Motherwort : Lions Heart for the Modern Woman
Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiacus)
Motherwort. She is alluring. She invites us in with her symmetrical striking beauty.
My eyes are on her as I take a deep breath and sigh it out, feeling the rings of tension within my body diffuse gently and drop to be caught by the Earth
This feeling mirrors her tall, simple, relaxed elegance and I am curious.
With circular whorls of leaves and flowers on the uppermost part of her square stem she is almost hypnotic, like watching a Sufi dancer at the height of their ecstasy. Still, yet full of energy at the same time.
I move in closer and instantly feel giddy and say “oooh” as if I’m sitting with a friend at a tea party, ready to connect from a place of receptive openness.
Which is how I feel when I am in her presence. Ecstatic, relaxed, balanced, feeling my breath and heart, and at ease.
Pulling us closer. Inviting us in to her space, inspiring us to “take a pause, to clear the confusion of busyness and calm down”. Her invitation is to relax and open our hearts to the rhythms of life within its infinite layers of modern complexities, here is where she provides the purest medicine as she beckons us to slow down and reconnect to ourselves and each other again.
Bringing us back to simplicity.
Why would the modern woman want to feel this simple connectedness and relaxation?
First, I believe this is something that’s been missing from women’s lives for many centuries - connecting to others, specifically other women in sisterhood with openhearted communication.
We also know deep inside, the desire to be strong, confident and vibrant throughout our life; no matter what insanity, insecurities, stressors, grief, and other life experiences are tossed into our laps we want to pause to clear confusion, and relax to connect to ourselves in a balanced place of wholeness so that we can connect with others with more grace.
Motherwort can assist us to stay in this graceful place of heart resonance and balance.
How does she do this? How does Motherwort assist us in feelings of equanimity, balance, and heart connection? How does she bring us to our Lions Heart?
Read on…
She is known as the “lion-hearted” herb, opening our hearts and soothing inner wounds, be it anxiety, everyday stressors, bitter feelings about life, and even grief. Holding space for us to be ourselves while feeling balanced in heart coherence supports our natural expressions of joy as she lightens our load in life. And she excels at this!
She helps support us to find the courage to face what’s in our path, lean into it, get up close and face it with connectedness to our inner self (triggers, shadow, and light) with heartfelt relaxed, connected knowingness.
In times of turmoil, she is our strongest ally (remember her tall, simple, relaxed elegance and easeful openness from above?) assisting us to take a step back from our emotional turmoil and tension.
Having an astringent (tonifying and drying) acrid (spreading) and aromatic bitter taste mothrewort has affinities for the digestive system, (including the liver), cardiovascular system, nervous system, and female reproductive system.
She acts as a tonic and nervine, (particularly for nervous anxiety) and is good for beginning the process of digestion, not only of foods, but also of information, and other outside influences.
She loves to help us relax tension in the body by tonifying lax/damp tissues:
*complementing the physical and emotional by harmonizing “leaky” emotions to calm the sympathetic branch of the NS down which allows the parasympathetic branch to work better (more discerningly) not harder.
*calming the uterus and helping with cramps in the women’s reproductive system
*opening the heart energetically and allowing emotions to flow within the cardiovascular system, allowing it relax and again, work better not harder.
She can aggravate the tension of Vata in high doses, and can irritate Pittas desire to accomplish a lot, but she is helpful to the, slow moving/slow starting Kapha constitution.
Generally, Motherwort is considered safe for regular use, EXCEPT during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. This is due to specific alkaloids that can both stimulate uterine contraction and act as a mild sedative.
Most often, I recommend Leonurus Cardiacus to be taken as a tincture 1-3 drops 2/3x per day or a flower essence.
The leaves and flower tops are mainly used in tinctures/extracts, and medicinal honeys.
She draws the vital down into the body and out of the head when overheated, overthinking, and is recommended for women who have high anxiety, heightened sensitivities, and as a flower essence for emotional tension as she can balance, strengthen and gladden the heart.
I am a huge fan of having her assist me into relaxing myself in order to be present to life instead of being present with the influences of life I create in my head, So, she helps to get me out of my head and into my heart :)
Esoteric Significance/ Fun Tidbits about Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiacus )
Ruling Planet: Venus (Friday)
Although she has a Saturnian look about her, her affinities for working with the emotional aspects of our body brings her into the realm of Venus.
Venus is Yin/Feminine. She is warming and relaxing.
Here, Motherworts taste and constituents make her particularly appropriate to nourishing ourselves so we feel good again within before we nourish others.
Venus has a lovely way of bringing things up and out in a gentle manner.
Ruling elements:
Air and Fire
She is both Fire and Air helping with tension and heat the body due to inner nervousness.
We see it in how heat, tension, and spasms in the body, disperse energy pretty quickly.
Ruling Principle: (What it is here to teach us.)
Esoterically, by governing the fire in the body, Motherwort connects us to the emotional heart and how we sense our surroundings with the heart while establishing states of harmony within and without.
The fire element also helps us to nourish ourselves in the ebbs and flows of life (that nervous contraction and expansion) and assists us in making ourselves feel good within the constant changes of life.
Motherworts initiation for me has been into the sacred heart - primarily with my relationship into self love, and she has assisted me in finding a balance in my connections to others in the world.
I also love that she grows in the toughest of soil like borage, working to make it healthier and more full of nutrients. A lovely way to envision her working in the body.