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| Burrrrrr!!!!! (Okay, I know, some of you are much colder! But we Mediterranean climate people aren't used to frost!) |
Besides being a Jungian analyst, I am also a biodynamic farmer. This blog is from both perspectives.
When you need gloves to walk the goats in the morning, and when the grass sparkles at sunrise like stars, you seriously consider spraying Valerian on tender young plants, if you didn't the evening before! (What is that expression about the barn door?)
Rudolf Steiner claimed Valerian regulates the phosphorus processes, bringing in light and warmth. Valerian tincture of pressed flowers is one of the six especially prepared plants we use in our compost pile. We also spray a stirred version of the tincture on tender, frost cloth-protected rose geranium and lavender plants still getting their grip on the earth this time of year.
But valerian also seems so appropriate as hours of daylight decrease. It is a channel for forces of Light, the return of the Light in the darkest time. Homeopathist Jungian analyst Edward C. Whitmont states, "The symbolic significance of light, as a transcendental force-principle, represents the 'inner spiritual man', and the qualities of consciousness, wisdom, and intellect. Darkness stands for the realm of the unconscious psyche (Whitmont, Psyche and Substance: Essays on Homeopath in the Light of Jungian Psychology, p. 106)."
As above, so below. There is so much to fathom in the ground we live on! Such willing teachers wait! In listening to frost and to Valerian, we enter a consciousness which is related, not purely using. As a result, we feel how we are intertwined. Perhaps some light even reaches dark recesses of our individual psyches.
What light do you dream these dark days?
For more on Valerian:
The Challenges of Valerian
Pruning and Winter Light
Valerian
It's a Messy Job, But Somebody's Got to Do It!
