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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Ocotillo: Healing Heart on the Medicine Road

Ocotillo the Plant:
Fouquieria splendens.

Sometimes the Latin names of plants speak deeply to the nature and essence of the plant, in this case I will have to say maybe. Ocotillo is named for                Pierre Eloi Fouquier 1776-1850 a French physician, translator and writer. The 'splendens'- refers to the impressiveness of this desert plant, and though some might say the flower, yes it is splendid and spectacular! The whole plant from its base to tip is absolutely resilient, hardy and empowering and inspiring.

     Ocotillo has a wide distribution in the bioregion cut up into politico fiefdoms mojave, sonoran and chihuahua deserts from Alto and Baja California, through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, also going further south into Mexico into the states of Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Durango, and Sinaloa. It's display of tubular bright red, orange flowers rivals all for its towering ruling aspect, the inflorescence is a panicle at the tip of the spiny flexible branches.

      Ocotillo: the Place:

Ocotillo itself in its occurrence defines a broad specific bioregion, the South West Turtle Island province some call a 'united states', although there is a dominant culture political boundary that cuts through the bioregion destroying the integrity of place. Some dominant culturalists term the place, south west low desert. Beginning in the Baja California Mexico, north towards the Mojave desert of California, crossing the Colorado into Arizona, across much of southern New Mexico, and old Mexico and to the Rio Grande in Texas. In California around the Salton Sea ocotillo grows below sea level, in some of the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico it will grow sup to 4500ft towards 5000ft elevation. 

     Ocotillo is a drought deciduous plant and opportunes to conditions, leafing out in emerald green with rain, whenever rain comes, whatever season. It can do this 3 or 4 times a year. Then it returns to a green brown thorny skeleton stick form. Flowering occurs in late spring in May or June often synchronizing with saguaro within its range. 

     In the old tradition of the Apaches a medicine of ocotillo roots was used for open wounds on both horses and human wounds, a paste of the ground powdered roots placed directly on open wounds as a poultice. The Cahuilla of Southern California used the flowers and bark for cough with sore throat. It's place in modern western herbal medicine understands ocotillo to aid lymph movements so as a treatment for tonsillitis this makes sense. Many of the plants of the dry places of little rain were beyond the scope of western eclectic botanical medicine active in the US from the 1800's to the early 20th century because there was little visitation to these places till after the great shunning and shaming which happened after the 30 years war 1914-1945 of European biospiritual erasure. During which the military industrial complex overtook western rational thought.

      The flowers placed in water make an exquisite tea with a mild to medium astringency like rose petal or raspberry leaves combined with a light flowery honey like sweetness. It's best made as a sun tea, filling a quart or half gallon mason jar and placed in the sun for several hours. Drunk fresh it can inform one of our place in the desert bioregion province of turtle island.

     Ocotillo, the person: In the modern western herbalists repertoire ocotillo is known and valued as a lymphatic mover keyed to the pelvic area. Much of this conceptual use of Ocotillo comes from Michael Roland Shaw Moore 1941-2009. Michael Moore was a tireless teacher of herbs in the tradition of the commons, the great expanse of National Forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Public Lands present then and open to the public in the western United States. Unfortunately those public space laboratory gathering places and the open door laissez faire policy that nurtured prolific writers like Edward Abbey and Michael Moore, are rapidly shrinking and locking down. I remember splitting fire wood for John Perry Barlow in 1986 when he lived past the Cora Y near Pinedale, Wyoming and he showing me the intranets machine that would 'change everything'. By 1996 Barlow wrote his Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace "Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us."  By his death in 2018 Barlow had seen the consortium percolating free speech through a filter but he of his generation fueled by pathological altruism could not own the story narrative and he still claimed, "You have no sovereignty where we gather." While where we gathered was an occupied controlled space narrative. The boomer with his grand McMansion on the hill, locked in the A/C mandate controlled temperature room doesn't acknowledge the doors that were open at his birth have been shut forever by the AI mantra generators that permit no one can enter. According to Michael Moore ocotillo especially combined with Redroot, Ceanothus fendleri, Cleavers, Galium acarine, and Alder bark and is useful for all conditions associated with pelvic congestion, stuck menses, hemorrhoids, and poor veinous return and veinous stasis in the legs, prostate enlargement and the need to urinate frequently. In the modern western herbalists material media this translates as macerated 1:2 fresh plant tincture in alcohol. As a formula,  each individual plant tincture could be combined as part of the formula. 

     

Liver: The lymphatic system transports 'clean' fluids back to the blood, drains excess fluids from tissues, removes 'debris' from cells of the body, and transports fats from the digestive system The liver is the largest gland in the body, lies in the right upper quadrant. It conforms to the right dome of the diaphragm. the liver has a double blood supply from the hepatic artery 30% and portal vein 70%. The portal venous system, a system of venous blood vessels from the GI tract to the liver, the portal vein supplies about 75% and about 60% of its O2 supply. Superficial and most deep lymph vessels converge at the porta and end in the hepatic lymph nodes. Innervation from the sympathetic and parasympathetic supply from the hepatic plexus, from fibers from the left and right vagus nerve, and right phrenetic nerve. 

Ocotillo stimulates improved lymphatic drainage into the thoracic duct, and helps with dietary fat absorption into the lymph system. "The idea and real quality of an organ system being stuck, like congestion in the lung, bronchitis, pneumonia, inflammation heat, swelling  has a psychological component. It produces a mental effect. Pelvic congestion, pain, stuck menses, painful cramps- these bodily states impinge on our thought processes. There is a way of being well and a way of being sick. A disease state within the body calls forth a subtle mental attitude. Of course we have to distinguish between chronic and acute. The length of time the disease state has effected consciousness. So that the treatment of disease is also the adjustment of mental states." - quote from my previous blog post 

     Red Root Ceanothus fendleri,

"Ceanothus has a history in western herbal medicine notably during the time of it's flowering from the 1830's to the early part of the 20th century. In the colonial period Red Root,  was called 'New Jersey tea' and was a substitute for the imported Chinese tea which was in short supply, as in the revolutionary act of dumping tea into the Boston harbor, the Boston Tea Party and was considered patriotic to part ways with the British, during the Revolutionary War time.

     "The Family Flora and Materia Medica", by Peter P. Good, A.M written in 1847 speaks of it being astringent and slightly bitter. Useful as an astringent in dysentery and as a febrifuge in Mexico. Good describes it as appropriate for sore throats, and the congested symptoms of impaired circulation in the throat area, here we are building a case for its use in the lymph transport of waste material from the throat into the surrounding tissue. In addition red root was described as an expectorant in relation to lung congestion. He also acknowledged its use in the portal system and 

uterine/menstrual pelvic stagnation.

     "Specific Symptomatology—It has a specific influence upon the portal circle, influencing the circulation. In lymphatic patients, with sluggish circulation and inactivity of the liver of a chronic nature, with doughy-sallow skin, puffy and expressionless face, pain in the liver or spleen with hypertrophy of either or both organs, and constipation, it has a direct and satisfactory influence, especially if the conditions are of malarial origin...or in general glandular disarrangements, the agent is indicated. Bronchitis, chronic pneumonitis and asthma are found present with the above general symptoms. Ovarian and uterine irregularities with such conditions will also be benefited by its use." -American Materia Medica:

Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy: Developing the ...
 By Finley Ellingwood, John Uri Lloyd 1915.

    While current south west herbalists, strongly influenced by Michael Moore, tend to view Red root as a lymphatic remedy, aiding the portal liver system, which was acknowledged by the eclectics of the time. 

     The herbalists of the period saw in red root a remedy for..." with my application of this shrub to diseases of the lungs. In 1833, while out botanizing one day, my attention was directed to this shrub, by its beauty while in full bloom, and the peculiar appearance of the root. I gave it the name of wild snowball, knowing no other name for it at that time. I tasted and chewed some of it, and I conceived the idea that it would be good for coughs. I gathered some of the shrub, dried it, and added some of it to my compound, used at that time for coughs. I was successful in treating coughs...In such cases I keep a syrup to suit. It is made as follows: Take ceanothus two parts, asclepias tuberosa one part, boil down till you have a very strong decoction; strain, and add refined sugar, and boil down to form a thick syrup; add the tincture of Tolu, to give a flavor, and bottle. Dose—one tablespoonful three times a day." -The New England Botanical and Surgical Journal, by Calvin Newton MD 1849.

     Besides the possibility of combining red root with pleurisy root for lung congestion, it is fascinating to see the renaissance scientist Dr Newton exploring the fields and forests, directly tasting the herbs and plants and developing an intuitive treatment from the forests of New England. 

     Ocotillo and Red root because how they mobilize how waste products are removed and facilitate transport throughout the body. This is possibly what Dr Calvin Newton in 1849 had encountered and utilized in his formula to treat  tenacious coughs, and lung stagnation, expediting the transport of accumulated waste products in the lung. 

     The idea and real quality of an organ system being stuck, like congestion in the lung, bronchitis, pneumonia, inflammation heat, swelling  has a psychological component. It produces a mental effect. Pelvic congestion, pain, stuck menses, painful cramps- these bodily states impinge on our thought processes. There is a way of being well and a way of being sick. A disease state within the body calls forth a subtle mental attitude. Of course we have to distinguish between chronic and acute. The length of time the disease state has effected consciousness. So that the treatment of disease is also the adjustment of mental states. 

      Herbs and plants like red root and ocotillo are both 'heart' medicines, medicines of the emotional spiritual heart. These medicines while not 'psychological' deal with our healing journey. They address the soul and our way of becoming in the place. Plants can be a way back to a place of balance. Our bodies may be out of balance with disease yet our hearts and minds are also stuck in the paradigm of disease states. Part of the process of healing is acknowledging the psyche and mind states through plant medicines."   Quotes from my previous blog post 

     http://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/01/red-root-ocotillo-and-approach-towards.html

     Healing the Wounded Heart: 

Regardless of how far I go into physiology of disease I am always reminded of the living plant medicine. Even the question of, "what is medicine?". The plant medicines I work with are living beings. As are the people taking the medicine. The key point is life, living, growth and movement. Plant medicines are never were and never can be 1:1 replacements for allopathic drugs made in a laboratory. 

     Ocotillo has come to the surface, speaking, in the same way it's grey stems sprout with green after a rain, offering itself to us as a way to transform the heart. That our hearts are wounded is no doubt. That these plant allies and helpers are here among us is also no doubt.

     In conversations recently at the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference, Coudcroft, New Mexico, 2016, it was no surprise that those testing my plant medicine offerings from the South West US across the board, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or background had a similar reaction to the Ocotillo tinctures I had brought. In conversation after conversation people said that, ocotillo opens the heart, brings a softness.

      Often the healing journey of the heart is so difficult precisely because of this softness. Healing requires an atmosphere of acceptance, a nonjudgmental space of allowing things to be. In that allowing things to be, brought by ocotillo there is a greater complexity. Ocotillo has that gentle quality that allows growth and nurturing green to emerge after a rain, yet if also has the fierceness  of thorns, of boundaries, of setting limits. Maybe all these tender sweet desert plants have that aspect of rose. A rose has the sweetest fragrance, the softest petals, yet it to has thorns, barbs. With healing its often both moving towards our good and moving away from that which holds us back.

     

With ocotillo there is a clarity and space. It inhabits great space gracefully. In order to heal the heart there needs to be space to move beyond repetition. In repetition there is convenience, there is a mindlessness which lacks awareness of space. Ocotillo allows us to energize and invigorate the heart without jumping into action based on the repetitive mind, which wants to maintain the comfort zone, even if it is painful and lifeless. 

     Those who use ocotillo and are drawn to its healing spell often describe a history of trauma in the pelvic area, sexual exploitation, rape, violence in connection to painful circumstances. Abusive families, the feeling can manifest as fear, as an inability to follow their highest good. They are seeking a resolution to that trauma, a way to move forward. They have described to me a movement towards healing and forgiveness that is facilitated with ocotillo as a medicine. Often there is a movement that occurs spontaneously of forgiveness of self and forgiveness of other. Often times the 'other' is the male dominated power structure, the privileged view of the those who run the show, with property and power. The way of continuing to carry the trauma is to carry that burden and then move into self loathing, self destructive lifestyle, not loving yourself enough to care and take care. 

     One of the predominant motifs of this trauma is the feeling that nothing can be done, hopeless and helpless. Often when taking ocotillo there is a sense that, even if I don't know exactly how, I will move on from this, not as a victim, not seeking revenge, but as the loving strong and powerful person that I am.

      Ocotillo is a heroic medicine that invokes trust, just as the ocotillo will leaf out any time rain comes in abundance, there is in that leafing out a trust. It's precisely that time, when the bark is invigorated with life that the ocotillo is gathered, carefully, with intention and gratefulness for its gift. 

      In time spent with the plants I  go directly to the plant, to find its use, its message, its purpose relation to us. I ask of the plant, "Can you heal these broken hearts?", "Help me to help others with these plant medicines." 

     One of the ways I go to the plants is directly. I go directly to the plant with intention. The herbal medicine road is often pleading and asking. It is admitting my own lack of knowledge, in some sense I am unknowledgeable, incapable of knowing. My wits are dull. Yet the plant teachers are willing to share when one admits a lack and acknowledges a need.  

      Going directly to the plant: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.  

       

The quickest and most powerful way is to go as a small group of committed seekers to the plant setting intention. You will need to step up and prepare ahead a time, either a tincture, flower essence or tea of the ocotillo. This is to be passed around the group, to each group member in silence. It's a sacred communion and needs to be understood and cherished in that way. Then after a time of careful silence and receptive watching, each member of the group will share their findings, their results out loud to the group. It's important to acknowledge the intention as a group to gather and share insights gained in a nonjudgmental way, in a spirit of reverence and love. It helps if someone in the group can set the tone based on previous journeys. It's best to be uncrushed, unhurried and make a day of it. It's important to understand that when a person speaks in the circle, it's the ocotillo speaking. We become channels for each other so the voice of ocotillo can be heard. We are ocotillo's mouth piece. 

     Someone who has gone before can set the tone by talking about the plant, it's biology, its place in the ecosystem. How it grows, where it grows, its life cycle and unique qualities. Someone who has studied the ethnobotany of the plant and can talk good plant story can make the journey easier. Looking at the plant, walking for a while in silence to the plant can often prepare the group for what's to come. 

     It's important to come together with a common purpose in this. At the beginning have each person explain who they are and what they're doing directly to the group and to the ocotillo. You'll need to find an ocotillo receptive to this, you made need to walk some ways to find the best spot. It helps to set the intention with a smudge. I like to use yerba santa, or Hyptis emori but what you'll be using is up to you. Once the smudge stick is lit, each person should hold it and make a good smoke, state aloud their intentions, it should be passed in a sun-wise way, starting in the east, then south, west and north, in a circle. This sets the tone and sacred purpose or intention, to meet understand and grow with ocotillo. To hear ocotillo's voice and allow ocotillo to speak. I met a person one time in this beautiful place, yet they were sad, and I was puzzled. She said, "Everybody passes by these plants and they don't greet them. They don't use them. The plants are lonely, sad, they need us. We need them."  that stuck with me. The plant medicines want to be a part of us. We need to make ourselves a part of them. It's always been this way.

      Of course it's not always possible to assemble a group, and good results be had by journeying alone, doing personal study on the plant, reading what others have said, then carrying out the exercise alone, allowing ocotillo to speak through you, to you.

     The main thing is to go to the plant directly, alone or with a group. As I said though going with a small group of dedicated seekers can be especially powerful. Sharing insights gained with others in the circle can facilitate a deep learning that goes beyond words, and is the best and fastest way I've found to gather insight. Often different members of the group can have different pieces of the puzzle, and the combined insights shared together often transition into that rolling deep, where the old songs and stories come to the surface.

       With ocotillo the group will assemble around a stand of ocotillo that is especially vibrant, maybe leafed out or in flower. One specific technique I've found is to sit near the ocotillo and focus awareness of breath, sending the breath into the ground and focus on exchanging energy, sharing the energy of the ocotillo. See your breath going into the ground meeting the roots of the ocotillo, mingle your breath with the roots of the ocotillo. Allow the breath to rise into the individual stems of the ocotillo, moving rising to the top of the ocotillo stalk, then descend back down into the roots. Feel the energy then move into where your body makes contact with the earth. Invite your energy as breath to mingle and mix with the ocotillo. Re-enter your body where it makes contact with the earth, and rise up through your body, to the top of your head, then back down in a circuit, into the earth. Mix and meet the ocotillo roots, rise up the stalks and branches, to the top of the ocotillo, then back down the ocotillo, into the ocotillo roots, into the earth, traveling back to your body at the point where you are sitting, then to the top of your head and back down, into the earth meeting the ocotillo roots, to the top of the ocotillo and back down, continuing the microcosmic energy exchange orbit.

      This same technique can be used for 'meeting' any plant or tree at a certain point in the process an aspect of ocotillo can be passed around. It could be a sun tea of the flowers, or a tincture of bark and leaf, or a flower essence.This is shared with the group as a sacrament. It's important to understand and ask permission of ocotillo to help us to understand her. Acknowledge that ocotillo is a living being. Ask ocotillo. Explain what you're doing and why. When people share their insights allow the silence to penetrate, there's no right or wrong. Everyone has something important to share. 

     

  Ocotillo Elixir:

The time for singing is when you hear the song. And with our bioregional medicine, with our plant medicine road, we use the plants as we find them because that is the time.

Now is the time for emotional growth, for love, for the heart, for the heart songs broken to be mended. This is the Sonoran desert spring time song of the ocotillo, the Ocotillo elixir , Fouquieria splendens, true flower medicine. A sovereign remedy. Ocotillo medicine i use every day, usually the bark and leaf tincture, lately this spring time currently using an ocotillo flower elixir formula.

I think it's fitting to look at the origins of the word elixir in connection with Ocotillo, Etymology:

 Late Greek xé̄rion drying powder (for wounds), equivalent. to Greek xēr(ós) dry 

 Arabic al iksīr , A preparation believed to turn the base metals into gold. The elixir of life keep the bowl of prolonging and enriching life, a panacea, A cure-all sovereign remedy.
This is for our wounds, our emotional wounds to stop the bleeding and to bring back life into those dreams areas of her heart that don't respond to the quickness of spring as they should.

So I gather

the ocotillo flowers, just at the point when they are open and most fragrant with their heavy smell of hummingbirds and spring time Sonoran Desert blossoms. i let them dry a bit and savor sweet fragrance.

Then I tincture the tops in alcohol, and sweeten with honey. True to the name, deals with the wounds and the bleeding , nourishing  and returns to function the-feeling heart, this is my ocotillo  flower elixir.

Formula:Ocotillo elixir 

Gather the ocotillo blossoms just at that point where they are open for what we are seeking is to nurse the open heart.

Dry the ocotillo blossoms for a day or two, then tincture  fresh 2:1 in organic cane alcohol, if you don't have this you could use a strong Brandy or vodka. In terms of our bioregional medicine it's important to engage the plant stories and songs at the time of their singing. After you tincture it for a week or so, drain and strain, you will want to add honey, three parts menstruum remaining, to one part honey, then bottle for future use. Ocotillo flower elixir for opening and healing the wounds of the emotional heart. Enjoy an experience is healing time for never will you be here again, savor this new becoming, take it into your heart grow in the way of the plant
medicine road as it leads you.

La Gobernadora,Larrea tridentata

Larrea tridentata,

so it is with the plants, matthew 10:31 "But many that are first shall be last: and the last, first", La Gobernadora, the Governess, The queen, Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios. She's there with you whether you want her or not. She's the first and the last. You can't escape or run from her because she calls you, she knows your name.

She smells like rain. She is rain. she is soft rain, the hard rain and rain that falls from the sky and rain that goes back-and-forth side ways,  across the sky. Sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, sometimes like honey or vinegar dripping into your mouth, she could heal any illness or bring you 1 million good things. She's everywhere. She's everything.

She can be young and green, twisting and flexible, or dry,  old and brown and wise. You think you know her and understand her, and then she throws you a curve ball and leaves you flattened on the ground. She can plead with you and draw you in with her smile. She's like the blue sky and the clouds, because she is the blue sky. She is the clouds. She is the white cloud. She's the great White cloud that knows the turquoise sky. She is the turquoise sky. She can lift you with her arms if she wants to or make you smile and laugh and dance like you were a child. You think you're strong?  she is much stronger than you are. She is stronger than you ever could be. Your muscles are nothing compared to what she can do. She can do anything. She can be everyone,  everywhere, everything. She doesn't need anyone, she's completely comfortable being alone. She rules the desert. You think there are pretty flowers in the spring time? She's more pretty than anyone,  she's more pretty than any flower. She's an old wise woman. She's a young girl in disguise that can lead you around like a dog on a leash. She's the first plant that you'll ever see. And when you're dying,  freezing, waiting for the Saints and the Virgin Mary, feeling your last breath, she will be there again to welcome you.

She's just like that. She doesn't care if the whole world hates you,  despises you, ignores you,  she will love you just the same. You could be the mayor of the city or a homeless idiot starving on the street corner yelling and screaming in the night, she doesn't care about shit like that. You could be wearing pants one day and a dress the next, you could be wearing high heels or no shoes at all with blisters and cracked dry skin on your feet, doesn't matter. She accepts everyone. That's why they call the governess. La Gobernadora.

br /> -Paul Manski

Nuestra Señora de los Remedios

Nuestra Señora de los Remedios de las yerbas y plantas y San Pedro, Ora pro Nobis. On this Fullmoon night I come to your garden for the remedies you have brought to us in plants and herbs.

 Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Help us to find good medicine and blessings!always.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. We come to you O most blessed virgin Mary, mother of God most holy. Never was it known that anyone who came to you imploring your remedios was left unaided. Guide us Holy Mary to these remedios, now and forever. Amen.

R:  Sicut erat in principo, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

ASPERGES me, * Domine, hyssopo et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

THOU shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be cleansed; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me worthy to gather your plants.

Monarda spp, Oregano del campo, wild hyssop.

Nuestra Señora de los remedios de las yerbas y plantas, Mother of  herbs and plants, Oh!, Queen of heaven and earth, on this Full Moon Blessed Virgin, with San Pedro, you have showed us tonight the keys of heaven. We worship you. You are the daughter well-beloved of Our Father, the mother chosen by the word, the wife immaculate of the Holy Ghost. Come Holy Ghost by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate heart of Mary, your most beloved chaste spouse. 

     We depend on you, oh!, Dear Mother, as children depend on their mother tender and careful. As you fed and nourished your son Jesus with the sweet salty milk. Let your milk come down like soft gentle rain to norish and heal us. Show us your herbs and plants so we can make good medicine and bring blessings!always. 

    Jesus you hung on the tree of the cross like a flower, you died, went to seed and were buried in the ground then rose at Easter in the spring coming like the Pasque flower.

Anemome tuberosa, the pasqueflower.
We come to this place to gather the medicine, which is your body and blood under this full moon, to do as you commanded, this is my body and blood, eat it and be made well by my bounty and blessing. Do this in memory of me. "And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." "And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." "The most High hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them.", ..."none of the evils that I laid upon Egypt, will I bring upon thee: for I am the Lord thy healer."

      Forest of Redroot, Ceanothus fendleri. Comfort the afflicted and those alone and solitary, help the poor and those who lost their hope; help the sick and to those who suffer. They can be cured of body and soul, and strengthened in spirit with these Remedios, these plants you give us on this Full Moon.

      Our Lady of All Remedies we come in remembrance of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honour of Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, Blessed John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, we know all manner of healing come from you in these plants, who are your children even as I am your son and you my Mother, show me which plant can heal my brother and sisters, do not let them suffer but show me good medicine to bring blessings!always.

Let me bring good into this world in the name of Jesus, Mary and all the angels and saints.

-Paul Manski