Flat-earth prairie herbalism of rivers, creeks, hills, and flat grassland. People, plants, place, prairie. The stuff of vitalism like riding bicycles, playing guitar and bass. Stand with prairie green grass real work.
Recently I had a chance to hang out with a very sweet informed and high being his name is Thomas Easley and he's noted herbalist and he was at the Western Traditions In Herbalism Conference in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, put on by Kiva Rose and Jesse 'Wolf' Hardin. This is a great gathering of herbal teachers held annually. Next years conference will be in June 2017 in southern Colorado. Thomas was a well received and respected presenter there. I on the other hands was on the periphery at this conference, I was more or less a peddler with a table hawking, selling some of the herbs and plants and tinctures that I had gathered from around my home, my place, my bioregion of The Southwest desert mountains and sky islands of the Arizona New Mexico border.
There was a break one morning and while most of the attendees of the conference were busy learning attending classes from some of the top amazing plant teachers at the conference, the rest of us were down there in the basement talking plant story.
Thomas Easley in his very easy-going relaxed way of being sat down directly on the floor and we proceeded to talk about things like liver stress, acetaminophen, birth control pills, pain relief, sleep, stress and addressing those topics within the framework of our understanding of herbal medicine. I had some plants there that I had wild harvested things like silktassel, oshá, Aralia , monarda and also things and bottles. The topic shifted to good herbs for sleep for producing restful sleep and hops came up, Humulus lupulus. We all came to a loose agreement, a gathering of the minds, sort of consensus that, "yes, some of these herbs would be helpful for a person with insomnia." Then Thomas dropped a bombshell as he does with his matter-of-fact, slight drawl, Alabama born and raised, sweet soft barely detectable southern accent and said, "Hops can help promote sleep, yet in my clinical practice I've never met a person with a hops deficiency."
And it's of course, no one has a hops deficiency. In the sense of someone may have a B12, reduced hemoglobin or protein deficiency, there's no such thing as a hops deficiency. Hops can help a person get to sleep yet there is no such thing as a hops deficiency. So in a sense the purpose of an herbalist is to get some one to a point where they no longer need The herbs that the herbalist provides.
I started out wanting to talk about depression specifically what herbs or herbal treatments may be helpful for a person with depression. A legitimate question would be, "what do you know about depression?", "about treating depression?", "what do you know about herbs?", "what do you know about herbs for depression?"
"Paul, what do you know about anything really?"
For 12 years, 5 days a week 8-16 hours a day, I had an opportunity to meet and greet people in crisis, working in an acute psych facility in America's fifth biggest city. They had decided to jump off a bridge.
They had decided to swallow bottles of pills.They had decided to fire a loaded handgun into parts of their body. They had decided they were going to stop eating, and now were experiencing kidney failure due to their inability to supply their body with the nutrients necessary to support the vital organs. They had decided to lay down on the railroad tracks and sever the limbs of the body, and in a sense they were successful in that now they had one arm rather than two. Most were at the end of their rope both literally and figuratively in that they were helpless hopeless and not wanting to live anymore. The basics like eating drinking water, bathing your body, talking to other people, working, engaging in any type of activity that might produce joy happiness peace, they were no longer interested. All sorts of stories presented themselves to me during these encounters.
And if depression, self harm, lack of interest, lack of feeling, lack of action are the north side, shady, yin side of this dilemma, I was also presented with the Yang. The people who slept 18 hours a day and the people who didn't sleep at all. The people who wanted to kill themselves and the people who wanted to kill other people. The people who would say nothing for weeks on end and the people who wouldn't stop talking. Who would eat standing up, constantly pacing. The person who wouldn't get out of bed in the morning and the person who might walk up to you and sucker punch you in the jaw and then walk away laughing. The constant stories of speculation and conspiracy, the government out to get you, implanted devices in our bodies controlling us, incredible fear of the world. Fear of microwaves and computers, fear of water, fear of listening, fear of trust, waves of fear, anger, hate, self loathing.
Besides the various issues that people presented in this environment there was also the drama of the caregivers. Their own wounded egos presenting themselves. In short it was a powerful place for learning growth, Learning how to grow. And it led me myself to seek out ways of healing myself in a sense of maintaining a neutrality where I could respond to the needs of others yet not be overwhelmed in the process. I had in front of me in the DSM5, a way to see into the minds of people in the sense of an allopathic medicine construct. Yet I also had the learning model and system of the plant person and place- herbs and herbal medicine.
My introduction to herbal medicine occurred in my late teenage years when while still in high school I decided to walk across the state, a northeast deciduous mountain rolling hill state. This backpacking trip was crucial to my development now and then. One of the most important parts of this trip in terms of learning, as a young teenager was that the world that I lived in, the world of schools and friends and family was very much an urban experience. Yet the world just outside my door was in a sense wild and untamed and I made a vow then and there on Sugarloaf Mountain, during a lightning storm that no matter how long it took, no matter what it took, I would learn about the place. I would learn about the plants. And I would learn how to use them.
Economic circumstances of the times let me away from that deciduous mountain cherry maple forest kingdom to come to the western United States, where I have lived since the 1980s continuing my study on the plants. I was able to work on a mobile drilling rig up and down the continental divide from Libby, Montana down to Silver city, New Mexico. I worked as a sheepherder in the middle of Wyoming. I worked for the park service,and forest service and state parks, often in very pristine beautiful places and during this time I always had my plant books always learning about new plants. I also lived for 14 years on the edge of a wilderness, 30 miles from the nearest gas station, or city of any size, this area which later became a national park on the Arizona Utah border. Again during this 14 years I always had my plant books my wife and family would be wandering around always with the plants. Michael's Moore's books always accompanied me on my journeys and eventually I came to the point where I needed to study and meet with others.
That led me to John Slattery and Michael Cottingham both advanced in herbal ways and willing to take students. I continue on that path even in the present moment informed by their gracious teaching.
Spending time with another somewhat neglected Lamiaceae or mint family plant, Salvia pinguifolia, the Latin refers to Salvia the ability to save and the grease-leaf due to the texture of the Deltoid leaf which is covered with fine and coarse hairs when viewed with a loupe, hairy Rock sage, (formerly and concurrently known as Salvia ballotiflora var. pinguifolia). Its a perennial shrub here growing about 5 feet tall. It attracts many pollinators bees and butterflies, and sight of the plant is accompanied by a buzzing sound that says, abundance. It's a plant that describes a broader desert and like ocotillo moves thru the Mohave, Sonoran Chihuahua and trans-pecos bioregion.
It's presentation is a lot like Hyptis emoryi but Hyptis has a more concave spoon shaped leaf & it's flowers are not like Hyptis in whorls, the bright purple lower corolla lip is striking.
As a medicine it has warming astringent aromatics with a lavender like quality pronounced in the rich purple flowers. It would translate well into a warm gargle for sore throats. It also the mental clarity of desert lavender waking and invigorating the senses. It combines well with Encelia farinosa for asthmatic seasonal wheezing and chewing on the flowers produces a drying of secretions in the mucosa. It is a wonderful under used abundant Salvia that connects well with the bioregional herbalist.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Five days wandering, the medicine road
he was traveling further
each day new morning, along blue rivers and walking mountains
beaver damn broken
with last monarda flowers singing in a meadow, taste of spring in October
you were there now you remember
stellar jays to their death on a crown of yucca thorns
offering feathers for songs
Merciful Jesus and Mary dance
this the reason to birth
aspen to yellow,
to see the leaves move,
know the wind blows.
apart from this all windows open
Pleurisy Root
Botanical: Asclepias tuberosa
Family: Asclepiadaceae/milkweed family. With John Slattery & Donna Chesner., and conversations with Michael Cottingham.
2015 was an amazing year for me meeting new plants, new places and new teachers. A lot of this learning and meeting was facilitated by John Slattery a Tucson, Arizona based herbalist and completion of the Sonoran Desert Apprentice program. One field trip to the Chiricahua's was memorable because of the presence of John and Donna Chesner who have deep roots in the South West herbal tradition and links to Michael Moore, author, responsible for so much of our understanding of the herbs and herbal tradition of the South West.
Asclepias tuberosa of the milkweed family, It has long standing history of medicinal and culinary
use, in Arizona plant it is a perennial herb growing in higher elevation sky island and mountainous environments. Seen here growing in shade and partial sun. although a milk weed, it does not have the milky sap typical of most milkweeds. The leaves are irregularly alternate, usually crowded, growing on hairy stems, narrow lance shaped bright green on the sun side and lighter green underneath. Flowers bright orange with typical milk weed seed pods, pointed at the apex, standing erect, turning reddish towards the tip when ripe, green towards the base.
The distinctive yellow orange flowers are sought out by monarch and queen butterflies, and is larval food for them. The monarch butterfly population has plummeted in the last 20 years so it is important to work to support this plant and actively plant seeds to spread this and other milkweed family plants.
Excerpt:
-from john's and Donnas talk on the plant at Rucker creek in Chiricahuas:
"with onset of Arizona summer rains, warm/moist conditions prevail, this can lead to lingering weakness in the lung. People can harbor moisture exacerbated by higher elevation...Lungs/kidney- the lungs pull up ch'i from kidney, deficient ch'i -leads to torpor, ch'i/blood not circulating, stagnant. Cess pool condition in lung, of accumulated bacteria, virus, fungi.
Pleurisy root increases secretions, increases heat sweats out organs, brings energy to organs and will also help clear organs.
John here talked about a 'formula': Pleurisy root/spikenard/ephedra/estafiate-for acute asthma.
Pleurisy considered root most mild compared with (Immortal- which is Strong) pleurisy root used as food, leaves, fruit.
Donna here mentioned: amenogogue, energetic tonic function, can fit anyone, interesting tissue fluid mechanism-not a drug. Helps you get back to center. I have a good feeling with this plant, to be present with it here. Observing how it grows, tasting the leaves and experiencing its energetics. It encouages Rest/Repair/Relax response. It as a unique plant both Relaxant & diaphorectic-pleurisy root.
John: mentioned a knee injury, 2 years ago. He used with Star Solomon Seal, it brought my knee back. Pleurisy root with Solomon Seal. Preventative? Yes, in all cases its true. Fall oh, I injured myself. Things don't happen without cause, out of no where. Mainathenum + Asclepius tuberosa fruit.
'in the absence of the yin, the injury would occur.' It is a remedy that disperses ch'i and fluid in the lungs to the skin, also sweating.
The conversation at this point shifted to the greater ecosystem and the vitalist view of nourishing the vital force, not looking at symptoms only, but the whole person, as an ecosystem-restoring the person to balance. In the same way that permaculture techniques work to restore an ecosystem, to support that change, to 'get stronger from within', and the roles of nutritive nourishing plants/
*ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA (Pleurisy Root)
Bronchitis, pleurisy and pneumonitis...even asthma, whenever characterized by hot,
dry mucosa and serous membranes; dry skin and inability to sweat, deficient
sebaceous secretions.
Pleurisy Root)ROOT. Cold Infusion, 2-4 ounces. Tincture [Fresh, 1:2, Dry, 1:5, 50% alcohol] 30-90 drops. Capsules, #00, 1-3, all to 3X a day.- from Michael Moore Materia medica
Energetic Properties:Warm, bitter, pungent, and acrid.
Inflammation is a process in the body which many may find disturbing and problematic.Yet inflammation is also a process in the body which many may find surprisingly therapeutic for healing. Perhaps the best way to understand inflammation is to look at a mechanical process, something like a sprained ankle. When the ankle joint is injured through hyperextension the process of inflammation produces swelling, heat and an accumulation of fluid. This swelling which is obvious to the eye also indicates a host of other processes which are involved in both sealing off the injured area from further damage and mobilizing the bodies immune system to repair the damaged area. Sending nutrient rich oxygen-rich blood to the area to speed the healing process. Redness, heat, swelling, and pain are the subjective perception of the internal process of healing. Kinins, prostaglandin and histamine act as chemical messengers that attract some of the body's natural defense cells- a mechanism known as chemotaxis. Chemotaxis leads to the migration of certain white blood cells (leukocytes) to the damaged area. Two types of leukocyte are predominant in the inflammatory response- macrophages and neutrophils. This is the body's attempt to mobilize the healing process at the point of injury. There is a an increase in blood flow to the area. It is important to distinguish between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation. The process of inflammation can when chronic encourage the etiology of disease. Yet the process of inflammation is significantly a healing process.
This turmeric preparation has a wide range of applications for health. It addresses inflammation and also addresses the concept of chronic inflammation on a variety of levels. I think it's very central to view inflammation and chronic inflammation from beyond a physiological perspective and to look at it from a psychological perspective. I would like to share my view of inflammation from a gestalt perspective, and look at the history briefly of turmeric in Ayurvedic medicine.
Turmeric flew beneath the radar of Western herbalism until fairly recently. Our great eclectic's neglected or barely mentioned it as a medicinal herb. Turmeric escaped the early eclectic's, and western herbal medicine until the late 1960's and early '70's. John King, mentions it in passing in his Materia Medica from 1854. He mentions curcumin, an active constituents, as a stimulant aromatic and coloring agent. Jethro Kloss, who in, Back to Eden, brought for many of us the concept of herbal healing and health food in diet in the 60s and 70s, mentions it's cousin ginger, of the same plant family as being warming and stimulating but doesn't mention turmeric at all. Marco Polo in 1280 mentions turmeric as Indian saffron in root form. Then it seems to of slept for 700 years, a long time later waking up with a food medicine, food/medicine paradigm in the simple food preparation curry. As a food/medicine plant, it would be difficult to abuse it so here I address a simple formula to use this vital healing herb:Turmeric. In the formula that I outlined at the end you will see the addition of several herbs which increase bio availability. These additional herbs are important because turmeric has low bio availability and a short half-life when taken by itself.
Turmeric has a wide range of applications in its long history in Ayurvedic medicine in addressing chronic inflammation. In addition to its well-known anti-inflammatory use, it also has significant use as an antidepressant.
In Ayurveda a person with kapha dominance tends to be overweight, sluggish and tends to present with allergic reactions, congested, stuck mucus and may suffer from depression. I think the key point here is depression. And I will address this soon in terms of the Gestalt approach to illness. Because while chronic inflammation has a metabolic and physical cause it manifests as a decrease in activity and this is called in Ayurvedic medicine, kapha dominance. So this kapha dominant formula addresses the multi-factorial processes of inflammation.
This kapha dominance could best be understood as a person with chronic systemic inflammation. One of the key points of inflammation is that it manifests as loss of proper function in a particular organ system and I think this would be a good working definition, nonjudgmental for what is often turned depression. Depression is precisely that, a depression in physical activity. A decrease in the essential inner life of the person. The person becomes involved with inner processes that would best be left to the inner flow of internal events and processes. Imagine a person, who was focused on changing an autonomic process like the heartbeat. The heart in normal conditions adjusts to an increase or decrease in activity, there is no need to control it, it controls itself. Thought and the pattern of thought is and should be for the most part an automatic process which changes with conditions. To be neurotically involved with controlling thinking is to distrust the natural movement within the psyche. The person is not 'moving', is 'stuck' and this stuck-ness and sluggishness of the body produces an over abundance of mental contents. Often these thought patterns of self-stimulation are loops of repetitive thought, that become more and more prescriptive in nature, focusing on should, what should be done, what could be done, what if scenarios. This is the manifestation and this formula addresses various elements of this situation. For instance in something like chronic arthritis what you have is a joint which is unable to move or is painful to move so what you have is the person not moving. You have a person who is not moving around because they have bilateral knee joint pain. you have decreased or depressed physical activity which manifests mentally. And with this pain comes a lack of movement. And with this lack of movement you have lack of movement. So what happens when you don't move around, and you eat an american rich fat diet?
There's no rocket science here, you become fat, overweight maybe/probably diabetic with elevated blood glucose levels. In short you have an entrance way to the ubiquitous, metabolic syndrome. Fat, insulin resistant, overweight, inflamed in one word whether this person realizes it or not, on an existential level he or she is depressed. I think it's very important for us as herbalists to look at disease processes directly and existentially. How does it feel?, What does it do? What is the result? What does this particular disease process accomplish? And the issue of avoidance or blockage. And so to answer the question, what is it doing? Not a whole lot. And that is the problem! Lack of movement. Stuck. Avoidances.
Here I would like to take an aside on the journey to my turmeric potion and explore the Gestalt approach to understanding illness, disease and treatment with herbal remedies.
Firstly, Fritz Perls(1893-1970)the founder of gestalt therapy was a German psychoanalyst, who emigrated to America and who lived and eventually became famous for his seminars at the Big Sur Hot Springs in California, at the Esalen Institute. One of the key points for understanding Fritz, is to realize and put yourself into the theatrical mode. Fritz had a strong background in the theater. This strong background in the theater led him to formulate some ways of addressing illness that could best be understood as theatrical. Fritz would ask his client to take the hot seat. To play out the illness, to play out the anxiety, to act out what they are feeling in the present moment. The client would change position and sit in a special chair, actually get up and then sit down in the hot seat as he called it, and in a somewhat theatrical sense play out the situation. Fritz would ask the client to take on the role of the other, may be the mother, the father, the lover, the boss, or the person he was having the problem with. I encourage you as an herbalist to take advantage of this approach, and give the illness room to speak. Give the illness a voice, allow the illness to speak. Give the illness the "I". Too often in the quest for healing we silence the disease process without hearing what it has to say. We fail to hear the unique lesson and stories of the illness.
Fritz worked extensively with dreams. He had a unique approach to working with dreams or dream analysis. He would also ask the client to reveal his dreams and in the process embody and play out the various elements of the dream. So if for example, a person had a dream of a cluttered desk, sitting at a "cluttered desk". Fritz would ask the person to take the hot seat and speak AS the cluttered desk. He would ask the person to speak AS "the clutter" on the desk. In the process of the dream analysis the cluttered desk would speak, the clutter on the desk would speak and in speaking we move away from avoidance. To allow the individual elements of the dream to speak and allow that hidden elements of consciousness to be exposed. The power of avoidance functions through neglect. He felt that there was a unique vitality to allowing these hereto for hidden elements to have a voice and acknowledge what they were saying. I call this, 'owning the dream', speaking for various elements of the dream with the voice of 'I'. In the same sense we have 'owning the disease' or 'owning the illness'. I think the same approach that Fritz Perls used with dream analysis has got to be used with intractable illness on the part of the person desiring resolution, and on the part of the practitioner facilitator. The basic concept behind bringing to the surface these previously unvoiced elements, is that in the being itself whether the psyche or the body, there is an infinite potential for healing. It is not so important to quantify what the healing process is as it is to experience healing.
The gestalt approach centers on "I"-ing the disease process. As herbalists we must develop a gestalt approach to illness. We must develop techniques and therapies to encourage the client to come to a personal knowledge of the owner state and re-own and re-integrate this disease state into the modality of health. Rather than get down into new diagnosis. Rather then get into infinitely more complex elements of the disease process housed in scientific jargon, why not experience the bodies own ability to heal itself through helper herbs. All the while knowing that it is the body itself that is doing the healing not the herbs certainly not the herbal practitioner. Healing is rooted in the process of homeostasis which is continually happening at every level of the authentic person. Look at the illness personified. This is what I call the Gestalt approach to illness. So in the case of inflammation, in the case of a person with two arthritic bad knees, what we have is a person who is not doing very much. So that's what we have to look at, this lack of activity. Yet when we are looking at this 'lack of activity', we're not looking at the lack of activity as a separated scientist, as in the medical model, we're looking at a person who is not doing things. We are looking at a person, a human being in front of us who has an illness and that illness is accomplishing something. So we have to ask, 'what are you doing?' We have to ask, 'what would you be doing if you weren't ill?' And then we have to ask, 'what are you avoiding?' 'What does the illness accomplish.?' We can use the theatrical approach of gestalt to have the person speak as the illness, speak as the joint itself in pain, speak as the inflammation, we can have the bad arthritic inflamed knees speak by utilizing the hot seat. In this case we need not so much a hot seat but a therapeutic presence. It is important that the person with inflamed joints comes into a personal relationship with the inflammation and incorporates this darkside into the healing. We don't eliminate darkness we simply bring light to the situation.
All too often in Western medicine there is an acknowledgment of the disease process, arthritis or inflammation as a dynamic three dimensional something. Yet there is not enough freedom to give the disease itself, a voice. In order to give voice to an illness you require space, light, and awareness. It is important to see what is there acknowledge what is there and to be with what is there. to see where the disease is going in that particular person, not so much on a cellular level but what it's doing in the person's daily life. Especially in terms of avoidance, it is critical to find out what it is that the person is avoiding. And it is most important that we facilitate this seeing into the avoidance from a personal perspective. We need to allow the disease the freedom to be a living being within the person, within the whole person. We need to become facilitators so that the person can acknowledge and understand the disease not so much from a physical or medical or cellular component but from a psychological perspective of activity or non-activity. The person has to come to grips with avoidance and it is impossible to follow merely a mechanistic I will pathic mode of healing because what is required is growth, and growth is a painful. There are strong forces the key person bound to an illness in terms of lethargy sloth and torpor.
So let's explore briefly how the herbalist can facilitate a gestalt approach to the illness at hand.
According to Fritz Perls, there are six factors causing psychological discomfort. I would like to translate these factors that cause psychological discomfort into healing factors and factors which cause physical discomfort in the sense of illness. The six factors are:
1) The lack of contact: no social support. In terms of psychology there is a lack of awareness often times in the disease process and a quality vicariousness living that is highlighted by an extreme avoidance. Often times if you meet someone in a disease process you will find someone able to rattle off complex and sophisticated terms, often highly scientific and specific to their condition, chemical conditions, blood work and what not yet they don't have a personal connection to the disease in terms of their own minute to minute feeling in mind states. There is lack of contact with the physical body, with the emotional body often times there is serious grieving and soul-searching and there is an avoidance of the inner work that must be done to gain healing. In terms of the body and health this factor involves issues which could be related as in proper nutrition. Not nourishing the body. Having the body means feeding the body, if you are not feeding the body you are avoiding the body. You were not connecting to the body because you were not taken seriously the bodily needs and responsibilities of owning a body. And by this I don't mean going into some sophisticated process of of diet, some new elaborate dietary regime. I am talking about here is eating, eating food and drinking water on those most basic of terms, tasting the food. Chewing the food. Swallowing the food. There is a lack of contact with the bodily senses. Nursing the body could be a diet that includes whole fruits, vegetables, a departure away from things like diet sodas and processed food which have empty calories, and promotes mindless eating. Tasting the food, chewing, taking time to give thanks and be aware and give voice to the ultimate exchange that goes on with eating. Whatever the food stuff, animal or plant, the plants have been harvested, the animals killed so our bodies can live. All forms of life are sacred, whether a slab of meat or a bowl of carrots. It is important to to cultivate reverence and gratitude and acknowledge the gift, the exchange.
2) Confluence: the environment takes control. In this case the most therapeutic dimension has to do with awareness. Often in a person who is chronically sick, with chronic inflammation or an intractable disease process, there is a confluence from a fixation on the disease process. Often this is facilitated by medical practitioners who focus on intricate, minute aspects of the disease process.
It seems everyone has become a medical professional on some level and has amazing knowledge about their illness. They have blood tests, CT scans, x-rays, allopathic and alternative therapies all describing and informing the reality of, Why i am sick. All in elaborate terms. The person is held hostage by data, by facts, made all the more powerful and inescapable because they are scientific. In terms of confluence the person is swallowed. In terms of confluence the person is drowned. In terms of confluence the disease is and in is capable fact made clear and in evitable buy a fate composed of DNA, genetics, and other forms of paranoia and gloom. From this perspective one of the most therapeutic aspects of healing has to do with the plants themselves, sometimes it can be the aromatic qualities of an herb. Smelling the herb in its natural form with its aromatic essence there is a certain freedom in all our aromatic plant medicines because they have that ability to bring one back into the body. Aromatic herbs are especially useful in this regard. Likewise pungent foods, garlic, onions, aromatic spices. Digestive bitter tonics, and or bitter salads before meals can both awaken the digestive juices and awaken the body to promote digestion. Lavender essential oil can do this by just bringing the person back into their body. Confluence is a psychological shock because you were swallowed up by these inescapable facts and at that point you were powerless and can do nothing but be sick. Visual cues can be powerful. the beauty of a wild place to reenable sensitivity -. This can take the form of spiritual affirmations or it can be simply time in a beautiful place
Contact with the non-human beautiful place is extremely important to awaken healing modalities. 3) Unfinished business: inability to gain closure. The patient is not only not living in the present moment, the patient is reliving reenacting events from the past. Often the illness itself is a time for transformation where the person due to the illness has withdrawn from a toxic situation. The idea of that illnesses itself part of health is very important. The idea of a self regulating organism with the potential for healing must be encouraged. Often something good, something new is happening in embryo, and this new life needs to be taken seriously. It is important for the patient to take seriously their goals, their ambitions, and their dreams into a cohesive plan. Often times it can be healing for a person to realize that the sickness that they suffered enabled them to grow and reach a new world in a sense. To see a new heaven and a new earth, to send to a new world, to climb up the ladder to a new place. Herbal therapies are often ways to allow for a more courageous self to emerge from the disease process. In our society and in in our culture there is a subtle idea that there must be continuous growth for health, continuous activity. The truth is that the times of sickness can be regenerative and bring this new insights. The reality is that things cannot expand infinitely, sometimes in the advancement of a goal there has to be withdrawal, and often illness can be a portal into this new self development.
4) Fragmentation: Denied or fragmented self. The body sick, is a fragmented person. The central part of fragmentation is avoidance. The fragmented self is a self that avoid seeing itself. It is precisely the fragments that are creating avoidance. So it takes seeing and often times the act of awareness brings unification. It's important to practice attention and cultivate attention. It's important to not focus on the medical model of intricate cellular level mechanics, because this somatic focus on molecular structure doesn't engender health. It's often a further movement into fragmentation, just because something is sophisticated and scientific doesn't mean that it leads towards healing. We all know the client who knows so much more than we do about the realness of their illness. So it's important to involve the client in the process of getting better and this can be the simple process of making herbal teas, tinctures and formulas preparing simple wholesome foods and the whole process of doing something rather than talking about being ill. It is imperative that for health to unfold we must become participants rather than watchers. We have to engender in the client the confidence that he or she can be a participant in their own health and well-being.
5) Winner/Loser: conflict of values and expectations. The idea that you're a loser because you're sick, and that you're a winner because you're healthy is part of this duality which creates in itself sickness and health. Health is a dynamic state that is continually evolving and sometimes illness and disease or part of that process of health. Anxiety is very much a exit from the present moment into a nebulous past or an uncertain future. Being tense and overextended can become a habit and it leads to a chronic condition of avoidance. A lot of this culture of avoidance has become rooted in our technology especially the technology of the smart phone, the computer, the automobile, recorded music. A lot of this technology is actually a support for our anxiety, and unplugging from this technology of avoidance can bring a great deal of peace rather quickly. A great deal of our cultural energy is used in supporting impossible expectations. Part of the cultural fuel is based on dissatisfaction. It is of paramount importance that the clients acknowledges that awareness is the key. So often it is better to ask a good question than to receive a good answer. The question comes from the questioner, it is something real and dynamic. We need to encourage the client to ask questions, to feel, to experience what ever it is they are experiencing rather than seek out a solution. It's important to understand that you don't need any information to ask a good question. Everything that you need to know regarding your question is right there. So much of the culture of dissatisfaction is based on seeking answers because answers are always in the future where as the question is right and available. There is a kind of power in being present in the real situation of what's happening without posing an answer. Not to be an expert, but to be a beginner, that is where we need to go to the beginners mind.
6) Polarities: never seeing gray, always black or white. It's important to encourage a shift from perfection, or even cure to activity. Activity engenders further activity, where as non-activity does the same in that the more non-active you are the more nonactive you become. No one is seeking a perfect cure or absence of disease, that's beyond what anyone can do, all we are asking or hoping for is dynamic activity. The key point is that the organism itself in the act of awareness has a great potential for health and that is what we are harnessing with our herbal preparations.
"I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, And you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped."
-Fritz Perls 1969
In Ayurvedic medicine, "The Kapha Dosha is comprised of the earth and water elements. It is the heaviest of the doshas and is associated with slow metabolic processes, congestion, blockage of circulation, lethargy, procrastination, and excess weight." Within this paradigm Asian medicine sought way to stimulate the vital fire or Agni, and balance the bodily and mental systems with therapeutic herbs chief among them ginger, turmeric and Piper spp or black pepper. These three food/medicine or spices are called trikatu. As food/medicines we already know that they are essentially safe. They're safe because they're eaten his food daily and that is reassuring.
Trikatu is also a respiratory stimulant and helps to warm the body aiding in recovery. Trikatu – Tri – means three, katu – herbs that are hot and pungent. – overall, Triaktu powder is a fine powder mix of three spices. Trikatu literally means the three pungents as it is composed of equal proportions of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum), Indian Long Pepper (Piper longum) and Ginger (Zingiber officinale).
"Composed of water and earth, the Kapha dosha is responsible for maintaining the structure and lubrication of your mind-body physiology. When Kapha becomes aggravated or excessive, you may experience congestion, sinus problems, weight gain, diabetes, excessive sleepiness, and fluid retention, among other symptoms. You can use herbs that have light, heating, and aromatic qualities as part of an overall Kapha-balancing lifestyle."
"Known for its concentrated heating potency, ginger is often used in Ayurveda to treat Kapha disorders such as sinus congestion, sluggish digestion, and obesity. Ginger strengthens the digestive fire or Agni and helps remove accumulated toxins."
I consider this formula an alterative warming stimulating aromatic formula.
It is useful as an antidepressant, anti-inflammatory and tonic for the whole body system.
Here is the formula : The standard preparation for fresh alcohol tincture is 1 to 5 with 60-75% alcohol. My research indicates that the active components of these plant materials are best extracted in a mixture of water and alcohol as some of the components are not alcohol soluble but are water-soluble.
The general recommendations here or to take the fresh Tumerick chop it into very find pieces along with the ginger. Then to crush the dried pepper, cardamon and coriander. Place all ingredients in a quart mason Mason jar and allow them to sit for 7 to 10 days, keeping them in a cool dry place and checking them once or twice a day. After this time strain them and then place in 1 ounce medicine dropper bottles. When pulling up the medicine from the dropper bottle you'll notice that by squeezing the rubber ball you'll get about half of a dropper full, so I would take three of these half droppers three times per day mixed in either water or tea. Due to the stimulating the effect I would not take this formula after say 3 PM if you plan on sleeping at a normal hour.
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Davis JM, Murphy EA, Carmichael MD, Zielinski MR, Groschwitz CM, Brown AS, Ghaffar A, Mayer EP. Curcumin effects on inflammation and performance recovery following eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Ph
Jayesh Sanmukhani, Vimal Satodia, Jaladhi Trivedi, Tejas Patel, Deepak Tiwari, Bharat Panchal, Ajay Goel, Chandra Bhanu Tripathi. Efficacy and Safety of Curcumin in Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Phytother Res. 2013 Jul 6. Epub 2013 Jul 6. PMID:23832433
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.
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. 
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.
