Wild Herb Ways, The medicine Road

Going Directly to the plant: The purpose and intention of Wild Herb Ways is to provide fresh, pure plant extracts, and dried or fresh herbs, from the south west to people who may not have access to the pristine desert, forest and sky islands of Arizona and New Mexico.. I live in an especially unique part of the south west where the traditions of native, Anglos and Latinos has combined to produce a unique approach to herbalism. Putting fresh plants in the hands of people who need them is my goal. 

      One of the most important techniques I share with others, when they ask, is the direct approach to plant medicine. Outside of any framework, the direct approach to the plant medicine involves going directly to the plant where it grows in its natural habitat. This is what I do to make healing remedies of "remedies".

     The definition of herbal medicine is change. Herbs bring change. Herbs as we take them into our bodies create change, they create meaningful patterns that engender well-being in the bodies inherent move towards homeostasis. The herbs are gentle reminders to the body to heal and return to wholeness. In this way A person who works with herbs for any amount of time sees that the herbs as they are taken into the body work in a cyclic way in the same way that change comes in many forms, we have linear change with the progression towards a goal and we have cyclic change that flips back-and-forth from one opposite to another. The cyclic change is the change of day to night, of sickness to health, of spring to winter, of hot to cold, of love to indifference. As we see the patterns of herbs as they move through the body the herbalist knows that the herbs will bring change in certain predicted ways in certain patterns of change this is how we know the herbs.

       All you need to do is to taste the plant, listen to the song and smell the power that is in the plant. The plants have subtle songs that we hear and share with others. This is singing for power, singing for health. I often think I work primarily with songs, songs each plant has given me. This is the same power that is in us and all living things. We see the plant rising up in the spring sending it's energy upward from the roots. Making leaves, flowers and seed. Then the great life force rising peaks and flows back down. Storing itself in the roots. Then in autumn the same energy returns to the roots. And in this lesson is our own balance and restoring quality that we seek, that we use, that we understand and relate to in this plant medicine. All of the great plant medicines like redroot, Ceanothus fendleri, have the same story, the same song, the same action of rising in the spring. Then the energy in the fall returns to the roots. This is how we harvest our plant medicines. We follow them and let them guide us through their changes. Herbal medicine is the practice of change, bringing change into our own bodies with these plants. Herbal medicine is change. And this is how we relate to the plants on our own journey through our own lives.

      A crucial and important part of herbal study is the actual tasting of plants, this is called the organoleptic approach so that we engage our senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, where the plant is growing. We work with the plant to develop a sense of the energetics of the plant in the human body. So as herbalists we spend time looking, seeing, touching the plant and tasting the plant in various locations to find out the medicinal properties of the plant. One particular plant can vary greatly in its medicinal qualities through different seasons of the year. One specific plant can vary greatly in its energetic and medicinal qualities with regard to where it's growing, what type of year it's been in terms of wetness and warmth. Based on this hands-on, organoleptic approach to plant medicine we begin to understand that specific plants can be vastly different depending on where they're growing and what time of the year we encounter them.
Within this folk tradition, because of this, we have plants that have developed a reputation within the historical context of bioregional herbalism of nourishing and protecting and nourishing the body in disease states, yet also nourishing the spirit.

    Plant energetics: our organoleptic journey with the plants is to engage the plants with our senses. We touch the plant and journey to the place where the plant is growing . We examine the forest and the cool moistness. We allow our tongue to wrap around the roots and use our nose to smell the strong aromatics. We taste the bitterness, saltiness or sweetness. However we also study within the oral tradition, gathering with teachers who share stories from their teachers. Often we visit the same medicine gardens where others have come before. We study the ethnobotanical records, botany and go back to the eclectic tradition of American Herbalist physician.

    Each person due to their unique situation has inherited a kind of tendency towards disease, a pattern of illness in connection with the body systems. The tendency for weakness in a particular body part, the tendency for blockages to occur within a body system is going to be different for each individual. It is fundamental to know and identify the area of inherited weakness. We are born with an accumulation of vital energy that protects us in adolescence and into our 20's. As we age in our 30's and 40's, this protective energy becomes less and less. We can get insight into our pattern of disease by remembering our childhood illnesses. Did we have broken bones? Sore throats? Ear aches? Traumatic health challenges in childhood? Were we in general strong and of good health, or frail and often bed ridden. Where were those diseases, in what part of the body. It is important to see these patterns in ourselves and in others that we care for with our herbal medicine.
    Remember that the definition of herbs of herbal medicine is change, herbs are agents of change that we use consciously, that we select and use to bring into the body, to lead the body away from the disease state into health. Often the basis of sickness is a stuck condition, a blockage, so we use herbs to create that flow, create the flow, unblock that blocked area. In terms of sickness and health, and disease states we have or inherited tendency towards disease which we inherited from our mother, our father, grandparents, our great parents and even further in terms of our racial, cultural, national trans-personal history. Because this portion of our being is inherited it's not something that we can move away from deny or even affirm. It's just something that's there that's in the background that we have to deal with. These inherited patterns of illness and disease are where you are going to break down in terms of living in terms of time, through time. There is a way of looking at the world which is intensely hopeful and positive in terms of never growing old, of never dying, of never breaking down and in fact this is a delusional state because as human beings we can look around and you know that each person that is alive will die. No one anywhere at anytime has maintained health throughout their life or else they would still be living. We all will break down and as herbalists it's important to see the pattern of where this breakdown will occur based on the inherited factor, the environmental factor, and takes steps to minimize illness, maximize function, vitality and health.

     One of the most important elements of health is to feel safe. As human beings we continually seek feedback from the social environment. We are seeking affirmation. We are also alert to negation. Just as our bodies are in a feedback loop which leads to action. So that when we are thirsty we seek out fluids and seek out water. When we feel hunger we want to seek nourishment. our body is saying eat. when we breathe we are seeking air. when we're running and moving we breathe deeply to satisfy our need for air. we can't hold our breath. We have to be in flow. we are in the process of exchange, things coming and going in and out of the bounded whole. When we are tired and sleepy we lay down to sleep, we rest our body. Our body is continually in this feedback loop where things arise and we meet their needs we take action, skillful appropriate action based on that feedback loop of listening and then acting on that information.

   
     It is important as herbalists to engage in encounter with the plant. We must meet the plants. So when you see the plant you see it growing where it is. Where it is, is a lot of the work of what it is. Where it is can answer the question of what is it for. It is important to slowly spend time with the plant, and spontaneously make mental notes as to its pattern of growth. We must examine the plant in its growing environment. Asking questions, does it grow in the low desert? Is it in shade? In shadow, direct sunlight? What plants is it growing with, what is the plant community? Is it a wet riparian zone, a high alpine meow, or far away from standing flowing water? These are questions that can only be answered in time. One particular plant may grow in many different environments. In these different environments it will make different medicine.
   Yet even with all this sort of good questioning it's still very hard to answer who is it for. You have to look deeper and look away from the plant to see what nourishes the plant. The most important part of her medicine in this way is that slow gentle shift and although heroic medicine with herbs is done and will be done,  it's better to go with this slow change, it's going to last a long time. You can go from symptom symptom and analyze the symptoms with a microscope even down to the level of the blood cell and then take it further take a bigger microscope and look beyond the blood cell to the actual chemical components all these elements that are in the blood. Yet whatever it is that is what it is so we can really only go so far with heroic medicine and then we have to say OK feed the body, nourish, rest and re-create the body, hydrate the body, get the body ready for action, activate the body, act, move,  do! Become!  This nursing and nourishing of the body with the plant medicines comes from the relationship that the plant had with where it is, how it's growing and what it's doing in the place where it is.

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