Valerian

The flowers of valerian develop an enchanting scent. It is hardly bearable to stay for long in a flowering valerian field, with its tension charged through scent, colour, and form. The inflorescence is a false umbel, meaning it resembles the inflorescence of umbellifers externally, although it is not as orderly structured as the latter. The flower colour ranges from white to pink and appears translucent and slightly phosphorescent.

After the valerian has finished blooming, feathered hairs arise from the calyx during the fruiting period, which shape the plant’s appearance with their delicate grey patterns. The leaves are pinnate and have deeply slanted serrated leaflets. The entire leaf conveys a tension-charged, torn impression, like a high-frequency, irregular vibration pattern. Although the plant is decorative, hardly anyone would put it in a vase in the living room; not only because of the scent.

When picked, the stem usually breaks off. This is peculiar because valerian is quite steadfast at its growing site. But obviously, it loses its stability when it is cut. Such a root is firmly anchored in the ground.

With the root, the character of the plant changes profoundly. At a thumb-thick rhizome hang countless long, thin roots. Dug up and washed, the root looks like a long, whitish beard with almost straight hairs. The root impresses through its abundance and simple, parallel structure; root nestles against root. The entire rootstock – although composed of a multitude of individual roots – is calm and harmonious.

One can easily imagine how firmly valerian is anchored in the soil with its many individual roots and how it is able to ground and conduct away the energies that find expression in the fineness and tension of the above-ground plant parts. Opinions differ greatly on the smell of valerian roots, which is even more intense than the flower scent but of a completely different character: many dislike it, yet this does not change the fact that it usually acts very supportive and calming. A treatise on valerian would be incomplete without mentioning cats’ great fondness for this plant. A valerian plant placed outside quickly becomes a popular attraction for all cats in the neighbourhood.

They wallow in it, try to penetrate it with their heads, lie on their backs on it, and eat from it (although they generally abhor all vegetarian food). Unlike dogs, cats are known to seek out precisely those places charged with disruptive fields and detrimental to humans. We can also observe that cats like to lie in bed with the ill. Evidently, these cherished pets have an important function for humans.

They can assimilate and conduct away energies that cause illness in humans. Thus, we have an energetic symbiosis between humans and cats, wherein both benefit from one another. These observations confirm the previous findings that valerian roots have an energetically conducting and decomposing character. They draw off an excess of energy needed for sensory and cognitive activity and thus bring about a soothing of the unstoppable, exhausting nervous activity.