most commonly called osha, significantly in Spanish 'oso' is bear.
There is a deep connection with Ligusticum porteri and bear, across all the plant/people/place interface of the sky islands and montain southwest where Ligusticum porteri lives as low as 6500 feet in Nuevo Mexico but in general from 8000-11,000 feet. Strictly a mountain plant. It is found near or within groves of aspen, conifers, fir and oak.
Geographic range
: L. porteri is distributed throughout the Rocky Mountain range, spanning Montana and Wyoming in the north, through Colorado, Nevada and Utah, to New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico Chihuahua and Sonora.
The importance of the bear and the bear stories of Osu, osha, in Ligusticum porteri. One of the peoples who have lived with osha in the Southwest are the Utes, and the Utes of stories of the bear which are important for understanding Ligusticum porteri.
One of the stories of the Utes who live in southern Utah near Blanding, UT, is two brothers were out and about in the spring time hunting and gathering and they saw a bear in the standing upright and clawing, marking a the tree, making a loud scratching sound and digging around for roots.
The bear talked to these two brothers and taught them how to dance, and sing the bear dance. The Bear asked the two brothers to go back to their people and teach them the bear dance. To do the bear dance in the springtime when lightning and thunder renew the earth once again after a long winter.
The bear taught how to gather together with others and celebrate the energy of the spring the new life that comes the greening of the plants. Up to the present day the Ute people have kept this connection with the spring bear dance
at Sleeping Ute Mountain. It said that the dance is held in March when the first thunder and lightning signal the awakening of the mountains of spring.
The dance is opens with the rubbing of a notched stick making a sound that is said to be this the sound of the bear scratching on the tree in the spring time.
Dancing is a way of connecting to the flow of the energy of the earth, of the lightning in the spring time,
and mobilizing connecting this event in a personal way with the group.
In the bear dance the cat man makes sure that any woman's request to dance is honored, the bear dance is a woman's choice and the when the woman will ask a man to dance that can't be turned down.
In the traditions of the Southwest there are stories of the bear woman that she-bear and this has been carried on into the present time.
There's a strong female presence in bear and in the renewal of spring, and there is an honoring of this female prerogative in the place and in the fertility of the place that happens in the spring time.
In the folk tradition osha is considered a plant protection and this is also mentioned in an old ethnographic study on the Pirates In "Southern Paiute Shamanism" by Isabel T. Kelly published in 1939, she mentions Ligusticum called, paxu'rani was applied for snake bite and the roots rubbed on moccasins and carried as a talisman to avoid snakebite and for protection.
It is a tonic not only for the body, but also has uses for the psyche: the heart and mind.
The Navajo also dwell in the area of Ligusticum porteri. They have stories that can only be told when the bear is sleeping and they determine that time from the lightning in the fall during winter and then when energy from zig-zag lightening returns,
the lightning in the spring this is the time when the healing generative energy of the earth returns.
Now I as I look osha with only a few green leaves remaining.
I make sure that I scatter and plant the seeds around osha covering them with soil. There is a chill of coldness in the air, most of the aspen leaves the fallen and those that remain are yellow.
With the clouds running across the sky and another full moon it has the feeling of energy going back to the roots. This is the time to gather osha up on these high laying down mountain plateaus.
I am reminded of the bear with osha the long nights of winter.
Plants of Protection: Like yerba Santa, Eriodictyon angustifolium, osha is a plant of protection. As I mentioned earlier it is used both for an actual rattlesnake bite and also rubbed on the body on the soles of the feet, moccasins and or tied on the shoes to ward off rattlesnakes when traveling through areas where one is likely to meet a rattlesnake.
Question may be why would one need protection? And why protection from a plant? How can a plant protect me? Protect me from what? This is an important question because as we approach herbs and plants from a bioregional herbal perspective it becomes clear that not only do herbs nourish. Not only do herbs nourish in the sense of nourishing the body, of addressing imbalances, deficiencies and usefulness in a disease state, herbs herbal medicine and or preparations also enter into the spirit in the greater health of a person, the soul.
In the sense of plants, as I explored earlier, plant/medicine and medicine plants: there is also the aspect of nourishing the greater body nourishing the mind the heart the spirit in a bioregional sense. As we live and take roots in a place it becomes important to visit the same place time and time and time again when gathering plants during all times of the year.
To not only see the plants in it's dried or prepared form but to see the living plant in all its phases. In this sense one is completing oneself within the bioregion by taking notice of the plant not only taking notice of the medicinal properties or energetics of the plant but also taking notice of the plant itself and what it can give. Listening to the plant itself and spending time with the plant develop the aesthetic sense of communication with the plant., and acknowledge the connection to the natural world around you. A lot of this information and knowledge has less to do with reading or studying and more to do with just spending time with the plants where they grow. Because as human beings we are intimately connected with the plant both in the present moment now and throughout our history. Within this folk tradition, because of this, we have plants that have developed a reputation within the historical context of bioregional herbalism of nursing, nourishing and protecting the spirit. Oso, la Medicina del osa, medicine of the bear, Ligusticum porteri is one of these plants. Sometime the plant due to its scent and physical nature, or due to the power of smell can remind us instantly and immediately of a greater whole, a greater reality. Can awakening us a sense of a larger context in which we are acting. Especially if we have sought the plants out ourselves, in their own environments, spending time with them in the spring, summer, winter and autumn. They can be reminders. They can remind us that we have power and resilience to overcome the current situation and this can be a strength. This can be the plants role as a talisman, a charm to ward off evil. Evil whether rattlesnakes or sorcery which may or may not of been used against us. And here let's remember that sorcery and witchcraft has to do with peoples view of us. Sorcery is an attempt to place a concept of self upon us that does not correlate with our inner nature and current situation. Often times a self concept can be an implanted thought. That places us in a limitation which is no longer valid. So when we are in a time of stress or turmoil or crisis. The plant can remind us of our resilience in the face of crisis by placing us in a larger context.
This contextual shift is part of the work of plants. Much of our anxiety stress and issues have to do with the purely human realm,
and although we spend much of our time in this place our depths of our being go much deeper than that and part of the healing energy the plants can summon is this reminder that we are bigger than the situation we face.
Plant energetics:
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