Thistles

Thistles

I am using the plural here because there are many different types of thistles but I will be covering only a few here....   Today is Tiu's Day
or Tuesday and this is one plants that corresponds to energies of today.
For instance the bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is a wildflower that has the elemental association of Fire. 

According to herbal folklore, when thistles are allowed to grow in the garden, it is thought to protect the home from burglary. Thistles grown in containers by the front or back door are supposed to have the power to ward off evil and negativity. If you feel the need to break up any negativity energy or manipulative intentions that you believe may have been sent your way, then thistle is the plant to work with. Thistle is a wildflower and often volunteers in the garden. If you have a sunny spot well out of the way of young children, who need to watch out for the thorny leaves and prickly stems, consider letting it grow wild. In the language of flowers, thistle symbolizes independence and austerity.

From "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs":

Folk Names: Lady's Thistle, Thrissles
Gender: Masculine - meaning outward energy
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Deities: Thor, Minerva
Powers: Strength, Protection, Healing, Exorcism, Hex-Breaking

Magickal Uses:  A bowl of thistles placed in a room strengthens the spirits and renews the vitality of all within it. Carry a thistle (or part of a thistle) for energy and strength.
  Grown in the garden, thistles ward off thieves; grown in a pot and on the doorstep they protect against evil. A thistle blossom carried in the pocket guards its bearer. Thrown onto a fire, thistles deflect lightning away from the house.
  If you have had a spell cast against you, wear a shirt made of fibers spun and woven from the thistle to break it and any other spells. Stuff hex-breaking poppets with thistles. Thistles are strewn in homes and other buildings to exorcise evil.
  Thistles are also used in healing spells, and when men carry it they become better lovers. Thistles also drive out melancholy when worn or carried.
  Wizards in England used to select the tallest thistle in the patch to use as a magickal wand or walking stick. To call spirits, place some thistle in boiling water. Remove from heat and lie or sit beside it. As the steam rises call the spirits and listen carefully; they may answer your questions.

  The thistle is part of the daisy family.  Thistle may grow up to seven feet in height. The upper stems and branches are covered in thorns and prickles. The flower heads are pale lavendar to a rose color. Bloom time is from June through September. There are many varieties of thistles, and they are easy to spot, as the spines grow right up the flower-heads. The leaves are deeply lobed, silvery green, and hairy and spiny as well. You can find these plants in fields, waste places, and roadsides.

    The thistle is a common wildflower throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Another thistle variety, Onopordum acanthium, commonly called the Scotcvh thistle, is the national flower of Scotland.

Sotch Thistle

In the laguage of flowers, the thistle symbolizes simplicity and independence. If you grow thistles in the garden, you will encourage protection, strength, and healing.   It would be a good idea to let one or two

grow wild in an out-of-the-way plae and enjoy the protective qualities of this herbal wildflower. These wildflowers also attract goldfinches and butterflies.

Breaking Hexes with Thristle

By the protective magick of thorns and prickles,

I break all hexes with the help of the thistle.

By fire's bright power all evil must flee,

And as I do will it, then so must it be! 

close the spell with these lines:

This protective wildflower spell is spun from the heart,

Worked for the good of all with a Green Witch's art.

[From: Ellen Dugan's "Garden Witch's Herbal"]

Milk Thistle:

SCIENTIFIC NAME(S): Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.

COMMON NAME(S): Holy thistle,lady's thistle, marian thistle, Mary thistle, Milk thistle, St. Mary thistle, silybum.

Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum ) has been used since Greco-Roman times as an herbal remedy for a variety of ailments, particularly liver problems.

Milk thistles active property silymarin, is being studied for it's ability of "liver cells to regenerate through a vital bodily process known as protein synthesis." Silymarin also "counteracts the effects of deadly poisons, even that from the deathcap mushroom (amanita phalloides), the most virulent liver toxin known".

History:

Milk thistle was once grown in Europe as a vegetable. The despined leaves were used in salads; the stalks and root parts were also consumed, even the flower portion was eaten "artichoke-style." The roasted seeds were used as a coffee substitute. Various preparations of milk thistle have been used medicinally for more than 2000 years. Its use as a liver protectant can be traced back to Greek references. Pliny the Elder, a first century Roman writer, (A.D. 23 to 79) noted that the plant's juice was excellent for "carrying off bile". Culpeper (England's premier herbalist) noted milk thistle to be of use in removing obstructions of liver and spleen, and to be good against jaundice. The Eclectics (19th to 20th century) used milk thistle for varicose veins, menstrual difficulty, and congestion in liver, spleen, and kidneys.

In homeopathy, a tincture of the seeds has been used to treat liver disorders, jaundice, gall stones, peritonitis, hemorrhage, bronchitis, and varicose veins.

Botany :- This plant is indigenous to Kashmir, but is found in North America from Canada to Mexico. Milk thistle grows from approximately 1.5 to 3 m and has large prickly leaves. When broken, the leaves and stems exude a milky sap. The reddish purple flowers are ridged with sharp spines. The drug consists of the shiny mottled black or grey-toned seeds (fruit). These make up the "thistle" portion, along with its silvery pappus, which readily falls off.

Uses of Milk Thistle:

Treatment or protection against liver damage, as in cirrhosis, Amanita mushroom poisoning, and hepatitis.

Side Effects of Milk Thistle:

Few adverse effects have been seen other than brief gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances and mild allergic reactions; possible urticaria in one patient.

Dosage:

The suggested dose of milk thistle is generally 12 to 15 grams of dried herb (200 to 400 mg silymarin) per day or silymarin-phosphatidylcholine complex 100 to 200 mg two times per day. For liver protection, 120 mg silymarin (about 2 capsules) two times per day. For liver damage from alcohol, drugs, or chemicals, the recommended dosage of silymarin-phosphatidylcholine should be increased from two times per day to three times per day.

Adjust the recommended adult dose to account for the child's weight. Most herbal dosages for adults are calculated on the basis of a 150 lb (70 kg) adult. Therefore, if the child weighs 50 lb (20 to 25 kg), the appropriate dose of milk thistle for this child would be 1/3 of the adult dosage.

Toxicology:

Human studies of silymarin have shown few adverse effects. Tolerability of silymarin is good; only brief disturbances of GI function and mild allergic reactions have been observed, but rarely enough to discontinue treatment.Mild laxative effects in isolated cases have been reported.A case of urticaria with a foreign commercial milk thistle preparation has been noted.

From:  http://www.natural-medicinal-herbs.com/herbs/milk-thistle.htm
 
The fruit of the Carduus marianus contains an oily bitter seed: the tender leaves in spring may be eaten as a salad; and the young peeled stalks, after being soaked, are excellent boiled, or baked in pies. The heads of this Thistle before the flowers open may be cooked like artichokes. The seeds were formerly thought to cure hydrophobia. They act as a demulcent in catarrh and pleurisy, being also a favorite food of Goldfinches. A decoction of the seeds when applied externally is said to have proved beneficial in cases of cancer.


Thistle down was at one time gathered by poor persons and sold for stuffing pillows. It is very prolific in germination, and an old saying runs on this score:

"Cut your Thistles before St. John,
Or you'll have two instead of one."

This Milk Thistle (Carduus marianus) is said to be the empirical nostrum, anti-glaireux, of Count Mattaei.

"Disarmed of its prickles," writes John Evelyn, "and boiled, it is worth esteem, and thought to be a great breeder of milk, and proper diet for women who are nurses."

In Germany it is very popular for curing jaundice and kindred biliary derangements. When taken by healthy provers in varying quantities to test its toxic effects the plant has caused distension of the whole abdomen, especially on the right side, with tenderness on pressure over the liver, and with a deficiency of bile in hard knotty stools, the coloring matter of the faeces being found by chemical tests present in the urine: so that a preparation of this Thistle modified in strength, and considerably diluted in its doses proves truly homoeopathic to simple obstructive jaundice through inaction of the liver, and readily cures the disorder. A tincture is prepared (H.) for medicinal use from equal parts of the root, and the seeds (with the hull on) together with spirit of wine.

The Carduus benedictus (Blessed Thistle) was first cultivated by Gerard in 1597, and has since become a common medicinal Simple. It was at one time considered to be almost a panacea, and capable of curing even the plague by its antiseptic virtues.

Blessed Thistle

This Thistle was a herb of Mars, and, as Gerard says: "It helpeth giddiness of the head: also it is an excellent remedy against the yellow jaundice. It strengthens the memory, cures deafness, and helps the bitings of mad dogs and venomous beasts." It contains a bitter principle "cnicin," resembling the similar tonic constituent of the Dandelion, this being likewise useful for stimulating a sluggish liver to more healthy action.

The infusion should be made with cold water: when kept it forms a salt on its surface like nitre. The herb does not yield its virtues to spirit of wine as a tincture. Its taste is intensely bitter.

The Carline Thistle (Carlina vulgaris) was formerly used in magical incantations. It possesses medicinal qualities very like those of Elecampane, being diaphoretic, and in larger doses purgative. The herb contains some resin, and a volatile essential oil of a camphoraceous nature, like that of Elecampane, and useful for similar purposes, as cordial and antiseptic. This Thistle grows on dry heaths especially near the sea, and is easily distinguished from other Thistles by the straw-colored glossy radiate long inner scales of its outer floral cup. They rise up over the florets in wet weather. The whole plant is very durable, like that of the "everlasting flowers:" Cudweed (Antennaria).

Carline Thistle

The name Carlina was given because the Thistle was used by Charles the Great as a remedy against the plague. It was revealed to him when praying for some means to stay this pestilence which was destroying his army. In his sleep there appeared to him an angel who shot an arrow from a cross bow, telling him to mark the plant upon which it fell: for that with such plant he might cure his soldiers of the dire epidemic: which event really happened, the herb thus indicated being the said thistle. In Anglo-Saxon it was the ever-throat, or boar-throat.

On the Continent a large white blossom of this species is nailed upon cottage doors by way of a barometer to indicate the weather if remaining open or closing.

http://www.gardenherbs.org/simples/thistles.htm