111 Days of Herbal Tea - Day 51, Lotus Flower
Dear Gentle Reader,
Only by dragging his men back to the ship and locking them up, did Odysseus get them off the island of Lotus eaters. You will have to ship your guests off, too, if you ever want them to leave your home after serving them Lotus Flower tea.
There are stories for each of the thousand petals of the lotus, but today I will only share three with you.
Did you ever wonder why the lotus flower is used as the symbol of enlightenment? According to folklore, the Sun God, Ra, created himself by emerging from a lotus flower. It is the only plant that closes at nightfall to submerge itself underwater; then, as the sun rises from the horizon, the blossom emerges once more and reveals its fruit to the light. A vision of pure white glowing above the swamp waters where it grows.
Craving more? The second story takes you on a familiar adventure:
Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the Lotus Eaters after a storm. However, he discovered that those who ate the lotus fruit forgot about their homes and who they were. All they could think about was eating more Lotus (1). They might have been consuming the Blue Lotus, which has euphoric effects similar to those of Marihuana.
All I could think about, when flipping page after page of herbal books, were the health benefits of Lotus Flower tea:
- Relieve anxiety
- Eliminate bad breath
- Support the digestive system
- Stop diarrhea
- Lower a fever
- Support liver health
- Boost skin health
- Treat eczema and psoriasis
- Ease a sore throat
- Decongest the respiratory channels
- Prevent seasonal allergies
- Delay signs of aging (2)
The third interesting fact about lotus flowers is that Egyptians used them in their math system. When counting high numbers, one lotus acted as one thousand, two lotus acted as two thousand, and so on. The recipe I found will mesmerize you as each petal unfolds:
1 dried lotus flower
1 teaspoon of fresh lotus pollen
1 teaspoon of honey
3 cups of boiling water
- Place the dried lotus flower in a bowl
- Dissolve the honey in another bowl with the boiling water
- Pour the water over the flower
- Steep for 10 minutes (watch the flower bloom!)
- Serve with fresh lotus pollen
To unfolding your mind’s brilliance,
Valeria Paz
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Sources:
- H., & Wilson, E. (2018). The Odyssey (1st ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
- Lin, Z., Zhang, C., Cao, D., Damaris, R. N., & Yang, P. (2019). The Latest Studies on Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)-an Emerging Horticultural Model Plant. International journal of molecular sciences, 20(15), 3680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20153680
