St. John’s Wort: the Gift of Summer Solstice

It’s Summer Solstice, the longest day. According to The Old Farmer’s 2012 Almanac, today the sun will rule the sky for 15 hours and 18 minutes.

It’s time for our Summer Solstice trip to Marine Drive, where we will hunt the wild St. John’s wort, Hypericum perferatum.

It’s flowers, glorious tiny sunbursts, are just coming into bloom. This is the traditional herb of Midsummer and, like the midsummer sun, it is full of good medicine. It grows best in freshly disturbed soil beside rivers, paths, and roads. Both my husband and I can spot it from the car at speeds often exceeding fifty miles per hour. This is no small feat, since there are many other yellow flowered plants in bloom at this time of year. St. John’s wort is considered an invasive weed in Oregon and it’s illegal to grow it, but no matter how hard they try to eradicate it, we are always able to find it.

Once we’ve spotted a likely patch, we pull over and begin harvesting. The plant is very strong and easy to talk to, and it’s not shy about telling you whether it wants to be picked or not—so I always ask. Occasionally I find one that wants to be left alone, but usually they are so happy to be picked that the stems break easily and you don’t even need clippers. Like mistletoe, the magical plant of Winter Solstice, I never let the sprigs I pick touch the ground. When we finish picking, our fingers are stained red with plant juices. We’re also grinning from ear to ear and full of energy. Not surprising. Like the sun itself, St. John’s wort is an excellent remedy for mild to moderate depression.

Most of what we harvest gets tied into small bundles. We bless and charge these during our Solstice ritual and hang one outside near each of the doors. They protect the household from fire, lightning, storms, and harmful spells and daemons. We also take down last year’s bundles, thank them, and burn them in the Solstice fire.

Sometimes we gather extra and fill a pint jar with the fresh flowers. We add olive oil to cover them all and several drops of essential

oil of lavender, and set the sealed jar outside in the sunshine for at least one lunar cycle. As if by magic, the yellow flowers turn the olive oil a deep, blood red. Like blood, the oil is full of life and quickly heals scrapes, rashes, and burns.

Christians brought this magical plant into their lore by naming it after John the Baptist, the prophet who foretold Christ’s coming and baptized him. According to the Catholic Church, he was born June 24th and Christ was born December 25th. Both men have solar attributes, so their nativities happen at the solstices. As the story goes, John the Baptist once said that he would “become less” (like the sun after Summer Solstice) while Christ would “become greater” (like the sun after Winter Solstice).

So if you happen to see a St. John’s wort plant today, ask it for a sprig to tuck in your hair or buttonhole.
It will make you smile.