Yerba Santa

Positive Qualities: Free-flowing emotion, ability to harmonize breathing with feeling; capacity to express a full range of human emotion, especially pain and sadness

Patterns of Imbalance: Constricted feelings, particularly in the chest; internalized grief and melancholy, deeply repressed emotions

Definition: Yerba Santa (Spanish for “Holy Herb”) addresses the inner sanctity of the human soul. There is within every human heart an inviolable space which must be kept open and free; the Self breathes its soul essence in and out from this center. This part of the human being is the most sensitive, the most deeply feeling, and the most psychic. It is especially vulnerable to emotions of sadness, grief, or other related soul pain. If such emotions are not actively addressed by the consciousness, they will be stored and buried away in this part of the heart. The individual becomes profoundly melancholic, bearing deep internalized sadness, which is not simply related to daily events, but which pervades and colors the entire emotional life. This soul illness grips the body. Most characteristically, the sacred part of the Self — the heart and chest area — becomes hollowed rather than hallowed. The breathing is congested and disturbed, resulting in the tendency toward degenerative diseases of the lungs such as chest congestion, pneumonia, asthma, tuberculosis, or addiction to tobacco. Such a person appears to be wasting away; quite literally the soul is being consumed by the intense forces of grief and sadness which work negatively into the Self. Yerba Santa reverses this soul consumption, promoting the release of trauma and emotional impurities. Often, the individual contacts profound unclaimed grief, such as the loss of a beloved friend or parent early in life. Yerba Santa gradually restores the temple space of the heart, making it more spacious and light-filled. Through this blessed flower, the soul re-establishes its sanctuary, freeing the human heart to experience the world with renewed emotional presence.