ASH TREE PUBLISHING
Women's Health, Women's Spirituality
P.O. Box 64, Woodstock, NY 12498 USA
Phone/Fax 1-845-246-8081
Ash Tree Publishing
Hands-On Herbal Medicine
Hands-On Herbal Medicine: a one-day workshop
with Susun Weed at the Wise Woman Center
by Wise Woman Karen JoyLearn more about Wise Woman classes with Susun Weed
I would like to share my experience of a one-day class with Susun Weed at the Wise Woman Center. "Hands-On Herbal Medicine", it was a large class, with lots of people to meet and share with. I enjoy these as much as the smaller more intimate ones.
On this day we visited plants and learned the best methods of preparing them, and why. We learned how the different menstruums (I love this word!) worked on the herbs to draw out the properties we most wanted.
Wanting to learn more in this class about how and what to prepare with honey, I was thrilled to learn herbs are prepared in this way the same as with oils or vinegars or tinctures when made with fresh plant material. We pack a jar to the firmness of a fairy's mattress (not so hard she can't sleep, but not so loose she falls through!), then pour over our menstruum until the jar is again full, using a chopstick to stir the air bubbles out.
We make sure the top of the herb is covered, and we cap. We let it sit for six weeks, then decant if it is oil, but can leave the material in if we want for the others as long as the menstruum covers the top. In the case of the honey, just like sometimes with vinegar, we can eat the herbs in there as well. And yum, what a treat!
Susun brought out on the deck, after lunch, some samples from her house to let us observe, smell and taste. She also put up some preparations for us to see done, noting the importance to label the herb, menstruum and date right away.
Though I have been making tinctures, oils, and vinegars for years now, I still find this class useful because as we go along we talk of specific plants and their properties and uses, hear the experiences of others, and I am always learning something new.
We also learned in this class how to collect and dry herbs, and why we would want to do this in certain cases. Then of course we learned again how to prepare, and the benefits of, infusions – always made with dried herbs.
One specific I remember about making honeys, from the tasting of her samples, is the benefit of using mint family plants (well, the tasty ones anyway). When wanting a tea, all one needs to do is scoop a bit into a mug of hot water and voila! sweetened mint tea! I was also surprised to learn that we can keep these herbal honeys with our other concoctions -- in a cool place, out of direct sunlight. I do not need to refrigerate!
I will end here, and again say my praises for all the one-day classes with Susun I so enjoyed this year!!
Susun Weed encourages women to work towards good health from the inside out. Her close-to-the-earth approach continues to break new ground in old ways, helping to make natural non-invasive solutions available to women from every walk of life.
Susun Weed's books include:
Susun S. Weed, herbalist, wise woman, and teacher for over two decades, is the founder of the Wise Woman Center in upstate New York and the author of four highly acclaimed books on alternative/complementary healthcare for women. Honored as a Peace Elder in 1996, Ms. Weed is respected worldwide as the voice of the Wise Woman tradition, the oldest tradition of healthcare on the planet.
The Wise Woman tradition maintains that health is flexibility and that deviations from normal (that is, problems) offer us an opportunity to reintegrate those parts of ourselves that we have cast out. This reintegration is accomplished through nourishment and the person emerges healed/wholed/holy. The Wise Woman tradition is compassionate and heart-centered. It honors the Earth and the special mysteries of women. It is simple, local, ecological, and invisible, choosing to use common plants, such as dooryard weeds, rather than exotic herbs from far away.
The Wise Woman Center, founded in 1984, is a safe place for women around the world to gather together to celebrate the wise woman within and to study herbal medicine and spirit healing with Susun and notable teachers such as Brooke Medicine Eagle, Z Buda pest, Vicki Noble, and Merlin Stone.
Ms. Weed has been called a backwards pioneer. She agrees: "I've gone backwards into prehistory, into herstory, to rediscover and rename something as ancient as humanity, but something which is perfectly relevant, indeed critical to our survival, today." That "some thing" is the Wise Woman tradition; a unique viewpoint from the distant past that she be lieves will help us find answers for our collective future.
The Wise Woman viewpoint that we are all connected and that a health crisis is symbolic as well as physical -- characterized by some as shamanic, by others as superstitious -- still exists in our society today, both in lay healing and in professions such as midwifery and psycho-therapy, but it usually goes unnamed. "One of the characteristics of this tradition is its integration into everyday life. By healing through nourishment, whether it is a hug or a special dinner, the wise woman acts invisibly whenever possible."
This is in marked contrast to other traditions of healing, according to Weed, who differ entiates three major healing traditions: the Scientific, the Heroic, and the Wise Woman. In the Scientific tradition the doctor is highly visible and the patient is reduced to a body part or a disease designation. In the Heroic or Holistic tradition, the healer is the one who knows the right way to do things and the patient must follow the rules in order to get well. In the Wise Woman tradition, illness is understood as an integral part of life and self-growth, with healer, patient and nature as co-participants in the healing process.
Much of today's alternative medicine comes from Heroic traditions, which traditionally emphasize fasting, purification, colonic cleansing, rigid dietary rules, and the use of rare botanicals in complicated formulae. Even much of metaphysical healing is applied this way: It views illness as a failure rather than a natural and potentially constructive process.
Susun Weed sees herself as a teacher, not a healer. "A healer is someone who does for you, while a teacher shows you how to do for yourself. When I work with a correspon dence course student or an apprentice, for instance, I'm working with the intention of helping her to know herself better, to learn how to listen to and nourish all parts of her self, which will allow her to become more healthy/whole/holy."
Susun reminds us that wellness and illness are not polarities. They are part of the contin uum of life. "We are constantly renewing ourselves, cell by cell, second by second, every minute of our lives. Problems, by their very nature, can facilitate deep spiritual and symnolic renewal, leading us naturally into expanded, more complete ways of thinking about and experiencing ourselves."
Ms. Weed maintains an active teaching/lecture schedule, with bookings throughout the U nited States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany (where she also trains ap prentices). She has taught at many prestigious schools including the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Yale Nursing School, South Florida Midwifery School, Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, and the Waikato College of Herbal Studies. She currently sits on advisory boards for the California Institute of Integral Studies and the National Institute of Health's Rosenthal Center for Alternative/Complementary Medicines at Columbia University.
Ms.Weed is most well-known for her books, which are variously described as informa tive, inspirational, and accessible. Her poetic and humorous style have endeared her to over half a million readers, who treasure her voice, the voice of the Wise Woman way.
