Voices of the Earth - Yarrow
As she has done for millennia, Yarrow, a small unassuming but surprisingly strong plant, shared her healing powers with Cassie, one of the Voices of the Earth Fellows. Cassie describes how connecting with nature and the mythical tales surrounding Yarrow was an important part her of finding a sense of wellbeing amidst the pressures of school and the uncertainties of being confined to her house during the COVID pandemic.
When I became a Voices of the Earth Fellow, I was 16, starting a new school with a new environment and harder courses. I was constantly doing revision, worried about my grades and completely ignoring my mental health. I was like a frantic robot working day in, day out. It was a tough decision joining this project as I felt guilty not using the time to revise, however becoming a Fellow was probably the best decision I could have made.
When COVID-19 happened, I was stuck indoors. We had regular Voices of the Earth Zoom calls to find our way into the project and to come together as a group. A few of the project activities we took on included researching different plants and making a fact file for them. This gave me a reason to leave my bedroom and go into my garden, which helped me as I was out in nature and feeling the sun on my face. When lockdown was slowly being lifted, I was very hesitant about leaving my house as my only source of information about what was going on revolved around the news. Nonetheless, I found the courage to leave and headed to Kentish Town station where we went to a little garden in the middle of Caversham GP practice. It was so beautiful and such a contrast to the four walls I had been surrounded by for 3 months. I felt like I was dreaming as my mind processed everything around me. We had the opportunity to meet different people; far better than having an electronic screen to communicate with.
Around mid-June, the school year had officially ended, and I was in a state where I found interest in different cultures and religions, looking into different rocks, crystals, plants and their meanings. I also looked into Greek mythology and each God and Goddess. When I finally visited the Story Garden for the first time in months, everything had blossomed, the garden was full of love and colour and it made me feel connected to nature and society again. It didn’t feel unrecognisable, it felt nostalgic; this was the first time I had properly seen the garden past the computer screen of our zoom calls. We met a woman who depended mostly on herbs to treat patients, which really resonated with me as I was looking into the medicinal properties of plants, their uses and meanings. Something that will really stay with me is sharing the Achilles story of Yarrow which came to us from René, one of the young boys who was involved in the Voices of the Earth primary school workshops. His mother, Merzeta, had told him the story of when she was a little girl growing up in Kosovo.
When I was growing up, during every visit to our Grandma I would go on a long walk with my Mum down to the fields on a nice sunny spring day to find some strawberries, or up to the woods to find some mushrooms after it had been raining. Mum loved mushrooms, me not so much. I only went because I enjoyed running and playing. Whenever I cut myself on grass or bruised myself when I fell down my mum would find a magic plant to heal my wounds. She would tell me the old stories about heroes who got injured during battle. They would use yarrow and the blood would magically clot. I felt so lucky to have this plant to heal my heroic wounds. It always looked so powerful, almost like a feather because of its many leaves. The plant is named after the Greek hero Achilles who would use yarrow to heal the wounds of his soldiers; Achillea millefolium, Achilles thousands of leaves.
Learning about other people’s cultures and their personal stories relating to the plants, which I would have walked past in the streets, made me far more aware of my surroundings and other people’s cultures and beliefs. For example, learning more not only about yarrow but also sugarcane helped me keep an open mind when looking at particular plants and thinking about their histories. All the while, singing songs relating to the spirit of plants helped us grow and connect with each other as a community.
I was fortunate enough to record the story of Yarrow and Achilles, which as Merzeta described, is heavily linked to Greek mythology. It made me realise that all plants have stories behind their names, which makes them somewhat magical.
To hear Cassie tell the legend of Yarrow and Achilles, listen here:
This sound design, by Complicité sound designer Daniel Balfour, was created out of the work of children, young people and adults involved in the Voices of the Earth Project.
Each of the seven Voices of the Earth audio pieces were created as an invitation for you to spend time in Camden’s Green Spaces, listening to nature’s voices. Download the audio map here.
Notes from the Garden
I wake to a bright crisp winter’s day. Finally … after weeks of storms ravaging the country.
As the year ends we are reminded of the magic and beauty that our gardens bring, as places to come together and celebrate, even in difficult times. This year it has been challenging not to be taken over by fear and despair, with extreme weather events being mirrored in different ways across the world, from floods to droughts; with the most recent political events; with wars destroying land and displacing entire populations; and with the constant increase in the cost of living creating ever more inequalities between those that have and those that do not.