Saturn’s Berry
Botanical name Rubus fruticosus
Common names Blackberry, bramble, bly, brummel, brameberry, scaldhead, brambleberry, bogurtlen, zarzamora, zarza, rovo, dewberry, swamp berry, cloudberry, caneberry
Family Rosaceae
Native region Asia, Europe, North Africa, North America
Geographic distribution With over 375 species, subspecies, and hybrids, blackberry is one of the most widely distributed plants worldwide.
Parts used Fruit, leaf, canes, root
Taste Astringent, sour, bitter; an infusion of the leaves is similar in taste to a strong black tea with a hint of lemon
Energetics Constricting, drying, cooling
Actions Astringent, vulnerary; fruits: blood tonic, nutritive, refrigerant
Key Constituents Leaves and root: tannins, ascorbic acid, hydroquinone, arbutin, malic acid; fruit: chlorogenic acid, malic acid, sugars, pectin, anthocyanins, vitamin A and C
Organ Affinities Digestive system, especially lower digestive system, as well as the skin; fruits have an affinity for the cardiovascular and hepatobiliary systems
Preparations tincture; leaf short infusion; root decoction; roots and leaves infused in red wine for additional tannin boost
Botanical Description Blackberry is a perennial plant that produces several canes from its root system. A cane can reach over 20 feet long and is often entangled with other stems, creating impenetrable thickets. The canes bear large, palmately compound leaves of three to five leaflets and numerous short-curved, sharp prickles. White or pink flowers with five petals bloom in late spring and early summer on short racemes. Though called “berry,” its fruits are composed of small drupelets.
Blackberry’s medicinal gifts
When I sip blackberry tea, I feel my mouth constrict. This tightening and fortifying of structures is the language of blackberry. Blackberry can shift parts of the body (and spirit) that have lost their integrity and shore them up. Humans are pretty watery creatures (over 60% of the body is made of water) and we have specific boundaries to keep the wetness contained. When these boundaries become slack, fluid goes where it shouldn’t. Leaky or pooling fluid can cause inflammation, irritation, and pain. As a cooling and fortifying herb, blackberry can help.
A lot of herbs get pigeonholed as the herb “for [x condition]”. Blackberry is one of those herbs and honestly, for good reason. Blackberry has a special affinity for the lower digestive system and with its talents at tonifying what is leaky, it is no surprise blackberry is “the diarrhea herb.” More broadly, blackberry is indicated when you are experiencing the following tissue patterns
Damp / stagnation
Damp / relaxation
Heat / excitation
There are other conditions that fit the above criteria besides diarrhea. But let’s start there.
Blackberry is mentioned as a diarrhea remedy across time and across cultures. You can find this use in the work of Dioscorides and Ibn Sina, in English, Irish, and Scottish materia medica (Allen, 2004), in Sicilian materia medica (Tuttolomondo, 2014), and in the medicine traditions of Cherokee, Chippewa, Iroquois, Meskwaki, Ojibwa, Oneida, Catawba, and Creek nations (Garrett, 2003; Salmón, 2020). This list is in no way exhaustive but it is compelling. We can feel confident adding blackberry tincture to our mobile herbal first-aid kits.
Acute diarrhea is an intelligent immune response. Something inside you is unwelcomed and needs to exit. Diarrhea is not really a problem; it’s a solution, uncomfortable as it is. However, when the body is caring for us in this way, we need to be mindful of fluid loss. A holistic protocol for diarrhea should include moistening herbs like marshmallow root and plenty of liquids to support the elimination and recovery.
When we have food poisoning, the reason we have diarrhea is pretty straightforward. With chronic loose stool, understanding the root cause is more complex. Some possibilities include
Several medications, including antibiotics, can cause chronic loose stool
A person may have a chronic infection and rapid elimination is one way the body is trying to handle it
If someone is eating foods their body registers as a pathogen, they will wind up with the same result as a person with a chronic infection
Something could be off with fluid movement in the body either due to overactive bile ducts, strained kidneys, or lymphatic congestion
In clinical work, I am always looking for root causes so we don’t simply paint over symptoms. Blackberry has a role to play in recovering from chronic loose stool but I bring in other herbs and lifestyle changes in these protocols to address why there is loose stool in the first place.
Blackberry is skilled at helping humans cope with other too-wet, too-loose conditions too. Blackberry offers support with hemorrhoids, varicose veins, frequent urination, and heavy menstruation when caused by overly lax or swollen tissues. If you have mouth ulcers or a sore throat, blackberry may be a friend for the same reasons. Because blackberry is drying as well as tonifying, it is particularly well-indicated for a wet, phlegmy cough.
Topically, blackberry may speed up recovery from burns, shingles, and weepy eczema. I would use a decoction of the root, let the water cool, and use it as a wash or compress, as part of a broader protocol.
Dosage Michael Tierra recommends 9-15 gms of fruit per day and a standard infusion of the leaves (1 tsp per cup of water). For the root, 3-9 gms in a decoction preparation (Tierra, 1988). As tincture, Michael Wood suggests 5-60 drops, every 2-4 hours in acute cases (Wood, 2009).
Safety There are no known drug interactions with blackberry. Animal studies have demonstrated that blackberry leaf may modify glucose regulation so people with diabetes should monitor their blood sugar closely if working with this herb (Gardner et al., 2013).
Other gifts
Blackberry is not only a plant of medicine but of craft. Blackberry canes, stripped of their prickles, can be used to make baskets and other tools. I heard that blackberry bramble has been used as protection around human homes from large animal predators but haven’t found other sources to back this up. If anyone knows more, please let me know.
Of course, blackberry is in relationship to beings who are not human too. Blackberry is a food source for deer, fox, bears, and birds (Salmón, 2020), and many pollinators enjoy blackberry flowers.
Planetary Ruler: Saturn
Culpeper gives blackberry to Venus in Aries (1995). I see why this might be the case. Blackberry belongs to the Rosaceae family and has an affinity for the kidneys, which Venus governs. Blackberry is sour and astringent, which can be markers of a Venus plant. But Saturn’s plants are often sour and astringent too.
To me, blackberry’s sourness and astringency has no accompanying soothing, enlivening qualities that other rose family members offer. When I attune to blackberry, I feel tightening, constricting, binding sensations. The first time we sat together, I felt fear. I noticed there was protection too, as if something malicious was being absorbed on my behalf. Words like fortifying and clearing. Images of gates, boundaries, and thresholds came up a lot. I don’t get “comfort” with blackberry; I get clarity. I feel the structures of my body solidifying and within their borders, what is unnecessary is removed.
Blackberry shares some similarities with other thorny Venus plants like rose and hawthorn. However, blackberry thorns are curved (perhaps like a scythe) whereas the thorns of rose and hawthorn are sharp but straight. Blackberry thorns will prick you, yes, but also hook you, hold you, pull you, grab at you. Sheep get caught in blackberry thickets for this reason. Interestingly, the more you struggle against bramble, the harder it is to disentangle. Perhaps a note from Saturn.
This somewhat menacing, sticking quality is part of blackberry's magic. Bramble is a hedgerow plant. It creates borders between neighbors’ lands as well as a being a boundary between this world and the Otherworld. In crossing the bramble threshold, you access the magic behind the veil. Various ailments and spiritual issues are said to be cured by crawling under a bramble several times or walking beneath a bramble that arches across two properties.
By crossing the bramble boundary, the ailment is “caught” in the thicket and the person or animal is free of it (Grieve,1971; Watts, 2007). The binding and pulling sensations I experienced with blackberry seem reflected in these remedy practices. They remind me of the drawing and absorbing qualities of the color black. I don’t think blackberry is ruled by a benefic.
Illustration by Arthur Rackham in Charles S. Evans’s 1920 retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
People approach blackberry thickets with caution. Blackberry is connected to the fae and land spirits called the púca in Ireland and Scotland (Horton, 2020; O’Mathuna, 2010). There’s always a risk that you could upset the spirit world, which is why rules are required. For example, you cannot pick the fruit after a certain date (the date varies depending on the tale). After that date, the púca piss, spit, or stomp on the berries and you will be cursed if you eat them (Horton, 2020). The remaining fruits are for the land, not for us.
A scientific explanation might say that as the weather cools, blackberries are more susceptible to bacteria and so we shouldn’t eat them. The tale of the púca is there to keep us from making ourselves sick. Perhaps. I would add that this rule leads to sustainability, offering late season food for animals and other more-than-humans. This restraint in the name of care is Saturnian.
If you’d like to get to know Saturn with a plant friend, sit with bramble. If you’d like to meditate on integrity, consider meditating with blackberry. If you’re looking to shore up barriers, clear out what’s not needed, close gates firmly — collaborate on a working with blackberry. If you want to cross a threshold, ask a bramble for passage. If your body and spirit need more structure, blackberry is here.
Connecting the planets and plants is part of the work I’m doing in my Planet and Plant Devotion Package. Spending time with one planet helps us come into deeper relationship with them as a being, and gifts us insights about the topics that planet governs in our lives. Spending time with the planet’s plants gives us a tangible connection and a pathway for bi-directional tending. The planets live in us and in plants. Saturn speaks as blackberry, and has thickets of wisdom to share with us.
Sources
Allen, D., Hatfield, E. (2004). Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland. Timer Press.
Avicenna, Bakhtiar, L., & Nasr, S. H. (2012). The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn fī'l-ṭibb)(The law of natural healing) (Vol. II). Lieu de publication inconnu: Great Books of the Islamic World.
Culpeper, N. (1995). Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Book of Natural Remedies for Ancient Ills. Ware, UK: Wordsworth Editions.
Dioscorides, Goodyer, J., & Gunther, R. T. (1959). The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides. Hafner.
Gardner, Z., & McGuffin, M. (2013). American Herbal Products Association’s Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.). CRC Press.
Garrett, J. T. (2003). The Cherokee Herbal: Native Plant Medicine from the Four Directions. Bear & Company.
Grieve, M. (1971). A Modern Herbal (Volume 1, A-H). Dover Publications.
Horton, K. (2020, October 30). The Púca Is Ireland’s Supernatural Pastoral Trickster. Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/monster-mythology-puca
Leonti, M., Casu, L., Sanna, F., & Bonsignore, L. (2009). A comparison of medicinal plant use in Sardinia and Sicily—De Materia Medica revisited? Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 121(2), 255–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2008.10.027
O’Mathuna, D (2010). Can blackberries cure diarrhoea?. The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/can-blackberries-cure-diarrhoea-1.653665
Salmón, E. (2020). Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science. Timber Press.
Tierra, M. (1988). Planetary Herbology: An Integration of Western Herbs into the Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic Systems. Lotus Press.
Tuttolomondo, T., Licata, M., Leto, C., Bonsangue, G., Letizia Gargano, M., Venturella, G., & La Bella, S. (2014). Popular uses of wild plant species for medicinal purposes in the Nebrodi Regional Park (North-Eastern Sicily, Italy). Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 157, 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2014.08.039
Watts, D. (2007). Dictionary of Plant Lore. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Wood, M. (2009). The Earthwise Herbal, Volume II: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants. North Atlantic Books.
Course materials and notes from studies with Sarah Corbett and Diana Rose Harper’s Caeleste Natura course
Course materials and notes from my studies with The Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism and The School of Evolutionary Herbalism
Personal conversations with astrologer and herbalist Amaya Rourke
Disclosure: This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before using herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or on any medications.
