Elemental Herbs.. Air

Ive been pondering a lot on herbs, the DPO and the elements. So I wanted to do a bit of a pondering on Air today, with the plan that over the next few weeks I'll go through all the elements :)

So - air, the element of the Swords and most things sharp and pointy. It links with communication, travel, protection, clean/fresh air, and even sleep and dreams - as good sleep and dream interpretation are part of a healthy mind as well. Also Air deals with the intellect, so the accumulation of knowledge and hopefully understanding. I often think of professions like Lawyers, and crossword lovers with Air, as its that precision of finding the right word, the turning of the grey matter and looking at things from every angle. Air is linked with all winged creatures, birds, insects like dragonflies and bees... Zodiac is Libra, Aquarius and Gemini, the planets of Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus. Sense of smell and sound and the throat chakra.

So what does that mean for plants?!
Well heres my lowdown of my interpretation of Air plants in the DPO..
Agrimony - of liberation and soul flight, feeling free to fly. It is also a herb of purification. I feel that Agrimony is a plant that just makes us think differently at life and lets us see the good rather than the negative. Also, Agrimony is a very tall plant, and height is associated with air and bringing objectivity.
Borage - acting within your own ethical framework, and sometimes that means fighting. The card has a sword in its scabbard saying you should be prepared to fight for what you believe to be right, after a good long think about it and trying to resolve it with words etc. Rosemary is another herb of purification and cleansing the mind of feeling blue, especially PMT induced moody blues.
Celtic Bean - communicating with the dead/ancestors, but also seeing clearly about the ancestors of land. Its easy in our very modernised world to think the ancestors lived a life so deeply attuned to the land and were happy - take off the rosetinted glasses! Also, it cleanses negativity and promoted intergration and acting within our integrity, else the winds will change on you and return what you put out.
Fern - a bolt out of the blue, what the winds suddenly blow into your way and becoming invisible like the wind. Fern also has deep connections to the lifeforce which in Yogic traditions associates prana with breath/air.
Meadowsweet - to celebrate and even instigate change and thinking of ways around a problem (like Gwydion thinking of ways around Arianrhod's wishes).
Mint - as it calms the mind and emotional anxiety and worrying. Also its good for freshening your breath and airways.. also like Menthol.
Mistletoe - its up high in the air, and I feel its energies are a plant to rule complementary therapies which are an 'all-heal' in that they look at everything holistically, no just the symptom/cause/disease of modern medicine (although thats a very useful tactic when feeling ill too!). It cuts what is waste out of our lives, and helps us to reap from our own knowledge and wisdom. Also mistletoe I think its a herb of oral traditions.
Vervain - the star herb of the druids that was meant to be harvested under the light of the rising Dog Star. It promotes good dreams, and frees our minds from our desires, focusing on what is important and not 'temptations', although at the same time Vervain is a bit of a trickster energy, for it is also believed to be an amphrodisiac! lol.



Others herbs of Air are..
Anise - for its powers of concentration and focusing the mind
lemon verbena - a strong cleansing smell, thats good for promoting messages/communication, especially between lovers.
lavendar - its strong scent calms the mind, and promotes sleep and dispells worries and replaces them with a feeling of contentment.
Parsley - for protection as well as purification, for it cleanses the palete and freshens breath as well as the mind.
Peppermint - great for bringing up trapped wind! I also think its a great herb for expressing what really is on your mind, the thoughts that you feel trapped by and unable to say.
Rosemary - for it cleanses the mind from PMT associated blues, bringing you a clear head out of a hormonal chaos, the 'i dont know why I feel so upset or angry' kinda feeling. Also, rosemary helps promote your memory!
Sage - has long been associated with Air, for its purifying incense/smoke, also Sage tea is wonderful for soothing sore throats, and it magically helps us pick our words carefully, thinking before we speak.
Wormwood - for promoting the ability to communicate with the spirit world and the dead. It also is a heavy protection herb, the Mafia of herbal protection.

And lets think of a few of the Tree Ogham for Air..

Birch - the tall silvery lady who bends in the wind. A tree of flexibility, who's bark can be used as paper to write and also great for catching flint sparks to create a fire. This tree blesses new beginnings, like the dawn of a new day.
Ash - A tree of your world view, but also for linking betweeen the worlds. Promotes travelling to them as well as recieving messages from the other realms. Ash always makes me think of arrows, cutting through the air, that firm focused energy out of the chaos.
Ivy - the life force, like prana.. also many pieces of pagan iconography show figures with ivy pouring out of their mouths. It also keeps us focused on our contracts, our word being our bond and keeping to our goals.
Pine/Elm - reaching new heights, climbing to see a new perspective, objectivity. Its also the tree of seeing things with a new revitalised look if you've look been on a path or job that is starting to feel stale, or trapped by a 'glass ceiling' of your own making.

New Moon Spread

From Eowyn's post Ive decided to do her New Moon Spread as we at that time between waning and waxing - we are still, we are at the darkest part of the Moon's cycle. And within that darkness is the unknown, and yet the potential of everything. Like the cauldron of Annwn, like Ceridwen's cauldron, like the darkness of the womb where life is created or else we bleed. Here there just IS, stillness, the void, the moment before the big bang but yet every moment there ever will be.
I love dark moons :D


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1.- What lays on your dark depths. What is unseen. What we stumble against in the dark nights - Heather
Theres an undercurrent of change. Theres the obvious stuff that is clear, but theres that deep energy shift. I have been sleeping really well recently (which is not normal for me) and I think its because of my being on all kinds of levels changing and forming something new... all those winds of change.
And in that, yes there is a feeling of not 'belonging' because in life we are our own persons, our own life paths and sometimes that means going to this weird inbetween place - were we become a stranger amongst friends, or that process of when we try to make new ones. We stumble and fumble... or bumble (bumble bees!)
I think this also refers to my deep concern, yet perhaps inevitable reality that I will drift away from people. Thats sad, but at the same time I'll be drawing closer to new people. Swings and round abouts.

2.- What will begin to show, to arise.- Woad Another friend.. I think I've done a lot of work on being clear in directing my energies.. now its time to see what the 'offshoots' are from this stalk of woad. I've got my freedom, now its time to explore, time to play, time to roam around the forest like the Wild Boar, king of his lands. Although I hope I dont go bull in a china shop like the Boar does lol.
I also feel that this is where I will be tested.. all the prep work done, now its to see if I really mean business. Will I be found wanting?

3.- What will illuminate the dark path. The key in the night.- Primrose And another friend.. the nearest card the DPO has of love, of deep love of what you do and who you are. Its usually something we only experience for someone else, i.e. loving how your partner because so inspired by a book or an idea and watching them chase their tail making it 'work', and we rarely appreciate that in ourselves. Well I do very much. I have a deep love of my path, of my relationship with the Gods and provides me such trouble and joy. Im one dedicated puppy lol, but as Woad shows, a determined one too.

0.- Yourself. Shadow card, from the base of the deck - Agrimony Ohh and another friend. This is a fabulous gathering of plants.
I've also got some Agrimony burning in an incense I've made. I'm preparing for a load of new beginnings that will happen in this moon phase. Not just the thinking, the planning, and even the prep to be 'ready' is nearly all but done. Now Im ready for the new sight, and for the inevitable new shit that is going to come and mess up my nice clean headspace LOL.
Just remember to take it one step at a time :)

So overall I have a reading that highlights energy shiftings in the darkness, my own energies changing and now I'm ready to play. But my guiding light will be that Im listening to my heart, to what is wanted of me. Which is what I have been carefully listening to and defining over the past few months. Now its going to come to fruition :)

I love it when a plan comes together. Very much a lover of a plan.

A night-time reflection - Agrimony

Ive had a BUSY day, but one of my own making. Being ill with flu meant I couldnt do a load of jobs that I had planned to do, and then kept putting off before I got too ill to even think about doing them. I suppose theres a lesson there, do things when you need to do them and not put them off in the first place LOL.

I've had a whale of a night this evening, a glass of wine (I know, most unusual for me to drink at home), funnies on the TV and my Deviant Moon. Yes, its siren's song was too much to resist and Ive spent a few hours doing quick back to back readings with it for people on AT. I've had such fun with this deck this evening. Its got a real wicked sense of humour, deliciously macabre and yet deeply endearing and loving. Its got the spirit of the graveside about it (and a lot of the samples used in the deck are from graveyards and old lunatic asylums) and will make you laugh with misery and cry with joy and all in between. I could wax lyrical about it all evening but I wont.

Im just glad that my DPO isnt the jealous type. Plants aren't like that, its too druidic a deck to get jealous and also, plants work on a totally different time frame. But after the highs and madness of the Deviant Moon, I knew I needed a card to just sit, pause, reflect and ground myself before thinking of bed time. So Im using my PDR for a reflection on the day, a reflection for a good sleep I hope!

Agrimony fell out the pack whilst I was shuffling. And I did what I normally do and put the card back in my shuffling pile. I dont 'do' fly aways or special meaning in a dropped card, its just bad shuffling IMO. However, tonight I couldnt carry on shuffling after I had put it in the pack, so I had to hunt for it. Now I feel better seeing it on my spread cloth.
So, in the essense of reflection and bringing energy down for sleepybys Im just going to read the book and agree/disagree with it. No deeply intuitive stuff tonight. Although I do know I've seen this plant in the wild inner Garden.



The Birch in the card is interesting too. Today ive been spring cleaning. I know on a dark moon, but Ive been banishing the dust bunnies under the bed, the old unloved books off the shelves and donating them to charity. Thats all darkmoony stuff! (justifying it to yourself, on your own blog, you are a loony, ok I'll shhh now).

Purification, liberation, dispelling sorrow or lethargy - all right! Today I really put the nails in the coffin of this flu. Sorted stuff in town, hoovering under the bed and everything. I really needed to do this during this moon. Chamomile being a cleansing, calming herb and I spent most of it too ill or busy to do the cleansing or calming bit, now I have and so I can :).
I like what the book mentions also about how it aids sleep! Well its even more interesting how I couldnt shuffle it back into the pack.

I even like the opening flowers on the card, those bright yellow stars just starting to come into bloom,energy awaking but not fully just yet. Im not back to being 100% after the flu, but after being so productive today I feel like Im 90% there.

Ive got a sense of wiping away with this card.. a gentle wipe to cleanse the negative, a soothing touch to send you to sleep, a peaceful sigh that puts the world behind you at the moment infront of you - either for ritual, or for sleeeeeeeep.

Blessed sleep.

Bon nuit!

ETA - I had the best nights sleep Ive had in a long time! I usually have disturbed sleep, waking up once or twice in the night, but last night I was asleep and dead to the world. Blissful :)