We transition now into the clarifying season of autumn Metal with tulsi, holy basil.
Imagine yourself as tulsi. You are sweet and pungent. Pollinators love you. Humans too, placing you by doorways, so you can welcome beauty and protect against evil. Beneath your soft, sweet leaves lies fierce, gentle power. You are called “holy” and “adaptogenic” for a reason.
Tulsi represents the mint family (Lamiaceae), which includes aromatics like peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, and skullcap. Many of these mint family friends expand and uplift with their fragrance, opening respiration, digestion, circulation, emotions, thoughts, and imagination.
Autumn Metal governs your Lungs and Large Intestine, how you inhale inspiration, then release what you no longer need. Metal governs the sunset and the closing of cycles, including the end of a year, a project, or this breath. Before closing any cycle, take a moment to reflect. Look back on how far you’ve come, look around at where you are now, and gaze into the mysteries ahead with a grounded sense of hope.
Tulsi and autumn Metal remind us, “Make beauty out of everything. Live life as art.”
How are you becoming a beautiful ancestor?
Beauty Medicine is how you integrate life events into something beautiful to feed the seeds of the future. Sensorially synthesize experiences with plants, especially aromatics like tulsi and other mint family friends. The plants lead you back to the tactile delight of this leaf, this scent, these flavors and feelings, and this moment. Sip them, eat them, rub them all over, soak in them– and make art with plants.
You can sip tulsi then make art, or as you are making art. Draw tulsi, write about tulsi, write under the influence of tulsi, make music for tulsi, dance with the diffused scent of tulsi, anoint yourself with tulsi oil, then paint as tulsi–play! Dream with plants, walk with plants, let them infuse you with their magic and medicine, their beauty and wisdom.
What are the plants telling us? In these wild–always wild–times, what are they calling for?
This is the fourth article in the series, "Herbalism is Activism," a six-part journey through the Five Elements of East Asian medicine. Each month, explore different facets of herbalism as activism with a seasonal plant guide. For each plant, hold them, sip them, or spritz their hydrosols. Breathe these words to life.
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