The Body System: Throat
Building on our work with the respiratory system from our last journey exploring the lungs, we'll be focusing on the throat, one of the energetic and physical homes of voice and song in our body. The passageway between our lungs and mouth, encompassing the voice box, vocal cords, and cervical spine, and surrounded by lymph nodes, the throat is a place of complex connection.
Our voice, shaped by the physical nature of our throat and mouth, the word shapes of our mother tongue, and our unique sensibilities of expression, can shape how we see ourselves as much as we are seen by those around us. The way we speak in one place may become a strange accent in another or the style that we spoke in childhood becomes lost by traveling far from the place we grew up. Our voice is a living repository of experience - regional twangs picked up during our college years or a family custom of dropping consonants on certain words. The tone and pitch of our voice can communicate gravitas or immaturity, assumed by the listener, rather than based in fact. And we change our voice in all sorts of ways for different circumstances and relationships, whether code-switching or suddenly using that voice we only use when speaking with animals.
Everyone's voice is challenged at one point or another, whether by a parent, a partner, a teacher, a friend, a boss, a stranger on the street. Sometimes we lose our voice from fear, change it beyond recognition in order to survive or carry the sorrow of a child who has lost the words of mother tongues from generations past. We try on new voices, adopt ways of speaking so that we can fit in better, regret what we've said or wished we said it in another way. We hope for a "better" voice that'll match who we know ourselves to be, we struggle when we hear the voice of unkind relations echoed in our own tone, and learn how to regulate our words with rhythm and intention instead of throwing them around without concern for where they'll land.
If your voice was a growing and green thing, a plant that you could spot out on the land, what would it look like? Would it be soft and full of many-petaled flowers? Would it be a rough-barked aged tree full of squirrels and birds nests? A thistle, a cactus, a thorned hedgerow bush?
The throat, gateway of the voice, is a vulnerable place structurally and emotionally, reflected in our English language with phrases like "sticking your neck out" when we do something brave or risky. It's a physically sensitive place and one that often causes trouble when it comes to mobility, but also a place of pleasure, of display and adornment. A fittingly complex home for our complex ways of expressing ourselves. What are the times in your life that you have felt your voice flow through you, unhindered, expressive, and following the path of your breath with ease? What are the times when you have lost your voice, felt it was stolen, hid it away or changed it to protect yourself? Over the next two weeks, I encourage you to pay attention to your voice in your relationships, including your inner voice, and how it shifts and changes. How does your voice help lead you towards your song?
Plant allies of the throat include upper respiratory tonics, mucous membrane tonics including anti-catarrhal herbs and expectorants, lymphatic system tonics, nervines that help to soften tension that arises in the neck and shoulders, and herbs that help to prevent infection, reduce swelling and inflammation, and analgesics as throat complaints are often painful.
Paths of Study:
Read about common plant allies of the throat, including common complaints that can be aided by herbal medicine.
Start a list of your most used or easily available throat herbs, writing brief, indications-led descriptions of them like I've created below, to use in your practice.
Create a work of art featuring your chosen throat plant allies.
Explore the astroherbalism traditions of the throat, including learning about the sign (Taurus) and planet (Venus).
In addition to throat tonics, exploring upper respiratory system tonics, lymph system tonics, herbs that support the breath and alleviate tension, and plant allies that nourish the communicative qualities of the nervous system.
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Remediation: If you're feeling overwhelmed on where to begin, choose one herb to study, reading its plant profile, and if possible, making or purchasing the herb to try as a tea, bath, tincture or other plant-specific remedy. For those of you wanting to explore more of the magickal traditions of lung herbs, be sure to read the magickal use sections of their profiles, and begin to consider how the medicinal uses of the plant can fine-tune your spellwork (i.e. Sage to help connect with the wisdom of self-expression versus Vervain's ability to help us loosen up our voice after a period of rigid conformity).