Tansy

What this is

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). The flat gold buttons that flower late and keep their bitter leaf long, its name read from the Greek athanasia, deathlessness. Pressed into the Easter cakes and laid in winding-sheets, it is the herb of long life and of what keeps and does not corrupt. Its oil is toxic in quantity.

What it governs

Tansy answers to Venus and the element of Fire, with a second hand from Saturn. Its seat in the zodiac is Libra and Capricorn, and its day is Friday, when its virtue runs fullest. It strengthens with the waning moon. In the old practice its office is plain: Dried leaves in drawers — the old household moth-repellent, also symbol of Easter.

Its properties

In the Galenic reckoning tansy is warm and dry, and that temperament is the whole key to its work. The part you take is the aerial. Its working colour follows Venus, green and rose; its metal is copper, its stones are emerald, rose quartz, its number 7, and on the Tree of Life it threads up to Netzach. It is not gentle, a herb of real potency to be handled with care and never taken lightly.

Where else it appears

One deathlessness in many hands: the Greeks gave tansy the name of the undying and the legend that the gods made Ganymede immortal with it; the church baked it into the Easter cakes that marked the resurrection; English folk laid it in the coffin to keep the body sweet. Myth, feast and burial all ask the one question at the meeting of death and life.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

In the Green Kingdom you meet Tansy on Today's Herb, Angelic Herb, Today's Gathering, and Herb of the Hour. When it surfaces it counsels you toward its office: Dried leaves in drawers — the old household moth-repellent, also symbol of Easter. As the Angelic Herb it stands under Anael; read its rising as that intelligence laying a hand on your day, with Venus's love and gentle harmony. As Today's Gathering it marks a plant to take up now, while waning moon and the day are with it.

Why it matters

Tansy preserves and keeps long. It teaches that what is well tended endures, and that the question under every preserving is which things deserve to last. It asks you to keep what is worth keeping, and to remember that the point of preserving is eventual use, not endless storage.

Correspondences

planet

Venus

element

Fire

zodiac

Libra, Capricorn

number

7

sephirah

Netzach

day

Friday

colour

green, rose

metal

copper

stone

emerald, rose quartz

tarot

Death