Calendula

Calendula is known as the sunshine plant.

And this isn’t just because of the bright golden crowns of flowers that literally glow in the sun rays. It is because this plant radiates an energy like sunshine; brightening spirits and days. If you have ever spent time in a field of calendula you might know the feeling. They not only light up the sky and stimulate our eyes with bright radiant color, but they light up dopamine centers in the brain. Flooding us with feelings of awe and euphoria.

I had heard this about calendula before, and then this year I really spent time getting to know this plant.

It started in June with a trip to a local avocado farm. (Shout out Bobcat Ridge Avocados in Corralitos, CA.)

Calendula grows like a weed, and will spread frivolously with their aerodynamic seed pods that move easily in the wind. So farmers and herbalists meet to make quite the pair. Us herbalists can be called in to harvest weeds that farmers might otherwise just toss into the compost.

We raise our hand and say, please pick me- we would love to harvest your weeds! So when I was invited by my friend to come and harvest calendula from this farm, I gladly said “of course!”

After that first bountiful harvest, I began to form a deeper bond with this plant. Maybe part of this was the amount of time I spent with this plant. After picking an abundance of them and feeling their resinous sap on my fingertips, I then spent hours sitting over my tiny dehydrator lining the shelves with their crowns of gold.

The uniquely sweet, yet peppery smell filled my home. (This was before I had my workshop space on the farm.)

Actually, now that I think about it, it was on this very day after picking calendula that I told my dear friend that I needed a workshop space. It was on that car ride back from harvesting sunshine, that she offered me space on her lavender farm.

Maybe this is one of the reasons I have such a positive association with sweet calendula officinalis.

The next morning there was no time to waste.

I checked on the calendula and once the petals were all dry it was time to put them away. So there I was again with my meditation cushion on the ground, plucking flower petals off of the buds, and separating the sepals into a small woven basket. More hours passed with some body stretches in between. Because slow medicine is intentional medicine, and intentional medicine is slow medicine.

The plants will speak to you in this way.

They will simultaneously say- we have stuff to do-this is important to get done & please love, get yourself some tea and listen to your body. This is just some of the amazing wisdom of plants that comes through in hours and hours of communing with a plant ally.

Over the next few months, I would grow to love and know calendula on quite a deep level. I began to understand and feel her energetics. I learned that some view this herb as drying and warming. While others find this herb to be cooling and moistening. I personally, have come to know calendula as a more cooling herb for my body.

During this summer love affair, I infused calendula into oils that saved me from sunburns-and even an oil burn from cooking. I put that precious calendula oil on a burn and watched the burn completely disappear within a week.

I began to add calendulas to my teas, my infusions, and I added calendula to my dreamy “chai oh my” recipe. I even started to use calendula as toppings on things like muffins and yogurt.

Every time I open this jar of sunshine, I truly feel like warm light was radiating from this wide rim mason jar.

That sweet peppery smell I have come to adore, reminds me of the connection & intention that went into harvesting and processing this herb. It also reminds of a beautiful point in my herbal journey, and the welcoming of my very first herbal workshop.

So now, when I look at calendula I see a multitude of wisdom, I see connection, I see healing on a skin and sub-dermal level. I see a versatile herb, a friend and an ally.

And now that it is fall, I can truly say that my connection with this plant continues to deepen and transform.

Calendula officinalis

Parts Used:

-flower petals, buds & sepals

Energetics:

-cooling/astringent/moistening

-warming/drying

Tastes:

-sweet, bitter, pungant

Support on tissue states:

-soothes heat/excitation

-supports damp/stagnation

-moistens dry/atrophy

-relieves wind tension

Herbal Actions:

-anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, vulnerary, lymphatic, immunomodulant, digestive tonic

Contraindications:

-not recommended internally for pregnant individuals

-people with allergies in the daisy family may be allergic to this herb

-not to be used with sedative medications

-may interact with immunosuppressants and blood pressure medications

Please be sure to always use multiple sources when identifying and wild harvesting medicinal plants.

Disclaimer: These articles are for educational purposes only, they are not a substitution for professional medical advice, and as the reader you are responsible for your own health decisions.