I’ve had a really close and sweet relationship to this tiny red magic ever since I was a little girl, as each time we’d visit my great grand-parents’ house in the mountains, we’d be surrounded by cherry trees, apple trees, grape vines and wild roses, and many, many, raspberry bushes. Ah, how I loved eating all the raspberries!
My great grand-mother was very knowledgeable in all things spiritual, mystical and healing, knowing all the healing properties of various herbs and plants. And so naturally, as I carry this through my lineage, let’s today dive into the folk stories, and the many healing benefits and properties of raspberries.
Raspberry leaf teas are perhaps one of the best teas for women’s health, particularly for fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and alleviating menstrual cramps, as well as to serve as natural and protective antioxidants; and raspberry leaves are also often used in fertility or love baths, along with other love oils such as vanilla, rose and jasmine. And what are love oils? Love oils are essentially those scents that open within us doorways, stimulating our feminine energy: sensuality, passion, intimacy, gentleness, creativity and fertility. Not only can they be used to invoke and nurture sweetness of pleasure between couples, but for own selves, these scents arouse creativity, femininity, and a lot of love and beauty. Like I shared in Spirit Babies and Conscious Conception, love oils are great to use for couples to deepen their intimacy and increase fertility.
Fertility oils are very much like the love, attraction and passion oils – because the scent is meant to awaken and increase our sexual energy, which is also our life force and creative energy. They stimulate our senses and sacral chakra, and inspire more heart-openness, sensuality and love making. It is important for us as women to feel sexy in our own skins, as well as to feel adored, loved, inspired and desired. Creative energy is expansive, and this then opens so much more pleasant opportunities in our life, expands our perspectives, and allows for alignment to what’s true and good for us to find us.
There are many scents that enhance our love life, and they can be either used as oils – perfume oils, bath oils, body oils – or as essences, candles, or as herbal teas, or just as flowers around the house. In general, love, passion and fertility scents are: vanilla, cacao (chocolate), jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, lavender, apples, raspberry, citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit), damiana, sandalwood, pine and eucalyptus, geranium, cinnamon, and strawberry.
Raspberry leaf tea for fertility, pregnancy and birth
Raspberry leaf tea is one of the best teas for women’s overall wellbeing and health; and is particularly recommended by doulas for pregnant women, but also for all women who desire to get pregnant and increase their creative and sexual energy.
The many benefits of raspberry leaf tea include: a great source of protective antioxidants; digestive support; alleviates inflammation; relieves menstrual cramps; may support pregnancy; increased fertility; assists during childbirth.
Raspberry is a uterine tonic. The leaves contain a compound called fragrine, which helps to simultaneously tone and relax the uterus and pelvic muscles. This makes raspberry leaf tea very helpful for soothing menstrual cramping and regulating heavy menstrual bleeding.
Raspberry leaf is traditionally used as a reproductive tonic. It balances hormones and helps to prepare the body for ovulation when taken during the follicular phase.
Regarding pregnancy and childbirth, midwives often recommend raspberry leaf starting during the 2nd trimester. Its nutritional helps to nourish the mother and baby, and its uterine toning properties help to prepare the uterus for birth.
Then, there’s raspberry oils for the body which are packed with vitamins – Andean raspberry oil is amazing for the skin.
And then, there’s the magic.
The real magic of raspberry: the magic of patience in love
For centuries the scent of raspberries has been known to stimulate our love senses and used in practices to attract love and passion, increase fertility, abundance, and to bind fidelity.
In the old days, newlyweds would actually sew raspberry leaves into their mattress so that they would bind their marriage with long-term passion, love and fidelity.
In Germany, raspberry was used to tame bewitched horses by tying a bit of the cane to the horse’s body.
Raspberry magic is essentially the magic of patience in love, intimacy and fertility. First year canes do not produce fruit but are essential to the fertility of the plant, establishing her root system and filling her canes with the strength and energy she’ll need. After the cane has weathered a year, she’s ready to bloom and fruit.
Raspberry reminds us that patience, maturity and a kindness of rhythm are essential for any making of love, and any creative project.
Raspberry, like her cousin the wild rose, reminds us of the gentleness needed in our steps, through our lips, hands and gestures, when we weave magic and love in our every day life. It offers us an opportunity for a deepening of understanding – to approach all and everything with patient, loving care, because all has its own timing, and if we eat it before it’s ripe, our tummies will hurt.
In astrology, raspberry is considered a feminine plant, and is connected to Venus and to the water element. This speaks to our ability to love and be loved, to be emotionally open and expressive, and to speak love to our loved ones and family, to speak gratitude and embody love through our lips, hands and gestures. Venus is also about how to nurture and be nurtured, which essentially means, tend to what already is. We don’t push seeds into the frozen ground in winter, they will not grow, we’ll only hurt them and frustrate ourselves. Tend to what already is, care for it, love it, there is so much beauty now beside and in front of you, respect the timing and cycles of the land and of each person’s unique pathway.
Love too is a present unfolding, and we can only love as deeply as we’ve nurtured the soil within and build the capacity within us to love. We can only meet another as deeply as we’ve met ourselves, so let the sweetness of the love oil open the doorways to your inner wildlands – explore them, love them, nurture them, water them, and see the magic blossom.
For more of my writings, browse through my Art of Love.
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