Herbs to Work With During Taurus Season
Every month we featuring herbs that are available to work with for that season's energy. This month our featured herbs are rose and cleaver.
Rose:
Rose is an important part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), where it is used to regulate qi, or life energy. Rose is considered a remedy for stomach and digestive problems. It helps with burnout, fatigue, and improving sleep, eases irritability and mood swings and can ease menstrual cramps and menopausal symptoms. Rose offers our physical body a gentle detox.
On a spiritual level, rose encourages enthusiasm and a lively interest in life, reigniting your passion for life, finding enthusiasm for the world through work, community and with those you care about. It helps us to take initiative and make changes that we may have been putting off. It has been revered for centuries for its mind, body, and spiritual healing benefits, particularly those around relieving the heart, depression, anxiety, psycho-spiritual related imbalances, and many more. The medicine of rose is one of the most powerful embodiments of Venus in the way that it heals our hearts from past traumas and heartbreak. It reminds us that our true heart cannot be broken.
This flower is associated with both Shango and Yemoja. In my opinion, roses showcase the fierceness and also the softness & beauty embodied in these orisha. Red roses for Shango represent passion and strength. White Roses of Yemoja represent purity, innocence and protection. Both of these Orisha are known for their intense power and empathy—the roses’ thorns depict energy that has to be handled with care and concentration in order to feel the roses sweetness
Cleavers:
Cleavers are an amazing herbal diuretic. They can relieve swelling and promote the movement of fluid throughout the body, working on our lymphatic system, our liver, and kidneys. In the past, Native American tribes used this herb to promote kidney health. It was also sometimes used by Native American women to prevent pregnancy. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is used as a go-to anti-inflammatory and to move stagnation, creating qi and movement.
Cleavers enhance the function of the lymphatic system and improve its ability to flush out toxins, decreasing congestion and reducing swelling. The lymph-cleansing action of this herb in turn enhances the function of the immune system. Cleavers are the ultimate springtime herb and start to appear when sluggish immune systems are in need of a boost (they’re growing all over brooklyn rn!)
On a spiritual level, cleavers help us to release codependency and toxic relationships that hold us back, helping us to emotionally rebalance our hormones and cleanse unwanted toxic energy. The weight of the world can manifest as a mindset and a physical form—cleavers help us release some of that energetic weight and take control of our lives and goals.
This herb is associated with the Orisha Yemojá who represents the womb, amniotic fluid, the water in our body and our arrival to life. She helps us to move back into balance emotionally and physically creating waves of motion to cleanse and realign.
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