Plant Meditation Club: This week we meditated with Mài mén dōng, 麦门冬, Japanese hyacinth, scientific name Ophiopogon japonicus.
Mài mén dōng, areas for further investigation include: use for restoring yin, emotional validation and resurrection, therapeutic elegance, the male end of the spectrum emotional experience with this herb, use of this plant as a flower essence.
Pre Meditation:
Sweet aftertaste. My mouth feels more moist, but I feel a sense of dryness inside. I feel my left more than my right. This reminds me of another herb. A comforting taste and feeling, perhaps like a nurturing, motherly embrace.
Meditation 1:
Me: I feel elegant circulating energy in and in front of my nose up to the crown of my head (bai hui? bi way or the high way). It feels soothing in its elegance. I can let go of some drama that had been on my mind. I see faint purple lines running up to baihui, the center point at the top of my head. It looks like a flower bud/closed petals. My tooth roots came to mind, they do look similar to the tuber.
My Daughter: It was a QVC infomercial, this herb was being sold in a flask, as an essence of the herb. The sales pitch: "Well, let's take this broken down plane for example." They applied some of the herb's essence to a leaf, and then they smeared it across where there was smoke coming out of a plane. Then the plane was fine. The people on the infomercial said that it was more rare than Chanel, so "You should buy it immediately. It is really expensive and really rare, you should buy it immediately because it does the trick."
Meditation 2:
Me: I feel pleasant energy move from my mouth, to nose, forehead, and baihui. I find the energy moves to my shoulders. The movements are all elegant and symmetrical. At my shoulders the energy moves in an infinity loop from edge to edge. I sit up straighter and the energy moves smoothly to my heart level. Now the energy is pale pink and diffuse, gently illuminaing my torso. Then energy had been pale purple and felt more physical (like petals). The pink is energetic and is soft and peaceful.
My daughter: I didn't experience much, but my butthole kept getting unnaturally warm. I saw the butthole had a fire in it and it was spreading through the tuby things inside my body, it wrapped around my heart, and then went out through my mouth. The heat wasn't uncomfortable it was just warm. Now I feel peaceful and relaxed.
Summary and Traditional Use:
The above images shows the herb in flower. It has tiny flowers and it is not known for them. It matches my head experience and color.
This herb gave varied experiences. It is considered cooling, sweet, and neutral. This herb is known for use for a variety of dry conditions associated with the stomach, heart, and lung channels. Some examples: periodontal disease (supportive when dry mouth is a factor), some evidence of support for oral cancer; a dry cough, with thick mucous that is difficult to expel, or coughing up blood, and constipation due to internal dryness with emotional irritability (Bensky, Materia Medica, 1986, p 520). This herb is known to pacify the heart, decreasing feelings of restlessness. This short summary reflects some of our experiences including images and feelings of warmth and dryness (airplane and heat in the digestive tract), and images of teeth.
Generally speaking this herb moistens and supports yin. Yin is associated with the water element and emotions. Both Alyssa's experience of witnessing emotions that she doesn't normally like to dwell on and my pink heart energy experience related to emotions (in Western concept). Honoring emotions (even if the cultural demand is to be mature and productively power through) is supportive to yin. The herb is said to bring happiness with long term use, and even turn white hairs dark again. Is this the power of being able to sit with emotions til they clear? I was so intrigued by the elegant quality of the energy flows of this herb. It has grace about it, like a dancer. It reminds me of the body as an art form. I feel there is so much more to understand about this herb. I look forward to working with it more. Stay tuned for whether my white hairs change. I have had this happen before and I find joy in seeing dark roots on white hair. In the past I couldn't decide if it was divine intervention or juicing. This time I will have a better idea.