Meet My Magickal Friend Yarrow by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Meet My Magickal Friend Yarrow

Dear Friends,

The power of herbs is often overlooked by people. These tiny little plants are typically thought of as nothing more than seasoning for food, when in fact many of them have so much more to offer. Herbs can be used not only for additional flavor in food, but many have high nutritional value as well. They are used to treat illnesses in holistic medicine and help the body maintain optimal health. Some herbs are also very powerful in magick, and can be used in a variety of spells and rituals.

Yarrow is one of my favorite herbs. Yarrow is a weedy perennial herb that grows in the Northern Hemisphere, though many people are unaware that the plant even exists. It has deep green leaves that have a pungent aroma and are covered in fine white silky hairs. Yarrow plants bloom small clusters of flowers that can vary in color including white, lilac, yellow and pink. It is a beautiful addition for aesthetic purposes in the home garden, and my favorite part, can be harvested and used for magick and healing in a variety of ways.

Yarrow has been used for hundreds of years in healing and in magick. Over the years, the plant has been called a variety of names including bloodwort, devil’s nettle, arrow root, snake’s grass, field hop, gearwe, nose bleed, staunchweed and more. Many of the plants names, such as staunchweed, nose bleed, sanguinary, woundwort and others of that ilk, are indicative of the plants primary use in healing, as yarrow is used in traditional medicine to help stop bleeding. Other traditional uses of yarrow in medicine include use as a tonic to treat depression or melancholy and treatment (combined with other herbs) for the common cold.

When it comes to magick, yarrow is truly a witch’s herb. Yarrow can be used as an all-purpose addition to any spell as it helps to amplify the powers of other herbs and overall increases the power of spells. The list of magickal benefits of yarrow is definitely a long and lengthy one; it can be used for strengthening psychic abilities like clairvoyance and divination, love spells, luck spells, protection spells, defensive magick, animal magick, banishing spells, consecration and much more.

Yarrow can be used in attraction spells to attract courage and bravery, friendship and love. Yarrow grown around your home will help to attract the fairies. It can be used in a charm to help strengthen and nurture a marriage, and when combined with nettles can make a power charm to combat fear. You can wear a sprig of yarrow in an amulet to ward off negative energy and provide protection. There are so many things that yarrow can do!

An easy spell to perform using yarrow is making a dream pillow. When yarrow is added to a dream pillow, it may grant you a vision of your future spouse. Place the yarrow herbs into a small pouch, focusing on your desire. As you are placing the yarrow into the pouch, recite this spell:

This pretty herb from Venus’ tree,
Thy true name be it Yarrow;
Show my one true love to me,
Pray tell to me tomorrow.

Place the satchel under your pillow before bed. As you wait to fall asleep, focus on your heart’s desire, for the yarrow to reveal your future love to you.

In my personal opinion, yarrow is simply one of those herbs that a witch just cannot be without. It is so versatile and so powerful that it is practically an essential tool for any witch to have. And fortunately, yarrow is very easy to grow as well, making it easy to have fresh and dried yarrow on hand whenever you need it.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Used as an infusion, decoction, extract, tincture, ointment and bath.

 

The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends Yarrow for 'Internal: Loss of appetite, dyspeptic ailments, such as mild, spastic discomforts of the gastrointestinal tract. As sitz bath: Painful, cramp-like conditions of psychosomatic origin (in the lower part of the female pelvis).

 

Daily dosage: 4.5 g yarrow herb; 3 tsp. pressed juice from fresh plants; 3 g yarrow flowers; equivalent preparations. For sitz baths: 100 g yarrow per 20 l (5 gal.) of water. Mode of Administration: Commuted drug for teas and other galenical preparations for internal use and for sitz baths, pressed juice of fresh plants for internal use. Actions: Choleretic; Antibacterial; Astringent; Antispasmodic.

 

Confirming the judgement of the German Commission E, the contemporary British Herbal Compendium lists Yarrow for internal use for feverish conditions, common cold, and digestive complaints; and its topical use for slow-healing wounds and skin inflammations.

 

Yarrow tea is a traditional Native American diaphoretic (sweat) remedy for fevers and colds.

 

Yarrow infusions and decoctions have also traditionally been used as a gastrointestinal aid.

 

Yarrow also acts as a urinary antiseptic, and has traditionally been used for such infections as cystitis.

 

Yarrow also lowers blood pressure by dilating the peripheral vessels, and so is very helpful for hypertension.

 

Yarrow decoction and ointment can be applied topically to bruises, sprains, and swellings.

 

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': Diaphoretic, astringent, tonic, stimulant and mild aromatic.

 

Yarrow Tea is a good remedy for severe colds, being most useful in the commencement of fevers, and in cases of obstructed perspiration. The infusion is made with 1 oz. of dried herb to 1 pint of boiling water, drunk warm, in wine glassful doses. It may be sweetened with sugar, honey or treacle, adding a little Cayenne Pepper, and to each dose a teaspoonful of Composition Essence. It opens the pores freely and purifies the blood, and is recommended in the early stages of children's colds, and in measles and other eruptive diseases.

 

A decoction of the whole plant is employed for bleeding piles, and is good for kidney disorders. It has the reputation also of being a preventative of baldness, if the head be washed with it.

 

Preparations: Fluid extract, ½ to 1 dram. An ointment made by the Highlanders of Scotland of the fresh herb is good for piles, and is also considered good against the scab in sheep.

 

An essential oil has been extracted from the flowers, but is not now used.

 

Linnaeus recommended the bruised herb, fresh, as an excellent vulnerary and styptic. It is employed in Norway for the cure of rheumatism, and the fresh leaves chewed are said to cure toothache.

 

In Sweden it is called 'Field Hop' and has been used in the manufacture of beer. Linnaeus considered beer thus brewed more intoxicating than when hops were used.

 

King's 1898 Dispensary:Yarrow possesses slightly astringent properties, and is tonic, alterative and diuretic, in infusion.

 

Its use in chronic diseases of the urinary apparatus, is especially recommended by Prof. J. M. Scudder.

 

It exerts a tonic influence upon the venous system, as well as upon mucous membranes. It has been efficacious in sore throat, hemoptysis, hematuria and other forms of hemorrhage where the bleeding is small in amount, incontinence of urine, diabetes, hemorrhoids with bloody or mucoid discharges, and dysentery; also in amenorrhoea, flatulence and spasmodic diseases, and in the form of injection in leucorrhoea with relaxed vaginal walls.

 

Prof. T. V. Morrow made much use of an infusion of this herb in dysentery. Given in half-dram doses of the saturated tincture, or 20-drop doses of specific achillea, it will be found one of our best agents for the relief of menorrhagia.

 

The active principle, Achilles, has been employed in France and other portions of Southern Europe, as a substitute for quinine in the treatment of intermittent fevers. It has also been employed by French physicians to restore arrested lochial discharges.

 

Of infusion, 1 to 2 fluid ounces; specific achillea, 5 to 30 drops; volatile oil, 5 to 20 drops. All preparations of achillea are rendered more pleasant to the taste by the addition of a few drops of oil of anise.

 

American Materia Medica, 1919 (Ellingwood): 'Yarrow is advised by Webster in uterine hemorrhage. It is a mild astringent, probably acting also as a tonic. It is useful in passive hemorrhage when not persistent in character.

 

It is a beneficial remedy in diseases of the mucous surfaces, relieving irritation and profuse secretion. It soothes intestinal irritation and overcomes mild forms of diarrhea. It is of benefit in improving the tone of the urinary apparatus, relieving irritation, overcoming strangury and suppression of the urine.

 

It acts best in strong infusion and its use must be persisted in. In general relaxed conditions it is a cure for leucorrhea, where there is a profuse discharge, or thick, heavy mucus from enfeebled mucous membranes.

 

Dr. John Fearn, of Oakland, California, claims that it has but few superiors in its influence upon the skin. He says it has a stimulating action which will be a revelation to those who have not used it. It causes the sudoriferous glands to literally pour out their secretions, and with but little depression.

 

A syrup made from the leaves relieves chronic cough, especially if there be bloody sputum.

 

Where there is deficient kidney action, with evidence of uremic poisoning, with or without edema, this remedy is a very active eliminate. It will take the place of a vapor bath, and that without exhaustion, the patient being very comfortable all the while. It will abort fevers, reduce high temperatures, in sthenic cases will relieve local and general congestion, will restore the secretions, will open the sluce gates of the skin, and eliminate morbific materials.

 

It was one of the remedies which the ancients used in the healing of wounds. Lakin quotes from an old volume, published in 1633, 'The leaves of yarrow do close wounds and keep them from inflammation or fiery swelling. It stauncheth blood in any part of the body, and helpeth bloody flux. The leaves put into the nose, relieve headache. It taketh away the pain of colic.

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From some of the stuff I studied in school, but most from my favorite Bulk Herb Man, Just call him Dan, http://www.kalyx.com/shopexd.asp?id=1058457

Blessings,

~Tea~