In 2004, I took a 9-month Foundations course in herbalism from Sacred Plant Traditions. Since then, every illness, every accident, everything requiring care has been a learning experience. Which is nice, because I have the Sun in the 6th house (health matters). That gives me a keen interest in health, and a delicate constitution— thus, a lot of material to work with.
One fine day during that year, I was oh-so-wisely trying to pry a thingie off the bottom of a table leg with a Swiss Army knife held in my right hand, while holding the leg steady with my left hand. I was using the can opener tool. The inevitable happened— I stabbed myself in the thumb. The cut was deep and bloody. It was gushing. I must have hit a major vein (well, you know, major for the tip of the thumb), or maybe even an artery. And I was freaked out! I shakily asked John to call my herbalism teacher, Kathleen. And Kathleen recommended Yarrow. She told him to come on over, she would give him some out of her garden. Chop it up, she said. Put some of the chopped up leaves on the wound, and secure it with a band aid.
It was a wonderful lesson. Yarrow is an incredible medicinal plant— one of my favorites. The lore around it is that the great Greek soldier Achilles took it with him into battle and used it to heal wounded soldiers. That’s why its botanical name is “Achillea millefolium”— millefolium means “thousand leaves” and refers to its feathery foliage. Matthew Wood calls it the “wounded warrior remedy.”1 Should you have cause to use it, you will see why. It stops bleeding, eases the pain, closes the wound, and prevents infection. It works quickly and effectively.
Yarrow restores order and balance to the blood when it gets out of line. Matthew Wood cites several examples of this in his book and explains the traditional Chinese medicine view that the problem is “reckless blood marauding.” I have this mental image of the blood all heated up and going Yee-ha! I’m free to go all over the place! I’m gonna mess stuff up! Like kids cutting school and getting in trouble. Yarrow cools it down and corrects the imbalance, gets the kids back in school. Yarrow will also break up blood clots where appropriate. (How does it know? That’s one of the great mysteries of plant medicine.) An herb of balance. Maybe that’s why Yarrow is said to be under the dominion of Venus.2
How to use it
You never know when you’ll cut yourself. Hopefully never, but let’s be realistic. Keep some dried Yarrow on hand in your kitchen in case you need it. You won’t want to have to go looking for it when you’re bleeding all over the place. Keep it handy— the quicker you get it on there, the better.
You can apply the dried yarrow leaves directly to the cut. I did this just yesterday. I sliced my thumb again (same thumb as before, but way bloodier) while I was cutting up vegetables for dinner. (My mind was elsewhere, just for a moment. You know how it is.) I cried out with a few choice words, then quickly found some dried yarrow, put it in a hand towel, wrapped my thumb in it, and applied pressure. The pain and bleeding were over quickly. And the panicky feeling was gone too. I don’t know if Yarrow has any calming agents among its 140+ known chemical compounds3, or if I am just reassured by its presence. Perhaps I’m romanticizing it— it could be the simple fact that I’m no longer bleeding that is so calming.
Warning to the squeamish.. here is a picture of the towel I used yesterday. You can see quite a bit of blood on it— I got myself pretty good. Click to see a larger version. If you can’t stand the sight of blood, please don’t click it. I don’t mean to be gross showing you this. Just to give you an idea how I used the dried yarrow.
And here’s what the thumb looked like this morning. You almost can’t see the wound. That’s how incredible this medicine is. I think it’s cool how the yarrow leaves stick to the cut. They tend to form themselves into a protective bandage over the wound, if you let them.
A salve made from yarrow rubbed into a bruised area heals it up amazingly quickly. Making your own herbal salve is easy and inexpensive.
I have read that yarrow tea is good for colds and flu. But I have not tried it personally for that purpose.
Plants also have energetic qualities and healing properties. According to the Flower Essence Society, Yarrow heals emotional trauma and bleeding wounds in your aura.
1 Wood, Matthew. The Book of Herbal Wisdom.
2 Culpeper, Nicolas. Culpeper’s Color Herbal.
3 Buhner, Stephen. The Lost Language of Plants.
- 17 July 2008
- Comments (2)
Molly Cliborne
1 · alison · 2 August 2008
Hi, my neptune is high in my chart, trine to a second house piscean sun. Thus, herbs and me can go hand in hand. I agree with you about yarrow. May i also suggest the wonder of how plants, especially herbs, grow well often nearby to where you need to use them. The perfect example is the soothing aloe that heals burns. They grow in the hot, sunny climates, waiting for us to use them.
On a metaphysical level, I believe this is true, also. Yarrow grows wild outside my door, as a groundcover. With a progressed first house mars, well, you guessed it – cuts abound for me. and so the yarrow greets me, at the door, reminding me to take care!
2 · Molly · 10 August 2008
Yeah, I think about that too, Alison. Some of the newer super invasive plants around here are remedies for modern diseases like alcoholism (Kudzu) and Lyme’s disease (Japanese Knotweed and others).