Linden - "Honey" of a Tree
Linden (Tilia americana)
Linden is not only a popular wildflower for making honey, but is a "honey" of a tree. Linden opens the emotional and spiritual heart even as it improves cardiovascular circulation. If you are willing, linden helps you dance with current grief and clear out old, "stuck" grief. Linden has a divinely inspired way of opening you to the bliss of your true multidimensional nature - the larger reality we're all part of.
Grief-Healing Infusion
1 cup dried linden blossoms
1 cup dried violet leaves
1/2 cup dried hawthorn berries and/or flowers and leaves
Pour 1/2 gallon of boiled water over these herbs in a half-gallon jar. Fill it to the top, as full as possible, then cap it. Let it steep overnight, and then decant. Refrigerate, or heat and put in a thermos.
The luscious mixture is a perfect infusion to celebrate life and love when your heart is happy, or to help you heal when your heart is aching or broken, or when you've just soured on life in general. It is mood-altering, like a good glass of red wine. Taken over time, it is a transformative blend.
This tart yet sweet aromatic recipe is one you can count on to help you heal when you are grieving, even if you have turned inward, isolating yourself physically and/or emotionally and psychically. These plants have a way of helping you be with your feelings. When you allow your feelings space simply to be what they are, you can and will heal.
Taking a linden blossom bath is a particularly magical way to experience the linden tree's special medicine.
Linden Blossom Bath
2-3 cups dried linden blossoms
Pour boiling water over the herbs in a half-gallon jar. Cap tightly and let sit 1-2 hours. Pour the liquid through a good strainer and add it to a bathtub filled with hot water. Then pour another half-gallon of boiling water over the herbs in the jar, and let that sit overnight to drink the next day (cool or reheated). Refrigerate the remainder after that.
I suspect that the vast heart - and soul-opening that can sometimes occur spontaneously after a deep loss may happen because your loved one is able to share a taste of what their newly expanded state feels like.
A linden bath can help open your senses to feel your departed loved one nearby, responding to your love. Even if you are crying a river of tears, linden brings a bright, golden-light energy to touch the heaviness of sorrow over death and loss. It's as if you are dancing single-mindedly with grief, and suddenly bliss cuts in and invites you to dance in the present moment where there is no death, no separation, only awareness and love. Only joy!
Also, please remember that though these blended her recipes are delicious and effective, the herbs are also wonderfully healing used one at a time.
Sign up for my free newsletter at WiseWomanHealingWays.com. You can find hundreds of healing recipes in, The Gift of Healing Herbs-Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life and clear guidance on how to connect with Nature and your own true nature in Healing Magic, A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living-10th Anniversary edition. My meditation CD's are available through CD Baby.