Don’t kill, spray, tear up, or destroy the weeds in your garden, yard, and fence rows. Many of them are actually highly-regarded, widely-used, and extremely-valuable medicinal herbs! What could be easier than growing an herb garden with no effort? Of course, you’ll have to harvest your weeds, but you would do that anyhow: it’s called weeding.

Spring is an especially fertile time for harvesting your weeds - roots and all - and turning them into medicines. Here then are some tips on how to find, harvest, prepare, and use a baker’s dozen (13) of common weeds that probably already grow around you.

To make your medicines you’ll need glass jars of various sizes with tight-fitting lids. And at least a pint each of apple cider vinegar (pasteurized), vodka (100 proof is best, but 80 proof will do), and pure olive oil (not extra virgin) or good quality animal fat such as lanolin, lard, or belly fat from a lamb or kid. You will also want a knife, a cutting board, and some rags to mop up spills.

In general, you will fill a jar (of any size) with coarsely-chopped fresh, but dry, plant material. (Do not wash any part of the plant except roots, if you are using them, and be sure to dry those well with a towel before putting them in your jar.) Then you will fill the jar with your menstruum, that is, the vinegar, the oil, or the alcohol. Label well and allow to stand at room temperature, out of the sunlight for at least six weeks before decanting and using. (See Healing Wise for info on making preparations.)

A field guide is helpful for positively identifying your weeds. The one I like best is: A Guide to the Identification of New Zealand Common Weeds in Colour, complied by E. A. Upritchard. (Available from the New Zealand Weed And Pest Control Society, P.O. Box 1654, Palmerston North) This book even shows you how the weeds look when they are emerging.

Ready? OK! Let’s go outside and see what we can find.

Shepherds’s purse (Capsella bursa pastoris) is an annual in the mustard family. Cut the top half of the plant when it has formed its little heart-shaped “purses” (seed pods) and make a tincture (with alcohol), which you can use to stop bleeding. Midwives and women who bleed heavily during their period praise its prompt effectiveness. Gypsies claim it works on the stomach and lungs as well. A dose is 1 dropperful (1ml); which may be repeated up to four times a day.

Cleavers (Gallium aparine) is a persistent, sticky plant which grows profusely in abandoned lots and the edges of cultivated land. The entire plant is used to strengthen lymphatic activity. I cut the top two-thirds of each plant while it is in flower (or setting seeds) and use alcohol to make a tincture which relieves tender, swollen breasts, PMS symptoms, and allergic reactions. A dose is 15-25 drops (.5 - 1 ml); repeated as needed.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) has many uses, including delicious salad greens. I cut the entire top of the plant and eat it or use alcohol to make a tincture, which dissolves cysts, tonifies the thyroid, and aids in weight loss. A dose is a dropperful (1 ml), up to three times a day.

Daisy (Bellis perennis) is a common perennial weed of lawns and open areas. Quite different from the native daisy (Lagenifera petiolata), the little English daisy is related to feverfew and has similar abilities. I use the leaves and flowers to make a tincture (with alcohol) or a medicinal vinegar which relieves headaches, muscle pain, and allergy symptoms. A dose is a dropperful of the tincture (1 ml), up to twice a day; or a tablespoon of the vinegar in the morning.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) is a persistent perennial of lawns and gardens and one of the best known medicinal herbs in the world. (The native dandelion of New Zealand - Taraxacum magellanicum - is medicinal too.) Those who love a pure green lawn curse the sunny yellow flowers of common dandelion. But those who are willing to see beauty anywhere (such as children and herbalists) treasure this weed. You can use any part of the dandelion - the root, the leaves, the flowers, even the flower stalk - to make a tincture or medicinal vinegar which strengthens the liver. A dose of 10-20 drops of the tincture (.5-1 ml) relieves gas, heartburn, and indigestion, as well as promoting healthy bowel movements. A tablespoon of the vinegar works well, too. More importantly, taken before meals, dandelion increases the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, thus increasing bio-availability of many nutrients, especially calcium. The fresh or cooked green leaves are loaded with carotenes, those anti-cancer, anti-heart disease helpers. And the oil of the flowers is an important massage balm for maintaining healthy breasts. (There’s lots more information on dandelions in Healing Wise.)

Dock, also called yellow dock, curly dock, and broad dock is a perennial plant, which my Native American grandmothers use for “all women’s problems.” The Maori call it paewhenua or runa. It is another plant that disagrees with sheep, especially when the land is overgrazed. I dig the yellow roots of Rumex crispus or R. obtusifolius and tincture them in alcohol to use as an ally when the immune system or the liver needs help. A dose is 15-25 drops (.5-1 ml). I also harvest the leaves and/or seeds throughout the growing season and make a medicinal vinegar, taken a tablespoon at a time, which is used to increase blood-levels of iron, reduce menstrual flooding and cramping, and balance hormone levels. If the chopped roots are soaked in oil for six weeks, the resulting ointment is beneficial for keeping the breasts healthy.

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) and Ragwort (Senecio jacobea) are hardy perennials that have a reputation for poisoning livestock, like their cousin tansy. Although not good for sheep, these two Senecios are some of the world’s most ancient healing plants, having been found in a grave 60,000 years old. You can use the flowering tops and leaves with your alcohol to make a tincture which acts slowly to tonify the reproductive organs, ease PMS, and stop severe menstrual pain. A dose is 5-10 drops (.2-.5 ml) per day, used only once a day, but for at least 3 months. (A larger dose is used to speed up labor.)

Mallows (Malva neglecta, M. parviflora, M. sylvestres) grow well in neglected gardens and are surprisingly deep-rooted. The flowers, leaves, stalks, seeds, and roots are rich in sticky mucilage which is best extracted by soaking the fresh plant in cold water overnight or longer or by making a medicinal vinegar. The starch is extraordinarily soothing internally (easing sore throats, upset tummies, heart burn, irritable bowel, colic, constipation, and food poisoning) and externally (relieving bug bites, burns, sprains, and sore eyes). The leaves, flowers, and bark (especially) of the native Hohere (Hoheria populnea) are used in exactly the same way by Maori herbalists.

Plantain, also called ribwort, pig’s ear, or bandaid plant - and kopakopa or parerarera by the Maori - is a common weed of lawns, driveways, parks, and playgrounds. Identify it by the five parallel veins running the length of each leaf. You may find broad leaf plantain (Plantago major) with wide leaves, or narrow leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) with lance-thin leaves. Either can be used to make a healing poultice or a soothing oil widely regarded as one of the best wound healers around. Not only does plantain increase the speed of healing, it also relieves pain, stops bleeding, draws out foreign matter, stops itching, prevents and stops allergic reactions from bee stings, kills bacteria, and reduces swelling.

Try a poultice or a generous application of plantain oil or ointment (made by thickening the oil with beeswax) on sprains, cuts, insect bites, rashes, chafed skin, boils, bruises, chapped and cracked lips, rough or sore hands, baby’s diaper area, and burns.

To make a fresh plantain poultice: Pick a leaf, chew it well and put it on the boo-boo. “Like magic” the pain, itching, and swelling disappear, fast! (Yes, you can dry plantain leaves and carry them in your first aid kit. Chew like you would fresh leaves.)

To make plantain ointment: Pick large fresh plantain leaves. Chop coarsely. Fill a clean, dry, glass jar with the chopped leaves. Pour pure olive oil into the leaves, poking about with a chopstick until the jar is completely full of oil and all air bubbles are released. Cap well. Place jar in a small bowl to collect any overflow. Wait six weeks. Then strain oil out of the plant material, squeezing well. Measure the oil. Heat it gently, adding one tablespoon of grated beeswax for every liquid ounce of oil. Pour into jars and allow to cool.

St. Joan’s/John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) This beautiful perennial wildflower may be hated by sheep farmers but herbalists adore it. The flowering tops are harvested after they begin to bloom (traditionally on Solstice, June 21) and prepared with alcohol, and with oil, to make two of the most useful remedies in my first aid kit. Tincture of St. Joan’s wort not only lends one a sunny disposition, it reliably relieves muscle aches, is a powerful anti-viral, and is my first-choice treatment for those with shingles, sciatica, backpain, neuralgia, and headaches including migraines. The usual dose is 1 dropperful (1 ml) as frequently as needed. In extreme pain from a muscle spasm in my thigh, I used a dropperful every twenty minutes for two hours, or until the pain totally subsided. St. Joan’s wort oil stops cold sores in their tracks and can even relieve genital herpes symptoms. I use it as a sunscreen. Contrary to popular belief, St. Joan’s wort does not cause sun sensitivity, it prevents it. It even prevents burn from radiation therapy. Eases sore muscles, too.

Self heal (Prunella vulgaris) This scentless perennial mint is one of the great unsung healers of the world. The leaves and flowers contain more antioxidants - which prevent cancer and heart disease, among other healthy traits - than any other plant tested. And as part of the mint family, self heal is imbued with lots of minerals, especially calcium, making it an especially important ally for pregnant, nursing, menopausal, and post-menopausal women. I put self heal leaves in salads in the spring and fall, make a medicinal vinegar with the flowers during the summer, and cook the flowering tops (fresh or dried) in winter soups.

Usnea (Usnea barbata) is that many-stranded grey lichen hanging out of the branches of your apple trees or the Monterey pines planted in the plantation over there or in almost any native tree in areas of the South Island Alps, where it is known as angiangi to the Maori. If in doubt of your identification: Pull a strand gently apart with your hands, looking for a white fiber inside the fuzzy grey-green outer coat. To prepare usnea, harvest at any time of the year, being careful not to take too much. Usnea grows slowly. Put your harvest in a cooking pan and just cover it with cold water. Boil for about 15-25 minutes, or until the water is orange and reduced by at least half. Pour usnea and water into a jar, filling it to the top with plant material. (Water should be no more than half of the jar.) Add the highest proof alcohol you can buy. After 6 weeks this tincture is ready to work for you as a superb antibacterial, countering infection anywhere in the body. A dose is a dropperful (1 ml) as frequently as every two hours in acute situations

Yarrow (Achellia millefolium) This lovely perennial weed is grown in many herb gardens for it has a multitude of uses. Cut the flowering tops (use only white-flowering yarrow) and use your alcohol to make a strongly-scented tincture that you can take internally to prevent colds and the flu. (A dose is 10-20 drops, or up to 1 ml). I carry a little spray bottle of yarrow tincture with me when I’m outside and wet my skin every hour or so. A United States Army study showed yarrow tincture to be more effective than DEET at repelling ticks, mosquitoes, and sand flies. You can also make a healing ointment with yarrow flower tops and your oil or fat. Yarrow oil is antibacterial, pain-relieving, and incredibly helpful in healing all types of wounds.

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@herbshealing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free.
Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance. You can too.

Learning About Herbs

Information on herbs and their uses has been passed down to us in many ways: through stories, in books, set to music, and incorporated into our everyday speech. Learning about herbs is fun, fascinating, and easy to do no matter where you live or what your circumstances. It is an adventure that makes use of all of your senses. Reading about herbal medicine is fascinating, and a great way to learn how others have used plants. But the real authorities are the plants themselves. They speak to us through their smells, tastes, forms, and colors.

Anyone who is willing to take the time to get to know the plants around them will discover a wealth of health-promoting green allies. What stops us? Fear. We fear that we will use the wrong plant. We fear poisoning ourselves. We fear the plants themselves.

These fears are wise. But they need not keep us from using the abundant remedies of nature. A few simple guidelines can protect you and help you make sense of herbal medicine. This series of short articles will offer you easy-to-remember rules for using herbs simply and safely. When you have completed all eight parts of this series, you will be using herbs confidently and successfully to keep yourself and your loved ones whole/healthy/holy.

Survival is a Matter of Taste

Virtually all plants contain poisons. After all, they don’t want to be eaten! Because we have evolved eating plants, we have the capacity to neutralize or remove (through preparation or digestion) their poisons. Not all poisons kill, and even poisons that are deadly often need to be taken in quantities far larger than can easily be obtained from foods. (Apple seeds contain a lethal poison but it takes a quart of them to cause death.)

Our senses of taste and smell are registered in the part of the brain that maintains respiration and circulation, in other words, the survival center. Plants (but not mushrooms) advertise their poisons by tasting bad or smelling foul. Of the four primary kinds of poisons found in plants — alkaloids, glycosides, resins, and essential oils — the first two always taste bitter or cause a variety of noxious reactions on the oral tissues, and the last two usually do, especially when removed from the plant or concentrated.

Sometimes the taste of the poison in a plant is hidden by large amounts of sweet-tasting starch. Fortunately, human saliva contains an enzyme that breaks down these carbohydrates, exposing the nasty taste of the poison. Since even tiny amounts of some poisons can have large effects, for safety sake, take your time when tasting.

Safety First

Because our sense of taste protects us against poisonous plants, it is always best to take herbs in a form that allows one to taste them. Consuming just one plant at a time, with as little preparation as possible, gives us the greatest opportunity to taste poisons and is therefore the safest way to use herbs.

One herb at a time is a “simple.” When we ingest a simple herb– raw, cooked as a vegetable, brewed fresh or dried in water as a tea or infusion, steeped in vinegar or honey, dried and used as a condiment — we bring into play several million years of plant wisdom collected in our genes. When we ingest many plants together, or concentrate their natural poisons by tincturing, distilling, or standardizing, we increase the possibility of harm. Powdering herbs and putting them in capsules is one of the most dangerous ways to use them, especially those containing poisons. For ultimate risk, play with essential oils; they are far removed from the plant, very concentrated, and as little as one-quarter ounce can kill.

Safety Second, too

In the next installments we will continue to learn how to use herbs simply and safely. We will explore nourishing and tonifying herbs, the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of your own health care with the six steps of healing.

Looking for quality herbs, here are a few quality vendors to choose from:

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ The best in quality organic herbal products - herbs and natural body care for our love of this great earth - conducting business in an ethical and ecological way. Mountain Rose Herbs is women owned in Eugene, OR.

http://www.catskillmountainherbals.com Hancrafted highest quality wildcrafted and organic herbal extracts, vinegars and oils, all created as a labor of love. Catskill Mountain Herbals Olivebridge, NY

http://www.richters.com/ Live herbs and seeds delivered worldwide. Articles and resources galore, this site is a must vist — retail and wholesale orders welcome at Richters Herbs Goodwood, ON, Canada.

http://www.frontierherb.com/ Providing organic and natural products to our customers since 1976. bulk herbs for infusion and many other offerings found at Frontier Natural Products Coop, Norway, IA

http://www.redmoonherbs.com/ Handcraft herbal tinctures, vinegars, salves and oils of the highest quality, with a focus on fresh, local wildcrafted & organic plants. Red Moon Herbs Black Mt, NC.

*Note, we do not endorse nor sponsor these links, but we do order from these vendors ourselves..

Experiment Number One

You will need the following plants, all of which contain poisons that you can taste: a head of lettuce (taste the leaves and the core separately), some black or green tea (unbrewed), a fresh dandelion leaf, strong chamomile tea (steep it overnight), a can of asparagus, some fresh mint, a spoonful of mustard seeds, and a bottle of vanilla extract.

Approach tasting a plant as you would tasting a wine. Begin by inhaling the aroma. Release the bouquet by squeezing the plant until your fingers are moist (or chew briefly and spit into your hand). Do you feel enticed, repelled, or neutral? Does your mouth water? Does your throat clench? Observe how you react to the smell. Does it sting your eyes? Irritate your nasal tissues? Do you want to taste it?

We do not gulp our wine, nor do we merely wet our tongues; for best effect, taste and smell a reasonably large piece, but don’t stuff your mouth. As you chew, move the plant material around in your mouth. Roll it around with your tongue. Make contact with it for a full minute but DO NOT SWALLOW. No, no, spit it upon the ground, or into your hand, or the sink, or wherever you can, but do not swallow. SPIT IT OUT.

What do you feel now? In your stomach? your throat? your head and nose?What is your gut feeling? What sensations accompany the taste of this plant?

It is best to wait until the previous taste is completely gone before going on to the next plant. If you are doing advanced work with wild plants, wait at least a day before you use or consume the plant in case you have a delayed reaction to some component.

Experiment Number Two

Taste as in experiment one, but use these inedible (poisonous) parts of common foods: Lemon inner rind, apple seeds, rhubarb leaves, lettuce root, the inner soft pit of a peach.

Experiment Number Three

Taste as in experiment one, these poisonous plants (fresh or dried): wormwood leaf, goldenseal root, yellow dock root, echinacea root, eucalyptus leaf, motherwort leaf.

Experiment Four

Aromatic plants are rich in essential oils. We often use them to season and preserve food. In small quantity, these oils are not harmful, but concentrated, they threaten the liver, kidneys, and life itself. Smell and taste, as in experiment one, as many aromatic plants as you can: thyme, rosemary, oregano, lavender, sage, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg. Brew strong teas (steep overnight) of these plants and taste. Can you see, smell, or taste more essential oils? Smell or taste one drop of the extracted essential oil of any of these plants.

Further study

1. What is an alkaloid (hint here)? Medicinal plants often contain groups of alkaloids. Name seven plants rich in alkaloids (specify the part); then name at least three of the alkaloids in each plant. 2. What are glycosides? Name at least four glycosides and describe the effect each has. Name seven plants rich in glycosides; specify the part of the plant and the kind of glycoside.
3. What are resins? Name four or more plants (specify part) rich in resins.
4. What are essential oils? Name a dozen or more plants rich in essential oils (specify part).
5. What is the difference between a poison and a medicine? Are all drugs poisons?
NOTE: If you can’t find the answer to a q above use Google.com to search, you will find helpful hints.
Advanced work

* Give the botanical name (genus and species) for each plant you named in the further study section.
* Taste a variety of plants that grow around you. Warning: It is possible to experience uncomfortable or harmful effects from this experiment. A book on poisonous plants can reassure you that the plants you are tasting will not kill you. It is best not to put plants such as poison ivy or poison oak in your mouth. DO NOT TASTE HOUSEPLANTS.

—————

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance, and you can too.

In your first lesson, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. And you discovered that using plants in water bases (teas, infusions, vinegars, soups) — and as simples — allows you to experiment with and explore herbal medicine safely.

In this lesson, we will learn how to make effective water-based herbal remedies and talk more about using simples.
Tea for You?

Teas are a favorite way to consume herbs. Made by brewing a small amount of herbs (typically a teaspoonful to a cup of water) for a short time (generally 1-2 minutes), teas are flavorful, colorful drinks.

Herbs rich in coloring compounds — such as hibiscus, rose hips, calendula, and black tea — make enticing and tasty teas. They may also contain polyphenols, phytochemicals known to help prevent cancer. Since coloring compounds and polyphenols are fairly stable, dried herbs are considered best for teas rich in these.

Herbs rich in volatile oils — such as ginger, chamomile, cinnamon, catnip, mint, lemon balm, lemon grass, lavender, bergamot, and fennel, anise, and cumin seeds — make lovely teas which are effective in easing spasms, stimulating digestion, eliminating pain, and inducing sleep. Since much of the volatile oils are lost when herbs are dried, fresh herbs are considered best for teas rich in these, but dried herbs can be used with good results.

I enjoy a cup of hot tea with honey. But teas fail to deliver the mineral richness locked into many common herbs. A cup of nettle tea, for instance, contains only 5-10 mg of calcium, while a cup of nettle infusion contains up to 500 mg of calcium. For optimum nutrition, I drink nourishing herbal infusions every day.
Infusion for Me!

An infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long time. Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded and allowed to steep for 4-10 hours. After straining, a cup or more is consumed, and the remainder chilled to slow spoilage. Drinking 2-4 cups a day is usual. Since the minerals and other phytochemicals in nourishing herbs are made more accessible by drying, dried herbs are considered best for infusions. (See experiment 2.)

I make my infusions at night before I go to back and they are ready in the morning. I put my herb in my jar and my water in the pot, and the pot on the fire, then brush my teeth (or sweep the floor) until the kettle whistles. I pour the boiling water up to the rim of the jar, screw on a tight lid, turn off the stove and the light, and go to bed. In the morning, I strain the plant material out, squeezing it well, and drink the liquid. I prefer it iced, unless the morning is frosty. I drink the quart of infusion within 36 hours or until it spoils. Then I use it to water my house plants, or pour it over my hair after washing as a final rinse which can be left on.

My favorite herbs for infusion are nettle, oatstraw, red clover, and comfrey leaf, but only one at a time. The tannins in red clover and comfrey make me pucker my lips, so I add a little mint, or bergamot, when I infuse them, just enough to flavor the brew slightly. A little salt in your infusion may make it taste better than honey will.

Having trouble finding herbs in bulk at your local health food store? Try ordering online:

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ Mountain Rose Herbs

http://www.pacificbotanicals.com/ Pacific Botanicals

http://www.frontierherb.com/ Frontier Herbs

http://www.gardenmedicinals.com/ Garden Medicinals
Simple Messages

When we use simples (one plant at a time), we allow ourselves an intimacy that deepens and strengthens our connections to plants and their green magic. There are lots of interesting plants, and lots of herbalists who maintain that herbal medicine means formulae and combinations of herbs. But I consider herbs as lovers, preferring to have only one in bed with me at a time.

When I use one plant at a time it is much easier for me to discern to effect of that plant. When I use one plant at a time and someone has a bad reaction to the remedy, it is obvious what the source of the distress is, and usually easy to remedy. When I use one plant at a time, I make it easy for my body to communicate with me and tell me what plants it needs for optimum health.

I even go so far as to ally with one plant at a time, usually for at least a year. By narrowing my focus, I actually find that I learn more.
Coming up

In our next lesson we will learn more about the difference between nourishing, tonifying, stimulating/sedating, and potentially-poisonous plants; how to prepare them; and how to use them. In the following installments we will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of your own health care with the six steps of healing.

Experiment Number One
Make and drink a quart of nourishing herbal infusion made with stinging nettle, oatstraw, red clover, raspberry leaf, or comfrey leaf. If you wish, flavor it with mint. On the same day, make a tea from the same herb, using dried herb. Compare and contrast the colors, flavors, and sensations.

Experiment Number Two
Make an infusion of stinging nettle, oatstraw, red clover, raspberry leaf, or comfrey leaf, using one ounce of dried herb as usual. At the same time, make a quart of “brew” using the same herb, but fresh, not dried. To make it fair, use 4 ounces of fresh herb. After one hour of steeping, look at both jars, taste and compare/contrast. Repeat three more times at hourly intervals.
Minerals are released slowly into water. They darken the color of the water and give it a dense, rich taste. Oil-soluble vitamins float to the top and make a thin glaze of swirls.

Experiment Number Three
Buy, or grow a tasty, aromatic herb, like ginger, peppermint, or rosemary. For this experiment you will need one tablespoon of fresh herb, and one teaspoon of the same herb dried. Place the fresh herb in a cup or mug and the dried herb in a another. Fill both to the top with boiling water. After one minute, taste, smell, compare the teas. Wait another minute and compare again. Then wait five minutes and try each one again.

Experiment Number Four
Make a tea with aromatic seeds — anise, caraway, coriander, cumin, fennel, or fenugreek. Use a teaspoon of seeds in a cup of water. At the same time, brew some using a tablespoon of seeds per cup. After a minute, taste, smell, contrast. Repeat in five minutes, then in thirty minutes, then after an hour, then after four hours. Teas and infusions of dried seeds are almost the same.

Further study
1. Drink a 2-4 cups of nourishing herbal infusion for a month and see if your health changes in any way. Best if you don’t drink coffee or tea during this month.
2. Choose a green ally to focus on this year.
3. Read Healing Power of Minerals by Paul Bergner.
4. Read about stinging nettle and oatstraw in my book Healing Wise.
5. Write out the botanical names of the herbs you used in making your teas and your infusions.

Advanced work
* Learn more about essential oils in plants. Grow several plants rich in essential oils.
* Learn more about tannins. Make an oakbark infusion.

—————

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance, and you can too.

In your first lesson, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. And you discovered that using plants in water bases (as teas, infusions, vinegars, and soups) — and as simples — allows you to experiment with and explore herbal medicine safely.

In your second lesson, you learned about herbs for teas and how to preserve and use their volatile oils. You leaned about vitamin- and mineral-rich herbal infusions, and how to use them to promote health and longevity. And you continued to think about using herbs simply.

In this lesson you will explore the differences between nourishing, tonifying, stimulating/sedating, and potentially-poisonous plants. You will learn how to prepare and use them for greatest effect and most safety.

All Herbs Are Not Equal

All herbs are not equal: some contain poisons, some don’t; some of the poisons are not so bad, some can kill you dead. I divide herbs into four categories for ease in remembering how (and how much) to use. Some herbs nourish us, some tonify; some bring us up or ease us down and some are frighteningly strong.

Nourishing herbs are the safest of all herbs. They contain few or no alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils (poisons).

Nourishing herbs are eaten as foods, cooked into soups, dried and infused, or, occasionally, made into vinegars.. They provide high-level nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, proteins, phytoestrogens and phytosterols, starches, simple and complex sugars, bioflavonoids, carotenes, and essential fatty acids (EFAs).

Nourishing herbs in water bases (infusions, soups, vinegars) may generally be taken in any quantity for any period of time. Side- effects — even from excessive use — are quite rare. Nourishing herbs are rarely used as tinctures (in alcohol), but when they are, their effects may be quite different.

It is generally considered safe to use nourishing herbs in water bases with prescription drugs. They may also be taken even if you are using tonifying, stimulating/sedating, or potentially poisonous herbs.

Some examples of nourishing herbs include:

burdock roots
chickweed herb; tincture dissolves cysts
comfrey leaf
elder blossoms and berries
mushrooms
nettle leaves and seeds
oatstraw
plantain leaves and seeds
red clover blossoms
seaweeds
violet leaves and blossoms.

Tonifying herbs are generally considered safe when used in moderation. They may contain alkaloids or glycosides or essential oils, but rarely in quantities sufficient to harm us.

Tonifying herbs act slowly in the body and have a cumulative, rather than immediate, effect. They are most beneficial when used for extended periods of time. Tonifying herbs may be used regularly (but usually not daily) for decades if desired.

Tonifying herbs are prepared in water and alcohol bases: tinctures and wines, as well as infusions, vinegars, and soups.

The more bitter the tonic tastes, the less you need to take of it. The more bland the tonic tastes, the more you can use of it.

Side effects from overuse and misuse of tonics is uncommon but quite possible. The dividing line between what is tonifying and what is stimulating differs from person to person. Ginseng is tonifying to my sweetheart, but stimulating to me. Even herbal authorities disagree on
which herbs are tonifying and which stimulating.

Take care to counter any tendency to overuse tonifying herbs or you may experience unwanted side effects.

It is generally considered safe to use tonifying herbs in water bases if you are taking prescription drugs. You may also use tonifying herbs while using nourishing, stimulating/sedating, and even potentially poisonous herbs. Tonifying herbs in alcohol bases are considered safe to use with nourishing herbs, but may produce unexpected results if combined with drugs or strong herbs.

Some examples of tonifying herbs include

burdock seeds, especially in an oil base
chasteberry
mug/cronewort herb, especially in vinegar
dandelion leaf, root and flowers
echinacea root
ginseng root
hawthorn berries, leaves, and flowers
horsetail herb
motherwort leaves and flowers
yellow dock leaves, roots, and seeds

Stimulating/sedating herbs frequently contain essential oils, alkaloids, glycosides, or resins. Because these substances cause strong physical reactions, stimulating/sedating herbs are known from their rapid and pronounced effects, some of which may be unwanted.

Stimulating/sedating herbs are most often prepared as tinctures (and wines), vinegars, teas, and infusions. Many stimulating/sedating herbs are used as seasonings in cooking as well. Despite my cookbook’s injunction to use only a little, I long ago learned that more aromatic herbs in my soups gave a “livelier” result.

Because long-term use of stimulating/sedating herbs can lead to dependency, dose and duration of use must be carefully watched. A moderate to large dose, taken infrequently will produce better results than a small dose taken over a longer period.

Side effects from the use of stimulating/sedating herbs in water bases are not common but possible. Side effects from use in alcohol bases are frequent. Whenever stimulating/sedating herbs are used regularly, health is compromised.

It is not safe to take prescription drugs with stimulating/sedating herbs, but they may be taken even if you are using nourishing and/or tonifying herbs.

Some examples of stimulating/sedating herbs include:

leaves of aromatic mints such as catnip, lemon balm, lavender, sage, skullcap
cinnamon bark
coffee beans
ginger root
kava kava root
licorice root
tobacco leaves
uva ursi leaves
valerian root
willow bark and leaves

Potentially poisonous herbs always contain alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils. And they contain large quantities of those poisons, or in very potent forms.

Potentially poisonous plants can cause death directly, through the actions of their poisons on their targets (such as cardiac glycosides which stop the heart) or indirectly, by causing the liver and/or the kidneys to fail (as they attempt to cope with and clear the poison from the system).

Potentially poisonous herbs are usually extracted into alcohol (tinctures) and used in minute doses (1-3 drops). For safety sake use potentially poisonous herbs as infrequently as possible and for the shortest possible time.

Powdering and encapsulating increases the risk of side effects from any herb, but when we take stimulating/sedating and potentially poisonous herbs in capsuled, the side effects can be deadly.
Homeopathic pharmacy uses many potentially poisonous plants, but in such dilute doses that death is impossible. Side effects can occur, even with homeopathically tiny doses, however.

Potentially poisonous herbs activate intense effort on the part of the body and spirit and may cause nausea, visual disturbances, digestive woes, and allergic reactions even when used correctly.

Always be extremely cautious when using potentially poisonous herbs. Consult with at least three other knowledgeable herbalists who have used the plant in question before proceeding.

In general it is not considered safe to take potentially poisonous herbs which taking prescription drugs, other potentially poisonous herbs, or stimulating/sedating herbs. It is generally safe to use potentially poisonous herbs while using nourishing and tonifying herbs.

Some potentially poisonous herbs:

belladonna
castor beans
cayenne
cotton root
goldenseal
liferoot/groundsel
nutmeg
poke root
tansy leaves and flowers
wormwood.

Coming up
In your next lesson you will begin to create your own herbal medicine chest. In future installments we will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of your own health care with the six steps of healing.
Experiment Number One
Spend some time alone quietly breathing. Tune into your body piece by piece (toes, feet, calves, knees, thighs, and so on). Use colors to draw yourself. Don’t worry about making art. For the next month include some nourishing herb in your diet. Example: on Monday include seaweed as a vegetable for dinner, on Tuesday drink a quart of nettle infusion, on Wednesday make a soup with burdock and other roots, on Thursday drink a quart of red clover infusion, on Friday make garlic bread with at least one clove of freshly chopped garlic per slice, on Saturday drink a quart of oatstraw infusion, on Sunday drink a quart of comfrey/mint infusion. And so on. One month later, sit alone and breathe quietly. Tune into your body piece by piece. Use colors to draw yourself. Has anything changed? You can continue this experiment for as long as you like.

Experiment Number Two
Repeat experiment number one, but instead use any one tonic (preferably one that lives where you do) at least four times a week for one month. Again, note any changes in how you feel, how much energy and stamina you have, how much curiosity and delight you experience in life. You can continue this experiment for as long as you like also.

Experiment Number Three
What stimulants and sedatives do you use regularly? What happens if you give up one or more of them for a week? for a month? Try — on different days — at least one herbal stimulant and one herbal sedative and keep notes on your reactions.

Experiment Number Four
Choose one potentially poisonous plant that grows near you and cultivate a relationship with it. Read about it. Talk about it with others who have a relationship with it. Keep a special book for writing about your poisonous ally.

Further study
1. Name five more nourishing herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
2. Name five more tonifying herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
3. Name five more stimulating/sedating herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage.
4. Name five more potentially poisonous herbs. Specify part used, preparation, and dosage. In what case and how would you use each?
5. What is the difference between a tonic and a stimulant?

Advanced work
* Give the botanical name (genus and species) for each plant listed.
* List five nourishing herbs commonly sold in tincture form and describe what they are used for in that form.
* Learn more about homeopathy.

————

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used — and our neighbors around the world still use — plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too.

In your first lessons, you learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes, how to make effective water-based herbal remedies, and how to distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs.

In this lesson, you will learn how to make herbal tinctures. You will make tinctures from fresh and dried roots as well as from fresh flowers and leaves.

Then you will collect your tinctures into an Herbal Medicine Chest and begin to use them. Shall we begin?

Tinctures Act Fast

Tinctures are alcohol-based plant medicines. Alcohol extracts and concentrates many properties from plants, including their poisons. Alcohol does not extract significant amounts of nutrients, so tinctures are used when we want to stimulate, sedate, or make use of a poison. (Remember that nourishing herbs are best used in water bases such as infusions and vinegars.)

The concentrated nature of tinctures allows them to act quickly. It also makes them perfect for a first-aid kit or herbal medicine chest: a little goes a long way.

I have dozens of tinctures in my cabinet. But these are the ones I carry with me when I travel; they are the ones I don’t leave home without. This is my traveling herbal medicine chest.

Echinacea tincture
Motherwort tincture
Skullcap tincture
Ginseng tincture
Dandelion root tincture
Wormwood tincture
St Joan’s Wort tincture
Poke root tincture(danger)
Yarrow tincture

Making Dried Root Tinctures

I strongly prefer to make tinctures from fresh plants. But many people have a hard time getting fresh plants. Most books therefore ignore fresh plant tinctures and focus on making tinctures only from dried plants. The only dried plant parts I use to make tinctures are roots and seeds. All other plant parts I use fresh when making a tincture. And I actually prefer to use fresh roots too.

To make a tincture from dried roots:
Buy an ounce of dried Echinacea augustifolia or Panax ginseng root.
Put the whole ounce in a pint jar.
The dried root should fill the jar about a third full. If not, use a smaller jar.
Fill the jar to the top with the alcohol. Cap tightly and label.

Almost any alcohol can be used to make a tincture. My preference is 100 proof vodka. A lower proof, such as 80 proof, does not work nearly as well. Higher proofs, such as 198 proof or Everclear, can damage the liver and kidneys, so I don’t use them to make medicine.

The tincture is ready in six weeks, but gets stronger the longer it sits. I like to wait about six months before using my ginseng tincture and a year before using my echinacea tincture.

Making Fresh Root Tinctures

Roots generally hold their properties even when dried. But two of my favorite root tinctures must be made from fresh roots are the dried ones have lost much of their effect.

Making a tincture with a fresh root is similar to making one with a dried root.
With great respect for the plant, dig up its root.
Gently rinse mud away. (For more about digging dandelion root, see Healing Wise.)
Chop root into small pieces and fill a jar to the top with the chopped root.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Fresh root tinctures are ready to use in six weeks.

Making Fresh Leaf and Flower Tinctures

I use only fresh flowers and leaves in my tinctures. These delicate plant part lose aroma and medicinal qualities when dried.

Tinctures can be made from dried herbs, but I find them inferior in in both effect (how well they work) and energetics (how many fairies are in it), not to mention taste (how many volatile substances remain) and somatics (how something makes you “feel”).

What if the plants you need to make all the tinctures in your medicine chest don’t grow where you live or you can’t find them? Try one or more of these solutions.

Take a vacation to a place where the plant you need does grow. And make sure to go at the best time to gather it.

Find an herbal pen-pal who lives in the area where the plant you want to tincture grows. Have your pen-pal make a tincture of the fresh plant for you. You could make a tincture of something you have lots of to give to her, too.

Even if the plants do grow where you live, it may take a year or longer for you to find them, harvest them and make tinctures. While you are “in limbo,” it’s fine to buy tinctures to use in your herbal medicine chest.

When you finally find the plants you want, don’t be afraid to make several quarts of tincture. Tinctures last for hundreds of years if protected from heat and light.

St. Joan’s wort tincture: Eases muscles spasms, anti-viral, pain-relieving.
Pick yellow Hypericum perforatum flowers in the summer’s heat.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with the blossoms and leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label. (It will turn bright red.)
Your fresh St. Joan’s wort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Motherwort tincture: Eases menstrual cramps, mood swings, stress.
Pick Leonurus cardiaca flowering tops (leaves and flowers) in early fall or late summer.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with coarsely chopped blossoms and leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh motherwort tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Skullcap tincture: Pain-relief, headache remedy
Pick Scutellaria lateriflora flowering tops when there are seeds as well as flowers. Fill, don’t stuff, a jar with the blossoms and leaves. Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh skullcap tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Wormwood tincture: Counters food-poisoning and parasites.
Pick Artemisia absinthemum leaves in the late summer or early fall, when mature.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar, with the coarsely chopped leaves.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh wormwood tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Yarrow tincture: Counters all bacteria internally and externally, repels insects.
Pick Achillea millefolium flowing tops, white ones only, when in bloom.
Fill, don’t stuff, a jar, with the coarsely chopped herb.
Fill jar to the top with alcohol. Cap tightly. Label.
Your fresh yarrow tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

Double and Triple Tinctures

An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves.

After that sits for six more weeks, it’s a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm amd lets that sit for six weeks.

After which she has a triple tincture. She uses: “A dropperful sublingually works absolute wonders for me when I’m stressed out and ready to scream.”

Plant Poisons

You remember that there are four types of poisons in plants: alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils, and resins. The first three are fairly easy to move from plants to a tincture.

Resins, because they “fear” water (hydrophobic) are difficult to tincture. When I want to tincture a resin I do use high proof alcohol. Some examples would be: pine resin tincture, balsam bud tincture, calendula flower tincture.

Taking Tinctures

I see many people put herbal tinctures under their tongues. I prefer to protect my oral tissues from the harsh, possibly cancer-causing, effects of the alcohol.

I dilute my tinctures in a little water or juice or even herbal infusion and drink them.

Using Your Tinctures

Here are a few of the ways I use the tinctures in my herbal medicine chest. For more information on using these tincture, see my books and my website.

Acid indigestion: 5-10 drops of Dandelion root or Wormwood tincture every ten minutes until relieved. I use a dose of Dandelion before meals to prevent heartburn.
Bacterial Infections (including boils, carbuncles, insect bites, snake bite, spider bite, staph): 30-50 drops Echinacea or Yarrow tincture up to 5 times daily. For severe infections, add one drop of Poke tincture to each dose.
Colds: to prevent them I use Yarrow tincture 5-10 drops daily; to treat them, I rely on Yarrow, but in larger quantity, say a dropperful every 3-4 hours at the worst of the cold and tapering off.
Cramps during menstruation: 10 drops Motherwort every 20 minutes or as needed. Used also as a tonic, 10 drops daily, for the week before.
Cramps in muscle: 25 drops St Joan’s every 25-30 minutes for as long as needed.
Cramps in gut: 5-10 drops Wormwood, once.
Diarrhea: 3 drops Wormwood hourly for up to four hours.
Energy lack: 10 drops of Dandelion or Ginseng tincture in the morning.
Fever: 1 drop Echinacea for every 2 pounds of body weight; taken every two hours to begin, decreasing as symptoms remiss. Or a dropperful of Yarrow tincture every four hours.
Headache: 25 drops St Joan’s plus 3-5 drops Skullcap every 10-15 minutes for up to two hours. 5 drops of Skullcap may prevent some headaches.
High blood pressure: 25 drops of Motherwort or Ginseng tincture 2-4 times a day.
Hot Flashes: 20-30 drops Motherwort as flash begins and/or 10-20 drops once or twice daily.
Insect: prevent bites from black flies, mosquitoes, and ticks with a spray of Yarrow tincture; treat bites you do get with Yarrow tincture to prevent infection.
Nervousness, hysteria, hyper behavior: 15 drops Motherwort every 15-20 minutes.
Premenstrual distress: 10 drops Motherwort twice a day for 7-10 days preceding menstruation or 10 drops daily all month.
Sore throat: Gargle with Yarrow tincture.
Swollen glands: 1 drop Poke root tincture each 12 hours for 2-5 days.
Viral infections (including colds and the flu): 25 drops of St. Joan’s wort tincture every two hours. Add one drop of poke root tincture 2-4 times a day for severe cases.
Wounds: I wash with Yarrow tincture, then wet the dressing with Yarrow tincture, too.

In the next installment of Be Your Own Herbalist, you will learn about herbal oils, inlcuding infused and essential oils. Future lessons will explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, applications of the three traditions of healing, and using the six steps of healing to take charge of your own health and make sense of medicine.

Experiment Number One
Choose one plant and make several small tinctures of it using different types of alcohol. Taste and smell each tincture every week or so for 6-8 weeks.

Experiment Number Two
Buy or make different tinctures of the same plant: dried herb, fresh herb, timed with the moon, in different menstrums, made by different people, harvested in different places. Can you taste differences? Are the effects different? What else do you notice?

Experiment Number Three
Make a double or triple tincture of motherwort, skullcap, or lemon balm. See if it relieves anxiety , hyperactivity, emotional distress, headaches. I use a dose of 5-30 drops. Remember skullcap can induce sleepiness.

Experiment Number Four
Tincture four plants that are common to your area. Learn at least three things they can each be used for and if at all possible, use them.

Further study
1. What is osmosis? Why is 100 proof vodka make stronger tinctures than 80 proof?
2. What is a menstrum? What other menstrums are used to make tinctures?
3. Of the four plant poisons, which are present in each of plants used in the medicine chest?
4. Why don’t I consider vinegars tinctures?
5. How is a glyceride different from a tincture?

Advanced work
* Make a tincture from a resinous plant.
* Make a glyceride.
* How is a standardized tincture made?

————–

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors used — and our neighbors around the world still use — plant medicines for healing and health maintenance. It’s easy. You can do it too, and you don’t need a degree or any special training. Ancient memories arise in you when you begin to use herbal medicine — memories which keep you safe and fill you with delight. These lessons are designed to nourish and activate your inner herbalist so you can be your own herbal expert.

In our first session, we learned how to “listen” to the messages of plant’s tastes. In session two, we learned about simples and how to make effective water-based herbal remedies. The third session helped us distinguish safe nourishing and tonifying herbs from the more dangerous stimulating and sedating herbs. Our fourth session focused on poisons in herbs and herbal tinctures, which we made and then collected into an Herbal Medicine Chest.

In this, our fifth session, we will find out how to help ourselves and our families with herbal vinegars, one of the green blessings of the Wise Woman Way.

Why Use Herbal Vinegars?

Herbal vinegars are an unstoppable combination: they marry the healing and nutritional properties of apple cider vinegar with the mineral- and antioxidant- richness of health-protective green herbs and wild roots. Herbal vinegars are tasty medicine, enriching and enlivening our food, while building health from the inside out.

Herbal vinegars are far better for the bones and the heart than soy beverages. They have a reputation for banishing grey hair and wrinkles. Sprayed in the armpits, herbal vinegars are highly effective deodorants. As a hair rinse (try rosemary or lavender vinegar) they add luster and eliminate split ends.

Anything vinegar can do, including clean the kitchen, herbal vinegars can do better.

Vinegars Seek Minerals

Minerals are important for the health and proper functioning of our bones, our heart and blood vessels, our nerves, our brain (especially memory), our immune system, and our hormonal glands. No wonder lack of minerals can lead to chronic problems and getting more can make a big different in health in a few weeks. One of the best way to get more minerals — besides drinking nourishing herbal infusions and eating well-cooked leafy greens — is to use herbal vinegars.

Vinegar and Your Bones

It is not true that ingesting vinegar will erode your bones. Adding vinegar to your food actually helps build bones because it frees up minerals from the vegetables you eat and increases the ability of the stomach to digest minerals. Adding a splash of vinegar to cooked greens is a classic trick of old ladies who want to be spry and flexible when they’re ancient old ladies. (Maybe your granny already taught you this?) In fact, a spoonful of vinegar on your broccoli or kale or dandelion greens increases the calcium you get by one-third. All by itself, apple cider vinegar is said to help build bones; when enriched with minerals from herbs, I think of it as better than calcium pills.

Vinegar and Candida

Some people worry that eating vinegar will upset the balance of gut flora and contribute to an overgrowth of candida yeast in the intestines. Some people have been told to avoid vinegar altogether. My experience has led me to believe that herbal vinegars help health those with candida overgrowth, perhaps because they’re so mineral rich. I’ve worked with women who have suffered for years and kept to a strict “anti-candida” diet with little improvement and seen them get better fast when they add nourishing herbal vinegars (and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso, and yogurt) to their diets.

Making Herbal Vinegars

Fill any size jar with fresh-cut aromatic herbs: leaves, stalks, flowers, fruits, roots, and even nuts can be used. For best results and highest mineral content, be sure the jar is well filled and chop the herb finely.

Pour room-temperature vinegar into the jar until it is full. Cover jar: A plastic screw-on lid, several layers of plastic or wax paper held on with a rubber band, or a cork are the best covers. Avoid metal lids — or protect them well with plastic — as vinegar will corrode them.

Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date. Put it some place away from direct sunlight, though it doesn’t have to be in the dark, and someplace that isn’t too hot, but not too cold either. A kitchen cupboard is fine, but choose one that you open a lot so you remember to use your vinegar, which will be ready in six weeks.

You can decant your vinegar into a beautiful serving container, or use it right from the jar you made it in.

Which Vinegar?
I use regular pasteurized apple cider vinegar from the supermarket as the menstrum for my herbal vinegars. I avoid white vinegar. Malt vinegar, rice vinegar, and wine vinegar can be used but they are more expensive and may overpower the flavor of the herbs.

Apple cider vinegar has been used as a health-giving agent for centuries. Hippocrates, father of medicine, is said to have used only two remedies: honey and apple cider vinegar. Some of the many benefits of apple cider vinegar include: better digestion, reduction of cholesterol, improvements in blood pressure, prevention/care of osteoporosis, normalization of thyroid/metabolic functioning, possible reduction of cancer risk, and lessening of wrinkles and grey hair.

Notes for Herbal Vinegar Makers
* Collect jars of different sizes for your vinegars. I especially like babyfood jars, mustard jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars and individual juice jars. Look for plastic lids.

* The wider the mouth of the jar, the easier it will be to remove the plant material when you’re done.

* Always fill jar to the top with plant material and vinegar; never fill a jar only part way.

*Really fill the jar. This will take far more herb or root than you would think. How much? With leaves and stems, make a comfortable mattress for a fairy: not too tight; and not too loose. With roots, fill your jar to within a thumb’s width of the top.

* After decanting your vinegar into a beautiful jar, add a spring of whole herb. Pretty.

My Favorite Herbal Vinegar

Pick the needles of white pine on a sunny day. Make herbal vinegar with them. Inhale deeply the scent of the forest. I call this my “homemade balsamic vinegar.”

Using Your Vinegars

Herbal vinegars taste so good, you’ll want to use them frequently. Regular use boosts the nutrient level of your diet with very little effort and virtually no expense.
* Pour a spoonful or more on beans and grains as a condiment.
* Use them in salad dressings.
* Add them to cooked greens.
* Season stir-frys with them.
* Look for soups that are vinegar friendly, like borscht.
* Substitute herbal vinegar for plain vinegar in any recipe.
* Put a big spoonful in a glass of water and drink it. Try it sweetened with blackstrap molasses for a real mineral jolt. Many older women swear this “coffee substitute” prevents and eases their arthritic pains.

Coming up

In our next sessions we will learn more about herbal medicine making, with a focus on oils, explore the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, learn how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of our own health care with the six steps of healing.

Experiment Number One
Test vinegar’s ability to absorb minerals. Put a fresh bone in a jar and completely cover it with vinegar. What happens? Does the bone becomes pliable and rubbery? How long does it take? Will eating vinegar dissolve your bones? Only if you take off your skin and sit in it for weeks!

Experiment Number Two
Make egg shell vinegar. Fill a jar one-quarter full of vinegar. Drop crushed egg shell into it. What happens? Does the vinegar foam? How long does it take? Egg shells are exceptionally rich in bone-building minerals. Can you taste the calcium in this vinegar? Add some egg shell to your other vinegars if you wish to increase their ability to keep your bones strong.

Experiment Number Three
Make four or more vinegars with the same plant, using different types of vinegar, including both pasteurized and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. (For the others, use rice vinegar, malt vinegar, wine vinegar, or even white vinegar, but not umeboshi vinegar.)

Taste your vinegars daily for a week, then weekly for five more weeks. You may, if you wish, decant some of your vinegars for use after six weeks. But you may also wish to keep observing them as they age (for years, if you wish). I have some vinegars which are more than thirty years old and still in good shape. Note which stay edible the longest, and what happens to those that become inedible.

Experiment Number Four
Buy a quart or more of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Use two cups to make several small herbal vinegars: one with roots, one with leaves, and one with flowers. Boil the other two cups. Make one herbal vinegar with the boiling hot vinegar. Make another with the boiled vinegar after it has cooled. Continue as in experiment number three.

Further study
* Redo experiment number two using different kinds of egg shells — white ones and brown ones, store-bought and farm-bought, from caged birds and free-range birds. Can you see any differences? Taste or smell any differences?
* Make vinegars at different times of the year and compare them.

Advanced work
* Unpasteurized vinegar can form a “mother.” In a jar filled with herb and vinegar, the vinegar mother usually grows across the top of the herb, and looking rather like a damp, thin pancake. Kombucha is a vinegar mother. Does your local health food store sell mothers? kombucha? What is a vinegar mother? Is it harmful?
* What is an ionic form of a mineral?
* What is a mineral salt?
* How do our bodies uptake and utilize minerals?

Plants That Make Exceptionally Good-Tasting Herbal Vinegars
Apple mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Bee balm (Monarda didyma) flowers, leaves, stalks
Bergamot (Monarda sp.) flowers, leaves, stalks
Burdock (Arctium lappa) roots
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) leaves, stalks
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) leaves, roots
Chives and especially chive blossoms
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) flower buds, leaves, roots
Dill (Anethum graveolens) herb, seeds
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) herb, seeds
Garlic (Allium sativum) bulbs, greens, flowers
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis) leaves and roots
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) flowers
Ginger (Zingiber off.) and Wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) roots
Lavender (Lavendula sp.) flowers, leaves
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) new growth leaves and roots
Orange mint (Mentha sp.) leaves, stalks
Orange peel, organic only
Peppermint (Mentha piperata and etc.) leaves, stalks
Perilla (Shiso) (Agastache) leaves, stalks
Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.) leaves, stalks
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) leaves, stalks
Thyme (Thymus sp.) leaves, stalks
White pine (Pinus strobus) needles
Yarrow (Achilllea millifolium) flowers and leaves

Weedy Herbal Calcium Supplement
Use one or more of the following plants to make an herbal vinegar that can reverse and counter osteoporosis. Dose is 2-4 tablespoons daily.
Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) leaves
Cabbage leaves
Chickweed (Stellaria media) whole herb
Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) leaves
Cronewort/Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) young leaves
Dandelion (Taraxacum off.) leaves and root
Kale leaves
Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) leaves
Mallow (Malva neglecta) leaves
Mint leaves of all sorts, especially sage, motherwort, lemon balm, lavender, peppermint
Nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves
Parsley (Petroselinum sativum) leaves
Plantain (Plantago majus) leaves
Raspberry (Rubus species) leaves
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) blossoms
Violet (Viola odorata) leaves
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus and other species) roots

Herbal Vinegars Where You Eat the Pickled Plants, too
Burdock
Chicory
Dandelion
Purslane
Yellow Dock
Rosehips
Raspberries/blackberries

—————

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international
reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on
health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with
humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine.
Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and
natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are
recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and
cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at
www.susunweed.com

WE’VE BEEN TAUGHT to connect with different aspects of Reiki by using certain symbols and/or kotodama; but what about our energetic condition at the time of doing this? How can we knowingly put ourselves in an optimal vibratory state for maximizing the effectiveness of Reiki?

Obviously, it’s best to be still and calm and somehow meditative….but can we be more specific than that? Can we adjust our vibratory frequency to an optimal range?

The study of brain waves (as measured by electroencephalograph) has led scientists to define 5 particular ranges of brain activity, each one associated with characteristic behaviors or effects, as follows:*

* Delta (approx. 0.5-4 cycles per second): the predominant realm of human brain activity from birth to age 2; after that time, Delta is the state of deep, dreamless sleep, in which the concept of individual/ego dissolves completely — and so do awareness and memory; Delta can also be used for deep, hypnotic programming.
* Theta (approx. 4-8 cycles per second): this is where we spend most of our time from age 2 to 6; the realm where we access intuition, instant healing, accelerated learning, and the feeling of Oneness-with-All; the shamanic state (it’s no accident that shamanic drumming is done at frequencies of 4-7 beats per second!); Theta is also used in hypnotherapy.
* Alpha (approx. 8-12 cycles per second): we move primarily into this realm from age 6 to 12; it’s a relaxed, meditative state, the awareness of “self” and consciousness.
* Beta (approx. 12-35 cycles per second): we begin to show sustained periods at this frequency around age 12; it’s the realm of the highly focused, individual ego, where most adults spend most of their time.
* Gamma (above 35 cycles per second): the realm of “peak performance”; the state of consciousness that some people have referred to as “the zone.”

* My descriptions of these are compiled from various web sources and The Biology of Belief, a book (which I greatly recommend) by Dr. Bruce Lipton. Dr. Lipton credits his descriptions of these brain states to Dr. Rima Laibow, in Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback, by James R. Evans and Andrew Abarbanel.

IT’S OBVIOUS that a vibrational frequency in the Theta range is by far the best for doing Reiki. I feel (via muscle-testing) the Reiki itself puts us naturally in Theta vibration — and have also found that putting myself intentionally in Theta vibration helps me transmit Reiki and seems to make the Reiki more effective!

How to Achieve Theta

I discovered this quite by “accident” one night, years ago — when I was not even aware of the different brain-wave states. I had agreed to do distant Reiki with someone (my Reiki Master!) late at night….and had fallen asleep before the appointed time. I awoke in the middle of the night — not even knowing what time it was — remembering that I had to do the Reiki!

I sat up in bed, barely awake, and attempted to do it. I could not even get my eyes fully open; the lids were nearly closed, in fact. I could not even hold a mental focus for more than a minute or so. I tried a few times, and then simply mustered as much intent as I could, that Reiki be received by my teacher at the time we had agreed on. Then I lay back down in the bed and was immediately asleep.

My Reiki Master called on the phone the next day, to tell me in detail of the most wonderful Reiki she had received through me; it had been a spectacularly transforming experience for her! I was quite surprised, to say the least — and too cowardly to tell her how things had gone at my end. But it was a great lesson for me — one of the most important to date — about doing Reiki. It taught me, first of all, that intent is more effective than procedure; and that I did my best Reiki when I was half-asleep!

What had struck me most about my experience that night was my deep state of drowsiness, and the nearly-closed position of my eyes. I kept feeling there was something important in that. So I began, when doing Reiki after that time, holding my eyes intentionally in that position. I would let them close, almost-but-not-quite all the way, and I would un-focus the vision — and I noticed an immediately enhanced flow of Reiki!

Simply letting the eyes drop almost-but-not-quite closed put me immediately in a deeply meditative state. There was a slight feeling of drowsiness, but it was easy to stay right on the edge of it, on the border between consciousness and unconsciousness. I’ve been doing Reiki this way ever since, and have only recently encountered the scientific data that confirms why it works so well!

There’s great and amazing information, on the web, regarding Theta brain-waves and their effectiveness in instantaneous healing, accelerated learning, deliberate creation, and the relationship of DNA to all this.

Don Beckett is a practitioner and teacher of Usui Reiki on the island of Hawai’i. His comprehensive e-book, An Exploration of Usui Reiki and Beyond, can be downloaded at
http://new-reiki-books.johreiki.net/.

There seems to be a lot of controversy and confusion about the Reiki symbols. For a long time, they were kept secret from everyone not initiated to the second level of Reiki. For decades, Reiki teachers (following in the footsteps of Hawayo Takata) did not allow even their students to keep written copies of the symbols! This led to many changes in the symbols over time, from people not remembering them precisely; the imprecision was passed from generation to generation of students, and compounded by each generation of teachers.

Compounding things even further, Usui Reiki began to mutate into other varieties. New flavors of Reiki were born, seemingly as fast as flavors of ice cream — and, building on what they thought was the original model, the inventors of these new varieties added even more symbols.

At some point, a certain Reiki teacher blew the lid off the secrecy issue, by publishing a book that exposed the Reiki symbols (many variations of them) for all to see! That, in itself, created plenty of controversy. The Reiki world polarized, into those who applauded the exposure, and those who thought it was sacrilege.

WHAT NO ONE (outside a small number of people in Japan) knew at that time was that the Reiki symbols were not essential, or even necessary, in the first place! And that they were not even introduced into the practice of Reiki, by Mikao Usui, until very near the end of his life.

Now, thanks mostly to a group of people in Japan, who learned Reiki in the early 1900s from Usui himself, we know how the symbols came to be used in a way that Mikao Usui had never used them, and how they came to be regarded with such mistaken importance.

The final 3 students that Usui taught were quite different than the others. They were military officers, not accustomed to using Buddhist meditations or Shinto kotodama (as were his other students) — and so he gave them symbols instead. The symbols were to help these 3 students connect with particular energetic aspects. The symbols were NOT used by Usui in his Reiju empowerment procedure.

As it happened, at least one of these final students, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, did not learn the Reiju procedure from Usui (who passed away before Hayashi was ready for it). It seems he learned it later from another of Usui’s students — but then, in his own practice of Reiki, he replaced Reiju with an empowerment ritual of his own.

Dr. Hayashi became, for whatever reason (and contrary to Mikao Usui’s intentions), the self-proclaimed standard-bearer of Reiki, after Usui’s passing. And the other 2 final students — Jusaburo Ushida (a.k.a. Gyuda) and Kan’ichi Taketomi — became, respectively, the first and second Presidents of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (”Usui Reiki Healing Method Society”). Thus, the Reiki symbols were given an importance and a function they had not had for Mikao Usui.

Years later yet, a Japanese-American named Hawayo Takata would become Hayashi’s most famous student. She would take the role of standard-bearer after Hayashi’s passing — and she would pass on his method of giving Reiki empowerment (which came to be called “attunement”), featuring the implanting of those famous Reiki symbols into the student’s energy field! Through Takata and her lineage, this “attunement” procedure of Reiki empowerment has been the standard, worldwide, since the 1970s. Many variations have been born, and yet the central element of almost all seems to remain the implantation of the Reiki symbols.

When I learned the Reiju procedure, I liked it so much better than the “attunements” I had learned, I’ve been using Reiju ever since. Taggart King (from whom I learned Reiju) has experimented with Reiju vis-a-vis “attunements” (involving symbols), and has reported that students receiving Reiju seem generally to have greater awareness of the energy than students receiving “attunements”.

RECENTLY, ALL THIS was brought to mind when I received a Kundalini initiation. The giver of the initiation asked if I would like to have the Reiki symbols removed from my energy field. Her feeling was that the symbols often become obstacles to spiritual growth. On giving it some thought, and knowing that the symbols were not necessary (they were put there during attunements I received), I couldn’t see any reason to keep them. I had them removed.

This brought up other questions. Was it true that the presence of Reiki symbols in the aura could impede one’s spiritual growth? Was it necessary for people to have them removed? My intuition, confirmed by muscle-testing, said No — that the symbols were only symbols, and what mattered was our attitude toward them. If we viewed them as “training wheels” on a bicycle (as the Usui Gakkai recommends), and if we let go of them once they had served their purpose, they would not cause a problem. They would be no more than artifacts of our journey (as they were intended to be in the first place); at the very worst, no more than “space junk” in the aura, like spent rocket casings orbiting the moon.

Of course, had the simple elegance of Usui Reiju merely been retained, instead of replaced by more complicated “attunement” procedures (based on the implanting of symbols), this “space junk” would not even be there for us to contemplate; and, had the Reiki symbols not been imbued with a mistaken sense of power and magic and secrecy, they would be much easier for people to let go. In fact, had Hawayo Takata found her way to another one of Usui’s students than Dr. Hayashi, the world at large would not even have learned of Reiki symbols!

THE MORAL of the story, then: Reiki symbols were intended only to be “fingers pointing at the moon” (and the sun, and the earth : ^ ). Let’s not mistake the finger for what it’s pointing at! Reiki symbols are not Reiki. It’s much better to get beyond the symbols, to the Source.

Don Beckett is a practitioner and teacher of Usui Reiki on the island of Hawai’i. His comprehensive e-book, An Exploration of Usui Reiki and Beyond, can be downloaded at
http://new-reiki-books.johreiki.net/.

KI is the Japanese word meaning, generally, the energy of life. Within this ki, a hierarchy of 7 particular energies has been distinguished, as follows:*

1) Kekki — the “Ki of the blood” — provides fundamental strength. It is the most powerful and most basic of the 7 energies, but the least structured and least intelligent. Associated with the Root Chakra.

2) Shioke — the “Ki of the salt” or “Ki of minerals” — provides bodily structure and connectedness, which makes possible and organizes to a degree the action of Kekki. Also associated with the Root Chakra.

3) Mizuke — the “Ki of the water” or “Ki of liquids” — makes possible relationship and communication (by allowing the flow of Kekki among various forms of Shioke). It is the basic energy of all emotions, and allows for nourishment and metabolism. Associated with the Sacral Chakra.

4) Kuki — the “Ki of the air” or “Ki of gases” — provides the motivation for self-discovery. It gives us the ability to define our own course in life, not to be overly influenced by others. Also, the energy of digestion (of ideas as well as physical food). Associated with the Solar Plexus Chakra.

5) Denki — the “Ki of the thunder” — gives the ability to balance our own ego with consideration for others. The element of Thunder implies the forces of Heaven — and Denki makes possible our trust in a Divine Creator, as well as feelings of love, empathy, fairness, tolerance and understanding toward our fellow beings. Associated with the Heart Chakra.

6) Jiki — “magnetic power” or “gathering force” — provides charisma and aligns us with our true, Divine will. It gives the qualities of truth, beauty and kindness. It attracts the perfect complement to our own being in every situation, as well as coordinating the 5 lower energies. Associated with the Throat Chakra.

7) REIKI — “soul force” or “spiritual power” — organizes and directs all the lower energies in the most holistic, synergistic way, to bring about the good of all. In the material world, this is the energy closest to the Divine Creator, the Source of all energy and life. Reiki is associated with the Brow Chakra, and acts as a bridge between the material energies and the purely spiritual, Divine energy, called Shinki, from which everything is created and to which everything eventually returns.

* This information is condensed from the writing of Walter Lübeck in The Spirit of Reiki (Lotus Press, 2001).

THESE 7 ENERGIES are also listed by Michio Kushi in Macrobiotic Home Remedies (Japan Publications, Inc., 1985). Kushi translates REI KI as ” ‘ki of spirit,’ ‘the invisible force of soul.’ ” He explains further:

All of these stages of ki came out from SHIN KI, God-ki. Out of Shin Ki (the source), Rei Ki (yin and yang) is born. Between yin and yang**, Ji Ki (magnetism) arises, and next vibration, in the form of electricity (Den Ki), is produced. Then atmosphere, water and minerals are formed. We take all these in the form of food and transform them into Kek-ki, ki of blood, which nourishes our body.

** I found it interesting that Kushi had equated Reiki with yin and yang. My own feeling was that yin and yang arose at the level of Jiki (magnetism, polarity), and that Reiki, located just above that level, was indeed, as Walter Lübeck describes, the mysterious connector between the spiritual and physical realms. My feeling when experiencing Reiki has always been one of being suddenly connected to my true Self, to my Source. I believe that’s what Reiki does for us, whether applied as a “treatment” or as an “empowerment/attunement.” It feels to me like an “extension cord” connecting me to the Source.

However, Reiki Teacher Mike Fuchs pointed out to me that yin and yang can never really be separated, that yin and yang together make up the indivisible reality of tai-chi — and that is what Kushi is referring to here, with the words “yin and yang.” “Also,” he says, “it is generally regarded that the energy/force depicted by the tai chi symbol is identical to the force/energy which is called either ‘tao’ or ‘dao.’ So, tai chi and dao are the same, just named differently….” If this is the case, then “reiki” and “dao” are also just 2 different words for the same thing: that indivisible, life force at the first level of manifestation, which brings about the dynamic balance of ever-changing energies in all things.

EVEN SO, is there only one Reiki, or is Reiki a different energy for each individual? There’s considerable evidence to suggest the latter, and I’ve come to believe that.

For one thing, the fact that different people experience Reiki so differently makes me wonder if each is connecting to a different energy. I suspect the different feelings can be explained to some degree by different levels of sensitivity in people; but the tremendous variety of experiences makes me think there is more to it than just that. This belief is strengthened also by evidence from a variety of sources:

From the website of Rick Rivard:

In the mid 1990s my associate Shen Lissa stayed for a month with Tatsumi-san who was a student of Chuujirou Hayashi from 1927 to 1931. One day she pointed to a photo of the Usui concepts in Tatsumi-san’s house. She noted the term “Reiki” and said that this was how the West referred to the hand healing system. Tatsumi-san said that the hand healing was simply referred to as te-àte, and that by using the term “reiki,” O-Sensei (Usui Sensei) had been referring to his ancestors. Usui Reiki Ryoho simply means ‘Usui system for connecting with your ancestral self’- something that is already within each one of us from the moment of conception.

From Taggart King, on the subject of Reiju, Usui’s empowerment procedure:

The empowerment kotodama represented creative energy, regenerative energy, the energy of rebirth. The idea here is that when Reiju is carried out it connects the recipient to the energy, allowing them to be “reborn”: reborn in the sense of creating a place within that is “what we originally were”, the state within the ovum when we were Divine essence in complete connection to the universe. The energy was the essence of earth and heavenly energy, white light, source, ultimate being.

This confirms my own feeling that Reiki is connecting me to my true, original Self. Taggart’s description seems to go beyond the ancestral connection, but also to include it (by referring to the fertilized ovum in the womb).

Rick Rivard, on another page of his site, says he believes that the energy transmitted by Usui, which people eventually came to call “Reiki,” was merely Usui’s own, personal, “highest ki” — and that each of us has a different “highest ki.” I agree with this, only I believe that Usui’s method connects us not to Usui’s own “highest ki” but to our own “highest ki,” our own ancestral and Source energy. In other words, the genius of what Usui discovered is that it opens the connection in each one of us to our own particular vibration of Reiki (which is indeed our “highest ki”).

THE IDEA of such a connection between the personal self and a greater Self (sometimes perceived as the Soul, or a Guardian Angel, Guardian Spirit, or even a God) certainly appears in many cultures and teachings. Here in Hawai’i, there was an ancient tradition of spiritual understanding, which has come to be called Huna. It’s generally accepted that many of its secrets (the word Huna itself means “secret”) have been lost, though various researchers have attempted to reconstruct and understand the ancient teachings as much as possible.

One of the best known of these researchers was Max Freedom Long — known especially for his books The Secret Science Behind Miracles (1948) and The Secret Science At Work (1953).** He described the Huna understanding of a human being as comprised of 3 individual spirits, which Max called the “low self,” “middle self,” and “High Self.” The “low self,” he said, was the childlike one, in charge of the physical and auric bodies, and of memory; the “middle self” — “the one who speaks” — was the rational (more or less!) being that we most often think of as our self; and the “High Self” was comparable to what many people would call a Guardian Angel. The “High Self” was completely separate from the “middle self,” and connected to the “low self” only by an auric cord. This cord extended, apparently without limit, allowing the “High Self” to be either very near the physical body or at any distance from it, at any given moment.

Max attempted to discover how the ancient Kahunas (”keepers of the secrets”) had accomplished miraculous things through prayer (the last real Kahuna having passed away hundreds of years previously). He came to believe that the process involved the “middle self” communicating its desire, telepathically, to the “low self”; then the “low self” passing on this request to the “High Self,” via the auric cord connecting the two! “As for the High Self,” he said, “which has no limitations [emphasis mine] except as imposed by the low and middle selves through failing to do their part, we will find practical proof of its powers, once we have learned to make and sustain working contact with it.”

To me, this “High Self” sounds very much like what Reiki connects us to; and Max’s description of the auric cord brings to mind immediately my own feeling of Reiki as an “extension cord” to my real Self. His perception of the Huna prayer procedure is strikingly similar to the procedure of doing Reiki: we get the rational, “middle self” out of the picture for a while, and let the childlike, “low self” connect with the unlimited, “High Self” — and miraculous things tend to happen!

There is corroboration of this general theme in the teachings of Johrei also; the idea that we are each watched over by a higher self called the Yukon, who exists in the spirit world and is always connected to us, and to whom we can (very beneficially) send Johrei energy.
** Some writers have claimed that Max misinterpreted the ancient teachings. The word aumakua, for instance, which Max said referred to the “High Self,” others have translated as “ghost of your ancestors.” According to them, the aumakua is an ancestral spirit who agrees to come back to Earth and help us with advice and protection — a concept that sounds remarkably similar to Tatsumi’s belief about Usui’s use of the word Reiki! In any case, “ghost of your ancestors” is clearly the exoteric meaning of aumakua; Max believed “High Self” to be the esoteric meaning, which he had arrived at by deep and careful study of the many-layered Hawai’ian language. Considering that the whole realm of Huna is of things that are secret or hidden, it hardly makes sense that the exoteric, everyday meanings of words would be the ones involved! I feel (confirmed by muscle-testing) that, at least concerning the concept of the 3 human selves, Max’s understanding was indeed correct.

Don Beckett is a practitioner and teacher of Usui Reiki on the island of Hawai’i. His comprehensive e-book, An Exploration of Usui Reiki and Beyond, can be downloaded at
http://new-reiki-books.johreiki.net/.

Arthritis is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. According to Ayurveda arthritis is primarily a vata (air) disease which is due to accumulation of toxins in the joints and is known as amavata.This can be caused by poor digestion and a weakened colon, resulting in the accumulation of undigested food and the buildup of waste matter. Poor digestion allows toxins to accumulate in the body, and problems with the colon allow the toxins to reach the joints.

Symptoms : Fever; Immense pain & stiffness in affected muscles in case of chronic muscular rheumatism; Pain or tenderness in a joint which is aggravated by any movement or activity, such as walking, getting up from a chair, writing, typing, holding an object, throwing a ball, turning a key; Excruciating pain and stiffness in the joints in case of chronic articular rheumatism.

Home Remedies: The following are a few simple cures that might just help relieve you from the pain of arthritis. Try any of them to see what works for you.

Two teaspoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon of honey mixed in a cup of warm water taken twice a day is good for curing arthritis; Two teaspoons of juice from fresh leaves of bathua, drink every day on an empty stomach for 2-3 months; Half a teaspoon of turmeric powder with warm water helps cure arthritis; Taking alfalfa tea twice a day makes a good cure; Two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and 2 teaspoons of honey dissolved in a small glass of warm water taken once or twice a day brings relief; Rub the aching joints with hot vinegar to get some relief from pain; Two parts pure olive oil and one part kerosene makes a wonderful liniment to bathe afflicted joints; Add one tablespoon cod liver oil to the juice of one orange, whip and drink before sleeping; One raw clove of garlic every day is very beneficial. This clove can be fried in ghee (clarified butter) or castor oil. Take for 2 months; Guggulu is very helpful in curing arthritis. Eat half a teaspoon twice a day after meals with warm water; Exercise the afflicted joints in a tub full of hot water; Drink carrot juice, cucumber juice, eat cooked vegetables and/or vegetable soups, and drink coconut water for a healthy body & massage your joints daily to cure arthritis; On an empty stomach eat 2-3 walnuts or some coconut; Avoid mental tensions that lead to stress. Lose weight, if necessary, to get close to your ideal weight. If you weigh less, there is less weight on your joints and less pain;

Effetive and Proven Results For - Arthcare Oil (Anti Inflammatory and Muscle Relaxant Herbal Massage Oil) :

Arthcare Oil is the best natural solution for your problem, manufactured under the guidance of renowned MD Ayurveda Specialist doctor. Arthcare is an anti-arthritic herbal oil which not only gives a sure relief in rheumatic arthritis but also strengthens the bone tissues, the skeletal and the neuromuscular systems, giving a comfortable movements of joints and muscles. It is a powerful antioxidant and increases the energy level. Arthcare penetrates the body tissue faster than any other ointment because of its strong anti-inflammatory action. It removes stiffness and improves mobility of limbs. It brings relief from backaches, muscular strains, rheumatic pains, joint pains etc. Body massage with Arthcare oil, relaxes an asthmatic person. Arthcare is scientifically proven Ayurvedic formulation containing the herbal combination of well known traditional herbs described above. Within few minutes of application you will feel relaxed from pain. For Best Results Take 2 Arthcare Capsules twice a day and massage the affected area with Arthcare Oil 2-3 times a day.

Herbal Remedies:

The use of herbs is a time-honored approach to strengthening the body and treating disease. The following have been used traditionally to treat rheumatoid arthritis:

Shallaki also known as boswellia (Boswellia serrata), comes from a tree that yields gum when its bark is peeled away. In clinical trials, promising results were observed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, chronic colitis, Crohn’s disease. Researchers found that standardized Boswellia extract significantly reduced swelling and pain and usually reduced morning stiffness for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Ashvagandha (Withania somniferum) is an Asian plant of the potato family. Its roots have long been used to treat “rheumatism,” high blood pressure, immune dysfunctions, erection problems and also to ease inflammation. Because of all this, it’s sometimes called the “Indian ginseng.”

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) may be among the best-studied of the four. Research suggests ginger root inhibits production of prostaglandins and leukotrienes, which are involved in pain and inflammation. In an uncontrolled 1992 Danish study, 56 patients who had either RA, OA or muscular discomfort took powdered ginger. All of those with musculoskeletal pain and three-fourths of those with OA or RA reported varying degrees of pain relief and no side effects, even among those who took the ginger for more than two years.

Herbal oils are applied to the arthritis to loosen stiff joints, restore mobility, remove pain, inflammation or swelling, nourish tissues and relieve pain. The experienced hands dipped in the pleasantly warmed oil will travel all over the body with pressure. Arthcare not only increases blood circulation but also gives a sure relief for rheumatic arthritis, spondylosis, paralysis, muscular disorder, slipped disc, asthma and tuberculosis. Brings in relief from stress, strain and tensions. It is also very good for tonning of one’s muscles and nerves. Get instant relief within minutes of application of oil.

Advice:

Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate): Magnesium has both anti-inflammatory and anti- arthritic properties and it can be absorbed through the skin. Magnesium is one of the most important of the essential minerals in the body, and it is commonly deficient in the American diet. A New England remedy for arthritis is a hot bath of Epsom salts. The heat of the bath can increase circulation and reduce the swelling of arthritis.

Dosage and Directions: Fill a bathtub with water as hot as you can stand. Add 2 cups of Epsom salts. Bathe for thirty minutes, adding hot water as necessary to keep the temperature warm. Do this daily as often as you’d like.

About the Author:

http://www.ayurvediccure.com - Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Medicines and Herbal Remedies Guide. Health Guide featuring Home Remedies, Herbal Supplements and information on herbs and their benefits. Online Health Store with Free Shipping Worldwide!