Angelica Plant Profile
Latin name Angelica archangelica
Also known as garden angelica, holy ghost root, wild celery, masterwort
Local to Scandinavia, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Russia
Family: Apiaceae
Parts used: root, seed, stems (candied)
Taste: bitter, pungent, aromatic
Energetics: warm, dry, tonifying
Actions: diffusive, circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, carminative, antimicrobial, expectorant, nervine
Affinities: circulatory (blood), reproductive (pelvic), respiratory (lungs), and digestive systems (nerves, liver)
Preparations: tea, decoction, tincture, elixir, herbal steam, candied stems
Cautions: safe but consider avoiding if you have a heavy menstrual flow
Reflection
Change puts you in at least two places at once — where you were and where you’ll be. As we moved into the winter of 2019, I was going through a lot of changes in my life. Some big, some small. I mostly felt this split-in-two feeling. I couldn’t get grounded. I felt too fast, as if I were trying to catch up with myself, chasing myself around rooms like Peter Pan darting after his own shadow.
Straight away, I worked with my go-to nervines: rose, skullcap, and betony. I felt their attempts to soothe me but I was still agitated. I was surprised too, especially with the betony — betony usually grounds me right back into my body. Something else that was going on. I also realized these nerviness are all cooling and I run really cold. I needed something to ground me and warm me up, something to give me balance. Something good at transitions and wild weather.
It was time for angelica.
I began drinking angelica as a simple for the first time. I tried it decocted and infused, and decided the infused was milder and easier on my stomach. After a few weeks, even the infused simple was too drying/tonifying (I run dry as well). I began combining it with cinnamon and fennel — and I was more vigilant about having marshmallow long infusions separately.
A few sips of my first angelica simple and its warmth relieved my nervous systems — brain, heart, and gut — almost immediately. I felt my energy move. Instead of stuck in this rushing forward pattern, making me feel like I was skim-reading my life, the energy flowed all the way out. Angelica's diffusive action gave me release and peace. Its circulatory stimulating action threw a blanket over me and made my hands and feet tingle. I was in one place again, not two.
I started reading about angelica and at the risk of sounding like a snake-oil salesman who claims this one potion will solve every ailment — angelica’s amazing. Angelica is a whole-body plant. Drink angelica and you can trace its work from your mind to your lungs to your liver to your pelvic bowl. And it's practically its own formula. All on its own, angelica’s enlivening, warm, bitter, pungent, a little sweet, with a hint of celery.
It seems many cultures have a place in their heart for this green beauty, especially places of extreme or cold weather. It grows wild in Northern Europe, Russia, Greenland and Iceland, but is cultivated in many other places. Maud Grieve notes that John Parkinson, a botanist writing in 1629, put “angelica in the forefront of all medicinal plants” and she adds angelica “holds almost as high a place among village herbalists to-day” (35). She goes on to describe angelica’s use in different cultures across Northern Europe, and in Pagan and Christian festivals alike. From Iceland to Italy, it’s common to candy the stems as treats. The indigenous Sámi people of Scandinavia consider angelica a shamanic herb and they make their traditional fadno flutes out of angelica stems.
Affection for angelica even goes beyond the human species. Bears love it too. They dig up angelica roots, along with osha, for food after hibernation — another example of angelica helping with us with big transitions.
Of course, other places in the world experience cold weather besides Europe and Iceland. For example, we find dong quai or Angelica sinensis in the cold, high mountains of China, Japan, and Korea. It shares some similarities with Angelica archangelica but diverges in important ways. I won’t cover dong quai here but it's important to note that both of these herbs may be referred to as “angelica.”
Respiratory System
As we inch closer to winter, it’s good to keep angelica nearby for respiratory conditions. Angelica’s a warming expectorant, well-indicated for the wet, phlegmy, stuck coughs. Its volatile oils are antimicrobial, so it’s lovely to add to a thyme or monarda steam. Plus, angelica’s a diaphoretic so if you are managing a fever, it’s a good friend to have on hand.
Angelica’s a good example of a diaphoretic that moves more than just heat out of the body. I felt like my energy built up all this nervous tension that kept compounding itself because it had nowhere to go. Once I started working with angelica, it felt like it got to leave — like a ghost once stuck in house, finally released. This release of “bad spirit” may be connected to angelica's aromatics too, in the same way we burn herbs to cleanse a space.
Digestive System
My “bad spirits” go right for my stomach. I’m prone to stress-nausea. It’s usually my first sign that I’m doing too much. Angelica is a warming bitter that improves assimilation of nutrients and circulation to the liver. As I mentioned, angelica’s drying and tonifying actions can be too uncomfortable for me over a long period but if I combine it with other plants, it works beautifully. In the future, I would like to combine angelica with catnip (alongside cold marshmallow infusions) and see how that goes.
Reproductive System
As a blood mover, it's no surprise that angelica is also an emmenagogue. Angelica alleviates stuck, cold cramping and can bring on a stalled or stagnant period. Angelica improves the quality of the blood as well so if you have a scant flow, one that’s dark and clotted, angelica can help. As with other emmenagogues, if you already have a heavy flow, you may want to avoid angelica.
A Little More about Anxiety
I’ve read several sources that say angelica is helpful in the case of low vitality. Angelica moves nourishing blood around the body and helps a stagnant liver move waste out, so this makes sense. However, in my case I didn’t feel low. I felt like a live wire. For the first time since I was a kid, I had a really hard time getting to sleep. I’d be buzzing so much and just lay in the bed for hours. That said, I don't think “hyper” and “vital" are the same, so perhaps it’s worth noting that depletion doesn't always look sluggish. In either case, I think angelica brings us into vital balance.
I had a ballet teacher who, when we'd work on balancing on one foot, used to say, "Imagine your foot pushing down into the ground, rooted like a stone or tree, and a thin string pulling you up from the crown of your head." That push-pull made us a lot less wobbly. This image came up for me when thinking about how angelica works with the body. Angelica's aromatics and effervescent diaphoretic action is the string pulling us upward, and its bitterness and pungency is the stone or tree roots grounding us down.
Resources
Cunningfolk, Alexis. “Angelica.” Worts and Cunning, 29 Sept. 2015, http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog/to-ignite-the-imagination-angelica-plant-profile
Grieve, Maud. The Modern Herbal. Dover Publications, 1982.
Groves Maria Noël. Body into Balance: an Herbal Guide to Holistic Self-Care. Storey Publishing, 2016.
Hill, Amber Magnolia. “Angelica: Mama Bear of the Spirit Realm.” Mythic Medicine, https://mythicmedicine.love/blog/angelica.
Johnson, Talitha. “Angelica Monograph.” HerbRally, www.herbrally.com/monographs/angelica.
King, Jovial, and Guido Mase. DIY Bitters: Reviving the Forgotten Flavor - A Guide to Making Your Own Bitters for Bartenders, Cocktail Enthusiasts, Herbalists, and More. Quarto, 2016.
Wood, Matthew. HerbTV. 4 Jun. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL01MrD_Kx4.
Swift, Katja, and Ryn Midura. Herbal Medicine for Beginners: Your Guide to Healing Common Ailments with 35 Medicinal Herbs. Althea Press, 2018.
