Grief Herbs - Others!

[AstroHerbalist]

I loved reviewing the call on April 28th which I unfortunately wasn't
home in time to attend. After writing down the herbs and flower
essences, I wanted to toss a couple more out here:

1. Catnip (ruled by Venus) is a wonderful calming herb and it tastes
pretty good! When Marigold was mentioned as warming, I know it is
ruled by the Sun - so is Chamomile.

2. As for Flower Essences, I thought of Bach's Star of Bethlehem being
perfect for a long-standing grief from a trauma - and Rescue Remedy
for a recent, acute trauma to clear. Who can forget Bleeding Heart as
an essence for processing heartbreak? And interestingly for my own
that I have made in my yard, we have a bright pink Fairy Slipper that
works well - and surprisingly, White Campion!

(a) Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa) - This is found in the woods here
in the mountains (I am in Western Montana) on the forest floor where
there is plenty of moisture, mostly from nearby creeks and streams.
The smell is light, fairy-sweet and heavenly and is very uplifting to
the heart on its own, and the fact that you WANT to breathe that
flower to be transported away emotionally says what it can do about
grief :-) Offhand I do not know medicinal use, but would not use it
since these delicate flowers could become rare and in some places,
already are.

(b) White Campion (Silene latifolia) - Luckily, this plant is more
weedy and found in disturbed soils nearly everywhere on the valley
floor here. The plants themselves taste like peas and are reputed at
saving some earlier settlers when there was a shortage of food. The
root has saponins, like Soapwort/Bouncing Bet, and can be used to
clean fabrics and such (hair?) in a gentle manner. When using it as a
flower essence, I was surprised - by appearances (i.e. Doctrine of
Signatures) one might think with the way it keeps many black seeds
inside of the flower (it looks like a little sack) that it could be
for prosperity work, and with the name Silene, that it might also be
lunar (and later I learned Culpeper believed it to be Saturn, though I
need to still verify through Latin name). But in actual use, it has
shown different! When dowsing clients with a pendulum for which
essences they need at that time, I have encountered 3 times now where
White Campion is added, and each of these times the person was going
through a terrible heartbreak, and 2 of these were long-term partner
breakups, and the other essences they needed were definitely for other
issues (i.e. Dandelion for physical tension, Lilac for alignment,
etcetera). Then I thought of the sack (like on Lady's Slipper as Sean
pointed out) being more similar to a heart, and the flower as
"opening" the heart - the seeds being the gifts that haven't yet been
revealed and can allow us to grieve and process the past and welcome
the new loving light energies.

Speaking of Heartbreak, I have heard it defined this way: Your heart
is not breaking into pieces, it is actually breaking OPEN. The pain
however feels like the former. Having an open heart is difficult in
this world, but in the long run it is more difficult to close it.
Experiences that open the heart (be they pleasant or painful) can only
benefit us as long as we allow the process of opening to continually
happen! Thanks again Sean, and I look forward to others' input here!