
portal vein. This is also where our digestion drains into as well, right. So if that particular
system is congested, it backs everything up into the digestive system, into the liver. Now,
this is energetic language we're speaking here, right? This may not necessarily be
physiological minutiae fact, but the pattern exists. And so that type of abdominal pelvic
congestion.

There's also, when we're kind of looking at the digestion in particular, there's another
way that I use Yarrow quite a lot and there's quite a tradition of this. In fact, herbalist
William LeSassier, he would talk about Yarrow being indicated for folks who have a lot of
that damp stagnation in the digestive system that is leading to ulceration and just
degradation of the tissues, which might be the case in diverticulosis, irritable bowel
syndrome, and also inflammatory bowel diseases like colitis and things like that.

In the case of there being pretty significant sort of damp stagnation in, I would say that
even in the colon and the small intestine, maybe there's a history of SIBO. Also I will use
Yarrow as part of a gut healing tea. This would also be the case if the person has a
tendency towards looser stools. And we're trying to kind of, again it's the excess
discharges, we're kind of trying to dry that up a little bit. And the Yarrow being what it is,
very tonic, very healing to the mucous membrane so that they're less irritable and also

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less susceptible to leaking lots of fluids into the bowel which can sometimes be part of
the whole IBS loose stool scenario.

So it also, that being said, as a tea, it's a bitter herb, Yarrow is bitter, like it's a bitter
tasting herb. And the bitter action itself is very stimulating to our digestive secretions. So
you know, all of our pancreatic enzymes, bile from the liver gallbladder axis, saliva even,
and we've got bitter receptors all over our body that help with the, you know, the
excretion of, from glands all over the body. So it can help really get digestion moving, it
can get things moving again. And again, it's that sort of anti-stagnation effect that it has.

Another way that I use Yarrow, as a tea mostly, is as a part of a formula I learned when I
was in school. And it's called the EPY tea which stands for Elderflower, Peppermint and
Yarrow: EPY tea. And it's equal parts; equal parts Elderflower, not the berry, the flower;
Peppermint, and it's like Mint but Peppermint in particular; and Yarrow equal parts.

And that you drink this while you have a cold or a flu to help bring comfort, but it also
helps the body get through that viral infection efficiently. And so it's the diaphoretic
action. So this is like gently heating the internal body temperature up enough for it to be
non-inhabitable for the virus. And then you sweat, right? So your body heats up, it cooks
the virus, you sweat it out.

So Yarrow can help with this process, and in fact, there is a long and important tradition
of use for supporting the fever process. Back when there were, you know, before what we
know as modern medicine, fevers and acute illnesses were really sort of the mainstay of
medicine, it's like that's what everyone was dealing with.

And so, supporting the fever was a learned skill because at first in Western medicine they
thought that the fever was bad and that you had to suppress it. But learning how to
support a fever safely so it doesn't get too hot, but still allows for the body to do what it
needs to do was a real skill. And so Yarrow was one of those herbs that was used as a
diaphoretic.

And it's super fun. I love the texture of these leaves. It's really quite nice. So looking at a
little bit more for sort of the digestive side of things. Looking at sort of the physiomedical
tradition where I come from, Yarrow, William Cook talks about Yarrow, its qualities
being expended on the alvine canal. So the alvine canal is the alimentary canal or a
digestive tract to the advantage in chronic dysentery and diarrhea. So again, it's that
Staunch Weed, right? It's that staunching action, that drying up of fluids.

And also in that feeble condition, this is interesting, also in that feeble condition of the
digestive organs known by precarious appetite, passive looseness of the bowels and
consequent nervous prostration, which also means weakness or exhaustion. And this was
written in 1869 before we had what is considered in modern day times irritable bowel
syndrome. But that's kind of what he's describing here, this feeble condition of the
digestion organs known by precarious appetite. Right. So an appetite that comes and
goes. Passive looseness of the bowels and consequent nervous exhaustion.

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Yarrow again, as a tea, it's like I said, it's quite bitter. So it's not everyone's cup of tea. For
me, most specifically, I use it as a tea mostly as a tea for anything that has to do with sort
of toning the digestive system and bringing some peace and balance into that system. I
only really, you know, I'll say I only really use the tincture when I'm working with the
genito-urinary system and specifically the menstrual cycle when there's that really deep
pelvic stagnation and clotting and heavy bleeding, maybe even endometrial, you know,
tissues and things like that involved.

So, there's mostly the tea that I'm working with these days, if I'm honest. Oh, I will also
use the tincture to help support the cardiovascular system. So if I've got a blend of herbs
that we're working with specifically to support circulation and the tone of the vessels,
that's probably going to be a tincture thing as well.

Some other antidotes about Yarrow and its internal use. One comes from Ayurveda,
which I feel like is kind of helpful in sort of seeing the general energetic picture of
Yarrow and how it's helpful to the human body. But it talks about, it stops bleeding both
internally and externally. So of course, if you're bleeding internally or externally, do what
you must, be an adult and seek proper medical care if needed. But it says Yarrow reduces
excess Pitta.

And remembering that Pitta is really, that is the dosha that is very fiery. So we've got
excess Pitta, we've got excess heat, right. So Yarrow really cools this down. And this is
exactly what Venus does as well is that Venus is quite cooling, so cools excess Pitta. And
that also might be showing up as excess bile and inflammation in the gastrointestinal
system. So it really cools down excess bile flow. It's that staunching, it's that cooling and
also any sort of inflammation or irritability in the digestive mucosa. It strengthens the
mucous membranes.

And then when it comes to the effect of all of that, then promoting kind of clarity and
like clarity of perception. So it clears the head, it clears the eyes. And that's a kind of a
gut brain connection. So when we're kind of, we're all inflamed and uncomfortable and
stagnant in the digestive system, we're going to maybe feel that way emotionally and in
the emotional realm and in the mind. And it's that foggy headedness and I can't see. It's
like trying to work through mud or think through mud or something like that.

These traditions, you know, that came to us from Ayurveda, from Nicholas Culpeper,
from Western Europe are also the same, if not almost identical to that. The way that it
was used by the eclectic and physiomedicalists, herbalists and physicians in the late 19th
century, early 20th century in the United States. There's a lot of talk about sort of chronic
issues of the urinary system, excess bleeding from the menstrual cycle and also being
able to support the veins and the venous system. The arteries and the veins and, as we
talked about, as well as the mucous membranes.

So those are kind of like the key pieces. It's like blood, blood vessels, mucous membranes.
And with the mucous membranes, a real specific affinity for the digestive system and the
genitourinary system.

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Herbal Preparations
And we kind of talked a bit about preparations. You know, some people have asked me
about whether or not this would make a good glycerin and I think probably it would, but
I would never, I don't know if I would use that because I think a lot of the medicine of the
plant is kind of beyond what glycerin can extract. I have done Yarrow in vinegar before.
It's rather bitter and sour. Again, not exactly everybody's cup of tea.

So I'll just say that alcohol, so Yarrow really gives over its medicine to both water and
alcohol. So if you're alcohol-free, I would say stick with the tea and you can always sort of
doctor it up with some other herbs that are going to help you achieve your goal with that
tea or with the why you're using that Yarrow, if you are clever about it, you can kind of
sort of blend in that bitter taste with some other tastes. So it can be quite pleasant. I've
had quite pleasant Yarrow blends, personally. I am an herbalist, however, and what I
think is pleasant is maybe not pleasant to all.

But the tincture itself for me is really, when we're talking about longevity and preserving
it, I will tincture it fresh, I'll tincture the whole plant. So that's leaves and flowering tops,
which is very different from how I would distill. Distilling, if I'm doing the hydrosol or,
you know, the essential oil, I'll just be doing the flowering tops.

But for the tincture, I'm going to use the leaves and the flowering tops, the whole nine
yards. I know some herbalists that even use the root, makes it extra dry. It's like very dry.
But that goes into, you know, I would say 75% alcohol is probably really quite good for
Yarrow. It pulls all the things out and then that, you know, sits well on your shelf for a
good five, six years, maybe longer, depending. So really quite lovely as a tincture.

It's tough if you're wanting for internal use and you're alcohol free. If that's the case, the
tea is going to be just fine. And I definitely would prefer the tea in certain circumstances,
like when I'm trying to focus on the mucous membranes, specifically whether that be in
the genito-urinary system or in the digestive system.

Cultivation & Harvesting

Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about growing Yarrow and harvesting Yarrow. Cultivation,
harvesting. I've had this funny relationship with Yarrow so much as, you know, I mean,
I've seen it growing in a variety of different ways. I've seen it growing just willy nilly, like
wild, which is the case on my land here in southeast Ohio.

This just came out of, I have a field that's all full of forbs that I kind of just let go wild
and Yarrow just happens to be one of them. And it's really quite robust. It's got thick
stems, it stands up straight, it's quite stout.

And then I've tried to grow Yarrow in sort of a horticultural garden-like setting and it is
limp and it doesn't like it and you know, maybe it gets too bogged down and you know,
it's so interesting.

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And then of course I've seen it also growing in like a cultivation bed that went on for, you
know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet. And it
being very tall and very proud and very robust. And in those fields I've seen it growing in
a variety of different ways. You know, some intentional, some just kind of willy nilly or
wild. And so it's hard to know for me sometimes exactly what this plant is interested in
and what it likes.

And of course, what they say is that, one of the keys is that it really wants well drained
soil. So in some of the horticultural environments that I put it in, I want a garden with
Yarrow. I want to have it in my garden as part of a visual.

It's probably, the soil's probably been too rich or too moist for it to really be like, oh, I'm
going to be robust and stand up straight. And I think it's interesting because, you know, it
really likes this drained, well drained soil and it's similar to the kind of effect that it has
on the body where it's kind of toning and that drying kind of toning way. So, I think that's
as far as I've gotten with, you know, what does this plant really like?

It definitely loves, loves, loves, loves, loves, loves full sun, so well drained, dry soils, full
sun. That's when I'm going to get the most oil out of it. I'm going to get the most flavor.
You're going to get the most flowering. It does shade or part shade as well – ish. But you
may not get very robust flowers in it. And you know, you might end up with flowers that
really, really try to stand up but just can't.

I also think that it likes growing with other plants around it that can help it stand up. So,
you know, packing it into a situation where it's surrounded, it's not out competed, it's not
like covered by other plants, but it's just got other plants that are growing around it that
help it stand up straight. I have noticed that as well.

So as far as propagating this plant is concerned, you can totally grow Yarrow from seed.
It's pretty easy to do, although the seeds are tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. And you can kind of just
do that as you would like an average sort of start your seeds in the spring.

You can also propagate it by root division. And what's interesting about Yarrow is that it
does, it is sort of like clonal. So it'll send out little rhizomes and then it will pop up a new
plant here and there and it does make little patches. It's not invasive, like, oh, it's going to
take over your whole garden, but it will create a patch.

And so what you can do is you can kind of get into, underneath those roots, into that
patch and you can divide off and do root division. And each one of those you can put into
a starting pot and let it root out and it will become its own plant. So you can totally
propagate by root division as well, which is super cool.

I think I'll mention really quickly that there are a lot of horticultural varieties of Yarrow
that are different colors. Red Yarrow, yellow Yarrows, pink Yarrows. Really, really pretty,
very pretty. And they do really beautifully in the landscape for sure. But I'll just say, like I
say with other plants, it's so funny that I just want to keep whipping this around. I will
say, similar to other plants, that we don't want to use those varieties medicinally. We

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want the white Yarrow, which is the millefolium, or the mountain Yarrow, which is the
native species I mentioned at the beginning of this talk, starts with an L and I can't
remember it at the moment. So we want to use the medicinal variety of this plant, not the
horticultural varieties of all the different colors, just FYI.

So I will say that, and I would say out of that harvesting-wise, you know, similar to other
forbs, for a flowering plant, we want to harvest the plant when it's in flower, full flower.
That is usually when it's sort of at the peak of its expression of self in the world and
when it's at its peak of its medicinal potency. You want to do it on a day where it's full
sun and it's dry, it's not been raining a whole bunch because that's really going to give
the plant a chance to recuperate a lot of its aromatics.

And I think that that's pretty important. So I tend to wait to harvest Yarrow until it's been
dry for several days and it's going to be a nice hot baking day and the sun's going to be
like pelting down. And then I will harvest the Yarrow. I will harvest it with my strength. I
will harvest it with the hollow of my hand.

If I'm doing a tincture, I'm going to harvest as much of the plant as I can, obviously, and
that includes leaves. So I will tincture the leaves as well as the flowering tops. There's
that spider again. If I'm going to do it for distillation or infused oil maybe? Infused oil,
definitely for distillation, I'm just focusing on the flowering top. So that's just these parts
here. If I'm going to do an infused oil, sometimes I focus just on harvesting the flowering
tops and then sometimes I focus on both the leaves and the flowers.

But what I do is I dry them first, I let them dry out first, and then I make an infused oil
with it. There are some traditions, and you'll find in the literature, especially in the
European tradition, where they say that you should use fresh Yarrow to make the
ointment. But again, and you can always try this. But what you run the risk of is, you
know, getting that water into your oil base and having that then become rancid.

So, you know, when in doubt, I would say, dry your Yarrow or definitely wilt down to
almost no moisture. And the way that I do that is I'll put it into, like, a paper shopping
bag, like a grocery bag, and I'll just, you know, make sure that it's all sealed up. I'll roll it
up and I'll clip it, and then I'll put it somewhere where it's got good airflow away from
direct light and heat. And I'll just go and I'll shake it a couple of times a day, and it will
desiccate inside that bag.

And then what that does is it sort of traps the aromatics into the plant material, and it
keeps it from being super messy because these leaves, as they dry, they end up
everywhere. And so, I'll let that roll for, you know, five days or so, and then I will crumple
it up really, really well, mash it up really, really well as a dried plant, and then I'll do my
infused oil from that.

So, harvesting flowering tops for infused oil and leaves. Also, if you want, for infused oil, I
think that they're kind of extra toning and healing there. I do the whole plant for the
tincture, and I do just the flowering tops for the distillation.

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And this would be a really fun one, by the way, for you guys to try as a stovetop
distillation. You may not get any of the blue. It's interesting, when distilling this plant,
what I discovered when I was distilling out in Oregon at Oshala Farm was that I really
had to distill very low temperature and very slowly in order for that blue to come
forward. It took a lot. It took some time and it took some nurturing for that to come out.
So you may not get the blue on the stovetop, but you might. I don't know, you'll have to
try it out and see and let us know. Definitely give us some heads up in the Facebook
group if you decide to do that.

Conclusion
And so with that, I think that's pretty much everything that I wanted to share with you
about this incredible, amazing plant. And when it comes to my practice, my current
practice, this plant is so much more about metaphorical medicine than it is about
physical medicine. It's just where I'm at at the moment with it.

Interestingly enough, after our chat today, I might consider bringing it back into my
practice a little bit more front and center for physical support. But it's just one of those
herbs that I feel like is so potent in its metaphor and in its story and the medicine that
that provides for the human psyche and the human experience, that's kind of where I
have been with it.

And of course, it is my talisman, for sure. My talisman, my reminder that I, too, am on a

wounded healer's journey. So, anyway, with that, I hope that you enjoyed today's plant
talk, and I look forward to seeing you all here in the Aromatic Medicine Garden very, very
soon.

*The statements above have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are for educational purposes
only. This document is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This
document should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult your physician before you use
this information for health purposes.

© 2025 - All Rights Reserved - The Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine