In my last post I wrote about how for every human illness, somewhere in the world there exists a plant which is the cure. I am always opening my heart/mind to discover the healing wisdoms of Plant Spirit Medicine.
The amazing thing is, when you let go of what plants you ‘think’ would be perfect for any illness/ailment, you open to the mystery of plants ‘finding you’ and gifting you their medicine.
Cobblers Pegs {Bindens Pilosa}
If you have ever had Cobblers Pegs growing in your garden, then you may never have considered them a ‘gift’. The way the ‘fruits’ (long slender needle like spikes) stick to anything or everything – socks, clothing, animals. We have a curly Cavoodle, and de-pegging our darling dog can take hours! I find it amusing that another common name of this weed is ‘Farmers Friends’!
Cobblers Pegs sprout-up quickly along roadsides, gutters, home gardens & paddocks. The seeds are easily spread on the wind, or of course via people & animals. The plants grow to about 1 meter high (thought they are more like 1.5m in our backgarden), have white ‘5’ petalled flowers, tooth-like leaves and yes those lovely fruity spikes… who’s needle like seeds have those dreaded hooks on the end.
Food as Medicine
Whilst Cobblers Pegs (Bindens Pilosa) is considered an invasive weed, in many parts of the world this plant is a food/medicinal. In parts of Africa, Cobblers Pegs are cultivated as a nutritious vegetable, is a prized medicinal in Hawaii, has a long history of use in China &Taiwan, and the seeds are mixed with rice and made into a wine in the Philippines.
Medicinally, Cobblers Pegs have a whole range of activities, including anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, to name a few. And they are high in Vitamins A & C, Calcium, Iron magnesium & potassium.
But only recently, I have discovered something quite miraculous about Cobblers Pegs, let me share with you
Cobblers Pegs Spirit Medicine
I was on the phone to a friend a few weeks ago, and she had just attended an amazing workshop with Heidi Merika, making her own medicinals from foraged plants. Heidi has written much about Cobblers Pegs, and as a fellow herbalist, I must say there were many things new to learn from our chat.
Personally, I love to steep Cobblers Pegs leaves & the fruit seeds in hot water for 10-15 mins and drink… a really refreshing tea that tastes delish. And occasionally I may toss the fresh young leaves in a salad or two… or even a few flowers bring beauty to a final dish. Our eyes after all play an important part of our enjoyment & ‘absorping’ the nutritionals of food.
By way of note, our yard has become an unruly habitat where the ‘wild things grow’ this winter, so is in urgent need of sprucing up with Spring poking itself around the corner. But the great thing about all the wildness, is our yard is now a haven to the most amazing medicinal weeds… so I can look past the disarray and instead be in playful alchemy with a menagerie of plant spirit medicine. And Cobblers Pegs are certainly in abundance.
As I was picking Cobblers leaves late last week to make a tea… I came to a major realisation… this plant would be PERFECT in the treatment of Lymes Disease (tick borne, bacterial disease, with a whole host of secondary infections). I have been working my way through Lymes for a while now… yet right under my nose was a delightful PLANT MEDICINE to help my healing.
Tuning in the Spirit of the Plant, on an energetic level- Cobblers Pegs Medicine fires-up your tenacity, your ability to push beyond adversity and thrive no matter the circumstances of your life. To believe that you are capable of great things.
Cobblers Pegs ‘boost’ immunity, helps re-balance pathogens within the body and provides a constitutional ‘strength’ that helps you set boundaries that inhibit bacteria/virus living off your body temple. Essentially, the ‘clinging’ nature of this plant to your body, is an invitation for you to discover areas of your life where you don’t say ‘NO’, where others maybe clinging to your generosity, or where you let others take from you to your own detriment.
So yes I heard the ‘call’, and yesterday I made my own Cobblers Pegs Tincture to add to my home Green Medicine Cabinet.
Cobblers Pegs Herbal Tincture
I love the alchemy of picking a Herb from my garden and extracting & then amplifying its medicinal qualities. Medicinals can be extracted through oils (eg immersing a plant in an organic oil to extract its fat-soluble constituents), through water (eg my tea for water soluble properies), using alcohol to make Herbal Tinctures for constituents such as saponins, alkaloids & flavanoids… or even using apple cider vinegar.
So yesterday I ventured into the wilderness of my backyard and picked Cobblers Pegs to make my fresh plant Herbal Tincture. I used the whole plant – roots, stem, leaves, flowers & seeds – I felt this was important to work systemically with the ‘whole plant’ of me!
Here is my big bundle that I gathered from one small corner that sits outside my home office.
Ceremonial gathering of Cobblers Pegs (or any plants for medicinal purposes) is an important step in the making of your medicine. To ‘tune’ into the plant, find out which plants are calling to you, the time of day (week, month, season to collect), how you feel as you move around the plants, and receive any messages from nature as you are collecting your plant medicines.
As I was selecting and picking the plants, I was captivated by a Bee that kept buzzing around me, landing on Cobblers flowers. It felt like Bee Spirit Medicine was helping me ‘select’ which plants to pick by guiding me to tune into the buzz of my own Soul Song, and receive the sweetest nectar of plant medicine just for me.
And the later as I was bottling my Tincture, a Green Spider kept darting around the table. Spider Spirit Medicine takes us into the dreaming through the web of life. She reminds us that infinite possibilities are at hand through the number 8, the octave, (she has 8 legs)… and when we believe anything into existence, then too it shall come to pass. So needless to say I was grateful for Spider Medicine.. and YES I added that last Cobbler Seed to my Tincture too!
After collecting my plants in the afternoon full of the days Sun, I thoroughly washed all the dirt off the roots, and then chopped up the whole plants into small pieces (I used large sharp scissors, but you could use a sharp knive too). Taking a sterilised jar (oh blessed dishwasher, thank you), I loosely filled it to the top with my clippings.
To make my Herbal Tincture, I filled the jar with Vodka to cover the plants. I used 40% alc. vol, (80 proof), which means 40% alchohol to 60% water, the perfect solvent to extract this plants medicinals.
After collecting my plants, I thoroughly washed all the dirt off the roots, and then chopped up the whole plants into small pieces (I used large sharp scissors, but you could use a sharp knive too). Taking a sterilised jar (oh blessed dishwasher, thank you), I loosely filled it to the top with my clippings.
To make my Herbal Tincture, I filled the jar with Vodka to cover the plants. I used 40% alc. vol, (80 proof), which means 40% alchohol to 60% water, the perfect solvent to extract this plants medicinals.
I also added two Clear Quartz Crystals to the jar to amplify the medicinals through piezoelectricity.
Lid screwed on tight and bottled labelled clearly, my tincture is now doing its ‘butterfly transformation’ over the next 8 weeks (notice that number ‘8’ again!). Starting today, then once each week, I plan on gently shaking my bottle up and down to synergise the transformation process. This will also activate the piezoelectricity of the Quartz, exciting the cell membranes of the plant material, amplifying the medicinal properties of the remedy to greater than the sum of the individual parts. Enchanting magick in action!
I have now stored the my Herbal Tincture in the making in my kitchen , surround by more Quartz Crystals… and a whole lotta love as I ‘speak’ to her each day and guide her transformation.
Final Preparation & Bottling of Cobblers Pegs Tincture
Whilst I had originally planned to let my herbal tincture ‘cook’ for around 8 weeks, in fact I intuitively felt that this particularly blend needed over 3 Months to complete its full medicinal cycle. And on my birthday in late November 2019, I was guided to finalise my Cobblers Pegs Tincture.
In sacred ceremony, I strained the entire Cobblers Pegs alchemical mix, separating the plant matter from the green Herbal Tincture juice. As you can see, the plant matter was now brown (oxidised) as the medicinals had now imprinted on the alcohol. The strained plant matter was blessed and added straight to my compost heap.
I decanted the strained Herbal Tincture into a Clear Glass jar below, just so you can see the colour of the finalised tincture. Amber Coloured healing bliss !
I however store all of my Tinctures in Amber Bottles, as light will reduce the shelf-live of the Medicinal Mix. Within the Amber Bottle I also included both of the Crystals used in the original making of the Tincture. These Crystals help potentise the mix, keeping in connecting to the 1D Crystalline Grid of Earth, her Dreaming and her evolving consciousness.
I talk about the making/bottling of this Herbal Tincture in greater depth as part of my Lightrition your Life course… would LOVE for you to join this ONLINE COURSE and awaken to the magical of the Botanica Realm in your daily life.
Want to learn more ?
Plant Spirit Medicine – from the food we eat, to weeds growing in our garden, to their insect friends that offer us ‘messages from spirit’… are all just one aspect of LIGHTrition for health of Body, Mind & Spirit.
I will be releasing my NEW Courses on LIGHTrition very soon… watch this space for all the info !
Important Notes:
This article has been posted for information purposes only, and we highly recommend that you seek the advice of a qualified health professional before collecting plants, making or administering herbal medicines. A Qualified herbalist can also advise plant identification, potential toxins & dosing.
