Saturday, January 5, 2013

I Dream of Plants




Last night I had a dream that I was looking for plants. I was reading a book which explained where I could find nettles. I followed the directions to a bathtub (I know...strange) and in the bathtub there were two plants growing. I recognized one as nettles although it looked more like seaweed and had a rubbery consistency. Next to it was a plant that I called 'false nettle' (although in my waking life I had never heard of such a plant). They looked identical and were both rubbery with small leaves but I 'knew' they were different. I had the image of pulling them up and using them to scour pots and dirty clothes.



When I woke I opened up my books to research this plant for my plant spirit yoga class and found that nettles, like rubbery seaweeds, are high in iodine and are often used for the thyroid (an organ I am personally healing) and are used for strengthening tendons and ligaments (I just noticed yesterday my knee was feeling weak). Nettles are also aid detoxification and scour out the kidneys and add minerals back into the body. I will be applying a nettle poultice to my thyroid and will be drinking the tea daily. Maybe applying the tea to my knee if needed.



Later today I came across false nettle on Jim McDonald's website. It IS a plant! Boehmeria cylindrica, false nettles are native to this area and looks identical to nettles but doesn't have the spikes containing the 'sting'. This plant is contains an antibacterial alkaloid called cryptopleurine which works intensely to kill off candida albicans a bacteria that can overgrow from an over consumption of sugar (Adam and I are doing a sugar cleanse). So it looks like I will be needing some false nettles too! Anyone know more about this plant and where I might find it?



It is amazing that we can learn about plants, planets, patterns, people, and the universe through the dream space. I am deeply grateful for all the herbalists out there who teach the interpretation plant signatures. I have been dreaming about plants for years but I never fully understood them. Now I feel like I starting to learn a new and at the same time ancient universal language. I have such gratitude for herbalist Matthew Wood for legitimizing the dream world as an important classroom.
"All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together." ~ Jack Kerouac

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