Dandelion: The Woowoo Hippie Side

The in-depth profile, part 2

Welcome back! Have you eaten any dandelions since last we spoke? Today, we get to meet a whole new side of Dandelion, though to be honest, the lines between the medical, mental and emotional, health, and magical uses sometimes blur. For example, Herbalist Susun Weed writes that: "Applied regularly to the entire breast area, glowing golden dandelion flower oil can strengthen your sense of self worth as well as your immune system." 

For those of you who are part of my Plant Spirit group and like to come with a clean slate regarding traits of the plant, it might be best to save this post for later, because there are some spoilers. For those of you who aren’t but would like to give it a try, feel free to comment, email or DM.

Emotional benefits of Dandelion

Dandelion helps clarify our identity, clear stagnant emotions, and maintain joy in the face of adversity. Spiritually and energetically, dandelion is thought to influence your solar plexus chakra, the place of identity, will, and action. In traditional Chinese medicine, certain emotional issues are the result of imbalances within organ systems. Because dandelion works on the liver, it can “[clear] anger and other stagnant emotions from the liver…help us absorb and process emotions and emotional backlogs better; sometimes those who have suppressed their anger and been nice and quiet all their lives find that dandelion makes them speak out rather more vociferously and stand up for themselves.” Herbalist Judith Berger notes, "All parts of dandelion lift the veil of depression... sluggishness slowly gives way to motivation, bitterness dissolves, and joy once again becomes possible." Herbalist Kiva Rose says, "Dandelion is persistence, joy in the face of adversity, and bliss even while broken hearted."

Folklore

Dandelion is associated with Hecate, Aphrodite, Brigid, Belenos, and sun gods. I find this to be an interesting combination of gods. I think of Aphrodite, Brigid, Belenos, and the sun gods as “light” gods, rulers of love, healing, fertility. On the other hand, Hecate is a goddess of magic, witchcraft, sorcery, even necromancy. So she has a bit of a darker “flavor” to her goddess specialties. That said, as you’ll read below, given the ways dandelion is used in magic, it all does tie together. Because dandelions' are found throughout the world, I expected to see folk tales bursting with dandelions. However, this wasn’t the case. The closest I found was a passing mention of “dandelion clocks” in Yallery Brown. In my experience, the big, charismatic trees get the most “screen time” in folk tales, though asters and nettles appear in The Six Swans and the Wild Swans respectively (which are quite similar stories). Perhaps things as common as dandelions were overlooked even when we were more attentive to the lives and spirits around us? I’m not sure, but if you know of any dandelion folklore, I’d love to hear it. 

Plant spirit

I believe that plants, animals, winds, waters, stones have spirits we can interact with. In my experience, plants have a special way of “telling” us things that can really provide reassurance or guidance. There are many different ways to interact with the spirit of a plant. Plant spirit medicine interacts with them as a source of spiritual healing. One way to do this is through guided meditation/visualization. I am always surprised because my conscious mind has expectations of what will happen. It is never what actually comes forward. In these sessions, you might take some tea or tincture of a given plant if you have it, then use your imagination to take yourself to the realm of a given plant then have an encounter with the spirit of that plant. Sometimes you might see images, most often I receive verbal messages (but I think that is because the thought part of my brain is stronger than the image or sensation parts). While preparing to write this, I went on a “journey” with Dandelion. When I did this, I saw huge dandelions, bigger than oak trees towering over me. At the end of the visualization they started moving around. It almost looked as if all these tree-sized dandelions were square dancing. As delightful and fun as that visualization was, I often find that interacting with plants in this way sets healing events in motion in real-life. Though some plants are not necessarily gentle teachers or gentle medicine. 

Flower essences

Like plant spirit medicine, flower essences are a little more “out there” and require a bit more belief. A few flowers are soaked in clean water in the sunshine for a day, then mixed with a small amount of hard alcohol. They are a bit like homeopathy if you are familiar with that. The belief behind it is that you can take in the energy of the flower without actually consuming the flower material. I don’t have anything beyond anecdotal evidence for flower essences. However, if you’re making your own (rather than spending money on buying them), the only thing you are out is a little time. It may be that this is a combination of placebo plus focused attention on an issue you are trying to address in your life that helps rather than the flower essence. On the other hand, there is strong evidence that placebo actually works and we don’t really know why it works. It’s definitely plausible that placebos work by influencing the mind or the body’s energy systems (or both). I also think there are healing remedies that can work beyond our mind’s ability to comprehend how, so I like to learn about and try things like this. 

From Flower Essence Repertory by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz. (5)

The soul needing Dandelion essence feels a natural intensity and love for life.  Such individuals are compulsive “doers” who enter with great zeal and zest into many activities.  Unfortunately, they can over-plan and over-form their lives beyond the natural capacity of a body to sustain such intensity.  Furthermore, such persons may become unable to experience more contained moments of reflective activity.  The unexpressed inner life of the soul and the harsh demands on the body collide to create extreme tension, especially in the musculature.  The Dandelion flower teaches these individuals how to listen more closely to emotional messages and bodily needs.  As tension is released, the soul feels more inner ease and balance, allowing spiritual forces to flow through the body in a dynamic, effortless way.

Sounds like I need some Dandelion flower essence right stat, though it does make me feel a bit like a doctor in the homeopathic ER. Anyone else? 

Dandelion flower essence help us be instead of do and let go of attaching our worth to our productivity It increases resilience by helping us trust our ability to cope. It can help the driven person relax into calm strength. It supports the release of physical, mental, and emotional tension. Dandelion flower essence increases our awareness of emotions and helps us release resentment. It can improve mind-body communication. 

Magical uses

Dandelion root tea can be used to assist in divination and prophetic dreaming according to the Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham. Blowing away dandelion seeds can be used to make a wish, like you probably did as a child. You can also use it to blow away a bad habit you’re hoping to leave behind or send love to a distant loved one. Leaving a cup of dandelion root tea next to your bed or pillow is said to call the spirits. 

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Dandelion is powerful medicine for the immune system. It prevents cancer, heals the digestive system, and may benefit those with depression and bipolar disorder. The whole plant is edible, with unmatched nutrition. It strengthens our will to act and our discernment of when to be rather than do. Dandelion can also help use communicate with spirits, building our ability to prophecy with our dreams. Bold claims certainly, but if any plant can do it, it is the gentle tenacious, cheerfully fierce, humbly vivacious Dandelion.

Blessing

Golden, generous dandelion
Thank you for dissolving our bitterness and opening our hearts to joy
Thank you for helping us tune into emotions and bodies. 
Thank you for opening our eyes for clear-eyed seeing, helping us to perceive the seen and unseen. 
May we embrace your dynamic, effortless vitality in our own lives
May we trust in our own prophetic powers
May we use our open hearts to nourish all life

A few practical questions for you:

• Is there interest in a flower essence tutorial video?

• Would there be interest in a plant focus once a month? (I think most would be a single article).

And one fun one:

• If you were to host your ideal dinner party, what would it look like? What would you eat, where would it be, who would you invite, any additional activities beyond eating? (Introverts, if it’s just a “me-party”, I’d still be curious about your answers to the remaining questions.)

  Pooja Lakshmin MD
  had me wondering about this after her interview on We Can Do Hard Things.