The Quick + Clever : Lemongrass

A home surrounded by Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratum) is protected from snakes. Lemongrass clears the aura of harmful energy and changes bad luck to good, opening the way up to success and good opportunities. Add Lemongrass to blends to promote psychic vision and for the success of divination as the herb will also add clarity to the messages being received and given.

Lemongrass folks need to find their luck again. They may stumble over their words, feeling inadequate when it comes to articulate their feelings, ideas, and ambitions. Sometimes they resort to being dishonest, even when they are just little white lies, in an attempt to break through what can feel like a communication barrier. Lemongrass folks both struggle to communicate and to receive messages - sometimes they can be sharp going after the messenger and end up not paying attention to the actual message. Dampness and inflammation (the Damp/Stagnation tissue state) is a common complaint often materializing as sluggishness and a feeling of swelling. When Lemongrass folks are able to dry out and claim the beneficial qualities of their blocked Mercurial energies, their communication becomes unblocked, their become more flexible in mind and body, and are able to become messengers themselves.

Most folks are familiar with Lemongrass as a culinary ingredient that is found in many southeast Asian dishes like Tom Kha (yum!). While I'll be discussing Lemongrass from a primarily Traditional Western Herbalism (TWH) perspective, I encourage you to explore the ancient and diverse cultures of southeast Asian herbal traditions that have long used Lemongrass as a standard herb in their Apothecary traditions including, but certainly not limited to, the Jamu healing traditions of Indonesia, Ramuan of Malaysian, and as well as Thai herbal healing traditions.

Lemongrass makes a wonderful tea and eases indigestion with its sweet lemony taste and delightful fragrance. The herb also has constituents that protect against blood platelet aggregation, protecting against clots. In TWH Lemongrass is typically classified as a cool and dry herb, so it would be helpful in addressing Hot and Damp tissue states. I have seen, however, Lemongrass categorized as hot and dry in Malaysian practice. For me, Lemongrass has less of a refrigerant quality as it is gently calming but has a taste that contains a fiery edge within it (like a combination of mild ginger and lemon). Depending on what herbs it is combined with you can pull out Lemongrass' cooling or heating qualities. As a drying herb, soundly in the element of Air and under the guardianship of Mercury, there is a quality of cleverness and dry wit to Lemongrass that underlies its initial sweet taste and scent. Lemongrass is both one thing and then the other, which lends it to being a useful herb when transitions and initiations are occurring in your life and you are taking up new identities, especially when these identity shifts are accompanied by the change of physical appearance.

There are some very early studies that Lemongrass may induce apoptosis in some types of cancer which essentially means that the cancer cells destroy themselves. Some folks have begun to use the herb as a cancer preventative and I find that it is a great addition to your rotation of daily teas to keep your cells happy and healthy. The herb is used as well for common household complaints such as colds, the 'flu, fevers, insomnia, and diarrhea (remember it is drying and an astringent). The flavor of Lemongrass helps "the medicine go down" so to speak, as its sweet flavor can alleviate some of the stronger tastes of other necessary medicinal herbs (another Mercurial quality of delivering what can feel like difficult and challenging, but very necessary, messages).

The essential oil is used as a disinfectant, containing antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties. Add a few drops to your countertop cleaners for a good scent and swift action against bacteria!

Topically, Lemongrass has many uses from reducing inflammation, treating boils, cuts, wounds, as well as helping swollen gums. The herb is used in prenatal massage blend oils as part of the Ramuan or Malaysian tradition of herbal healing as well as being used in postpartum baths to promote healing by reducing swelling and promoting blood circulation. I have made a gorgeous smelling herbal oil by infusing coconut oil with fresh Lemongrass and then adding drops of Lemongrass essential oil (check out my Herbal Oil Tutorial). I use it for conditions of inflamed tissue such as lower back strain, tendonitis, and assisting in repairing connective tissue tears. Lemongrass is also an insect repellant, so you can take care of your aching muscles after a long day outside without having to continuously swat away those biting bugs!

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She Pours Again: Full Moon in Aquarius

The second Full Moon in Aquarius of the year, the Water Bearer dances with the Sun in Leo, demonstrating what it is to be truly generous, especially after so many of us may have experienced the heat of burnout in the past few weeks. In the Twenty-Sixth Mansion, our August Full Moon is oozing with the pleasure of devotion to those we hold dear in our lives.

As a fixed Air sign, Aquarius Moon energy is unusual and when the Moon moves into the house of the Water Bearer we feel it. Moods shift, priorities abruptly change, there is social upheaval, and the craving for freedom reaches new heights when the Moon is in Aquarius. As a sign of eccentricity mixed with the possibility of changing the world, the Moon in Aquarius is a time to network, invest in community building, and looking out for the welfare of others. The mood shift that occurs during an Aquarius Moon can be optimistic or pessimistic – a lot depends on how much freedom you feel you have access to. The freedom to move, express, and be unconventional is what makes the Aquarius Moon shine.

Learn more about the Moon in Aquarius and Aquarian herbs to work with at the Lunar Apothecary.

The Blah-beast visits the Apothecary

It happens.

We try our darndest to keep it centered, but then there is the knock at the door.

The Blah-beast has come with its one-monster show of stressful cacophony, the dullest brew of boredom, and the persistent fear that we might never get back on track.

"NO! Not the Blah-beast!" We cry out.

And, then we have a thought.

"Blah-beast, could you hold on just one moment? We wanted to position ourselves in a much more effective repose of despair and put on the kettle so its sharp wailing will add to your monstrous sense of foreboding!" We shout from behind the door.

"Blah, whatever, it doesn't matter, I'll be wiggling my toes in your head very soon," The Blah-beast grumbles.

Gross. We think, but don't dare say. "Thank you, great Blah! We'll be but a moment!"

Quickly, quickly, what to do? Gather together herbs for the heart, herbs for passion, and herbs to disassemble the structure of stress attempting to build a small suburb along our spine. Jars full of herbs are pulled down from the shelves, the magick wooden bowl is brought out for the mixing, and with a wild-eyed charm (Will it work? It must! It will!), a tea pot is given four spoonfuls of a new herbal tea.

There is a shout in the kitchen for the kettle is hot! There is a grumble at the door of a Blah-beast anxious to come in!

Pour the dancing water in the pot, let it brew, keep it hot. Pour a cup and drink it up!

The Blah-beast has been tricked! It roars and beats its paw upon the door - but it has been overtaken with an overwhelming sensation to bust a move, drop it like its hot, and groove its suddenly happy heart off into the sunset.

Phew. We made it, our Blah Buster Brew to keep the Blah-beast bustin' a move to their own happy dance and not our own personal groove.

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The Blah Buster Brew

Blend together the following herbs:

• 2 parts Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus monogyna)
• 1 part Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
• 1/2 part Hawthorn Leaf + Flower (Crataegus monogyna)
• 1/2 part Rose Petals (Rosa spp.)
• 1/4 part Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)
• 1/4 part Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus)

Boil up fresh water and add 1 heaping teaspoon of tea per every cup of water to your teapot. Brew for at least 15 - 20 minutes, but the longer the better! Pour into your favorite tea cup and get ready to set some boundaries with the Blah Beast + break out into your own sweet groove! Enjoy!

Swedish Chai + Summer Deals

I just spent the past weekend in the beautiful wilds of Oregon dancing the days and nights away with magickal creatures of all varieties at the amazing Faerieworlds art and music festival! I came back to my seaside city feeling inspired and with some extra dirt and glitter packed in my bags (and, to be honest, tangled in my hair and between my toes). As some of us celebrate the week of the First Harvest in the Northern Hemisphere and late winter / early spring fire festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, I'm filling up on summer's glow as the promise of fall is just around the corner.

One of the ways I like to celebrate the early mornings and long, lazy nights of summer is with pots of chai. Chai is simply the word for tea in a number of cultures, though many of us are familiar with the Masala chai of South Asian fame. I love to make chai blends based on local flora, culturally-entwined spices, and my own take on whatever tea drinking culture I may find myself in. Some of my chai blends are created with longing-in-the-heart, as I dream of places I look forward to visiting. Sweden has captured my imagination in recent years and so I created a Swedish chai in exploratory tea anticipation of future journeys. The recipe is below along with some insight into the spices and herbs included in the blend. Enjoy!

Books have been written espousing the greatness of healing spices and what many consider dusty kitchen condiments are actually earthy jewels of wellness delight. Spices are healing foods that are easy to add to any meal and act as a fragrant passage for medicine to find its way through our mind, body, and spirit.

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) is an excellent spice for indigestion and calming upset stomachs. Like many spices, Cardamom also has aphrodisiac qualities.

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum), like many spices, aids with indigestion, but also has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anesthetic qualities.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.) is a delicious blood sugar balancer and is also heart-healing, promoting healthy circulation, reducing hypertension, and possessing anti-clotting properties.

You can learn more about Elder, the Tree of Medicine + fiery Ginger in previous posts!

Connecting With Our Plant Allies

One of the most common emails I get (besides “Who are you and where do you come up with the names behind your products?! Zombie bait, what?!”) are ones that ask me about my path of becoming an herbologist and how to start working with herbs. I wrote about 10 ways to start your herbal studies, but I wanted to focus more in-depth on a subject central to the craft of the herbologist – cultivating our relationship with the plant medicine.

As I suggested in the previous post about herbal studies, I recommend starting with one herb. You do not have to work exclusively with only one herb, but choose to work with one herb consistently for an entire year. You should, though, spend at least some time working only with that herb in order to understand its full complexity. You may choose to work with an herb that you already feel a resonance with or something that you spot growing down the street from you. You may dream of an herb, study a plant that has a long history of significant use within your culture or choose an herb that may have a beneficial impact on a particular health imbalance. The importance of working with one herb regularly for an extended length of time is manifold:

• Many herbs are best able to impart their healing qualities over the long term when used consistently in small doses.
• Just as it takes time to build meaningful relationships with humyns, so too does it take time to build honest relationships with plants.
• If you are able to grow or find the herb in the wild, observing its physical journey through the year provides us with many lessons about its medicinal uses and magickal gifts.
• Finally, commitment is an excellent skill to be practiced by the herbologist.

In my own practice, both personal and professional, I work with a handful of herbs at a time, and while I enjoy a complex tea blend or a raw cacao concoction with multiple herbs dancing in wild harmony, when I am learning about a plant or dealing with a chronic health imbalance, I generally stick to one or two herbs. We are in the midst of an herb revival within North America, as well as many other parts of the western world, and that means that there is an abundance of information and access to a wide array of plant medicine. I tend to think that we will learn more about ourselves and the plant medicine we are interacting with if we treat our practice with the rhythm of a slow, regular tea time conversation as opposed to a social media aggregate of endless stream of herbs shuffling through our lives at a rapid pace.[1]

It is pleasurable and useful to recognize the affects of individual plant medicines on our mind, body, and spirit. Working with one or two herbs at a time allows for greater clarity and distinction between the subtleties of difference between herbs with similar healing qualities. Moving steadily in our relationship with plant medicines, we begin to build our knowledge of the energetic signatures of herbs along with their physical qualities. These energetic signatures combined with their physical qualities is one reason why one herb will be so successful for Person A, but seem to have little affect for Person B in a similar situation. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis), Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), and Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) are all remedies for migraines, for example, but each have unique energy signatures that affect our physical, emotional, and mental systems differently.

As you begin working with a chosen plant medicine (whether you chose them or they chose you), I offer the following considerations for your journey together, based on the idea of recognition, engagement, and kinship.

Recognition

• Recognize your needs.
  • What our your needs, wants, and desires in your relationship with the plant medicine?
  • Are you seeking a cure or kinship?
  • Recognize the plant’s needs.
    • What are the needs, wants, and desires of the plant both within and apart from the relationship you are seeking from it?
      • If you are growing the herb, what are its growing needs? How is it sustainably harvested and/or wildcrafted?
      • Create a supportive environment for the plant to express itself to you.
      • Be able to identify the physical and energetic characteristics of the plant as it grows, how it tastes, smells, and feels.

Engagement

• We must be accountable to our interdependence with the plant world and how we engage plant medicine is a reflection of our understanding of our interdependence.
• Maintain a willingness to experience the world from the plant’s perspective. In turn we are better able to empathize with those we serve as herbologists and healers.
• Engage with your plant ally every day, every night, whether greeting them in your garden, meditating with them, using them as internal or external medicine, and/or some other practice.
  • Learn about the historical, mythological, and modern uses of the plant medicine.
  • Sing sacred songs, draw, write poetry, dance, and engage in pleasurable experiences with your plant.
  • How do you and the plant make medicine?
    • When you harvest the herb, when do you do it, where do you do it, and how do you do it? When you purchase it, how do you do it, and from whom?
    • Try creating different types of medicines – from teas to tinctures – with the plant.

Kinship

• As you work with a plant ally, you become accountable to one another.
  • How do you remain honest with yourself and your plant ally on your healing journey?
  • How do you create sustainable structures of healing whether through the principles of permaculture, mindful wildcrafting, social justice organizing or similar practices of interconnectedness?
  • How do you honor the medicine of your plant ally?
    • Perhaps as a herbologist, storyteller, medicine-maker, teacher, ritual-facilitator, rabble-rouser, or heart-opener?

Each of us will engage our herbal practice with different insights, experiences, and personal skills that shape every aspect of our lives and relationships. As an herbologist, with my experiences as a Pagan, queer, feminist, multi-racial, tea-loving womyn living in the United States with the myriad of privileges I have and lack access to, my relationships with my plant allies is rooted in these experiences - a foundation of legacy and futuredreaming. The process of working with plant medicines is about learning the ways that I may help facilitate healing between plant and people and creature, but also is about my own personal journey and how I relate to the world within and around me.

I hope that your own journey with the plants of our ocean planet is sweet, challenging, ecstatic, luminous, and balancing, and that you grow in your own wild and greening healing energy.

Be well, clever friends!

[1] Can we take a moment to imagine the Twitter account or Tumblr of some of our favorite plant medicines? Hawthorn will always be posting the latest heart-warming video about puppies, while Cacao keeps posting an endless stream of abstract party photos involving a lot of nudity, and Elder’s stream would be sorta spooky, badass, and intriguing.