Yarrow Oracle Card

.::Yarrow::.

Discernment

“I choose what’s right for me”

My teenage years — a friend who makes dangerous decisions, pushing back on rules and laws, often grounded, often in trouble. We swim in the river behind our school on most hot days. Once, trying to cross after a big rainstorm, we lose the path and our shoes in the gush of fresh water washing off the surrounding fields. I am terrified — soaked, exhausted from fighting the rush, my heart pounding from the attempt. She chuckles and says she can’t swim. My terror moves to rage as I leave her there on the bank.

I would often dream of this day. But in the dream my friend is in the river, being pulled downstream, and I am on the bank, following her, urging her toward the riverside. She is dazed — exhausted? Apathetic? Overcome? I am not sure. But she decides not to try, and I watch her swept further away, toward a place I will not follow.

-

In early spring, little peacock tails — green and the living definition of unfurling. Find them among the detritus of last year’s growth, or nestled between plant friends, bending through politely with wisps of feathery tendrils.

By midsummer, bending stick-stems trail flowers to the ground, bowing the seeds to the Earth — spreading along the garden’s edge and the border of forests. Yarrow calls us to set boundaries for ourselves. She is a filter: for what is good and needed, and what is not ours to carry. Yarrow allows us to love unapologetically while keeping limits for our own protection. Yarrow says, “I know myself. I know what hurts me and what heals me. I know me.”

I would love to hear more about your relationship to plants and the web of interbeing. Please consider a public comment on this post. When we all share, we all build more connection to the natural world, our Mother and our home.

Stay wild and true

~Emily

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