Read an Excerpt

from Chapter 13

Plant Allies

Each plant has so many healing aspects and how it manifests for one person may not be the same as for another. This is a cocreative partnership between you and the plant--a mingling of energy fields. My energy with a plant will be different, perhaps, from yours. So the way in which I experience a plant and how I use it for healing purposes may not be the same as yours. Remember, you are the author of your own experience, making you an authority.

The other thing to keep in mind is that plants continue to evolve just as we do. Plants have always preceded humans in their evolution, and new uses for plants are appearing as humans have new needs. What I am discovering is that our evolution is primarily a spiritual one at this point, thus the strong emergence of plant spirits. However, the heart and soul of plants is also evolving so that new uses for plants on physical and structural levels are emerging as well.

AGRIMONY--AGRIMONIA EUPATORIA

I bend over the tall yellow spires picking the sharply serrated browned leaves from the stalk, humming as I work. Squatting down I pull weeds allowing the quiet activity to serve as a meditation. From this deeply serene place I slip into the daydream of Agrimony. There’s a little elflike man sitting at a table writing out prescriptions. Many people are coming to him, and he is handing out prescriptions left and right. Then he notices me and asks what it is I need help with. I say that I’m here to meet him and get acquainted. He says he has no time for chitchat because there are too many people who are sick and need his help. I say I will be happy to help him in his work if he will teach me. He agrees, and I begin my apprenticeship with Agrimony.

Up until now, we have explored the heart, soul, and spirit of plants and how they affect us physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. As plants become your allies you will find that they can also help you with very mundane things like making decisions, manifesting what you want, and helping in conflict situations. Agrimony is one such plant, particularly in regard to altering the circumstances or outcome of a potential conflict. Herbalist Matthew Wood says of Agrimony, “It will change the environment around the person using it.”

Carol relates this experience with Agrimony: “My divorce was turning into a rather nasty affair. I had worked so hard all my life to get where I was and now, in an instant, all of it could be taken away. I told my lawyer what I expected in the divorce and she told me it would never happen even though I deserved it. It was then I started to carry Agrimony with me. Every time I went to the lawyer I had some in my pocket. Then one day we had all the papers and documents laid out on the table and I told my lawyer that before we started to work with them and before I signed anything I needed to sprinkle Agrimony over them. Of course, my lawyer looked at me like I was a mad woman. Now she wants to know all about Agrimony because I got everything I asked for in my divorce even though she said it was impossible.”

In another instance, Chris was building a new house and the town supervisor had to approve her driveway and its name, which was considered a private road. She says, “I have heard stories of the town supervisor from my neighbors, that he was so hard to deal with and he wouldn’t let them name their driveways what they wanted. Finally he came out and I couldn’t believe it. He was like out of a Dickens novel. He was short, had a gloomy countenance, and was very angry; obviously wielding what power he had to the max. He said my driveway was too steep and no 911 vehicles could get up it and that I couldn’t name it what I had hoped for. I knew then that I would need the help of Agrimony. The next time he came I put a piece of Agrimony in my mouth and chewed on it asking the spirit of Agrimony to come and soften him. My friend Karen was with me that time and she said a shiver went through her when she met him. I didn’t give up, even though it appeared the odds were against me and he wasn’t going to back down. I continued to call upon the spirit of Agrimony to help this seemingly hopeless situation. He came again and, again, I put Agrimony in my mouth calling on her spirit to please help me. This time we walked up the driveway together (the same one he had walked several times before), and he said the driveway was just fine and please call it whatever I like. We chatted and laughed our way up the drive. I can only attribute this reversal in behavior to Agrimony.”

Just as the little man in my daydream indicated, Agrimony is used to heal many conditions including inflammatory eye problems and liver conditions such as cirrhosis, gallstones, gout, arthritis, ulcers, colitis, and diarrhea. It serves as a digestive tonic as well as being astringent, which staunches all manner of excessive bleeding and aids in the healing of wounds. It makes an excellent gargle for sore throats and inflamed gums. One of the reasons Agrimony is such a wonderful healing herb is its unique ability to relieve tension in all of its many guises, whether it be in the gut, reproductive organs, during respiration, in a constricted liver or kidney, or the nervous system. A person who is uptight but hides behind a cheerful facade could benefit from Agrimony.