The Chaste Berry Tree
The Winner Takes It All: Vitex agnus-castus
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The Vitex agnus-castus is powerful womb and love medicine that shows us deeper connections to lore, mythologies and magick, and has come to be an ally for women today struggling with infertility and greater uterine conditions.
Sitting in communication with chaste berry blooms is a humbling and sensory experience. Harvested from my Bajan surrogate mother—shout out Mama Olton—she often lets me come by to wildcraft various medicinal herbs including bloodroot, black sage and other materials. I am always grateful that medicine appears when needed.
Today, the honey bees are already gone as the sun is high and the weather hot, but I hum like the bees and I push myself in the centre of the growth, whose scent is intoxicating. I am giddy, giddy with its heady perfume and seduced while being caressed by velvet-soft leaves that to a novice can be quickly mistaken as marijuana or family to, given its palmate leaf structure.
In the thicket, which was planted by my intergalactic SiStar Cherita four years ago, I find new parts of myself, new sensitivities and a new way to think about the beauty of surrender and being a woman. The chaste berry has plenty of instructions for women, particularly for women like me who struggle with fertility and womb health, who are coming into its gifts.
History and Mythology
Vitex, a genus from the Verbenaceae, consists of about 60 species in the tropics and subtropics in both hemispheres. Known by many different names (Vitex, Vitex agnus-castus, chaste tree, chaste berry, vencedor and monk's pepper) the shrub grows from nine to seventeen feet tall. However, there are some that grow as large as twenty-five feet high, with trunks eight inches in diameter, meaning it is something magnificent to behold and can stop you dead in your tracks if you are not ready for its beauty.
For over 2500 years, the chaste tree has been used for women's health, fertility and marriage rituals. The chaste tree is associated with the Greek goddesses Hera, the protectress of the home, marriage and fidelity, and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, fertility and the sacrament of marriage. Chaste trees were central to the ancient Greek festival Thesmophoria, held in honour of Demeter. During this festival, women remained "chaste" and used chaste tree blossoms and branches for adornment, and decorated Demeter's temple with bows of its bright purple flowers. In Rome, the vestal virgins carried twigs of the chaste tree as a symbol of their chastity and faithfulness to the divine spirit. Newlyweds were crowned with chaste flowers to show their fidelity to one another and their vows.
Importantly, the plant belonged to the official medicinal plants of antiquity and is mentioned in the works of Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Theophrastus. Also, the common name “Monk’s Pepper” refers to the medieval belief that utilizing potions made from the berries helped monks maintain their vows of chastity.
Within African spirituality, which is how I process the plant, it is called Vencedor, which means “to win” or “winner.” In the Palo Mayombe and Santeria traditions, Vencedor belongs to the Orisha/Orisa Obatalá - King of the White Cloth – the father of all the people. The plant and is used in the preparation of baths to overcome difficulties and to gain triumph in this world. It is a sacred plant used for cleansing homes. In this tradition, the male plant is used for work with women and the female plant for work with men.
Scholar, Christopher Hobbs catalogued and cross-referenced its historical importance throughout the centuries.
History of Vitex Use at a Glance (see here)
Ca. 400 B.C. Hippocrates recommended it for injuries, inflammations and enlargement of the spleen.
Ca. 50 A.D. Dioscorides says it is suitable for inflammations of the womb (uterus) and for stimulating mother's milk.
1200 In the Persian school, Al-Kindi recommended Vitex for epilepsy.
1633 Gerard and other Renaissance herbalists recommended Vitex for inflammation of the uterus and as an emmenagogue or blood stimulant.
1930 Madaus' work was among the first modern "provings" on Vitex.
1953 First clinical work on Vitex's galactagogue activity using Agnolyt.
Here are some comments/questions I ask as I humble myself before the great Vitex:
When was this plant first used in the lineage of my ancestors?
Who dreamt about it, who picked its leaves, ground its seeds and made medicine for the first time?
Who used its berries for flavouring? Who used its fragrance to sweeten the smell of daily life?
Which of my Grandmothers used its medicine to heal the womb?
Did they use its sacred wisdom to keep men's passions at bay and their bed of ease at night?
How many intimate relationships were controlled and navigated by this medicine?
What moments of wonder and joy did my ancestors experience while engaging with plant medicine?
What wars were waged while it bloomed in the background?
In what order do I sweep the house with its blooms? Clockwise or counterclockwise? Do I clean the floors first, then the walls? How do I cast the debris of eroded, dense energy (hucha) out of my home?
More personally, do I want to be healed at this point or has fear and doubt been my companion for too long? Can it teach me and others its trickery so that we also succumb to its wisdom?
This potent medicine has found resonance across the globe, and experts and herbalists much wiser than I have delved into its properties and energetics. This catalogue around my experience will grow as more information unfurls from my experiments and the transmissions I receive.
In leaving, I will share other connections and ways to embrace the healing power of the Vitex through ritual.