Plants don't only beautify your home--they promote healing too. This lushly illustrated guide explains the properties of the most beneficial species, from plants that lower stress and provide fresh air to ones that bring joy and boost brainpower. Learn how to choose the right plants for your specific needs, locate them, and assure they (and you) thrive. Includes a list of 10 easygoing plants perfect for beginners.
Ancient shamanic practice compelled the magician-healer first to make contact with the spirit of the plant to ask for its help before administering the herbal cure. This practice is alive today in Mexico among the traditional Indian shaman healers-principally the elder Huichol Indian shaman and plant spirit healer Don Guadalupe Gonzales Rios. Elliot Cowan reveals these ancient practices and guides the reader in the effective use of the wild herb plants in the area in which he or she lives. the result is a wonderful psychic and spiritual approach to holistic healing
A hands-on approach to working with the healing powers of plant spirits • Explores the scientific basis underlying the practices of indigenous healers and shamans • Illuminates the matrix where plant intelligence and human intelligence join • Reveals that partnering with plants is an evolutionary imperative Indigenous healers and shamans have known since antiquity that plants possess a spirit essence that can communicate through light, sound, and vibration. Now scientific studies are verifying this understanding. Plant Spirit Healing reveals the power of plant spirits to join with human intelligence to bring about profound healing. These spirits take us beyond mere symptomatic treatment to aligning us with the vast web of nature. Plants are more than their chemical constituents. They are intelligent beings that have the capacity to raise consciousness to a level where true healing can take place. In this book, herbalist Pam Montgomery offers an understanding of the origins of disease and the therapeutic use of plant spirits to bring balance and healing. She offers a process engaging heart, soul, and spirit that she calls the triple spiral path. In our modern existence, we are increasingly challenged with broken hearts, souls in exile, and malnourished spirits. By working through the heart, we connect with the soul and gain access to spirit. She explains that the evolution of plants has always preceded their animal counterparts and that plant spirits offer a guide to our spiritual evolution--a stage of growth imperative not only for the healing of humans but also the healing of the earth.
This “deep excursion into the heart of herbalism” pulls back the curtain on centuries of herbal medicine and offers an inventory of useful plants for the modern herb gardener or homesteader (Rosemary Gladstar) Traditional herbalists or wise women were not only good botanists or pharmacologists; they were also shamanic practitioners and keepers of occult knowledge about the powerful properties of plants. Traveling back to the healing arts of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners takes readers deep into this world, through the leechcraft of heathen society and witches’ herb bundles to the cloister gardens of the Middle Ages. It also examines herbal medicine today in the traditional Chinese apothecary, the Indian ayurvedic system, homeopathy, and Native American medicine. Balancing the mystical with the practical, author Wolf Storl explains how to become an herbalist, from collecting material to distilling and administering medicines. He includes authoritative advice on herb gardening, as well as a holistic inventory of plants used for purposes both benign and malign, from herbs for cooking, healing, beauty, and body care to psychedelic plants, witches’ salves for opening alternative realities, and poisonous herbs that can induce madness or cause death. Storl also describes traditional “women’s plants” and their uses: dyeing cloth, spinning and weaving, or whipping up love potions. The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners is written for professional and amateur herbalists as well as gardeners, urban homesteaders, and plantspeople interested in these rich ancient traditions.
Rainforests contain an amazing abundance of plant life. What's most exciting is that scientists and researchers have only just begun to uncover the medicinal qualities of these plants, which offer new approaches to health and healing. "The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs is a valuable guide to these herbs and their uses. Detailing more than fifty rainforest botanicals, this book provides preparation instructions, presents the history of the herbs' uses by indigenous peoples, and describes current usage by natural health practitioners throughout the world. Helpful tables provide a quick guide for choosing the most appropriate botanicals for specific ailments. Here is a unique book that offers a blend of ancient and modern knowledge in an accessible reference format.
The first book to demonstrate how plants originally considered harmful to the environment actually restore Earth’s ecosystems and possess powerful healing properties • Explains how invasive plants enhance biodiversity, purify ecosystems, and revitalize the land • Provides a detailed look at the healing properties of 25 of the most common invasive plants Most of the invasive plant species under attack for disruption of local ecosystems in the United States are from Asia, where they play an important role in traditional healing. In opposition to the loud chorus of those clamoring for the eradication of all these plants that, to the casual observer, appear to be a threat to native flora, Timothy Scott shows how these opportunistic plants are restoring health to Earth’s ecosystems. Far less a threat to the environment than the cocktails of toxic pesticides used to control them, these invasive plants perform an essential ecological function that serves to heal both the land on which they grow and the human beings who live upon it. These plants remove toxic residues in the soil, providing detoxification properties that can help heal individuals. Invasive Plant Medicine demonstrates how these “invasives” restore natural balance and biodiversity to the environment and examines the powerful healing properties offered by 25 of the most common invasive plants growing in North America and Europe. Each plant examined includes a detailed description of its physiological actions and uses in traditional healing practices; tips on harvesting, preparation, and dosage; contraindications; and any possible side effects. This is the first book to explore invasive plants not only for their profound medical benefits but also with a deep ecological perspective that reveals how plant intelligence allows them to flourish wherever they grow.
The most comprehensive, truly practical guide to the cultivation of woodland botanicals Not all saleable crops are dependent on access to greenhouses or sun-drenched, arable land. Shade-loving medicinal herbs can be successfully cultivated in a forest garden for personal use or as small-scale cash crops. Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and other Woodland Medicinals is a complete guide to these increasingly popular botanicals, aimed at aspiring and experienced growers alike. In this fully revised and updated edition, authors Jeanine Davis and W. Scott Persons show how more than a dozen sought-after native species can generate a greater profit on a rugged, otherwise idle woodlot than just about any other legal crop on an equal area of cleared land. With little capital investment but plenty of sweat equity, patience, and common sense, small landowners can preserve and enhance their treed space while simultaneously earning supplemental income. Learn how to establish, grow, harvest, and market: Popular medicinal roots such as ginseng, goldenseal, and black cohosh; Other commonly used botanicals including bloodroot, false unicorn, and mayapple The nutritious wild food, ramps, and the valuable ornamental galax. Packed with budget information, extensive references, and personal stories of successful growers, this invaluable resource will excite and inspire everyone from the home gardener to the full-time farmer. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist with North Carolina State University. Her focus is helping farmers diversify into new crops and organic agriculture. W. Scott Persons is the author of American Ginseng: Green Gold and an expert in growing and marketing wild-simulated and woods-cultivated ginseng.
From the legendary author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: a volume of essays on everything from primordial life and the mysteries of the brain to the ancient ginkgo and the power of the written word. "Magical . . . [Everything in Its Place] showcases the neurologist's infinitely curious mind."—People Magazine In this volume, Oliver Sacks examines the many passions that defined his life--both as a doctor engaged with the central questions of human existence and as a polymath conversant in all the sciences. Everything in Its Place brings together writings on a rich variety of topics. Why do humans need gardens? How, and when, does a physician tell his patient she has Alzheimer's? What is social media doing to our brains? In several of the compassionate case histories included here, we see Sacks consider the enigmas of depression, psychosis, and schizophrenia for the first time. In others, he returns to conditions that have long fascinated him: Tourette's syndrome, aging, dementia, and hallucinations. In counterpoint to these elegant investigations of what makes us human, this volume also includes pieces that celebrate Sacks's love of the natural world--and his final meditations on life in the twenty-first century.
Herbs for Health and Healing - The Healing Power of 10 Herbs, Spices and Healing Plants Table of Contents Introduction Cinnamon–Cinnamomum zeylanicum Best Time-Tested Remedy for Colds Making a Ginger and Cinnamon Decoction Cayenne – Capsicum minimum Cayenne Hot Oil Making an Infused Oil Lemon – Citrus lemonum Lemon for Fever Lemon Compress Lemon for Beauty and Health Skin Balm Lemon Body Lotion Cardamoms- Elettaria cardamomum For Caffeine Addicts Mind Clearing Potpourri Onions –Allium cepa Onion milk Onion Poultice Traditional Soups Garlic– Allium sativum Garlic Bread and Garlic Butter Garlic Rub Cloves – Eugenia Aromatica Analgesic Rub for Headache and Backache Fennel- Foeniculum Vulgare Fennel as a Diuretic How to Make Herbal Teas “Smoking” Fennel Seeds Parsley Healthy Parsley Soup Rosemary Making a Rosemary Tincture Rosemary Conditioner Conclusion Author Bio Introduction This 21st century world is full of toxic water, poisoned air, and chemical pollution. We are also very worried about the thinning ozone layer, because it is definitely going to have a bad after effect on our climate, and then correspondingly on our health. This is the reason why, we are looking towards the use of natural elements, to keep us healthy and fit. That is because we have understood the fact that chemical-based drugs are efficacious on a short-term basis, but they do not heal us long-term. Besides, there is always the chance of dangerous side effects. And so our health is ruined, because we could not prevent ourselves from popping that pill. Ancient remedies, on the other hand, have been passed down through centuries. Many of us consider these remedies to be quack remedies, because many of them have not been subjected to scientific research, and a stamp of experienced researchers telling you, all right, it is useful to add a lot of cinnamon to your diet, because that has been scientifically proven to cure 99% of bacterial and viral infections. Nevertheless, there are a lot of infections, which have been proven down the millenniums to be cured only by practical and natural remedies. Many of these practical remedies have been in use for thousands of years and are still in use because they have proved their time tested efficacy over and over again in solving your health problems and curing you. Best, you are going to be cured from the root, and the effects are going to be long-term. No matter what ailment you suffer from, you can always do something with a little bit of knowledge, and a little bit of help from nature to enhance your well-being and good health. Many of us living in the cities are terrified of picking up any useful herbal plant material growing wild and which we encounter when we are on open-air ambles, because we know that they have been contaminated from lead from vehicle exhausts, and also could have been sprayed with agri-chemicals. Also, we do not have the herbal lore, which was taught to our ancestors, by their ancestors. There was a time when every proud housewife worth her salt knew all about herbs, spices and natural remedies and had a still room in which she used to brew herbal remedies to keep our family healthy and happy, and natural ointments to keep them youthful looking. Gathering herbs from the wild can only be done by those botanists and herbalists will have extensive knowledge of the beneficial points of plants. So that is the reason why a large number of the plants which I am going to describe to you in this book can be easily found in your local market.
Native American Ceremony and the Use of Sacred Plants. This comprehensive guide to the sacred plants traditionally used by Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples presents 14 significant plants, with information on their properties, growing conditions, and medicinal applications (incense cedar, red cedar, copal, juniper, lavender, mugwort, osha, pinon, white sage, desert sage, sweet grass, ceremonial tabacco, red willow bark and yerba santa). Descriptions of Native American ceremonies and rituals in which these plants play a central role are included.
