Lavender

Lavender's very name comes from the Latin lavare — to wash. The Romans threw her into their baths, the launderesses of Provence dried linen over her bushes, and for a thousand years she was laid between folded sheets and hung from the rafters, the household guardian of clean cloth and quiet rooms; in the monastery gardens she stood by the infirmary door, and folk wisdom sewed her into the pillow to keep bad dreams away. Above all she has been the herb of calm: for centuries her flower and her scent have been used to settle the nerves, loosen the tension of a hard day and coax a gentle, natural sleep, and the old herbals valued her too for quieting the restless heart and cooling inflammation. Hermetically she answers to Mercury, and her signature is harmony — the reconciling of opposites, mind and heart brought into one calm accord. The scent of a swept and ordered house, drawn into spagyric form.