a month with St John’s Wort, herb of the sun
One of the most alchemical of plants, St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is the epitome of the midsummer season. Strongly associated with Summer Solstice and later with St John’s Eve (June 24), this herb of the sun has been used for centuries to ward off evil and is now well-known as an unplifting ally for depression and darkness.
In Irish folklore St John’s wort is one of seven magical herbs that are charms against injury, both natural and supernatural, along with self heal, vervain, speedwell, eyebright, mallow, and yarrow.
In Breton lore it is believed that St John’s Wort is filled with the spirits of those who have ‘crossed the red fire’ and now protect the world. This gives the plant the power to correct ‘redness’ — whether as inflamed skin or the internal fire of depression),. Spiritually, emotionally and physically, he is a restorer and balancer.
He? I overwhelmingly meet herbs as ‘she’, but some feel more male in energy or seem to have an energy that is neither he nor she… There’s nothing objective in this. The plants so often mirror us back aspects of ourselves and St John’s wort may meet you differently.
He’s a herb I’ve only worked with since moving to the forest in Finistère, but has quickly become a friend. In my first summer in Brittany I infused St John’s wort in oil. Macerated in sunlight, the yellow flowers and buds transform the oil to red — thick and bright as fresh blood.
June felt like the perfect month to spend with him, coming into midsummer. He’s the blood of the sun — or fairy gold, bringing light and warmth into the whole year. He not only balances mood but soothes and cleanses wounds, being both analgesic and antimicrobial. He reduces inflammation, calms sunburn, treats rheumatic pains, arthritis, gout, muscular spasm, cramping and stiffness, sprains, strains and bruising.
Being a restorative and a balancer makes St John’s wort a subtle ally. He’s a toning herb, restoring healthy tone to the body’s tissues and is mildly drying and astringent. This shifts the energy in tissues that are stagnant or lax (making him a gentle digestive). But he is also relaxing, relieving tension both in muscles and emotionally. It might seem counter-intuitive that a toning herb is a relaxant, but his action is to tighten a loose, frayed, or fragmented nervous system. A balancing action.
St John’s wort is a bitter, supporting the liver and gallbladder, but unlike some bitters, not cooling, but warming and aromatic. In helping the liver to clear excess oestrogens and inflammatory compounds he relaxes cramps while simultanesously toning tissues. And he is hepatoprotective, protecting the liver from alcohol and other toxins.
He assists with leaky gut syndrome and acts on the enteric brain to stimulate the gut, helping the functioning of the digestive system, astringing the bowel, protecting the gut lining from inflammation and infection and enhancing the absorption of food. He also protects the gut flora and is helpful in combatting infections such as gastroenteritis or anything that causes diarrhoea. And St John’s wort can be an ally for people with heightened bladder sensitivity or for urinary tract infections.
But he is best known as a nervinetrophorestorative, having a particular affinity for supporting the nervous system, including some mildly sedative action. The hypericin in St John’s wort acts as a monamine oxidase inhibitor, reducing enzymes that break down monamine in the brain and so making more norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine available. All of which helps with mood, anxiety, sleep and appetite.
This nervine action also extends to the heart — St John’s wort reduces blood pressure, especially where it is related to tension and stress.
Additionally, as an anodyne, St John’s wort’s affinity with the nervous system is helpful for nerve pain such as in shingles, neuralgia, and sciatica, as well as soothing pain due to inflammation.
That’s a lot of power from this gentle solar plant, but he also comes with a caution. St John’s wort enhances liver metabolism using the body’s cytochrome P450 pathways. (Skullcap and reishi mushrooms act in a similar way). The complication is that the same pathways are used by many allopathic medications, including SSRIs and chemotherapy drugs. Anyone taking these (or any presecribed medication that uses these pathways) should avoid St John’s wort. The danger is that by enhancing liver processing St John’s wort may increase the potency of other drugs in ways that are potentially harmful. At its worst this can include Serotonin Syndrome which is potentially life-threatening.
On the other hand, if you are not taking any contra-indicated medications and want a herbal ally for the nervous system, including depression, St John’s wort can be an amazing supporter.
Another caution with this herb is that photosensitivity can be heightened. The hypericin, amongst other chemicals, is a photosensitising pigment, especially with UVA light. For many people the problem only ocurrs with higher doses or longer term use, Internal use tends to be more photosensitising that external (another counter-intuitive aspect of St John’s wort) but anyone with pale or sensitive skin or with a condition that includes erythema (tendency to redness) such as lupus, should avoid topical St John’s wort in the sun (though it can soothe redness in the absence of sunlight).
Gentle, complex, warming, toning, soothing and nurturing. I began the month with lots of facts about the actions of his actions. But spending extended time with a herb always brings surprises.
I’m not someone is prone to depression, but I am someone who can get stuck — often in unhelpful patterns of overwork and stress. And this can result in periods of burnout. St John’s wort is restorative and balancer, and with a few drops daily plus some tea and a balm, I’ve felt less pulled towards being all-go or all-collapse. Odd as it may seem, I find June can be a sad month. It’s been a time of losses in the past. Midsummer also feels more difficult with lupus — I’m much more sun averse. But St John’s wort gently brought the sun in.
And even more interestingly, though I wasn’t going through a dark night of the soul, the world certainly is. I’m given to optimism, but in the current world-order, I can still lie awake at night wondering what kind of world my children and grandchildren will have to contend with. Like so many, I feel the depths of the ecological mess and the horrors of wars, scapegoating of immigrants, genocide… St John’s wort shines light not only on our individual concerns, but on our collective darkness too.
I didn’t emerge from a month with St John’s wort with answers to our collective mess. But each day my trust that the natural world is wiser and calmer than we can ever know increased. Perhaps the answers don’t lie with humans at all — certainly not in their controlling, colonising modes. Perhaps listening to plants like St John’s wort and other herbs is amongst the most transformative thing we can do. How different would the world be with more reverence and humility from us?
In that spirit, I offer a recipe for a balm to help with listening to our plant allies, to open a space to tend to the natural world, permeable to all the ways it restores and balances.
Balm of contemplation
1/4 cup shea butter,
3 tbsps of infused oil (you can simply use St John’s Wort oil alone or combine with either or bothe daisy and mugwort oils)
3 tbsps of beeswax pellets
Gently heat these together in a Bain Marie
Take off the heat and add essential oils of:
clary sage 20 drops lavender 20 drops Melissa 5 drops rose 5 drops