Burdock or Arctium lappa is a Libra herb belonging to the Daisy or Asteraceae family, in folklore it is known by many names, one of them very Libran. If you know a Libran you’ll know they are known for their love of love and romance, in fact one of their keynotes is unity so it’s no surprise that one of the herb Burdock’s folk names just happens to be Love Leaves.
This beautifully useful and versatile herb has very long roots, eaten as a vegetable, and will grow just about anywhere, preferring rough and kind of neglected and disturbed places to cling to and make its home.
Probably the most well known and recognised things about Burdock is its burrs, in fact it’s often the burrs that identify the plant, as Shakespeare wrote in Troilus and Cressida about Burdock ‘They are burrs, I can tell you, they’ll stick where they are thrown.”
As the story goes those burrs were also the inspiration for Velcro™, invented by George de Mestral after looking at them through a magnifying glass and seeing the way the burrs stuck to his dog after a walk through a field of Burdock.
Despite its often rough first appearance, depending on where you find the herb growing and at what stage of the plants life, Burdock is both graceful and elegant, quite feminine, even refined. In this way it’s easy to see the connection to Venus and Libra since both embody those same feminine qualities of grace, beauty, elegance.
Entanglement is a very appropriate word to describe the way the Burdock burrs cling to the clothes, skin and hair of people and animals that brush past. That difficulty in detangling or untangling from relationships is a trait of Libra as well, given their hatred of breaking a union, they can experience so much inner turmoil that they will often manipulate the situation so that the other person in the relationship ends the union, in that way they then don’t need to do it themselves.
Burdock helps to ground those who are easily and often distracted, bringing the cloudy airy-ness down to the stable earth.
Burdocks affinity with Libra embodies the two states of the astrological sign, the two sides of the coin. In full bloom Burdock radiates grace and a unique beauty, strength and inner wisdom but when the the heads have finished fruiting that inner light goes out and the herb looks gloomy, dark and sad.
“Burdock is likely a cleaning woman, or garbage collector: essential to modern life, but underpaid and undervalued. She’s the old black rag-a-muffin of herbs.” Ellen Greenlaw
Doctrine of Signatures
In magical herbalism Burdock is a protector and healer, its actions work on purification of the blood and eliminatory organs, bladder and kidneys, the elemental ruler is water.
The traditional animal signature of Burdock is Bear, for a few reasons – the thistly outer head resembles bear fur and the roots are brown and fuzzy. Bears are known to dig down deep to get to the oily, woody roots of plants including Burdock during spring, looking for nourishment and to fatten themselves up after the winter season of hibernation.
Although each part of the herb – seeds, stems, roots, flowers and fruit has its own specific actions those actions are all directed toward healthy circulation and elimination of toxins for clear healthy skin and hair.
With such a rough and prickly outer head and stem it’s no surprise that Burdock is often used for a range of prickly skin conditions and disorders such as eczema, acne and psoriasis.
Burdock seeds and roots are also fur – and hair – enhancing, one look at Burdock flowers from above and you can see what looks like its crowing glory, doctrine of signature. The planet Venus is associated with physical beauty, the outward appearance of hair, skin, facial features and complexion while internally the planet rules the kidneys, bladder and circulation. The plant and planet connection is pure synergy.
Read about the featured Virgo herb here