Meeting Valeriana arizonica at the Deer House

Valeriana arizonica, Family: Caprifoliaceae, formerly Valerianaceae.

 Arizona valerian or tobacco root.   Valeriana arizonica is a showy plant with basal leaves and clusters of muted but distinctly purplish flower balls. When you look at the showy flower cluster balls closely you'll see, lobes, white stamens (usually 3), anthers extend beyond lobes,  5petals with the anthers extending beyond the lobes. It was found at 6500ft at the upper Deer-house on an upper elevation moist, shady, north facing slope. This is a yin place, female, dark, grounded and nourishing, supportive. 

   

Valeriana arizonica is an indicator species of this place, the Upper Deer House, the north facing slope shade place plant community. It's one of the earliest plants to bloom in the spring at upper deer house, then the basil leaves are some of the last green to be found peeking out of the first snows of the fall. The leaves and roots are what are used and depending on the time of the year it's going to have a little bit different medicine going on. The active ingredients are called valepotriates, research has confirmed that these have a calming effect on agitated people, but are also a stimulant in cases of fatigue. It's a good plant medicine to know and work with. It can help you wind down when your thoughts are going spinning in circles and you're trying to go to sleep and you need to rest. It's been called a nervine and a tranquilizer but it's more than that. Valerian  is a plant person. She is a friend and a kind of lover that opens for us doors and windows into where we need to be.

    It's been used around the world east and west north and south as a friendly nervine, useful both for sleep and rest , also like many plants it goes where it needs to go in terms of the body system. You can look it up and read up on Valerian and find out what people have said about it and they said quite a bit. And it's good to use as John Slattery teaches a 4 directions approach towards herbs utilizing the oral history, the written history, the scientific studies and our own experience with the plant itself in the place where it grows. This is John Slattery's 4 directional approach to herbal medicine

     If you try to put our medicine road plants into a box, the deeper you look you find out your box is getting bigger and including the whole place. Either, you end up with a very big box. Either, your box expands and explodes to include the whole world or else you totally give up your journey of exploration with herbs. That's what happens because the plants are much bigger than any box we can devise with our conscious word based discursive thinking, box building minds. That's what plants do, they open up for us windows and they allow us to grow in the way that our deepest nature wants us to grow. You just hang out with the plants and talk plant story and in that conversation that's where the medicine is. That is the medicine road,  talking plant story with the plant. Just like the plants who are people, we are people and even though we've been domesticated and bred and have all our agonies, glories, sorrows and joys that we drag around with like baggage and balls and chains behind us, still we are self directed and self organizing beings. Everything in the amazing towering sheltering oak is contained in the small acorn. And we are the same. We are no different. Your whole story with all it's amazing twists and turns was contained in that first kiss of lips meeting lips and the warm breath and tangy smell that brought your father and mother together. Your whole journey was that kiss, your whole journey was in that riveting eye first locked eyes. They looked at each other and you were there, in that. You are a self-directed energy moving with its own agenda because it is self-thus. And the days that we walk aboveground the sights  that we see are precious. It's a special time right now and it will not come again just like the plants blooming up at Deer House. They have their roots in the ground and their hair and bodies are in the patchy dappled sun light. When you meet a plant you are forever changed by that meeting. Because the plant is meeting you! You've met the plant and now the plant sees you. The plant feels you and reaches out to you this is what it is, this is what we're doing. You are tasting the plant and the plant is tasting you. Michael Cottingham says that the definition of herbal medicine is change. The herbs change us, they produce change. They bring change.  They facilitate changes. Just like the medicine grounds of Deer House, our bodies are wild, self-directed creatures and they are self-thus, they are self-directed with their own organization based upon their nature. 

    You are learning about the plant leaning down close to it and tasting it. The plant is tasting you. We are eating and being eaten. Nothing is lost and nothing is gained. It is all about being present listening and realizing that we are being heard. We have voices we have mouth's and we have ears. We can speak and we can listen.

     Gary Snyder said, in Practice of the Wild: "Coyote and Ground Squirrel do not break the compact they have with each other that one must play predator and the other play game. In the wild a baby Black-tailed Hare gets maybe one free chance to run across a meadow without looking up. There won't be a second. The sharper the knife, the cleaner the line of the carving. We can ap-preciate the elegance of the forces that shape life and the world, that have shaped every line of our bodies—teeth and nails, nipples and eyebrows."

    Our big heads and conscious mind with all our big ideas have all sorts of ideas and plans to do this, to go here, to become this, yet the plants with the roots going deep into the earth are calling us. They are like girlfriends, sisters , father and cousins that we meet at parties or we meet in our daily life and what we need to is conversation with the plants. We need to talk plant story with the plants, with that north facing cool hillside sometimes covered in snow. Sometimes bursting forth in springtime with balls of purplish flowers. And like all conversations they go back-and-forth, not just one way. If it's one way then it's a monologue.

Conversation is both talking and listening, the only thing we're doing  is talking plant story. We're talking plant story. We are a little bit drunk and tipsy and we're talking about things that we usually don't talk about at work or while we're driving our cars, we are having some fun with the plants it's a special time. Yet we're not alcoholics or drug addicts, but sometimes we party with the plants and talk story. It's just what we do. We're listening to songs. Some of the songs are songs that we've written ourselves. So we play a few chords on our banjo and sing some old songs that we heard from years ago. Sometimes we shake the rattle and listen to the drum beating in the heart of earth mother. Sometimes our songs are drinking songs and sometimes they are serious songs but they're all songs and they're all worth singing. Some of the songs are songs that the plants themselves are singing, and we need to listen to both. We need to sing the songs and we need to listen to the songs. 

    Like all plants they're living beings, they're friends, they're family and they're working on many different levels, and in many different ways in the body, in the emotional heart and the mind.  

Valerian  can also energize and restore when it needs to and when the body needs that sort of energy it will be that sort of energy. i know that in some people it actually has a stimulant effect kind a paradoxical thing and often times you see plants doing this kind of thing, playing around. Valerian and all plants have for that matter, their own agenda outside of our conscious minds with our words and thoughts and plans,  it's leading us where we need to go and it's that confidence that we need to bring forward with the plants,  with our plant medicines to go to that place where we need to be. Plant medicines take their own way through our body and they'll do one thing in one person and something else in another based on the person's energetics, connstitution, and needs at any particular time. As soon as you know one plant and think you have it figured out it is something else. It will show you it has another place that it will take. Another journey and another destination. This is bioreregional herbal medicine because we're not dealing with chemicals were not dealing with drugs, we're dealing with the spirit of a place and a way to take that spirit of the place into our bodies.

     

References:

Conversations:

 talking plant story

John Slattery 

Tucson, AZ

Michael Cottingham 

Silver City, New Mexico

Practice of the Wild: Essays by Gary Snyder

North Point Press 1990

http://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/The-Practice-of-the-Wild-by-Gary-Snyder.pdf

Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West

by Michael Moore

Museum of Mexico Press 2003

The Plant Healers Path

by Jesse Wolf Hardin with Kiva Rose

Plant Healer Press 2012

www.PlantHealerMagazine.com

Diabetic Ulcer Protocol by Paul Manski

Here is a protocol for dressing diabetic ulcers and in this case the amputation of the toe. I would like to thank my teachers John Slattery and Michael Cottingham for both guiding me to the plants and teaching me how to make these medicines. The purpose of this blog is to give some guidance on how to use the herbs which I recently sent to someone requesting them.

      One of the most important elements of dressing diabetic ulcers is to provide a moist wound bed, for debris enemy meant and development of healthy granulation tissue. It's also important to have a an anti-microbial dressing in place which does not antibiotic based and does not develop antibiotic resistance.

Commonly in place or silverdine based ointments and creams and silver impregnated dressings. I wanted to develop a protocol based on plants growing in my bio region which is the desert Montagne sky Island biotic province of Arizona and New Mexico.

     At first I was leaning towards a ointment with antimicrobial properties with a oil/beeswax base. However as I thought it over I began to realize that the beeswax could prevent the development of granulation tissue on the diabetic ulcer so instead I utilized in oil based anti-microbial infused oil containing the following orbs so that the possible infection would not be sealed in by the beeswax or prevent the formulation of granulation tissue in the wound bed.

       Infused Oil. was mixed in a blender with the following dried herbs: I used a base of organic cold pressed grape seed oil. I mixed as much of the herbs as I could put in 16 ounces of the oil without the blender bogging down, I wanted a very powerful anti-microbial oil.  I created a very thick slurry that I let sit for two days and then strained.

     2 parts:Yerba mansa root-Anemopsis californica; 2parts:Oregon grape root, Mahonia- Berberis haematocarpa; 2parts:Larrea tridentata -Creosote bush; 1/2 part:Arizona cypress- Cupressus arizonica; 1/2 part Juniperus communis creeping high mountain juniper;

1 part:Estafiate- Artemesia ludoviciana; 1 part:elephant tree, torote and copal resin-Bursera microphylla; 

    I mixed up the oil till it was fairly warm and then let it sit for two days before straining and filtering the oil.

   

For the dressing  I am using Usna, old man's beard that I gathered previously from an Arizona Cypress in the Sierra Blanca. Usnea, how's a long tradition in itself I was an antimicrobial topical dressing for wounds.

    Moist Dressing: My concept for the moist wet dressing with the Usnea, is to create an isotonic herbal solution, apply it to the Usnea and use the moistened Usnea with the infused oil. 

Take the following herbs 1 handful of Yerba mansa root-Anemopsis californica; 1 handful of Oregon grape root, Mahonia- Berberis haematocarpa; 1 handful of western yarrow-Achillea lanulosa and boil them together to make 8 ounces of liquid. Boil the mixture of herbs, bring to a rolling boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Let the mixture cool to room temperature and strain. Reserve the liquid in a clean sterile jar. To the 8 ounces of liquid add 1/4 teaspoon of salt making an isotonic saline solution.  An isotonic solution  is about 0.9 percent or 9g per 1000ml of fluid. It is about 1/4 tsp. of salt per 8 oz. of water. So by adding 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the 8 ounces of strange herbal mixture you will then have an isotonic solution.Pour the herbal mixture over the Usnea.  Keeping the Usnea moist, then apply the infused oil to the moistened Usnea dressing. Place the moistened Usnea dressing now impregnated with the infused oil directly on the wound bed. Cover the Usnea impregnated dressing with a 2 x 2 and gauze. The dressing should be changed twice per day. I am thinking that the reserved liquid could be saved for 2 to 3 days and if you have any questions you could re-boil it let it cool and use it in this way for several days. You can also apply the infused oil with a cotton ball directly to the wound bed. You could also use sterile cotton apply the liquid isotonic herbal solution in the infused oil in place of the Usnea. 

     Herbal Red Root Tea: (also called a decoction)

I also provided some dried red root, Ceanothus fendleri to make a tea or herbal decoction, which is a fancy way of saying a strong tea. 

Directions for making the redroot tea or decoction  are as follows. Take a handful of the dried red root chips, place them in 1 quart of water, bring the water to a rolling boil, cover, then turn down the heat and boil for 20 minutes at low heat. Strain out the Red Root chips. Save the chips, this is some strong fresh redroot and I am thinking that you can make at least two batches of the tea so use them again. Have the patient drink 1 quart of this red root tea a cup or so at a time throughout the day.

    To this red root tea you will add the alcohol tinctures that I provided. If you look at the small one ounce medicine dropper bottles you will see that they are labeled as follows. 

1oz Red Root tincture(Ceanothus fendleri)

1oz Ocotillo tincture (Fouquieria splendens)

1oz Yerba Mansa root tincture(Anemopsis californica)

Once you make the Red Root tea, or decoction add one squirt of each tincture, red root, ocotillo and Yerba mansa to the tea. A quart will make 4 cups of tea. So drink the tea four times a day, adding the tinctures to the tea each time the patient drinks a cup. 

     These herbal tinctures and the tea together are designed to stimulate the lymph  system, encourage the movement of fluid from the lower extremities, where you said that he had some edema going on. The Yerba Mansa is an herb that besides having strong antimicrobial properties also it has anti-inflammatory properties very useful in the condition of the diabetic foot ulcers and toe amputation. 

References:

Anemopsis californica, Medicinal Plants of the Southwest 

by Andrea Medina (ANTH457 Summer 1999 & Hort300 Fall 1999)

http://medplant.nmsu.edu/yerba.html

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/usnea.htm

Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-resistant Bacteria

By Stephen Harrod Buhner

Michael Cottingham, private conversations and online

https://m.facebook.com/michael.cottingham.Herbalist/posts/279318355612074

Usnea:The Herbal Antibiotic

by Christopher Hobbs

Botanica Press Capitola, CA

http://www.christopherhobbs.com/wp-website/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Usnea-booklet-text.pdf

John Slattery: both personal conversations, written material, and online

http://www.desertortoisebotanicals.com/hello-world-2/

Ohlone Medicine

By Chuck Smith

http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/OhloneMed.html

Chuck Smith, Cabrillo College, 1999

First Flower-Erodium cicutarium, Witch's comb and Cowboy's Needle

My heart slept in cold for winter. i almost forgot full moon rises.

I look up and remember Ancha white with snow.

i know that in the moist, fertile earth now there is a becoming.

i mark time, for  change is my and our nature. i forgot sorrow, there is work to be done and medicine to be made.

The first ones are special, like so many years ago first kiss.  Body firm yet alive like wet earth giving with a dynamism of roots that spring back.

Her breath like apples and close to her a spicy ripeness like licorice Glycyrrhiza lepidota, woody and earthy full. A perfect carrot scent like fresh osha. Her hair the color of red silty mud, or a tincture of Mahonia bloodroot, Berberis haematocarpa

clear water catches the eye.

Every direction there is green growth, mountains forever.

At the tops of the sycamore there abouts cottonwood swells up at tips tender edges.

Underneath is this little one, pink green, tiny and easy to miss. 

Family: Geraniaceae

Erodium cicutarium subsp. cicutarium

Alfilerillo de pastor, Peine de la bruja, Aguja de vaquero ...(witch's comb, cowboy's needle) Later she will comb her hair and when she's done riding we may mention the cowboy, her friend for plans and seasons to come. 

As bioregional herbalists we examine the water in the rain and the plants especially the medicinal plants as they come through the round of spring time. Ambrosia spp, bitter and sweet resembling estafiate as it pokes through January's earth, looking forward and back like it's namesake, Janus.

In the area that is spoken of by the Gila River, by the salt River, and by the sky islands that sing into the sky. Speaking medicine gardens as they fall and rise through this place.  Cañagre, Rumex hymenosepalus

We look for the signs first in our hearts and then where our hurts breathe and sleep on the ground moist with rain the first flowers of spring.

When the days enlarge and the nights decline. We know that at this time new things will happen and we bless them this plant is the first, or one of the first flowers of spring time in my bioregion.

-translated from Spanish...."dried, 2 tbs cup astringent, diuretic and hemostatic used for uterine bleeding(tea), The root and the leaves have been used to encourage milk production.

Externally, the plant is used for cleaning insect bites, bites and other skin infections. Animal experimentation on this plant has shown to induce the production of interferon and antiviral effects. The infusion is used in gargles against infection of the tonsils, toothache, swelling of the throat, swollen gums, and astringent."

This is a direct quote from Los Remedios by Michael Moore, "As a urinary tract herb, a strong cup every few hours for mild bladder and urethra in fractions with sharp pain. A strong cup of the team relieves premenstrual water retention. Secondary uses: it's astringency makes it helpful for sore throat's, nausea, and diarrhea, as well as an effective wash for infected scratches and abrasions. It is one of the more widely used baths for arthritis. Preparation and dosages. Simple tea up to four times a day. Standard infusion 3 to 4 fluid ounces to four times a day. Toxicity: little. Usefulness: high." 

REFERENCES:

-Los Remedios:Traditional Herbal Remedies of the Southwest

Michael Moore, Red Cranebooks 1992

-Saul Casteñeda Dìaz, "Usos de la Vegatación Forestal Fanerogámica de San Miguel Pipilloa, Tlaxaca, México"

-translated from Spanish

Sroka Z, Rzadkowska-Bodalska H, Mazol I. Antioxidative effect of extracts from Erodium cicutarium L. Z Naturforsch [C] . 1994 Nov-Dec; 49 ( 11-12 ): 881-4 .

Zielinska-Jenczylik J, Sypula A, Budko E, Rzadkowska-Bodalska H. Interferonogenic and antiviral effect of extracts from Erodium cicutarium. II. Modulatory activity of Erodium cicutarium extracts. Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz) . 1988; 36 ( 5 ): 527-36

Zielinska-Jenczylik J, Sypula A, Budko E, Rzadkowska-Bodalska H. Interferonogenic and antiviral effect of extracts from Erodium cicutarium. Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz) . 1987; 35 ( 2 ): 211-20

Ulcerative colitis protocol by Paul Manski

Ulcerative Collitis formula 

& protocol: by Paul Manski

Here is my colitis protocol,

this tea and protocol is based off the bioregional model of using local plants in the Salt/Gila River's province to heal an address issues of health. The herbs mentioned all are native to my bioregion and reflect my focus as a bioregional folk herbalist. All the herbs have a tradition of being used for digestive issues. They are drawn from the curandera, below is Teresita, a curandera who lived along the frontera and is buried in Clifton, AZ.

Mexican tradition of herbalism in the southwest and the Denè or Navajo tradition. Along with the tradition of Southwest herbalist Michael Moore, John Slattery and Michael Cottingham, who I have studied with recently. 

 The base is a standard infusion quart:

Tea

Base 50% dry wt either pagué

or yerba de negrita.

 The other 50% is combination 25%

castilleja/paintbrush, 

25% plumajillo/Achillea, 

To the tea add:tincture pazotillo, tincture

Yerba mansa, tincture 

Mahonia, 1 dropper full each

Drink 8oz of tea four times a day 

pazotillo, Conyza canadensis,

Canadian Fleabane:

i would use flesh plant tincture added to tea

yerba mansa, Amenopsis californica:

i would add fresh root tincture to tea

Castilleja integra, Hierba de conejo (Indian paintbrush) castilleja lanata, flor de Santa Rita

: i would add to tea 1:4 or 25% dry infusion

Pagué, Pectis papposa,

Fetid marigold

i would add as tea 1:4 or 1:2, 25%-50% of tea

plumajillo, yarrow, Achillea millefolium,  'little feather': i would add fresh plant tincture or 1:4, 25% of tea

Yerba del negrita Malvacea family, Sphaeralcea spp., or Malva neglecta: i would have this herb as 50% of tea/infusion base

Algerita,  Yerba de Sangre, Berberis spp, Mahonia haematocarpa or Berberis repens: add fresh plant tincture to tea

Life medicine and Bioregional folk polycrest remedios by Paul Manski

Life medicine and Bioregional folk polycrest remedios 

     As a bioregional folk herbalist,  in this tradition we are developing a therapeutic conversation between ourselves and the plant which is the environment. We pick them up and gather them with faith with help and with love.

We are listening and learning at the same time. Plant place person. It's all about being with the plants, and allowing their voices to speak through our mouth. We speak for those whose voice is quiet. We allow their silence to permeate us and we bring it back as a remedio. We bring the medicine home.

    As bioregional folk herbalists, we are first of all gathering what was left behind. "OK there it is. Look! There it is. Yes, that's what it is right there!"  at this point it doesn't make sense to ask who left them behind, we don't go that far back, we see that they're there, we know that there are left behind.

We bend down and pick them up. We pick them up with love and gratitude. If there was one factor in our practice it would be the cultivation of thankfulness thanksgiving and gratitude. All of our studies have to do with being thankful. We are learning how to say thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for bringing us this ocotillo. Thank you for these rooots and the bark, thank you. Thank you for our teachers who showed us what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. We bow our heads, we thought our hands, we say our prayers and leave our offerings.

    So we pick up roots or we pick up  leaf or stem or some seeds, or we shake the the plant and get some pollen. And we are always praying. Most of what we do is just saying thank you. And we ask our Creator,  the great spirit, holy one, Mother Mary, blessings!always & good medicine. We are not doing this alone or for profit. Something much bigger is going on,  it's called blessing. Blessings!always & good medicine

Whatever we're doing it's there already. Were not making anything we're just bringing it home. So this is very much  bringing-it-home-herbalism. It's an herbalism of listening. We are listening to the sky. We are listening to the plant growing right where it is in the ground. We are listening, listening to these plants.

     In bioregional folk herbalism we are looking at the plants exactly as they are, directly in front of us and trusting that arrangement. 

    It's very important at this time to establish a"relationship. OK, so there's the plant. Now what do you do? Maybe you have a project you want to make a tincture. Fine. That's what you want to do. You have some kind of a plan that you're going to do something,...maybe you'll get a pizza tonight with pepperoni. So maybe you decide you're going to make your own pizza. Or maybe you call on the telephone, your order a pizza. Maybe you'll pick the pizza up. Maybe get it delivered. You have all these questions. You have all these plans. You have all these ideas all these options. So now I break it down for you, you need to get rid of these ideas! Get rid of these plans, these options. This is not pizza herbalism.

     You need to listen. You need to make your mind quiet and silent and listen. You are going to find something out, but, you need to listen with the beginners mind. So maybe you've studied herbalism for many years and you have a plan for what you want to do. "OK I'm going to gather plants and make a fresh-plant tincture with alcohol, i'm going to combine these two herbs and make a formula." This is all well and good but right now you need to listen to the plant himself, the plants herself, and remember there is male and female. Don't be confused by all this talk of some sort of ambiguous genderism. When you are looking at the jojoba, you have male  and female. It's there in front of you. Sex is what is happening in the process of the plants and it's there with the plants, and you can't erase it or mistake or fabricate it.  It's there.

So listen and move with what's happening actually.  Learn to see the plants and listen to what they're saying to you.

    OK next it's very important that you have a conversation. The conversation is dialogue it is going back-and-forth you're not just listening and you're not just talking it is a conversation it is communication this is where we go with our folk bioregional herbalism. You need to approach the plant and all the plants in the area. All the plants that are there in front of you. You bring to the plant your situation. You tell the plant exactly what you need. "this is what I need right now I need something to help this person with their stomach with this information with this pain that they have, show me what I need! Bring it to me. Drop it right in front of my eyes."

You speak with the plant. And you listen to allow the plant to speak. you bring to the plant to your situation. You tell the plant exactly what you need. You speak with the plant. And you listen, allow this plant to speak in return. Now this is if you want to. You develop  rapport, with your eyes, with your mouth, with a sense of taste,with the sense of smell. You take it all in. You go back-and-forth you look around, you taste, you touch, you feel, you spend moments and silence with the plant. You let the plant speak to you once you have made your needs known. 

     You don't have to do any of this. You can go down to the store and buy herbs in plastic bags. You could buy herbs in gelatin capsules. You could go online and order herbs that you have delivered to your mailbox or PO Box, and this is fine. There's nothing wrong with this. This is herbal medicine too and can be very effective. I am not critiquing anything. I'm not putting anyone down in anyway, shape or form because. Store bought herbalism of commerce is a valid way of healing. Here however, we're going directly to the plant. We're becoming slightly psychotic or schizophrenic maybe. We're seeing things out of the corner of our eyes. Maybe were becoming  bipolar with herbalism here, because were seeing the sexuality of plants. We are talking to plants. We are listening to what the plants have to say. And not only the plants were listening to the tarantula, we're listening to the deer, we're listening to the silence of the fallingstar, ripping across the sky, the falling star dancing across the night sky.  We are calling upon all of this and listening to it and we're having a conversation with it.

     This is a schizophrenic, a psychotic kind of herbalism. An herbalism with porous boundaries. Boundaries that are not firm where the plant herself where the yarrow, the Achillea, is speaking and saying, "I have a remedy for you. Here's what it is." If you told someone what you were doing, you could be filled with self-doubt. If you told someone  you were talking to  plants and the plants were talking back to you,  well, this is a very serious situation. Because it's a dynamic that can't be described in words. it's beyond words. It is an epic,  fluid, specific informing from Place conversation. If you did describe it in words, if you did tell someone, that  you're speaking with plants. You could be judged to be a little off. You could be judged to be crazy. So often times with herbalism you become a crazy person. You move towards outside the box mentality where speaking with the coyote, listening to a squirrel, becomes commonplace. Of course, you're not becoming a crazy person. You're engaging with the plants. And this engagement is the key point to our folk bioegional herbalism.

This is frequently beyond the paradigm of many. You're stepping out of the comfort zone of the box and experiencing the vitality of this natural world. Can you do this? Of course you can do this. I think that that is the whole purpose of what I'm doing here with this talk, I'm telling you that you can do this. You can harness and utilize the healing power of the plants and approach them directly. 

    In bioregional folk herbalism, we are bringing things home,  that we found. We are waiting listing for a song. We are standing in solidarity with the Juniper and piñon pine. We're experiencing the reality of osha. It's very much a found herbalism.

    Person place plant. We facilitate the process of listening by listening to that which came before. We are not naming, and we are not taming.  We are listening. 

    We're here, this is our home. We're already home. There's no special place for us to be. This is it. This is it,  we're here. We're not going anywhere and we're not leaving anytime soon, hopefully ha ha ha. 

    Just an aside here; sometimes sickness is what needs to be. This can be a difficult process to accept. Sickness can also be the space that a person needs to experience, in order to manifest change.  You're not trying to change sickness into something else. You are not trying to change sickness into health. The situation in front of you is what is. You're not clobbering or somehow trying to control the situation. There is sickness on the one hand and there are the plants on the other hand in front of us in their natural environment, this is the work of the folk bioregional herbalist. Sometimes what happens is the person needs to be sick. There is a process of change and transformation that can only become through sickness. We are helping the person understand that there is the possibility of growth development and wellness. We are allowing the change to take place. We acknowledge the change. We do not control the change. Maybe they're not going to get better. Maybe being sick is where they need to be. What they need to see. Something like death. You're not going to cure death. When a person is dying that's what they're doing. They are leaving. They are saying goodbye. We help them with that. They're dying, you're not going to change that. The possibility exists that you're going to help them go where they need to go. And the plants that exist in front of you can aid and assist in that process. And you are not outside the process. You are not an outsider looking in. You are as much being changed by the process as the person in the process. This is the situation, help is dynamic, balance is dynamic listen to the flow.

      When you look at sickness sometimes it's infirmity. Sometimes sickness is laying down and not doing something, it's laying in bed. The idea that you need to get the person up out of bed may be the wrong idea. Maybe the person needs to lay in bed maybe they need to be sick, maybe they need to think about their life and change something and the only way that they can do that is this time of sickness. You need to understand that and except that the idea that sickness is not defeat, it is not a  mistake. Maybe the sickness is what needs to happen so the person can grow.

     In bioregional folk herbalism, "There it is right in front of you". Bend down and pick it up, that's what you were looking for. It can be as simple as that. We're looking for things not in the sense of that we forgot something, and we don't know where it is, and now were trying to find it. No, no that's not what it is. We're looking for things that are already there.

We are finders. We are not looking. We find. We're just picking up and using what's there in front of us because it's there. The mandala is right there in front of us. We are not creating a new paradigm. What we are seeking has already been created and left there for us. We claim are bounty in the name of another. We need to recognize. You need to learn to recognize that is our task.

    We are picking up things that were left for us. We're not making anything new because what we're doing is just grouping what was here, together maybe making the formula and then bring it to the person. The plants are growing and where they're growing they have an inner form. The inner form of the plant is the harmony that's there in the plant with that situation that you're presenting back to the person who is seeking to attain the harmony to return to that flow or things are going right. 

     When you see the ground, the rocks and all the plants living together then you should know that this is a place where you can gather the medicine.  

    Let's talk about medicine, medicine is like a message and what you're doing is calling the form of healing which exists to come into the situation, this is the medicine.  When you go to a restaurant the first thing you do is meet the hostess. She says, "hi how are you?". That's all we're trying to do were trying to be nice with the plants. We're saying, "Hello. Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. I'm Paul. How are you doing? I have someone who's very sick right now. There name is Bob. Can you help them?".  You ask the medicine to speak. "Comeback into my heart and show me. Why don't you bring me what needs to be done.?"  So when you talk about medicine it's not necessarily any component in the plant. It's more like a relation that you are summoning to come down and bring back the harmony which has been lost. You are not really doing anything. You are just like a hostess saying,  "Good morning,  yes table for two? Come this way."

     When you see a plant you should know that it was left for you, it was dropped off by the holy people who used for it healing and now you take it and you bless it and you give it back just as it was meant to be used.

       These are called medicine twigs.

"plants for the same family are found and added as combination herbs. Pollen is placed upon one of the same species, from east to west, from south to north, and twice around it clockwise, while praying. The root of the desired specimen is dug up, pollen is placed in the hole, the top of the plant is broken off and pollen placed on the bottom of the stems, the top is replanted in the hole, with pollen placed on the top. Prayers to the plant and for its continued growth are said. If the top is not replanted, pollen is placed in the hole and the earth is carefully smoothed over it so as to leave no trace of disturbance, while praying for more to grow. Sometimes the plant is not uprooted but side roots are broken off, pollen placed on their ends and on the broken stub ("to make it grow"), and the plant left with accompanying prayers. Roots gathered this way are called "life medicine" 

- Medicine Between Two Worlds" 

by Jolene Smith  http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/nationalcurriculum/units/2012/5/12.05.08.x.html