Time, Calamus, and Blue Vervain
Edited from a previous newsletter sent on January 1, 2021.
You may have seen astrology defined as "the study of the quality of time." Everywhere else I look in my life, it's as if time has no quality. Instead, time is homogeneous — blank and consistent. White sheets of paper in a row for me to fill in. The same tick tick of the clock, each day, each minute.
Homogeneous time has its function. It allows us to say we'll meet at 9am tomorrow and then show up at the same moment. We could not live the way we live right now without homogeneous time.
Astrology's many clocks
But homogeneous time does not describe how time actually works. You can reach for quantum physics for an explanation or you can think about your own life. Does time have the same quality to you, always? In daydreams, in flow states, in illness, in boredom, in deep pleasure, in tremendous loss — time expands, contracts, mixes up, swirls, and refuses to behave.
Time is not mechanical. It is relational. We are in a dance with it, along with the rest of nature. Pretending time is homogeneous is one more way we alienate ourselves from the earth. It's one more excuse to demand the same mechanical consistency of each other.
Astrology can be an antidote to this kind of thinking. Astrology is a tool for interpreting the many rhythms and patterns of our lives. If homogeneous time offers one way to measure time, astrology offers dozens. You can think of each planet as a kind of clock. The Moon-clock glides through each zodiac sign every 2.5 days. By contrast, the Pluto-clock crawls with irregularity, leaving a sign after 14-30 years. When Saturn cycles affect us, time can feel heavy or frozen, whereas Mars can put life on fast-forward. Each time the Sun returns to where it was when you were born, new themes and planets take center stage until the Sun comes back around again. These cycles interlock, bobbing and weaving, to create a larger context of which we — the human and the more-than-human world — are all a part.
Time is not a simple "tick tick tick." Time is an orchestra. An astrologer can help you hear its music.
When I talk to clients about planetary cycles, I see relief. There is clarity and comfort. Tension softens. Judgment drops away. Witnessing these changes in my clients has inspired me to offer a new type of astrology session: Cycles Forecast. This reading will focus entirely on your interwoven timing. You'll get a framework for thinking about the themes and patterns in your life, whether you choose to look at the past, the future, or the cycles you are swimming in right now.
Herbal companions in a one-clock world
Many herbs cut through the pressures of homogeneous time. Probably because they don't live in it. I'm going to focus on two bitter herbs, calamus and blue vervain, but they are by no means the only plants that can help. Ashwagandha, tulsi, rose, and mugwort would have been next on my list. If you'd prefer a personalized protocol, I'd be honored to work with you.
I chose two bitter herbs because bitters work across the gut-brain axis. Though the central nervous system gets all the attention, the belly is a major nerve center as well. As one tiny example, scientists estimate that upwards of 80% of serotonin is made in the guts. We ignore this second brain to our detriment. A better balance across the gut-brain axis also keeps us from overly rationalizing or intellectualizing our emotions, and emphasizes embodied knowledge and intuition.
Digestion occurs most effectively when we are in a parasympathetic state. When we are stressed and the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the body de-prioritizes digestion in order to focus on getting us to safety. Here's where I get to say that bitter plants are geniuses. They bundle digestive fire with nervous system relaxants. They shift us into a calmer state and kickstart our digestive processes, which allows us to take in the nourishment we need. They soothe and support both nerve centers along the gut-brain axis. This is why I love them.
Blue Vervain - Verbana hastata
When you taste blue vervain, you will taste a strong bitterness and acridity. Acridity is a clue that an herb is very relaxing. Blue vervain is particularly skilled at loosening tension held in the head, neck, and shoulders.
Blue vervain is very cooling so it is well-indicated if you are experiencing "excess heat," such as anxiety, irritability, over-excitation, over-extension, and anger. Herbalist Sajah Popham writes, "Blue Vervain is quite specific for individuals that are very driven, motivated, and tend to overexert themselves to the point of burnout and creating a great deal of tension."
Some people are really fiery by nature and a certain amount of challenge, drive, and extension suits them. But for a lot of us, we push ourselves this way due to outside pressure. Blue vervain can help us navigate that pressure with more ease.
Blue vervain cools us down and eases tension.
Trauma can play a role here too. Sometimes we overextend ourselves as a way to control what little we can, to keep ourselves safe. If we were taught to believe we must do everything because no one else will take care of it (or of us), burnout is not far off. Sometimes when we are in a hyper-vigilant state for a long time, our nerves become extra sensitive. If the nervous system is shouting when it only needs to speak softly, blue vervain can turn the volume down a little.
Working with blue vervain
I prefer blue vervain in tincture. If I put it in tea, I add small doses within a formula of other herbs. Blue vervain’s bitterness is too strong to stand alone as a tea for me. As ever, see what works best for you.
Blue vervain is a dry and cold plant. If you find that it dries you out, balance with demulcents like marshmallow, linden, chickweed, and violet. Balance the cooling quality with warming herbs like ginger and cardamom, or switch it up with calamus every so often.
For a starting place, you might try Mettle and Loam's tincture List-Maker's Delight, which features blue vervain. Alanna makes gorgeous, effective herbal products.
Calamus - Acorus calamus
Calamus is my favorite bitter. Almost all bitters are cooling but calamus is one of the few that's warming. As a person who runs cold, I'm grateful. Calamus is rare for at least one other reason. It does something that's a little hard to explain. Calamus offers width and depth perception, physically and mentally.
When stressed, our nervous system narrows our field of vision. This has to do with the "flight" part of "fight or flight." The periphery is no longer important when you need to run. With calamus, we relax enough to get a wider view back. It opens things up. Instead of clenching our "only option! it has to get done this way in this amount of time!" — calamus helps us see possibilities.
Calamus helps us see what’s possible.
Calamus gives us the periphery back by relaxing us, but it doesn't make us tired. In fact, calamus stimulates blood flow in the brain and promotes mental clarity. Herbalist jim mcdonald explains it this way in his excellent monograph on calamus: calamus "tends to open one’s awareness so that they’re able to take in what’s going on around them (or within them) with great clarity, without singling out any one aspect... I like to borrow the concept of 'depth of field' from photography." When fear-based thinking has us stuck or limited, calamus offers depth of field. If you are stressed but need to be creative, calamus is a good friend.
Working with calamus
I work with the root, which is actually a rhizome. You can pop a piece in your mouth and your saliva will do the rest. This is a great option if you talk a lot for your work because it'll also soothe the throat. You can work with calamus as tincture, which I enjoy as well. I've tossed it into teas before but it's not my preference. See what you like.
You may find references describing calamus as toxic. Calamus's toxicity is based on studies using massive doses of isolated constituents (β-asarone) found in some species of Acorus. This has nothing to do with normal use of calamus. If you buy calamus tincture or chew the root, you will be working with the whole rhizome so no need to worry.
Calamus is a warm plant. If you notice any agitation or heat signs, balance with cool herbs like blue vervain, rose, or peach leaf.
I chose two bitters that act pretty differently, hoping that one of them (or both!) will suit you. Give them a try. See how they make you feel. See how they might support you.
It's 2021
New Year's is a weird one for homogeneous time. Today we actually let time have a quality. There's a correspondence between the when and the what. Today is "a good time" to break old habits and start new ones. Yet somehow it's still about fixing yourself and being productive. If this day is one more way for you to put pressure on yourself, I invite you to not. If there's a commitment you're excited to make to yourself, go for it. It's just that this is not the only day that could be a "good time" for starting something new. It might be one of them. Might not. You don't have to "make the most" of New Year's Day, a pretty arbitrary day at that, if you don't feel compelled to do so. It feels special because it's such an exception to our normal approach to time.
We are always living in a time that has quality, color, atmosphere, and speed. There's always a correspondence between the when and the what. If you feel behind, if you feel like it's too late, if you feel rushed, if you feel too slow, too fast, not right — that's probably homogeneous time talking. Chances are you are right on schedule.
