Plant Meditation Club: This week we meditated on Angelica sinensis, an herb of classical Chinese medicine, commonly known as Dong quai or female ginseng. Its pinyin name is dāngguī, in simplified Chinese it is 当归, and in traditional Chinese: 當歸.
Pre Meditation
This herb has a sweet, pungent (spicy), aromatic, fragrant like incense. Smells like celery, hing (asafoetida), and watered down alcohol.
Mediations
Meditator Guest: I feel like I am going to fall asleep. Some mushrooms were growing out of the ground. There was a vibrator that was brown and kind of mushroom-shaped. It was big, about 10-12". It was drilling into the earth, like a jackhammer. There was muddy dirt flying out all around where it was drilling. All of the dirt was flying out and going into the Monty Don mug and becoming some sort of thick tea. I kept not being able to breath, I have a cold already, but it the feeling of congestion was heightened.
Me: I felt a crescent moon cradling my lower abdomen. It is a very intelligent because I am about to start my moon and this herb is keeping my energy in my pelvis. This is a pause of thinking. Towards the end I felt aroused, stimulated in my pubic area. There is a highlight of energy--two parallel lines in that area--maybe the kidney meridians. Of note about the plant, the herb says 'Sex may be something you want to do without thinking. It can be a deep trusting activity, where you don’t think, you just experience.' Here is an old drawing of a crescent on the belly of a dancer that this meditation reminded me of.
Summary and Traditional Use
I was very happy to work with this herb. I have been trying to clear up the mystery between western Angelica (archangelica blog post), Dú huó (pubescens blog post), and this one! Although it was a largely quiet meditation it has a lot to share, without words. This clarified a lot for me, although there is much more nuance to enjoy discovering. You can see the me and my Monty Don mug (I kept accidentally saying Monty Dong during this discussion, lol) in the photo above. OMG. The mushroom vibrator experience and my own experience felt kind of light and sexual at the time. However part of me thinks..."if this were my experience" (the mushroom one), and in light of the other Angelica family meditations (links to the other posts at the beginning of this paragraph) I would wonder if Dang Quai is a comment of the heavy handedness of mushrooms, their impact on the spleen and their managment by gardeners (like Monty Don), not herbalists/skilled practitioners. The Earth is the element of the spleen and I could see any halucinogen that brings up stuff from within our consciousness being an abuse of the spleen. This is similar to how marijuana is an abuse of the heart chakra--causing immediate joy, but scattering the energy not cultivating or refining. I wonder this because, first off Angelica is an herb related to meditation. This meditation immediately made me aware of how very intelligent this herb is about managing the female body's energy and past ones have made me very conscious of Angelica for meditation. Meditation is a process of diligently honing consciousness. Shrooming is a short cut to having spiritual experiences. It is likely that there are consequences, although that is not my area of knowledge. I don't like the idea of any vibrator (or dildo, lol) acting like a jackhammer, and Angelica is too subtle for that kind of action herself. Furthermore it is making some sort of earth tea in the Monty Don(g) mug. For those of you who do not know, Monty Don is a famous English gardener. I got into him when I was watching Big Dreams, Small Spaces. It seemed like everyone in the show had a crush on, or at least really was *awe struck* by Monty Don (b 1955). This ranged from post menopausal (age-appropriate women) to young men. I was intrigued so i decided to give fan-girling on this guy a try. I was not disappointed, haha. I love a soothing voice, plant wisdom, and aesthetics. Sadly this was the level of merch available for at the time. Things have improved. Still Monty Don is a gardener and not a medicine man. This seems relevant in the way the herb discusses mushrooms, sex, and who is making the tea. The meta way that Angelicas discuss meditation is similar across mediations (again, see other blog posts). I could also see this particular Angelica being more put-off by the use of a false meditation breakthrough medicine being used for sex, or to tap into sexual energy, as the vision seems to suggest. I have heard of a couple long time meditators who used various "natural hallucinogens" and violently raped their long time partners, on more than one occasion. While non-addictive drugs are gaining acceptance, it should be understood that they are by no means predictable, safe, or something that opens only doorways you will feel good about afterwards. We have all heard of 'bad trips' and yet irresponsible drug use continues with little support or discussion of real life consequences. While typically associated with liberalism, a recent article I read about mushrooms indicated that repeating users are likely to trend fringe or extremist thinking and behavior which can just as easily go in the direction of QAnon and white supremacy as permaculture and off-grid living for ecology. Carreón, M., Deep State, Double Blind, Issue No, 10 I wonder if this herb is adding a layer of instruction about meditation and sexual connection in order to get to a deeper level of understanding both areas of life, which can be used to abuse, check out, or acheive profound evolutionary transformation.
In my meditation I appreciated the wisdom of the herb to keep my energy low. I typically do not meditate during my period. This meditation was the evening before mine started. I felt the herb appropriately kept my energy low. One reason to do this is to avoid more than necessary mental living at this time of my month. This improves my symptoms a lot. The kidneys are under strain during this time of the month.
This herb works with the following channels: Heart, Liver, Spleen, Kidney. This herb is used for tonifying the blood (eg anemia), premenstrual symptoms, menopausal symptoms, There is modern research supporting the use of this herb for renal (kidney) disease and microcirculation (small vasculature). Natural sexual energy is a sign of strong health and vitality. The Chinese medicine the kidneys are associated with sexual function. Excess use of sexuality is thought to deplete the kidneys (like using drugs or mushrooms to experience sex, or simply overindulging). In Western medicine, performance decline (most obviously in men) is most often related to vascular disease decreasing circulation. Indeed erectile disfunction is often the first sign of cardiac disease. This herb is most often thought of as a women's medicine, but it is used for both genders. It is used to improve sex drive. This herb is also used to lubricate the intestines. In the West it is also used to treat respiratory infections.
In general I find the Angelicas to be bringing back to the center, in a spiritual but grounded way. Dang quai means "to restore order" or "state of return". Like the western Angelica this herb is also used for nicotine withdrawal. I look forward to learning more about the use of the Angelicas.
Invitation:
The Angelicas are intriguing to me. Please share your experiences below. If you are interested in trying the herbs, you can find them here.