Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Stinging Nettles Starter Kit

*SPECIAL OFFER*:  Healing With Herbs has a Special Offer! a Starter Kit for "budding" herbalists!  It includes a 20-page booklet "Plant Allies" & packet of 30 Stinging Nettle Seeds .  

"Plant Allies"  describes the healing nature of plants, our relationship with plants, the mysterious powers of medicine men and women.  Eye-witness accounts from the Amazon.  How to pick a plant ally.  

Why nettles are powerful plant allies for humankind.  Their history, uses, how to grow.   Booklet is filled with illustrations & images.

Cost:  $6.95 for booklet + seeds.  This is a great Starter Kit and an unusual gift.


ORDER:











Nettle seeds on plant:




Stinging Nettles are one of humankind's most powerful, nutritious plants.  Grow your own herbal nettle patch.  And learn about plant allies.


Nettle seeds are tiny:

But they grow a power plant!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Do Plants Move? Intentionally?

 

Plant Movement and Foraging

Since Darwin, biologists have been aware that plants behave but it has been an under-appreciated phenomenon. Plants display “behaviors:  foraging for light, nutrients, and water by placing organs where they can most efficiently harvest these resources. Plants also adjust many reproductive and defensive traits in response to environmental heterogeneity in space and time. small herbivores and expose larger ones to protective thorns.



Bramble Travels:

Plants are able to move. The bramble is an aggressive example: it advances forcefully from side to side and, once settled on its course, there is little that can stand in its way. 

When its location becomes exposed, it shifts at great speed to another one with the assistance of wind — and it is this that allows many forms of vegetation to distribute their seeds. While not strictly a plant, the spores of fungi are also spread in a similar fashion as 'parachutes'.

Interesting... isn't it?


Thursday, July 14, 2011

Is a Rattlesnake your Kin?

From book: "Kinship with All Life" by J. Allen Boone


The Big Holy
Out west it was widely recognized that rattlesnakes bit "white men" more than Indians (native Americans).  But no one knew why...

Astute observation revealed the mystery.  The Indians did not approach the rattlers with fear & loathing, such as the whites.  They understood the rattlesnakes.  They respected them as a life form and moved in their midst with few difficulties.

The Indian moved in "conscious rhythm with what he reverently called "The Big Holy", the great primary Principle of all life, which creates and animates all things and speaks wisdom throught each one of them all the time". 

If you believe that animals are "your relations", or your kin, think about how you would treat a brother or sister.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Hawthorne's Gentle Powers for the Heart

Hawthorne's Gentle Powers

In Germany one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for heart conditions is the herb hawthorne.

Hawthorne moves oxygen to the heart as it increases the enzymatic metabolism of the heart muscles. It mildly dilates coronary blood vessels and also vessels around the body reducing blood pressure and thereby stress on the heart. The dried berries, leaves and flowers are all used.


History

The pilgrm's "Mayflower" ship was named for the Hawthorne, which usually blooms in May and was called "the May Blossom" by Europeans.

The Druids used the Hawthorn's properties to strengthen the body in the frailty of old age.

According to Christian legend, the Crown of Thorns, was believed to be made of Hawthorn. Therefore, the herb was thought to possess miraculous health properties.




Friday, July 1, 2011

Talking to Plants -- And Listening

Excerpt:  ebook "Plant Allies, the Alchemy of Herbal Healing" 

(To order contact safeinthewoods@gmail.com 

 

"A fascinating true story about plant communication can be found in the books  "Kidnapped in the Amazon Jungle", and "Wizard of the Upper Amazon".  

 

Manual Cordovo-Rios was a Portuguese cook working with rubber company in the heart of the remote amazon in 1907.  Fetching water near a creek, he looked up to see himself surrounded by Indians covered with strange designs and poised with arrows pointing at him.  He was kidnapped by this  Amazon Indian tribe.  He was brought into their culture and took sacred plants such as Ayahuasca.  


During these sessions, in which the men entered a "dream state", he recounts how the plants "would speak to them, advising of their medicinal uses.  This is very foreign to western cultures.  Additionally the "Huni Kui", the tribe with whom Manuel lived, firmly believed the chants used with the plants was an integral part of the power.  Manuel underwent a complete shamanic initiation and become a well known healer."