Cleanse & Empower: Red Clover for Inner Strength and Finding Your Voice
Ever feel like you're carrying the weight of the world or that your voice gets lost in the noise?
What if nature held a gentle yet potent key to shedding those burdens and stepping into your authentic power?
Imagine a common wildflower, often overlooked, possessing the ability to cleanse not just your body but your spirit, helping you connect with your inner strength and confidently speak your truth.
Intrigued? Join me as we explore the remarkable world of Red Clover, a plant spirit ready to guide you on a journey of empowerment and self-discovery. To fully appreciate the multifaceted way Red Clover supports this journey, we'll embrace a holistic perspective, acknowledging the profound link between our physical and emotional well-being.
Our exploration will begin by grounding ourselves in the physical aspects of this remarkable plant, examining its monograph and the traditional applications that have made it a valuable herbal remedy.
From this understanding, we'll delve into the deeper layers of its medicine, discovering how Red Clover is a powerful ally in cleansing our emotional landscape, facilitating release, and ultimately guiding us towards our true, empowered expression.
Red Clover - Trifolium pratense
Parts used
Flowers
Collection
The flowers can be collected for medicinal use during the summer months when they come into flower.
Cultivation
Red clover is a herbaceous flowering plant native to Europe, Asia and North West Africa. But can also be found in other areas of the world now. It can be sown as green manure in a vegetable patch to fix nitrogen into the soil as animal feed, as well as medicine.
It is best sown after the last frost in early spring. Plants grow up to 12” tall. It is easily harvested from wild or sown crops 6 months after sowing.
Constituents
Flavonoids, Isoflavones, resins, coumarins, minerals, vitamins.
Actions
Deobstruent
Antispasmodic
Alterative
Sedative
Expectorant
Mildly sedating and relaxing alternative for throat and salivary glands.
Anti-inflammatory
Anti-neoplastic for reduction of tumours and hard swellings, especially of the ovaries and breasts
Physical Indications
Respiratory system: An expectorant herb with an affinity for the throat and cleansing to the lymph glands. Helpful in the treatment of sore throats, laryngitis, coughs and infections affecting the lymphatic and glandular system.
Digestive system: In the digestive tract, it can work as an antispasmodic to ease tension and support the salivary glands, which are essential for the healthy digestion of food.
Genitourinary system: The flowers are a powerful cleanser for the lymphatic system with a special affinity for breasts and ovaries. Commonly used in herbal medicine for supporting women’s menstrual cycles, maintaining regularity and relieving PMT symptoms. This herb can also help relieve heat and redness or swelling in the male genitourinary system
Lymphatic system: Our lymphatic system holds 4x the amount of fluid as our bloodstream. To maintain health, we must always have a good flow of lymph. Red clover helps to maintain this flow, removing blockages and reducing inflammation to ease the flow.
Skin: Red clover is a soothing skin tonic; it relieves hot, dry skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. As a phytoestrogen, it helps maintain the moisture and elasticity of the skin.
When Not to Use
There are some cautionary guidelines about this herb because of the natural phytoestrogens found in the plant.
I always suggest that you seek advice from a Medical herbalist if you are unsure whether a herb is safe for you.
Some texts suggest that women who are experiencing breast cancer or other oestrogen-related illnesses, those that are pregnant or breastfeeding should not take red clover.
There are some blood-thinning properties to red clover so the general opinion is that haemophiliacs and people on blood thinners should avoid it as well.
If you would like to work with Red clover to avoid the chemical effects but still work with the healing energies, then vibrational essences will be perfect for this.
Preparations and Dosage
Tea: 1–2 teaspoons of leaves or seeds per cup, infuse for 15 minutes and drink freely.
Decoction: - 1-2 teaspoons of roots per cup of water, decoct for 20 minutes and drink 1 to 3 cups a day.
Tincture:
Leaf: 1 teaspoon daily.
Root: 1 teaspoon daily.
Seed: Rarely available commercially. Homemade tincture can be made in a ratio of 1:3, 45% alcohol and use 1 teaspoon daily.
Fresh juice: Use a juicer or crush with a pestle and mortar and squeeze through a muslin cloth. Apply to the skin to stem the bleeding and relieve inflammation.
Combinations
As a treatment for PMT symptoms blend with Raspberry leaf and Rose in a tea.
To treat Inflammation in the respiratory system, a sore throat, or swollen glands, use Sage and Melissa teas.
To treat red, itchy skin conditions, blend with Chamomile and Nettle teas.
Spiritual Essence
Red clover helps us on an emotional, physical and spiritual level in several ways.
It cleanses our emotions - helping initially to cleanse away emotions other people may have projected onto us. Therefore, it helps individuals who are easily affected by other people's emotional stress.
It helps us to stay grounded and know who we are, even when surrounded by mass hysteria.
It also helps people who are blocked from their emotional nature. Perhaps they are afraid of their emotions and what may happen if they show them, or that their feelings may become unbearable.
Red Clover is for those who are intellectual and crave information. They may neglect their body and become ungrounded.
Red clover helps us to relax our ego around achievement and remember to love ourselves too, connect to our heart and lower chakras - redistributing our energy throughout the whole.
This magical herb helps us to stay grounded whilst also standing out from the crowd, preventing our ego from overwhelming us and becoming too much of the Diva!
Red clover is being comfortable within yourself, secure and unaffected by others’ energies, being grounded and able to speak with power.
My Red Clover Revelation: Listening to My Body and Finding My Voice
At 42, while navigating my life with 2 young children and working hard to birth my business in a new town, the stress got all too much and on top of that, probably because of that, a little unwelcome guest arrived – a small lump in my left breast. As a Medical Herbalist, my training kicked in. The way it fluctuated with my cycle strongly suggested a fibroadenoma, one of those benign lymphatic lumps that are more common than we think. Still, knowing the signs and symptoms is one thing; experiencing it firsthand is another.
Off to the GP I went, armed with my self-assessment and a request for an examination. The referral to the hospital felt like a formality, standard procedure for anything breast-related. But then came the suggestion of a mammogram, and I objected. My research had led me to believe an ultrasound was a less invasive, much less risky, and equally informative first step, especially given my age.
The doctor at the hospital was… unimpressed with my informed choice. I still remember the heat in her voice, the disapproving look that felt like a scolding. But I stood my ground. My body, my choice.
And that’s when red clover entered the picture in a big way. I wanted to take charge of my healing, and immediately, I started brewing her into a daily tea, the sweet aroma filling my kitchen with a sense of subtle strength.
I created a traditional skin balm called "black ointment," but after a month or two, this powerful detoxifying medicine started to cause itchy rashes on my skin, so I stopped working with it and used castor oil packs instead. The tea, however, was delicious, with no negative side effects, and it worked like magic on the lump.
Within weeks, the lump noticeably shrank, even during my premenstrual phase. But the transformation wasn’t just physical. A quiet confidence began to bloom within me. I felt emotionally stronger, more certain in my decisions. It was like red clover was helping me tune into my inner voice, giving me the courage to speak up for myself, to finally address those niggling things in my life that, as the metaphysical teacher Louise Hay might say, were truly "getting on my tits!"
Hay’s wisdom about the connection between our emotions and our physical bodies resonated deeply. Healing my body wasn’t just about the physical lump; it was about acknowledging and releasing the emotional stories and the stresses I was allowing to affect me. Working on my mind, body, and spirit was the most holistic and empowering approach. We change as we age, and I had grown out of certain ways I lived my life. I reflected and consciously released the things that were no longer working for me. There was some inner resistance, as our minds tend to resist big change, but I channeled the strength and determination I needed with the knowledge this was entirely necessary to make space for my healing and, of course, with the assistance of my plant spirit ally, Red clover.
To reassure you, the ultrasound scan showed the lump to be nothing to worry about. Now, 10 years later, that little lump is still there, a tiny sentinel that swells up whenever I’m fighting off a virus. It’s like a personal early warning system, prompting me to reach for my red clover tea once more.
My journey with red clover wasn’t just about a lump; it was about reconnecting with my body’s wisdom, finding my voice, and understanding the profound link between our physical and emotional well-being. It’s a herb I now share with many of my clients because red clover has this incredible ability to gently guide us back to ourselves. It helps us listen to the whispers of our bodies, to process emotions without feeling overwhelmed, and to support the detoxification of stored tensions, and physical toxins that can manifest as physical ailments.
Conclusion
What if you could tap into this same gentle power? What if there was a way to support your body’s natural ability to heal and to connect more deeply with your emotions without feeling like you're battling them?
I invite you to consider exploring the world of herbs. Red clover, with its nurturing and supportive properties, is just one example of the incredible allies nature provides. Take a moment to reflect: Are there areas in your life where you feel disconnected from your body or your emotions? Could a gentle herbal approach help you step into your power and navigate your inner landscape with more ease and understanding?
Perhaps it's time to listen to the whispers of your own body and explore the potential of herbal allies. You might be surprised at the strength and wisdom you discover within.
A final word of wisdom…
Our journey into the world of Red Clover has revealed its beautiful potential. As you consider integrating this herb into your life, please remember that your well-being is paramount and that your health journey is personal. Therefore, we encourage you to connect with your doctor, a herbalist, or another healthcare professional before starting any new herbal regimen.
This is especially important if you have experienced a lump or other changes in your breast tissue, are managing any existing health conditions, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are currently taking medications.
May your exploration of plant medicine be both empowering and guided by informed choices.
