Medicine of Self heal
Botanical Features
Common Name: Selfheal Latin : Prunella vulgaris Family: Lamiaceae
History and/or use: Excellent astringent for wounds and for internal bleeding.
Wildlife Value: Ground cover and nectar provider.
Habitat: Grassy, often bare place inc. lawns and woods.
Related Species : Cut leaved selfheal, P. laciniata- larger creamy white flowers than P.vulgaris, hairier leaves usually grows in dry grassy places. Upper leaves more or less pinnate giving the name cut-leaved.
Main Family members: Labiates (Lamiaceae) include dead nettles (Lamium), hemp nettles, ( Galeopsis) woundworts, (Stacys), calamints, (Clinopodium) claries (Salvia), germanders (Teucrium), mints (Mentha)
Family characteristics: Plants in this family are often termed downy or hairy and are usually aromatic or pungent with square stems. The flowers can be two-lipped and open mouthed except in the case of the mints and gypsywort and the upper lip is missing in bugles and germanders. The leaves are opposite, toothed and usually stalked and undivided. The fruit is a cluster of nutlets.
Qualities of Selfheal
'Delicate blooms of tenacious power, soft lush growth produced wherever it can flower.
Over rubble and concrete, plastic and glass, nature regenerates, cares not if you've asked.
Green fresh growth encapsulates beauty, every tiny flower tells a story.
Showing no fear it grows where it can, covering up the waste produced by man. '
J.Huet
Selfheal, what could be a better name for a plant to begin our studies with? Plants continue to provide and heal us in many ways despite our war on their kind, providing food, medicine, dyes, cloth, clean air and clean water. In this Country we have around 2000 species of plant and each one has its own ideal purpose for the wellbeing of this planet. Each plant has its own history, characteristics and properties to explore and uncover.
‘When little Elves have cut themselves,
Or Mouse has hurt her tail,
Or Froggie's arm has come to harm,
This herb will never fail.
The Faeries' skill can cure each ill
And soothe the sorest pain;
She’ll bathe and bind, and soon she’ll find, that they are well again.’
Mary Cicely Barker
Selfheal has many folk names including Carpenter’s herb, hook-heal and sickly wort, each describing its use or how others have experienced the plant in different regions. The above names speak of the carpenter, farmer and patient’s relationship with the plant.
Selfheal survives well in grasslands, waste spaces and more open woodlands. A close cut lawn in summer can look beautiful with the purple flowers of selfheal to enliven the otherwise monocultural sward. There is a rarer species known as the cut-leaved self heal ( Prunella laciniata) which has cut leaves and white flowers.
Both the Latin and common name of this plant point to its continued use as a herb. Prunella or Brunella is the German name for a sore throat. Dioscorides knew of the plant’s use for sore throats and treated inflammations of the throat and tonsils with this plant.
The common name of selfheal as well as the folk names of hook- heal, sickly-wort and carpenter's herb all
imply an obvious link to medicinal usage. In the doctrines of signatures (the concept that every plant has a signature that tells us its use), the flower of this plant is said to resemble a hook and as in the past many common wounds were from billhooks and sickles this implied its use to stanch bleeding.
Selfheal does staunch bleeding effectively and is also used for internal bleeding as a syrup or as a tea.
It is also used for respiratory complaints, piles and in Ireland to treat heart trouble. It is less known as a cure for colds.
A closer look at the Doctrine of Signatures
The Doctrine of Signatures is merely a starting point for a much older concept employed by indigenous people all around the world. We tend to take our early references to plant usage from the Classical world as it is here we find the early written texts on the subject. The Doctrine of signatures is first noted in the works of Pedanius Dioscorides and Claudius Galenus of the first century and then is further endorsed in the seventeenth century by renowned herbalists William Cole and Nicholas Culpeper.
It is only when we enter the twentieth century and the scientific era we find this truly ancient system labelled as pseudoscience and considered dangerous; and of course this is absolutely true in the hands of someone who doesn't know their plants well enough to use it. This system is for those who work closely with plants in a certain way.
The development of drugs in the scientific era has been revolutionary and saved many lives, dealing with especially acute problems effectively and undeniably helping people recover from complaints untreatable not so long ago. However, the more long-term health benefits of using herbs cannot be denied as they work in greater harmony with the body than many synthetic drugs as we have already explored. It is also true to say that I have used herbs for allergies, coughs and colds and they have had instant results in alleviating the symptoms.
The Doctrine of Signatures has been used since ancient times and even Dioscorides and Claudius were reiterating a discipline already known in much older oral traditions.
Please do not use herbs unless you are an expert or they have been prescribed to you by a qualified practitioner.
Exploring ancient herbal tradition in the British Isles.
An old Irish tale brings to light the demise of herbal knowledge from a professional class to a lost knowledge only continued now through the dedicated work of herbalists.
The story is part of the early mythological cycle which is focused on the magical race of the people known as the Tuatha de Dannann, the Sidhe mentioned earlier. The story also addresses the age-old rivalry of Father and Son. Miach was an apprentice physician under his father Dianceacht who was extremely jealous that his son’s skills surpassed his own. This led to the murder of Miach by his father. When Miach was buried herbs grew out from his grave in the shape of his body, each herb a cure for the part of the body it had sprung from. Airmid, Miach’s sister collected all the herbs to honour her brother Miach and to keep the knowledge for posterity. However even now Diancecht was jealous of his son who he had murdered and he confused all the herbs losing all that knowledge for future generations. The famous pertinent line uttered by Diancecht after this act was ‘If Miach be not, Airmid will remain’
This line neatly describes how the knowledge of herbs was demoted from a professional rank to a more hidden practice of rural folk.
How can we revive this knowledge?
‘No tradition ever dies until the last person who honours it dies’ Wallace Black Elk a revered Lakota elder said to John Matthews according to the The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom (Caitlin and John Matthews 1997). Luckily throughout all history the traditions of the land have continued to be honoured even if only in a fragmented form compared to how our ancestors may have done it.
This course discusses at length how we can connect once more with the spirit of nature and start to revive that knowledge once more. We can look for clues in the folk names, speak to herbalists that are still working with the plants and then go to the heart of tradition with our own meditation practice. Sitting with the gentle energy of selfheal and seeing the plant with my inner eye I feel its gentle, understated, healing presence and listen to its voice once again.
Let us remember once more the words of John Muir that I have quoted elsewhere on in the course:
‘Always fond of flowers, attracted by their external beauty and purity. Now my eyes were opened to their inner beauty, all alike revealing glorious traces of the thoughts of God, and leading on and on into the infinite cosmos....’