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.
Siting with wild ginger, long-tailed wild ginger Scientific Name --Asarum caudatum
Birthwort Family (Aristolochiaceae Family) Cascadia, Perennial plant of deep shade with Horizontal rhizomes, these are early leaves yet to flower. It has heart-shaped, evergreen, bright green leaves grow in pairs on a slender petiole, and are tougher than appearance, it grows in dense mats.
The leaves and roots have a ginger like aroma when crushed, and there are quite a few look alike plants in the area. It is unrelated to culinary ginger.
I
Like other Aristolochia flowers it Has cup-shaped, brown-purple to green-yellow flowers which terminate in three long elaborate curved lobes, the plant spreads primarily by rhizome runners, the flower is fertilized by ants. It requires deep mottled shade and wet moist rich soil, not tolerating bright sun.
It's energetics are warming and moving, an aromatic stimulant, affecting the lung and large intestine, it allows mucus to thin and is similar to nearby growing Oplopanax. It was prescribed and used by many of the well known eclectics Cook, Ellingwood, Felter and Lloyd.
Yet as an Aristolochia plant the well known cautions must be taken. It is a plant to be used with fever, dry unproductive cough, respiratory impairment. The doctrine of signatures shows to have strong affinity to heart and circulation. It's movement has lent it to use in non-dominant culture child birth as an agent to help the birth, given in small doses throughout a natural birth.
 Spending time these past few months in our lower desert Redsage forest with
Salvia columbariae our Red sage, mint family Lamiaceae. As a plant it has a history of being used to wake the dead.
Chumash legends tell of a plant called ‘ilepesh (pronounced gheelaypaysh) that was used to ‘wake the dead, or the nearly dead’, [1University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy, Los Angeles, CA, USA]. And as many of us are seemingly approaching that state this certainly would be a good plant to approach. "The presence of tanshinone IIA and similar compounds in chia could explain the historical use of this plant, to ‘wake the dead, or the nearly dead’ such as with stroke and heart attack patients. Tanshinones have a range of pharmacological activities including inhibition of clotting (6), vasodilatation (7) and inhibition of NO synthase." [Yokozawa T, Chen CP. Role of Salvia miltiorrhiza radix extract and its compounds in enhancing nitric oxide expression. Phytomedicine. 200;7:55–61. [PubMed]]
So we are relating to this plant, using this plant and trying to understand how it could help us given some of the situations we may be in.
It certainly is a pleasure and a blessing to me to find a plant previously known with uses that have not really been explored in our tradition. This spring we had an exceptional bloom of red sage, in the limestone, Low desert at about 2200 feet elevation. Throughout the spring I've been sitting with this plant and trying to understand what it's about. If you have the opportunity I certainly would encourage you to do the same. https://youtu.be/X-1keB6YjPY
"TCM theory states that the occurrence of the disease depends on the interaction between zheng qi (nonpathogenic qi) and xie qi (pathogenic qi). The idea of disease is the struggle between pathogenic qi and nonpathogenic qi; in this struggle process, there will be changes between yin and yang."
"Traditional Chinese Medicine does not classify diseases according to their viral strain. Rather, TCM classifies diseases according to the accompanying signs, symptoms, and the surrounding pathology (development of the disease)."
In the Far East used in TCM, there is a similar plant in the same mint-family also known as red Sage. Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, also known as red sage or Danshen. Danshen has been used clinically in TCM for over 2000 years. It's understood as a very safe plant to use given it's a long history for use in, cardiovascular disease, "CVD is a class of disorders that involve the heart and blood vessels, including coronary heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, heart failure, congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathies "
Danshen is characterized as a common drug for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. It exerts a beneficial action by promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis and assuage pain, clearing heart heat to relieve restlessness, and cooling blood.
"Salvia columbariae (chia) was examined and found to contain miltionone II, cryptotanshinone and tanshinone IIA. These compounds may be of interest in the treatment of stroke and heart attack."
"and as always...If you're still able to speak openly and a hard enforced dominant culture shun hasn't erased and silenced your voice, please help share these plant teachings freely for our people..."
Zhou, L.; Zuo, Z.; Chow, M.S. Danshen: An overview of its chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and clinical use. J. Clin. Pharmacol2005, 45, 1345–1359. [Google Scholar]
Algerita, Time with algerita, Berberis haematocarpa, Mahonia, also known as algerita. When talking about herbs in a form like this, it sometimes can be a language-based discursive thinking issue regarding what we were talking about. Here I am speaking about a face to face plant, algerita that I have fondness for in connection to the current state of affairs going on and various issues that people may or may not be having. in this sense I am both advocating for people, I am also advocating for the plant itself, as a plant~person, for algerita, to be used properly. I hope that my arguments can be somewhat convincing because the goal of all this is to have you use algerita as a whole plant product. It's easy to harvest this plant sustainably and ethically because you do not require to dig roots for this plant up. You can use the shaved branches and leaves as a whole plant product. With some processing of course of the algerita, the important other thing that I want to state is that algerita also can be used as a whole plant product tea in water.
Algerita a perennial shrub, here in this presentation is about 6 feet high. It's growing at the site of a spring in the dry southwest mountains. Late March, it's fully in flower as per usual. It is a little bigger, bushier and lush then most algeritas given that it's growing in a small micro niche. Like most of the plants in Berberis Mahonia it has in the yellow outer layer of the above ground branches, and throughout the root, the bright, mustard yellow, alkaloid, berberine.
There is a hegemony of facts that go into the cultural framework of liberalism maintaining that scientific facts are universal truth. This seems to be movement extending into modern medicine as it confluences with universal police state to enforce the dogma of so called scientific facts. There is a tendency with plants to lock them into a conceptual pattern, based on what others have written, on how we met the herb, what we've been told about the herb. Repetitive conversation comes up that tends to reinforce a rigid framework for how we use, process and understand the herb. Algerita is one such herb that illustrates this locking down a particular herb to fit a pre-existing pattern. There is a major caveat in trying to understand this herb with reference to active constituents, active chemical compounds. Likewise a major caveat when we adapt a scientific approach that tends to approach the herb as a pharmaceutical substance. Algerita is not berberine. Algerita is algerita.
When dealing and approaching a polycrest herb such as algerita, Berberis haematocarpa, we come face to face with the hegemony of liberal universalism with regard to active constituents of said plant. If Berberis haematocarpa works due to the berberine, then use the part of the plant which has the deepest yellow, the most berberine. It also begs the question, '¿why not take a berberine pill?', ¿why not take 100% berberine?', '¿why even mess with a crude home brewed whole plant preparation?' This approach negates the leaves which are obviously a major part of the plant. It also negates other so called scientific facts that identifies substances in the so called non-active part of the plant, little to no berberine right?
"B. trifoliolata (algerita) leaf also contains 5′-methoxyhydnocarpin and B. fendleri (Colorado barberry) leaf also contains pheophorbide A with drug efflux pump-inhibitor effects in S. aureus."
The problem with the dominant culture is not so much that it is the dominant culture but it is that it IS the dominant culture preventing the full percolation of ideas into a thought process and therefore an action plan. It's important to understand the synergistic elements of a whole plant extract versus standardized formulas for one particular constituent within that plant. I am of course in no way advocating that every plant should be used as a whole plant extract. I am simply putting out there that with some of these polycrest herbs, that are in general non-toxic, a whole plant approach has increased validity. Mahonia repens our Algerita is a distinct medicinal plant with expanding uses in our materia Medica. Understood as a cold herb, it contains multiple antibacterial compounds one of which is berberine, but many other compounds recently found are intrinsically active throughout the bodies. i say bodies, because we have many bodies, many body systems not only the western medicine measured and quantified systems. Algerita is a plant that transcends any verbal descriptions of use. Algerita is a mind blowing plant that we have to visit again and again to approximately grasp in terms of herbal use.
Some use it in uses similar to golden seal although it's not known as strongly for its affinity to mucus membranes, it can have similar uses. The plant is active from leaves, roots to berries.
Probably the most important use of Algerita berries, is the restorative balancing nature of the ripe seeds. The Mahonia species and the Pacific west species, when purple red ripe, abundant this year, have all the five tastes: salty, sweet, tart, bitter, pungent. They are especially useful to balance and recharge the essential body. They are invigorating and nourishing.
The root is useful for blood sugar and diabetes used to balance irregularities in the metabolic complex of energy, insulin and fat storage. Sit with this plant to approach what it has to say to you and your people.
So persons that advocate berberine containing plants as an anti-biotic, or anti-viral, may be sabotaging their objective by taking a less than whole plant extract at delivery. The same was found to be true when other polycrest herbs such as yerba mansa were studied, whole plant extract vs specific constituents for uterine cancer when attempting to validate or understand the folk usage of yerba mansa, Amenopsis californica.
" B. aetnensis (Mt. Etna barberry) has also been shown to contain similar pump inhibitors in its leaves as that of M. aquifolium and to also inhibit the efflux of ciprofloxacin from drug-resistant S. aureus, thereby enhancing the efficacy of the drug."
Berberine is present in plants such as goldenseal root (Hydrastis canadensis), the Mahonias now classified as Berberis spp, and most significant in Coptis chinensis, most of you are familiar with it as yellow thread or huang lian in TCM. From the TCM framework, berberine containing plants are used to address clearing damp heat. It is considered one of the four yellows” (coptis, scutellaria, phellodendron and rhubarb) "Their ability to affect multiple target signaling pathways and their potential mechanisms of action contributing to their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity may be related to their action of removing heat and counteracting toxicity."
"TCM theory states that the occurrence of the disease depends on the interaction between zheng qi (nonpathogenic qi) and xie qi (pathogenic qi). The idea of disease is the struggle between pathogenic qi and nonpathogenic qi; in this struggle process, there will be changes between yin and yang."
"Traditional Chinese Medicine does not classify diseases according to their viral strain. Rather, TCM classifies diseases according to the accompanying signs, symptoms, and the surrounding pathology (development of the disease)."
So in attempt to clarify I'm now going to call Berberis haematocarpa, algerita, the whole plant preparation. Algerita, can be understood as a bitter digestive tonic, because it adds in the release of bile from the liver complex and therefore aids in the nutritional absorption of fats. It also is an important plant with regard to metabolic syndrome, because it helps to reduce blood glucose levels and assist with the transfer of sugar in the blood to sugar within the body system so it doesn't flow as a supranormal compound creating damage throughout the body.
What I am not doing however is linking algerita as an herbal antibiotic, antiviral, anti-microbial, because the tests that can indicate the specific cause of the condition still do not change the actual presentation of the symptoms. In this sense I am advocating concepts that are more vital to a TCM or folk herbal tradition. TCM and the full herbal tradition look at the person presenting specific symptoms rather than a so-called disease process. TCM and the folk herbal tradition didn't grow up with the laboratory analysis to identify a pathogen, specific bacteria, or specific viral agent causing disease. So for instance, looking at some thing as influenza, therefore let's go for an antiviral, ~ that would not be Central to their approach. The approach is going to look at the face to face person. The approach is to deal with the specific person, presenting with specific symptoms, which might be something like dry cough versus productive cough, fever how long? even the concept a fever is going to be a different concept because we're talking about warmth in a particular part of the body not so much global temperature of the body. So is the head warm?, Is the stomach warm?, Is the area above the kidneys towards the back warm? And although the concept of course is temperature, we're not talking about doing a temperature reading with thermometer. We are talking about touching a specific part of the body with our hands and fingers. Feeling body heat or having the person in front of you, tell you, "my head is hot" or, "my stomach is hot.", or "it feels like my lower back is burning." http://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/01/ulcerative-colitis-protocol-by-paul.html?m=1
Stermitz FR, Beeson TD, Mueller PJ, et al. Staphylococcus aureus MDR efflux pump inhibitors from a Berberis and a Mahonia (sensu strictu) species. Biochem Syst Ecol. 2001; 29(8):793–798.
Musumeci R, Speciale A, Costanzo R, et al. Berberis aetnensis C Presl extracts: antimicrobial properties and interaction with ciprofloxacin. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2003; 22(1):48–53.
Journal of Restorative Medicine, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 December 2015, pp. 60-73(14)
I was quite touched today and in the past months spending time with elderberry, Sambucus nigra, and her brothers and sisters in the Sambucus family. What struck me most was the vibrancy and diligence of its greening and blooming this spring. I invite you all to wander and ramble with these plants and get a picture of what is going on and how you can plug-in to your own ancestral resilience. These plants are doing their thing to the upmost and we must do likewise. Whenever one situation comes up then another situation comes up in relationship to that situation. The world around me is fully totally and completely alive. The world and the life force is happening in such a way that it addresses some of our needs. That some people are in distress at this time is of course a factor of many circles.
I can remember a time not so long ago when some events occurred, and then in the dominant culture cinema, news, television, the talking heads begin to spin a story. A couple buildings exploded in New York City somewhere in Washington DC, and in the middle of Pennsylvania plane crashed. As the talking head spin the story we needed to immediately mobilize an army Navy Marines airplanes and begin bombing and destroying the fabric of life for certain people living in the Middle East, in Iraq Afghanistan and neighboring countries. People are drastically tuned in to these talking heads with their messages and their agendas. So people are mobilizing now as the talking head spin another story. Doom and gloom and imminent death and of course, the solution is to go deeper into the Internet, go deeper into your locked air-conditioned boxes and isolate from the world.
Well as I said, the world itself is alive, in such a way that the plants also respond to situations if we can spend time with them authentically. Just as the dominant culture talking heads are spinning a great story with a fabulous agenda, exactly at the same time people are gathering together and coming together to explore the natural world the plants that grow in a sense, wild.
I surely know that every person that is living breathing with a beating heart, has an amazing resiliency and ancestral history that is linked more so with the plants, the seasons in the natural world than it Ever could be with the Talking Heads of dominant culture fame. Every person alive has a deep ancestral history that resonates with the real work, that has endured famine, disease and every type of injury. We have endured every type of trauma, sexual trauma, physical trauma, emotional trauma, political and societal trauma, and our aliveness says that yes we have overcome.
Get to know Sambucus, not in a bottle, not in a pill, not in a shelf, but in the only knowing that has any relevance at this time, direct, face-to-face, intimate and personal Sambucus.
An original song by Paul Manski. Written 03-19-2020 All Music and Lyrics by Paul Manski. All electric and acoustic guitars, harmonicabass, percussion, performed, recorded and mixed by Paul Manski. For Eileen, Joshua, Father Joseph Terra, St Kenneth Walker, St Marcel Lefebvre, and to all those who believe in the real work. Blessings.
Lyrics:
“i awoke from a dream at the Deer-House, passed ruins, to an empty room. As I walked, witches flew in the sky underneath the blood red moon. The throne of the king was empty, laid waste by thieves. I saw a Blonde young princess, wrapped in chains, captivated by the falling leaves.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Empty hammers strike the bells. I grovel thru the filthy air, hoping to hear the ringing of the bells…There was No Time To Think…
I approach the Blonde haired princess, bound & chained. Next to her are Seven angels with Seven vials, all of them blood stained.
She was clothed in purple scarlet, a golden cup in her hand, Gilt with gold, precious stones and pearls. The angels lifted the cup up to her lips to drink. With each sip I saw another dead Christian soldier…Till Jesus comes…There is No Time to Think…
I was led to a shining city, to a church near the capital.
I was made to watch a priest,
beaten, to death at the foot of his altar. The police arrived just then and they called it a robbery.
The judge spoke, “We find no guilt in this man, absolutely, no culpability. The priest should have known better than to preach pride, mercy or dignity. We don’t need those things no more.” I said
…Till Jesus comes…There’s no, No time to think…
Inside the church Salome danced for masked Herod the king. The singers and entertainers had many gifts to bring. On the marble steps near the altar where the blood of John the Baptist fell. They expected flowers to grow instead there was sadness, and nothing was well.
Where before banners waved and children danced, now desolation Filled the land.
For 14 years I wandered trying to say the words, “Till Jesus comes”, There’s No time to think…
At the palace of the king the angels placed a mask upon the throne. Saturn returns, dressed in rags, his voice a whispered hollow stone. He said to me, “A righteous woman, who would understand? Every man deserves a courtesan someone to hold, to caress with his hands.”
I wait for you where winter turns slowly into spring. The Pasque flower blooms beneath the Ironwood and palo verde trees…Till Jesus Comes…No Time To Think…
I was led to a market along dry river,
where children stare at their reflection’s in a mirror. Their women bear no children, The echo repeats, “who’s there? Who’s there? Who’s there?”
The children with endless hunger swoon, their hunger never filled. Their Nemesis an endless hunger for echoes of the daffodil.
Such a strange foolish bargain, to have all songs sung in the mirror. Faith in their hands shall snap in two…Till Jesus comes…There’s No Time To Think
I was given bitter poison to drink, and slowly walked away. I saw a blue feathered stellar jay on a yucca impaled. Seven angels with Seven vials showed me the harlot’s great city of Seven Hills. The White bishop wanders the city in ruins, with trembling halting steps.
He prays for the souls of corpses, that he meets along the way.
At the top of the mountain I saw the White Bishop get blown away…Till Jesus Comes, There’s No Time to Think
On Every high hill, under every green tree, all former things have passed away. Enough with words…Behold I make all things new, Till Jesus comes…There’s No time to think… Till Jesus comes…There’s No time to think…
Fouquieria splendens....not an ocotillo but a heartdream factory.
you threw me, to the ground. i woke, unconscious for how long? So i ask cloud sheets, pillow cases, blankets of blue rippling hanging on a clothesline across the sky, "How long?" "Just be glad you are who you are." This one yesterday in flower was unusual, like they all are, each time the days stretch. The days always stretch the nights shrink after the Quadrantids. When we become beautiful victims, flowers of fire. ...Sparkly, some one asked for this. There are many here among us, keepers of fire. Fighting off car sickness flu maybe for an instant.
Vibrant life is contrary against pale ryolite. Ocotillo stand above the unsteady ground, crumbling granite. Who knew where flower idols lead? Beneath the ground movement like coral beans flabelliformis or the flickering of flames of aspen with coyote rocks barking. Only one seen yesterday walking during day long plant study. You can clap your hands and dance around.
Most often bloom is an infectious ecosystem wide fertility carnival. Most often is a construct, a box inside which are further empty boxes. It's a meat market pairing up, based on eyebrow tweezing, indelible tattoos. It's a dream factory of sight and smell. Give me, to believe in. It's a group thing, a tangible trans-species thing, contagious like viral sex-fluenza to the point of pushing abundance and preaching a prosperity gospel in the frugal thorn scrub.
Where even if you're not sick with the bucks mating stupid rut you find yourself doing a virtue signal cough, scratch your head to check for velvet or antler rubs or while in silly mode, wrapped in the wet moist dream factory you offer your self to mountain lion as a kill, "Eat me.", just to prove you are alive and capable of reproductive flu, a nuanced dream to see a perfect drop of shiny blood, and let the pain subside. Touching, the flower of fire.
Usually the blooming period is March-onward thru summer and the ocotillos are frequently leafed out. There can be no vicariously usual. Everything is just the way it needs to be, strung out and broken leaking, perfect. In their lush extravagant phase, green/flame/ the blooming often but not always combined with a tremendous show of flowering plants:bees, hummingbirds, ants- this lone solitary blooming ocotillo if not so exquisitely perfect would have brought nausea, vertigo, waves of fear, the frightening sense of ecstasy unrestrained. A contaminated order structure. Because, is it wrong to luxuriate orange beauty circle in monotone normalville?
One thing fer sure, life happens regardless of conditions, even before the urgent clown hummingbirds decide, It's time, It's time. No, it's time now! "We are still doing Christmas." Say ocotillo. Blooming.Forever.
