Blessed Thistle

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Blessed Thistle (Holy Thistle)

Scientific Name: Cnicus benedictus

Uses: Infectious disease, toxin flusher

One folk tale of the discovery of blessed thistle’s dynamic health-giving and life-saving powers comes to us from the days of Charlemagne. It seems that the emperor was in the middle of one of his pillage-and-plunder routines when his troops were taken ill with a dose of the plague. An angel came to Charlemagne in his sleep and told him that if he were to shoot an arrow in the air, the arrow would land on the plant that would cure his men. The arrow fell on a big old patch of Cnicus benedictus, the emperor immediately fed it to his troops, their lives were saved, and the plant was dubbed the blessed thistle.

Herbalists during the days and nights of the knights used Blessed Thistle to cure not only the plague but also agues and jaundice. The roots soaked in wine created a refreshing cocktail said to knock out bad humors and make the body strong and vital. A blood purifier, it was even eaten as a vegetable when young and tender.

But clearly its greatest fame came from its ability to cure the plague – no small feat. It is mentioned in virtually all the writings issued during times of epidemic infectious diseases, including Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Thomas Brasbridge’s 1578 publication A Poor Man’s Jewel sings the virtues of the Blessed Thistle and actually goes on to mention angelica as a second-best choice in dealing with the plague. In Turner’s Herbal, written in 1568, the author recommends the plant as a tonic and stimulant to the whole body as well as one of the best purging agents around.

We take in a lot of trash, which our bodies then have to get rid of. Blessed thistle helps us with the job.

Along with bloodletting, purging was quite popular in the 16^th century. Did you ever wonder why on earth people were purposefully bled? At one time, it was commonly held that sickness was caused by something evil inside the body, which doctors tried to purge by bleeding their patients or inducing vomiting. The 16^th century herbalist, Turner was quick to say that Blessed Thistle emptied out the system with "little pain or discomfort." I don’t know about you, but I don’t think anything could make spending that kind of time at the porcelain bowl painless other than a big hit of opium. Not to worry, though, you would have to eat a lot of Blessed Thistle to get the purging effect. In the 19^th century United States, the Shakers, who also used the plant and its roots as a tonic, sweat inducer, and diuretic, found that a double- or triple-strength tea made of Blessed Thistle would cause a total evacuation of the intestinal tract. Modern research has shown that one of the active ingredients in the plant is indeed a stomach irritant when taken in large quantities. The message here is that a little goes a long way.

Other European herbalists of Turner’s day noted the plant’s power in strengthening and improving the mind, a feature that should have particular appeal to us today. The pressures of the modern world can strip the mind. This is a fact, and if we take vitamins for the body, why not take something for the mind?

During the Renaissance, Blessed Thistle was also used to get the milk flowing in nursing mothers, a crucial matter when lack of breast milk meant death to junior. If junior made it to childhood, his mother would use Blessed Thistle to worm him before he went to school (it was really bad form to send the kids off to class with a dose of worms). Children and dogs alike got wormed a couple of times a year with blessed thistle.

Culpepper, a herbalist who wrote about Blessed Thistle in 1652, extolled the same virtues of the plant as did his predecessors. Clearly New Age 400 years before anyone ever thought of playing synthesized space sounds in birthing rooms, Culpepper believed that different plants were ruled by different planets, as were the diseases they cured. Of blessed thistle, he wrote:

By antipathy to other planets, it cures the French pox by antipathy to Venus who governs it. It strengthens the memory and cures deafness by antipathy to Saturn, who hath his fall in Aries which rules the head. It cures quarten agues and other diseases of melancholy, and a dust of choller by sympathy to Saturn… It also provokes urine, the stopping of which is usually caused by Mars or the moon.

Venereal disease, or as Culpepper put it, the "French pox," killed as many Europeans as the plague, and the use of Blessed Thistle to cure both infectious diseases raises some curious questions which have yet to be answered.

As for blessed thistle’s diuretic effects, Gerard agreed in 1597 that the plant "healeth the gripping pains of the belly, killeth and expelleth worms, causeth sweat, provoketh urine, and driveth out gravel." What Gerard called "gravel" are gallstones, caused by the improper elimination of waste – the residue collects in the bladder and forms crystals that have to come out eventually.

Taken in small doses, Blessed Thistle increases urination and sweating, thus flushing the body of toxins contained in it. Doctors of the past century felt diaphoretics, or sweat inducers, cleansed the body of chemical toxins and also bacteria. Physicians found that patients complaining of the early symptoms of a cold or flu could nip it in the bud using blessed thistle. "An infusion made in cold or warm water, if drunk freely, and the patient be kept warm, occasions a plentiful sweat, and promotes the secretions in general," wrote Howard Horton, M.D., in 1879. Horton suggested this method for sparing patients from infectious diseases.

In contemporary herbalism, Blessed Thistle is still used to treat infectious diseases. It is also used to treat liver and mucous congestion, loss of appetite, dyspepsia, jaundice, and hepatitis. It also lowers fevers, resolves blood clots, and stops bleeding. Its proven ability to speed the body’s waste-removing systems, as indicated by increased urination, is what herbalists feel specifically recommends it for us moderns. We take in a lot of trash, which our bodies then have to get rid of. Blessed thistle does the job.

Blessed thistle is readily available at natural food stores and even more readily grown, regardless of where you live. As Thomas Basbridge wrote in 1578, "Blessed thistle expelleth all poyson taken it at the mouth and other corruption that doth hurt and annoye the hart. Therefore I counsel all that have gardens nourish it, that they may have it always to their own use, and the use of their neighbors that lacke it." So plant some! An annual plant, it drops copious quantities of seeds that come up year after year. Order your seeds from a mail-order source and plant them directly in the garden as early as the soil can be worked. The seeds will pop right up, and before you know it, the plants will have reached three feet in height.

The crop should be harvested when the plants break into bloom and either used fresh or hung by the roots to dry in a moisture-free location. When harvesting, pull the plants up by the roots and wash off the dirt. Care should be taken to leave at least five plants in the garden so that they can reseed for next year’s crop. As the flower heads on the existing plants dry, you can help the reseeding process by breaking the dry seed heads up and turning them into the soil. This is important to do because birds like the seeds, and if they have a chance at them, your next year’s crop will be reduced. Also, the seed comes with "whirlybirds" that catch the wind, and your Blessed Thistle bed is apt to move around the garden if you don’t deal with the seed heads yourself.

Prescription:

I have to confess that this is one nasty tasting herb. As my taste buds pitch a fit when they come into contact with it, I make Blessed Thistle into a syrup to take in the morning. Boil two cups of the herb, fresh or dried, with six cups of water, strain the mixture, and sweeten it with honey. A teaspoon a day keeps the mortician away, or so I like to think..