Astrology and Health
the herb: comfrey (2)

The Sombre Habitat of Comfrey

Saturn as a Teacher

About 20 years ago as a student of herbal medicine, I reached a point at the end of my second year when I started to doubt whether herbs actually worked or not. Studies up to that point were entirely theoretical and lacked any real practical application.

I wanted intensely to experience using herbs in the clinical situation so that I could really get to understand how they worked, rather than just filling my head with "book" knowledge.

That summer I was holidaying at an international yoga centre in Denmark, where I had stayed twice previously. Shortly after my arrival I recognized an American girl at a distance walking with the aid of crutches. I had previously met her three years earlier at the centre. The following day I overheard a conversation in which she describe the accident which led to her injury.

Her brother, an Olympic windsurfer, was teaching her how to jump with the surf-board from wave to wave. Unfortunately when she tried to jump she got the timing wrong, the board alighted just short of the second wave. The oncoming wave forced the surf-board to tip on its side. As she slid into the sea the edge of the board clipped her right knee smashing the cartilage of the patella and tearing both the posterior cruciate and the fibular collateral ligaments.

Her orthopaedic surgeon said there was nothing he could do other than allow the knee to heal itself and that such an injury would take at least six months to heal, of which she would probably need to spend about
four months on crutches.

Knowing how keen this girl was on doing her yoga daily I could readily see what an additional handicap this injury was to her. In particular, meditating in the lotus position was completely impossible, as she was unable to bend her knee. Knowing that the longer it takes for a joint injury to heal, the more likely it will become arthritic with age I realised that this injury could also make her yoga very painful for the future.

Do Herbs Work?

I introduced myself to her again and apologised for intruding on her conversation. After hearing that her surgeon could do nothing for her, I suggested that she might like to try herbal medicine.

"Do herbs work?' she asked.

"Of course they do." I replied, lying through my teeth to cover up my inexperience of using herbs at the time.

"Well lets give it a go, as nothing else has helped me." she responded.

By coincidence in travelling to the yoga centre that year, I had spotted a thick expanse of comfrey growing beside a ditch, in a village about four miles away. I borrowed a bike and pedalled off to get some. I returned with a plastic carrier bag full of comfrey leaves. After obtaining a bandage from the camp doctors I set down to help the girl.

Comfrey leaves have a prominent mid-rib that needs to be torn out in much the same way as preparing spinach for boiling. After preparing six of the healthiest looking leaves I simply laid them directly onto the skin around her knee, with the upper side of the leaf in contact with the skin and the length of the leaf aligned longitudinally with her leg. Finally I wrapped the bandage around the knee to hold them all in place. I told her that after a while the hairs will cause the skin to itch.

A New Sensation