Have you ever heard of herbal affinities?
Affinities are an alternative to just memorizing herbal facts
I love reading herbal books. But for the everyday mom who just wants to use a more natural approach to every day aches & pains and minor injuries, trying to memorize all the herbal information out there is a daunting task.
No doubt there’s a ton of information available when you’re trying to start using herbs on a regular basis. But you don’t have to memorize everything about every herb to be able to use herbal remedies to help you and your family.
And you don’t need to know every herb either.
Plants are diverse and have a wide variety of uses. In herbal circles they always say it’s better to know a lot about a few herbs than a little about a lot of herbs.
The plants you have growing near and around you and in your own yard will probably provide most of what you’ll ever need (provided they haven’t been sprayed with anything).
And if there’s a plant you want that doesn’t grow near you, there’s plenty of places where you can find it. We’re really lucky to have so many providers across the country that you can order what you can’t forage.
Affinities are one little secret that can help you find the remedy you need to help your family. It’s a way to narrow down the choices of which plant you might want to use for a specific remedy.
It’s a way to learn which herb or herbs you can use without having to learn every detail about it. If you know the affinity you can choose 1 or 2 and then research the details for specifics.
What is a plant’s affinity.
While most plants can do a lot of different things for us, most usually have a specific affinity.
What’s an affinity?
An affinity refers to a plant’s tendency to support a specific organ or organ system.
That support could be in the form of building and nourishing or balancing and strengthening. And it can mean that it helps to soothe or heal tissues.
There are some plants that have an affinity for more than one organ or organ system.
Here’s just a few examples of affinities.
- Dandelion root has an affinity for the liver. That means dandelion root can be a remedy for everything from a headache to skin irruptions.
- Dandelion leaves have an affinity for the kidneys. They can be great for cleansing or kidney infections.
- Most of the culinary herbs unsurprisingly have an affinity for our gut and our digestive system. These are great for stomach cramping, gas or indigestion. Many of them have a second affinity as well. Rosemary for the brain and fennel seeds for the eyes.
- Elder tends to support our immune system. A great plant to use to ward off getting sick in the first place or to get you through a cold or flu once it sets in.
- Hawthorn supports the heart. A perfect herb for both supporting and strengthening the heart and to help mend a broken heart.
- Pine’s affinity is for the respiratory system. Pine needles can help expectorate mucus out of the lungs to help you breath and the bark has been used to help relieve lung infections.
- Mallow plants tend towards the mucus membranes. They can rehydrate dry and painful nasal passages and cool & soothe hot dry lung tissue.
That’s not to say each of these plants don’t do other things or help support other systems. It’s just their main claim to fame, so to speak.
This is just a handful of readily available and easy to find herbs and plants. These can be found in the wild or in your yard and they can provide a wide range of remedies.
Of course there are lots of different plants that have an affinity for the same organs or organ systems.
And there’s a reason for that. Not every plant will work for every person. It’s a matter of learning these specific affinities and then matching the energetics of the plant to the constitution of the person.
How does this help you?
Learning the affinities for the plants around you can help make learning which plant use a lot simpler.
Knowing the affinity can give you an idea of which plant to use for an issue. Since many plants can have the same affinities, you’re likely to learn of more than one that can help support the same thing. From there you can look up more detailed information regarding what else that plant has to offer to narrow down your choice and decide how to prepare what you need.
Once you’ve determined how it might work for you, you might want to look at another herb or plant to add to it in order to get a more defined effect.
Say you have a cough and your throat feels like it’s on fire. You can make a tea of Thyme to relax the cough and add a bit of some kind of mallow to help soothe the heat in the mucus membrane of your throat.
Or maybe you have a hot rash of some sort on your arm. Calendula has an affinity for the skin and has bacteria killing actions. A stout calendula tea, that’s allowed to cool, mixed with a bit of aloe gel and used as a compress on your rash might be in order.
Using affinities won’t give you all the answers, but it’s a great place to start and can help reduce the overwhelm that comes with all the information about the benefits our plant allies have to offer us.
Another way to determine which herb for which person is to learn how to figure out the energetics of a plant.
This is something else we can just memorize or it’s something you can figure out by using them. In my experience, the learning by doing tactic has stuck with me a whole lot better than just trying to memorize facts. But in the end be sure to note what works for you and what doesn’t.
There’s a lifetime of information we have to remember. Write it down when you can and save that head space for something else.
Have you heard of or used affinities before? Please let me know if you have and if so, did it help you?
