9 minute read
Anthroposophical Views
from The Merry Issue
Tipsy tempers and creepy crawlies
Dora Wagner
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Justinus von Kerner
“What's that louse that’s crawled up your liver?” is what you are asked in Germany if you are in a bad mood. As a small child, I often wondered how a louse might get on your liver, and why the liver had any connection with your mood…
In ancient times, four bodily fluids were thought to determine both health and emotions: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. A melancholic person would be considered to have too much black bile. If one’s urine was lemon-yellow with a hint of fire, then there was certainly too much yellow bile in the body. Hot and dry qualities were attributed to this ‘humour’ and it became associated with summer, fire, and a patient prone to upset, anger, irrational behaviour, short-temperedness, and daring. Galen (129- 216 CE) also associated four qualities of taste to these fluids: sweet blood, salty phlegm, sour black bile, and bitter yellow bile. Bile is, of course, associated with the liver (Seiz, 2012).
The liver is the largest and functionally most versatile gland of our body. At about 1.5 kg, the liver is a huge, heavy organ; a massive lump that occupies a relatively spacious area in the right side of the upper abdomen. Life without a liver is not possible. It is the central metabolic organ of the human body and fulfils a multitude of vital tasks. Together with the gall bladder, the liver converts substances supplied from outside into nutrients. It is involved in regulating our fat and sugar metabolism as well as our mineral and vitamin balance. Many vital substances such as proteins— important for blood clotting, amongst other things —are formed in this organ. As a detoxification centre, it filters harmful substances from the blood and helps us excrete substances that are no longer useful. To do all this, the liver produces bile and passes it through the biliary ducts to our intestine, where it is involved in the digestion of fats, while at the same time supplying the digestive system with compounds that enable the transformation and absorption of food.
There are no pain mechanisms in the liver, so we may not feel or sense when our liver is sick. Liver diseases can manifest themselves in disorders of the whole organism. These include skin problems, but also sleep disturbances— particularly waking around 3am, usually a time when fundamental changes in liver metabolism are taking place. Even depressive disorders and lack of energy can, in individual cases, be associated with liver dysfunction. Fatigue or difficulty concentrating are often non-specific, whilst more typical symptoms of liver disturbance— such as a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes —only occur in comparatively few people. So, it is very important to take good care of your liver.
In anthroposophy, the herb most readily associated with liver health is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
The common English name may be derived from the Saxon ‘gearva’, meaning ‘completed, perfect, gorgeous’, from the Greek ‘hiera’, meaning ‘holy herb’, or the Anglo-Saxon word for ‘healer’. Found in meadows and pastures, and on roadsides, Yarrow is immediately recognisable by its distinctive leaves. Unlike a standard leaf, Yarrow leaves are incised, and the resulting feathering is continually reshaped— there is often even a third generation of pinnae —so, finally a rhythmically structured, lanceolate, toothed leaflet is formed. Even the most skilful goldsmith could not shape their work more beautifully and evenly. Indeed, other plants with finely articulated leaves, such as Dill (Anethum graveolens) or Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) seem almost untidy in comparison. This distinctive feature informs the Latin binomial ‘millefolium’, meaning ‘thousand-leaved’, and explains another of the plant’s many common names, Eyebrow of Venus. Early in the growing season, these leaves form a rosette on the ground, nourished by a horizontally-growing root. Out of this base will grow a stem, up to sixty centimetres long, bearing white-looking flowers in the upper part from June to October. These flowers mislead us in two ways. At first glance, they look like umbels. However, Yarrow does not belong to the Umbelliferae, but to the Compositae family. Secondly, if we look closer at the flower heads, we will see that what looks like a single flower is actually composed of many smaller white, sometimes pink-hued florets.
The first part of this plant’s botanical name, Achillea, refers to Achilles, the legendary hero of the Trojan War. The legend has it that, on the advice of a wise centaur, Achilles applied Yarrow to the wounds of his friend, Telemachos, and the plant staunched his bleeding at once. Indeed, the Goddess of Love herself is said to have applied Yarrow to Achilles' famously injured heel. This powerful medicinal plant carries a myriad of local, common names. In Germany, these include ‘Bauchwehkraut’ (Bellyachewort), ‘Wundkraut’ (Woundwort), ‘Fauendank’ (Woman's Thanks), ‘Gesundheilkraut’ (Health-herb), and ‘Heil aller Welt Kraut’ (Healing-all-the-world-wort). The observation that sick sheep intuitively ate Yarrow to recover underpins its most common German name, ‘Schafgarbe’ (Bäumler, 2012).
Many cultures have used Yarrow for divination. The dried stalks were used in the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, which became established around 1000 BC. In Europe, freshly plucked Yarrow was placed under the pillow to invoke dreams of one’s future beloved. In one tradition, to evaluate a suitor, young maidens were advised to twist a Yarrow stalk three times in their nostrils; a nosebleed indicated future happiness. Since Yarrow stalks are quite stiff and pointed, it may have been quite tricky to avoid a marriage. Yet Yarrow was also used to spurn love. If a woman wanted to tell an admirer that she loved someone else, she would send him a particular bouquet, a ‘Schabab’ (an Old German word meaning ‘to scrape off’) as a sign of rejection. Amongst other flowers, it contained Yarrow. Yarrow was also one of St. John's herbs, hung around the house, or worn, to ward off evil. Holy Thursday Soup, eaten to confer health and protection throughout the year, contained the first, young Yarrow leaves.
Yarrow is a good kitchen herb. It makes fatty dishes more digestible, and salads tasty. It is also easy to forage. Yarrow grows in most wild meadows, and there are hardly any similar plants that would be poisonous. The most suitable time to harvest is in early summer, after the flowers appear. Of course, choose a location where the plants have not been exposed to pesticides or strong emissions. Tie the stems together, hang them upside down, and simply cut or break them into small pieces before use. For Yarrow tea, one to two teaspoons of the dried herb are brewed with a cup of boiling water, covered, left to steep for ten minutes, then strained. The tea relieves cramps, detoxifies by stimulating the digestion, and has been shown to lower blood pressure (Shalizar-Jalali, 2016). A liverprotective effect against toxins such as Paracetamol has also been shown (Applequist, 2011).
Applied externally, Yarrow is one of the most effective and most frequently used herbs in anthroposophical medicine. A strong tea— two heaped tablespoons to a half litre of boiling water, steeped for ten minutes —is the key ingredient of a liver poultice. To make your own, take a folded cloth that can cover the right upper abdomen a hand's breadth above and below the right costal arch. Soak it with the tea and squeeze well. Apply the cloth as hot as is comfortable. Cover with a dry cloth, and finally a woollen. If necessary, a lightly filled hot water bottle can also be placed on top. Relax, covered with a warm blanket, and allow the liver wrap to work for about thirty minutes. When you remove it, rest for at least another ten minutes.
Weisser (2006) demonstrates that moist, hot, liver compresses lead to a significant increase in liver function. Hence, regular Yarrow liver wraps are used as part of a holistic treatment for cancer, particularly as it has also been confirmed in cell culture experiments that Yarrow inhibits the growth of tumour cells (Mouhid et al, 2019; Ali et al, 2017). Yarrow liver compresses can also be helpful against other chronic diseases and states of depression and exhaustion (Soldner and Soldner, 2019). More generally, they can accompany any fasting cure, by supporting the function of our central metabolic and restorative organ. To strengthen the liver, and in cases of general fatigue, morning Yarrow compresses can be applied from twice weekly to daily. In cases of indigestion, the compress should be applied after lunch; for sleep disorders and depression, apply in the evening.
Yarrow also heals the soil: it prevents diseases in neighbouring plants and, planted alongside scented herbs, it will increase the intensity of their fragrance. Therefore, Yarrow preparations and composts are promoted in bio-dynamic agriculture.
Since the origins of European herbal medicine, Yarrow has represented the principle of harmony. It is considered helpful in all transitional situations, such as the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Since your adolescents might not want to drink a daily cup of Yarrow tea, you might try burning the astonishingly blue essential oil in a fragrance lamp instead.
Images
Photos by Dora Wagner. Collages by Dora Wagner, using Wikipedia Commons
References
Ali, S.I.; Gopalakrishnan, B. and Venkatesalu, V. (2017) ‘Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties of Achillea millefolium L.: A Review’, in Phytotherapy Research, 31(8):1140-1161
Applequist, W. (2011) ‘Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.): A Neglected Panacea? A Review of Ethnobotany, Bioactivity, and Biomedical Research’, in Economic Botany 65(2):209-225
Bäumler, S. (2015) Heilpflanzen Praxis heute. Elsevier: München
Mouhid, L.; Gómez de Cedrón, M.; García- Carrascosa, E.; Reglero, G.; Fornari, T. and Ramírez de Molina, A. (2019) ‘Yarrow supercritical extract exerts antitumoral properties by targeting lipid metabolism in pancreatic cancer’, in PLoS ONE 14(3): e0214294
Seiz, P. (2012) Humoralmedizin-Grundlagen und Einsatz. Foitzick: Augsburg Shalizar-Jalali, A. (2013) ‘Yarrow as a New Weapon against Hypertension’. Accessed via researchgate.net
Soldner, U. and Soldner, G. (2019) ‘Schafgarben-Leberwickel; Der Merkurstab’, in Zeitschrift für Anthroposophische Medizin 72(6)
Storl, W-D. (2018) Die Unkräuter in meinem Garten. Gräfe und Unzer: München
Weisser, S. (2006) ‘Effekt von Leberwickeln auf die exkretoirische Leberfunktion’, PhD thesis. University of Freiburg
Wilhelm, R. (2017) I Ging – Buch der Wandlungen. Narayana Verlag: Kandern
