Heart Healing with Hawthorn
This week I started my apprenticeship. On our first meeting we set out foraging for Hawthorn. When we found the plant, before learning anything about it, we sat down and had time to ground and connect to it. As I closed my eyes and relaxed into the earth I felt a huge rush of emotions flood into my heart. It felt like the Hawthorn was greeting me and filling me up with all of the emotions I can often block myself from fully feeling. My heart felt so full, as if it could burst. Then, suddenly, it did. The Hawthorn had poked a hole in my heart and let out what was inside; a balloon leaking air. No longer contained in my heart, the emotion felt overwhelming. I breathed, re-grounded and reminded myself the plant offers the medicine you need.
It’s no surprise that the plant evoke this emotion - Hawthorn is a heart herb. The berry itself has many properties that protect and strengthen the physiological heart, while the flower is more supportive of the emotional heart. The berry is a beautiful red color and you can eat it along with the whole plant - flower, berry and leaves. It is a beautiful healer for anyone dealing with heart disease, heart failure, high blood pressure, and poor circulation, to name a few. It is also an herb to turn to when in the need of emotional heart healing.
To get to the plant, however, you have to be careful. As the name suggests, the Hawthorn has its thorns. The more I learn about plants the more I see how every life form is a web interconnected and relating to each other and, just as with humans, many plants have some sort of natural mechanism to help protect themselves. For Hawthorn, it is her thorns. Several heart healing herbs have thorns, reminding us of the wide range of emotions that come with living, healing, feeling. This speaks to our own thorns, and what we do to protect our hearts.
So much of herbalism is energetic. Of course plants have profound physical and even medicinal effects, but the transformational healing happens when you go deeper, when you allow the plant to heal you on an energetic level as well. Additionally, we can only know how a plant impacts us individually when we are connected and paying attention. Intentionally working with a plant is an opportunity to connect deeper with yourself. It is another way of slowing down, being present, connecting inward.
As we finished up our time with Hawthorn for that day, my heart still felt sensitive, vulnerable. The Hawthorn reminding me of my promise to keep my heart soft and open, and to never stop feeling and healing what arises for me.
If you are in need of some heart healing - energetic or physical - maybe try picking up some Hawthorn tea or tincture, or even reading about the properties and the benefits it can have on your heart. Healing begins with a single step.
