Medicine from the Dark Woods; Blue Cohosh

 

Blue cohosh shuns the sun and likes to grow in dark places. To find her healing qualities I have to wind my way through ancient oaks and towering cherry trees. Not such a hardship for someone who happens to enjoy the dark places just as much as I like the light.

Working with roots really brings out the witch in me. Reaching down into the shadowy dirt and coming back with a gnarled old root that twists about itself like a coil of snakes makes me feel like I am working with the energies of the earth, herself. I often think that roots are one of nature’s gifts that made people equate witches with dark arts. Imagine you step into the granny woman’s kitchen and ask for a cure. She reaches into her herb room and comes out with some dark, twisted roots. She probably has named them in a way that helps her remember when and where to gather them, like salamander’s tail or autumn raven’s claw. Then she tosses them into a pot of boiling water where they writhe around each other, darkening the waters of the cauldron. Things that come from the earth often scare people who like to live in the light.

Blue cohosh root has both dark and light medicines. It is good for bringing on delayed menstruations or to aid in delivery of the child when birth has gone on for too long. But taken during pregnancy it will most probably abort the fetus and make the mother very ill in the process. Definitely this herb stands with one foot in the light, the other in darkness.

What we mainly use it for is to give a stimulant “kick” to pains for arthritis. On its own it is a pretty good anti-inflammatory but mixed with willow bark or evergreen and its stimulant action works like the caffeine in aspirin, giving the pain reliever just that much more power. In this way it works for both men and women and is usually used by those who are a bit older and not as worried about getting pregnant.

It comes at the right time of the year, as cold winter nights or heavy winter storms often seem to bring out the pain of arthritis more. This is to help us get through those times. I make a tincture of blue cohosh root by soaking it in at least an 80 proof liquor of some sort for a couple of months and putting up to 25 drops of this into wintergreen tea (or lacking that, willow bark tea). The tincture itself has a wonderfully mysterious look when put on the shelf with all the other root tincture. Echinacea root tincture and this one are usually the ones the apprentices are pulled too first, wondering what the heck is in those jars.

 

Just a bit of medicine, drawn from the dark woods to help with the aches and pains that living life to its fullest often brings.