Motherwort, I Love You

Look who’s popping up all over the garden, looking incredibly pleased with herself:

Yep, it’s a little clump of Motherwort  (Leonurus cardiaca) leaves. Isn’t she pretty? I love the way she has those hints of purple-brown in her leaves and stems.

Motherwort is a really valuable ally for me right now.

I’ve blogged a bit about  changes and developements in my life, especially in my spiritual and healing work. And while the evolution of my work is a beautiful and exciting thing, it’s also sometimes overwhelming. I frequently find myself frozen with doubt, insecurity, worry that I can’t do it. And the worst days are the ones when I wonder if the men in white jackets are going to come and carry me off to a nice room with padded walls and give me happy pills every day.

Enter this fuzzy little beauty:

Motherwort doesn’t change what I feel. She doesn’t make me giddy or happy, she doesn’t knock me out, she doesn’t sedate me. She just says, “There, there dear,” and helps me to flow with the changes, with my feelings–even with the doubt. I’ve heard some people say that motherwort makes them feel really good. She doesn’t have that effect on me. Instead, she helps me to be okay with whatever it is that I am feeling. If I need to cry, I can cry really really hard, and be okay with the intensity of it. If I’m angry, she helps me to be with the anger and understand what it’s about. Although often when I’m angry, it’s because I’m scared or worried, and so a good cry is what I really need, and so . . . motherwort often makes me cry!

But it’s a good cry. It’s the kind of cry you have when you’re feeling all worked up but don’t know  how to express it, and then you go have a visit with your mom or your aunt or grandmother, and she gives you a cup of tea and says, “So how are you doing honey?” and you just burst in to tears.

It seems to me that motherwort gives me space and a listening ear, and that she opens up the flow inside of me that I’m clamping down because it’s not pleasant.

I feel like motherwort is an important plant friend for many of us right now–especially those of us who are treading new territory with energy work and the transitions that we seem to be making as a culture and species. It seems that our planet is changing, we are changing, we’re on a precipice and who knows what happens when we tumble over its edge? Some days it’s exciting, and some days it’s terrifying, and motherwort seems to help us surrender to the flow and be all right with our uncertainties.

Motherwort is taking over one of the large beds in my front yard. I was a bit worried about it last year, but this year I’m thinking maybe it’s a good thing after all. I’m really glad I made so much tincture last summer, because I have so many friends who need her right now. And I can only imagine that going forward, she will really help us to cope with the process we are in.

Of course there are some contraindications with motherwort–she’s definitely not for everyone. Do some research before you decide to work with her, especially if you have any health conditions or are on any kind of pharmaceutical. I’m not medically trained to tell anyone what will and won’t cause a problem!