UK Yarrow Stalks - Yi Jing

Milfoil

• #11

If you can wait till August-ish, I can collect some and send them to you!

 

tabbycat

• #12

I found this after a quick Google, a link to a bookshop in Cambridge -
http://www.libra-aries-books.co.uk/cat/book/i_ching_yarrow_stalks.html

Not sure if they still have them in stock, but they're nice people - I met them at a folk festival a few years ago.

 

Le Fanu

• #13

Thank you for the responses! Milfoil, why August? Is that when you find them on the floor or can harvest them? Would there be a problem sending them across continents? I think there are strict rules on organic things, no?

I think I may try ordering those ones from the site that tabbycat mentioned...

I'd always found instructions for casting yarrow straws so convoluted but I found a great video on youtube! I want to give it a try!

 

Debra

• #14

They're a common weed most everywhere. Google milfoil or common yarrow or Queen Anne's Lace. They'll be coming up now in Europe and America and blooming a bit later in the year.

I have a set from a friend--she stripped the leaves and cut the stems to size. Here's a picture.

 

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Le Fanu

• #15

Do we have them in Europe? I had no idea... Will do a google image search and see if I can identify any in the parks/scrub here.

 

Le Fanu

• #16

it's this stuff? But that's a common weed? Do I just collect it and dry out the stems? I imagined that yarrow stalks were branches from a tree, but do the stems from this weed, dried out *transform* into a key mystical tool for divination??

 

Debra

• #17

Yes. You'll recognize these in a heartbeat. They're on roadsides in Europe and America. Commonly known as "those weeds that make my nose run."

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cach...lium+european+yarrow&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Yarrow

 

Debra

• #18

That's it, hon. The sticks are quite narrow and light and fragile.

They dry themselves in late summer and you can just snap off a bunch of stalks.

eta: To be honest, I think it's kind of ridiculous to BUY them.

 

Debra

• #19

Le Fanu said:

do the stems from this weed, dried out *transform* into a key mystical tool for divination??

Click to expand...

Heh. That's the $64 question about all divination, ain't it?

 

Le Fanu

• #20

What a fascinating plant. I always assumed it was an entirely Oriental plant, but not so.

Love this detail from your 2nd link;

"Some people believed that you could determine the devotion of a lover by poking a yarrow leaf up your nostril and twitching the leaf while saying, "Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow: if my love loves me, my nose will bleed now."