Wane into your Roots with Angelica
A gloriously garden-grown Angelica archangelica root (btw I would never wildcraft this root!)
When the moon waxes into her wholeness, the energy of the plants (and of us) shoots up and outward. Vitality is stored in the leaves, trunks, and exposed parts of the plants, and our own behavior is more expressive and energized toward action. Then, after the moon hits her apogee and begins the process of waning, life force draws down into the roots. We withdraw inward: quietly, patiently, reflecting.
Indeed, as the full moon now wanes, this seems to be the gesture of all life in the Northern Hemisphere, with leaves dropping and perennials dying back to fertilize their own roots. We are entering the season of inwardness, of depth and shadow. This Full Moon in Taurus, and the 11/11 portal just before it, distilled a lesson for us to embrace this dark season ahead: there is strength in sensual embodiment.
To truly feel something instead of simply touching it; to dive into tasterather than just eat; to see something instead of looking past it. When we listen to experience in this way, we arrive into our center, our core: or in French, our cœur. Our heart is our body’s sun, shining the truth of who we are while also opening the gateway to pleasure. As the celestial Sun draws inward for the season, may we attune to our own inner suns to find warmth and delight within, through the simple pleasures of being fully, sensually embodied.
One powerful plant who may lead us more whole-heartedly into this pleasure is Angelica. Ruled by the Sun, Angelica increases circulation in the body - bringing blood flow and warmth to physical extremities: perhaps those places numbed and forgotten by our awareness. While all parts of the Angelica plant are honored for food and medicine, it is the root that harbors the most medicinal constituents. Angelica teaches us thus to ground ourselves deep into our physical vessels-- that is where the medicine is. As we wane inwards for the winter, rather than allowing our bodies to become veiled with cold and stagnation as we often might, Angelica brings life: warm, flowing, juicy, enjoyed.
As we tend to our roots in this way, we open our vessels more fully to being able to receive messages from beyond. Angelica reminds us of this, with her flower crown reminiscent of an antenna communicating with above. Through embodiment, we come to trust in the unknown; and through this trust, we are graced with synchronicities that guide us through life’s unfolding. We dream with an intuition empowered and attuned to mystery. Winter is the time for the imagination to reach out past walls we’ve previously built around ourselves; Angelica is the Gatekeeper, ushering us through.
To go even deeper still into the power of this plant, Angelica Archangelica, you can read the Materia Medica I’ve written here.
An Angelica Recipe:
This Morning's Tisane
3/4 tsp Angelica Root
3/4 tsp Ginger Root
1 tsp Anise Seed
4 whole cloves
Pour over 12 oz of freshly boiled water, cover, & steep for ~10 minutes. Enjoy hot before your journal, letting the warmth and circulation stimulate your imagination.