Milk Thistle: A Physical & Spiritual Guardian
- Linda Crider
- Oct 20
- 3 min read
When you think about flowers, sensory qualities like fragile, soft or velvety petals that invite your touch come to mind. On the other hand, those in the thistle family such as the Milk Thistle bloom rather spiky and protective, you might even say...defensive. One look at the photo below says "you can't help but admire my beautiful purple color but hands off"!!
This gives us a visual and tactile clue to one of its most popular actions. As a medicinal herb, Milk Thistle is best known in natural healing circles as one that plays a significant role in maintaining liver and gall bladder health. It assists in detoxifying and therefore protecting these all important organs. Any herb book or website will tell you this, and it has been so documented since the 1st century AD.
Energetically speaking, in traditional eastern medicine the liver is the organ that is said to store and process anger, so that's another addition to the liver's job description.
However, there's more botanical wisdom in these actions that we have much to learn about on a spiritual level as well. Astrologically, Milk Thistle comes under the ruler ship of both the primal aggressor Mars and the inner nurturing Moon. So what drew me to choose this card from the Herbal Astrology Oracle deck is the contradictory subheading that herbalist Adriana Ayales, ascribes to it: "Peaceful Warrior."
It's a familiar term coined in the 1980's from the title of a sports auto-biography by Dan Millman. I didn't read the book, but I can understand how this may sound like an oxymoron since the idea of taking a "warrior" stance at first conjures up images of weapons and openly aggressive behavior that seem anything but peaceful.
In a world that has become more "spiky" and polarized than ever, adopting a "peaceful warrior" mindset would involve maintaining a balanced attitude of inner tranquility that accepts "what is" along with outward movement that is assertive and self directed. If I understand it correctly, this concept is about calmly but firmly establishing healthy boundaries that nurture and protect one's sovereignty, or as poet Robert Frost once wrote, "good fences make good neighbors."
This brings us back to Milk Thistle's physical and spiritual significance, and how it teaches the wisdom of such beneficial self care on both levels.
Interestingly enough, Ayales links this herb to Badger medicine. You can see how a badger
pokes its head from beneath the purple veil of the woman pictured on the card. I didn't know much about these animals, but she tells us that many Native American traditions associate them "with powerful medicine women, as badgers are some of the great protectors of Earth's medicine." She goes on to describe how badgers are quick to defend what is theirs with swift and immediate courage minus any fear or panic.
Like many herbs, Milk Thistle has been considered among folklore enthusiasts and medicine people to be one with badger-like qualities that guard and defend. It was (and likely still is) believed that placing a bowl of thistle tea in a room can uplift and renew harmful, depressed emotions. In some cultures garments were once woven with thistle fibers to guard the wearer from negative energies.
It continues to amaze and encourage me how the folk traditions of a plant can speak to the medicine it offers in a way that I find just as convincing as any double blind study you might find in a contemporary medical journal. I like to think we're getting closer to a time when folk/herbal medicine and modern science converge to offer a more complete perspective on the value of what the plant world has to teach us about health and well-being as individuals and as a global community.
For now, taking a closer look at the many benefits of supportive herbs such as Milk Thistle is a good start. In a brief meditation on this herb I came to learn that we can take comfort in the fact that plants are looking out for us, and the words I heard were that they do this willingly and (of all unexpected adverbs) gleefully!
As always, thanks for letting me share my thoughts and journey with you. I welcome your input, so if you want to submit a comment, scroll down to the bottom of this post. If you are interested in booking a personal session, you can do this here:
You can also contact me via email at: my.plant.allies@gmail.com
For now, here's wishing you wellness, wisdom and bloomin' vibes!
What ?? You haven't read "the way of the spiritual warrior" ? Well we shall have to remedy that then won't we. ?? quote from Movie " Brave Heart"
I love the connection between the thistle, the badger and the peaceful warrior. Thank you for sharing this message.