Achillea millefolium.
# Nursery rhymes say if you put a yarrow sachet under your pillow, you will dream of your own true love. If you dream of cabbages (the leaves do have a similar scent), then death or other serious misfortune will strike.
# Yarrow was one of the herbs put in Saxon amulets. These amulets were for protection from everything from blindness, to barking dogs.
# In the Middle Ages, witches were said to use yarrow to make incantations. This may be the source for the common names devil's nettle, devil's plaything, and bad man's plaything.
# Western European tradition connects yarrow with a goddess and a demon. Yarrow was a witching herb, used to summon the devil or drive him away. But it was also a loving herb in the domain of Aphrodite.
# A folk belief states that if you hang a bunch of dried yarrow or yarrow that had been used in wedding decorations over the bed, you can thus ensure a lasting love for at least seven years.
# Shakers used yarrow for complaints from haemorrhages to flatulence
...the Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty. (Gospel of Thomas V.3)
The Nag Hammadi Library, as a PDF.
Includes the Gospel of Thomas, The Apocryphon of John, and The Thunder, Perfect Mind.
A pretty nice summary and review of Eileen Pagels' book on the Gnostic Gospels.
Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
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