The wisdom of Native American Medicine

The mystique of the wise Indian Medicine Man fascinates many of us, especially in contrast to our materialist culture. From Hollywood movies to the "shamanistic" practices taught on the internet, we may be offered tantalizing glimpses into the spiritual basis of these practices but rarely are we given anything like a realistic portrayal of what real Native American Medicine might entail.

Today I happened to trip over this moving video on youtube (of all places!). In a mere 3 minutes or so, it reveals an aspect of Native medicine that I consider to be one of the most wise I've ever seen. If we adopted this into our own health care systems, be they standard medical practice or alternative healing, how much better off could we be?

Taking requests

Winter - for most of us - the time of year we read and plan and read some more and plan some more.

I know there are several of my readers who've already branched into growing/wildcrafting and making their own remedies, and others who are considering doing so.

Mad as a wet hen

Mass production of remedies is antithetical to natural medicine just like mass production of food is antithetical to, well, food.

Do I even have to write the rest of this post? Have I not made my point?

Is it not the height of irony - or perhaps the term is lipservice, or even hypocrisy - that those in the throes of all natural this or organic that or "Paleo" (hahaha) still take nutritional supplements in capsules? While I agree wholeheartedly that it is, in fact, difficult to attain all the nutrients one needs from today's depleted foodstuffs, it's not impossible. Maybe these people could just fucking try harder.

And what of their medicines?

A ranty piece on subtlety in herbal medicine

(Okay, it's not that ranty. But this is a passionately written piece about concepts I consider essential to the understanding of what's behind herbal medicine. Good herbal medicine.)

I call myself a slow learner. I'm not being derogatory, I choose to learn slowly.

I learn best intimately. I don't do well with facts & figures and nomenclatures, they just sit there on the surface of my brain. I need sensory experience of what I'm learning, that's what gets new ideas down into the interior regions where they can hook onto similars and stand facing opposites and sometimes sing harmony with whatever tune's been popular in the play list of my mind that day.

Mixing metaphors may be grammatically verboten, but, well, fuck the grammarians. If they can't follow a thought through all the twists and turns it might take that's their problem. Tidy, linear, quantitative thinking is well and good if you're looking to corral a concept, and tame it. So you can bob its tail and braid its mane and show it off. Me, I like my thoughts free to get into trouble, raid the neighbour's cornfield.

And I wonder, what are students of herbal medicine learning when they're taught along the lines of "berberine is the active ingredient in goldenseal"? Does molecular weight teach us anything we can use on the ground?

Really?

Tea vs decoction (and everything in between)

Some of us been talking about burdock root in the comments section at Tim's veggiepharm blog and in background emails, too.

But we're getting a little mixed up in our terminology about how we're using it, so here's a quick rundown of the 'official' terms for the various kinds of hot water methods used in herbal medicine.

These guidelines apply to most herbs, not just burdock. And yeah, there are exceptions of course.

A crockpot decoction experiment

This post isn't strictly about mullein, but it begins there.

I've got my slow cooker on the counter and it's on a good simmer. After a few hours cooking last evening and sitting to cool overnight it's been humming along all day. It holds my latest experiment, a couple of days' long deep decoction of 4 or 5 quite small first year mullein plants, roots and leaves together. One doesn't usually decoct (as in simmer for a long time) the leaves of plants because they're too delicate; decoctions are for the tough stuff like barks and roots. But as I said, this is an experiment. Besides, mullein leaves are made of stronger stuff than most leaves, and I want to find out just what they'll offer up this way.

I dug the plants out of the snow yesterday as we were having a bit of a thaw - oh man, that was fun - because, well, I have lots of mullein out there and I could. It's been calling me, mullein has.

Chaga is quieting

Chaga - ah, chaga. Just for the moment, forget anything you're ever read about it boosting immunity or fighting free radicals. Picture, if you will, a forested hillside. Birch. It's winter, the sun slants on an angle through the trees. The air is crisp and all is quiet. Very, very quiet.

It's been my experience - and that of one other person that I know of - that when I take chaga on a regular basis, quiet comes over me. I just don't want to speak. I also really want to be outside, in the sun, and when winter comes I especially want to just stand still in the winter sun and the cold wind feels good to me. Odd, eh?

The lesson of aspen

Windfall!

Flower essences revisited and a few thoughts on dabbling vs serious study (of anything)

The flower essence posts sure are popular, and there have been some questions from readers, so instead of answering them each privately by email, I'll try to cover more ground here in a post.

First off - no, I will not supply them to others. Yes, I did mention to a couple of you that there is a local shop sorta interested in buying my tinctures, oils & essences, but that's a bit different, it's in bulk so I wouldn't have to deal with the time & expense of filling little bottles and mailing things out.

Besides, I haven't yet decided if I could, in good conscience, sell essences at all. Maybe I shouldn't even have opened my mouth to that shop owner that I make them; I still see essences as intensely personal concoctions, best made from one's own flowers. Tinctures & essences are very different animals.

Essences work more on an energetic level than tinctures and since energetic issues are so incredibly variable, I can't say (nor can anyone else, I'd think) with any certainty, what kinds of effects any one flower essence would have for any one person.

I'm beginning to see working with flower essences the same way I see working with something like the Tarot.

Blueberry flowers, gratitude and magic

From this site: (chosen because of its simplicity, low woo-factor and because there's the occasional quote in the chart from Matthew Wood, my current favourite writer/herbalist.)

"Blueberry (low bush)
Vaccinium Angustifolium

This essence brings resiliency on all levels- physical, emotional, psychological. It enables the person who takes it to “bounce back” from illness or adversity. Low Bush Blueberry is a good addition to any healing blend and an important part of the blend Crisis Care."

Who couldn't use a little more resiliency? I know I could, and Paul (my husband, co-conspirator and all around good guy) wouldn't mind a little more himself, so it seemed a good essence for us to try out. And also, blueberries are something we've got plenty o' in this neck of the woods. This is blueberry country.

It's also blackfly season.

Flower essences - where does the information about them come from?

Following up on the last post of a couple days ago ..

Talk about a rabbit hole!

No surprise, this - the descriptions of the attributes of the flower essences are extremely variable between sources.

There's Edward Bach's original work, (here's the official site) and those who adhere to it; that's fairly standardized (not that I believe 'standardized' is a necessarily always a good thing, but the man was a pioneer and his work is valuable ..). There's also a dizzyingly large array of essences 'discovered' since Bach, because let's face it, there are more than the 38 flowers that he had access to in the English countryside; people want to (and should) be able to use what grows near them ..

A new schtick for me - flower essences

I never thought I'd see the day I'd be diving into the airy-fairy, woo-filled world of flower essences, but if you were to rummage amongst all the jars of infused oils and deeply coloured tinctures on the top of my china cabinet today you'd find 4 jars and several small brown dropper bottles of what looks very much like plain water.

Flower essences are sorta-kinda like homeopathic remedies. It's one of those "they're the same only different" deals. Their similarity is that both are extremely diluted - I'll tell you just how diluted in a bit - but they also differ in a very important way.

A spoonful of sugar - discussing (medicinal) herbal syrups

It's been years since I've been able to dry the airy parts of some of my herbs successfully, especially those with large or thick leaves. The Ottawa River valley is notoriously humid to begin with; we've had a few really really humid summers in a row and this one, phew, it's been downright wet (but at least not hot!).

So, as with the past few summers, I have to find other ways to preserve my herbs for winter. One of those ways is by making syrups. I've been told that the pioneer women in my region nearly always preserved their herbs as syrups. I don't know how accurate that is, but I can see the reasoning. Syrups are instantly available, they can be easily turned into a cup of hot, sweet tea, and they're (let's face it) easier to get down the throat of a recalcitrant child (or husband) (or farm hand). In days of yore, tinctures weren't the 'thing' they are now, booze being at a premium or verboten. I wonder about the availability of sugar to a housewife way up in the bush, though ..

Write it down!

There's a post for all aspiring herbalists and garblers over at the other blog. Go see.

Where I'm at these days.

I'm still not in the mood for serious picture-taking, method-describing posts these days, but I am still writing.

Much of what I'm writing about is plant related, it's just less about the how-to and more about the why, so I think it more appropriate that they're posted over on my other, kinda free form blog. When I write about plants there, I (usually remember to) post a notification on the top right of the side bar on this blog, so you can click on over and read them. Today's post about flower essences is educational enough for this blog, I suppose, but maybe a little 'woo' ..?

Recommended books, sites and video channels

I'm about plum dried up when it comes to ideas for 'click-worthy' blog posts here, so instead here's some suggested reading & viewing for those of you with a genuine interest in wildcrafting and/or working with plants in any way.

What winter hath wrought

The glacier in the back yard started to retreat yesterday. There was much joy! Much puttering about was done! Supper was late! Perma-dirt under the fingernails was initiated!

There's a long way to go yet of course. Along the edges it still looks like this:

The rhubarb patch. Hahahahaha.

Bush etiquette

By request ..

Whether you've moved to the country or you're just visiting, there are do's and don't's surrounding how to get the best out of a ramble. I spent my childhood in rural areas, then spent the next 30-some years in cities. When we moved out here to the wilderness - it really is wilderness as soon as you set foot outside this village - there were some things I remembered, but there was a lot I had to re-learn about the vulnerabilities humans face in what we Canadians call 'the bush'.

This isn't the city, nor it is a National Park designed for humans' recreational enjoyment in a quasi-wilderness environment. It's a land unto itself, it's the land, and it's bigger than you might think. It's gorgeous but it doesn't suffer fools gladly!

Susun Weed does stand-up comedy

This is part one of a series of videos of her talk at the 2016 Transformation Conference. Susun Weed is one of the grand old dames of 'herbal medicine as people's medicine'; someone I respect greatly for her wisdom and in this case, her wry sense of humour.

Beauty in the garden - the best argument against using store bought herbal medicine

(This post is just an excuse to put up some pictures. Click to embiggen and let yourself dream. There will be links for more info on the medicinal uses of each plant at the end of the post.)

My St. J patch, nestled in with its friend
the ornamental willow.

Got inflammation? Maybe you're angry ..

or frustrated, or suffering from a build-up of feelings you just can't face. So you hid that stuff in your belly, where it's gumming up the works. Or your joints. Or just under your skin.

In other words, it might not be your food choices or your gut bugs or your histamine levels being out of whack, or whatever the latest theory on health happens to be. It might be - and please note that I say might be - an emotional issue.

I'm not saying it's all in your head (no, it's not in my head it's in my knees!). I am saying that if you have tried "everything" and nothing works, or it works for a while and then it doesn't, you might want to look into your heart.

wildcucumber - a troll for Mother Nature

I troll in the comment sections of GreenMedInfo and Natural News - you should look for me there and join in sometime! - and today, in the comments below a post on (shocker!) the contamination of commercial supplements, I said this:

"This has been known for decades, yet people still buy supplements instead of eating real food or turning to growing their own, including herbal remedies.

And before you try to tell me that 'not everyone can' do these things, let me assure you that anyone can find sources of clean food, anyone can grow clean food IF and WHEN they wake up to the truth - that consumerism leads to chronic, learned helplessness.

Strike out on your own people, grow some 'nads and free yourself from Big Herb."

And do you know what the mods did? They removed my post, of course.

To read the rest of this post, click on over to my other blog. See you there!

Goldenseal - a misunderstood miracle worker

When I found tiny bags of goldenseal powder (Hydrastis canadensis) at the little health food store in the village of Killaloe, I was delighted.

You don't see goldenseal available that way very often anymore, it's all in capsule or tincture form, adulterated and/or mixed into inappropriate formulae. That's a shame. When I expressed my joy on finding the 'real deal' to the lady who runs the store, saying "I don't use goldenseal more than every few years, but when you need it, you need it!", she nodded deeply. There is nothing quite like it.

All our relations

I'm doing most of my writing over at my other blog these days. Here is the most recent.

Assessing our vulnerability

There's a post over at my other blog about our recent ice & snow storm.