Yarrow or Achillea millefolium is also called woundwort, devil’s nettle, nosebleed plant, noble yarrow, dog daisy, angel flower, father of all herbs, herb of the seven cures, thousandleaf and staunchweed. It’s called athair thalún in Gaeilge and lus na fola in Scots Gaelic. The botanical name achillea millefolium stands for the Greek hero Achilles and millefolium means ‘thousand-leafed’ due to it’s toothed foliage. When I sit with yarrow, often more than other herbs I feel its ‘presence’. It feels like a wise elder. I get a sense of aged strength and feel this not only in its presence and when I look at it but also when I touch and taste it. To feel this way and also know that it was often used for divination purposes lends me to feel I’m interacting with a very old source of spiritual plant knowledge.

One thing I find most fascinating about yarrow is that I have commonly found it among the rock crevices of ancient sites in Ireland, including Beltany Stone Circle in Donegal, Loughcrew, Newgrange, Hill of Tara and Four Knocks in Meath as well as at various sites around Sligo and Kerry. However, I won’t necessarily see it along the motorways or along the walk up towards the sites lending me to wonder if this isn’t purposeful. Yarrow is the host plant of many moth and insect species and often provides a critical pollinator food source. Many cavity nesting birds have learned to use yarrow to line their nests. Experiments conducted on the same species of bird that did not line their nests with yarrow suggested that it inhibits the growth of parasites. 

Dioscorides mentioned yarrow being used to treat ulcers. Medicinally, yarrow was used unanimously throughout Ireland, Scotland and Britain and likely all of Europe to staunch bleeding and reduce internal hemorrhaging and cramping. In Ireland, it was also used to treat toothaches¹, headaches, skin ailments², colds³, fevers⁴, asthma, bronchitis⁵, whooping cough⁶, wounds⁷, sore eyes⁸, bruises, rheumatism and bleeding⁹. In Scotland, Wales and England, it was used for similar reasoning such as wounds¹⁰ and additionally to treat inflammation or swellings, digestion issues and dog or snake bites.^11,12,13 In Scotland, yarrow was particularly thought to be the best remedy to stop blood flow, and was pushed up the nostrils to stop nosebleeds and therefore commonly called, lus na fola or ‘blood-weed’.¹⁴

In Ireland, yarrow was one of seven herbs (vervain, St. John’s Wort, speedwell, eyebright, mallow, self-heal and yarrow) that nothing natural or supernatural could injure. It had many numerous uses in folk medicine, hence another of its nicknames, ‘herb of the seven cures’. This would typically lend to its use as a ward against evil forces and it was likely worn in some protective capacity on people or cattle and other animals, often being sewn up into clothing. However, it was said by Lady Wilde that it must be pulled on May Eve. or at noon on a bright day and near the full moon to have its full power. It was also said that it should only be cut with a black knife for protection against fairy magic. Lady Wilde tells of a charm for safety using yarrow which was to ‘pluck ten blades of yarrow, keep nine and cast the tenth away for tithe to the spirits. Put the nine in your stocking, under the heel of the right foot, when going on a journey, and the Evil One will have no power over you.’¹⁵ In Britain, an old cure for demonic possession included yarrow and said that when “fiend, sick man or demoniac, when a devil possesses the man or controls him from within with disease”… drink the following remedy and infusion out of a church bell – githrife, cynoglossum, yarrow, lupin, betony, attorlothe, caaock, flower-de-luce, fennel, church-lichen, lichen of Christ’s mark or cross and lovage.¹⁶

An old love charm in Ireland was also to pluck nine fresh leaves or flower bunches of yarrow, possibly from the grave of a young individual of the opposite sex.¹⁷ The yarrow would then be placed under the pillow after reciting a specific poem and it was said that a future mate or husband would appear in dreams. It was also tradition to pick the yarrow for this sort of divination on Samhain or Bealtaine.^18,19 One story regarding this practice went as follows…

“One Hallow Eve a girl went out to pluck the yarrow to play a trick with it. She had to cut the herb with a black handled knife and have in the hour before sunset. She did so, and that night slept on so as to dream of her future husband. She dreamt that a certain man whose land adjoined hers came and drove her cattle across the river from trespassing. As the man was married she was disappointed with her dream and did not tell anybody. In less that a year the mans wife died, and soon after the match was made between he and the woman who dreamed of him.”²⁰

Similarly, in the old Scotish song (1869) book by Joseph Ritson, yarrow was mentioned in various rhymes, all together over 20 songs, and particularly often having to do with love. Additionally, in the outer Hebrides of Scotland, yarrow held against the eyes was believed to inspire the gift of An da shealladh, the ‘two sights’ or ‘second sight’. Alexander Carmichael in the Carmina Gadelica Vol. II recorded three different incantations or ‘spells of counteracting’ negative forces in Scotland that called for plucking the ‘gracious yarrow’. One such example goes as follows…

The Yarrow
“I will pluck the yarrow fair, That more benign shall be my face,That more warm shall be my lips. That more chaste shall be my speech, Be my speech the beams of the sun, Be my lips the sap of the strawberry. May I be an isle in the sea, May I be a hill on the shore. May I be a star in the dark time, May I be a staff to the weak. Wound can I every man. Wound can no man me.“

Yarrow is certainly one of the oldest medicinally cultivated herbs and was found along with chamomile in a Neanderthal burial site in Iraq dating from around 60,000 BCE. It was also found in a woman’s grave that died around 1,900 years ago in Denmark. Alongside her body was a cup that contained a ‘grog’ made from local fruits and grains that contained many herbal ingredients such as barley, juniper, birch, bog myrtle and yarrow. Yarrow was likely unanimously used in smoke bundles, smoked or ingested for its intoxicating purposes related to both, spiritual as well as physical health. Similarly to artemisia and salvia species, it contains thujone which is mildly psychotropic and may have lended to its association with prophecy. 

Yarrow is in the Asteraceae family and native to Europe but has become naturalized to parts of Asia and North America as well as New Zealand and Australia. Yarrow’s leaves are lanceolate, fluffy and divided into small segments with white or multicolored flowers that typically bloom from mid summer through mid fall and it may have been associated with Samhain and Bealtaine in particular due to its connections with divination and the auspicious nature of conducting such practices around that time. Yarrow is a perennial hardy in zones 3 through 10,  grows up to 1 m or 3 ft tall and does well in part to full sun with well drained soil. Yarrow’s energy is cool and dry. The flowers, leaves and stems are edible and have a slightly bitter and pungent flavor. It’s most commonly used as an infusion, tincture, extract, decoction, ointment, balm or salve, oil, mouth wash, steam bath or poultice. Due to its pungent flavor, yarrow is very commonly and traditionally paired with another herb such as chamomile, mint or elderflowers. 

“(Recited before placing yarrow under your pillow) Good morrow, good yarrow, good morrow to thee, send me this night my true love to see, the clothes that he’ll wear, the colour of his hair, and if he’ll wed me.” – Old Irish poem, Kevin Danaher, The year in Ireland, 1994

Benefits

analgesic (cramping), antibacterial , antiancer and antitumor, anti-inflammatory (2), antioxidant, antispasmodic, anxiety alterative, astringent, blood pressure tonic, digestive tonic, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, insect repellant, skin tonic, vulnerary  (2)

Recipe

Yarrow Wound Salve

Ingredients: 5 oz of oil of your choice (olive, avocado or coconut for example), 4 oz of beeswax, 3 oz of yarrow, large amber glass jar

Instructions: Simmer these ingredients in a glass bowl set on top of a pan of boiling water for 90 minutes. Strain the herbs carefully and pour into your amber colored jar. If you want a less solid salve, use the same process but only use 2 or 3 oz of beeswax. If you have more time, you could create an herbal infused oil ahead of time which takes approximately 6 weeks but may increase the salve’s medicinal potency. Simply fill a jar up half way with yarrow and cover with twice as much oil, typically to the top of the jar. Shake it once daily to every other day for 6 weeks. Strain and your oil is ready for use in other herbal products or as an oil itself.

Yarrow…

In glen, wood, or bower,
We have not a flower,
So dearly beloved as the yarrow;
By it we can see
What the future may be
If o’er it we dream, ere to-morrow.

Through each lonely vale
It enamours the gale
As the Summer is spreading before us
Nor does it grow sear
When the Autumn is near,
And the gloom of the grey clouds hang o’er us

O’er the beauty it has
How I glory to pause
While the light of the morn’s falling near us
And when in the shroud
Of the day – closing cloud
Like it there is nothing to cheer us

As, bright with the dew,
It appears in our view,
O where could we look for its marrow
The lark, on her nest
Loves to shelter her breast
With the rich-scented bloom of the yarrow

In the deep solitude
Of the lonely green-wood
How sweetly its petals are peering;
And low in the fen
Of the dark highland glen,
The path of the brown bee its cheering

Like a soul-cheering star,
We may find it afar,
In the gully and gorge of the mountain
And by the clear stream,
Where the fairy elves – dream,
That joy in the song – raising fountain.

And lovely it waves
O’er the unlettered graves
Where the poor of the village are sleeping
And by the wayside
It delighteth to bide
And cheer up the weary and weeping

But where is the place
It has not shown its face,
And who would e’er wish to reprove it
It has led me away
With a spirit as gay
As the stars that are happy above it.

Nor shall it e’er fail,
While it smiles to the gale
With its red and white colours to cheer us
And when I’m at rest
With the turf on my breast
May still such a flower bloom near me

The yarrow is a beautiful little flower, and has been from time immemorial a favourite with the young of both sexes. It is a popular belief among certain classes that by pulling four stalks of it on May eve night, after the dew has fallen upon it and then throwing one of them away, while they repeat the following lines, that they will see in their dreams of that night the figure of their future partner in life.

Good morrow, lovely yarrow,
Good morrow not to thee-
You’ll show me ere to-morrow
Who my true love is to be.
After pulling the yarrow, it must be carried home in perfect silence, and placed under their pillow, – but, should they speak after it is laid there, the charm is of no avail whatever.

Written by Annie Davison, County Donegal, Schools’ Collection, 1930’s

References

1. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0678, Page 236
2. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0739, Page 234
3. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0776, Page 375
4. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0485, Page 191
5. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0552, Page 343
6. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0776C, Page 11_055
7. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0292, Page 208
8. Joyce, P.W. A Social History of Ancient Ireland, Vol. 1. Longmans, 1903. Pg. 624.
9. K’ Eogh, John, Botanologia Universalis Hibernica, or An Irish Herbal, Cork, 1735, edited by Michael Scott, 1986, pg. 158.
10. Gerard, John. The Herball. 1597. Pg. 915.
11. Allen, David and Hatfield, Gabrielle, Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland, pg. 302.
12. Van Arsdall, Anne, Medieval Herbal Remedies, The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine, New York, 2002 (5th century original text).
13. Lipp, Frank, Herbalism, 1996, pg. 28.
14. Mackenzie, Alexander. The Celtic Magazine Vol. IX. Edinburgh, 1883. Pg. 331.
15. Wilde, Lady, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland: with sketches of the Irish past, London, 1919, pg. 184.
16. Thompson, C.J.S. Magic and Healing. Rider & Company, 1946. Pg. 54.
17. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0961, Page 165
18. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0883, Page 114
19. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0137, Page 210
20. Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0211, Page 338