Anemone Wind Flower, Sunna

      Here we have the queen of wind and snow

the ice queen, first flower of spring, the dream of perfect beauty, the wind flower sensed by some directly, as love acceptance and forgiveness, "Forgiveness free from forgetfulness, to be awake, aware, vibrant and vital...", Anemone tuberosa to all our relatives, as a familiar. 

     For those familiar with boutique herbal community herbal preparations, or sold offerings in tincture form, fortunately or unfortunately Wind flower, Anemone tuberosa, is a significant potent historical herbal medicine and is discussed here solely and only in a historical folklore framework. Consult and seek out licensed medical advice for all and any medical questions. 

    This plant was much used within eclectic medical circles. Regardless of who or what this herb was, it was always used by whoever used it in teeny, tiny, small comforting doses due to its strength and potency as a plant medicine. We pray and advocate that some day by the grace of the goddess Freya we may return to sovereignty and openness of expression with regard to herbal healing for the well being of our people. We have confidence that the tradition of holding a single flower, the transmission of drama, the divine perplexing theatre of experience, where we get on our hands and knees to dance wearing our self-cultivated masks of persona. We will continue face to face, mouth to ear, heart to heart, outside the written scriptures. Herbal healing for all our people must be the rule not the exception. For that reason and many others it is important to not place all one's eggs in the provided baskets of the various intranets. Face to face remains the gold standard of all interaction in community herbalism. 

    For sleep it nourishes the marrow, it is known as dispersing wind, eliminates damp, warming. The leaf taste is at first acrid with spicy burning taste, later developing strong sweet overtones, a slight cruciferous broccoli, with hints of honey dew melon.  The first emerging leaves don't have as much of the 9 volt battery tongue electric taste that comes with the mature seed head stage later in the season. From several reports the roots have less of the acrid taste and a more root vegetable taste with significant stronger sedative effects leading to deep deep sleep. Well known and described in eclectic medical journals from the late 19th century in was often called Anemone pratensis, pasqueflower. I have encountered various species or kinds of Anemone spp, the Anemone I describe here is a tiny desert forb, and is one of the first blooms in the bioregion greater lower Sonora, south west. The plant was first described in the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1814 with a totally different name Clematis hirsutissima, later it was transferred to the Anemone family and was listed as pulsatilla. All the species of Anemone are acrid, and frequently described as irritating. This is especially noticeable when processing the plant, and is best done immediately in the field, with no delay, in the open air, as the active constituents are highly volatile and dissipate quickly. It is as I said, a plant that when prepared properly is extremely potent. It resembles several other herbal preparations from the time period that are extensive nervines. In TCM it is known as Bai Tou Weng, where it is always used as a dried root medicine. According to the eclectic manuals listed at the end in references the dosage was always 1-2 drops of tincture. The reason for this tiny dosage is due to the potency. The details of preparation as said previously is strictly a face to face sharing of information, but I will say it is like several other herbal preparations from the time period that are as effective today as previously described, it is not and can never be an internet sale item due to its extreme sedative nature that would of course negatively affect health if used without supervision.

    As with the herbs and Freya as the namesake Friday, of the week, the connection with the wild is about connecting with the plant, people, and place. Connecting face to face with your people around you. Connecting with the place where you are for your well being and the well being of those you love and care for with these plant medicines like wind flower. The connection of the tradition of Freya is connecting with the sacred land, sacred sex teaching that there can be no health without sexual health, that pleasure is part of the spontaneous self thus movement within living systems reflecting the health of a system. If there is a population of let's say deer that are not reproducing their kind, this would be viewed as a problem. Likewise if a population of deer was overgrazing to the point of depleting their range of vegetation, this too is problematic. It is impossible to live outside the consequences of natural law. The herbalism of Freya and community herbalism is about female empowerment. Empowerment not as prescriptive but descriptive empowerment as fertility and beauty. Love is of course with Freya caring for one's own immediate children, our generational family members, with hungry suckling mouths crying, mommy, mommy, these tiny creatures at our legs and feet, creating mischief, wanting to lick the bowl and spoon of cookies baking in the oven, demanding our intention, with all these miraculous herbal teachings first as continual working for well being.

    Freya teaches us through intimate physical contact within the tribe as the world around us with love, sex and information as eros love. We can understand what that means perhaps by looking at the two tribes of God's within the north pantheon, Aesir ruled by Wotan and the Vanir.  The Aesir resided at Valhalla. The Vanir lived at Vanaheimr. The Vanir can best be understood as elemental forces. The Aesir are symbolized as the ranked hierarchy of social stratified forces within the concept of our identity as tool using social animals. As such whatever we do or touch is formalized by an indelible stamp that says immediately and for all time our social class and this stamp defines how others see us and react to us, judge us and process our every move on the social chessboard. There was a conflict between the formal gods and the elemental forces. As human beings we encounter the world around us from these two very different poles, the foundational elemental and the hierarchy of meaning, the Vanir world of elemental forces and the Aesir world of structuralized stoned social requirement. There is dynamic struggle between these two opposing factions of gods and goddesses that rule our destiny. There still remains this conflict. The conflict of power elites vs the elemental forces is a human determinant of where we can go and what we can do, what we can say, the language we use and how others immediately and spontaneously see and hear us. Slavery is not an issue of 1860, or of race or gender concepts, slavery is current events within the present moment. There are moments of openess when the veil of fluidity and social mobility opens, then just as suddenly the door slams shut, and our footsteps are through the thick clay mud of history. The Vanir were responsible for fertility of fields, herbal medicine, healing, births in the family, weather, abundance. Freya was attacked by the established gods attempting to consolidate their power at any cost. In Valhalla she was tied and burned three times in an attempt to kill her. Each time she survived. Each time Freya rose from the dead. In the well known middle eastern hero fables the middle eastern hero mimics Wotan hung on a tree, speared and was planted in the ground as a seed at and rose from the dead at Easter. Freya rose three times from the dead. As the most beautiful woman ever to have walked the earth she was not only beautiful but also a sovereign female warrior. She used her beauty, her sex as a power to obtain good for herself and her people through the elemental powers of earth, wind, sky, fertility and above all love. Not the love of pathological altruism that sabotages intention for wellness. Freya taught her children, and here I mean her tribal human children the gifts of healing. She was thus a female figure like Prometheus who stole fire. As I said previously, above all maintain hope and practical optimism through doing. Believe and do by working with the elemental forces. Not only faith but action, not only dreams but work. The Gods and goddesses if they are gods at all must be workable, doable, experienced. There are no get out of jail free cards if we transgress natural law. If we eat chemical laden franken-foods, wreck our bodies in a sedentary petroleum wasteland, refuse to work our body, we can't save our health in pill popping madness, or pull some kind of fake pagan religious mumbo jumbo solution. We are a unity in biospirit, our soul is our body, our body is our family as relationship in community. The lessons of Freya for our women folk are that you in your physical beauty of biospirit can do great things for our people. There can be no people without your skillful action. We are part of this struggle for well being together. I as a man cannot be fully me without you as a woman. I am diminished by your absence. Within the realm of wellness morality, to withdraw from the life flow is to harm others within the flow. Because it is impossible to be fully alive and simultaneously absent.

     Freya's golden necklace called Brisingamen illustrates her ability to trade sex for what she wants, what she needs. So with our goddess Freya we have an open understanding of female sex power for what it actually is in practice. Sex for Freya and the pagan woman as power, prestige and knowledge. Sex is a survival strategy which it must always be. The idea of celibacy as holiness or denied sexuality as virtue, denied reproduction, is not  a strong current in norse germanic truth. Women were understood as sovereign rulers of their own destiny within the circle of community. Part of that acceptance of female sovereignty is the acceptance of female sexuality as legitimate part of the female identity, persona, personality and accomplishment. 

    One version of the story of how Freyja acquired the necklace Brisingamen illustrates how this female sexual power is used. One day, Freya left Asgard, crossed Bifrost, and traveled across Midgard. She came to a cavern of the smiths and met four dwarfs, Alfrigg, Dvalinn, Berling, and Grerr. Dwarfs are the fabricators, makers, creators of many Norse items of power and beauty and utility. 

     While there she saw many treasures made by by the dwarfs. She noticed a necklace of gold decorated with the most beautiful patterns. She realized she had never desired anything so much. She tried to buy it from the dwarfs.  She offered them gold or silver. They said it was not for sale with a price. Finally, she asked what price they would accept.

'There's only one price,' said the third of the dwarves, 'that will satisfy us.'
The fourth dwarf looked at Freyja. 'You,' he said.
The goddess flushed, and her breasts and whole body began to tingle with delight, at the thought of acquiring this treasure.
'Only if you lie one night with each of us will this necklace ever lie round your throat,' said the dwarfs.  They wanted that she would spend one night with each of them. The forging process was very involved and each day and night while Freya did her work, the dwarfs did their work getting the various items needed to forge create the Brisingamen. She agreed and spent four days and four nights with the dwarves. At the end of the four days of love making time, the dwarfs fastened the Brisingamen Necklace around her neck. Wotan was quite disturbed about these goings on and sent Loki to steal the necklace. And so Freya had another adventure and trial which she was able overcome and triumph       

    Freya wears a coat of falcon feathers, she flies on the wind. The seed of wind flower is spread on ridges usually cream colored limestone ridges. As you spend time with wind flower you will see falcons, hawks and eagles gliding on the wind.  The plant Wind flower is sacred to Freya and Sunna, the vitality of place and like its name wind, penetrates deeply. The warm sun as it penetrates is wood. The golden rays of Sunna are gifts of breath in our nostrils, as light in the sky macrocosmic orbit, as green sprouting in spring. The sun is life connected to the north star Bag-wan pattern holding together, seven stars, seven days, seven kisses through her perfect lips flowing golden hair, forever the perfect turning great bear. The plant be gathered at certain specific times, here gathered at dark new moon in Aquarius. It is best gathered at earliest spring before flower. Gathered with gratefulness for ancestors buried in the ground, the people who came before you, around us spirits, guiding, affecting, spontaneously erupting into song, kisses and embrace with the true all mother, Sunna, Freya who gave so rapturously, freely her tender kisses which become our human lives. 

      The windflower medicine is whole plant root medicine, root herbs pointing down and tender, tough resilient leves hugging the wind, with tender tears, that clear heat, which without going deeply into it, as it's inappropriate here, gives an idea. We have been taught by the re-engagement that in the perspicacious blue sky seeing all, Sunna and Freya sang songs and whispered words of comfort through her moist red lips of desire and longing, naked in the snow, through the same lips that drip honey from her oak leaved thighs, alcoves of tiny pink manzanita bell flowers, plump cottonwood buds along the creek, she shed joyful tears and those tears of warm wet luscious salt, of blood, and milky sweetness flowing from her breasts, hung deeply by her amber hair and soft milky white skin gave us the wind flower. One day long ago in former times as she caught up her loved kindred daughters and sons who fought for their people, bringing them to her hall, offering them comfort, this our all mother lover in every way, still teaching us in her voice the genius wild herb ways, in the hoff of earth household. On every mountain, songs for you, songs heard by these thorny cactus teachers. She tells us that even though straightened and condemned by the regime to the vagabonds, deep inside everyone of you is the resilient biospirit unconquered, clear and able to overcome every imperfection in her golden embrace of sighs, in the song of ecstasy holding together making better, best times through the intuition of passion, promise, sobriety and promise for those little ones, no matter how small, like the windflower maiden flower, teaching through her incestent longing Freya, Sunna, all alive still on the flat earth prairie, curling rivers and medicine garden. You are still there and I am with you where ever you gather these plant medicines, always.

Anemone windflower blooms early in the spring late winter. In this particular low desert environment, here in this space it blooms as the first flower with white, tinged pink sepals, in various numbers 8-12. Nearby were other co-first flowers showing, mustard 4 petal yellow flowers and a few tiny erodium storksbill. Surrounding the wind flower were burbrush, brittle bush, globe marrow, ocotillo, prickly pear, mesquite, acacia and low growing fuzzy mammillaria cactus. Above us in sheltered alcoves the manzanita with drooping bell flowers is blooming, nestled with oak and Garrya, the rising horehound, estafiate, brickalia, ground hugging pedicularis and creeping mahonia. All the medicine plants growing speak to us and each other as we work with them as goddess Freya and Sunna assists us in what we are doing, what these plant people are doing for their plant people, and we for our people. The herbs and the goddess moving with verditas is always the prounouns us, our, we. Because what we are doing is exclusively for our people even the rejection, shun shame exclusion hunting down action of our own people against us, the same repeated Aesir Venir wars as fought in myth still today, which strengthens our commitment and love to our people through these plants. Afterall we are the grandchildren of the witches they could not burn, count your blessings, go deeper, always remember, these medicines, this work was never about you. This struggle is for our people, our place, our plants. When the stones settle from the flood, we continue endlessly, against all described odds to rebuild our lives. All of us working to nourish our people's biospirit within the cult of erasure will continue moving forward regardless of conditions. These trials are nothing new. The lesson of windflower is that unobserved to the naked eye, the seeds are there, the tubers alive below the surface of the ground. You can come to this medicine garden on this rocky, stony limestone ridge and see nothing, no sign of windflower. Yet windflower is here waiting for conditions perfect for its growth. We too are here, they will not replace us.

The seeds of wind flower are spread on the wind, nestling on limestone ridge tops, rocky stony lava flows and places where the wind born seeds find a resting spot. This particular Anemone grows low to the ground on limestone ridges of the lowest south west desert. Related to climbing clematis, eastern hepatica, columbine, and many other ranunculaceae famalam plants. Anemone style plants as plants in the crows foot family are proportionate small, somewhat darling short, low to the ground perennial forms that by history have evolved plant components that are acrid, hot fire, electric of lightning Wotan's thunder, the kami no michi of winter thunder awakening bear story, peppery, even burning. Just as there is only one womb-man with a thousand faces, and only one lover wanting her into eternity there is only one bear awakening in spring, one wolf howling, one hawk soaring above my head, seeing you and loving you reading these words perfectly, wanting me, wanting you, requesting your perfect presence in the celestial marriage. Where we promise each other our children to seven generations, for the seven days. We can imagine these taste, lepto taste variants to be highly disagreeable, to prevent being eaten by animals. Wind flower emerges first thing in spring. How first did the ancient bargain begin? Who can say? Yet I see you wind flower and eat your flesh until I awake covered in rain and snow with frozen fingers. You taught me to believe in these ancestor dreams. On sugarloaf knob, to know these plants. Wild Herb Ways you gave me everything and I pray continually for everyone, for healings, for courage, for ultimate release from the pain, for victory, to be met by valkyrie, to be drunk with love, drunk with family and friendship. While working with this herbal teacher I was doused by rain, hail, snow and wind, then brilliant sun, just in time to see the first opening wind flower blossom, as I usually do every year. It is during this tme I reach the deepest blessing. So in addition to acrid taste it has evolved to thrive in wet, soupy early spring late winter conditions which again speak about it's plant nature. For this Wind flower is a special condition medicine, exact knowledge of its use and application, must be shared only precautionary face to face. I would go so far far to say that wind flower medicine due to its special harvesting and extreme potency must be handled differently than most herbal products, and like other medicines, not mentioned here, should only be dealt with in the tiniest amounts.

     I explored the core concepts of TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as alternating polar patterns Yin-Yang, Dark Side-Sun Side, Moon-Sun, Damp-Dry, Cold-Hot and so on. How these apparently obvious nutrition ideas, concept of experience observations, more or less pervade TCM. I wanted to understand if the same or similar functional descriptive understanding exists in the West as English, north germanic terms locally. I understood that the days of the week were keys to decoding the heritage of days and spirituality and a caution that I should look deeply into Friday and Sunday, which I had no idea what that meant. At first I thought, it meant the weekend or something like that. Then I understood from the dream, "No not the weekend..the days, the names of our days.."

Sunday, the day of the sun Sunna's day, monday moon-day, the same concepts, bright sun and dark moon, were evident in the calendar and the days of the week. I had missed them and obscured the deeper meaning of the days of the week. I was wondering if there was more to these seven names? I wondered what might happen if a program were created where people met every day of the week from a pagan, taken-for-granted perspective. I saw them instantly in the open eyes of the windflower medicine, sleeping on the ice cold rocky ground, rock for a pillow, loving Freya and Sunna with the new moon in Aquarius. Listening to thunder and sharp pointed ocotillo bursting green leaf, pulverized by the eternal good news of my perfect world teacher, wild herb ways. Specifically, what would happen in terms of resilience? What would happen? According to this perfect teacher, love unfolding as love of kindred and accepting these herbal truths as remedios that flow through our veins, beneath the ground as blood and soil, for we being the children of the mothers who they could not burn as witches, refuse erasure with lips meeting lips in the cold gray dawn, building fire, love. Let's allow the unfolding to unfold as victory, as abundance in health, the deepest nourishment, for this I am always and everywhere for kindred, the genius world teacher, wild herb ways perfected, complete with no comparison, self thus able to repair through biospirit all who come to me.

       As a side note, the Quakers or Friends, the sect, and I believe all so-called Christian sects as well as the various Shia and Sunni Islamic sects are quasi middle eastern sects, and problematic and to be avoided although in immersion the genius Wild Herb Ways as world teacher has effectively de-coded them, thanks to genius Wild Herb Ways. Meaning no disrespect to middle eastern fables, myth stories, fairy tales and so on, they don't resonate with our herbs. The so called Quakers or Friends in the conservative Friends use a numerical day system. Sunday is the first day, Monday the 2ndnd Day, Tuesday, 3rd day and so on. I had the opportunity to attend their unscheduled quiet service at the Quaker meeting, which took place without song or any form of ritual. They had an interesting interpretation of the calendar. They rejected the names used for the days of the week because the words used had German, Norse and pagan associations. Which is actually quite strange, peculiar in their own words because these people came from northlands above 50 north latitude, yet they rejected their own gods and goddesses named and celebrated in the seven days of the week, for a middle eastern place they had never been. We see this strangest self sabotage today, time and time again, betrayal at its heart expressed as the sham virtue of pathological altruism, which thankfully the genius world teacher, wild herb ways has forever vanquished, by climbing Yggdrasil, hanging on the tree bringing the wisdom teaching home for kindred, time and time again. The friends, friends not to themselves but friends to others, deniers to their future, who operated within a sect with a middle eastern fixation paradigm, were uncomfortable with the reference to their biospirit. We, on the other hand, are committed to biospirit, committed to our own biospirit, the biospirit of our children, the health and well-being of our people. We embrace the earth associations of person, plant and place locally. We have no problem with gods and goddesses with a capital G. We have no ploblem with visualizing them in the landscape before our eyes, as walking sacred mountains, holy complete, groves of trees, life giving waters of eternal life. Afterall we are all the great grand children of the witches they failed to burn. Within our veins are the ideas that could not die, that could never be bought or sold. We have kept alive the use of plants for this generation and generations to come regardless of script. We maintain relationships with both male and female goddesses outside of the desert trauma narrative framework. We have no interest in scientific materialism masked, mandated and inoculated as the indispensable dogma of monotheistic uni-polar science. As soon as you get deeper into the wisdom of world teacher wild herb ways it becomes apparent a multipolar perspective works best with windflower at the deer house, within the medicine garden, flat-earth prairie perspective.

      The calendar, our days of the week, within the magic of how we see time, within our words, spoken on our lips, is a perfect power source of positive vitalism, even in the co-opted predatory erasure of materialism and Middle Eastern fantasy stories that block us in individualization within a occupied, othered cultural setting. Refuse the funnel of adolescent juvenilism. The calendar of our kith and kin, was revealed to all of us from earliest childhood, a seed promise to me in a dream that unfolds most profoundly in the harmonious origin that sustains biospirit. Fortunately, our days are suddenly firmly on the waves of history. Thanks to the brilliant world teacher Wild Herb Ways, in the flat earth upon the more open prairie, speaking intently directly. The entrance portal opens in a powerful practice freed from the subversive mishmash of negativity.

Our unfolding biospirit is now of the deerhouse, of flat earth prairie, which must continue to support our struggle for well being, health and vitality. Today's names seven days bright shining Sunna Sunday, our legitimate moon day, Tyr day, one armed warrior teaching us to solve disputes, Wotan's-day, Thorsday, the Saturn's day for washing, for our sweat with hot lava glowing red lava rocks. remain portals; We use them in the spirit of the actual ancestors whom we revere as actual blood and soil. Weeks, the rising and setting of the sun are for us, enclosed in the seven days as seven opening ways, as seven names, as days in the light of the sun, to bend, the rotation through the weeks, around the tree pole Yggdrasil polaris. The seven days of the week are guides to our personal deepest values on the medicine road. Every day is a connecting source on our journey to greater heights and deeper commitment of intention.

     The seven days in their striking order offer an easy journey to other planets, see the decoding chapter from world teacher wild herb ways, into an accessible dominant cultural narrative. The key point is to undermine the error by supporting the fair. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the key points for a total transformation.

     Let's start with Sunday and Monday. In the Norse saga, where the dialogue known as English is found, the first two days are dedicated to Sunday and Monday. Sunday (Sunnudagur), Sunnah, Sunnah Day and Monday (Mánadagr) Mani. On these two days we dedicate our intention to the sun and the moon respectively. The sun and the moon are two different living beings that we worship, pray to and make offerings to.

wind flower is sacred to Sunna and Freya. First spring blossom. On this ninth of February. I dedicate this windflower medicine to both the beloved goddess Sunna and Freya. Today is Friday, Freya's day. The sun is a woman. The journey of the Sunnah, our Sun, is both brilliant and essential.

Sunna rides a chariot drawn by two horses, two magnificent horses, Árvakr (“Early Awakened”) and Alsviðr (“Quick”). Between Sunna and the earth lies the shield Svalinn, which protects the earth from the penetrating heat. So Sunnah is a shield maiden. More than ever before we require the protective work of our shield maidens who regardless of outward appearance have singular loyalty to their folk as warrior, as community healer, as lover, as mother to secure the well being of our people. Women to love in the existence of the future. This shield sign highlights the delicate balance that exists with the power of the sun on the herbal healing path being taught by Freya in the present moment. Our life is a walk in balance in which we must cooperate with the life forces that allow our breath to flow in and out our nostrils. We can no longer trust the so called authorities to protect our well being. The authenticity of Freya is the authenticity of freedom association for mutual well being by self protecting the foundations of well being, clean water, nourishing food free from poisons, and places where we welcome one another as brothers and sisters in the community.

    

    Freya leads the Valkyries into struggle of the healing, retrieving the biospirit from bondage in illness, and transports our dead in struggle, Freya with first choice, to her personal hall like Wotan's Valhalla, the Hall of Honor. Freya wears a glittering star necklace and a magic healing wand that from her personal journey with Yggdrasil, our ancestor tree. She is a medicine woman who heals. The windflower is the medicine of Sunna and Freya. The staff was a reminder of Yggdrasil, the living Tree of relationship supporting our well being, and ancestor tree, from Wotan the Allfather, her husband, who hung on the tree for nine days to gain knowledge of the runes, to the continuing work of folk to make medicine and do garden work. Odin, also known as Wotan. Freya teaches us herbal medicine garden for the well being of our people, at the deer house, open prairie and wind flower medicine garden, the runes, signs and patterns in the turning sun wheel, visualized in the north as the turning bear, polaris, and many other things.

 

 

“The sun, sister of the moon,

It seemed to be coming from the south

With her hand

Above the edge of the sky;

The sun didn't know it yet

Where her home should be,

The moon didn't know yet

What power he had..."

(Rum 5) Voluspa

 

“There are two wolves and Skoll is the name of the one who hunts them. She fears him, and he will have her; The one who jumps before her is called Hati, son of Hrodvitnir [probably Fenrir], and he will get her moon, so it must be." (Faulkes 2005)

 

For my German readers I have shared some of the key concepts in German translation from the previous English text: 

     Hier haben wir das Genie, den Weltenlehrer, den wir Wildkräuter nennen, der unseren Verwandten unsere Windblume Anemone tuberosa anbietet. Die Windblume ist Sunna und Freya heilig. Erste Frühlingsblüte. An diesem neunten Februar. Ich widme diese Windblumen-Medizin sowohl der geliebten Göttin Sunna als auch Freya. Heute ist Freitag, Freya's Tag. Die Sonne ist eine Frau. Die Reise der Sunnah, unserer Sonne, ist sowohl brillant als auch wesentlich. Sunna reitet auf einem Streitwagen, der von zwei Pferden gezogen wird, zwei prächtigen Pferden, Árvakr („Früh Erwacht“) und Alsviðr („Schnell“). Zwischen Sunna und der Erde liegt der Schild Svalinn, der die Erde vor der eindringenden Hitze schützt. Sunnah ist also eine Schildjungfrau. Dieses Zeichen unterstreicht das empfindliche Gleichgewicht, das mit der Kraft der Sonne auf dem von Freya gelehrten Kräuterheilweg besteht. Unser Leben ist ein Spaziergang im Gleichgewicht, bei dem wir mit den Lebens Kräften zusammenarbeiten müssen, die es unserem Atem ermöglichen, ein- und ausströmen.

"According to Snorre, who also gives advice to our poet heart in his section called, A question about fiction, there seems to be a connection between shields and the sun or moon, a reminder of the ritual shields used in our Bronze Time Age. He suggests that shields could be called the ship's sun, moon, leaf or garth and that it was common to draw a circle, called a ring, on ancient shields. This wheel is the sun wheel, two intersecting lines enclosed in a circle. The symbol of the sun wheel are the four directions, the progression of four seasons, equinox and solstice, warm cold, moist dry that we use in our herbalism, and many other ideas that part of our recognition and pracrice. In the same text, Snorri urges poets to call the sun the fire of the sky and air. Other figurative phrases can be found in Poetic Edda Focus on his Gold-similar brightness. As both objects of great importance and living gods, the sun and moon may be claimed as a reward for an action. In it Gylfaginning, about it Prisoner, the divine family that lives in Asgard, needs a strong citadel to defend itself from enemies. As we in our personal lives within community must have places of refuge, areas of protection, neighborhoods and spaces where our men can be men and our women can be women. We as people require local spaces devoted to well being. They give the task to a blacksmith giant who demands a goddess in return Freyja, the lady of love, fertility and battle as well as the moon and sun.”

 

  Friday raises interesting questions regarding the vitality of our local pagan vitalism that cannot be answered in a simple yes or no format. I think it is important for each person to find out what attracts and appeals to them in the quest for well being. It is after all your well being for your people within your community, to continue future bound filled with playful vitality. It is for you to cast the runes. Haven't you indeed suffered while hanging on the tree? To help you decide, let's first say that the Norse Germanic goddesses Freyja and Frigg both count within their respective pantheons, the Van and the Aesir. In English the name comes from Figg, the Anglo-Saxon spelling is Frigedaeg, but in other Germanic languages ​​Friday is attributed in Germany to Freja. The French word for Friday is Vendredi and refers to the morning/evening star planet Venus. The Sanskrit word for Friday is Shukravar, derived from the Sanskrit word Shukravar for the planet Venus. Freyja is considered to be related to the planet Venus, the morning star, and later Stella Maris, the star of the sea, who was associated with another tender sweet European goddess, the all mother Mary, whose temples were often built over older temples of Venus, over spring caves, and within groves of oaks in dappled north sunlight. Freya, to whom I, as you can see, seek my devoted mojo, is our Norse germanic goddess of sex, passion, ecstasy love and fertility. Without the sweet taste ecstasy of love there is no future, we are shooting only blanks, and there with Johnny Rotten and the neurotic sex pistols, we are condemned to recite the meme pathogens of defeat. There we must recite the punk rock Christmas carols and invoke their refrain, ..."no future, no future, no future for me, god save the queen..." Freya also gives her name to the modern German word for woman. She is the queen leader boss of the Valkyries, who tirelessly struggle for her people. Freya, as can be imagined, is a woman of extreme beauty power, who rides a brilliant chariot drawn by two black or gray cats. She is also accompanied by her animal ally, a pig named Hildisvini, meaning war pig, fighting pig.

  Freya, decoded as Mary, leads what in other contexts are angels, she is queen of Valkyries in battle and transports our war dead to to her personal hall, a great mansion with many rooms, Sessrumnir, the hall of honor. We get the lesson to care for one another while living, to support our well being in the struggle against erasure. Freya wears a glittering star necklace and uses an herbal wand from her one of the trees in her medicine gaden groves of trees. I have seen these groves of hawthorn, aspen, linden, oak, red alder, elderberry, and through the intercession, invocation and offering blotts, we gain the knowledge of their medcinal use for the well being of our people. She is a medicine woman who heals. Protects and keeps a neutral distance from the city's political intrigues. She must be independent to advance her vision. The staff was a reminder of Yggdrasil, the Tree, some say a gift from Wotan the Allfather, her husband, who hung on the tree for nine days to gain knowledge of the runes. Some say Odin, also known as Wotan, taught Freya the runes and others say Freya taught Wotan the runes. The main thing is co-operative use of knowledge among all the folk.

  One of Freya's methods is seidh, sing, speak, "cooking", derived from the rituals of salt cooking to Grimm.

 In Part VII of the Ynglinga Saga we learn that –

“Oden had the ability that gives great power, which he himself exercised. It is called Seith, and with its help he could discern the fate of men and foretell events that had not yet occurred; and in so doing he could also injure men, make them lose their souls or lose their health, or even take away the mind or power of some men and give it to others. But this sorcery comes with such ergy (a term meaning sexual or spiritual receptivity and used as an insult) that men found it shameful to practice it and so it was taught to priestesses. . . .

And,

Odin could change his mind. His body then lay there as if asleep or dead, but it became a bird or a wild animal, a fish or a dragon, and traveled in an instant to distant lands, on its own business or that of other people. Moreover, with mere words he could put out fires, calm the seas, and change the winds at will.”

    

     For my German readers I have shared some of the key concepts in a German translation of the earlier English text:  

    führt die Walküren in die Schlacht und transportiert unsere Kriegstoten nach Walhalla, der Ehrenhalle. Freya trägt eine glitzernde Sternenkette und einen Zauberstab. Sie ist eine Medizinfrau, die heilt. Die Windblume ist die Medizin von Sunna und Freya. Der Stab war eine Erinnerung an Yggdrasil, den Weltenbaum, von Wotan dem Allvater, ihrem Ehemann, der neun Tage lang am Baum hing, um Wissen über die Runen zu erlangen. Odin, auch bekannt als Wotan. Freya lehrt uns Kräutermedizin, die Runen und viele andere Dinge.

 

 

„Die Sonne, Schwester des Mondes,

Es schien aus dem Süden zu kommen

Mit ihrer Hand

Über dem Rand des Himmels;

Die Sonne wusste es noch nicht

Wo ihr Zuhause sein sollte,

Der Mond wusste es noch nicht

Welche Macht er hatte ...“

(Rum 5) Voluspa

 

„Es gibt zwei Wölfe und Skoll ist der Name desjenigen, der sie jagt. Sie fürchtet ihn, und er wird sie haben; Derjenige, der vor ihr springt, heißt Hati, Sohn von Hrodvitnir [wahrscheinlich Fenrir], und er wird ihren Mond bekommen, so muss es sein.“ (Faulkes 2005)

        Die Pflanze darf nur zu bestimmten Zeiten gesammelt werden, hier bei dunklem Neumond im Acquarius. Es ist am besten am frühesten Frühling vor der Blume versammelt. Viele Menschen wurden mit Windblume Medizin entmutigt, nachdem sie versucht, Windblüte Essenz aromatisiert Alkohol Brandy. Während nicht die Kritik so genannte aromatisierte Alkohol Brandy Blütenessenz, die Windblume Medizin der Authentizität, wie in TCM verwendet und in eklektischen medizinischen Text beschrieben, kann nicht mit dem Blumenessenzbrand verglichen werden. Die Windblumen Medizin in TCM, ist Wurzel Medizin, die ohne tief in sie hineinzugehen, wie es hier unangebracht ist, eine Idee gibt. Windblumen Medizin Kenntnisse müssen nur von Angesicht zu Angesicht geteilt werden. Ich würde so weit gehen, um zu sagen, dass Windblüten Medizin aufgrund seiner besonderen Ernte und Wirksamkeit anders behandelt werden muss als die meisten pflanzlichen Produkte, und wie andere hier nicht erwähnte Arzneimittel sollten nur in kleinsten Mengen behandelt werden.

Ich habe die Kernkonzepte von TCM, Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin, wie alternierende polare Muster Yin-Yang, Dunkle Side-Sun Side, Mond-Sun, Damp-Dry, Kalt-Hot und so weiter erkundet. Wie diese offensichtlich offensichtlichen Ernährungsinhaltungen, Konzept von Erfahrungen Beobachtungen, mehr oder weniger TCM durchdringen. Ich wollte verstehen, ob im Westen dasselbe oder ähnliches funktionelles beschreibendes Verständnis existiert wie Englisch, Nordgermanische Begriffe vor Ort. Es war an einem Sonntag und ich hatte Pläne für den nächsten Tag, Montag. Ich hatte eine Offenbarung und ich gutgehende einen Großvater Vorfahren August M., der Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts aus Schlesien kam und offenbar österreichisch, deutsch und polnisch war. In einem Traum habe ich unterstrichen, dass die Tage der Woche Schlüssel waren, um die Ketzerei der Tage und Spiritualität zu entschlüsseln und eine Vorsicht, dass ich tief in Freitag und Sonntag schauen sollte, die ich nicht wusste, was das bedeutete. Zuerst dachte ich, es bedeutete das Wochenende oder so etwas. Dann verstand ich aus dem Traum, "Nein nicht am Wochenende..die Tage, die Namen unserer Tage.."

Sonntag, der Mondtag, die gleichen Konzepte, helle Sonne und dunkler Mond, waren im Kalender und in den Tagen der Woche zu erkennen. Ich hatte sie verpasst und die tiefere Bedeutung der Tage der Woche verdeckt. Ich fragte mich, ob es noch mehr an diesen sieben Namen gab? Ich fragte mich, was passieren könnte, wenn ein Programm geschaffen wurde, in dem Menschen jeden Tag der Woche aus einer heidnischen, aufgenommen-für-selbstverständlichen Perspektive getroffen wurden. Was würde im Besonderen in Bezug auf die Widerstandsfähigkeit passieren?

 

 

 Als Seitennote, die Quaker oder Freunde, die Sekte, und ich glaube, alle sogenannten christlichen Sekten sowie die verschiedenen schiitischen und sunnitischen islamischen Sekten sind quasi mittlere Ostsekten, und problematisch und zu vermeiden, obwohl im Eintauchen die genialen Wild Herb Ways als Weltlehrer sie effektiv enkodiert hat, dank genialer Wild Herb Ways. Das heißt, dass keine Respektlosigkeit gegenüber mittelöstlichen Fabeln, Mythos-Geschichten, Märchen und so weiter, sie schwingen nicht mit unseren Kräutern. Die sogenannten Quakers oder Freunde in den konservativen Freunden verwenden ein numerisches Tagessystem. Sonntag ist der erste Tag, Montag der 2. Tag, Dienstag, 3. Tag und so weiter. Ich hatte die Möglichkeit, an ihrem ungeplanten ruhigen Service bei der Quaker-Meeting teilzunehmen, die ohne Lied oder jede Form von Ritual stattfand. Sie hatten eine interessante Interpretation des Kalenders. Sie lehnten die Namen ab, die für die Tage der Woche verwendet wurden, weil die verwendeten Worte deutsche, nordische und heidnische Vereine hatten. Die Freunde, die innerhalb einer Sekte mit einem mittel östlichen Fixation Paradigma operierten, waren unangenehm mit dem Bezug auf Biospirit. Wir sind hingegen für organische Geister, Biospirit verpflichtet. Wir umarmen die deutschen heidnischen Vereine. Wir haben kein Problem mit Göttern und Göttinnen mit einer Hauptstadt G. Afterall haben wir alle großen Großkinder der Hexen, die sie nicht verbrannt haben. Wir pflegen Beziehungen zu männlichen und weiblichen Göttinnen außerhalb des Wüstentraum Ats Erzählung Rahmens. Wir haben kein Interesse an wissenschaftlichen Materialismus, die als unverzichtbares Dogma der monotheistischen unipolaren Wissenschaft maskiert und impft werden. Sobald Sie tiefer in die Weisheit der Weltlehrer wilde Kräuter Wege bekommen, wird es offensichtlich eine multipolare Perspektive funktioniert am besten mit Windblume im Hirschhaus, im Medizingarten, Flat-Erde Prärie Perspektive.

 Der Kalender, unsere Tage der Woche, ist eine kraftvolle Quelle für positiven Vitalismus, auch in der kooptierten rauben Löschung des Materialismus und der Fantasy-Geschichten des Nahen Ostens, die uns in der Individualisierung innerhalb eines kulturellen Umfelds blockieren. Zwang uns in einen Trichter jugendlicher Juvenilismus. Der Kalender unseres Kittens und seiner Verwandten wurde mir in einem Traum enthüllt, der sich am tiefsten in harmonischer Herkunft entfaltet, der den Biospirit trägt. Glücklicherweise sind unsere Tage plötzlich fest auf den Wellen der Geschichte. Dank der brillanten Welt Lehrerin Wild Herb Ways, in der flachen Erde auf der offeneren Prärie. Das Eingangsportal öffnet sich in einer mächtigen Praxis, die von dem subversiven Mischmash des Nahen Ostens befreit ist. Der Nebel und das Scheitern der Wüste haben illegitime Tripletts geboren: Moses, Muhammad und Jesus, Judentum, Islam und Christentum, von denen keiner unseren entfaltenden Biospirit des Rehhauses der flachen Erdprärie kompenant resonant. Die heutigen Namen bleiben Portale; Wir benutzen sie im Geist der tatsächlichen Vorfahren, die wir als eigentliches Blut und Boden verehren. Wochen, der Aufstieg und der Untergang der Sonne sind für uns, in den sieben Tagen als sieben Öffnungsweisen eingeschlossen, wie sieben Namen, als Tage im Licht der Sonne, zu biegen, die Rotation durch die Wochen, um den Baumstab Yggdrasil polaris. Die sieben Tage der Woche sind Guides zu unseren persönlichen tiefsten Werten auf der Medizinstraße. Jeden Tag ist eine verbindende Quelle auf unserer Reise zu größeren Höhen und tiefere Zustimmung der Absicht.

Die sieben Tage in ihrer auffälligen Ordnung bieten eine einfache Reise zu anderen Planeten, sehen Sie das Decodierung Kapitel von Weltlehrer wilde Kräuterwege, in eine zugängliche dominante kulturelle Erzählung. Der Schlüsselpunkt ist, den Fehler durch die Unterstützung der Messe zu untergraben. Sonntag, Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag und Samstag sind die Schlüsselpunkte für eine totale Transformation.

Beginnen wir mit Sonntag und Montag. In der nordischen Saga, wo der Dialog namens Englisch gefunden wird, werden die ersten zwei Tage bis Sonntag und Montag gewidmet. Sonntag (Sunnudagur), Sunnah, Sunnah Day and Montag (Mánadagr) Mani. An diesen beiden Tagen widmen wir unsere Absicht der Sonne bzw. dem Mond. Die Sonne und der Mond sind zwei verschiedene Lebewesen, die wir anbeten, zu beten und opfern.

windblüte ist Sunna und Freya heilig. Erste Frühlingsblüte. Am neunten Februar. Ich widme diese Windblume Medizin sowohl der geliebten Göttin Sunna und Freya. Heute ist Freitag, Freya's Tag. Die Sonne ist eine Frau. Die Reise der Sunnah, unserer Sonne, ist brillant und wesentlich.

References in American Eclectic medical journals:

Therapy of Pulsatilla.-Rolla L. Thomas,. M.D. Description of the Herb.-From the Pharmacopeia of the United States. Common Names, Botanical History and Synonyms; Medical History. From "Drugs and Medicines of North America." J. U. and C. G. Lloyd. Physiological Action.-Dr. Finley Ellingwood, "New American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy." Therapeutic Uses.-Writings of Dr. E. M. Hale, Dr. John M. Scudder, Dr. Chauncey D. Palmer, Dr. Thomas S. Blair, Dr. John Wm. Fyfe, Dr. Harvey Wickes Felter, Dr. Geo. W. Boskowitz, Dr. Joseph Niederkorn, Dr. Finley Ellingwood, Dr. William Nelson Mundy, Dr. James D. McCann, Dr. Ford Scudder, Dr Albert F. Stephens, Dr. Benj. L. Simmons, Dr. J. C. Ellis, Dr. Lyman Watkins, Dr. J. P. Harvill, and Dr. A. ]. Smith. Characteristics, Constituents, Chemistry, and Pharmaceutical Preparations.-By John Uri Lloyd. Issued by LLOYD BROTHERS, Pharmacists, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio Copyright, 1913

 

 

Prunus serotina, The Cherry

Prunus serotina, The Cherry 

Prunus emarginata, Prunus serotina, bitter cherry, choke cherry, (yes the cherries are quite bitter with an intriguing sweetness, almond, cherry taste Rosaceae (Rose family)

     Wild Prunus choke cherry species are highly variable from place to place, and i'm sure there's a lot of communication via pollen in the cherry community. Botanists and books will often give various names to the same species, or different varieties at different locations. They are for our purposes useful the same, not the same as far as names, same with regard to herbal usage. 

     Yet there are some common characteristics, it's a small tree, with deciduous leaves, the bark has a distinct straight line light colored notching that circles the older branches and trunk looking like it was applied with a stencil. It tends to like water, here in a seep high on a mountain at 5000ft, though not always visible flowing water, although it can be in a riparian plant community. It tends to fall down and resprout where it touched down. It can form thickets.  The leaves are opposite and can have tiny serrated edges or not even on the same tree. 

     Cherry bark has been used because, it has for most of us an intriguing inherently pleasant evocative fragrance, i haven't met anyone who doesn't like it but there probably are some. I believe it goes deep into the  collective biospirit muscle memory of northern eurasian people's for whom cherry blossom fragrance signal the ending of winter, fertility, the increase in daylight and renewed abundance. The scent of bitter cherry bark is intense and resembles cherry almonds honey sweetness. 

    The scent is due partly to cyanogenic glycosides, hydrocyanic acids, coumarin and inherent flavonoids. Yes a cyanide compound that has a sedative quality that calms the cough reflex in aggressive nighttime coughs and cough formulas. It has been used for hundreds of generations and will continue to be used by those of use who do such things. 

      Personally i am here gathering wild cherry after fruiting, after first frost, which has occurred here at 5000 ft in northern mountains. This will vary from place to place. Basically gather in autumn fall, when the cherry fruit is red or purple black depending on species, not during early spring when in flower, some people wait until the leaves fall off. However i wouldn't hesitate to gather wild cherry in the spring while in flower, using fresh bark, leaf and flower in roughly equal portions to utilize as a nervine, for use in anxiety and agitation as a specialized formula for sleep, and calmness. I guess everyone can chose what to worry about, and i chose not to worry about a plant that has been used for thousands of years by people wherever they lived. A fresh whole plant tincture of wild cherry is quite strong as a relaxant in agitated persons, and you don't need to use a lot, only 5-10 drops. It is useful to have a whole plant flower, leaf and bark available for situations of out of control emotions crying, sobbing, and the like. You'll have to decide if you're up for using something like that. Other people will of course disagree and that's fine as far as i'm concerned. Wild cherry is safe and as a specialized limited batch type of thing for extreme coughing fits and high levels of anxiety it's useful to have on hand when these situations arise. Rather than pop a xanax or benzo, ritalin or amphetamine salts for children and that sort of thing, highly addictive substances, i feel wild cherry used in this way is harm reduction. Our bodies as biospirits have ingested rose family plants from beginningless time and have internal means of detoxifying these substances in our biospiritual memory rather than say a benzo. Again if you're on this path then you're going to gravitate towards it.
      Utilize small straight branches pruning at the point where the beach meets the trunk stem. Then peel off the bark, sometimes in a straight branch you can make a cut length wise and peel off the bark in one piece or in long wider strips, which is good if you are drying the bark as this way it will last longer without losing its aromatic quality. It's a good idea if making tincture to make a straight fresh plant tincture FPT 1:2, or DPT 1:5 50% of wild cherry bark and add 10% glycerine so tannins don't compete for the medicinal constituents. It's also best to make a make a straight cherry tincture with 10% glycerine, then add cherry to formula rather than mixing all the herbs and roots together in one jar. This way you can make a formula by adding the various root, bark, leaf tinctures  together in small batches and avoid making a big batch of limited use formula or making a failed formula that you can't salvage. 

     Prunus spp has cardio reductive relaxing qualities for rapid pulse which accompanies acute lung congestion and coughing fits. In a cough formula it can be combined with an aromatic antimicrobial Ligusticum Tishwoof, Abies grandis, pine resin, balsalm root, angelica, grindelia, sweetened with honey, or sweet root, licorice.

Tishwoof osha root

 A good strong wild cherry tincture can be added in small amounts like sweet root, licorice, angelica to sweeten formulas taste. Although you have to be careful because some flavors can get heightened by this mixing, for instance Larrea tridentata is Larrea tridentata and no mixing is going to lessen its inherent taste. 

https://youtu.be/yPNB27dRQys

  Description of the Cherry Tree in the South West

   Prunus serotina, the wild cherry of the western mountains, is a valuable part of my Materia Medica. Prunus serotina refers to ‘prunus’ the greek word ‘prunos’-plum or cherry and ‘serotina’ the latin word ‘serus’- late maturing fruit. Ironically it blooms in early spring in the mountains of the south west. It is found in wet moist north facing canyons. It has striking beautiful flower and adorns the tree conspicuously with white dreamy blossoms.

      Prunus serotina is a member of the Rose or Rosaceae family. In the southwest US it is often straggly and srubby, with deciduous leaves bright green above, when the leaves are crushed it has a distinctive ‘almond’ fragrance with a hint of cherry. When the tree is crowded it can grow tall and slender with a short life span. The leaves have a ponted tip, finely serrated, alternate, simple. The flowers are showy and move fast in the spring, occurring before the leaves have grown to full size. They are white on a extended raceme and are so fragrant you can sometimes smell the fragrance wafting on the wind before sighting the tree. The bark is distinctive, when young there are small arcs of grey circling the diameter of the smooth shiny trunk. When older the bark takes on a mottled grey rough exterior, looking very different than the smooth bark of younger spindly trees.

      It occurs in North America widely in the eastern states. I have walked through the extensive distinctive deciduous forests with maple in the Alleghey mountains in western Pennsylvania. There in Pennsylvania it presents as a large great tree of dimension and size. In the western region of Arizona and New Mexico, it is a mid- to higher elevation shrub to small tree, ocassionaly getting to size but rare to see. Often found in shady canyons with Quercus (oaks) in moist riparian zones.

      The bark of wild cherry was listed in the US Pharmacopeia from 1820- 1970. It was used extensively by Native North American people across the range of its growth. The early pioneers learning and interacting with these people likewise prized wild cherry bark for coughs and as a mild sedative. It has an uninterrupted use by folk herbalists, such as myself into the present day.

      The familiar taste and flavor of wild cherry bark is used in the familiar cough drops and cough syrup. Dr DeWitt’s cough and cold syrup from 1930 contained horehound, tar, wild cherry, glycerine, alcohol 5%, and gum Arabic. It was marketed by W J Parker Company. Smith Brothers developed a similar cherry cough drop in 1928, the original flavor although secret, had a high licorice extract content. In addition to being the active ingredient cherry bark also took on a dubious role in disguising a wide range of ingredients from, laudanum, a liquid opiod to codeine, heroin and cocaine in patent medicines in the early part of the 20th century.

       The bark of Prunus serotina contains a wide range of active medicinal chemicals including: Amygdalin: anti-inflammatory, antitussive, anti spasmodic, expectorant
Gallic acid: analgesic, anti flu, astringent, Bronchodilator
Prunasin:cyanogenic, aldose reductase inhibitor, uterosedative, bronchorelaxant
Scopolletin: anti asthmatic, cns-stimulant,
 Tannin: hepatoprotective, antiviral, anticancer,

 Dr Duke’s Phytochemical and ethnobotanical database
https://phytochem.nal.usda.gov/phytochem/plants/show/1597#act-42946-close 

Cherry in Herbal lore

      “The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
 -Quote
Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010

      “I suppose there are few but know this tree, for its fruit's sake; and therefore I shall spare writing a description thereof.

Place : For the place of its growth, it is afforded room in every orchard.

Government and virtues : It is a tree of Venus. Cherries, as they are of different tastes, so they are of different qualities. The sweet pass through the stomach and the belly more speedily, but are of little nourishment; the tart or sour are more pleasing to an hot stomach, procure appetite to meat, to help and cut tough phlegm, and gross humours; but when these are dried, they are more binding to the belly than when they are fresh, being cooling in hot diseases, and welcome to the stomach, and provokes urine. The gum of the Cherry-tree, desolved in wine is good for a cold, cough, and hoarseness of the throat; mends the colour in the face, sharpens the eyesight, provokes appetite, and helps to break and expel the stone, and dissolved, the water thereof is much used to break the stone, and to expel gravel and wind.”

-Quote

Nicholas Culpepper The Complete Herbal 1653

 Sir Cleges, Knight of the round table and the Cherry:

      Sir Cleges was a knight of the round table. The story of Sir Cleges, translated by Jessie L Weston, 2000, Sir Cleges through his generosity and gifting to the less fortunate became poor. Gradually after a time living in poverty he was forgotten by those to whom his generosity shined and by and by he was left uninvited to the King Uther Pendragon’s palace and court. Uther Pendragon, the father of King Authur was having a feast at Christmastide. Sir Cleges was again univited and forgotten. Not without gifts he took comfort from his ever faithful, loving wife Dame Clarys. Sir Cleges as a devout Christian had pledged his feal loyality both to King Pendragon and the Queen of Heaven, the Most Blessed Virgin.

He sought out the interseccion of the Virgin Mary. While he was praying under a cherry tree at Christmas tide, he looked up and and lifting his head was struck on the head by a cherry branch thick and heavy with fruit in late December. “
      "Dear God,” quoth he, “what manner of berry may this be that grows at this time of the year? At this season I know not that any tree should bear fruit.”” Sir Cleges presented the cherries to his wife in gratitude for comforting him and then decided to take them to the King Pendragon, father of King Arthur. After first being rejected by the keepers of the court he persevered and was able to present them to the king. The king rewarded Sir Cleges with gifts and a return of his prestige among his peers with a place in the court.

 American Eclectics and wild Cherry Bark:

      Within the American Eclectics, cherry bark was esteemed as a complex remedy with a wide variety of application, in the American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858. “
      “I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
        Ichabod Jones was writing here of cherry bark given as a treatment for jaundice and a stuck liver. Another Eclectic formula using wild cherry bark, this one from Lorenzo ElbridgeJ ones, The American Eclectic Materia Medica, 1863, was to combine Berberis bark, Aspen bark and wild cherry bark.” Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered vessel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”
      Prunus serotina bark is not used much now for jaundice or liver issues. Yet these 19th century eclectic’s use of it in this way bears careful consideration for the modern herbalist.
      Ichabod Jones, describes Prunus Spp bark as ‘aromatic tonic, astringent and sedative.’ Both indicated in irritable stomach and nervous system. In addition he describes it for uses in chronic bronchitis, phithisis which is an old term for tuberculosis. Frequently with what we would now call ‘shortness of breath’, as occurs in COPD and exacerbations of asthma, and influenza there is anxiety.      
       Wild cherry bark is useful then as now in addressing anxiety connected to breathing. Wild cherry extract is a valuable ingredient in my materia medica. I wild craft it from the pristine moist mountains here in the southwest bioregion of mountains and Sky islands. I process it immediately in organic cane alcohol to preserve its medicinal aromatic properties. I offer it as a pure fresh plant tincture and in formulas.
      It combines well with Aralia racemosa, spikenard, Osha, Ligusticum porteri, American Licorice, Glycyrrhiza lepidota, Monarda spp, Lomatium, Asclepias spp and other southwest bioregional respiratory herbs. In addition it lends itself to being an ally, not only for coughs and respiratory issues.
     “Therapy—The tonic influence of this agent is more markedly apparent when it is administered in disease of the respiratory apparatus of a subacute or chronic character. It is not given during the active period of acute cases, but is of value during the period of convalescence. It is a common remedy in the treatment of chronic coughs, especially those accompanied with excessive expectoration. It is valuable in whooping-cough. The syrup is used as a menstruum for the administration of other remedies in this disease. It is excellent also in reflex cough—the cough of nervous patients without apparent cause. The syrup may be used persistently in phthisis, for the administration of many other agents which seem to be indicated during the course of the disease. Wild cherry is popular in the treatment of mild cases of palpitation, especially those of a functional character, or from reflex causes. Palpitation from disturbed conditions of the stomach is directly relieved by it. It is said to have a direct tonic influence upon the heart when the muscular structure of that organ is greatly weakened, where there is dilatation or valvular insufficiency, especially if induced by prolonged gastric or pulmonary disease.”
–John Uri Lloyd

       Prunus serotina resonates deep into the body energizing the largest gland in the body, the liver. Especially in terms of torpor and stagnation. It’s interesting to see herbalists today describe cherry bark almost exclusively for cough and respiratory issues. Both the eclectic physicians acknowledge this use yet acknowledge its use internally not connected with cough. Perhaps the best way of describing these broader range of uses is the description of wild cherry bark as a blood purifyer and tonic. Native American tribes also used the bark topically for sores, internally for diarrhea and digestive issues and for ‘old’ coughs, and during the first stages of a woman’s labor. The eclectic physicians of America felt strongly its use in jaundice/liver issues in addition to respiratory problems, along with cough and anxiety related to shortness of breath.
      “As a remedy for dyspepsia it has many advocates. It is a tonic to the stomach improving digestion by stimulating the action of the gastric glands. It soothes irritability of the stomach from whatever cause. Although the properties of a nerve sedative are not ascribed to this agent, general nervous irritation is soothed by its administration, nervous irritability of the stomach and of the respiratory organs is allayed, and a tonic influence is imparted to the central nervous system.” –John Uri Lloyd
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 American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915

      “The officinal portion is the bark, and that of the root should be preferred to that of the trunk and branches. It should be renewed annually, as its properties are much impaired by age and drying.” “Properties and Uses.—Wild-cherry bark has a tonic and stimulating influence on the digestive apparatus, and a simultaneous sedative action on the nervous system and circulation. It is, therefore, valuable in all those cases where it is desirable to give tone and strength to the system, without, at the same time, causing too great an action of the heart and blood vessels, as, during convalescence from pleurisy, pneumonia, acute hepatitis, and other inflammatory and febrile diseases. It is also useful in hectic fever, cough, colliquative diarrhea, some forms of dyspepsia, whooping-cough, irritability of the nervous system, etc., and has been found an excellent palliative in phthisis.”
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The American Dispensatory, By John King

       “Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Origin.—The bark, collected in autumn, of Prunus serotina Ehr, a large forest tree indigenous in North America. Description and Properties.—It is met with in curved pieces or irregular fragments -fa inch (2 Mm.) or more thick; outer surface greenish-brown or yellowish-brown, smooth and somewhat glossy, marked with transverse scars. If the bark is collected from the old wood and deprived of the corky layer, the outer surface is nut-brown and uneven; inner surface somewhat striate or fissured. Upon maceration in water it develops a distinct bitter-almond odor. Taste astringent, aromatic, and bitter. It contains a volatile oil, hydrocyanic acid, tannin, a bitter glucoside, resin, etc. Dose.—i-i drachm (2.0-4.0 Gm.).”
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 A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896

       “The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
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Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010

       “I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
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American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858

 Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Scudder, 1922 -Quote The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863 “Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered ves- sel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”

 References  
    A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896.

    American Eclectic Practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858.

 American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915.

 "BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database." BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database. Accessed September 29, 2016. http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Prunus serotina.

 By William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, Harness and Collar-Makers. Intended to Comprise the Most Interesting Particulars Relating to King Arthur and His Round Table. Bath: H. E. Carrington, 1842.

"Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects." Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects. Accessed September 29, 2016.

http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/lupack-post-medieval-arthurian-literature.

Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physician Enlarged: With Three Hundred and Sixty-nine Medicines, Made of English Herbs, That Were Not in Any Impression Until This. Being an Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation, ... By Nich. Culpepper. .. London: printed for W. Baynes, 1799.

 Jo. Conversation, Field Notes. Tucson, AZ, 2015. John Slattery, Sonoran Desert Apprentice

Mich. Conversations. Silver City, New Mexico, 2015. Field talk Michael Cottingham, Voyage Botanical Herbal Medicine Program

 Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Shudder, 1922.

Charles W. Kane, Medicinal Plants Western Mountain States, Lincoln Town Press, 2017

 Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants Mountain West. 2012

 Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Song,

Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010. The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863.