What?
It's ling.
What's that?
Ling, according to the Chinese, pertains to that inner spiritual power that so many of us don't have at all. Having ling is a good thing. (Oops, I rhymed. Could be a song in this.) In China, Mayweed is considered to have a lot of ling going for it, more than most plants, and most plants, in their botany, have a lot of ling in the first place. Mayweed has exceptional ling because it grows on the grave of Confucius.
In the apothecary, Mayweed and alum were ingredients combined in a tea and drunk as a preventative measure against cholera, malaria, and typhoid fever. And for those who went ahead and got themselves a fever, chewing the root aided in their recovery. Drinking cold Mayweed tea as a remedy for fevers was once an old European custom. It was later adopted by the Mohegan-Pequot Indians of Connecticut.
And it brought good luck to those who carried a bit of Mayweed about. (Good luck and ling? Now that's a combination you can take to the ... uh ... well, it's pretty cosmic.)
Milkweed seems to have no magical myth and folklore about it at all, or just a little, a pinch, a smidgeon, a modicum. It does have a host of old folk remedies, as well as the one remedy from the roots of Butterfly Weed that has lasted to this day, the remedy that gives it the name Pleurisy Root.
Once upon a time warts priOkay then, let's start with Mayweed, which we also know as Stinking Chamomile and Dog Fennel, and it's ling.
What?
It's ling.
What's that?
Ling, according to the Chinese, pertains to that inner spiritual power that so many of us don't have at all. Having ling is a good thing. (Oops, I rhymed. Could be a song in this.) In China, Mayweed is considered to have a lot of ling going for it, more than most plants, and most plants, in their botany, have a lot of liiker comes to us because an effective expectorant can be made from the roots of Butterfly Weed.
And I did find one little piece of magic in milkweed's myth and folklore: the Chippewa used various parts of the plant to make magic charms. One such charm, which was to lure deer, did not involve holding out a bit of milkweed and softly, lovingly encouraging the deer with "Here deer. Here ya go deer. Who's a good little deer, then? Who's a good little deer, hmmm?" This charm involved chewing milkweed roots with boneset roots, and then applying the liquefied ooze to the whistle used in calling deer. It's not much, as far as magic goes, but I guess that's okay given how much medicinal magic milkweed has been responsible for.
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