Herbs That Anchor, Settle and Calm The Spirit

Herbs That Anchor, Settle and Calm The Spirit:

  • Mostly involves the heart and the liver - irritability, insomnia, palpitations, anxiety, insanity.
  • Herbs within this group are usually minerals or shells with side effects of injuring the stomach and/or spleen - most often combined with herbs that nourish the stomach/spleen to offset this.

Section Herbal Summary:

  • Long Gu, Mu Li - astringent
    • Mu Li - softens hardness and dissipates nodules.
    • Long Gu - more effective at calming the spirit, often used together to enhance their ability to harness upwardly transgressing yang.
  • Zhu Sha, Hu Po, Zhen Zhu - palpitations, emotional distress.
    • Zhu Sha - if symptoms are from fright and anxiety.
    • Hu Po - invigorate blood and dissipate stasis.
    • Zhen Zhu - seizures, convulsions from high fever.

Chinese Herbsort icon Functions and Usage
Ci Shi (Magnetite)
  • Anchors and calms the spirit - restlessness, palpitations, insomnia, tremors, especially with yin deficiency and ascending yang, dizziness, vertigo.
  • Tonify the kidneys and liver - improve hearing and vision.
  • Helps kidneys to grasp the qi - chronic asthma.
Dai Zhe Shi (Hermatite)
  • Calms the liver, anchors floating yang, clears liver fire.
  • Directs rebellious qi downwards - belching, vomiting, hiccough, wheezing.
  • Cools the blood, stops bleeding - vomiting of blood, nosebleed.
Hu Po (Amber)
  • Arrest tremors, stop palpitations, calm the spirit - tremor, palpitation, anxiety, excessive dreams, insomnia, poor memory, convulsions, seizures.
  • Invigorate the blood, dissipate stasis - amenorrhea with pain, palpable masses, coronary heart disease.
  • Promote urination, invigorate the blood - xue lin.
  • Reduce swellings, promote healing - sores, carbuncles, ulcers, genital swelling and pain.
Long Gu (Fossilized Bones)
  • Calms the spirit - emotional distress, insomnia, palpitations, anxiety, seizures.
  • Calms the liver, anchors floating yang - irritable, blurred vision, vertigo, bad temper.
  • Prevents leakage of fluids due to deficiency - spermatorrhea, night sweats, spontaneous sweating, vaginal discharge, nocturnal emissions, uterine bleeding.
  • Topically for chronic non-healing sores and ulcerations.
Mu Li (Oyster Shell)
  • Calms the spirit - palpitations, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia.
  • Benefits the yin, anchors floating yang - irritable, insomnia, dizziness, headache, tinnitus, blurred vision, bad temper, red flushed face due to yin deficiency with ascending yang.
  • Prevents leakage of fluids - continuous sweating in steaming bone disorder, aftermath of warm-febrile disease, spontaneous sweating, night sweats, nocturnal emission, spermatorrhea, leukorrhea, uterine bleeding.
  • Softens hardness, dissipates nodules - scrofula, goiter.
  • Absorbs acidity - stomach pain, sour taste in the mouth.
Zhen Zhu (Pearl)
  • Sedates the heart - tremor, palpitations, seizures, childhood convulsions.
  • Clears the liver - blurred vision.
  • Promotes healing, generates flesh - ulcers of the gums or throat.
Zhu Sha (Cinnabar)
  • Sedates the heart, calms the spirit - restlessness, palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, convulsion.
  • Clears heat, relieves toxicity - carbuncles, sore throat.