Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
feathered and unassumingly fierce
take harbor in my breasts, and gather me tenderly
she sprouts from sternums, her clusters trailing coasts of salt spray to rocked alpine ridges.
wherever you go, I will always be, she says.
remove your onerous armor, lay down the sharp point of your sword. let me cover you in green plumes.
we have met long before this time, and will continue to, with each day your feet tread this Earth.
I will tell you of the visions I see, promise to clutch me tightly and do so faithfully.
rest, as I string my trestles of white and pink around your chest, shoulders and kneecaps. my frays wrap your forehead, fret not, you are held.
“Thou pretty herb of Venus’ tree,
Thy true name it is Yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must be,
Pray tell thou me to-morrow.”
Halliwell's Popular Rhymes, etc.
“The Yarrow Fairy” Cicely Mary Barker
botanical identification
flowers: composite, most commonly white and pink, with a flat topped / convex inflorescence.
leaves: feathery and arranged spirally on the stem. largest near the bottom. tripinnate and bipinnate.
yarrow leaf and flower harvest at Duvall Herb Farm, WA
yarrow essential oil gathered on top of hydrosol in PA
pink yarrow in CO
pink yarrow flower essence making in CO
her offerings
forms - tea, tincture, topical, flower essence
soldier’s woundwort, staunchweed, thousand leaves
parts used: aerials
energetics: drying, cooling, bitter, pungent
- traditionally used as a poultice to stop wounds from bleeding - styptic
- drunk hot, a diaphoretic used to reduce fevers, drunk cold, a diuretic
- beneficial in gut formulas, assisting with inflammation in digestive tract
- womb ally - soothing uterine contractions, quelling heavy bleeding - antihemorrhagic, healing tissues
- flower essence - boundaries and protection in your environment (white) and within your emotional body (pink). a guardian plant that helps us to be sensitive and open while also mantaining the integrity of our energetic bodies.
“Should life be dull, and spirits low,
’Twill soothe us in our sorrow,
That earth has something yet to show,
The bonny holms of Yarrow!”
William Wordsworth
production of yarrow hydrosol being made with a still in PA
“Chiron instructs young Achilles” unknown artist (Italy)
a tonic for the wounded healer
HERB YARROW
EVERYWHERE the Yarrow grows!
Here and there the thistle blows,
Here and there the barberries,
By the brook the plumy fern;
We know where the lily is,
Where the dear wild roses burn:
But the Yarrow everywhere
Wanders on the common air.
No one need to search for thee:
Even now thy leaf I see
Peeping o'er my opened book,
Throwing so fair a shadow down,
So perfect, that I can but look,
And, looking, find new wonder crown
The bliss of beauty which before
Taught my spirit to adore.
(19th century)
Annie Adam Fields
Tales tell us that Chiron a centaur and a physician of the healing arts, taught young Achilles the properties of the herb Yarrow. Achilles then went on to use this herb on the battlefield to help himself and soldier’s to stop bleeding from their wounds.