a month with wood betony
Wood betony (Betonica officinalis) is part of the mint family. And there are colloquialisms about it’s value and virtues from a so manuy cultures. In Spain there is the saying,
He has as many virtues as Betony.
In Italy the maxim is,
Sell your coat and buy Betony.
And the American herbalist John Sauer says,
There is no illness brought by cold in which betony cannot be administered effectively.
While in Gaelic, Wood Betony is simply called lus bheathag, or ‘Life Plant’.
Betonica officinalis
wood betony
common hedgenettle
purple betony
bishop’s wort
Canadian lousewort
heal all
lus bheathag
Slightly warming, drying and aromatic, it can also be cooling for lung conditions in combination with other herbs. It’s a nervine tonic so wonderful for stress and nervous tension. And it’s also a muscle relaxant and helps to clear the mind and dispel brain fog. It strengthens digestive processes and nutrient assimilation and stimulates digestive juices, having an affinity with the gallbladder.
But perhaps the most vtial thing about betony is that it helps us to establish rootedness, connectedness, earthiness, groundedness… For anyone who feels cut off from the earth or their bodies, anyone who lives too much in the head… betony is an ally. This ability to ground us in our bodies has a long history.
Once, betony was said to exorcise demons. ‘Possession’ aside, we all have times when we are ‘beside ourselves’, when we feel distant from ourselves, when we don’t feel at home in our own skin. The calming, grounding qualities of wood betony make it a lovely companion herb. The Anglo Saxon Herbal recommends drinking an infusion to prevent:
frightful nocturnal goblins and terrible sights and dreams.
And in Wales betony charms also protected against bad dreams, and growing around the house would protect from ‘all mischeefes’.
When I chose betony as my herb for September I knew it would be a month of travelling. We began in Bristol, connecting with a friend there, revisiting (for me) the city where three of my four children were born, and intending to travel to Glastonbury to spend time with a wonderful herbal mentor, but had to miss this out due to illness.
Then on to my daughter, a few days of high energy with grandchildren and catching up. And next to London, which I love in small doses but soon find frenetic and fragmenting, despite the chance to spend time with my oldest daughter and to see gorgeous art at the Tate Modern.
And across to mid-Wales to see dear friends there, friends who are living with enormous grief with so much grace. And up the coast of Wales, dropping in for lunch with a poet friend en route before two days in North Wales with a book launch in Bangor. Staying so close to where I lived for almost 20 years, visiting some old haunts and seeing friends from the area was wonderful. It also brought up a huge amount of emotion about not being in that place any longer and all the memories assocatied with it.
We moved on to Hay on Wye, to connect with the wondeful Poetry Book Shop. The final stop will be just outside Boscastle, a tiny barn on a an organic farm with no internet, a place to gather ourselves.
I knew it would be a packed month. And I also knew it would be an exhausting month, constantly moving, meetings for worked interspersed with visits, and with more social contact than we see in six months tucked away in the forest. I knew I’d need to do lot of listening to betony as I travelled.
Antonius Musa, a physician to Emperor Caesar Augustus, recorded 47 ways to use wood betony. Amongst them:
promoting menstruation where it is scant
slowing blood flow where periods are heavy
muscle relaxant
blood cleansing tonic (including assistance with rheumatism)
jaundice
falling sickness
palsy
convulsions
gout
dropsy
head troubles
colds
coughs
asthma
consumption
relaxing the muscles, especially in the head and upper body
anxiety
mental agitation
nervousness
digestion
promoting bile
inducing perspiration
relieving pain, including headaches
staunching blood flow
expelling parasites
sedative
promoting appetite
calming colic
easing spasm
treating diarrhoea
quenching nausea
soothing sores and ulcers
slowing a racing heart
…
So many virtues, but I’d asked warming wood betony along to keep me from feeling fragmented into too many pieces as we moved. Our souls simply don’t travel as fast as cars and trains.
In the Druid herbal system, betony is a herb of the season of Lughnasadh to the autumn equinox, where we have just arrived. The Celts believed that betony was protective of body, emotions and soul. It has associations with strengthening the solar plexus, the place from which we feel connected. And has widely been known as the incarnative herb. Being in my body is something I always need to remind myself of, especially when moving around.
Rest heal create nurture. Betony, with her many virtues, speaks to all the seasons of the body. Simply sitting with betony, I begin to feel drowsy, soothed. Rest, betony insists softly.
She’s an earthy herb that heals not only by grounding but by relaxing and soothing so many organs and tissues of the body. Heal, heal she sings.
As creatives we can spend a lot of time in our heads ignoring the calls of the body. But creativity flows best when we inhabit all our senses, when body and soul pour into the work. Create, betony hums when I’ve relaxed into the rhythm of her breath in the little cottage in Boscastle after spending time with her.
Nurture, she offers — let me soothe you, body and soul. Her voice is gentle, her embrace wide. Incarnate, invitational, beautiful. Listen to betony gentling us in this liminal season.
It’s Autumn Equinox — Alban Elfed or Light of the Water in the Druid tradition. It is the second of the harvest festivals when day and night are balanced before the nights will grow longer and Winter returns. It’s time for taking stock as the year comes full circle, a time to be thankful for whatever we have gathered this year — fruits of the earth and of our creativity.
As we move into deep autumn, what have you gathered this year?
As we move towards winter, how will you take time to rest, heal, create and nurture?
Betony is a herb of autumn — in the season of the air element it adds a grounding note to this lung-centred tea recipe, a taster from the self-led course: rest heal create nurture.
Respiratea
Ground ivy 10 g
Eyebright 10g
Wood betony 10g
Mullein 10g
chickweed 5 g
lungwort 5g