Modred July, 2011

Bee Balm: Flowering Herb of Magic

Tags: bee balm, bergamot

• Articles , Herbal

OSusun S. Weed July, 2011

Be Your Own herbal Expert

Part 1

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.  You can too.

Learning About Herbs

Information on herbs and their uses has been passed down to us in many ways: through stories, in books, set to music, and incorporated into our everyday speech. Learning about herbs is fun, fascinating, and easy to do no matter where you live or what your circumstances. It is an adventure that makes use of all of your senses. Reading about herbal medicine is fascinating, and a great way to learn how others have used plants. But the real authorities are the plants themselves. They speak to us through their smells, tastes, forms, and colors.

Anyone who is willing to take the time to get to know the plants around them will discover a wealth of health-promoting green allies. What stops us? Fear. We fear that we will use the wrong plant. We fear poisoning ourselves. We fear the plants themselves.

These fears are wise. But they need not keep us from using the abundant remedies of nature.  A few simple guidelines can protect you and help you make sense of herbal medicine. This series of short articles will offer you easy-to-remember rules for using herbs simply and safely. When you have completed all eight parts of this series, you will be using herbs confidently and successfully to keep yourself and your loved ones whole/healthy/holy.

Survival is a Matter of Taste

Virtually all plants contain poisons. After all, they don’t want to be eaten!  Because we have evolved eating plants, we have the capacity to neutralize or remove (through preparation or digestion) their poisons. Not all poisons kill, and even poisons that are deadly often need to be taken in quantities far larger than can easily be obtained from foods. (Apple seeds contain a lethal poison but it takes a quart of them to cause death.)

Our senses of taste and smell are registered in the part of the brain that maintains respiration and circulation – in other words, the survival center. Plants (but not mushrooms) advertise their poisons by tasting bad or smelling foul. Of the four primary kinds of poisons found in plants – alkaloids, glycosides, resins, and essential oils – the first two always taste bitter or cause a variety of noxious reactions on the oral tissues, and the last two usually do, especially when removed from the plant or concentrated.

Sometimes the taste of the poison in a plant is hidden by large amounts of sweet-tasting starch. Fortunately, human saliva contains an enzyme that breaks down these carbohydrates, exposing the nasty taste of the poison. Since even tiny amounts of some poisons can have large effects, for safety sake, take your time when tasting.

Safety First

Because our sense of taste protects us against poisonous plants, it is always best to take herbs in a form that allows one to taste them. Consuming just one plant at a time, with as little preparation as possible, gives us the greatest opportunity to taste poisons and is therefore the safest way to use herbs.

One herb at a time is a “simple.” When we ingest a simple herb – raw, cooked as a vegetable, brewed fresh or dried in water as a tea or infusion, steeped in vinegar or honey, dried and used as a condiment – we bring into play several million years of plant wisdom collected in our genes. When we ingest many plants together, or concentrate their natural poisons by tincturing, distilling, or standardizing, we increase the possibility of harm. Powdering herbs and putting them in capsules is one of the most dangerous ways to use them, especially those containing poisons. For ultimate risk, play with essential oils; they are far removed from the plant, very concentrated, and as little as one-quarter ounce can kill.

Safety Second, Too

In the next installments we will continue to learn how to use herbs simply and safely. We will explore nourishing and tonifying herbs, 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

You will need the following plants, all of which contain poisons that you can taste: a head of lettuce (taste the leaves and the core separately), some black or green tea (unbrewed), a fresh dandelion leaf, strong chamomile tea (steep it overnight), a can of asparagus, some fresh mint, a spoonful of mustard seeds, and a bottle of vanilla extract.

Approach tasting a plant as you would tasting a wine. Begin by inhaling the aroma. Release the bouquet by squeezing the plant until your fingers are moist (or chew briefly and spit into your hand). Do you feel enticed, repelled, or neutral? Does your mouth water? Does your throat clench? Observe how you react to the smell. Does it sting your eyes? Irritate your nasal tissues? Do you want to taste it?

We do not gulp our wine, nor do we merely wet our tongues; for best effect, taste and smell a reasonably large piece, but don’t stuff your mouth. As you chew, move the plant material around in your mouth. Roll it around with your tongue. Make contact with it for a full minute but DO NOT SWALLOW. No, no, spit it upon the ground, or into your hand, or the sink, or wherever you can, but do not swallow. SPIT IT OUT.

What do you feel now? In your stomach? Your throat? Your head and nose?  What is your gut feeling? What sensations accompany the taste of this plant?

It is best to wait until the previous taste is completely gone before going on to the next plant. If you are doing advanced work with wild plants, wait at least a day before you use or consume the plant in case you have a delayed reaction to some component.

Experiment Number Two

Taste as in experiment one, but use these inedible (poisonous) parts of common foods: lemon inner rind, apple seeds, rhubarb leaves, lettuce root, the inner soft pit of a peach.

Experiment Number Three

Taste as in experiment one, these poisonous plants (fresh or dried): wormwood leaf, goldenseal root, yellow dock root, Echinacea root, eucalyptus leaf, motherwort leaf.

Experiment Number Four

Aromatic plants are rich in essential oils. We often use them to season and preserve food. In small quantity, these oils are not harmful, but concentrated, they threaten the liver, kidneys, and life itself. Smell and taste, as in experiment one, as many aromatic plants as you can: thyme, rosemary, oregano, lavender, sage, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg. Brew strong teas (steep overnight) of these plants and taste.  Can you see, smell, or taste more essential oils? Smell or taste one drop of the extracted essential oil of any of these plants.

Further study

1. What is an alkaloid? Medicinal plants often contain groups of alkaloids. Name seven plants rich in alkaloids (specify the part); then name at least three of the alkaloids in each plant.
2. What are glycosides? Name at least four glycosides and describe the effect each has.  Name seven plants rich in glycosides; specify the part of the plant and the kind of glycoside.
3. What are resins? Name four or more plants (specify part) rich in resins.
4. What are essential oils? Name a dozen or more plants rich in essential oils (specify part).
5. What is the difference between a poison and a medicine? Are all drugs poisons?

Advanced work

²  Give the botanical name (genus and species) for each plant you named in the further study section.

²  Taste a variety of plants that grow around you. Warning: It is possible to experience uncomfortable or harmful effects from this experiment. A book on poisonous plants can reassure you that the plants you taste will not kill you. It is best not to put plants such as poison ivy or poison oak in your mouth. DO NOT TASTE HOUSEPLANTS.

Tags: herbs

• Herbal

Tansy Firedragon June, 2011

Stinging Nettle

Urtica dioica

Stinging nettles grow in an awful lot of places – Britain, Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, South Africa and Japan.  They will grow in river valleys and on mountainsides, in farmyards, hedgerows, roadsides, woods, ruined buildings and any patch of wasteland.

They normally grow around 2-4’ high but in the forests they can grow much, much higher.  The plant has square, fibrous stems and long, sharply toothed, heartshaped leaves, both the stems and the leaves are covered with coarse stinging hairs.  In summer nettles have bunches of small green catkins with male and female flowers on separate plants.  Several types of butterfly choose the nettle as the food for their caterpillars won which to lay their eggs.

In the story The Wild Swans written by Hans Anderson, the princess has to weave a coat out of nettles for each of the eleven swans.   Since early times the people of Eastern Europe have believed in the power of nettles as protection.  In the Balkans, nettles were applied as a local anaesthetic.

The early herbals are full of nettle remedies – a broth for scurvy, a daily dose of nettle juice for cancer, the nostrils plugged with lint dipped in the juice for nose bleeds, paralysed limbs to be stung with them to regain movement and various bizarre treatments to increase a libido!

The British chemical industry still uses nettles in a chemical treatment – used to colour fats, oils, soaps and foodstuffs.

Medicinally the leaves, seeds and roots are used to treat a wide range of conditions including anaemia, arthritis, asthma, burns, eczema, infections, inflammations, kidney stones, prostate enlargement, rheumatism and urinary problems.

Nettle was the Anglo Saxon sacred herb, wergulu, and in medieval times nettle beer was drunk for rheumatism.  Nettle tops helped milk to sour, as a rennet substitute in cheese making.  Nettle leaves brought fruit to ripening and were used to pack plums, and as a whole plant makes an excellent compost or green manure.

Nettles high vitamin C content made it a valuable spring tonic for our ancestors.  Nettle soup and porridge were popular spring tonic purifiers.

Nettles also have an antihistamine effect, valuable for treating hayfever and other allergies.  They can help reduce the severity of asthma attacks.  For treating hayfever they combine well with elderflower.

Nettles enhance natural immunity, nettle tea drunk at the start of a fever is beneficial.  Nettles also reduce blood sugar levels and stimulate the circulation, which supports treatments of diabetes.  They also dilate the peripheral blood vessels and promote elimination of urine, which helps lower high blood pressure.

Nettles have long been considered a blood tonic and are a wonderful treatment for anaemia, as they are  high in both iron and chlorophyll.  The iron in nettles is very easily absorbed and assimilated.

The root is a leading herbal treatment for enlarged prostate, taken on its own as a tincture or with saw palmetto (serenoa repens).

Stinging nettles help clear the blood of urates and toxins, partly through stimulating the kidneys.  Nettle tops make a tea for treating gout and arthritis.

Dried Nettle Tea

Dried nettles make a dark green beverage that tastes very tea like.

2 teaspoons dried  nettle leaves to ½ pint boiling water.  Infuse for 5 minutes, strain and drink hot.

Nettle Rinse & Hair Tonic

Use as a final rinse after shampooing your hair and reserve a small quantity to rub into the scalp and comb through the hair every other day.  After a week or two your hair will acquire an extra shine of health.

Pick a big handful sized bunch of nettles, wash thoroughly and put the whole bunch into a saucepan with enough cold water to cover.  Bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain and cool a little, then pour the infusion into bottles with corks or screw caps.

Tags: stinging nettle

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed June, 2011

Wild as a Rose

by ÓSusun S. Weed

June is the month for brides. And roses are the flowers of love. So I think it fitting to focus on roses this month. Don’t you? Not only are roses beautiful, they are good medicine and fine food.

Yes, all roses that haven’t been sprayed with poisons (more about that later) can be eaten, whether cultivated or wild, climbing or bushy, white, pink, yellow, or red. My favorite June breakfast is whole wheat toast with butter or cultured cream cheese and a double layer of fresh rose petals. That sure wakes me up! It’s a nice change, too, from my spring fancy breakfast, which is whole wheat toast with butter and violet flowers.

Roses capture our imagination like few flowers, and that’s saying a lot, as any flower can trigger a wonderfully imaginative burst from even the least poetic of us. “How sweet to seize the blushing Prey, And snatch it from the Thorn away!” said Anacreon in the fifth century BCE (translated by Addison, 1735). In mythology, Flora, the goddess of flowers, asks the gods to help her revive a beloved, now dead, nymph. Apollo gives her the breath of life; Bacchus washes her in nectar; Vertummus gives her a lovely scent; Pomona makes her fruitful; and Flora herself gives her a crown of shimmering petals. Thus Rose, the “queen of flowers”, is created.

Roses are painted on fine china, splashed across wallpaper, fashioned out of satin and silk and sewn onto clothes and hats, even dipped in gold and silver. Roses are the very image of innocence; roses are filled with sexual allure. Roses are chaste and pure; roses are wanton and wild. Roses bloom and fade in a day, like love, perfect but passing. Roses endure, blooming year after year, like love, eternal.

Rose gardens are found all over the world. Notable rose gardens include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York, Kew Gardens in England, Westbroekpark in the Netherlands (with 20,000 plants), the Parc de la Grange in Geneva (with 12,000 plants), and the gardens of the Italian Rose Society in Milan. The largest garden in the world devoted entirely to roses is in Shreveport, Louisiana, where more than 70,000 plants are collected into 40 different rose gardens.

There are at least two cities that claim to be “The City of Roses”. One is Portland, Oregon, where the 10,000 roses of the International Rose Test Gardens are terraced on five acres of hillside in the shadow of Mt. Hood. The other is Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab in India, where 60,000 plants make up the 30-acre Zakir Rose Garden, including a Museum of Roses, a Moonlight Garden of pure white roses, and a scent garden where roses are bred to be especially high in rose oil, the mostly costly fragrance made.

Roses are not especially easy to grow, for they are attractive to a number of insect and fungal pests. Sprays can keep pests at bay, but even organic pesticides and fungicides can be unwholesome if eaten. Instead, I use a strong brew of horsetail (Equisetum arvense) – one cup of dried herb brewed for four hours in a quart of boiling water – diluted, a cup at a time in a gallon of rain water, to spray against black spot and other molds. Seeding lawn areas with milky spore is the best control for Japanese beetles, which can eat through a rose bush in minutes it seems.

If you enjoy an abundance of roses, as I do – through no effort on my part, I assure you, for the wild roses are rampant in my area – you may wish to make rose beads. Natural Rose Beads are sweetly-scented black lumps made by throwing wilted roses into a cast iron pot and allowing them to rot for several months. Before the rose paste dries out, gather it into balls by rolling between your palms, then thread carefully onto a thick string and hang to dry completely. Rose beads will last for decades if thoroughly fermented and carefully dried.

Wild roses have five petals, each gently notched in the center and arranged in a pretty, open star with a cluster of stamen (the pollen-producing parts) in the center. Cultivated roses have petals in multiples of five. The five-pointed star is a pentagram, or pentacle, which is, of course, the symbol of magic. The rose, a blooming pentacle, is as magical as a flower can be.

Eating the petals of roses will get you lots of healthy flavonoids and vitamin C, as well as coloring materials that contain polyphenols and other heart-healthy, cancer-fighting compounds. If you eat the whole rose, you’ll also get allergy-busting pollen to help get your body in tune with your environment.

Besides sprinkling the petals lavishly in salads and across toast, try making Rose Honey*. Fill any jar to the top with roses and rose petals. Pour honey into the jar, stirring as needed to remove air bubbles, until the jar is full. Cap securely and label. Wait for at least a week before eating. The longer you wait, the better the taste. You can make Rose Hip Honey the same way; be sure to remove all the seeds and itchy hairs from the rose hips before putting them in a jar and adding honey.

Rose petal or rose hip honey is splendid on toast, or taken by the spoonful to soothe a sore throat. To forestall a cold, put a tablespoon of rose honey in a cup, add the juice of half a lemon, then fill the cup with hot water.

Roses are especially cherished as a remedy for “women’s problems”. The growing tips of the rose canes are rich in hormone-like substances that help women with menstrual difficulties get into an easy flow, those with libido problems to feel frisky, and those who want to conceive to be more receptive.

Rose Hormone Remedy:

Harvest leaf and flower buds just before they open, preserving with honey, or a mixture of one part glycerin and two parts water. The dose is a teaspoonful several times a day.

Roses are part of a very large family of plants, many of which are medicinal and edible. Raspberry is part of the rose family, and raspberry leaf infusion is a fine uterine tonic. Hawthorn, the heart remedy, is also part of this family. As are most of the non-tropical fruits we enjoy: apples, pears, peaches, and plums, apricots, strawberries, cherries, and blackberries, raspberries, and even almonds.

If an apple a day will keep the doctor away, what will a rose a day do for you? Try it and see!

*Note: Do not give honey to babies under 12 months old.

Tags: Herbal, remedies, rose

• Herbal

Tansy Firedragon May, 2011

Dandelion

Dandelion is a wonderful food as well as a beneficial medicine. It supports overall health by gently working to improve the functioning of the liver, gallbladder and urinary and digestive systems. It is excellent for cleansing the skin.

An old companion of man, it has accumulated many names. Blowball and telltime refer to the seeds, priest’s crown to the stem after the seeds have flown, and swine’s snout to the unopened flower. And dandelion itself? The ‘teeth of the lion’ (dent de lion) explanation, from the appearance of the saw edged leaves or perhaps the tiny florets, is found in many languages. But there is also a case made for an older link to the sun.

In many cultures the lion has been the animal symbol of the sun since antiquity, as the astrological sign Leo. Dandelions are yellow discs, like the sun and open and close along with it. So, perhaps the old name might mean ‘rays of the sun’ rather than teeth of the lion?

Use dandelion for:

It is high in minerals, especially potassium, and vitamins A, B, C and D. The young leaves boiled up into a tea or eaten fresh in salads are detoxifiers, clearing blood and lymph by increasing elimination through the kidneys and bowels. This in turn benefits overall health.

If dandelion says ‘think spring’ it also suggests ‘think liver’. It has a reputation as a safe liver herb, especially where there are toxins and heat in the blood. The plant’s chemicals cause the gallbladder to contract, releasing bile, stimulating the liver to produce more.

Liver related conditions aided by the dandelion include jaundice and hepatitis, gallstones and urinary tract infection, painful menopause, PMT and menstruation, improvements are achievable in the pancreas, spleen, skin and eyesight.

It is the bitterness in dandelion leaves that makes them so good for your digestion. The bitter taste stimulates secretion of the digestive fluids, including stomach acid, bile and pancreatic juices. Dandelion promotes the appetite, and is recommended for those who have been ill or have lost their enthusiasm for food in advanced age.

Roasted dandelion root is a well known and caffeine free coffee substitute. The root can also be eaten as a vegetable.

The flowers don’t look very edible, but they are good eaten straight of the plant, mild and slightly sweet. Eating a few dandelion flowers often relieves a headache too.

The flowers also yield a refreshing dandelion beer and a face wash.

The sap or latex of the stems was once used in patent medicines, and was said to remove freckles and age spots corns and warts, to help hair grow and treat bee stings and blisters.

Dandelion is renowned for its diuretic properties, that is, increasing the flow of urine. What is less familiar is how well it strengthens the urinary system. It is effective in treating bed wetting in children and incontinence in older people. All parts of the plant have this effect, especially the leaves.

With most diuretic drugs potassium is lost from the body and has to be supplemented, but dandelion is naturally high in potassium. It can safely be used long term without causing imbalance. The leaves boiled with vegetable peelings make a potassium rich broth.

Dandelion’s diuretic effect makes it a good herb for treating swollen ankles for fluid retention and high blood pressure. It can also be used to alleviate shortness of breath in the elderly.

As a medicine the whole plant is invaluable for liver and gall bladder problems, and for skin complaints including eczema and acne. Its action helps reduce high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the pain of arteriosclerosis and joints, digestive problems, chronic illness, viral infections and heart and lung irregularities.

Dandelion can form part of a natural cancer treatment, and taken regularly as a food and medicine can help prevent some cancers, especially breast cancer and other chronic illnesses by keeping the body clean, toned and healthy.

Uses:

Dandelion Sap for
Warts
Calluses
Corns
Rough skin

Dandelion salad for
Sluggish liver
Constipation
Urinary problems
Fluid retention

Dandelion tincture for
Skin problems
Sluggish liver
Constipation
Urinary problems
Fluid retention
hritis
Gout
Hangovers
Chronic illness

Dandelion flower infused oil for
Muscle tension
Muscle aches
Stiff necks
hritis

Magickal Uses

Gender: Masculine
Planet: Jupiter
Element: Air
Deity: Hecate
Power: , wishes, calling spirits

Drink dandelion tea or coffee to promote psychic powers. Leave a cup of this hot infusion by the bed to call spirits.

Dandelion Coffee:

Dig up the roots, trim off the leaves and stems and any small rootlets. Wash off the earth and scrub the roots well, leave them in a warm place to drain and dry. Cut any larger roots in half and into short lengths, spread the pieces on a shallow roasting tin and bake in a hot oven (400F, 200C, Gas 6) for 30 minutes until the roots are brown and dry all through. Allow to cool then grind. Spread the grounds on the roasting tin and roast them for 7 minutes in a moderate oven (350F, 180C, Gas 4). Put 5-6 tablespoons grounds in a warm jub, pour on 500ml/2 cups/1 pint boiling water, stir and stand for 30 minutes. Strain into a pan and re-heat.

Dandelion Fizz
Gather the dandelion flowers in the sun, when they are fully open. The drink is very mildly alcoholic, sweet and quenching.

1 litre/5 cups prepared dandelion flowers
1 1/2 litres/4 1/2 US quarts water
1 kilo/4 cups sugar
2 lemons

Trim the stalks from the flowers, but leave the green sepals on and discard any overblown flowers or unopened buds. The prepared dandelions should fill a 1 litre/5 cups measure when gently pressed down.

Wash the flowers in a colander and tip them into an earthenware, enamel or plastic container preferably with a well fitting lid. Pour the boiling water on to the dandelions, cover the vessel with a lid, board or weighted plate and leave to stand for 12 hours.

Strain the liquid through a double thickness of muslin into a large saucepan. Add the sugar and the pared rind and juice of the lemons. Heat gently and stir until the sugar has dissolved, but do not allow to boil. Strain the liquid into jugs and leave to cool. Pour into clean, dry bottles with strong screw caps. Store in a cool, dark place. The brew is ready to rink in three or four weeks.

Tags: dandelion

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed May, 2011

Chickweed is a Star

ÓSusun S. Weed

Snowdrops and crocus flowers herald the spring. And if you look in between them, with luck, you’ll see a bright green creeping plant low to the ground with little white starry flowers: chickweed, a good friend of mine.

I say she’s a star, because her botanical name – Stellaria media – means little stars. And because she really stars at helping us when we need to gently dissolve something or to cool off inflamed tissues. Chickweed not only effects physical health, she is a psychic healer too. She opens us up to cosmic energies and gives us the inner strength we need to handle those energies.

Chickweed contains soapy substances, called saponins. Saponins, like soap, emulsify and increase the permeability of cellular membranes. When we consume chickweed those saponins increase our ability to absorb nutrients, especially minerals. They also dissolve and break down unwanted matter, including disease-causing bacteria, cysts, benign tumors, thickened mucus in the respiratory and digestive systems, and excess fat cells.

Yes, you heard me correctly, drinking chickweed infusion can eliminate fat cells. I put one ounce of dried herb (I weigh it) in a quart jar and fill it to the top with boiling water. I cap it tightly and wait for at least four hours, then strain and drink it, hot or cold, with honey or miso. What I don’t consume right away, I store in the refrigerator. A quart a day is not too much to drink, but even two cups a day can help you shed those unwanted pounds. (Do remember though that subcutaneous fat, the kind you can pinch, is healthy for women, so don’t get too thin.)

Chickweed’s ability to break cells open helps it get rid of bacterial infections when applied as a poultice. It is every mother’s favorite for dealing with children’s eye infections (pink eye). I crush a small handful of the fresh herb until it is juicy, then apply it directly to the troubled eye or infected wound, covering the chickweed with a small towel to keep it in place. I leave the poultice until the chickweed heats up, which indicates to me that bacteria are dying. Then I remove the poultice and throw the plant material away. It is critically important to use fresh chickweed for each application so bacteria are not reintroduced. Generally symptoms will at least start to go away after the first application, but using several more chickweed poultices, once or twice a day for several more days, will insure full healing.

Our beautiful star is superb at dissolving cysts and benign tumors. She especially shines when it comes to getting rid of ovarian cysts. Since many doctors, frightened of ovarian cancer, are fast to suggest surgical remedies for ovarian cysts, having a safe and effective green ally can save us from major surgery. Using chickweed to dissolve a cyst or benign tumor is a slow process, and requires consistency. It also requires chickweed tincture made from fresh, not dried, plant material. You can buy the tincture already made. Or make you own: Fill any jar, large or small, with fresh chopped chickweed and 100 proof vodka. Wait six weeks and it’s ready to use. A dropperful of the tincture taken 2-3 times a day for 2-16 months is the usual course.

I have seen chickweed dissolve ovarian cysts as large as an orange. One women used it to get rid of a dermoid cyst (which contains hair, bones, teeth, and fingernails); for that, she combined the chickweed with motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) and cronewort (emisia vulgaris) tinctures in equal parts. These three plants together are an ancient Chinese remedy for many “women’s problems.”

Chickweed loves the cool weather of spring and autumn; she hides when summer’s sun is high. This gives her a great ability to cool things off for us when we are overheated. I believe that sub-clinical inflammations are responsible for many of the chronic problems we have, including joint pain, digestive upsets, blood vessel disease, memory problems, and even some cancers. Regular use of chickweed takes the heat out and allows optimum functioning.

Women with “hot” bladders – such as those interstitial cystitis, chronic cystitis, or a bladder irritated by childbirth or abdominal surgery – adore chickweed. She soothes and cools, removes bacteria, and strengthens the bladder wall. What a star!

But don’t wait for a problem to get to know chickweed. She is delicious and ever so happy to jump into your salad bowl and share her star qualities with you.

Chickweed is loaded with nutrition, being high in chlorophyll, minerals – especially calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron, phosphorus, and potassium – vitamins – especially C, A (from carotenes), and B factors such as folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine.

No wonder old-time herbals recommend chickweed for “convalescents, weak children, the anemic, and the old”. Chickweed infusion is also a blessing for those recovering from surgery. (Tinctures are not nutritious.)

I’m going to grab my scissors and my basket and go outside and pick a bunch of chickweed and make this yummy spring salad: 4 cups fresh chickweed, 2 cups fresh watercress or miner’s lettuce, 1 cup fresh flowers, such as violets, and 2 tablespoons of finely-chopped wild chives. I dress it with olive oil, tamari, and whatever herbal vinegar strikes my fancy, or just plain apple cider vinegar.

There’s lots more information on the little star lady chickweed in my book Healing Wise. It’s green, like chickweed, like the blessings the Earth offers us so freely. So, grab your scissors, and go harvest some chickweed for dinner tonight. You’ll make a new friend who can really help when times are tough.

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@herbshealing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com

Tags: chickweed

• Herbal

Alex Crowe April, 2011

Inner Beauty

Many times in life, women look at themselves in the mirror.  They see little imperfections and usually those little blemishes look like massive craters in their skin. Most of the time it is simply a small inconsistency in the skin or a scratch that it takes a truly trained professional to find. To the beholder, it is something far more gruesome and painful to bear. It is a nightmare to have a pimple or blackhead and in polite company is it against the rules to mention these issues surrounding beauty.

Amazingly enough, beauty is an ideal that withstands the hands of time. So many people over the years put a stigma on what being beautiful means, what it encompasses and more than anything how to capture and maintain it. Young girls are brought up to think that without pounds of make-up or without having the ability to stay forever young, they can’t be beautiful. Natural beauty is a thing of the past, forever hidden by airbrushing and layers of paste.

In my opinion, things that should be kept in your make-up drawer should be things that accentuate the positive, not cover the flaws. Everyone has their own flaws. A flaw makes them more beautiful and shows the truth behind a soul. Inner beauty should be forced to show, and if the people you are involved with on a day to day basis don’t care enough about you to find out what makes you a wonderful human being, then they lose in the end, don’t they? They aren’t worth your time in trying to take off the layers of filth that they hide behind.

In my studies, I always come across things that you can make and are easily kept to bring out the inner beauty that everyone naturally possesses. There are so many tricks that have been made over the years to help you and they have long been forgotten. These tricks are what I want to write about today. I want to see more people bringing out their truth, not the lies that they are told to use.

I will just write about the face since that is mostly what people pay close attention to in today’s world.

Eyes can say so much about a person. They are the windows to the soul. It’s like they are little two way mirrors if you know what to look for. I personally think that a little eyeliner and mascara is all that is really needed to bring a beautiful eye into sight. You accentuate the eye color and bring it forward to make them pop. You don’t have to wear gobs of eye shadow to show that you have eyes. Let your natural color carry the people you meet away.

At the end of the day though, Safflower oil is great for removing the eye make-up. Advertisers want you to think you have to pay money to buy a packet of make-up wipes or cleansers. It can be even more inexpensive if you really try.

As for your cheeks, a great idea taken from the dark ages was pinching. No, it is not just for Saint Patrick’s Day, but also for cheeks. A couple of light pinches on the cheeks every so often can bring a pink hue to the skin naturally giving the bearer a great glow. It works wonders and costs nothing. How much better can you get than that?

Now, lips are a bit trickier. You could go around biting your lip to bring color to it, but often it can bruise and it could even look a bit awkward. A great lip balm recipe is from Kitchen Witchery by Marilyn F. Daniel. Take ½ cup Almond oil, ¼ cup Cocoa butter and ¼ cup Coconut oil and melt over a low fire. Stir in 1 tablespoon honey and 2 oz. beeswax. After the beeswax has melted, add 1 ½ teaspoons of any natural flavoring (my personal favorite is cherry). Any of the cooking supplies in your kitchen will work. Mix completely and test for firmness. It needs to be firm, so if needed add more beeswax to get the desired consistency.

So, Alex, what do you do when you have an unwanted pimple show up the night before your big meeting? That is easy. Valerian root tea, often great for those restless nights where Mr. Sandman doesn’t show is also great to dabble on a pimple. It will cause the pimple to dry up and clear up on its own. Other’s teas are good for this as well, but only the Valerian root is in my cupboard.

I would love to see more people relying on the assets they have instead of the pounds of make-up they purchase. I know that over night, we will not see so many more natural faces, but if some of you out there realize that your beauty has nothing to do with what the advertising agencies are telling you then we will be better off as a people. Children should be brought up seeing how wonderful the world is instead of what the items that are dragging us down look like. They should know that they are beautiful not because of what they possess, but because of who they are, what they do and what they believe in.

I know I am a dreamer, but I want to make other’s dream as well. If more people thought that they had a sense of self and knowing they are beautiful despite what others say, we would have less people that are thinking they aren’t worthy or killing themselves. We as a people would be happier and in the long run healthier.

So, take my advice and let that beautiful person shine through you. Don’t cover it up and make people take a chisel to see who you really are inside. Show them what you have on the outside and be proud of who you are. To be honest, if they don’t like you for your own true beauty, then they weren’t worth knowing the more expensive you that you were covering up with.

Tags: Consult Your Inner Psychic: How To Use Intuitive Guidance To Make Your Life Work Better, natural

• Crafts , Herbal , Recipes

Tansy Firedragon April, 2011

Garlic Mustard

(Alliaria petiolata)

Garlic Mustard grows throughout the UK and in most of Europe.  In the USA it is abundant in the mid western and north eastern states, but can also be found as far south as Kentucky and North Carolina.

In early spring, the light green leaves start to show in the hedgerows and woodland.  The plants can vary in height from 5-8 inches up to 3ft.  The broad, heart shaped leaves are toothed, and at the base of the plant grow on fairly long stalks.  Near to the top the leaf stalks are shorter and the leaves have prominent veins.  The flowers have four tiny white petals that grow at the top of the plant in a cluster of tight green buds and white flowers.  Much smaller unopened flower heads spring from the angle of the leaf stalks and main stem.

Common names are: Hedge Garlic, Sauce-all-Alone, Jack-by-the-Hedge and Poor Man’s Mustard. When bruised the whole plant has a smell of onion rather than garlic.

In 1657 William Coles wrote that is was eaten by many country people as sauce to their salt fish, and helped well to digest the crudities and other crude humours that are engendered by the eating thereof.

Early herbalists used the leaves for dropsy and to induce sweating.  The herbalist Sir John Hill recommended that they should be boiled with honey to make a syrup as a remedy for coughs and hoarseness.  The leaves were also believed to have antiseptic properties and were applied as dressings to open sores and ulcers.

Eaten as a fresh seasonal food it is good for the digestion and as a spring tonic for the whole body.

Sometimes you can find garlic mustard with exceptionally large leaves. These may have large, whitish, fleshy taproots, which taste like horseradish. They are good from late autumn to early spring, before the flower stalks appear. Use them like horseradish, grated into vinegar, as a condiment.

The pungent, mildly bitter basal leaves are good from late autumn to early spring, the plants seem to become more bitter as they mature. However the arrowhead shaped stem leaves are more pungent and less bitter in the spring along with the tasty white flowers, than the basal leaves.

Use garlic mustard raw in salads, mixed with more mild greens. It’s also good steamed, simmered, or lightly fried. It can also be used in sauces. Cook no longer than five minutes, or the leaves will become mushy.

Garlic Mustard Pesto

4 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons garlic mustard taproot

¾ cup parsley

1 cup garlic mustard leaves

1 cup basil

2 cups pine nuts

½ cup stock

1 ¼ cups olive oil

Chop the garlic and the garlic mustard roots finely, preferably in a food processor.

Add the parsley, garlic, garlic mustard leaves and basil and chop.

Add the pine nuts and chop coarsely.

Add the olive oil and the stock gradually and process until you create a coarse paste.

Magickal Properties: (use as you would garlic)

Gender: Masculine

Planet: Mars

Element: Fire

Powers: Protection, healing, exorcism, lust, anti theft

Tags: garlic mustard, Herbal, herbs

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed April, 2011

Taking Hormones? These herbs Are for You

ÓSusun S. Weed

More and more American women are using herbal remedies to help them with menopausal problems. Those who do take ERT (estrogen replacement) or HRT (hormone replacement) may be surprised to discover that herbal medicine has a lot to offer them as well.

Herbs for women on ERT/HRT include those that alleviate side-effects as well as those that counter problems caused by the hormones.

herbal Helpers Counter Side-Effects

Water Retention is the symptom most often cited for dissatisfaction with hormone replacement. herbal tinctures and tea, such as dandelion or cleavers, and ordinary foods can not only relieve the distress, they will go to the root of the problem and help prevent recurrences.

²  Dandelion root tincture (Taraxacum officinale) strengthens the liver and helps it process out the excess hormones you are taking. When the liver works well, the kidneys work better, and tissues no longer bloat. A dose is 10-20 drops in several ounces of water or juice 2-3 three times a day. If you have any digestion problems, take your dandelion before meals; otherwise, anytime is fine. You can safely take dandelion daily for months or years if you need or want to.

²  Cleavers herb tincture (Galium molluga) tells the lymphatic tissues to get moving. Relief from edema is usually rapid when 20-30 drops are taken in several ounces of water or juice. Repeat up to six times at hourly intervals if needed. Cleavers is especially helpful for easing swollen, sore breasts.

²  Foods that relieve water retention include (in order of effectiveness): asparagus, nettles, corn (and corn silk tea), grapes, cucumbers, watermelon (and watermelon seed tea), parsley, celery, black tea, and green tea.

Headaches are the second most common side-effect of hormone use. Unfortunately, they are common among menopausal women not taking hormones, too. Herbs that help relieve headache without a drug-like action – such as dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle, burdock, garden sage, skullcap, and St. John’s/Joan’s wort – are generally considered safe to take with hormones.

²  Chinese herbalists say headaches are caused by liver stress. My favorite liver-strengthening herbs are dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle seed, and burdock. I use one at a time, a 15-25 drops of the tincture several times a day, for two weeks. If symptoms continue, I switch to a different herb.

²  A strong tea of garden sage leaves (Salvia officinalis) offers immediate relief from headaches and helps prevent future ones. It also reduces night sweats.

²  Tinctures of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and St. Joan’s/John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) ease pain and relieve muscle spasms. Use 5-20 drops of skullcap and a dropperful of St.J’s at the very first sign – no, the very first thought – of a headache. Repeat the doses every five minutes until pain free. Skullcap can be quite sedative, especially in large doses.

herbal Allies That Prevent Problems Caused by Taking Hormones

Breast Cancer risk is increased 20% in women who use ERT for five or more years. Use of HRT for five or more years increases breast cancer risk by 40%. Each five years of continued use increases the risk. In addition, women who take ERT are far more likely to get uterine or endometrial cancers. All women on hormones increase their risks of lung and ovarian cancer, too. Nourishing herbs such as red clover, and foods such as beans and yogurt, offer easy ways to stay cancer-free.

²  Red clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense), when dried and brewed into a strong infusion (one ounce herb steeped in a quart of boiling water for at least four hours) prevent cancer by providing phytoestrogens that counter the cancer-promoting effects of oral hormones. Usual dose is 2-4 cups a day. The infusion tastes like black tea and can be flavored with mint if you like.

²  Beans, especially lentils, but also yellow split peas, black turtle beans, baby limas, Anasazi beans, and red kidney beans are also rich sources of anti-cancer phytoestrogens. Since uncooked beans and unfermented soy contain anti-nutritional factors that may promote bone loss and dementia, soy “milk” and tofu are not recommended. Miso and tamari definitely help to prevent breast cancer but soy isoflavones may promote it.

²  Yogurt helps build powerful immunity. Women who eat a quart of yogurt a week have 700% less cancer than women who eat no yogurt.

Dry eyes afflict more than 9% of women using ERT and over 7% of those on HRT. Risk increases by 70% for every year of continued use. And the longer a woman uses hormones, the greater her risk. Herbs such as oatstraw, chamomile, and chickweed can help relieve and prevent this problem.

²  Oatstraw infusion (Avena sativa) cools and moistens your eyes from the inside out, builds strong bones too. Use one ounce of dried herb in a quart jar; fill to the top with boiling water and cap tightly. Let steep four or more hours. Dose is 2-4 cups a day. Refrigerate after straining.

²  Cucumber slices ease dry eyes; so do chamomile tea bags.

²  The ultimate ally for women with dry eyes is fresh chickweed (Stellaria media), applied as a poultice to the closed eyes. Leave on for five minutes, or until the plant material feels warm (it will heat up). Repeat as needed.

Stroke and Heart Attack are actually increased by use of ERT/HRT, though modern medicine has long proclaimed the opposite. Every major double-blind study done to date has created a larger and larger gap between ERT/HRT’s supposed ability to help cardiovascular health and its actual results. Protect you heart with nourishing and tonifying herbs and foods such as motherwort, hawthorn, and cherries.

²  Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) tincture helps the heart. The Japanese claim it is their secret of longevity. A dose is 5-15 drops, twice a day. Motherwort also relieves hot flashes, calms tachycardiia, and eases anxiety. It’s an all-in-one remedy for menopausal women.

²  Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) flowers, leaves, and fruits are all used to maintain heart health and control fluid build-up in heart tissues. A dose is 20-30 drops of tincture 2-4 times a day, or a cup of tea with meals. This widespread shrub is considered one of the finest heart tonics in the world.

²  Cherries are even better than apples at keeping the doctor away. Dried cherries and cherry juice, even tincture of cherries.

More than three-quarters of the women in America over the age of fifty have refused ERT/HRT. If you want to join them, taper off your dosage slowly, while continuing to use nourishing and tonifying herbs such as dandelion, motherwort, red clover, oatstraw, and seaweed. And pick up a copy of New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90. Meanwhile, these Wise Woman hints can help you stay healthy and counter the detrimental effects of hormone replacement.

Tags: herbs, horomones

• Herbal

OSusun S. Weed March, 2011

Blood Mysteries

ÓSusun S Weed

In the beginning, according to the Wise Woman tradition, everything began, as everything does, at birth. The Great Mother of All gave birth and the earth appeared out of the void. Then the Great Mother of All gave birth again, and again, and again, and people, and animals, and plants appeared on the earth. They were all very hungry. “What shall we eat?” they asked the Great Mother. “Now you eat me,” she said, smiling. Soon there were a very great many lives, but the Great Mother of All was enjoying creating and giving birth so much that she didn’t want to stop. “Ah,” she said smiling, “now I eat you.” And so she still does.

We all come from the same mother. She is the wise woman. We all return to her embrace, her bloody-rich womb place, when we die. Every woman is a whole/holy form of her, able to be whole/holy mother of all life, able to be whole/holy destroyer of life. Her power is her blood that flows and flows, her blood which is life and gives life. Every woman’s menstrual blood and birth-time blood is a holy mystery.

What are the blood mysteries? Why are they central to the understanding of the Wise Woman tradition?

Blood mysteries teach that menstrual blood and birthing blood are holy blood, power blood, healing blood. The blood mysteries teach us to remember that life and healing come from and return to woman, to the wise woman, to the woman who bleeds and bleeds. And does not die.

Blood mysteries reveal that menstrual (moontime) blood and birth blood are so holy, so full of potential, so full of the void that they are to be used only to heal, to heal by nourishing. Holy woman-blood is nourishing blood, blood of love, blood of abundance, blood that heals the earth.

Blood mysteries recall the immense power of the bleeding woman. Power enough to share in great nourishing give-away from mother to matrix, give-away of nourisher to nourisher. When we bleed into the ground (in reality or fantasy) our power re-grounds as our blood flows through the personal root chakra and into the earth.

Bleeding into the ground, bleeding freely, we know ourselves as women, as nourishers of life, as givers of nourishment to the plants, givers of holy nourishment: our moontime blood.

I am woman giving away nourishment to ensure this planet’s life. With my moontime power, my blood, with my birthing power, my blood, I feed the earth who feeds us all. Every month I remember: I am woman. I am earth. I am life. I am nourishment. I am change.

I am woman, blatantly and repeatedly confronted with my changes: hormonal harmonics stirring moon time visions, ovulatory oracles, pre-menstrual crazies, orgasmic knowings, birth ecstasies, breast-feeding bliss, menopausal moods.

I am wholeness. I am woman. I know life, death, pain, and health in my marrow, in my womb. I know the bloody places: the narrow space between life and death, the bloody place of birth, the bloody mess of nourishing life, the bloody flow of letting life go. I am woman. My blood is power. Peaceful power. Peaceful blood.

My blood is holy nourishment. My blood nourishes the growing fetus. My blood becomes milk to nourish the young child. My blood flows into the ground as holy nourishment for the Great Mother, Gaia, Mother Earth.

Gaia, whose ways are bloody. Woman, whose ways are bloody. Blood of nourishment. But bloody. Bloody menstrual blood, bloody birth blood. Blood of peace, nourishing blood. Blood of health/wholeness/holiness, not of sacrifice. The Wise Woman tradition is a bloody-handed woman, a bloody-thighed woman, a woman who gives birth, a woman who sees to the other side of things.

Health/wholeness/holiness is always changing. Life is mysterious, moving in spirals of change. Spirals moving to, through, from the void. Change making the hole so we can see the holy healthy gift of our wholeness.

“Sit, sister, here on the soft green moss, and give your sacred moon blood to the earth, back again to the spiral of life. Let flow your womb’s blood red to the green and brown of earth. Sit here. Relax and close your eyes and let the visions come. Rest now and give your moon blood to nourish the mother who nourishes us. Relax and let the visions come.”

The time of menstrual bleeding, according to the Wise Woman tradition, is a time of visions. Any woman who pays attention to these visions will find the power of shamans, witch doctors, medicine wo/men.

“Add a bit of red leaf to your herbal mixtures, any red leaf except poison ivy. That will make the medicine strong,” says a friend, apprentice to a Native American shaman. And the wise woman inside me whispers: “They do this to evoke the power of menstrual blood.”

These are the natural powers of menstruating, menopausal, and post-menopausal women:

²  Oneness with the earth as a responsive nurturing presence

²  Communication with plants, animals, rocks

²  Weather making

²  Shape shifting

²  Invisibility

²  Communication with fairies, devas, elves, dragons, unicorns

²  Foreknowledge

²  Acutely sensitive senses of smell, taste, hearing, sight, touch

²  Healing

The Wise Woman tradition understands healing/wholing as blood mysteries. The blood of birth and death, and the blood of nourishment, these are the natural knowledge of women; these are the things that make us wise.

Tags: blood

• Herbal