OSusun S. Weed May, 2012

Wise Woman Ways to Boost Your Energy

Almost every woman has, at one time or another, felt so fatigued she wanted to cry. But for some women, and for a variety of reasons – including menopause, caring for a new-born, working odd hours, chronic anxiety, and poverty, to name only a few – fatigue is a constant, not an occasional, problem.

Stimulants don’t really give us more energy, though they are what many women turn to when they feel too tired. Stimulants create false energy, leaving us more exhausted at deeper levels. One more cup of coffee, one more soft drink, one more jolt of fear increases energy, to be sure. But these choices also deplete our bones of their minerals, weaken our core energy, and prevent truly restful, restorative sleep. Even herbal stimulants, like cayenne and guarana, are, well, stimulants. They push us too hard and erode our long-term health.

Are there ways to boost energy that are effective and healthy? My guide, Grandmother Growth, gave me some ideas of how to help myself when I feel bone-tired.  And I gathered together the best remedies I know, plus the wisdom of my Wise Woman friends, so you can help yourself too, when you are too weary for words.

“Fall into my arms and sleep,” offers Grandmother Growth. “You don’t have to make things happen; they will happen on their own. Let me hold you. Let go. Don’t resist. Rest. You are working hard. You are delving deep and changing yourself. Of course you are tired. Change is hard work. Rest in my strong arms. Let go. Give your weariness to me. Let go of all that worries you. Surrender yourself into my strength. Take courage from me. Let me support you. Let me ease you. Let go.”

Extreme fatigue indicates a profound need to do nothing. Ask family and friends to give you a day totally off … and take it! Barricade yourself in your room if need be (or, like the cartoon character Sylvia, in the bathroom).

Be Gentle With Yourself

The internal processes that occur during puberty, motherhood, menopause or any other profound change in your life require tremendous amounts of energy. Even if you provide yourself with very high quality nutrients and use your energy wisely, you may still feel unreasonably tired. Many cultures offer newborns and moms a quiet, alone month or more, allow menopausal women to retire for a year or more while they Change, and give grieving parents/partners/children/friends time off from responsibility. If yours doesn’t, if you can’t, at least be gentle with yourself.

Give yourself a break: every hour, take a 60-second break. Breathe deeply; stand up and stretch; drink a glass of water or some herbal infusion. Schedule a regular time to meditate or take a nap every day. Small frequent rests help more than an extra hour of sleep; but do both if you can.

Set aside an hour a week to do something indulgent for yourself: a long soak in a hot bath, a manicure, a walk alone in a beautiful place. Nourish yourself and you will have more energy to give to others.

Treat yourself to a massage once a month. (It need not break your budget; find someone willing to barter for a skill or product you have.) A skilful massage releases tension, helping you get more benefit from your sleep and downtime, thus liberating more energy and helping you begin the upward spiral into increased vitality.

“Lower your standards.” This advice, though difficult to hear, has been one of the most important guidelines for me in choosing a life that delights and energizes me. It helped me choose to let the floor go unswept, the dishes unwashed, the bed unmade, while I gardened, or studied, or even just went for a walk in the woods. When I do the things I want to do I have LOTS more energy. What are you doing that saps your strength and erodes your delight in life? Find a way to quit, or at least cut down on the time you devote to it.

List Ten Good Things About Fatigue, Laziness, Lethargy, And Procrastination

I’ve found laziness to be my best guide to efficiency; lethargy has stopped me from taking foolish risks; and procrastination helps me find more efficient ways to proceed. Love and honor your fatigue for helping you conserve energy and giving you the time to find creative new ways to do the same old things.

Seaweed

Seaweeds of all kinds help restore energy by nourishing nervous, immune, and hormonal systems. Make it a habit to eat seaweed as a green vegetable at least once a week. Try kelp in your oatmeal, wakame in your beans, kombu in your soups, hijiki salads, toasted dulse, sea palm fronds, and deep-fried nori!

Roots

Counter that tired-every-day feeling: get down and get grounded energy from roots. Try a tincture of ginseng, siberian ginseng, yellow dock, or dandelion roots. A dose is 10-20 drops of any one root, taken with meals.

Tired Blood?

You may need more iron: eat a spoonful of molasses or try a dropperful of yellow dock tincture several times a day.

Stir it up! Don’t Just Sit There!

Energy is attracted to energy. Get moving this way: stand up, feet shoulder-width, knees relaxed. Swing your arms toward one side, then the other. Let the shoulders and hips move as you twist your upper body. Let your arms move freely. Continue for a minute or two. Then, start rocking your tail bone, your whole pelvis, forward and back, forward and back, again for at least a minute. Alright!

Green is the Color of Plant Energy

The plants with the deepest green give you the most energy. A daily cup of nettle infusion increases energy without wiring your nerves. Nettle strengthens the adrenals, allowing you to tolerate more stress with less harm. And it nourishes your immune system, too.

To make it:

²  Put one ounce of dried nettle leaf in a quart jar.

²  Fill to the top with boiling water.

²  Cap tightly and steep at least four hours (overnight is fine).

²  Strain and drink.

²  Refrigerate the remainder and consume within 36 hours.

(Leftovers may be used as a hair rinse or fertilizer for your houseplants.) I drink several quarts of nettle infusion every week. It helps me have the energy to teach all day and write for hours each evening.

Oatstraw

Oatstraw infusion builds deep energy for the next day, especially when you have been riding an emotional roller coaster. Oatstraw nourishes the nerves, easing anxiety and improving our ability to live with uncertainty. Make it like the nettle infusion, using a full ounce of oatstraw to a quart of boiling water. OK to drink it hot or cold, with honey or miso, or any other addition (juice, coffee, whiskey) you desire. Remember to refrigerate the infusion after it has brewed 4-8 hours, even if you don’t get a chance to strain the plant material out.

Eat More

When you’re too tired to eat, you get more tired. (If this sounds like an old wives’ tale, remember that old wives were the wise women. But, actually, it’s the latest scientific thinking.) In addition to at least one really good meal a day, eat high quality snacks hourly.

Though it seems contrary, St. Joan’s wort (Hypericum) tincture relaxes the nerves yet increases energy. A dose is 25-30 drops several times a day, including before bed. You’ll sleep better, ache less, and wake up with more energy and a brighter outlook on life.

Warming herbs such as ginger and cinnamon increase energy (but may increase hot flashes, too). Make a tea with 1 cup/250 ml boiling water and 1/2-1 teaspoon (1-2 grams) of the powder of any one of these.

Very tired women need more fuel, that is, more fat, in their diets, and best if the fats are also natural sources of vitamin E: avocados, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, tahini, and olive oil are good food sources. Herbs rich in vitamin E include nettle, seaweeds, dandelion, and watercress.

B vitamins build energy. Find them in whole grains, organ meats, sweet potatoes, avocados, egg yolks, fish, and whey. Both oatstraw and nettle infusions are good sources of B vitamins, as are red clover blossom infusion, peppermint leaves, and fenugreek seeds.

Low levels of potassium, iron, and iodine contribute to fatigue. Celery, cabbage, seaweeds, nettle infusion, and red clover infusion are excellent sources of potassium. Molasses, chocolate, seaweeds, nettle infusion, and dandelion leaves are all superb sources of iron. For iodine, seaweed shines, but sea salt, mushrooms, and greens grown in gardens fertilized with seaweed also supply significant amounts.

Avoid

Some women report greater fatigue on days when they’ve eaten frozen or raw food. Traditional Chinese Medicine says eating raw or chilled foods, especially cold drinks and raw juices, contributes to fatigue because you have to use your internal energy to warm up the food before you can digest it. The more tired you are, the greater your need for well-cooked foods, like nourishing herbal infusions and healing soups.

I avoid wheat grass juice, green barley powder, spirulina, and all blue green algae. None are as nourishing as nettle infusion, and all are considerably more expensive, more difficult to make yourself at home, and more likely to be sold through multi-level marketing.

“Energy-producing” foods/drugs/herbal supplements such as coffee, guarana, caffeinated drinks, and excessive amounts of black tea or chocolate will create greater fatigue in the future.

“Rest your head down on me,” crones Grandmother Growth. “For this moment, rest in me. Let the energy of the earth infuse you. Let my energy carry you. Let yourself be enough. Let go.”

This article is based on material found in New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90.

Tags: boost energy

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed April, 2012

Be Your Own herbal Expert

Part 8

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training.

Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate those memories and your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.

In our first lesson, we learned how to “listen” to the plants by focusing on how they taste. In lesson two, we explored simples and water-based herbal remedies. In the third lesson, we learned how to tell safe (nourishing and tonifying) herbs from more dangerous (stimulating and sedating) herbs. Our fourth lesson dealt with poisons; we learned how to make a tincture and we put together our herbal Medicine Chest. The fifth lesson found us making herbal vinegars, and the sixth, making herbal oils.

In our last lesson together, we looked at our thoughts about healing; we discussed the Scientific goal of fixing the broken machine, the Heroic intention to cleanse the toxins from our polluted bodies, and the Wise Woman desire to nourish the wholeness of the unique individual.

In this, the eighth lesson, we return to the herbal pharmacy, to make healing sweets: herbal honeys, syrups, and cough drops.

In our next lesson, the ninth and last of this series, we will continue our exploration of the ideas behind healing with a tour of the Seven Medicines.

HONEY

Honey has been regarded as a healing substance for thousands of years. Greek healers relied on honey water, vinegar water, and honey/vinegar water as their primary cures. An Egyptian medical text dated to about 2600 BCE mentions honey 500 times in 900 remedies. What makes honey so special?

First, honey is antibacterial. It counters infections on the skin, in the intestines, in the respiratory system, or throughout the body.

Second, honey is hydroscopic, a long word meaning “water loving”. Honey holds moisture in the place where it is put; it can even draw moisture out of the air. A honey facial leaves skin smooth and deliciously moist. These two qualities – anti-infective and hydroscopic – make honey an ideal healer of wounds of all kinds, including burns, bruises and decubita (skin ulcers), an amazing soother for sore throats, a powerful ally against bacterial diarrhea, and a counter to asthma.

Third, honey may be as high as 35 percent protein. This, along with the readily-available carbohydrate (sugar) content, provides a substantial surge of energy and a counter to depression. Some sources claim that honey is equal, or superior, to ginseng in restoring vitality. Honey’s proteins also promote healing, both internally and externally.

And honey is a source of vitamins B, C, D and E, as well as some minerals. It appears to strengthen the immune system and help prevent (some authors claim to cure) cancer.

Honey is gathered from flowers, and individual honeys from specific flowers may be more beneficial than a blended honey. Tupelo honey, from tupelo tree blossoms, is high in levulose, which slows the digestion of the honey making it more appropriate for diabetics. Manuka honey, from New Zealand, is certified as antibacterial. My “house brand” is a rich, black, locally-produced autumn honey gathered by the bees from golden rod, buckwheat, chicory, and other wild flowers.

Raw honey also contains pollen and propolis, bee and flower products that have special healing powers.

Bee pollen, like honey, is a concentrated source of protein and vitamins; unlike honey, it is a good source of minerals, hormonal precursors, and fatty acids. Bee pollen has a reputation for relieving, and with consistent use, curing allergies and asthma. The pollens that cause allergic reactions are from plants that are wind-pollinated, not bee-pollinated, so any bee pollen, or any honey containing pollen, ought to be helpful. One researcher found an 84 percent reduction in symptoms among allergy sufferers who consumed a spoonful of honey a day during the spring, summer, and fall plus three times a week in the winter.

Propolis is made by the bees from resinous tree saps and is a powerful antimicrobial substance. Propolis can be tinctured in pure grain alcohol (resins do not dissolve well in 100 proof vodka, my first choice for tinctures) and used to counter infections such as bronchitis, sinusitis, colds, flus, gum disease, and tooth decay.

WARNING: All honey, but especially raw honey, contains the spores of botulinus. While this is not a problem for adults, children under the age of one year may not have enough stomach acid to prevent these spores from developing into botulism, a deadly poison.

hERBAL HONEYS

herbal honeys are made by pouring honey over fresh herbs and allowing them to merge over a period of several days to several months. When herbs are infused into honey, the water-loving honey absorbs all the water-soluble components of the herb, and all the volatile oils too, most of which are anti-infective. herbal honeys are medicinal and they taste great. When I look at my shelf of herbal honeys I feel like the richest person in the world.

Using Your herbal Honeys

Place a tablespoonful of your herbal honey (include herb as well as honey) into a mug; add boiling water; stir and drink. Or, eat herbal honeys by the spoonful right from the jar to soothe and heal sore, infected throats and tonsils. Smear the honey (no herb please) onto wounds and burns.

Make an herbal Honey

{  Coarsely chop the fresh herb of your choice (leave garlic whole).

{  Put chopped herb into a wide-mouthed jar, filling almost to the top.

{  Pour honey into the jar, working it into the herb with a chopstick if needed.

{  Add a little more honey to fill the jar to the very top.

{  Cover tightly. Label.

Your herbal honey is ready to use in as little as a day or two, but will be more medicinal if allowed to sit for six weeks.

herbal honeys made from aromatic herbs make wonderful gifts.

Make a Russian Cold Remedy

{  Fill a small jar with unpeeled cloves of garlic.

{  If desired, add one very small onion, cut in quarters, but not peeled.

{  Fill the jar with honey.

{  Label and cover.

This remedy is ready to use the next day. It is taken by the spoonful to ward off both colds and flus. It is sovereign against sore throats, too. And it tastes yummy!

(Garlic may also carry botulinus spores, but no adult has ever gotten botulism from this remedy. A local restaurant poisoned patrons by keeping garlic in olive oil near a hot stove for months before using it, though.)

Make an Egyptian Wound Salve

“I thought at first this would be dreadful stuff to put on an open wound . . . Instead, the bacteria in the fat disappeared and when pathogenic bacteria were added . . . they were killed just as fast,” commented scientists who tested this formula found in the ancient Smith Papyrus.

{  Mix one tablespoonful of honey with two tablespoonsful of organic animal fat.

{  Put in a small jar and label.

Increase the wound-healing ability of this salve by using an herbally-infused fat.

Make a Remedy to Counter Diarrhea

{  Fill one glass with eight ounces of orange juice.

{  Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful of honey.

{  Fill another glass with eight ounces of distilled water.

{  Add ¼ teaspoonful of baking soda.

{  Drink alternately from both glasses until empty.

Make Dr. Christopher’s Burn Healer

He recommends this for burns covering large areas. Keep the burn constantly wet with this healer for best results.

{  Place chopped fresh comfrey leaves in a blender.

{  Add aloe vera gel to half cover.

{  Add honey to cover.

{  Blend and apply.

Best to make only as much as you can use in a day; store extra in refrigerator.

Fresh Plants That I Use to Make herbal Honeys

Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Comfrey leaf (Symphytum off.)

Cronewort/mugwort (emisia vulgaris)

Fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare)

Garlic (Allium sativum)

Ginger root (Zingiber officinalis)

Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)

Lavender (Lavendula off.)

Lemon Balm (Melissa off.)

Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla)

Marjoram (Origanum majorana)

Oregano (Origanum vulgare)

Osha root (Ligusticum porterii)

Peppermint (Mentha pipperata)

Rose petals (Rosa canina and others)

Rose hips (Rosa)

Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.)

Sage (Salvia off.)

Shiso (Perilla frutescens)

Spearmint (Mentha spicata)

Thyme (Thymus species)

Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)

hERBAL SYRUPS

herbal syrups are sweetened, condensed herbal infusions. Cough drops are concentrated syrups. Alcohol is frequently added to syrups to help prevent fermentation and stabilize the remedy. Cough drops and lozenges, having less water, keep well without the addition of alcohol.

Bitter herbs, especially when effective in a fairly small dose, are often made into syrups: horehound, yellow dock, dandelion, chicory, and motherwort spring to mind in this regard.

Herbs that are especially effective in relieving throat infections and breathing problems are also frequently made into syrups, especially when honey is used as the sweetener: coltsfoot flowers (not leaves), comfrey leaves (not roots), horehound, elder berries, mullein, osha root, pine, sage, and wild cherry bark are favorites for “cough” syrups.

Using herbal Syrups

A dose of most herbal syrup is 1-3 teaspoonfuls, taken as needed. Take a spoonful of bitter syrup just before meals for best results. Take cough syrups as often as every hour.

Make an herbal Syrup

To make an herbal syrup you will need the following supplies:

{  One ounce of dried herb (weight, not volume)

{  A clean dry quart/liter jar with a tight lid

{  Boiling water

{  Measuring cup

{  A heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan

{  2 cups sugar or 1½ cups honey

{  A sterilized jar with a small neck and a good lid (a cork stopper is ideal)

{  A little vodka (optional)

{  A label and pen

Place the full ounce of dried herb into the quart jar and fill it to the top with boiling water. Cap tightly. After 4-10 hours, decant your infusion, saving the liquid and squeezing the herb to get the last of the goodness out of it.

Measure the amount of liquid you have (usually about 3½ cups). Pour this into the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat until the infusion is just barely simmering. Continue to simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (pour it out of the pan and into the measuring cup now and then to check). This step can take several hours; the decoction is not spoiled if it is reduced to less than half, but it is ruined if it boils hard or if it burns. Keep a close eye on it.

When you have reduced the infusion to less then two cups, add the sugar or honey (or sweetener of your choice) and bring to a rolling boil. Pour, boiling hot, into your jar. (Sterilize the jar by boiling it in plain water for a few minutes just before filling it.) If desired, add some vodka to preserve the syrup.

Allow the bottle of syrup to come to room temperature. Label it. Store it in the refrigerator or keep it in a cool place.

Make herbal Cough Drops

You must make a syrup with sugar, not honey to make cough drops, but you can use raw sugar or brown sugar instead of white sugar and it will work just as well.

Instead of pouring your boiling hot syrup into a bottle, keep boiling it. Every minute or so, drop a bit into cold water. When it forms a hard ball in the cold water, immediately turn off the fire. Pour your very thick syrup into a buttered flat dish. Cool, then cut into small squares.

A dusting of powdered sugar will keep them from sticking. Store airtight in a cool place.

Make Throat-Soothing Lozenges

{  Put an ounce of marshmallow root powder or slippery elm bark powder in a bowl.

{  Slowly add honey, stirring constantly, until you have a thick paste

{  Roll your slippery elm paste into small balls

{  Roll the balls in more slippery elm powder

Store in a tightly-closed tin. These will keep for up to ten years.

Plants That I Use to Make herbal Syrups

Comfrey leaves (Symphytum uplandica x)

Chicory roots (Cichorium intybus)

Dandelion flowers or roots (Taraxacum off.)

Elder berries (Sambucus canadensis)

Horehound leaves and stems (Marrubium vulgare)

Motherwort leaves (Leonurus cardiaca) pick before flowering

Plantain leaves or roots (Plantago majus)

Osha root (Ligusticum porterii)

Pine needles or inner bark (Pinus)

Sage (Salvia off.)

Wild cherry bark (Prunus serotina)

Yellow dock roots (Rumex crispus)

Coming up

In our last lesson of this series, we will examine the Seven Medicines: Serenity Medicine, Story Medicine, Energy Medicine, LifeStyle Medicine,herbal and Alternative Medicine, Pharmaceutical Medicine, and Hi-Tech Medicine.

Experiment Number One

Make a simple syrup, using only one plant. Make it once with honey, once with white sugar, and once with a sweetener of your choice, such as barley malt, agave syrup, molasses, sorghum syrup, or maple syrup. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)

Experiment Number Two

Make a syrup with three or more plants. Choose plants that are local to your area, or ones that you can most easily buy.

Experiment Number Three

Make three or more simple herbal honeys using different parts of plants, such as flowers, leaves, roots, or seeds. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)

Experiment Number Four

Make an herbal honey with a plant rich in essential oils (such as sage, rosemary, lavender, or mint). Try it as a wound treatment. Try it on minor burns. Try it as a facial masque. Record your observations.

Experiment Number Five

Make one or more of the recipes in this lesson.

Further study

1. Make a yellow dock iron tonic syrup following the recipe in my book Wise Woman herbal for  the Childbearing Year.

1. Make “Peel Power” following the recipe in my book New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way.

Advanced work

Compare the effects of honey from the supermarket, organic honey, raw honey, and herbal honey by using each one to treat the same problems and carefully recording your observations.

Tags: herbs, honey, medicine

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed March, 2012

Be Your Own herbal Expert

Part 7

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training.

Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate those memories and your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.

In our first session, we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In lesson two, about simples and water-based herbal remedies. In the third, I distinguished safe (nourishing and tonifying) herbs from more dangerous (stimulating and sedating) herbs. Our fourth lesson focused on poisons; we made tinctures and an herbal Medicine Chest. Our fifth dealt with herbal vinegars, and the sixth with herbal oils.

In this, our seventh session, we will think about how we think about healing.

The Three Traditions of Healing

There are many ways to use herbs to improve and maintain health. Modern medicine uses highly refined herbal products known as drugs. Many alternative or holistic practitioners recommend herbs, usually in less-refined (and less dangerous) forms such as tinctures or homeopathic remedies. And then there are the yarb women, the wise women, such as myself, who integrate herbs into their daily diet and claim far-reaching results for simple remedies.

I call these three different approaches the Scientific, Heroic, and Wise Woman traditions.

These three traditions are ways of thinking, not ways of acting. And they are not limited to herbs. Any technique, any substance can be used by a healer in the Scientific, Heroic, and Wise Woman traditions. There are, for instance, naturopaths, midwives, and MDs in each tradition, as well as herbalists, educators, therapists, even politicians.

Each of these traditions lives within you, too.

As I define the characteristics of each tradition, identify the part of yourself that thinks that way.

Scientific Tradition

Modern, western medicine is an excellent example of the Scientific tradition, where healing is fixing. The line is its symbol: linear thought, linear time. Truth is fixed and measurable. Truth is that which repeats. Good and bad, health and sickness are put at opposite ends of the line, where they do battle with each other. Food and medicine are quite different.

Newton’s universal laws and the mechanization of nature are the foundation of the Scientific tradition. Bodies are understood to be like machines. When machines run well (stay healthy) they don’t deviate. Anything that deviates from normal needs to be fixed or repaired. The Scientific tradition is excellent for fixing broken things. Measurements must be taken to determine deviation and insure normalcy. Regular diagnostic tests are critical to maintaining proper functioning and ensuring utmost longevity in the body/machine.

In the Scientific tradition, plants are valued as repositories of poisons/alkaloids. They are seen as potential drugs, and capable of killing you in their unpredictable crude states. They are helpful and safe only when refined into drugs and used by highly-trained experts.

In the Scientific tradition the whole is the same as its most active part, and machines are more trustworthy than people.

Heroic Tradition

There is not one unified Heroic tradition, but many similar traditions collectively called the Heroic tradition. Alternative health care practitioners generally represent the Heroic thought pattern, symbolized by a circle.

This circle defines the rules, which, we are told, must be followed in order to save ourselves from disease and death. Healing in the Heroic tradition focuses on cleansing. According to this tradition, disease arises when toxins (dirt, filth, anger, negativity) accumulate. When we are bad, when we eat the wrong food, think the wrong thought, commit a sin, we sicken and the healer is the savior, offering purification, punishment, and redemption.

In the Heroic traditions, the whole is the sum of its parts. We are body, mind, and spirit. The spirit is high and worthy; the body is low and gross; the mind is in between. In the Heroic traditions, we are personally responsible for everything that happens to us.

Religious beliefs frequently accompany herb use in the Heroic tradition. The Heroic healer uses rare substances, exotic herbs, and complicated formulae. Drug-like herbs in capsules are the favored in this tradition. Most books on herbal medicine are written by men whose thought patterns are those of the Heroic tradition.

Wise Woman Tradition

The Wise Woman tradition is the world’s oldest healing tradition. It envisions good health as openness to change, flexibility, availability to transformation, and groundedness. Its symbol is the spiral. In the Wise Woman tradition we do not seek to cure, but focus instead on integrating and nourishing the unique individual’s wholeness/holiness. The Wise Woman tradition relies on compassion, simple ritual, and common dooryard herbs and garden weeds as primary nourishers, but appreciates (and uses) any treatment appropriate to the specific self-healing in process.

The Wise Woman tradition sees each life as a spiraling, ever-changing completeness. Disease and injury are seen as doorways of transformation, and each person is recognized as a self-healer, earth healer: inherently whole, resonant to the whole, and vital to the whole. Substance, thought, feeling, and spirit are inseparable in the Wise Woman tradition. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Spiralic and amazing, the Wise Woman tradition offers self-healing options as diverse as the human imagination and as complex as the human psyche. The Wise Woman tradition has no rules, no texts, no rites; it is constantly changing, constantly being re-invented. It is mostly invisible, hard to see, but easier and easier to find. It is a give-away dance of nourishment, change, and self-love. An invitation to honor yourself and the earth. An admonishment to trust yourself.

Coming up

In our next sessions we will learn how to make herbal honeys and syrups, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.

I also invite you to study with me in the convenience of your home via correspondence course! Choose from one of my four courses: Green Allies, Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition, Green Witch, and ABC of herbalism with Susun Weed. Learn more at www.susunweed.com or write to me at susunweed@herbshealing.com

Experiment Number One

The next time you start to feel unwell, ask yourself what each one of the three traditions would advise you to do – e.g. You feel a headache coming on. The Scientific tradition says take a pain killer. The Heroic tradition says give yourself an enema. The Wise Woman tradition says take a nap. (For more information on the three traditions, see the chart in my book Healing Wise.)

Experiment Number Two

Instead of doing what you usually do for some problem (e.g. headache), do something different. Choose something from the same tradition you usually use, or from a different tradition.

Experiment Number Three

Become more aware of the “nourishment of your senses” as Gurdieff put it. What do you look at? Listen to? Smell? Touch with your skin? Taste?

Experiment Number Four

Nourish yourself in a new or different way. You might: eat something – or eat somewhere – that you’ve wanted to try but never dared. Go to a museum, or the opera, or the ballet, or a Broadway show. Visit with a cherished friend. Listen to music that touches your soul. Sit in meditation and burn subtle incense.

Experiment Number Five

Make a list of ten things that nourish you that are now in your life.

Make a list of ten things that could nourish you if they were in your life.

Further study

1. Become more familiar with the Scientific tradition: Read one or more issues of Scientific American and/or Science News.

1. Become more familiar with the Heroic tradition: Skim through Back to Eden or any current book on detoxification.

1. Become more familiar with the Wise Woman tradition. Read:

Healing Wise, the Wise Woman herbal. Susun Weed. 1987, Ash Tree Publishing.

herbal Rituals. Judith Berger. 1998, St. Martin’s Press.

Healing Magic, A Green Witch Guidebook. Robin Rose Bennett. 2004, Sterling.

The Secret Teachings of Plants. Stephen Buhner. 2004, Inner Traditions.

The Village herbalist, Sharing Plant Medicines with Family and Community. Nancy and Michael Phillips. 2001, Chelsea Green Publishing.

Advanced work

• The three traditions of healing are not restricted to healing of course. You might have recognized these three attitudes in your profession. Wonderful articles have been written on the “Three Traditions of Teaching” (the Scientific relies on tests, the Heroic on punishment and reward, the Wise Woman on freedom to experience and express) and the “Three Traditions of Therapy” (the Scientific refers to manuals and prescribes drugs, the Heroic blames the unconscious, the Wise Woman nourishes the spirit and builds wholeness) and even the “Three Traditions of Cooking” (the Scientific uses a thermometer and a recipe, the Heroic blackens and heavily spices everything, and the Wise Woman uses what is in season where she lives).

• Apply the three traditions to your profession.

• Read about the history of herbal medicine. Suggested books:

Green Pharmacy, the History and Evolution of Western herbal Medicine. Barbara Griggs. 1997, Healing s.

The Magical Staff, the Vitalist Tradition in Western Medicine. Matthew Wood. 1992, North Atlantic .

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, A History of Women Healers. Barbara Ehrenrich and Deirdre English. 1973, Feminist Press.

I see the wise woman. She carries a blanket of compassion. She wears robes of wisdom. Around her throat flutters a veil of shifting shapes. From her shoulders, a mantle of power flows. A story band encircles her forehead. She stitches a quilt; she spins fibers into yarn; she knits; she sews; she weaves. She ties the threads of our lives together. She forms a web of spiraling threads: our lives invented and shared.

I see the wise woman at her loom: a loom warped with days of light and nights of dark. White threads, black threads receive the flying shuttle. A shuttle filled with threads of many colors. Threads the colors of the earth, the common ground; threads the colors of the people of the earth. Some threads are short; some threads are long; each thread is different, each perfect and splendid. The threads are alive with sound and color. The threads are mutable; they change at a touch. The threads are crystal antennae; they respond at a thought.

And intertwined with each thread, a thread blood red, a thread of such sensitivity, it seems invisible, a thread of such vitality, it can never be hidden. As our blood flows over and under the days and nights of our lives and binds each moment to the whole, so the red thread of the wise woman binds us in the tapestried, cosmic web, holds us in our variety, spirals lovingly around us, claims us again at death.

I see the wise woman. And she sees me.

(Excerpt from Healing Wise, c. 1987 Susun S Weed. Available thru www.AshTreePublishing.com )

Tags: healing, Herbal, herbs

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed January, 2012

Be Your Own herbal Expert Part 6

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training. Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine – memories which keep you safe and fill you with delight. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.

In our first session we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two we learned about simples and how to make effective water-based herbal remedies. The third session helped us distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons in herbs and entered the herbal pharmacy to herbal tinctures, which we collected into an herbal Medicine Chest. Our fifth session found us still in the pharmacy, learning how to make and use herbal vinegars for strong bones and healthy hearts.

In this, our sixth session, we remain in the herbal pharmacy and turn our attention to herbs in fat bases. We’ll explore fresh infused oils, ointments, salves, and lip balms, essential oils, and even herbal pestos.

herbal Oils: Infused vs. Essential

I make and use many infused herbal oils. I use little or no essential oils. Why?

Infused herbal oils use a small amount of plant material; essential oils require tons of plant material. Infused herbal oils are safe to use internally or externally; essential oils are poisonous internally and problematic externally. Infused herbal oils are good for the skin; essential oils can cause rashes, burns, and other skin reactions. Infused oils are used full strength; essential oils are diluted before use. Infused herbal oils have subtle scents; essential oils have powerful scents.

The scent of an essential oil can kill gut flora just like antibiotics do, according to Paul Bergner, director of the clinical studies program at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies. He told me that breathing the oils puts them into the blood stream very quickly and can be a major disturber of intestinal health and contributor to poor immune functioning.

Massage therapists are embracing Natural Scent Therapies such as growing live aromatic plants in their treatment rooms and using pillows of dried aromatic herbs instead of essential oils. Their skin and their immune systems are thanking them for the switch.

Making Infused herbal Oils

To make an infused herbal oil you will need the following supplies:

• Fresh plant material
• Scissors or a knife
• A clean dry jar with a tight lid
• Some olive oil
• A label and pen; a small bowl

Harvest your plant material in the heat of the day, after the sun has dried the dew. It is best to wait at least 36 hours after the last rain before harvesting plants for infused oils. Wet plant materials will make moldy oils. To prevent this, some people dry their herbs and then put them in oil. I find this gives an inferior quality product in most cases.

Coarsely chop the roots, leaves, or flowers of your chosen plant. Fill your jar completely full of the chopped plant material. Add olive oil until the jar is completely full. (Patience and a chopstick are useful tools at this point.)

Tightly lid the jar. Label it. Put it in a small bowl (to collect seepage and over-runs). Your infused oil is ready to use in six weeks.

Fresh Plants That I Use to Make Infused Oils

Arnica flowers (Arnica montana)

Burdock seeds  (Arctium lappa)

Calendula flowers (Calendula off.)

Comfrey leaves or roots (Symphytum uplandica)

Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum off.)

Plantain leaves (Plantago majus)

Poke roots (Phytolacca americana)

Spruce needles

St. Joan’s wort flowers (Hypericum perforatum)

Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)

Yellow dock roots (Rumex crispus)

Using Your Infused herbal Oils

I use my infused herbal oils to heal and ease the pain of wounds, bruises, scrapes, sprains, burns, rashes, sore muscles, insect bites, and aching joints. I make my infused oils into ointments, salves, and lip balms. I use my infused oils in rituals, to anoint. I use my infused oils after bathing, to moisturize. I use my infused oils as stunning salad dressings. I use my infused oils as sexual lubricants. I use my infused oils to nourish my scalp and hair.

I apply my infused herbal oils directly to the body. I rarely take infused herbal oils as internal medicines although it would be safe to do so. I use my infused oils to make salves, ointments, and lip balms.

Making Salves, Ointments and Lip Balms

When herbs are infused into animal fat, they form a natural salve, without need of thickening. But herbs infused into oils are drippy and leaky and messy.  They need a little beeswax melted into them to make them solid. The more beeswax added, the firmer the oil will be. A little beeswax will make a soft salve. A medium amount will make a firm ointment. And a lot will make a stiff lip balm.

• Pour one or more ounces of infused herbal oil into a saucepan or double boiler.
• Grate several ounces of beeswax.
• Put a small fire under your oil.
• When it is slightly warm, add one tablespoon (more or less) of grated beeswax.
• Stir, preferably with your finger, until the beeswax melts.
• Test the firmness by dropping a drop on a china plate. It will solidify instantly.

-       Too soft? Add more beeswax, a little at a time.

-       Too hard? Add more infused oil (if possible) or plain oil.

• Pour your finished salve or ointment into wide-mouthed jar.
• Pour lip balms into little pots or twist tubes.

Pestos

The simplest pesto is green leaves pounded with salt and garlic. I don’t put cheese or nuts into my pestos when I make them, as these ingredients spoil rapidly.

I use a mini-size food prep machine for the “pounding”.  A blender will work too, but watch that you don’t burn out the motor.

The oil in a pesto both preserves the antioxidant vitamins in the fresh green herbs and also softens the cell walls so minerals become more available. With the added health-benefits of garlic, herbal pestos are great medicine as well as superb eating.

Basic herbal Pesto

Stays good for up to two years in a cool refrigerator; up to five years in the freezer.

• Start with half a cup of extra virgin olive oil.
• Add 2-4 coarsely chopped cloves of garlic.
• Add a good sprinkle of sea salt.
• Add a large handful of prepared herb leaves and blend.
• Continue adding leaves and oil as needed. Perhaps more garlic and salt? Blend.
• When all is blended to a fare thee well, pack your pesto into a skinny jar.
• Leave some space between the pesto and the top of the jar and fill this with olive oil.
• Cap, label, and refrigerate.

Green Herbs for Pesto

Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis)

Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)

Violet (Viola species)

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus)

Coming up

In our next sessions we will learn how to make herbal honeys and syrups, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.

Experiment Number One

Make three or more infused herbal oils from different plant parts, such as leaves, roots, and flowering tops. (See list for suggestions of plants to use.)

Experiment Number Two

Make several infused oils from the same plant at the same time using at least three different kinds of oils and animal fats, including ghee. Label carefully. After six weeks, decant and compare.

Experiment Number Three

Make a salve, ointment, or lip balm. Beeswax is sold at farmer’s markets, health food stores, and craft shops.

Experiment Number Four

Treat at least three injuries with an herbal oil or ointment that you have made. Record your observations. Plantain, yarrow, calendula, or comfrey are good choices for this experiment.

EXPERIMENT NUMBER FIVE

Make an herbal pesto. (See list for suggestions.)

Further study

1. Buy a small bottle of essential oil. Also buy the plant the oil is made from. Lavender and mint are good choices for this experiment. Smell the plant, then smell the essential oil. How do you feel afterwards? Taste the plant, then taste a drop of the essential oil? What do you perceive?  Put a drop of the essential oil on your skin; rub the plant vigorously on your skin. Are there differences?

Extra credit: Make an infused oil of the same plant and repeat this experiment using your infused oil in addition to the essential oil and the plant.

1. Use organic animal fat to make an herbal preparation. Keep the fat barely warm – in the sun or by a pilot light – until it is infused. No need to add beeswax. The fat will solidify at room temperature.

Advanced work

• Read about the production of essential oils.
• How is a hydrosol different from an essential oil?
• Can you make a hydrosol? (Jeanne Rose is a good resource on this.)

Study with Susun Weed in the convenience of your home! Choose from three Correspondence Courses: Green Allies, Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition, and Green Witch – includes audio/video tapes, books, assignments, special mailings, plus personal time.  Learn more at www.susunweed.com

Tags: Be Your Own Herbal Expert, Part 6

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed December, 2011

Be Your Own herbal Expert Part 5

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training. Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine – memories which keep you safe and fill you with delight. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.

In our first session, we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two, we learned about simples and how to make effective water-based herbal remedies. The third session helped us distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons in herbs and herbal tinctures, which we made and then collected into an herbal Medicine Chest.

In this, our fifth session, we will find out how to help ourselves and our families with herbal vinegars, one of the green blessings of the Wise Woman Way.

Why Use herbal Vinegars?

herbal vinegars are an unstoppable combination: they marry the healing and nutritional properties of apple cider vinegar with the mineral and antioxidant richness of health-protective green herbs and wild roots. herbal vinegars are tasty medicine, enriching and enlivening our food while building health from the inside out.

herbal vinegars are far better for the bones and the heart than soy beverages. They have a reputation for banishing grey hair and wrinkles. Sprayed in the armpits, herbal vinegars are highly effective deodorants. As a hair rinse (try rosemary or lavender vinegar) they add luster and eliminate split ends.

Anything vinegar can do, including clean the kitchen, herbal vinegars can do better.

Vinegars Seek Minerals

Minerals are important for the health and proper functioning of our bones, our heart and blood vessels, our nerves, our brain (especially memory), our immune system, and our hormonal glands. No wonder lack of minerals can lead to chronic problems and getting more can make a big difference in health in a few weeks. One of the best ways to get more minerals – besides drinking nourishing herbal infusions and eating well-cooked leafy greens – is to use herbal vinegars.

Vinegar & Your Bones

It is not true that ingesting vinegar will erode your bones. Adding vinegar to your food actually helps build bones because it frees up minerals from the vegetables you eat and increases the ability of the stomach to digest minerals. Adding a splash of vinegar to cooked greens is a classic trick of old ladies who want to be spry and flexible when they’re ancient old ladies. (Maybe your granny already taught you this?) In fact, a spoonful of vinegar on your broccoli or kale or dandelion greens increases the calcium you get by one-third. All by itself, apple cider vinegar is said to help build bones; when enriched with minerals from herbs, I think of it as better than calcium pills.

Vinegar & Candida

Some people worry that eating vinegar will upset the balance of gut flora and contribute to an overgrowth of candida yeast in the intestines. Some people have been told to avoid vinegar altogether. My experience has led me to believe that herbal vinegars help heal those with candida overgrowth, perhaps because they’re so mineral rich. I’ve worked with women who have suffered for years and kept to a strict “anti-candida” diet with little improvement, and seen them get better fast when they add nourishing herbal vinegars (and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso, and yogurt) to their diets.

Making herbal Vinegars

Fill any size jar with fresh-cut aromatic herbs: leaves, stalks, flowers, fruits, roots, and even nuts can be used. For best results and highest mineral content, be sure the jar is well filled and chop the herb finely.

Pour room-temperature vinegar into the jar until it is full. Cover jar: A plastic screw-on lid, several layers of plastic or wax paper held on with a rubber band, or a cork are the best covers. Avoid metal lids – or protect them well with plastic – as vinegar will corrode them.

Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date. Put it some place away from direct sunlight, though it doesn’t have to be in the dark, and someplace that isn’t too hot, but not too cold either. A kitchen cupboard is fine, but choose one that you open a lot so you remember to use your vinegar, which will be ready in six weeks.

You can decant your vinegar into a beautiful serving container, or use it right from the jar you made it in.

Which Vinegar?

I use regular pasteurized apple cider vinegar from the supermarket as the menstrum for my herbal vinegars. I avoid white vinegar. Malt vinegar, rice vinegar, and wine vinegar can be used but they are more expensive and may overpower the flavor of the herbs.

Apple cider vinegar has been used as a health-giving agent for centuries. Hippocrates, father of medicine, is said to have used only two remedies: honey and apple cider vinegar. Some of the many benefits of apple cider vinegar include: better digestion, reduction of cholesterol, improvements in blood pressure, prevention/care of osteoporosis, normalization of thyroid/metabolic functioning, possible reduction of cancer risk, and lessening of wrinkles and grey hair.

Notes for herbal Vinegar Makers

{   Collect jars of different sizes for your vinegars. I especially like baby food jars, mustard jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars and individual juice jars. Look for plastic lids.

{   The wider the mouth of the jar, the easier it will be to remove the plant material when you’re done.

{   Always fill jar to the top with plant material and vinegar; never fill a jar only part way.

{   Really fill the jar. This will take far more herb or root than you would think. How much? With leaves and stems, make a comfortable mattress for a fairy: not too tight; not too loose. With roots, fill your jar to within a thumb’s width of the top.

{   After decanting your vinegar into a beautiful jar, add a spring of whole herb. Pretty.

My Favorite herbal Vinegar

Pick the needles of white pine on a sunny day. Make herbal vinegar with them. Inhale deeply the scent of the forest. I call this my “homemade balsamic vinegar.”

Using Your Vinegars

herbal vinegars taste so good, you’ll want to use them frequently. Regular use boosts the nutrient level of your diet with very little effort and virtually no expense.

{   Pour a spoonful or more on beans and grains as a condiment.

{   Use them in salad dressings.

{   Add them to cooked greens.

{   Season stir-fries with them.

{   Look for soups that are vinegar friendly, like borscht.

{   Substitute herbal vinegar for plain vinegar in any recipe.

{   Put a big spoonful in a glass of water and drink it. Try it sweetened with blackstrap molasses for a real mineral jolt. Many older women swear this “coffee substitute” prevents and eases their arthritic pains.

Coming Up

In our next sessions we will learn more about herbal medicine making, with a focus on oils, explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, learn how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.

Experiment Number One

Test vinegar’s ability to absorb minerals. Put a fresh bone in a jar and completely cover it with vinegar. What happens? Does the bone become pliable and rubbery? How long does it take? Will eating vinegar dissolve your bones? Only if you take off your skin and sit in it for weeks!

Experiment Number Two

Make eggshell vinegar. Fill a jar one-quarter full of vinegar. Drop crushed eggshell into it. What happens? Does the vinegar foam? How long does it take? Eggshells are exceptionally rich in bone-building minerals. Can you taste the calcium in this vinegar? Add some eggshell to your other vinegars if you wish to increase their ability to keep your bones strong.

Experiment Number Three

Make four or more vinegars with the same plant, using different types of vinegar, including both pasteurized and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. (For the others, use rice vinegar, malt vinegar, wine vinegar, or even white vinegar, but not umeboshi vinegar.)

Taste your vinegars daily for a week, then weekly for five more weeks. You may, if you wish, decant some of your vinegars for use after six weeks. But you may also wish to keep observing them as they age (for years, if you wish). I have some vinegars which are more than thirty years old and still in good shape. Note which stay edible the longest, and what happens to those that become inedible.

Experiment Number Four

Buy a quart or more of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Use two cups to make several small herbal vinegars: one with roots, one with leaves, and one with flowers. Boil the other two cups. Make one herbal vinegar with the boiling hot vinegar. Make another with the boiled vinegar after it has cooled. Continue as in experiment number three.

Further study

1. Redo experiment number two using different kinds of eggshells – white ones and brown ones, store-bought and farm-bought, from caged birds and free-range birds. Can you see any differences? Taste or smell any differences?
2. Make vinegars at different times of the year and compare them.

Advanced work

{   Unpasteurized vinegar can form a “mother.” In a jar filled with herb and vinegar, the vinegar mother usually grows across the top of the herb, and looking rather like a damp, thin pancake. Kombucha is a vinegar mother. Does your local health food store sell mothers? Kombucha? What is a vinegar mother? Is it harmful?

{   What is an ionic form of a mineral?

{   What is a mineral salt?

{   How do our bodies take up and utilize minerals?

Plants That Make Exceptionally Good-Tasting herbal Vinegars

Apple mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Bee balm (Monarda didyma) flowers, leaves, stalks
Bergamot (Monarda sp.) flowers, leaves, stalks
Burdock (Arctium lappa) roots
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) leaves, stalks
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) leaves, roots
Chives and especially chive blossoms
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) flower buds, leaves, roots
Dill (Anethum graveolens) herb, seeds
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) herb, seeds
Garlic (Allium sativum) bulbs, greens, flowers
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis) leaves and roots
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) flowers
Ginger (Zingiber off.) and Wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) roots
Lavender (Lavendula sp.) flowers, leaves
Mugwort (emisia vulgaris) new growth leaves and roots
Orange mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Orange peel, organic only
Peppermint (Mentha piperata and etc.) leaves, stalks
Perilla (Shiso) (Agastache) leaves, stalks
Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.) leaves, stalks
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) leaves, stalks
Thyme (Thymus sp.) leaves, stalks
White pine (Pinus strobus) needles
Yarrow (Achilllea millifolium) flowers and leaves

Weedy herbal Calcium Supplement

Use one or more of the following plants to make an herbal vinegar that can reverse and counter osteoporosis. Dose is 2-4 tablespoons daily.
Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) leaves
Cabbage leaves
Chickweed (Stellaria media) whole herb
Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) leaves
Cronewort/Mugwort (emisia vulgaris) young leaves
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) leaves and root
Kale leaves
Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) leaves
Mallow (Malva neglecta) leaves
Mint leaves of all sorts, especially sage, motherwort, lemon balm, lavender, peppermint
Nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves
Parsley (Petroselinum sativum) leaves
Plantain (Plantago majus) leaves
Raspberry (Rubus species) leaves
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) blossoms
Violet (Viola odorata) leaves
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus and other species) roots

herbal Vinegars Where You Eat the Pickled Plants Too

Burdock
Chicory
Dandelion
Purslane
Yellow Dock
Rosehips
Raspberries/blackberries

Study with Susun Weed in the convenience of your home! Choose from three Correspondence Courses: Green Allies, Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition, and Green Witch – includes audio/video tapes, books, assignments, special mailings, plus personal time.  Learn more at http://www.susunweed.com or write to:

Tags: herbs

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed November, 2011

Sexy Herbs

Herbs that influence sexual functioning are safe, easy to use, and highly effective. They can improve desire, performance, and frequency for both men and women.

Down There the Wise Woman Way includes specific information on using my favorite sexy herbs, including: oatstraw, schizandra, ginkgo, fenugreek, ginseng, tribulus, ginger, marijuana, damiana, potency wood, yohimbe, guarana, and dendrobium. Plus information on sexy foods, and the effects of supplements such as arginine.

Oatstraw infusion is my favorite sexual tonic, for both men and women. It frees up, and thus increases, the amount of circulating testosterone. This aids lubrication, improves blood flow, increases stiffness, amps up interest, and heightens enjoyment. Postmenopausal women say oatstraw turns a vaginal desert into a flowing oasis. A cup or two a day helps lower cholesterol, too. Oaststraw counters environmental estrogens, too, decreasing cancer risk. For best results, alternate with red clover infusion to adjust hormones gently and build potency.

Schizandra berry (Schizandra chinensis) tincture (1–2 dropperfuls) or infusion (2–4 cups daily) strengthens the adrenals, counters inflammation, and increases sexual desire and vigor. It is a prized herb in China, long thought to preserve youth and sexual vigor, and to nourish the “waters of the genitals.” It helps us endure and function in harsh condition. Schizandra is thought to be especailly helpful those who have experienced sexual trauma. One hundred berries a day can help you keep your sexuality at its peak until the day you die.

It’s an old joke that there isn’t enough blood for both the penis and the brain, so a man can’t think when he has an erection. That may explain why an herb that improves blood flow to the brain counters erectile difficulties, too. A dropperful of ginkgo leaf tincture before sex relaxes blood vessels, increases blood flow, improves lubrication and engorgement, and heightens response. Ginkgo is especially effective when fat deposits or diabetes restrict blood flow, and in men whose blood flow is not improved by papaverine injections, or where potency is diminished by antidepressants. Between 50–78 percent of men in trials using 60–240mg of standardized ginkgo daily for at least six weeks regained the ability to have regular erections. Continue for 12–18 months. Caution: Avoid ginkgo before surgery and if taking blood-thinning drugs.

Great-tasting fenugreek tea is a classic way to improve potency. To make it, put 6 tablespoons of seeds in a quart jar, fill with boiling water, steep 15–20 minutes, strain, and drink freely.

Ginseng (Panax quinqifolium) improves sexual potency, especially in those who are overworked, overstressed, or over sixty. The proven and well-evidenced effects of taking at least 3 grams of ginseng daily include improvement in sperm production and motility, prolongation of the duration of coitus, heightening of libido by direct action on the higher brain centers, and a profound anti-fatigue effect with increased alertness and enhancement of coordination. Ginseng may increase LH and thus testosterone. It probably prevents deterioration of the adrenals, spleen, thymus, and thyroid. The Penobscot used it to increase fertility. Ginseng lowers stress hormones to enhance libido.

One of the most ancient of the sex herbs is the Indian tribulus (Tribulus terrestris) (terrible earth) fruit. One cup of tea or a dropperful of tincture taken 2-3 times a day can increase LH (and thus testosterone) in men and FSH in women. Regular use increases desire, performance, fertility, and mental clarity. Especially useful for those with diabetes  Tribulus capsules give me an “itch” for orgasm.

Ginger (Zingiber off.) aids sexual functioning. Regular use removes atherosclerotic plaque from penile blood vessels and increases circulation there. Snack on crystallized ginger, add  ginger to food, make ginger tea. Yummy.

A toke or two of good quality marijuana (Cannabis) has helped many women pick the lock on their “pleasure chest.” Too much can have the opposite effect; be moderate.

A cup of damiana (Tunera aphrodisiaca, T. diffusa, T. microphylla) leaf infusion daily or 15 drops of the tincture three times a day can counter a variety of sexual problems. It heightens sensation in the nerves, increases endurance, and promotes erotic dreams. Smoking the dried leaves improves her interest and his staying power. Damiana was a favorite sex herb of the Aztecs and the Mayans. It has been used by animal breeders to improve the chances of conception in high-strung livestock. Damiana is especially recommended for those who are anxious about sex.

Potency wood, muira puama, (Ptychopetalum olacoides, P. uncinatum) is a South American herb in the olive family that is famous for its ability to stimulate both  arousal and erection of the sexual tissues in those who are tired, run down, and weak. From 50–70 percent of those taking ½ cup of tea or 30  drops of tincture twice a day report intensification of libido, lessening of inhibition, and improvement in sexual pleasure. Caution: May lower blood pressure.

Yohimbe bark, (Pausinystalia yohimbe) from tropical west Africa, improves blood flow to the genitals and increases smooth muscle relaxation. It has no effect on testosterone levels; instead, it inhibits serotonin and acts to increase norepinephrine, which is essential for erections and which may decrease with age. Yohimbe is especially helpful for those with diabetes or heart disease. Yohimbe hydrochloride is the only FDA-approved anti-impotence herbal drug. Its effects on men — and women — include: increased stamina, heightened sensation, and greater desire. Consistent use of yohimbe tincture helps 81 percent of impotent men. According to Brigitte Mars, yohimbe increases blood flow to the genitals and prevents it from flowing back out of the genital sponges. It also affects the ganglion nerve center at the base of the spine and excites the sex center of the human brain in the hypothalamus.

Cautions: Do not use if you are young, old, or pregnant. Do not use more than twice in any week or even two days in a row. Yohimbe can lower blood pressure or cause kidney problems. It is a short-term MAO inhibitor; do not combine with high-tyramine foods such as bananas, cheese, chocolate, nuts, beer, red wine, red grape juice, sauerkraut, or aged meat; nor with tyrosine or phenylalanine supplements. Nor should yohimbe be used concurrently with antidepressants, sedatives, antihistamines, caffeine, or amphetamines. It may be agitating to the nervous system.

The favorite aphrodisiac and potency enhancer in Brazil is guarana. The peeled, dried, roasted, pulverized seeds of Paullinia cupana (or sobilis) are used. Guarana strengthens the nervous system increases desire and improves performance.

A tea of the stems and leaves of the orchid  Dendrobium nobile is favored by Taoists to build sexual energy.

Foods like shellfish, fatty fish, eggs, bee pollen, and pumpkin seeds are known to improve potency. Seven more foods that aid erection: onions, savory, celery, lovage, lettuce, burdock root, and saffron. Two ounces of sunflower seeds supply 4 grams of erection-enhancing arginine. Other foods sources of arginine include: pine pollen, peanuts, sesame seeds (tahini and gomasio), almonds, Brazil nuts, lentils, chives, watercress, carob, and kidney beans.

Supplements that aid sexual functioning include arginine, L-dopa, L-choline, and pantothenic acid., stimulates erections and desire.

Arginine increases the effectiveness of ginkgo. It is a precursor to nitric oxide, which is essential to vasodilation and erection. For an extra boost, as many as 36 pills (18g) of L-arginine can be taken 45 minutes before intercourse. Arginine cream can be used directly on the penis, too.

Caution: Diabetics, and those with shingles or herpes, should avoid L-arginine supplements.

L-dopa stimulates erections and desire. Fava beans and their sprouts are the best food sources. Supplements of L-tyrosine and L-phenylalanine are precursors; a dose is 100–500mg of each daily. Caution: Increases blood pressure. Do not use with yohimbe.

L-choline is an amino acid critical to erection. Supplementation with 1–3 g a day is effective. Caution: Causes stiffness of the upper back and neck, headache, diarrhea.

Taking vitamin B5, pantothenic acid, with L-choline leads to “longer and more pleasurable orgasms.”

Herbs, foods, and supplements definitely increase sexual desire, ability, and pleasure, but if you simply want stronger orgasms, just exercise! Twenty minutes of moderate exercise increases women’s genital engorgement by 168 percent. And the effect persists for hours. Daily practice of pelvic floor clenches helps men remain erect longer, too.

Green blessings

Tags: sexy herbs

• Herbal

Alex Crowe October, 2011

Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs. The fragrant aroma that it brings to a house is astounding, but the taste it leaves in food is even better. I was fortunate to gain a sizable amount of fresh rosemary from a friend. She has beautiful bushes in her back yard, but they had quite literally run amok and she needed to give a lot away. Her family graciously allowed our group to do a Lughnasdha ritual at her house, so it also gave her plenty of people to give springs upon sprigs of rosemary.

Since acquiring the rosemary, I allowed it to dry on its own. I used some before it had the chance to dry by using it in a lamb roast. I love a nice delicate lamb with rosemary. I don’t see why people would ruin it with mint jelly since the flavor with the rosemary is enough. The roast was bound by twine, and I wove the rosemary on the inside of the twine. I also placed some inside the roast so that the flavor was melted all the way through it. A little salt and pepper to go along with it and in the oven it went for several hours at 350. My family from the smallest member to the oldest member absolutely loved it.

Rosemary though has many more qualities than just for a flavor enhancer. There were many brides in the 13^th century that wore the crowns of rosemary. There are also medicinal uses and even some great spell casting using rosemary. That is what I want to bring to you in this article as well as a recipe or two.

Rosemary has many attributes that are great for spell casting. Many involve fidelity and can ward off jealousy. I know that from my area, many use rosemary to cleanse before using a ritual tool. You can make oil out of it using your basic olive oil and the twigs from the rosemary and keep it outside all three nights of the full moon. Once it has soaked in the light of the moon, bless the rosemary oil by saying, “From ritual to every day, bless this oil in every way. Make it generous, make it grand. It blesses tools and hand. Blessed Lord and Lady as I will it so mote it be.” Repeat a total of three times.

Medicinal uses are wide and vary. It can be made into an ointment for eczema, rheumatism, sores, bruises and other wounds. It can be made in a tea by combining one part rosemary, one part black Irish tea and one part rose hips. This is great for any digestive problems and can even double as an expectant (similar to muscinex).  Just remember that too much rosemary can be irritating to the stomach, so use in moderation.

Now, for a great hair product, you could also use Rosemary. I personally love the smell of it, and it has added benefits than those of the olfactory solution. Rosemary added with oils to massage into the scalp to stimulate hair growth. If you want to use it as a shampoo it can be mixed with borax. This does make the hair seem very shiny and healthy. If you have a hard time with dandruff, you could also try mixing the twigs of rosemary with the twigs of mint in vinegar in a tight bottle.  You will want to leave it out of the direct sunlight for a week before using it, but it will do wonders to your hair.

There are other purposes for the rosemary that are household use. You can add it to your drawers to add a benefit of keeping moths out of your clothes. It definitely beats mothballs in my opinion.  You can put it under your pillow to help you remember your dreams or stave off nightmares. Rosemary’s fragrance has been known to stimulate the brain so using the scent while you study or are tending to a task that you want to remember is beneficial. You can wear some as a perfume for special occasions where you want to make a lasting impression. If given to a friend or family member who is leaving, it is symbolic that you will not soon forget them.

So, in closing whether you need a great symbolic gift to a parting friend or a cure for that constant coughing and hacking you have, rosemary is the answer. It also tastes great in chicken! Rosemary is the great cure to many questions that have been had and I hope that it gives you as much pleasure as it has me thanks to my wonderful friend, Lona.

Tags: rosemary

• Articles , Herbal

OSusun S. Weed October, 2011

Be Your Own herbal Expert

Part 4

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used – and our neighbors around the world still use – plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too.

In your first lessons, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes, how to make effective water-based herbal remedies, and how to distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs.

In this lesson, you will learn how to how make herbal tinctures. You will make tinctures from fresh and dried roots as well as from fresh flowers and leaves.

Then you will collect your tinctures into an herbal Medicine Chest and begin to use them. Shall we begin?

Tinctures Act Fast

Tinctures are alcohol-based plant medicines. Alcohol extracts and concentrates many properties from plants, including their poisons. Alcohol does not extract significant amounts of nutrients, so tinctures are used when we want to stimulate, sedate, or make use of a poison. (Remember that nourishing herbs are best used in water bases such as infusions and vinegars.)

The concentrated nature of tinctures allows them to act quickly. It also makes them perfect for a first-aid kit or herbal medicine chest: a little goes a long way.

I have dozens of tinctures in my cabinet. But these are the ones I carry with me when I travel; they are the ones I don’t leave home without. This is my traveling herbal medicine chest.

Echinacea tincture                 Motherwort tincture                     Skullcap tincture

Ginseng tincture                     Dandelion root tincture                Wormwood tincture

St Joan’s Wort tincture           Poke root tincture (danger)         Yarrow tincture

Making Dried Root Tinctures

I strongly prefer to make tinctures from fresh plants. But many people have a hard time getting fresh plants. Most books therefore ignore fresh plant tinctures and focus on making tinctures only from dried plants. The only dried plant parts I use to make tinctures are roots and seeds. All other plant parts I use fresh when making a tincture. And I actually prefer to use fresh roots too.

To make a tincture from dried roots:

{   Buy an ounce of dried Echinacea augustifolia or Panax ginseng root.

{   Put the whole ounce in a pint jar.

{   The dried root should fill the jar about a third full. If not, use a smaller jar.

{   Fill the jar to the top with the alcohol. Cap tightly and label.

Almost any alcohol can be used to make a tincture. My preference is 100 proof vodka. A lower proof, such as 80 proof, does not work nearly as well. Higher proofs, such as 198 proof or Everclear, can damage the liver and kidneys, so I don’t use them to make medicine.

The tincture is ready in six weeks, but gets stronger the longer it sits. I like to wait about six months before using my ginseng tincture and a year before using my echinacea tincture.

Making Fresh Root Tinctures

Roots generally hold their properties even when dried. But two of my favorite root tinctures must be made from fresh roots are the dried ones have lost much of their effect.

Making a tincture with a fresh root is similar to making one with a dried root.

{   With great respect for the plant, dig up its root.

{   Gently rinse mud away. (For more about digging dandelion root, see Healing Wise.)

{   Chop root into small pieces and fill a jar to the top with the chopped root.

{   Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

{   Fresh root tinctures are ready to use in six weeks.

Making Fresh Leaf and Flower Tinctures

I use only fresh flowers and leaves in my tinctures. These delicate plant parts lose aroma and medicinal qualities when dried.

Tinctures can be made from dried herbs, but I find them inferior in both effect (how well they work) and energetics (how many fairies are in it), not to mention taste (how many volatile substances remain) and somatics (how something makes you “feel”).

What if the plants you need to make all the tinctures in your medicine chest don’t grow where you live or you can’t find them? Try one or more of these solutions.

{   Take a vacation to a place where the plant you need does grow. And make sure to go at the best time to gather it.

{   Find an herbal pen-pal who lives in the area where the plant you want to tincture grows. Have your pen-pal make a tincture of the fresh plant for you. You could make a tincture of something you have lots of to give to her too.

Even if the plants do grow where you live, it may take a year or longer for you to find them, harvest them and make tinctures. While you are “in limbo,” it’s fine to buy tinctures to use in your herbal medicine chest.

When you finally find the plants you want, don’t be afraid to make several quarts of tincture. Tinctures last for hundreds of years if protected from heat and light.

St. Joan’s wort tincture: Eases muscles spasms, anti-viral, pain-relieving.

{  Pick yellow Hypericum perforatum flowers in the summer’s heat.

{  Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with the blossoms and leaves.

{  Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label. (It will turn bright red.)

{  Your fresh St. Joan’s wort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Motherwort tincture: Eases menstrual cramps, mood swings, stress.

{  Pick Leonurus cardiaca flowering tops (leaves and flowers) in early fall or late summer.

{  Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with coarsely chopped blossoms and leaves.

{  Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

{  Your fresh motherwort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Skullcap tincture: Pain-relief, headache remedy.

{  Pick Scutellaria lateriflora flowering tops when there are seeds as well as flowers.

{  Fill – don’t stuff – a jar with the blossoms and leaves.

{  Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

{  Your fresh skullcap tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Wormwood tincture: Counters food poisoning and parasites.

{  Pick emisia absinthemum leaves in the late summer or early fall, when mature.

{  Fill – don’t stuff – a jar, with the coarsely chopped leaves.

{  Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

{  Your fresh wormwood tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Yarrow tincture: Counters all bacteria internally and externally, repels insects.

{  Pick Achillea millefolium flowering tops, white ones only, when in bloom.

{  Fill – don’t stuff – a jar, with the coarsely chopped herb.

{  Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.

{  Your fresh yarrow tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Double and Triple Tinctures

An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves. After that sits for six more weeks, it’s a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm and lets that sit for six weeks. After which she has a triple tincture. She uses: “A dropperful sublingually – works absolute wonders for me when I’m stressed out and ready to scream.”

Plant Poisons

You remember that there are four types of poisons in plants: alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils, and resins. The first three are fairly easy to move from plants to a tincture.

Resins, because they “fear” water (hydrophobic) are difficult to tincture. When I want to tincture a resin I do use high proof alcohol. Some examples would be: pine resin tincture, balsam bud tincture, calendula flower tincture.

Taking Tinctures

I see many people put herbal tinctures under their tongues. I prefer to protect my oral tissues from the harsh, possibly cancer-causing, effects of the alcohol.

I dilute my tinctures in a little water or juice or even herbal infusion and drink them.

Using Your Tinctures

Here are a few of the ways I use the tinctures in my herbal medicine chest. For more information on using these tincture, see my books and my website.

Acid indigestion:  5-10 drops of Dandelion root or Wormwood tincture every ten minutes until relieved. I use a dose of Dandelion before meals to prevent heartburn.

Bacterial infections (including boils, carbuncles, insect bites, snake bite, spider bite, staph): 30?50 drops Echinacea or Yarrow tincture up to 5 times daily. For severe infections, add one drop of Poke tincture to each dose.

Colds: to prevent them I use Yarrow tincture 5-10 drops daily; to treat them, I rely on Yarrow, but in larger quantity, say a dropperful every 3-4 hours at the worst of the cold and tapering off.

Cramps during menstruation: 10 drops Motherwort every 20 minutes or as needed. Used also as a tonic, 10 drops daily, for the week before.

Cramps in muscle: 25 drops St Joan’s every 25?30 minutes for as long as needed.

Cramps in gut: 5?10 drops Wormwood, once.

Diarrhea: 3 drops Wormwood hourly for up to four hours.

Energy, lack of: 10 drops of Dandelion or Ginseng tincture in the morning.

Fever: 1 drop Echinacea for every 2 pounds of body weight; taken every two hours to begin, decreasing as symptoms remiss. Or a dropperful of Yarrow tincture every four hours.

Headache: 25 drops St Joan’s plus 3-5 drops Skullcap every 10?15 minutes for up to two hours. 5 drops of Skullcap may prevent some headaches.

High blood pressure: 25 drops of Motherwort or Ginseng tincture 2-4 times a day.

Hot Flashes: 20?30 drops Motherwort as flash begins and/or 10?20 drops once or twice daily.

Insect: prevent bites from black flies, mosquitoes, and ticks with a spray of Yarrow tincture; treat bites you do get with Yarrow tincture to prevent infection.

Nervousness, hysteria, hyper behavior: 15 drops Motherwort every 15?20 minutes.

Premenstrual distress: 10 drops Motherwort twice a day for 7?10 days preceding menstruation or 10 drops daily all month.

Sore throat: Gargle with Yarrow tincture.

Swollen glands: 1 drop Poke root tincture each 12 hours for 2-5 days.

Viral infections (including colds and the flu): 25 drops of St. Joan’s wort tincture every two hours. Add one drop of poke root tincture 2-4 times a day for severe cases.

Wounds: I wash with Yarrow tincture, then wet the dressing with Yarrow tincture, too.

In the next installment of Be Your Own

Herbal

• WiseWoman Traditions

Expert, you will learn about herbal oils, including infused and essential oils. Future lessons will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, applications of the three traditions of healing, and using the six steps of healing to take charge of your own health and make sense of medicine.

Experiment Number One

Choose one plant and make several small tinctures of it using different types of alcohol. Taste and smell each tincture every week or so for 6-8 weeks.

Experiment Number Two

Buy or make different tinctures of the same plant: dried herb, fresh herb, timed with the moon, in different menstrums, made by different people, harvested in different places. Can you taste differences? Are the effects different? What else do you notice?

Experiment Number Three

Make a double or triple tincture of motherwort, skullcap, or lemon balm. See if it relieves anxiety, hyperactivity, emotional distress, headaches. I use a dose of 5-30 drops. Remember skullcap can induce sleepiness.

Experiment Number Four

Tincture four plants that are common to your area. Learn at least three things they can each be used for and if at all possible, use them.

Further study

1. What is osmosis? Why does 100 proof vodka make stronger tinctures than 80 proof?
2. What is a menstrum? What other menstrums are used to make tinctures?
3. Of the four plant poisons, which are present in each of plants used in the medicine chest?
4. Why don’t I consider vinegars tinctures?
5. How is a glyceride different from a tincture?

Advanced work

{   Make a tincture from a resinous plant.

{   Make a glyceride.

{   How is a standardized tincture made?

Study with Susun Weed in the convenience of your home! Choose from three Correspondence Courses: Green Allies, Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition, and Green Witch – includes audio/video tapes, books, assignments, special mailings, plus personal time.  Learn more at http://www.susunweed.com or write to:

Susun Weed

PO Box 64

Woodstock, NY 12498

Fax:  1-845-246-8081

Tags: health, Herbal

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed September, 2011

Be Your Own

Herbal

• WiseWoman Traditions

Expert

Part 3

Herbal

• WiseWoman Traditions

medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well-being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance, and you can too.

In your first lesson, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes.  And you discovered that using plants in water bases (as teas, infusions, vinegars, and soups) – and as simples – allows you to experiment with and explore herbal medicine safely.

In your second lesson, you learned about herbs for teas and how to preserve and use their volatile oils. You leaned about vitamin- and mineral-rich herbal infusions, and how to use them to promote health and longevity. And you continued to think about using herbs simply.

In this lesson you will explore the differences between nourishing, tonifying, stimulating/sedating, and potentially-poisonous plants. You will learn how to prepare and use them for greatest effect and most safety.

All Herbs Are Not Equal

All herbs are not equal: some contain poisons, some don’t; some of the poisons are not so bad, some can kill you dead. I divide herbs into four categories for ease in remembering how (and how much) to use. Some herbs nourish us, some tonify, some bring us up or ease us down, and some are frighteningly strong.

Nourishing herbs are the safest of all herbs. They contain few or no alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils (poisons).

Nourishing herbs are eaten as foods, cooked into soups, dried and infused, or, occasionally, made into vinegars. They provide high-level nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, proteins, phytoestrogens and phytosterols, starches, simple and complex sugars, bioflavonoids, carotenes, and essential fatty acids (EFAs).

Nourishing herbs in water bases (infusions, soups, vinegars) may generally be taken in any quantity for any period of time. Side-effects – even from excessive use – are quite rare. Nourishing herbs are rarely used as tinctures (in alcohol), but when they are, their effects may be quite different.

It is generally considered safe to use nourishing herbs in water bases with prescription drugs. They may also be taken even if you are using tonifying, stimulating/sedating, or potentially poisonous herbs.

Some examples of nourishing herbs include:

• burdock roots
• chickweed herb; tincture dissolves cysts
• comfrey leaf
• elder blossoms and berries
• fenugreek seeds
• garlic
• mallow leaves and roots
• mushrooms
• nettle leaves and seeds
• oatstraw
• plantain leaves and seeds
• red clover blossoms
• seaweeds
• rose hips
• slippery elm bark
• violet leaves and blossoms.

Tonifying herbs are generally considered safe when used in moderation. They may contain alkaloids or glycosides or essential oils, but rarely in quantities sufficient to harm us.

Tonifying herbs act slowly in the body and have a cumulative, rather than immediate, effect. They are most beneficial when used for extended periods of time. Tonifying herbs may be used regularly (but usually not daily) for decades if desired.

Tonifying herbs are prepared in water and alcohol bases: tinctures and wines, as well as infusions, vinegars, and soups.

The more bitter the tonic tastes, the less you need to take of it. The more bland the tonic tastes, the more you can use of it.

Side effects from overuse and misuse of tonics is uncommon but quite possible. The dividing line between what is tonifying and what is stimulating differs from person to person. Ginseng is tonifying to my sweetheart, but stimulating to me. Even herbal authorities disagree on which herbs are tonifying and which stimulating.

Take care to counter any tendency to overuse tonifying herbs or you may experience unwanted side effects.

It is generally considered safe to use tonifying herbs in water bases if you are taking prescription drugs. You may also use tonifying herbs while using nourishing, stimulating/sedating, and even potentially poisonous herbs. Tonifying herbs in alcohol bases are considered safe to use with nourishing herbs, but may produce unexpected results if combined with drugs or strong herbs.

Some examples of tonifying herbs include:

• burdock seeds, especially in an oil base
• chasteberry
• mug/cronewort herb, especially in vinegar
• dandelion leaf, root and flowers
• echinacea root
• ginseng root
• hawthorn berries, leaves, and flowers
• horsetail herb
• lady’s mantle
• motherwort leaves and flowers
• sarsaparilla root
• yellow dock leaves, roots, and seeds

Stimulating/sedating herbs frequently contain essential oils, alkaloids, glycosides, or resins. Because these substances cause strong physical reactions, stimulating/sedating herbs are known from their rapid and pronounced effects, some of which may be unwanted.

Stimulating/sedating herbs are most often prepared as tinctures (and wines), vinegars, teas, and infusions. Many stimulating/sedating herbs are used as seasonings in cooking as well. Despite my cookbook’s injunction to use only a little, I long ago learned that more aromatic herbs in my soups gave a “livelier” result.

Because long-term use of stimulating/sedating herbs can lead to dependency, dose and duration of use must be carefully watched. A moderate to large dose, taken infrequently will   produce better results than a small dose taken over a longer period.

Side effects from the use of stimulating/sedating herbs in water bases are not common but possible. Side effects from use in alcohol bases are frequent. Whenever stimulating/sedating herbs are used regularly, health is compromised.

It is not safe to take prescription drugs with stimulating/sedating herbs, but they may be taken even if you are using nourishing and/or tonifying herbs.

Some examples of stimulating/sedating herbs include:

• leaves of aromatic mints such as catnip, lemon balm, lavender, sage, skullcap
• cinnamon bark
• coffee beans
• ginger root
• kava kava root
• licorice root
• passion flower
• tobacco leaves
• uva ursi leaves
• valerian root
• willow bark and leaves

Potentially  poisonous herbs always contain alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils. And they contain large quantities of those poisons, or in very potent forms.

Potentially poisonous plants can cause death directly, through the actions of their poisons on their targets (such as cardiac glycosides which stop the heart) or indirectly, by causing the liver and/or the kidneys to fail (as they attempt to cope with and clear the poison from the system).

Potentially poisonous herbs are usually extracted into alcohol (tinctures) and used in minute doses (1-3 drops). For safety sake use potentially poisonous herbs as infrequently as possible and for the shortest possible time.

Powdering and encapsulating increases the risk of side effects from any herb, but when we take stimulating/sedating and potentially poisonous herbs in capsules, the side effects can be deadly.

Homeopathic pharmacy uses many potentially poisonous plants, but in such dilute doses that death is impossible. Side effects can occur, even with homeopathically tiny doses, however.

Potentially poisonous herbs activate intense effort on the part of the body and spirit and may cause nausea, visual disturbances, digestive woes, and allergic reactions even when used correctly.

Always be extremely cautious when using potentially poisonous herbs. Consult with at least three other knowledgeable herbalists who have used the plant in question before proceeding.

In general it is not considered safe to take potentially poisonous herbs while taking prescription drugs, other potentially poisonous herbs, or stimulating/sedating herbs. It is generally safe to use potentially poisonous herbs while using nourishing and tonifying herbs.

Some examples of potentially poisonous herbs:

• belladonna
• castor beans
• cayenne
• cotton root
• goldenseal
• liferoot/groundsel
• nutmeg
• poke root
• rue leaves and flowers
• tansy leaves and flowers
• wormwood

Experiment Number One

Spend some time alone quietly breathing. Tune into your body piece by piece (toes, feet, calves, knees, thighs, and so on). Use colors to draw yourself. Don’t worry about making art.

For the next month include some nourishing herb in your diet. Example: on Monday include seaweed as a vegetable for dinner, on Tuesday drink a quart of nettle infusion, on Wednesday make a soup with burdock and other roots, on Thursday drink a quart of red clover infusion, on Friday make garlic bread with at least one clove of freshly chopped garlic per slice, on Saturday drink a quart of oatstraw infusion, on Sunday drink a quart of comfrey/mint infusion. And so on.

One month later, sit alone and breathe quietly. Tune into your body piece by piece. Use colors to draw yourself. Has anything changed? You can continue this experiment for as long as you like.

Experiment Number Two

Repeat experiment number one, but instead use any one tonic (preferably one that lives where you do) at least four times a week for one month. Again, note any changes in how you feel, how much energy and stamina you have, how much curiosity and delight you experience in life. You can continue this experiment for as long as you like also.

Experiment Number Three

What stimulants and sedatives do you use regularly? What happens if you give up one or more of them for a week? For a month? Try – on different days – at least one herbal stimulant and one herbal sedative and keep notes of your reactions.

Experiment Number Four

Choose one potentially poisonous plant that grows near you and cultivate a relationship with it. Read about it. Talk about it with others who have a relationship with it. Keep a special book for writing about your poisonous ally.

Further study

1. Name five more nourishing herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
2. Name five more tonifying herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
3. Name five more stimulating/sedating herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
4. Name five more potentially poisonous herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage. In what case and how would you use each?
5. What is the difference between a tonic and a stimulant?

Advanced work

1  Give the botanical name (genus and species) for each plant listed.

²  List five nourishing herbs commonly sold in tincture form and describe what they are used for in that form.

3  Learn more about homeopathy.

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed August, 2011

Be Your Own herbal Expert

Part 2

herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well-being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance, and you can too.

In your first lesson, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. And you discovered that using plants in water bases (teas, infusions, vinegars, soups) – and as simples – allows you to experiment with and explore herbal medicine safely.

In this lesson, we will learn how to make effective water-based herbal remedies and talk more about using simples.

Tea for You?

Teas are a favorite way to consume herbs. Made by brewing a small amount of herbs (typically a teaspoonful to a cup of water) for a short time (generally 1-2 minutes), teas are flavorful, colorful drinks.

Herbs rich in coloring compounds – such as hibiscus, rose hips, calendula, and black tea – make enticing and tasty teas. They may also contain polyphenols, phytochemicals known to help prevent cancer. Since coloring compounds and polyphenols are fairly stable, dried herbs are considered best for teas rich in these.

Herbs rich in volatile oils – such as ginger, chamomile, cinnamon, catnip, mint, lemon balm, lemon grass, lavender, bergamot, and fennel, anise, and cumin seeds – make lovely teas, which are effective in easing spasms, stimulating digestion, eliminating pain, and inducing sleep. Since much of the volatile oils are lost when herbs are dried, fresh herbs are considered best for teas rich in these, but dried herbs can be used with good results.

I enjoy a cup of hot tea with honey. But teas fail to deliver the mineral richness locked into many common herbs. A cup of nettle tea, for instance, contains only 5-10 mg of calcium, while a cup of nettle infusion contains up to 500 mg of calcium. For optimum nutrition, I drink nourishing herbal infusions every day.

Infusion for Me!

An infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long time. Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar, which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded and allowed to steep for 4-10 hours. After straining, a cup or more is consumed, and the remainder chilled to slow spoilage. Drinking 2-4 cups a day is usual. Since the minerals and other phytochemicals in nourishing herbs are made more accessible by drying, dried herbs are considered best for infusions. (See experiment 2.)

I make my infusions at night before I go to bed and they are ready in the morning. I put my herb in my jar and my water in the pot, and the pot on the fire, then brush my teeth (or sweep the floor) until the kettle whistles. I pour the boiling water up to the rim of the jar, screw on a tight lid, turn off the stove and the light, and go to bed. In the morning, I strain the plant material out, squeezing it well, and drink the liquid. I prefer it iced, unless the morning is frosty. I drink the quart of infusion within 36 hours or until it spoils. Then I use it to water my houseplants, or pour it over my hair after washing as a final rinse, which can be left on.

My favorite herbs for infusion are nettle, oatstraw, red clover, and comfrey leaf, but only one at a time. The tannins in red clover and comfrey make me pucker my lips, so I add a little mint, or bergamot, when I infuse them, just enough to flavor the brew slightly. A little salt in your infusion may make it taste better than honey will.

Having trouble finding herbs in bulk at your local health food store? Try ordering online:

²  Mountain Rose Herbs – http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/

²  Pacific Botanicals – http://www.pacificbotanicals.com/

²  Frontier Herbs – http://www.frontierherb.com/

²  Garden Medicinals – http://www.gardenmedicinals.com/

Simple Messages

When we use simples (one plant at a time), we allow ourselves an intimacy that deepens and strengthens our connections to plants and their green magic. There are lots of interesting plants, and lots of herbalists who maintain that herbal medicine means formulae and combinations of herbs. But I consider herbs as lovers, preferring to have only one in bed with me at a time.

When I use one plant at a time it is much easier for me to discern the effect of that plant. When I use one plant at a time and someone has a bad reaction to the remedy, it is obvious what the source of the distress is, and usually easy to remedy. When I use one plant at a time, I make it easy for my body to communicate with me and tell me what plants it needs for optimum health.

I even go so far as to ally with one plant at a time, usually for at least a year. By narrowing my focus, I actually find that I learn more.

Coming Up
In our next lesson we will learn more about the difference between nourishing, tonifying, stimulating/sedating, and potentially-poisonous plants; how to prepare them; and how to use them. In the following installments we will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of your own health care with the six steps of healing.
Experiment Number One
Make and drink a quart of nourishing herbal infusion made with stinging nettle, oatstraw, red clover, raspberry leaf, or comfrey leaf. If you wish, flavor it with mint. On the same day, make a tea from the same herb, using dried herb. Compare and contrast the colors, flavors, and sensations.

Experiment Number Two
Make an infusion of stinging nettle, oatstraw, red clover, raspberry leaf, or comfrey leaf, using one ounce of dried herb as usual. At the same time, make a quart of “brew” using the same herb, but fresh, not dried. To make it fair, use 4 ounces of fresh herb. After one hour of steeping, look at both jars, taste and compare/contrast. Repeat three more times at hourly intervals.
Minerals are released slowly into water. They darken the color of the water and give it a dense, rich taste. Oil-soluble vitamins float to the top and make a thin glaze of swirls.

Experiment Number Three
Buy, or grow, a tasty, aromatic herb, like ginger, peppermint, or rosemary. For this experiment you will need one tablespoon of fresh herb, and one teaspoon of the same herb dried. Place the fresh herb in a cup or mug and the dried herb in another. Fill both to the top with boiling water. After one minute, taste, smell, compare the teas. Wait another minute and compare again. Then wait five minutes and try each one again.

Experiment Number Four
Make a tea with aromatic seeds – anise, caraway, coriander, cumin, fennel, or fenugreek. Use a teaspoon of seeds in a cup of water. At the same time, brew some using a tablespoon of seeds per cup. After a minute, taste, smell, contrast. Repeat in five minutes, then in thirty minutes, then after an hour, then after four hours. Teas and infusions of dried seeds are almost the same.

Further Study

1. Drink 2-4 cups of nourishing herbal infusion for a month and see if your health changes in any way. Best if you don’t drink coffee or tea during this month.

1. Choose a green ally to focus on this year.

1. Read Healing Power of Minerals by Paul Bergner.

1. Read about stinging nettle and oatstraw in my book Healing Wise.

1. Write out the botanical names of the herbs you used in making your teas and your infusions.

Advanced Work

²  Learn more about essential oils in plants. Grow several plants rich in essential oils.

²  Learn more about tannins. Make an oakbark infusion.

If you want to be your own herbal expert then you may want to start a correspondence course!  See www.susunweed.com for information on courses available.

Tags: herbal expert

• Herbal