Doctrine of Signatures Part 1 - Rose Glorybower

Doctrine of Signatures: the fact that the colors, shapes, smells, feel, sounds, growth pattern, habitat, seasonality, etc., are all indicative of the underlying energetic qualities of a plant (or of anything for that matter)

The best way to explain doctrine of signatures is with real examples. If you say it purely in general terms many people will write it off as pareidolia, as just imagination… “flights of fancy”. Of course most people will write it off no matter how much evidence you give, and that’s fine. To loosely paraphrase Alan Watts: “I can’t teach you anything you don’t already know, and I can’t teach you anything else until you know it”. [mentally insert his infectious laugh here :) ]

First, let’s discuss what can be sensed about the plant. Image (a) shows the heart shaped leaf with purplish red veins. Image (b) shows the vaginal quality of a pair of leaves with the emerging purple-red leaves. Image (c) shows the beautiful pink, half domed inflorescence of flowers, which have a delicate but complex smell. Image (d) shows an individual 5-petaled floret. Image (e) shows the fruit cluster. The main underlying image shows a cluster of stems; it does not form a bush, it sends underground runners and shoots up tall (up to 6ft), single stemmed plants. All parts of the plants, except the flowers, have an unpleasant scent (smells like tobacco to me but generally considered to have an offensive smell). The plant is considered toxic; inedible with a bitter taste (most sources say to only use it externally but a few do mention internal use).

Second, let’s discuss its medicinal uses. There is minimal information about the medicinal uses of Rose Glorybower in English texts. The little I know comes from my experience using the flower essence and from what I could scrounge from the internet about this exact species (or from books regarding other Clerodendrum species). According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Rose Glorybower has the following properties: pungent, bitter, neutral; liver, heart, spleen meridians entered. TCM says that its actions are: activate blood, dissipate blood stasis, resolve swelling and remove toxicity. Some of its uses include menstrual disorders, colds, cough, fever, asthma, bronchitis, rheumatism, dysentery, toothache, leprosy, skin problems, anorexia, sores/boils, mastitis, haemorrhoids, eczema, and more. I had read that rural villagers used it for venereal diseases but can’t find the source now. When I used the flower essence I got the overwhelming sensation that we’re all one; not just the humans but everything in existence. I felt gratitude for Gaia, Mother Earth, an aspect of the divine feminine. I was less in my head but my brain was still active, just more in line with the heart. It felt like all my chakras were open and in alignment.

Finally let’s connect the doctrine of signatures with the medicinal/energetic qualities. The heart shaped leaf (image a) obviously implies the heart as do the pink flowers, which symbolizes vulnerability, tenderness, loveliness and love (according to Julia Graves in The Language of Plants), as well as often having an effect on the heart chakra. In TCM is enters the heart meridian and works on the blood (which is related to the heart). Plus the flower essence does have a profound effect on my heart chakra and the associated feelings. The purple-red veins of the leaves are all too similar to the visible effects of blood stagnation, inflammation and toxicity on humans. Image (b) looks like inflamed lady parts. The leaves at this stage are shiny and puffy, looking like they are blistered. There is a lot of purple red coloring, looking like inflammation. The leaves have an offensive smell (and they’re toxic), which can often be present in an infection or venereal disease. Rose Glorybower is used for venereal diseases, skin problems, sores/boils, leprosy, menstrual disorders and swelling. Not to mention that the very feminine aspect is present in the flower essence. Image (c) has the pink flowers, which we discussed, but it also is an inflorescent dome… an inflorescence is a bunch of flowers connected back to the same starting place and the dome implies the Earth. The flower essence made me feel that we’re all one; all having an experience

Credit: Guy Ottewell from earthsky.org

together on the physical plane of Earth. Image (d) is a 5-petaled floret. From Earth, Venus appears to “draw” out a 5 lobed star as it goes around the Sun in respect to us. I’m no expert on the qualities of Venus but it does have to do with beauty and the divine feminine. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that so many flowers have 5 petals. Many herbalists of the past, like Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), were also astrologers that connected planets to herbs and also paid attention to where the planets were in order to prescribe the right herb at the right time. Image (e) shows the fruiting inflorescence which looks amazingly (or eerily) like a jeweled brain. The flower essence took my separated, logical brain (I often feel like a floating brain) and connected it to my heart, allowing me to think clearly; seeing all that there is to be grateful for and feeling the unity. The individual, unbranched stems go straight up 6ft from the ground; while fruiting it could look like a person or a spine with an exposed, jeweled brain. Perhaps this implies that it can be beneficial for people, from root chakra all the way up to crown chakra. The individual plants shoot up close together and are all connected underground by runners; too perfectly mimicking the energetic result that the flower essence had on me (i.e. “we’re all one”).

This example wasn’t an easy one because there is so little known about it but I felt compelled to start with it. If you have a plant that you know a lot about or that there is a lot of information available on, start looking for its doctrine of signatures. Books are a good source of information but the book of life is a better source if we can learn to read it.