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!
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.
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??
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."