In my presentations, I often mention that Ancestral Healing can be as easy as pouring a cup of tea. That said, how often do we offer advice and shy away from doing it ourselves? Not to dismiss my healing work as an herbalist who reaches for a tea first, but today was noticeably different.
It started with a suggestion years ago, to “decolonize my herbalism”. In that work I did some research and not only did I discover that I had an ancestral connection to two of the herbs I use almost every day in our household, Nettle and Hawthorne, but I discovered even more family betrayals, in my paternal history. Within that framework, I also asked my Aunt, my father’s younger sister, what herbs my Grandmother used. I remember hearing something about “mustard plasters” when someone had a respiratory ailment, but was there anything else? I posed my query in an online message, and that is not how she communicates very often, so on a rare in-person visit I asked again. She hesitated, then said, “She used to drink a cup of comfrey tea every once in awhile.” and internally I chuckled…of course it would be an herb I have to be careful when I use. You see, there is controversy about internal ingestion of comfrey. It contains an alkaloid that can cause hepatic toxicity and if you do use it internally, it must be short term.
My Grandmother died, shortly after I entered the military at 17. Because of the family divorce, I had been moved a hundred miles from my Grandmother when I was 12, then we moved to another state. Her death as I turned into an adult, meant I would never get to learn things directly from her, that are part of our family heritage. We are Mennonite on that side of the family, farmers who garden, can, and preserve food. These are skills that I have books about, but I am an in-person learner, as I have discovered during these covid/Zoom class times. Books are a great reference and I have many, but it is the movements and skills that are not written that make a difference in some of these skill sets.
Last year I was given a comfrey plant, which didn’t survive, but the other day I was visiting one of my favorite teachers, Julie James, at her store in Long Beach, Green Wisdom. When I mentioned wanting comfrey seeds, she promptly took me out to her raised beds and dug up two baby plants to take home, and I purchased some dried comfrey to make at home. This is not the first time I have had the dried herb at home, but it was before I knew the ancestral connection and it was a little sample bag that I had never used. This new bag, sat on the counter for most of a week. I also realized I hadn’t watered the little plants and I took them out to soak up some water on the back porch. As I was going outside, I flipped on the electric kettle of water. When I came back in I pulled out a lovely tea cup, put a strainer in my smallest teapot and added a tablespoon of comfrey herb in the pot and poured over the water.
The next thing that happened, is stranger, because it is out of character for our new little senior dog, Trixie. She started barking at the front door as if someone had arrived. She doesn’t bark at a knock at the door normally, but I went and opened the door to check. No one was there, but as I sat down and poured a cup of tea, the tears arrived, just as my Grandmother’s spirit arrived in the room. A small side note, I was going to pull a set of Runes for the day, and one of them fell out of the bag, when I wrote it down, I found that it was Ansuz, rune of communication. More tears, but I as I sat there, I cleared and centered myself and had a short chat with my Grandmother as I held and sipped my cup of comfrey tea.
Comfrey, symphytum caucasiacum, whose Latin name is derived from the word “with strength”. It is an herb with an ancient history of wound healing. In some German dialects it is called “schmerzwurz”, I share this, because my Mennonite family spoke Low-German. It was used to treat fractures, damaged tissues, and relieve pain. It is best known as an herb that can regenerate cells. This information is shared from The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine by Brigitte Mars, one of my most often used references.
The tea and conversation with my Grandmother has been deeply healing. It was personal, deeply healing and I can tell that my gardening is about to level up. I look forward to sharing my next cup with her. I will also be taking better care of my new plants!