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The Cayce Herbal 
 A Comprehensive Guide to the  
Botanical Medicine of Edgar Cayce
 
Foxglove
 
 Botanical Name: Digitalis purpurea

Common Names and Synonyms: Witches' Gloves, Dead Men's Bells, Fairy's Glove, Witch's Bells, Fairy Thimbles.

Background: All parts of this plant are poisonous. Foxglove derives it name from the flowers it bears. The blossoms resemble the fingers of a glove (hence the name of the medicinal derivative "digitalis"). The blossoms vary in color from red to purple, and under cultivation, white. The interior of the bell-shaped, tubular flower is spotted a crimson color, with a white border.  The plant is two to four feet high, has erect stalks and downy, gray-green leaves that diminish in size toward the top of the stalk. Digitalis contains powerful glucosides. It should be used only under the direction of a physician.

Foxglove in the Cayce Readings

  • Two Cayce readings, given for the same individual, specifically reference foxglove.  Its' action was subtle. Flowers in the patient's room were to be foxglove blossoms. The fragrance was also prescribed in conjunction with radial appliance therapy (vibrational medicine).
  • Twenty-four readings mention digitalis. It was always to be given under a physician's supervision.  Some of the readings that mention digitalis recommend against its use.  Several suggest using Digitol, a fat-free tincture of digitalis available as a commercial product.
Cayce Quotes on Foxglove
 
4488-1
    It will be found that small quantities of a powerful stimuli to the activating forces of the circulation outside of the heart, as well as that which causes the contraction of the muscular walls of the heart, will be the better aid; that is, strychnine in very minute doses, and once a week - or once in two weeks - a very small dose also of the foxglove, or the active forces that work with same through those properties that are brewed from this plant itself, or better are the BLOSSOMS of same kept where the odor will be effective to the muco-membranes of the nostril or throat by inhalation - and  not taken internally, would be helpful; or we may use same in the Radio-Active Appliance in its vibrations to the system.  Either of these would be helpful.
    Radio-Active Appliance that would carry strychnine in solution, in this proportion:
    Dissolve one grain in five ounces of alcohol.  When used (this only in the battery, or in the anode that would be attached to the 2nd and 3rd dorsal center), the anode carrying the strychnine in solution would be attached last;  or strychnine and iron would be well, though this would be hard to keep combined, for it would require changes often, but make the strychnine in solution - one grain to five ounces of eighty percent alcohol, see?  The other anode, or the one first attached, would be attached to the umbilicus center, or the upper right portion of the umbilicus center, between the pancrean area and the umbilicus, see?  The small anode attach there.  The large anode which passes through the solution would be attached last, at the 2nd and 3rd dorsal center.
    The adjustments would be made gently, chiropractically preferably, in the upper dorsal area - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th dorsal.

4488-2
    Use not only, as outlined, the solution of the stimuli in the  appliance but the odor of the foxglove blossom should be in the room, or in the air breathed by the body occasionally. This will be helpful.
 
1103-2
    To bring any relief there must be a raised circulation, for the slowing up of circulation - with congestion in the intestines, liver AND kidneys - will NOT keep the forces active in the body without creating so much poison that the system would not be able to handle same at all; for, with the condition of plethora in heart already in its functioning, as has been given, this would not survive the pressure in same. Digital, or Digitalis, in very minute quantities, would be given for a quickening circulation, as WELL as those properties that would bring about reaction in the kidneys and in the liver, by stimulating externally and by giving that as has been outlined (the deep manipulation) for the relieving of pressure there.

370-8
    Give - but only under the suggestions and administration of a physician - those properties that tend to flow the circulation FROM the heart.  This is flooding too often.  The pressure is too high.  Use the digitol [trade name of a fat free tincture of digitalis] rather than digitalis, but only under a physician's direction.
 
 

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