Wise Woman Wisdom

Voice of the Goddess Contest Win FREE Tickets to the Goddess Festival Sept. 7-9, 2012

Voice of the Goddess Contest
Win FREE Tickets to the Goddess Festival Sept. 7-9, 2012

 

To celebrate the first harvest and the abundance our Great Mother Goddess provides, the women of Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 are excited to sponsor a new contest that illuminates and honors the unique power of Women’s Mysteries!

How it works
Send your photo and short essay of up to 500 words describing how celebrating Women’s Mysteries has changed your life to: goddess_speaks@yahoo.com. Qualified entries will be posted as tagged photos to the SBA facebook page (www.facebook.com/sbacoven). You, your friends, and family can vote for your favorites by clicking “Like” until midnight August 12, then Z Budapest will select the 1^st place winner herself on August 15 from the top 3 vote winners.  

Prizes

• 1^st place: Attend the Goddess Festival FREE!
• Runners up: $150 off Goddess Festival &
  FREE signed copy of Z’s latest book, Goddess Gets to Work
• All entrants: $25 off Goddess Festival

Rules
Prizes do not include travel expenses and all entrants must qualify for participation in the Goddess Festival. Prizes may not be applied to previously purchased tickets, but previously purchased tickets may be transferred to other qualified participants. By submitting your photo and essay for consideration, you agree that you are the author and have necessary rights to grant the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, Women’s Spirituality Forum, and Goddess Festival permission to use, reproduce, display, and transmit them so that your thoughtful insights may inspire as may women as possible. For full terms and conditions, visit: http://goddess-festival.com/terms-conditions/. For more information about the Goddess Festival, visit: http://goddess-festival.com/. 

 

About Women’s Spirituality Forum
The Women’s Spirituality Forum is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization founded by Z Budapest to provide feminist-centric, spirituality-based education and social connectivity that inspires us to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other, and future generations.

 

Quench Your Thirst with Herbs

Quench Your Thirst with Herbs

by Susun S Weed

Summer solstice and the longest day are past. As we slide from summer into autumn, the sun seems hotter and fiercer than ever. And the summer's heat makes us thirsty. What shall we drink? There are so many choices. Since 2003 the number of new drink products on the market has tripled. How are we supposed to choose the best drinks? Does it even matter?

I think it does. The liquid portion of our diets is as important as the solid portion. That's why I drink herbal brews, nourishing herbal infusions to be exact, instead of juice or water. Some herbs are powerhouses of nourishment, energy, and health-promoting factors. By choosing those herbs as my drink, I increase the amount of protein, vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients in my diet without consuming extra calories, and at a cost of only pennies a day. I'd rather drink nourishing herbal infusions than any other beverages. I drink infusion in the morning, throughout the day, and in the evening, too.

Water is a good drink. But what water? Is water from the tap safe and healthy? Is it better to buy bottled water?

I make my nourishing herbal infusions by pouring boiling water over dried herbs. Boiling the water removes chlorine and kills germs, so I feel safe using any water to make my infusion. I strongly prefer tap water over bottled water because I want to minimize the amount of plastic I consume. And I avoid mineral-depleted distilled water. But I only use cold water from the tap, as hot water can contain traces of plastic or lead leached from the water pipes.

Instead of making nourishing herbal infusions, I could buy vitamin- and mineral-enhanced water, maybe with some ginseng or green tea thrown in.

Bottled waters with added vitamins and herbs are big business, with more than $3 billion in annual sales. Unfortunately, neither the vitamins nor the herbs in "enhanced water" have any impact on energy or health. Energy drinks do contain caffeine, and that has a strong effect. But neither the herbs nor the supplements currently added to any bottled water have been found to have any nutritional effect. These waters are considered "non-functional," that is, they are colored and flavored water, not nutrition.

Worseyet, enhanced waters are sweetened, often heavily. Unfortunately, the body doesn't count the calories in what we drink, so drinking sugary beverages increases calories, and appetite, and - you guessed it - the size of your butt. I don't buy energy drinks; instead, I rely on stinging nettle infusion. Nettle gives me the energy of the earth: strong, solid, endless energy. Nettle infusion supplies me with enormous amounts of electrolyte minerals, lots of protein, and astonishing amounts of vitamins. And it tastes great iced on a hot day. Yum, yum.

Perhaps drinking juice is as good as drinking infusions, maybe better if the juice is fresh.

Americans bought more than $2 billion worth of organic juices last year. And more than that in non-organic juices. Neither packaged nor fresh fruit juices supply much nutrition however. (With two exceptions: freshly-squeezed citrus juices and tomato juice.) Juicing doesn't liberate minerals or vitamins, just fruit sugars, flavors, and colors. Nourishing herbal infusions are superior to any juice in both nutrition and cost. Most bottled juices, no matter what they're called, are made from high-fructose apple and grape juice concentrates. Sweet calories from fruit juice pile up around our waists. Instead of juice, I drink nourishing herbal infusions of linden or oatstraw. Both are slightly sweet, and taste even better with a little honey added. Linden infusion reduces inflammation and aids the heart. Oatstraw infusion provides generous amounts B vitamins, lowers cholesterol, and increases libido.

Tea has many health benefits. Surely drinking iced tea is a healthy choice for quenching summer thirst. Iced coffee sounds good, too.

All kinds of tea are healthy, and a few cups of coffee a day have been shown to decrease the incidence of some diseases. But bottled iced tea and iced coffee are heavily sweetened. Most bottled iced teas have no health benefit because they are not made from brewed tea but from tea concentrate. Iced coffee lattes add insult to injury by being rich in fat as well as too sweet. Brew tea at home and carry it, iced, in a thermos instead of buying bottled stuff. Better yet, brew yourself some red clover infusion. It tastes like black tea. Add lemon and a little mint, pour over ice, and you have a drink that is not only nearly calorie-free but also a tremendous source of nutrition, and a leading cancer preventative.

After nourishing herbal infusion, my favorite summer refresher is a chocolate malt.

Yes, malts, especially chocolate malts, are thirst quenchers that pack a nutrition punch with no more calories than sweetened teas, enhanced waters, or fruit juices. Malt powder is an excellent source of B vitamins. Milk is Nature's way of building strong bones. And chocolate promotes heart health. Now and then, in between quarts of nourishing herbal infusion, I cool down with a nourishing chocolate malt. Mmm-mmm.

Green blessings make the best drinks.

Give nourishing herbal infusions a chance this summer - and I wager you'll still be brewing them when winter solstice rolls around.

RECIPE BOX

My favorite herbs for making nourishing infusions are:

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) for lots of energy
Red clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense) to forestall cancer
Oatstraw (Avena sativa) to be very, very sexy
Comfrey leaves (Smyphytum uplandica x) to help the memory
Linden blossoms (Tillia species) to counter inflammation
Chickweed (Stellaria media) to lose weight
Hawthorn blossoms (Crataegus oxycantha) for older hearts
Raspberry leaves (Rubus species) for uterine health
 
To brew a nourishing herbal infusion:

Featured Website ~ Eco Images

Eco Images

Founded by Vickie Shufer in 1986, Eco Images offers a variety of experiences to help others connect with nature and enhance their appreciation of the outdoors. She launched her career with the publication of A Coastal Ecology Coloring Book and A Naturalist's Field Guide to Coastal Communities in 1986.

Since then she has published a number of nature-related books, both for herself and others. In 1994, she took over the publication of The Wild Foods Forum newsletter, a quarterly publication that provides information on identifying and using wild plants for food.

In addition to publications, Vickie also leads groups on nature tours and hosts foraging trips to various locations. These programs will help you explore natural areas and discover their hidden treasures. Participation will increase your awareness and observation skills as you learn to read the landscape. You will learn to identify native plants and look for animal tracks and other signs of wildlife.

More recently she has started a native nursery, the Wild Woods Farm, where she grows and sells native and medicinal plants.

 

Conversations About L[.]Ife

Conversations About L[.]Ife

A Dialogue in Three Parts

Written by L[.]Ife A.

2012

http://ldotifeproductions.com/

 

Part 1: Womb

Fear

`Fear of?

Death

`Death is?

Mystery

^Mystery is God

`…no, Mystery is Mystery.

Fear of mystery.

^Mystery always feared, right?

`No, mystery evolved to be feared. 

`Mystery once venerated. 

`When god was woman.

^But god man.

`No god projection onto mystery.

^Then how mystery woman?

`Women also projection.

^Man left out.

`As is woman with male god.

`It's cool, change our projection to extrapolation.

Extrapolate:

1. To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information.

^What the extrapolation then?

`Take attributes of most potent expression of mystery and form and apply to mystery.

^How get potency?

`Must be universal, consistent, and obvious.

^…

`Menstruation and it’s source; the womb.

^No way!

`The only way. Unless you can think of one better?

^But…like…how?

`Source for every person alive, all women bleed, blood is obvious and consistent.

^So mystery...womb?

`Fear womb?

^I’m not sure, like, I don’t think so. But something inside of me do be clenching up.

`Yea, that’s to be expected. Fear of mystery and hence the womb was part of our evolution.

^Whatchumean part of our evolution?

`When we evolved and came across scarcity we fashioned our culture off of our experience of that scarcity and began projecting that experience onto mystery, thinking mystery was punishing us. 

`Mystery has always been associated with the womb, so the womb received the projections as well. 

`But think about it deeply though, are you really afraid of the womb?

^...No, not really.

`So then yeah, mystery womb.

^…what that even mean though?

`Womb attributes mystery’s attributes.

^So like…bloody?

`Yeah life and death are both experienced within the womb.

^And like…round, but like a fruit kind-of round, not a circle? 

^and like, everything’s in that roundness…

`You mean spherical.

`Yeah, everything is contained in a wholeness.

^Ok, so then...everything is supposed to be there working together to make that blood and roundness…like everything home and like family and stuff?

`Yes, every aspect contained within the womb is harmonically interconnected and belongs there, like chords of an all encompassing symphony.

^Dang, so that mean mystery all that?

`Yes, if we take the attributes of the most potent expression of mystery and apply it to mystery we have an all encompassing wholeness in which every part is harmonically interrelated.

^Dang, if I do that, then like I’m not even scared anymore! 

^Like death in the womb. 

^Life is. 

^Everybody and everything is. 

^And its all working together too!

^And then, like, you get to thinking of the mother of the womb,

^and shit start feeling all cozy…like that’s crazy for real!

`No beloved, versing the womb as mystery is very, very sane.

 

Part 2: Verse

 

^So, like, I remember getting it that time before. 

^But like, seem like once I up and left the room I forget how I felt so good when I was wit you. 

^And like, even when I thought about the WombVerse, like it didn’t seem to stick for real. 

^Am I doing something wrong?

`Nope. 

`What happened is cool, perfect even. 

`Remember how we started the last conversation.

^You mean talking bout fear?

`Yes. 

`Think anybody else shares that same fear?

^Shit it seem like everybody do for real.

`Yes they do.

^But, like, why when womb make so much sense? 

^And, like, why I keep forgetting?

`Because fear isn’t only something everyone shares in common now, fear is something humanity has had collectively since the beginning.

^Man, how you know that for real? You wasn’t there.

`No, but the Metaformic theory makes sense.

^What that?

`That the awakening of humanity first happened when women realized the interconnection between their menstrual blood, the cycles of the moon, and other women.

^Man, I done heard lots of theories,like one that we became human by eating happy mushrooms and shit.

^How you know we wasn’t eatin mushrooms while we was bleeding and like woke up that way.

`Maybe that did happen once or twice. 

`But what’s significant about the entrainment of the womb is that it happens cyclically. 

`Which means when we forgot, we were reminded, again and again until we remembered.

^But how we start remembering if we kept forgetting?

`We started making our own reminders/rituals. 

`Menstruation rights were the first rituals.

^Aight, that’s all good and well but what that got to do with fear?

`Think we were afraid to forget? 

`Especially as we began building families, communities, cultures…

^Shit that is scary. 

^But what that got to do with me forgetting how to not be scared?

`What did we do to stop our fear from becoming our reality, to stop from forgetting in the beginning?

^We made rituals like you said.

`Yes we made ritual. 

`And we made traditions out of those rituals.

`And even though the actions changed inevitably, like all things do, we tried to stick with the same things every time out of fear of doing the wrong thing and losing our awareness.

`So certain actions became taboo and doing some things and not others became culture.

`Which means the source of our culture, our traditions, our taboos today is?

^Oh shit! Fear!!

`Yes. Fear of falling back into the chaos of animal mind.

^But then, like aint that fear real then? Like relevant?

`Yes, it was real and relevant then. But now it’s not.

^Why not? 

^I mean I know everything is connected and contained within the womb and all, but we could still forget that and lose ourselves. 

^I mean, maybe it’s not likely, but if we start changing shit too drastically it’s possible.

`No it’s not.

^Man, there you go again! How you know?

`Because of the implications of the womb’s entrainment.

^What does that even mean? 

^So the womb can entrain with, what, the cycles of the moon and other women.

^Like of course we’re connected to the moon and other women, that don’t mean we can’t forget though!

`Those two things aren’t the only things that the womb can entrain with.

^For real? What else then?

`The womb can entrain with zodiac signs.

^Word? But we didn’t have zodiac signs before culture? 

^That had to be something that came after? 

^I mean we couldn’t even hold thoughts, a whole, like, system of thought had to have happened later on, right?

`Right, which means the womb’s availability of entrainment evolved with humanity to include our concepts of thought.

^Then that means the womb includes our fear too, which makes it real then right? 

^Shit, I knew it wasn’t no escaping it…

`No. 

`Zodiac signs are one of the few concepts of the womb based on the implications of the womb developed by humanity so far.

^Are their others?

`I know of a few. 

`Human Design. Some aspects of Quantum Physics. Susun Weed's Three Traditions and Judy Grahn's Metaformic theory definitely alludes to it.

^Ok, so what you’re saying is, like, our thoughts that support the concept of the womb as mystery are included in the wholeness.

`Exactly.

^Which means we can’t forget them?

`Which means, once cultured to remember, can never be lost.

^But like I said in the beginning, I been trying to remember but I keep forgetting!

`How often do you remind yourself?

^I-dont-know, like once, nah twice a day!

`So let’s say you remind yourself 5-10 minutes a day. 

`How often do you watch tv, look at magazines, billboards, talk to people, think old thoughts that are all culturing fear?

^...Shit...most the day.

`Exactly, which means you’re getting reminded of that fear most of the time.

`So like I said it’s cool that you keep forgetting. 

`Because in effect, you need to build a whole culture around yourself, one that can compete with the fear culture. 

`And it should be easier ultimately because your culturing something that you chose, something that makes sense by your own logic.

^But fear do make sense. I mean maybe not in the WombVerse, but like you said, it had a purpose.

`No, it never really made sense. 

`It just made it possible for us to develop thought in the first place. Yes we needed a bit of fear in the beginning. And now we have the ability to think, understand the implications of the root of thought, and let the fear go.

^Dang, so like what you saying is, I gotta remind myself of womb as much as the fear culture reminds me of fear? 

^That’s cra…I mean, that’s sane, real real sane…like for real.

 

Part 3: Cunt Consciousness

 

^Aight, I gotta be real. 

^Like, I been versing the womb for a minute now. 

^And all is groovy, like, fear really aint as big of a deal as much, and when it come up, I just gotta remind myself of the womb, and shit is better, more whole you know?

^But like, I gotta be real, like, the less fear I be feeling, the more feeling I be feeling, know-what-I-mean?

^…like especially around like my private parts.

^Now, I aint no freak, and I know it’s all contained in the womb, so I don’t think it’s bad or nothing.

^But like all the time though?! Like I don’t be knowing what to do with myself!

`That’s a profound insight. Let’s begin with this question:

`Where is the womb located?

^I mean, I guess near my genitalias.

`Yes, AKA your cunt. 

`Here’s another extrapolation: We awoke because of the bloody cunt, we found the potency of the womb because of the birthing and bleeding cunt, why then wouldn’t we assume the cunt to have immense significance? In not only our burgeoning and understandings, but also in our moment to moment experience of existence?

^Aight, I guess that make sense…but for real, like all the time though?!  

^And I mean it’s not even normal horny! Like I don’t want to, like, fornicate, but, like, I do want to feel...pleasure...I mean, it’s definitely sensual.

`So, up until recently your mind has been versing fear. 

`You’re slowly culturing your mind into the womb, but in the process you still need to somehow make decisions within the womb. That’s where cunt comes in.

`Cunt is the expression of the womb, inextricably tied with the processes of the womb, and is able to independently communicate from the womb, to the mind, through the sensations of the body.

^So you saying I should go around trying to screw everybody and thing and that will tell me what to do in WombVerse?

`No. 

`You don’t have to create the guidance from the womb by stimulating cunt. Just like you don’t have to project the womb onto mystery. It’s an extrapolation. 

`The womb simply is the most potent expression of mystery, the cunt simply is the expression of the womb, therefore all that you need is already contained within and expressed from the womb by way of the cunt.

`It’s a process of tuning within yourself, not tuning within other people.

^So you saying I should touch myself then?

`I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t touch yourself. But to tune, you don’t need to do anything in particular, just do what you normally do and perceive and remind yourself that your womb is the source of your every experience. Perceive and honor the palpable feelings from the cunt that happen before, during, and after each thought and experience. 

`Inwardly feel from the cunt or root and over time you’ll begin to perceive something that seems like it’s an expression from within you, a unique and familiar texture of existence that is engaging from within you with all else. That’s your chord, your unique being that’s already deeply aware of the implications of the womb; an underlying harmonic interconnection of all aspects and overall wholeness of existence. That being consciously within the celestial womb that was always contained as your own womb. That being knows what to do, where to go, knows the harmonic chord of each moment.

^So me being strange horny...

`Is your womb bringing your attention to your already guided perception.

^But what about people that don’t got wombs and cunts?

`We were all born from women. We all start off as women. We all contain the woman chromosome. The process of inwardly tuning into your own pleasure and feeling principle is available to everyone. Women are simply more inclined because of their cunt design. But men, being so intimately connected with women from the beginning have the innate capability as well.

^Wow, thats…jah…uhh, sexy. Lol    

 

  

Latest tweet: @Illumine_Nation See that's the thing. Seeing "all" as sacred means including the dark in the wholeness and not trying to change w/ light. Follow @LdotIfe  Reply  Retweet   13:36 Jul-22

 

 

 

 

Featured Weblog ~ the spirit that moves me

the spirit that moves me

love, lore and lessons learned

Read the latest blog post from the spirit that moves me, featuring Susun Weed!

When exactly was the moment I became authentic?

Was it when I awoke after being comatose for several months with viral pneumonia? 

Was it when I wore the same green linen A-line dress every single day of my last year of high school? Was it when I bought my first pair of Bean’s boots and my last pair of high heels? Was it when I not only burned, but banned, my bra?.... 

Read the rest of the blog post here!

 

*LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES ARE TAKING ROOT ON LAWNS*

*LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES ARE TAKING ROOT ON LAWNS*
By Ben Jones
USA Today
February 28, 2012

Original Link 
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-21/little-libraries-lawn-boxes-books/53260328/1>

MADISON, Wis. – Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So two years ago, Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home in Hudson, Wis.

He says people loved it. "People just kept coming up to it, looking at it, patting it, saying 'oh, it's cute,' " Bol recalls.

From that idea, hundreds of similar Little Free Libraries are popping up on lawns across the country. They're tiny — no bigger than a dollhouse. Some look like miniature homes or barns. Others just look like a box on a post.

But they all hold books.

"Take a book, leave a book," says Bol, explaining in a nutshell, the basic concept of these tiny libraries.

After building the first library, Bol thought the idea had potential to spread. He contacted his friend Rick Brooks, who is an outreach program manager for the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Together, they have helped launch a small, but growing movement.

The men provide logistical assistance and support to people who want to become mini-librarians. They have a Website, littlefreelibrary.org, that provides drawings people can use to construct the boxes. It also has a map that tracks the location of Little Libraries.

Today, Little Free Libraries can be found in at least 24 states and eight countries, Brooks says. He guesses there are 300 to 400 in existence.

"We are estimating that for every one we know about, there are two or three others being built," Brooks says.

Little Libraries can now be found on lawns from Oakland, Calif., to Yarmouth, Mass. Overseas, you can find them in places such as Berkamsted, England, Hamburg, Germany, and Accra, Ghana.

In Wisconsin, Brooks says prison inmates recently started building the libraries, which will soon be posted in several Wisconsin communities.

He says a project is in the works in New Orleans to create libraries out of Hurricane Katrina debris.

People who use the libraries don't have to have a library card, or follow any formal checkout procedure. The libraries have signs that simply ask users to return a book — there are no fines if they don't. Some people donate extra books, Bol says.

•In Flagstaff, Ariz., Brian Blue recently erected a Little Library on his cul de sac. "(The library) helps create a sense of community," he says

The library was a gift Blue made for his wife, and they are waiting for their first patron. One small girl recently examined the box, which contains books like Charlotte's Web, but she left without taking anything.

Blue plans to promote the library with fliers, and he hopes the girl will return.

•In Iowa City, Christine Rohret recently posted a Little Library that's made to look like a barn. It's made from century-old barn boards.

"I thought it was a great way, in a small way, to spread the love of literature," she says.

Rohret says a larger project will soon bring more of the libraries to her city. In the meantime, Rohret is waiting for a patron. "The neighbors are already asking about it," she says. "Cars driving by are slowing down."

•In Madison, Jenna Hansen has hosted a Little Library in her front yard for a year and a half. She jokes that she could add the title of "A little bit of a librarian" to her résumé.

"I have no idea how many literally thousands of books have been in and out of there," she says.

•In El Paso, Lisa Lopez, a librarian at Zavala Elementary School, says illiteracy is a big challenge for her border city.

"So I decided to install two (little libraries) here on our campus," she says. "Both are very much treasured. I'm getting books circulated like crazy."

Although there's a website promoting Little Libraries, the boxes are decidedly low-tech and word of their existence often spreads in a low-tech way.

Nancy Johnson of Madison was out of a walk when she happened upon a library in someone's yard.

"What a nifty idea that someone decided to share books," she says. "I love it. I like the sense of community, I like the concept and the comfort level of sharing reading materials."

Brooks says building these little libraries in an era of iPads and Kindles might seem like something of a counter-trend. But the libraries are personal and connect communities in a way electronic devices can't, he says.

"People tell us over and over, there's something about the physical feel about the book in your hands," he says. "It has meaning. There's a spirit that can't be found electronically."

Jones also reports for The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis.

 

Herbal Medicine is People's Medicine

Herbal Medicine is People's Medicine

by Susun S Weed

 

Herbal medicine is people’s medicine. Herbal medicine is the primary medicine of most people on this planet, right now. It’s not something old and dusty. It’s not a bunch of doctors and chemists figuring out how to use herbs like drugs. Herbal medicine is a 3-year-old picking plantain and putting it on a skinned knee or an insect bite. Herbal medicine is the medicine of women and children. It is the medicine of the earth. It’s medicine that’s free. It’s not something that must be studied before it can help you. Start with one plant. Approach herbal medicine directly, hands on, in the back yard with your children.

You can be your own herbalist, if you keep it simple. First, divide herbs into four categories: nourishing, tonifying, stimulating/sedating, and potentially poisonous. Use nourishing herbs daily, tonifying herbs regularly, stimulating/sedating rarely, and potentially poisonous herbs almost never.

Nourishing herbs are nutritive plants such as kale, garlic, dandelion greens, rolled oats, plantain seeds, blueberries, and edible weeds - the powerhouses of nutrition. Nourishing plants can be used in any quantity for any length of time.

Nutritive herbs are rich in minerals and vitamins. One hundred grams of dandelion (about ½ cup of greens) has 14,000 IU of vitamin A.

Tonifying herbs are like exercise; they include such plants as burdock, dandelion root, yellow dock, motherwort, ginseng, astragalus, chaste berry, schisandra. One of the benefits of exercise, of tonification, is that it helps us when we’re stressed. You’re not necessarily going to feel better if you exercise once for ten minutes. But, if you exercise for ten minutes every day, after several months, you will notice changes.

What’s confusing is the difference between tonifying and stimulating herbs. When we take tonics, we feel better and have more energy. When we take stimulating herbs, we also feel better and have more energy, but only when we are stimulating ourselves. There are immediate uncomfortable effects when we lack our stimulant, but no decrease in health if we stop taking the tonic. Ginger and cinnamon certainly have their uses. But they don’t build health.

Over the long run, stimulants erode our health. Nourishing ultimately gives us more energy, though it will take a few days to feel it, whereas the effects of stimulants are immediate. My apprentices drink two or more cups of nourishing herbal infusion daily. And after ten days, their skin is nicer, they have more energy and stamina, they stop craving sweets, and they feel a lot better over all.

With nourishing and tonifying herbs in our daily lives, we have solid energy that adds to health instead of subtracting from it. Instead of raiding my storehouse with stimulants, I build my reserves with nourishing herbal infusions.

I recommend that people drink nourishing herbal infusions on a daily basis. Everything will follow from there.

I consider dark chocolate an important health food.

Stimulating/sedating herbs are some of the most widely used of all herbs. They include coffee, tea, cinnamon, ginger, hops, kava kava,licorice, passion flower, skullcap, valerian, willow, and wintergreen. They are best used when there is a specific need: A pre-diabetic might choose to take a teaspoonful of cinnamon daily. Ginger compresses are great, and I enjoy it in my food, occasionally. The point with these herbs is to avoid daily use.

The last category is potentially poisonous herbs, ones we only in extreme situations, to ward off death. I include goldenseal, poke root, cayenne, rue, sweet clover, and wormwood in this category.

Goldenseal is a broad spectrum antibacterial. It kills more gut flora than antibiotics. It negatively impacts kidney, liver, and gut function. In forty years as an herbalist, I have used it only once: externally. It is overused, to the detriment of people's health, and to the near extinction of the plant itself.

In "Healing Wise" I discuss different medical traditions; The Wise Woman Tradition, the Heroic Tradition and the Scientific Tradition. They overlap, but, in general, the Heroic Tradition is called alternative medicine. It dates back to ancient Greece and the idea that there are four "humors." Disease occurs due to disruption of the humors. George Washington got the flu. The best healers of the day, who were heroic healers, puked him. He didn’t get better, so they purged him. He got worse, so they bled him. He got worse. They puked, purged, and bled him again. He died.

That was the best medicine of the day. Today, we think of the humors as toxins, and people continue puke, purge, and poke, only now, we call it "cleansing." My experience has shown me that cleansing does no good and can cause great harm. The Heroic Tradition prefers stimulating, sedating, and potentially poisonous herbs; and they generally use complicated mixtures of herbs. They want to be the heroes. The problem with these very potent herbs, however, is that they must be given in very accurate doses. This is the beginning of the pharmaceutical industry. The active poisons were extracted from plants, and crude plant drugs became "safe" pharmaceutical drugs.

That is the Scientific Tradition, which tells us that our bodies are machines and they need to be fixed. In the Scientific Tradition, health is a measurement. We eat by the numbers. The advantage to treating bodies as machines is that it allows us to deal withintractable problems. My sweetheart’s grandfather died of a heart attack at 57. His father had his first heart attack at 57, survived that one, and died of a second one at 59. My sweetheart, at 59, had a triple bypass, not a heart attack. Now, you might say, “Well, couldn’t you have done something to prevent that, Susun?” No. Very, very high cholesterol runs in his family. But consider this: The surgeon said to him, afterwards, “Your heart was getting about a third of the blood it needed; it ought to have been damaged or even dead. But you have one of the healthiest hearts I've ever seen. What's up?” He's been drinking nourishing herbal infusions for 20 years. He doesn't eat any vegetable/seed oils, doesn’t take supplements, does do yoga, and leads a vigorous, healthy life.

My friend, Ellen, was hit by a tractor trailer, which ran a red light. Her neck was broken in three places. She was picked up by a helicopter and taken to a major medical center, where they took a piece of her thigh bone and fused it into her neck. She can walk -not well, but she can walk. I couldn’t have done that with comfrey, love, or my drum. But two weeks later, everybody in the hospital wanted to know what we were doing because Ellen was healing so rapidly. That's comfrey, love, and my drum. I’m one of the people who coined the term, "integrated medicine." I want all three traditions to be recognized for their strengths and weaknesses, so each person can have the health care that is best suited to them and their situation.

The third tradition is the oldest tradition of them all and the tradition that I speak for: the Wise Woman Tradition. In the Scientific Tradition (linear) we fix the broken machine; in the Heroic Tradition (circular) we cleanse the filthy temple. In the Wise Woman Tradition (spiralic), we nourish the unique wholeness of each individual. Nourishment certainly has to do with what we eat, but it is more. Everything we take in - sights, sounds, thoughts, stories, smells, everything - becomes part of us. Many people who eat well are on a diet of junk food when it comes to what they take in other than food. No, I don't watch television.

When you read about herbal medicine, for instance, or see a doctor or healer, you could ask yourself: "Which tradition is this writer or healer working with?”. The Scientific Tradition says herbs are dangerous; they are crude drugs, drugs with green coats. Drugs have been made from herbs; but that doesn’t mean all herbs are drug-like. The Heroic Tradition says herbs - like cayenne, goldenseal, and lobelia - cleanse. I teach my students that cleansing, in terms of a living body, really means damage and destroy. In the Wise Woman Tradition, we start from the understanding that we are created in perfection. We do not fall from that perfection, but we fall from our belief in that perfection. The Heroic Tradition encourages us to berate ourselves, to believe that any health problem is our own fault. There is power in those beliefs, but little healing, to my mind. To me, healing is wholing. To heal is to make someone more, not less. I strive not to take away, but to add, and let what isn't needed go as it will, and it will.

We recognize our wholeness/health/holiness when we accept ourselves exactly as we are, with love and compassion. In the Wise Woman Tradition, we nourish what we want to be, rather than rejecting what we don’t want. We trust our bodies, we trust the earth, we trust our gut feelings.

Cholesterol’s connection to heart attacks has never been proven. And we have virtually no idea what healthy cholesterol is in a post-menopausal woman. Remember, my sweetheart:  incredibly high cholesterol but never had a heart attack. Inflammation has been shown, over and over, to lead to heart attacks. You may want to consider reducing inflammation instead of cholesterol. One of the best ways to do that is to stop eating oils pressed from seeds, and to start eating olive oil, organic butter, and the natural fats from organically-raised, pastured animals.

Canola oil, flax oil, hemp oil, evening primrose oil, soy oil, sesame oil, almond oil, corn oil - all considered healthy, but examples of the oils I avoid when I want to avoid inflammation. And inflammation underlies and supports heart attack, joint pain, dementia, cancer.

The Scientific Tradition, says "measure and fix." For optimal health follow an anti-inflammatory diet - the first step is to remove seed oils from your diet. Then, reduce and remove stimulants – coffee, black pepper, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon, soda pop. Third, reduce and remove all sources of high-fructose corn syrup. Meanwhile, introduce optimally nutritive foods: nourishing herbal infusions, plain yogurt, fermented vegetables, whole grains, miso, seaweed. Give yourself at least a year to make these changes. You are already perfect; and you can create a greater perfection as you nourish yourself.

Slippery elm is wonderful herbal ally. I make lozenges by mixing slippery elm bark powder with a little honey. I stir until it clumps up, adding more honey if needed. It's just right when it's like pie dough. Using my hands, I make balls the size of hazelnut or bigger, and roll them in more powdered slippery elm so they don’t stick to each other. I store them in a small metal tin; and don't leave home without it. Slippery elm is so safe that you can dissolve a ball in your mouth as often as you want, any time you feel any distress. If you’re working with an ongoing condition, at least two a day is good. Slippery elm restores the lining of the intestines, prevents any agents within the body from disturbing the intestines, and neutralizes any poisons that are present in or around the intestines.

A great ally that you could grow is comfrey. There is some controversy about the use of comfrey root, so I restrict myself to the leaf. Also, I'm careful to use garden comfrey, which is less problematic. To make a nourishing herbal infusion with comfrey, weigh out one ounce of dried leaves and put that in a quartcanning jar. Fill it to the top with boiling water. Screw a tight lid on it and let it steep for at least 4 hours - or up to 9 hours at cool room temperature. Strain the herb out, squeezing it well. The liquid is what we drink; I put the spent herb in the compost. Comfrey leaf infusion can be drunk hot, with a spoonful of honey, or over ice. You can also heat it up and pour it over a mint tea bag. Comfrey gives the lining of the lungs and the intestines flexible strength and health.

Comfrey leaf infusion is good for people who have quit smoking, or even if they are still smoking. Comfrey leaf infusion is also a tremendous ally to bone flexibility and strength. It also heals and strengthens tendons and ligaments. Remember comfrey: it contains proteins that create short-term memory cells.

Teas and infusions are generally safe; tinctures are more concentrated and thus less safe, and capsules are the least safe of all. In fact, herbs in capsules are the most likely to create horrible side-effects. I tell my students to completely avoid herbs in capsules.

Let’s go back to our four categories – nourishing herbs contain vitamins and minerals, proteins and nutritive factors that are easily soluble in water and vinegar, but not alcohol. Stimulating/sedating and potentially poisonous herbs contain active ingredients that are more soluble in alcohol than in water. Thus, infusions and vinegars are nutritive, while tinctures are more drug-like.

An infusion is a large amount of dried herb brewed for a long time. A tea is a small amount of fresh or dried herb brewed for a short time. To make an infusion: Buy dried herbs in bulk - my favorites for nourishing infusions are stinging nettle, oatstraw, red clover, linden, and comfrey leaf - and place one ounce of dried herb in a quart canning jar; fill with boiling water; screw on a tight lid; steep for at least 4 hours; strain; drink the liquid hot or cold; refrigerate what's left and consume it within 36 hours.

A quart of nettle infusion can have 2000mg of calcium; and we could easily consume that in a day. A dropperful of nettle tincture would contain, at the most, 3-5mg of calcium.

The definition of a tincture is an alcohol extract. The active principles in plants - alkaloids, glycosides, volatile oils, and resins - generally dissolve poorly in water. Tinctures can make a plant act more like a drug, and allow finer control over the dose.

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material herein is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.

If you wish to contact Susun with questions or comments, please email her or write her as follows: 
 
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498

LEARN HOW TO PREVENT ILLNESS AND HEAL YOURSELF safely and easily the Wise Woman Way. Women's health forum, FREE women’s forum, weblog, and email group. Topics include menopause, breast health, childbearing, fertility, disease prevention, nutritional advice, and cancer prevention. Visit the Wise Woman Web.

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. To learn more, visit her websites The Wise Woman Center and Ash Tree Publishing.
 
For permission to reprint this article, contact us.

HONEYCOLONY - health through community-curated wisdom

HONEYCOLONY - health through community-curated wisdom

www.indiegogo.com/honeycolony

HoneyColony is a social ecommerce site that will find, evaluate, share, and distribute products and ideas that support optimum health and a holistic lifestyle. The products, which include super foods, herbs, high-end supplements & bee-related products, come from independent suppliers respected for their integrity and sustainable practices.

HoneyColony’s platform integrates social media, blogging, and ecommerce tools in an innovative way so that you can learn from each other and the nation’s top nutritional experts. The idea is to empower members to become social influencers in all matters of health & food; this helps the collective and  creates a hub to learn and share about individual nutrition and health.

 

Herbal Birth Control

Herbal Birth Control

by Susun S Weed

Herbs have been used to control fertility for as long as there have been women who desired to do so. Our desire is as great as ever, but our knowledge base is far from large or strong. This article is both a sharing of what I know, and an open ear to hear what you know. May we reweave the healing cloak of the Ancients. Further discussions on herbal birth control can be found in my book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (Ash Tree Publishing, 1986) and in Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, John M. Riddle (Harvard University Press, 1992)
   
FOR HIM:

Hot balls make no babies. If he sits in hot water for 20-30 minutes every night for at least a month, he will shoot duds for the next 8-10 weeks. Don't laugh. This is effective and inexpensive.

FOR HER:

Ovulation Prevention

• Reduce fat intake
• Increase exercise
• Bring down body weight
• Caution: A fertile woman who is too thin to ovulate can lose as much bone mass in one month as she would in one year post menopause.
• Consider: The many health benefits of birth control pills

Fertility Signs

• Basal body temperature
• Cervical mucus

Timing is Important

• Hormone cycles and herbal birth control
• Fertilization, implantation, early pregnancy, and more hormones

Implantation Prevention

• Wild carrot seed (Daucus carota)
• Morning after birth control pills
• Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
• Rutin (good sources include buckwheat greens, elder leaves, and rue)
• Smartweed (Polygonum hydropiper);  drink infusion of dried leaves freely.

 
Spirit-life Poisons

• Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)
• Rue (Ruta graveolens)
• Tansy  (Tanacetum vulgare)
• Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
• Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides); and a word about essential oil dangers.
• Saffron (Crocus autumalis); one half gram daily for four days; ten grams is fatal.
• Vitamin C; take 500mg as often as every 30 minutes, up to 10 grams daily

Uterine Contractors (oxytocin)

• Birth root (Trillium pendulum); caution, do not use Aristolochia (birthwort)
• Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
• Cotton root bark (Gossypium)
• Dosages, cautions

For YOU BOTH:

Sterility promoters include stoneseed root (Lithospermum ruderale), Jack-in-the-pulpit root (Arisema triphyllum), and thistles (Cnicus and Cirsium species).

Green Blessings

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material herein is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.

If you wish to contact Susun with questions or comments, please email her or write her as follows: 
 
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498

LEARN HOW TO PREVENT ILLNESS AND HEAL YOURSELF safely and easily the Wise Woman Way. Women's health forum, FREE women’s forum, weblog, and email group. Topics include menopause, breast health, childbearing, fertility, disease prevention, nutritional advice, and cancer prevention. Visit the Wise Woman Web.

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. To learn more, visit her websites The Wise Woman Center and Ash Tree Publishing.
 
For permission to reprint this article, contact us.

 

Emu Oil for Hair Loss

Emu Oil for Hair Loss
- by Donna Palmer

C Donna Palmer- All Rights reserved

http://www.howtostophairlossforwomen.com

Emu oil is one of the best topical treatments for hair loss. It has constantly produced positive results for men and women experiencing hair loss of all types. Some have even reported small amounts of new growth within weeks.

What is it?

Emu oil is produced from the native Australian bird, the Emu. The oil has been used for many years by Aboriginal Australians for many different purposes including to soothe dry and burnt skin and to treat other skin problems. The oil comes from the thick padding of fat on the back of the emu.

Almost 100% of the oil, when rendered correctly, is made up of triglycerides. For this reason, it is much more permeable on the skin, as compared to other oils. Which means, that besides it's other beneficial properties, the oil can be used as a carrier for other hair growth medicinal substances.

Properties of Emu Oil for Hair Loss

We've already discussed the important property of permeability.  Another interesting property of the oil, which makes it key for hair loss, is that it is an anti-inflammatory. It has been accepted that hair loss is probably in large part due to an inflammatory process. Anything that decreases inflammation on the scalp, in theory, should help stop hair loss. Research on the anti-inflammatory property of emu oil is
ongoing.

There is a lot of evidence supporting the anti-inflammatory ability of the oil as it is also has been successfully used to ease pain resulting from arthritis, reduce muscle pain related to sports injuries, and reduce bruising.

Even more significantly, emu oil has been shown to inhibit 5-alpha-reductase, the enzyme that metabolizes testosterone into DHT. DHT is known to attack hair follicles and leads to balding. This pathway is thought to be the reason for male pattern balding, and probably plays a role in some female alopecia. The take away here:  stop 5-alpha-reductase, stop DHT, and you will probably be helping to stop some kinds of hair loss.

Unlike other types of oils, emu oil will not irritate your scalp or your skin. It is also non comedogenic, which is why many women are also able to use it on the face as a moisturizer and to combat wrinkles. Additionally, women have noted that they thicker skin after use (which coincidentally tends to be thinner in those suffering from hair loss).

List of the Beneficial Properties of Emu Oil for Hair Loss
- Anti-inflammatory
- Anti-bacterial
- Anti-fungal
- Highly permeable
- Hypo-allergenic
- No side effects
- No odor or staining
- Non-comedogenic
- Speeds wound healing

Where's The Proof?

Well to be perfectly honest, we don't have "proof"... but we definitely have evidence. There have been many clinical studies that support the above-mentioned properties. We'll review one couple below but for more information you can visit website of The American Emu Association. There you'll find several white papers available for review.

Dr. Michael Holick, MD, Ph.D. conducted a study at Boston University school of Medicine, which looked at hair growth in shaved mice. The double blind study topically applied the oil to shaved mice, and use corn oil as the control.

Dr. Holick found that where emu oil was applied, DNA synthesis (growth activity) increased by as much as twenty percent. He also found that the dormant hair follicles had been "woken up and began growing hair." It seems that in the emu oil was responsible for stimulating the hair follicles on these mice.

What Kind of Emu Oil Should You Buy

Not all oils are the same. You want to buy the most potent and effective oil. This means that the oil must be processed correctly, or else the product can be almost useless. Here are some tips you should keep in mind when you are considering which emu oil you should buy:

- Make sure that you buy oil that has not been contaminated by hormones,
blood, or emu meat. You can do this by purchasing from a company that
ensures that the bird has been handled properly.

- One of the most important things about emu oil is that is entirely made up
of trans fatty acids. If the oil has been incorrectly processed (under high
heat), the trans fatty acids will not be produced.

- Solvents, degummers, sodium hydroxides, should not be used in processing
the oil. Top quality oils will not have been refined with these as they can
remove other important substances.

- No preservatives should be added. As mentioned earlier emu 
oil is an antibacterial- so preservatives should not be necessary.

Donna Palmer is especially interested in helping women affected by all types of alopecia re-grow their hair naturally. For more information on how to stop hair loss in women, please visit http://howtostophairlossforwomen.com.