As part of this blog and part of the larger message of rewilding, freedom, wild medicine, and deepening our relationship with nature and our body, each week I will post an herbal profile. This profile will focus on a different plant each time and will provide clear instructions on how to use the plant as a medicine, food, ally, friend, and partner. Along the way, different examples will provide the opportunity to delve into the myriad ways of using and relating to plants. To start off, we will begin with a plant that may be the single most useful wild green ally you can find and a plant that might save your life some day.
Yarrow, friend of Achilles
Yarrow, also known as Achillea millefolium, is one of the most widespread useful wild plants in the world. It is common in most of the Northern Hemisphere, and has been used by a wide variety of cultures since ancient times. It's name is linked to legends of Achilles, from Greek times, and it was reputed to be part of this warrior's legendary near invulnerability. While we shall soon discuss how useful yarrow is for wounds and how it could save your life, it is actually Yarrow's diversity of uses that makes it so special.
Description and Appearance:
Yarrow is a low growing herbaceous plant that has extremely lacey leaves, hence the second part of it's latin name millefolium, which means millions of leaves. It produces a single flower stalk that has many, many small white or pink, flat flowers that grow clustered together. It is very important to be able to distinguish Yarrow from members of the carrot family. Several members of this family are poisonous including the various poison hemlocks.
Uses:
1) Stops Bleeding- Far and away the most useful aspect of this plant is that it can be used topically to stop bleeding. It may be the single most powerful natural substance at stopping bleeding, and if it's not, it is definitely the most powerful common plant that can be used to stop bleeding. To use the plant this way simply apply crushed leaves to a bleeding wound to quickly stop the bleeding.
It is important to thoroughly clean a wound before using Yarrow, since it stops bleeding so powerfully that it can cause dirt or germs to be trapped inside a cut.
The leaves can also be dried and saved for future use. The dried leaves work almost as well as fresh leaves, though they may need to be chewed or macerated before being applied. Dried leaves can also be ground into a very fine wound powder.
2) Causes sweating, treats fevers and colds- Dried or fresh Yarrow can be made into a quick tea by steeping the leaves in water that has been boiled. Drinking the tea after fifteen or more minutes will cause the body to sweat. This is useful in treating fevers and early stages of cold, especially those characterized by aversion to cold, body aches, nasal symptoms, and a scratchy, itchy throat. Some Native tribes of North America used Yarrow as a drink before entering the sweat lodge as an aid to the detoxifying process of the sweat.
3) A Key to Divination- A completely different use of Yarrow involves the collection of it's dried stalks. Dried Yarrow stalks were cast in a bundle and then picked up in a variety of ways as one of the older forms of I Ching divination. While other methods such as burning of bones or turtle shells were also ancient techniques, the tossing of Yarrow stalks is a tradition that is alive and well in some parts of Asia today.
When developing relationships with plants and beginning to find allies in the green world it helps to have friends that can help you with a variety of issues. Yarrow with it's ability to powerfully stop bleeding, help treat fevers and colds, and be helpful as a tool of divination is a rare treat. Get to know it!
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