There are countless plant medicines to choose from for anxiety, so like a village matchmaker, all art lies in tracing the details. What does your anxiety crave? From what does it rise up from: a place brittle and burned out, or tightly wound like a ball? A hole with no bottom? Does it send your energy fleeing like so many sparrows, or sink you like a stone?
And so we meet Albizia Julibrissin, also known as Mimosa, Silk Tree and whose Chinese name, He Huan Hua, translates to mean “collective happiness bark”. Much more than just a herb for anxiety, Albizzia’s playful spirit laughs away the stubborn grips of the fear and anger.
Albizia is a blushing pink tree, which is both deciduous and sensitive, meaning it’s delicate sickle shaped leaves fold together shyly, either by touch or as the sky darkens. And o the flowers! So many flowers– like marvelous dr. zeus hair-dos: wind blown, coiffed, titilated, ecstatic, bubble gum pink giggling blossoms. This improbable fragrant laughing tree can stand 40 feet wide and 35 feet tall– sweetness saturating the night.
Albizzia is grown mainly in central China, but many varieties have found their way to California, the South-Eastern States (where it is considered invasive), and even in my hometown of Victoria, BC. Albizia is a sun worshiping tree, which, for such a sensitive being– doesn’t mind depleted, drought ridden soil– it’s always game to try.
One of the great pleasures of spending an afternoon under Albizia’s draping umbrella of silly pink feathers is the flocks, buzzes, flutters and zips of song birds, butterflys, bees and hummingbirds who seemingly go wild for Albizia’s flirty plumes in a flurry of summer socializing.
When harvesting Albizia, the dried bark and flowers are used. The bark is stripped from the tree, cut into sections and dried in strips, and like most delicate plant parts, the flowers should be harvested in the morning after the summer’s dew has dried, and just before the sun’s heat begins to grip the day.
Albizia is best known for it’s ability to quell insomnia, anxiety, anger and irritability– particularly when accompanied by palpitations, as well as depression and poor memory. In terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Albizia moves ‘Stagnant Liver Qi’– which is a diagnosis that, like it sounds, describes the way energy can become stuck in certain parts of the body (which can lead to blood stagnations such as clots or tumours). Qi Stagnation is often accompanied by a certain degree of irritability, tension and in more pronounced cases, anger. The bark has a more pronounced Qi-moving and blood-invigorating quality, and can be used to not only move Qi stagnations but also blood stagnations such abscesses, carbuncles, furnucles and other painful swellings, from injuries or otherwise. As might be imagined, the flowers work on the more emotional and spiritual aspects of the body, tranquilizing the mind, calming the spirit and chasing away nightmares.
Now that basic introductions have been established and a rough outline of our dear Albizia has been sketched, lets begin to sink deeper into the full feathered character of her finer lines.
Everything is unique and everything has medicine. Every medicine is tied to the uniqueness of a given thing. Whatever is exceptional and entirely unique about a thing, whether significant or insignificant, is where the medicine of a thing lies; whether that be parking ticket medicine to early july dewy grass on bare morning toes medicine. And since one of my most loved ways to dig deeper into the special uniqueness of plants, trees and fungi is through archetype, I would say that Albizia carries somewhere in it’s heart wood and pink plumes the medicine of the Tarot’s Fool.
“You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesFor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves.” -Mary Oliver
Tarot’s first card is the Fool– that wise innocent that makes his sweet way through the world like a sprung Dandelion seed riding a breeze. The Fools innocence lies in his lack of self reflection, and his perpetual presence in the moment. The Fool is the free and easy wander whose territory is that spacious, magical place where things unfold into a wide open field. In this big sky territory of open possibility– old scars, pains, and holding-ons can be loosened as we relax our grip on the knowable reality, our history and our predicable future. The field is also a paradise where we don’t need to guard, restrict, cut, bind, knot, or twist our soft bodies into shapes in order to be– it is place where ‘you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.‘ M.O.
Is the fool, delusional? Perhaps, but the idea of brute realism and hard knock reality is equally delusional. And anyhow, in the back alleys of our hearts do we not all have a guarded belief in such a field?
Just on the other side of every trauma and scar etched across our flesh, does not the possibility of it’s healing also exist? Even in the hard knock world of physics the most basic parts of our material reality both exist and don’t exist in the same moment. This paradise of the open field, is not entirely irrational.
So at what point do we need to hold on to old wounds, threats, triggers– lest we forget? And when do they still serve our future self, rather than trap us? And how do we metabolize painful things so that they might become the juicy life giving compost for new growth?
We’re always walking the tight rope of holding and letting go, but in this case, Albizia is the one whispering in your ear “let go already…the fall is fine, and anyhow you don’t need to be up there anymore.”
For all these reasons Albizia finds it’s way into many a formula of mine. For broken hearts and PTSD I like to combine Albizia with Hawthorn and Rose. Add the flower essence of Bleeding Heart to a broken heart formula, and be prepared to be amazed.
Another favourite use of Albizia is for Anger– one of the most pronounced emotional signs of some kind of ‘holding on’. Anger is more often than not a secondary emotion that is a reaction to the disorienting and watery realms of grief, sadness and fear. In my understanding, anger attempts to keep these more watery emotions at bey through control, and shows of power that repel and defend. And fair enough, our ‘culture’, isn’t exactly a very supportive one to those who slip into the dark night and terrestrial waters of grief. Moreover– grief, sadness and fear are so often considered ‘weaker’ emotions, specially amongst the male-bodied peoples amongst us, and thus deemed socially inappropriate emotional expressions. And so, barring up against the hounds of grief– ours is an angry, irritable, tightly knotted culture, which likely could use a long sob. This doesn’t even begin to account for all the ways in which the demands of modern city and cyber life are deeply irritating– I don’t think a laundry list of modern irritations is necessary here. In all such cases, Albizia is a reliable tool for ever so gently loosening the pressure valves to let go of some steam. And remember, as Albizia certainly knows; the best remedy for anger is laughter. Laughter, like water through a wheel, knows that nothing stands the test of time.
For anger and irritation, I like to combine Albizzia with Gotu Kola and White Peony root. Another option is to add Bupleurum, however Bupleurum should not take up more than 5% of the formula at first go, and should only be used with blood building herbs (in the TCM sense of Blood Building) such as White Peony (at least 25% of the formula), Rehmannia, Goji Berry, or Don Quai.
Dosing: bark: 9-15 grams flowers: 8-9 grams
special note and warning: Albizia is also analgesiac and diuretic, and can induce intensive uterine contractions, so do not use if pregnant