Listening to the Mystery at our Center with Queen Anne

Blessed dark moon to all. I am feeling the shift of the seasons as the days get shorter, the darkness of night begins to creep earlier into our evenings, the smell of dry grasses and falling leaves fills the thick late summer air, and we celebrate the late summer harvest of tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers in our garden.

Another sign of mid to late summer, depending on where you call home, is the happy and abundant visitor that joins us along roadsides, in gardens, and anywhere she can find her persistent roots in the soil—the beautiful Queen Anne’s Lace, who guards the mystery at her center, also known as Wild Carrot, Daucus carota.

I've had a boquet of Queen Ann's Lace/Wild Carrot by my creative zone, and where I do my zoom sessions, for the last couple of months. Bringing her inside, making tea from her blooms, and sprinkling her seeds on salad, has brought a whole new relationship with this common roadside visitor!

Queen Anne’s Lace was my “threshold plant,” the one that first caught my eye and heart when I was a budding nature and plant enthusiast. I remember seeing her all along the sides of the roads in New York. I loved her sweet smell and enjoyed looking for the beautiful crimson flower that rests at the center of her white, lacy blooms. From there, I started noticing and learning about many wild herbs, flowers, and medicines.

Queen Anne’s Lace is part of the very powerful carrot family, Apiaceae, that has everything from food to medicine to poison amongst its siblings. Apiaceae includes fennel, dill, coriander, parsley, angelica, osha, and many more! However, a word of warning—this family also hosts the most deadly plants in North America, water and poison hemlock, so be sure to positively identify Queen Anne’s Lace before popping it into your mouth!

I love the symmetry of Queen Anne’s Lace and the way that many flowers create the whole. The hundreds of small, individual white flowers weave together to form a delicate, lacy, woven nest that holds, at its center, one small, special, tiny red-purple bloom. This special center flower is even more unique because it doesn’t exist in every plant, so look closely to find the ones that do! 

When I look into the center of the circular symmetry formed by her many flowers, I feel the whisper from the great mystery that lives at my own center. When I pull all of myself inward and sit in that quiet place that is my center, doorways open that are beyond my preconceptions.  There are many pulls, in today's world, that distract us out of our center, and we eventually can drift far from the sacred source of our own deepest knowing.  When we do, we begin to feel untethered, we attach ourselves to things and ideas that are not our deepest truth.   

Like Queen Anne’s umbel of composite flowers, we too have many parts of ourselves that circle around the most beautiful flower—our inner soul imprint, our connection to the mystery that guides us. It is up to us to keep that inner scarlet flower guarded, protected, and honored.  To return to this central flower again and again to seek the guidance that comes from beyond our mind and conditioning, that lives in a place that is pure and connected to something greater than ourselves.  

I have noticed that when I slow down and tune into my own center, when I find that quiet place, it is the access point into a knowing that is beyond our small self… into the great mystery that connects us all.  How beautiful that we need not venture out into the cosmos searching for our deepest guidance and wisdom - the doorway is deep within our very self.  

One of her other common names, Bird’s Nest, comes from the form she becomes as she goes to seed.  Her youthful flowers turn to a beautiful brown and dry nest of seeds, all turning in onto each other towards that sacred center.  This is her crone stage, the stage of her life when she is offering her seeds back to the earth.  It as if she is protecting that sacred center, all of the surrounding flowers bowing down to the knowing of the mystery that lies within, and that we all approach in our death.  

Queen Anne’s Lace asks us: Where have you placed your attention that is outside of your deepest knowing, your own center? Where have you become asymmetrical—out of balance in your own orbit around your center? What beauty have you not yet created, what calling have you not yet responded to, that is beckoning to you from your own inner mystery?

As you smell the sweet fragrance of her flowering, what flower is yet to bloom in you that will add to the unique composite of your gifts, creating the elegant symmetry of your life?

A Bit More About Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild ancestor of the cultivated carrot we know today. Originally from Europe and Asia, it has now become naturalized in the United States. Through the careful selection of the juiciest roots over generations, we now have the thick, sweet, easy-to-chomp culinary carrots loved by humans and bunnies alike. I love thinking about this process of generational human ingenuity—plants that have been selectively cultivated over hundreds or thousands of years from small grasses and wiry-rooted varieties into the nutritious and delicious corn and carrots that we have come to depend on as culinary essentials. Every time we eat one of these fruits or vegetables, we have many ancestors to thank, who have been part of this long journey of partnering with the wild ones.

Also—you can eat her! She’s edible from root to flower to seed. I’ve been sprinkling her seeds on my salads and adding them to soups. Historically, the seeds at high doses have been used as a natural contraceptive. The seeds and flowers can also be used as a digestive aid and have many herbal uses, from relieving bloating and gas to calming the stomach and supporting overall gastrointestinal health. Additionally, they may have mild diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties, making them useful for a variety of ailments in herbal medicine.

The great thing about Queen Anne’s Lace is that she can be found all over North America. So next time you take a walk, see if you can find her in her flowering or seed form, and take a moment to let her inspire you back to your own great lacy mystery!