I believe it's hard to receive pleasure when your body is braced for impact.
The shoulders up around your ears.
The breath that never quite reaches your belly.
The quiet hum of go, go, go that's been running since the last deadline (or the last few years).
The body remembers what the mind tries to move past, and it holds on, loyally, until it's given a reason to let go.
Ayurveda understood this a long time ago, in its own language. And for centuries, it has turned to one plant to fill the well back up.
Shatavari. The Queen of Herbs.
What Is Shatavari?
Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus) is a climbing wild asparagus that grows across India and the Himalayan foothills, prized for its cluster of tuberous roots. In Ayurveda it's a rasayana, a rejuvenating tonic, traditionally used for centuries to support women's vitality, calm, and digestion. Many people know it simply as the Queen of Herbs.
What Does Shatavari Mean?
In Sanskrit, shatavari is often translated as "she who possesses a hundred husbands."
Yes, you read that right.
The playful reading is that a woman who took it regularly would have the vitality for a hundred lovers, and the name has been making people smile for centuries.
But there's a softer meaning tucked inside. Shata means a hundred, and by extension countless, and many read the name as a nod to the plant's cluster of tuberous roots fanning out from a single base. So shatavari may just as well mean the plant with a hundred roots - a botanical description dressed in the language of desire.
To me, that's a little teaching in itself. Vitality branches out in a hundred directions, and all of it begins underground, in the places we can't see.
Shatavari in Ayurveda: A Rasayana for Vitality
In Ayurveda, shatavari belongs to one of the most cherished groups of herbs, the rasayanas. The word is often translated as "path of essence" or "path of juice," and it describes herbs valued for rejuvenating the whole person.
Ayurveda also speaks of ojas, the vital essence behind our radiance, resilience, and capacity for joy. In that view, when ojas runs low, everything dims a little - energy, desire, the light behind the eyes. Shatavari has long been given to replenish it, especially for women moving through life's big transitions and through the seasons of giving more than they received.
Ayurveda gives shatavari to men too, and to anyone who's been running on empty and calling it strength.
You can't pour from an empty vessel. And it's just as hard, I think, to receive pleasure from one.
Shatavari and Digestion: Why Your Gut Is Part of the Conversation
One of shatavari's most loved roles in Ayurveda is tending the gut. It's long been given as a cooling, soothing herb for digestion.
That might sound unrelated to pleasure. I don't think it is. Our senses live in our gut too - our intuition. Science even has a name for the constant conversation between gut and brain: the gut-brain axis. And the great majority of the body's serotonin, the compound most tied to feelings of well-being, is actually made in the gut.
Ayurveda has always placed agni, the digestive fire, at the foundation of health. When digestion feels off, so much else can follow - energy, mood, desire. In that tradition, shatavari's job is a gentle one: tending the place where nourishment begins.
Rest and Digest: Shatavari, Stress, and Desire
Our nervous system has two main modes. One gets us ready for danger: heart racing, muscles tight, senses on alert. It's essential for survival, and a very hard place to feel desire from.
The other is rest-and-digest, the parasympathetic mode. That's where the body softens enough to feel, opens enough to receive, and trusts enough to let go. Arousal is largely the work of this mode, and it needs the body to feel safe.
Chronic stress keeps so many of us stuck in the first mode. Desire doesn't disappear there. It just gets harder to reach.
In Ayurveda, shatavari is said to work slowly, through nourishment, replenishing what stress has drained until the body remembers it's safe to soften. That's the work tradition has always trusted her with.
Shatavari in Élixir d'Extase
Shatavari is the foundation of Élixir d'Extase. She's steeped with kanna extract, damiana, rose, vanilla, and Ceylon cinnamon in raw, unfiltered honey from a regenerative farm in Upstate New York. Every ingredient except the kanna and the honey is organic.
Her way is slow and quiet - in the Ayurvedic view, a steady nourishment that gives everything else something deeper to stand on. Think of a fire built on a bed of seasoned wood: it settles in, and it lasts.
Rose for openness, damiana for softening, kanna for brightness, and shatavari underneath them all.
A gentle note on safety. Élixir d'Extase also holds kanna, which acts on serotonin, so never combine it with SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or any other serotonergic medication. Skip it if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, and if you take any prescription medication, ask your doctor first.
A Slow Invitation
Shatavari isn't flashy, and she's in no rush. In Ayurveda she's the herb of slow, steady nourishment, the kind that fills you from the roots up.
Maybe that's the whole lesson: the deepest nourishment is rarely the loudest.
So if you've been giving more than you've received lately, take this as your permission to slow down. To soften. To let yourself receive.
Make a little space for more light, pleasure & joy.
xo, Nana 🕊️
Frequently Asked Questions
What is shatavari used for?
In Ayurveda, shatavari is a rasayana, a rejuvenating tonic, traditionally used to support women's vitality, calm, and digestion, and modern herbalists often call it an adaptogen. Research is still early, so enjoy it as a traditional herb rather than a fix for any condition.
Is shatavari safe for women?
Shatavari has a long history as a women's herb in Ayurveda and is traditionally seen as gentle. Skip it if you're allergic to asparagus, and check with your doctor if you take medication or have a health condition. Élixir d'Extase also contains kanna, so skip it entirely if you're pregnant or breastfeeding.
What does shatavari taste like?
On its own, shatavari root is mildly sweet and earthy with a faintly bitter edge, and Ayurveda describes its taste as sweet and bitter. In Élixir d'Extase, it melts into raw honey with vanilla and Ceylon cinnamon.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.