Herbs • Watercress

Stune is the name of this grass that grows on a stone,
She stands up against poison, she stands up against pain,
They call her the stide, she stands against the poison,
She crushes the villain, she expels the poison.

Watercress is found throughout Europe and North Asia. It grows in flowing water bodies, streams, swamps and other places with constant high humidity.

For thousands of years, it has been harvested as an edible plant.

Watercress is rich in vitamin C and iron. It is an excellent tonic. When fresh, it stimulates appetite.

The oil is very useful for the lungs: it acts as a warming agent for catarrh of the respiratory tract and bronchitis.

You can make cough syrup from watercress with honey.

You can also apply the crushed leaves directly to your skin to combat freckles, acne, and other skin conditions.

Watercress is an excellent diuretic, but in large doses it has a laxative effect.

But, like the world associated with it, Niflheim, Watercress is fraught with danger: wild plants sometimes become carriers of liver fluke, the causative agent of fascioliasis.

The leaves are edible and taste like mustard.

Watercress is associated with the elemental spirits of fresh water bodies – nekkami (nix), seers (lake spirits) and forskarls (spirits of waterfalls).

Often these creatures are dangerous, but by sacrificing watercress to them, you can soften them and tune them up more favorably. In addition, this plant was used as a talisman that protects in any travels on the water.

It is believed to develop the gift of foresight when consumed regularly.

This is the plant of Niflheim – the world of water, ice and fog.

Niflheim is one of the two primordial worlds (along with Muspellheim), and in his case, “primordial” means not only “the first”, but also “unfinished”.

There is something changeable and malleable in the nature of Niflheim, and not only because it is mostly made up of water and floating ice.

Even the strong and solid there sometimes begins to transform. Although not immediately, but gradually.

It is for such a slow transformation of reality that one can use the watercress: what seemed to be solid, like ice, will gradually melt and turn into water, and then into steam, similar to the one in which the Land of Mists is shrouded.

Then you can gradually give it a new shape.

If you put watercress under your tongue, you will feel that it peppers and even burns slightly. Listen to this feeling. Breathe through it. Try to see your breath coming out of your mouth in clouds of mist.

Keep breathing and working with the spirit of the plant until reality starts to blur a little.

This is not some kind of psychedelic experience – the watercress is definitely not psychoactive – but simply the action of the spirit of the plant.

Formulate the problem in need of change and place it in front of you in the form of some solid object. Reach out to her and touch her.

If the fingers slide off, it means that it is still ice (Isa, an obstacle), and so far nothing can be changed. In this case, keep breathing and working.

Perhaps nothing will work out for you – you are not a god, and not everything is in your power, but it is possible that the object will nevertheless begin to turn into something more malleable.

Quickly and accurately shake it up, give it a new shape, clearly imagining what kind of appearance it should take.

It may happen that it will return to its original form, and then you will have to peel it off again. If after the third time nothing comes of it, leave this venture.

Dragon breath

In summer, collect watercress and freeze it in ice cube trays with a little water.

If the winter cold gets to your lungs and it comes to bronchitis, melt at room temperature and heat a few cubes a little, add honey until thickened.

Drink slowly, in small sips, to gradually warm your lungs.