Maianthemum racemosum, False Solomon Seal at Deer House by Paul Manski

 

Maianthemum racemosum subsp. amplexicaule, false or true Solomon seal or false true Feathery False Solomon Seal? Lot's of name changes with plant Botanicaistas these days, here is the plant that I use for my plant medicine.- I make medicine with the plants it's what I do. I work from the place where I am.

I think the most important thing in my herbal medicine is where. Where is always a question. I'm not so involved with what's going to happen with the where after I work with it because that is outside of me. It's outside of what I can address and compensate for. So with the medicine road that I'm on at this time it is all about where. Where these plants are growing is important. It is about the house of the plant so I am looking for the plants house. Just like I look for the deer house. I spend time at the deer house looking for the deer house who create the plant songs and stories.

 I always acknowledge the Creator who brings us this plant medicine Road and put these plants here for us. For me I think Deer is in charge of putting the plant medicine in front of us and of course there are teachers that come and go and can sometimes drop plants right in front of us. I've seen this happen when we seek them out, some of the old teachers they're not even alive in the sense of having a body anymore but they're dropping the plants down right in front of you sometimes,  and you're finding them. Of course they were connected with Deer House and the Deer House teachers and in that ways since were still connected to them. 

    'Where' is who holds for us the question. Now sometimes I'll meet someone and they will say, "where can I find that?", "how my going to find that medicine? where can I buy it?" So we're using words in this way to talk plant story and it's going this way and that way and sometimes we have to ask some questions to find out if we're on the same page with it. First of all if it's a simple question where?, "where, can I find it? what store can I buy it in?" I'll pretty much tell you straight out you can't buy medicine. You can make medicine, that you can do. Yet you can't buy medicine because medicine is connection. You can't buy connection. Connection is what describes you're being outside of words numbers and labels so you can't use the things that you usually used to remedy the situation of disconnection. Maybe I can help share a connection, maybe I can do that and maybe I can't.   I think the more that I think about it,  medicine is a verb it's not a noun. And this whole illusion of disconnect kind a world that we are supporting in different ways makes itself known Lotta times in our language and our thinking process. You see this a lot of times with things like maybe for example basketball, someone might say basketball and it's one of those words it's supposed to be an action and activity yet somehow in this illusion of disconnect world it's been converted into a passive thing. So if someone says basketball they may be talking about eating chips and salsa in front of the TV and they make in their minds all this into a kind of basketball. Let me tell you this is not basketball. Basketball is a game that you play by running around and dribbling the ball outside, shooting it. You're jumping up-and-down. Maybe you're yelling and screaming and high-fiving and your body is sweaty and your heart rate is being fast. OK this is basketball. Eating chips in front of the TV with salsa and guacamole is not basketball. We could call it eating chips and salsa in front of the TV-ball, or make up a new word for it that someone has never said before. Yet it's nothing to do with basketball. And it's the same way with medicine. It is the same way with our bioregional plant medicines, with our plant medicines with our medicine. It is the same way with our spirit songs that the deer house keepers bring to us now and then when we're ready for them.

With medicine it's all about the heart connection. With our medicine it is about a profound connection with the hearts that goes from our hearts into our feet and from our feet into the ground and from the ground into the earth and from the earth it becomes a root route and that root-route is our heart medicine roadway, now in that way there is something happening with health and with healing.

     Now going to store's fine. there's nothing wrong with going to store and getting what you need and anyone who tells you anything different is just creating a problem we're no problem exists. And yet going to a store is going to a store and making medicine is making medicine, and it's very true I haven't been to all the stores so it's very possible there is such a place as a store that sells medicine. Yet it's very important to know that if you're going to a store you are going to a store and if you're going to store then we are you are going is the store. And going to a store is a fine thing to do and a fine way to spend your time, and it's what we do as human beings we go to stores we buy things. Medicine our plant medicine though is something else. Going to the medicine is not going to the store and though there may be medicine stores it's important to realize that going to the store is going to the store and making plant medicine is making plant medicine. 

Going to some store and laying down frog skins or sliding plastic, buying something in a bottle or a bag and then going home and then putting it in your mouth this is like eating chips and salsa with guacamole in front of the TV and calling it basketball. It's not basketball, it's Chip eating, and maybe the chips you were eating are organic kale chips and maybe the avocado  is organic from Ecuador and the salsa is made from Himalayan goji berries, you know even then, even if it's all so good in that way, still it's not basketball. so we have to make sure that our herbalism is a dribbling the ball, running, jumping,  sweat in our eyes, with our hearts beating fast kind of basketball- herbalism and not an organic chip eating salsa guacamole in front of the TV-herbalism. 

 

Maianthemum racemosum back to the Solomon seals, it's  well, it's here and there, up at higher/mid elevation at the Deer House. The Solomon seal? the false Solomon seal? , feathery false and what not, lots of name changes. You pick a name maybe Deer House Root seal? Or Deer sael, or deer root seal? Anyway 'lily a da valley'-like-looking, reminds me of childhood days underneath the apple trees. 

     So this is how you  put up all these plant medicines in growing your medicine bag. Find somebody to show it to you and then you'll know what it is, you can spend a little time with it. Taste a few leaves, see where it grows. Smell it, taste, touch it, be with it, then you'll know what it is, then you know how it is, why it is, when it is,  where it is. The connection comes from connection. The connection does not come from disconnection. The connection is a process of being with the place with the plant in the place of the plant. 

     On Questions and answers: All these kinds of questions will come up. The best way is never look for answers always look for questions. It's not about finding it's about asking. So it's like when you're at school and someone comes up to you, and whispers, "do you have the answers for the test?",  so this time you tell him,  "no no, I don't have the answers but I do have the questions." The question always belongs to you, the answers don't belong to you. The answers will be coming from someone else so if you ask a question,  someone else's 'why' will answer it, that someone else is outside of you.  the answer is always outside of you. So even if someone gives you a test and the test has 20 questions and you answer them all correctly, if those questions were not your questions then the answers cannot be your answers.  You have to ask your own questions. You have to write your own test and then if you want to answer them you can do that but it's really up to you. The question is not going this way and that, it's not like the Ocotillo branch

that's blowing this way and that way in the wind. going this way and that way whichever way the wind is blowing.

The question is like the Ocotillo roots standing still, always supporting the ocotillo. Always creating new ocotillo branches. We ask ocotillo-questions that go deep down into the earth and they don't really move this way and that way they just sit there deep in the earth. Pulling up all the nutrients. Pulling up all the water. Even if the earth is dry, even if there is no rain somehow these ocotillo roots are making rain. They're pulling up water from stone. And our questions have to be like these ocotillo roots that go so deep that they can perform the impossible like creating water from rock. Finding water in the desert where everything is dry, this is the way our questions have to be. Pulling up everything that it needs to make the plant medicine to make the ocotillo medicine The question  is what you have inside of you so it belongs to you. The question is the root that you have that makes anything you do possible. It is the question that makes the impossible possible.

Now here's a footnote, having the question is not the same thing as asking the question. We are looking for questions. We hold our questions. You may meet someone who's always talking saying,  "oh what's this? what's that?  what do I do now? what kind of plant is this one?  is this is this in the same family is as parsley? or is this a different plant? is it the same as the plant how do jing in Chinese medicine?", all these kinds of questions, that is like questions jumping out of the mouth and that is like the Ocotillo branches swaying in the wind.

    The questions we ask are silent deep questions with the roots. The roots are pulling up the nutrients very slowly they're not like the ocotillo branches waving this way and that way in the wind. We are holding the question. We are not answering the question. We are holding the question. We are not answering questions that is not what we're doing, we're not asking questions outside of ourselves. Our herbal medicine requires of us to look for questions. As herbalists we look for questions. As a bioregional herbalist you cultivate questions. You worship authentic  questions. It is only by having a deep burning abiding question that you can take it to the next step of breakthrough. What we are trying to do here with our Bioregional  herbal medicine is to have a question, hold a question.  you couldn't leave asking the question for someone else because having the question and asking question, are two different things.

   

 Maianthenum racemosum, false Solomon Seal, Growing this kind of way, soft, north side shady, cooling, moon-story, wind sheltered, likes to spend time with poison ivy. So watch out or you'll get all kinds of welts and wet itchy hives because where Maianthemum racemosum is so is poison ivy . 

Now with herbalism and the the plant medicine road, we are going for a smooth gradual shift that is of itself connection. So in that way it's not a sudden revolution like a heroic medicine.  It's slow gradual shift we are working on. We're working on slow shift of the roots, a root shift. As you look at the ocotillo root you realize that their deep in the ground, invisible yet working all the time behind the scenes making things happen, slowly pulling up the nutrients and that's the shift that we're going for. It is about nourishing  becoming. If you look at the leaves and branches at the tips of the ocotillo  with brilliant sweet smelling orange red ocotillo  flowers, you'll see them moving in the wind back-and-forth in whatever way the wind moves. now this is how heroic  herbalism functions. Heroic medicine is in the very periphery of the leafs and top branches. In heroic medicine we go from symptom to symptom and as we know from allopathic medicine, from side effects to side effects, from side effects to symptom of the side effects, to the side effects of the solution we create more side effects so now we need to dress more symptoms and we just keep going around and around is a circle, like the ocotillo  branches way up at the top of the plant, with a lot of movement yet not a lot of direction. The direction we are seeking is self-thus from the inside of the being, from the roots which as its nature is flowing with homeostasis and healing without thought or plan always becoming real healing movement. The heroic herbalism of the ocotillo branches is kind of going without any plan.  We are jumping. We are suddenly and impulsively  acting and we are jumping in the air. Now we are landing on our feet awkwardly maybe falling down after jumping too high and trying to attend our balance. Now we are going to left, now we are going to the right,  and we become very worried. We're practicing to be very anxious and very fluttering like the very tips of the leaves of the ocotillo. We are  always reacting.  Acting without a center is the anxiety illness way. A lot of people in this illness disconnect kind of situation become very familiar and close to their emotions and will put a lot of value and importance to their emotional states.  A lot of people when they think of emotions they think of emotions as in their heart. They'll say something like "my emotions",  "my feelings". They think of emotions as something that are very deep and central to their being. Yet emotions are very much with the leaves and branches of the ocotillo. Emotions are very much at the surface and they are not at the heart. We may feel emotions inbour heart but they are not central to our being, in fact they are a symptom of the illusion of disconnect. In fact if you want to find a situation of imbalance then focus on the emotions. If you want to increase your disconnect then center your focus on emotions, work with your emotions if you want to stagnate and go nowhere. Emotions can only take us a very short distance because they are at the surface. Emotions are like the very top orange red flowers ofthe ocotillo they go this way in the wind they go that way in the wind. May be a rain will fall and then there will be green leafy branches.

Then it will dry and become warm in the leaves will fall. These are like flowers the opening is short, very quickly and even though they were important they are not central to the function and being of the ocotillo. Yes we need flowers for reproduction and as we know the emotions are very important for romance, feelings of love and whatnot the heightened sense of sexuality. Yet this is not central to the relationship. The relationship between a man and woman is centered on a long-standing deep commitment. 

Maianthemum racemosum, False Solomon Seal this is a great medicine for the joints, & soft connective tissue- cartilage & sinews, for the whole body system. It is spring tonic/restorative & blood purifier in terms of old ways plant talk story. Maianthemum racemosum 

has an amazing opening quality of healing that engenders soft tissue to be restored especially in areas of injury. Learned about this un fren John, he knows it good and help me out with it, straight me out by it. This great plant medicine has many uses and is valuable for anyone who has arthritic sore joints or recent injuries to the body to the soft tissues of the body, the cartilage, sinew and  ligaments. It is an amazing healing herb found in our desert southwest mountains.

Here you can see the knobby roots which are used as one of our powerful plant medicines. This medicine is found at mid-high elevation on  more  north facing hillsides. It is a powerful yin medicine growing on the north side of slopes and is definitely a great healer for athletes with their strong yang go-go-go constitutional things. 

     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. 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 nurses and 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, actionate  the body, act, move do. 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. So with the, Maianthemum racemosum, Solomon seal of the false Solomon seal what we have is the plant growing in a very cool shady spot. It's roots are in a rich black well-drained soil. It's slope be in hilly areas and as I said there are big trees, a shady spot with creeping vines, Vitus Arizonica wild grape vines,  Rhus radicans poison ivy, and ponderosa pines, raspberry, Juglans major walnut. And if you are listening you can hear the soft gurgling of water for the snowmelt above coming down the creek and the waters cold clear and here in there you may see some hummingbirds gathering nectar gathering pollen making their medicine, following their medicine roads. So this is a very calm peaceful place shady even in the hot sun it's still cool it's still very gentle and soft and even if the wind is blowing very hard above the tops of the mountains down here it's not very windy and this is the place where Maianthemum racemosum is making medicine. 

     When we make plant medicine, when we take these plant medicines we are taking in the relationship of the place into our body for healing. So were taking that very cool energy of the mountain

into the insides of our joints. We're taking this soft north side of the mountain energy of moistness and bringing it into our very windy, very dry joints that I've become crackly like static electricity very dry and brittle. We're trying to bring in something very cooling to this hot sticky kind of irritable situation it's happening in our knees and elbows and whatnot and we're bringing in the False Solomon Seal.  We are calling it in or calling in the medicine or calling on the deer house. Calling in the medicine girl calling on the medicine girl and all that knowledge of the deer house

and all the deer house teachers and all those lineages the people that lived in those stone houses way up there on the mountain and use these medicines. We are asking all that to come inside. We are asking all of it to calm down. We're asking for the slow gentle shift of beauty and harmony in our joints in our knees and  elbows in all the parts of our body. 

     So in that way were making some medicine with the false Solomon seal, with 

Maianthemum racemosum. 

Vinca major, big leaf periwinkle at Deer House

Vinca major, Family: Apocynaceae Dogbane family

periwinkle, bigleaf periwincle.

I was finding this plant growing all along the riparian areas up at Deer House. I had actually been looking for other plants, and was a little bit taken back how this periwinkle had taken over the riparian areas pushing out palleo mint, the St. John's wort, aralia, and lobelia. 

The more I looked into perriwinkle the more I found it a medicinal plant in its own right certainly prolific. Too prolific yes, yet it is here to stay and I guess I better learn how to use it.

    I was really touched by the beautiful purple flowers that were brilliantly set off by the twining trailing shiny green leaves of the periwinkle.

   The leaves, and seeds of the periwinkle contain vincamine, a precursor to the chemical vinpocetine, which is used medicinally to naturally enhance memory in aging minds.1,2

The old English form of the name, as it appears in early Anglo-Saxon Herbals, as well as in Chaucer, was 'Parwynke,' and we also find it called 'Joy of the Ground.' In Macer's Herbal (early sixteenth century) it is described:

'Parwynke is an erbe grene of colour

In Tyme of May he beryth blo flour,

His stalkys ain (are) so feynt and feye

Yet never more growyth he hey (high).'

And we are also told that 'men calle it ye Juy of Grownde.'

The plant is astringent, bitter, detergent, sedative, stomachic and tonic[4, 7, 21, 53, 165, 238]. It contains the alkaloid 'vincamine', which is used by the pharmaceutical industry as a cerebral stimulant and vasodilator[238]. It also contains 'reserpine', which reduces high blood pressure[238]. It is used internally in the treatment of excessive menstruation, abnormal uterine bleeding, vaginal discharge and hardening of the arteries[238]. It should not be given to patients with constipation[238]. It is applied externally to vaginal discharge, nosebleed, sore throat and mouth ulcers[238]. The plants are cut when flowering and dried for later use[238]. The fresh flowers are gently purgative, but lose their effect on drying[4]. A homeopathic remedy is made from the fresh leaves[4]. It is used in the treatment of haemorrhages[4].

Lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) aerial plant and its synthetic alkaloid vinpocetine have been shown to improve blood flow to the brain. Vinpocetine may be able to enhance cognition in patients with dementia, and enhanced memory and learning in patients with vascular dementia.

"it's a late comer, more recent arrival to america's, but then so am I, yes Vinca major.

Michael Moore

VINCA MAJOR , V. MINOR(Periwinkle)

HERB. Tincture [Fresh Herb 1:2, Dry Herb, 1:5, 50% alcohol] 20-40 drops, to 2X a day.

Kiva Rose a clearheaded New Mexican herbalist writes eloquently about the weeds. In this case a town weed. It's true we can't escape or go back, the box was opened now we deal with it, or escape in fantasy. So using these prolific invasive species that just take over is critical and important as they're here to stay like we are and they're not going to go away. 

• Periwinkle (Vinca major) – The astringent flowers and leaves of vining, groundcover-like Periwinkle are an effective vascular tonic, serving to tighten up the tissue of the vascular system wherever there is laxity. Based on this same systemic tonifying action, I frequently utilize Vinca as a vasoconstrictor for certain kinds of migraines."-Kiva Rose, blogpost Weedwifery -http://bearmedicineherbals.com/aha

 Medicinal Plants by  Charles Kane: "like caffeine though. Winkles vasoconstricting effect on peripheral blood vessels, it can be useful in diminishing the pain and sensitivity of an acute stage migraine headache. Systemically as well the plant lessons passive hemorrhaging. Used to quell bleeding from hemorrhoids,

nosebleeds, and urinary tract injury. Profuse menstruation as well as mid cycle bleeding, also diminishes under perry Winkle use" -Charles Kane

"Venus owns this herb, and saith, That the leaves eaten by man and wife together, cause love between them. The Periwinkle is a great binder, stays bleeding both at mouth and nose, if some of the leaves be chewed. The French used it to stay women's courses. Dioscorides, Galen, and Ægineta, commend it against the lasks and fluxes of the belly to be drank in wine."

Nicholas Culpeper, 1653

. "Vinca minor has a stimulating action on the circulatory system and improves the blood flow through the brain. It is noted to be helpful in the treatment of headaches, dizziness, impaired memory, tinnitus and hearing loss (Bartram, 1998), as well as cerebral arteriosclerosis which can lead to dementia due to insufficient blood flow to the brain (Chevallier, 2001). By increasing the blood flow to the brain, Vinca minor may be beneficial for treating conditions which are caused by poor cerebral perfusion such as vascular dementia. This condition is caused by an obstruction in the circulation to the brain which results in insufficiency of blood to the tissues and the brain cells die (Alzheimer’s Society, 2008). Vinca minor’s beneficial effects may be explained by the action of the constituent vinpocetine (an indole alkaloid), which has been isolated in the plant. Vinpocetine has been shown to enhance oxygen release of haemoglobin and therefore increase the amount available to cells (Tohgi et al, 1990). This action, along with its vasodilating effect is considered to be responsible for its success in the treatment of cerebral hypo perfusion (Tohgi et al, 1990)."- Jennifer Gould

"Lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) aerial plant and its synthetic alkaloid vinpocetine have been shown to improve blood flow to the brain. Vinpocetine may be able to enhance cognition in patients with dementia, and enhanced memory and learning in patients with vascular dementia." -Jennifer Gould

References/Quotes

[1]F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956

Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[4]Grieve. A Modern Herbal.

Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[7]Chiej. R. Encyclopaedia of Medicinal Plants.

[238]Bown. D. Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses.

Macers Herbal 

De Viribus Herbarum

Macer Floridus 1477

Materia Medica, Michael Moore

http://www.swsbm.com/ManualsMM/MatMed5.pdf

Complete Herbal

Nicolas Culpeper 1653

Kiva Rose, blog post "Weed Wifery"

 http://bearmedicineherbals.com/aha

Vincamine article at NIH.gov , , (): The health benefits of vincamine and related compounds, which are sold as drugs in Europe, relate to the treatment of primary degenerative and vascular dementia. As a dietary supplement, vincamine is promoted as a nootropic.,  

HerbalGram . Evidence of Benefits from Herbal Preparations for Improving Cognition and Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia in the Elderly , , (04-30-2012): 

“Identifying the benefits of Vinca major (Greater Periwinkle) and Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle) in a Modern Herbal Practice. With a historical review of the herbs and analysis of current use by herbal practitioners.”

Scottish School of Herbal Medicine and the University of Wales for the award of BSc(Hon) in Herbal Medicine.

-by Jennifer Gould

http://www.reconnecttoself.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/JenGold-Dissertation-2008.pdfg

Out of the corner of my eye, I see rocks with flowers and cactus leapinto the air and birds that sing songs because the Ponderosa pine had ameeting and said sing sing for us today and I see all these things andwonder what's going to happen next

Out of the corner of my eye, lately I see things out of the of the corner of my eye, of course I know these things happen, and I expected them to happen, it's still surprises me sometimes,

especially when Grayrocks that look like they just came from inside the earth without any introduction speak and say, "blooming flowers", bright yellow flowers

exactly like the sun or like an egg yolk from a humming bird. and it can happen even in the middle of the night maybe during the full moon or really any time the gray rocks Bloom unexpectedly with yellow flowers, could be the middle of winter, it can happen any time, all of it can happen anytime, seeing it out of the corner of my eye.

I see rocks suddenly bloom with yellow flowers the color of hummingbird egg yolks and cactus leap,

cholla and beaver tails, fishhook and bisnaga. Fat saguaros about to explode with water at their bursting  point where they can't drink anymore, they've drunk so much water they're drunk.

These giant Saguaros weighing  thousands of pound leap into the air and do cartwheels, or dive straight towards the rocks Like red tailed Hawks after mice and cotton tail rabbits. of course, I asked for this. I stood on top of the mountain during the EtaAquriad meteor shower during the Perseids and said to San Pedro, Saint Peter,

I said "Teach me about the flowers. Tell me about the Milky Way. Show me the plants. Bring me the Virgin Mary, so I can ask her questions. Give me the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Bring her back, bring her back. Why did you send her away?"

   

I was in the middle of the Ancha. I was wasting my time waiting for the sun to go down. watching the sunset watching the Ponderosa pine trees.

I was actually laying on my back looking at the sky looking at the clouds wondering whether it would rain. It was then that I saw that the Sierra Ancha Mountain was walking.

I saw that here we may have walking mountains.  These mountains are walking on the clouds. I saw the Sierra Ancha move into the sky and stand above the clouds, on top of the clouds. the Ponderosa pine circled and began to speak.

And these Pondarosa Pines in the Sierra Ancha know everything. they decide things that I never knew like what bird will sing which song, how long and what key. and what cottontail rabbit would meet the Red tailed hawk, and be like Jesus Or one of the Saints, or the Virgin Mary

because when you speak of these medicines they easily give up their life for all the flowers,  for all the trees,  for all the frogs so that they all could live and attain salvation. They call forward all the animals and decide which skunk will become the medicine skunk of the feathery Star Solomon Seal.

 Or birds that sing songs because the Ponderosa pine had a meeting and said sing sing for us today and I see all these things and wonder what's going to happen? 

     Of course, As I said, I asked for this, I begged and pleaded for this and maybe someone helped me get it or sent something my way. Maybe it was Nevy Jensen, from Grey Mountain

so many years ago we asked him to come and like most things that you ask for you're never sure if they're going to happen, until the the last minute he finally came and I remember he couldn't come through the door he had to come from the back door the back door faced toward the south with his medicine bundle he came to our house and he blessed the house and he dressed me nicely with turquoise beads

and bob cat fur, he had me sit on a deerskin and now I know it was the medicine deerskin for my medicine deer may be up on the Mesa or up near the Ancha with the medicine deer.

     There was a place near our house where the sagebrush grew thick and sweet. Not like the sage brush on the mountain or the mesa. This was medicine Sage brush. This was medicine sagebrush Nevy Jensen he called it 'Tsahh' this was like a sagebrush house or Tsahh bikinnh  or inscription house it was the Artemisia tridetata. 

     Sweet spicy tsahh. It was sweet. it was sweet like estafiate. Sweet like altamisa.

Even sweeter. It was sweet like water dripping ice cold down a cliff face.

it was sweet like rain scented with rabbit brush and sage. It was sweet like rain scented with creosote bush. It was sweet like the rain scented with piñon pine. it was sweet like the rain scented with Ponderosa pine, Arizona Cypress. it was sweet like the sweetest Ocotillo flowers

orange dripping with nectar the ants gather.  it was sweet like the sound of woman's voice calling your name asking you to come towards her. it was sweet like her breasts

thick fat with milk. it was sweet like yellow evening primrose flowers.

it was sweet like datura flowers. it was sweet like the fluffy downy fur that covers the medicine deer up on the Ancha. 

    This sage brush, It was in the bottom of the valley in the red rocks, in a place like a cave where there were pictures on the rocks,  pictures of deer, medicine deer and butterflies and circles that go round and round, like our lives live around and around. we always come back to this point.

In the center of the circle. that is between us what makes us who we are and also makes us who were not. Because we go round and round this point just like the sun and the moon and the clouds go around and around in the medicine deer sagebrush circle, along the coxcomb that's what Nevy Jensen knew. That's why he came. 

     So I trace it back to that day when he came to our house said all those prayers and dressed me with turquoise and sprinkled me with cornpollen had me repeat the prayers that he said even though I didn't know what the words meant I repeated what he said as best I could and they were like seeds to grow in my heart and since that time ever since that time I've seen out of the corner my eyes. 

     I've watched and waited I stood waiting for a train.

A  train that I got on long ago. I got on the train but I never got off I kept riding, riding. and it took me places and then when I watched and waited it was like an old man got off the train.

now I am an old man I'm not sure if the young boy is still riding on the train. I watch. i look maybe someone will come today, maybe someone will come to my house, or your house, or the deer house or this Ancha medicine house. May be one of the angels and saints will bring me a story or a song, show me a new plant

or tell me how to make medicine, good strong medicine that is to open up the heart. 

    and like I said before I wanted to meet a teacher so I had to become a student, or like a student so I could meet the teacher face to face. 

      So I called on the Virgin.

 I went to the Virgin Mary, The Blessed Mother, the mother of all good things, the one who gives birth to everything to her son Jesus Christ. the Virgin Mary gives birth to all the animals. Virgin Mary gives birth to the flowers. the Virgin Mary stands with us and she doctors us at times shows us the way and new things. New heavens and new earths, right here among us.  I offered her what I could I offered her some Yerba Santa

and some creosote some Ocotillo flowers,  a nice piece of fruit, some holy water,  watered where I sat down and said the rosary day after day waiting for her and I called on the Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios, the remedies. 

      One thing for sure Virgin Mary's with us at every moment and she helps us on this medicine road. she could help you too don't be afraid  to ask her. come to her with a humble heart maybe you could drink the tea of Ocotillo flowers or make a tincture of Ocotillo and then use the brittle-bush,    Maybe Aristalochia

or maybe cypress may be the desert willow whatever it is, use as many plants as you can to come to the Virgin Mary. Or use only one single pink wild roseblossom, or a bunch of blackberries,

use whatever you like. Just come to her.   I asked her to be my teacher and she's always been with me virgin Guadalupe, mother of miraculous medals. It took me sometime to see that she was the first woman. she was like Eve in the garden of Eden transformed and she came like a changing woman. I think she was probably the same as Nahasdan Nadelee who stood on the other side of the river

and she was very sad when she saw all the monsters that men created. she came to Transform them she came with corn pollen and good medicine and showed us this medicine road that goes from Horizon to horizon, following the Milky Way that's the marriage of Mary to Joseph.

Guadalupe to teach all of Us. teach all the people about all the plants. She is still here today, up there on the Ancha. You can see her sometimes out of the corner of your eye when you reach down to touch the plant, holding the plant in your hand, she can make me feel  her hand on my hand and she'll show you which plant to choose and how to use it. I think the Virgin Mary is the medicine maker.

I think she's the mother of all medicines and I think she's with me here right now and I think she's probably with you too she's everywhere she's like the sun that shines or the rain that falls around you. Don't be afraid though she is very happy and she likes to laugh. 

     People forget that the Virgin Mary was a young girl

she likes to laugh and dance and sing and I think that she was probably like the dancer Salome or Herodias and she asked for St. John the Baptist's head. she didn't care she did what she had to do. She will bring you on this medicine road

      At first I thought my teacher would be a woman or a man or or maybe even someone that I would meet and talk to, but now I'm not sure. I think now my teachers are rocks or trees or plants to just look look at me in the eye and have something to say and I have to eat the leaves and taste your fruits and lay down on my back and touch where you come out of the ground

with my fingers and listen to your song. 

      So I sit with the plants and I place my fingers right where the come out of the ground and I touch their leaves and smell the flowers. I lean down close to them and chew the leaf in my mouth, I put it underneath my tongue or place it on my lips and just wait and watch pray always praying. i  taste and watch and wait and see what happens and if they have sweet taste, salty taste. is it sweet? or sour, or bitter?

      It takes a long way to learn things this way

sometimes I wonder how far I can go in if I can keep going or if I'll just quit and forget everything and pretend it never happened.

    I wonder if I'll go crazy and forget everything anyway or something dangerous will happen like a lightning bolt explodes, like the time lightning hit the saguaro. I was walking for a long time and maybe I didn't have enough water to drink and maybe that was it maybe I was just dehydrated, my mouth was dry but I was walking along the Ridgetop..

.then all of a sudden the cloud came over and it was just a small cloud and it made a shadow and then a lightning bolt came and exploded and hit a saguaro, split it into pieces. It was a green saguaro and all of a sudden it turned into sticks like sticks, dry sticks,  saguaro ribs curved toward the sun,  facing towards the sky and I wondered what happened.

 I saw the medicine deer fly out of this world, leap into the air like a bird without wings carrying  in its mouth yerba santa, Altamisa,  when you see things like that you wonder how far can you go? Does it really need to happen this way? Did any of this happen? Yes it did happen exactly in this way,

just like I told you.

yerba santa, eriodictyon -narrowleaf ,lower deer house

yerba santa, Eriodictyon angustifolium.

Biospirit endless medicine well being road, wild herb ways, Yerba santa, you know this is about meeting the plants face to face, i'm not selling classes, or pounds of herbs, or digging up the last root so we can add another friend to the tree museum, i just want you to know this, you don't have to apologize, there's good beautiful you without changing anything, you can't change your heart with your head, with an act of will, or new words and slogans, all i am saying is, yerba santa... I,  found a way to walk in the wash, 

i made up a reason,

https://youtu.be/VTgvACBWJEs

"oh i have to make medicine", really i am curious to see what's there now in August. i remember the water from the spring time. before the saguaro bloomed. i could see green milky oats, in the water, deep pools, dragonflys and tadpoles, minnows darting back and forth. now the water was gone, there was mud, now the mud is gone, it's dry dust, sand and river rock. 

    this is a drainage off the Ancha, lower deer house. i saw a white yellow patch of a white tail, move silently through the Cephalanthus occidentalis, the green button brush. out of the wash and disappear into the mesquite. yes this is Ancha's deer house. i always call Ancha, her, she, her deer house. her being the milky way, those stars that go from horizon to horizon, they are the medicine road. so i call it her deer house and it is really the Milky Way's  deer house. it's her deer house and that Milky Way is the medicine road. so i am walking the milky way, medicine road deer house through this creek bed, through this place, through the deer house, walking  lower deer house.

     i feel stupid and silly to talk about a medicine road, how could the milky way be a medicine road through the deer house, through her deer house? yet i just saw a deer run through the button brush, i could see inside her thighs, and I know she's a woman, she did more than prance, it was a deliberate enticing move and i probably in another place and time could've been her man, i would of chased her through the mesquite bosque. maybe all the way to the upper deer house. anyways it was good to see her again. it is good to know that there are deer and deer in the house. after all it would be a pretty poor deer house without deer.  i'm sure they walk that milky way from horizon to horizon. i'm sure they know many plants and make good medicine. deer house milky way medicine, medicine way, milky way deer house medicine.

https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2015/09/yerba-santa-ancha-deer-house-by-paul.html?m=0

     so this is the story of finding the narrowleaf yerba santa. eriodictyon angustifolium. you really need to know that this is a medicine plant from the deer house. if you call this plant any other name but the holy plant from the deer house then i'm not sure you understand what i mean.

The plants are our friends. maybe they are brothers, maybe they are sisters, maybe they are fathers and grandmothers, it's very hard to say. it is going to be different for every person with every plant, what they mean to you and what they can do for you. the plants tdo things for you and it's important to realize you do things for the plants. yerba santa is holy because it reminds us of holy things. 

     for some reason I had forgotten about this plant, because for the most part it grows way up high in the rocks, way up high  above, above the saguaro. here though it is below. in fact it's in the bottom in the creek-bottom. I had forgotten it was down here. 

     then I saw it and remembered it. It had some sticky sticky leaves from the little El Niño  rains. lots of new growth. 

   somebody may ask what is good for? Well it's good for everything. it's especially good for those tricky situations that happened when people live together with a lot of jealousy. some call it the evil eye. mal ojo. i would call it,  the plant that can help make things right again. like an antidote. or maybe a preservative. it's also good for coughs. you can also take some of the leaves and put them in your mouth and chew them. it's bitter  than it gets sweet. it's good when it's hot because it takes away your thirst it's kind of like a slippery elm, and it also helps your stomach.

     it's a really good plant to get to know. you can rub it all over your body and especially over your four head on top of your head. 

    you can make it tea with it but don't use too much and don't cook it too long just put it in the boiling water for second and take it out. then it will be sweet otherwise it becomes very bitter and too strong. 

     so I was very happy to find plant in the wash, and it really increased my strength and fortitude. That's how I would look at yerba santa, it increases your resolve to complete good things. if you feel weak and just not having a lot of energy to do what you want to do,  it's good to be around yerba santa to bring that resolve forward. 

      it lends a protective elegance to those potent full moon datura flowers, the dream medicine.  combine the dream medicine datura with yerba santa, keep it near your pillow, near where you sleep and if you wake up in the middle of night smell it, and it will remind you of what you need to do.