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
Spring Tonics - the Wise Woman Way
Spring Tonics: a one-day workshop
with Susun Weed at the Wise Woman Center
by Wise Woman Karen Joy
Learn more about Wise Woman classes with Susun WeedThis one-day workshop was held at the Wise Woman Center on this gorgeous spring day just this last weekend. Have any of you ever been to the WWC? It's a treat to see it in its many seasons. It's loaded with plants, wild and cultivated, dotting the forested and open land with rocks jutting up in between (the land used to be used as a stone quarry, I believe, many years ago). Goats roam free here -- mommas and many kids (papas? I don't know). There are also 2 geese -- Loverboy and Sweetheart. And two cats (that I saw) -- I think I remember them as mother and son. Of course there are also many other creatures happily living here.
After parking with assistance and greeting from Susun and the two apprentices living there at the time (cars' tires kill the surface microorganisms living in the soil, we learned this weekend, as well as, of course, any plants. This is a place that values ALL the life there and doesn't accept its usual secondary status to vehicles -- so great importance is placed on driving and parking in designated areas.) . . . . after parking, we (I believe about 13 women, though men are welcomed at these) gathered at "the circle", where infusion awaited us. This day was oatstraw, yum!
We spoke in turn with a talking stick, introducing ourselves, where we reside, and sometimes our reasons for coming and questions for the day. The talking stick allows us to share in our moment, uninterrupted, whatever we desire. Susun reminds us this need not be words, but can be a dance, music, song, or poem. This day, the first of the season, most of us seemed a bit shy, sharing "the facts". Two women brought their babies. One mother brought her mother. Having come long distances, some of these women stayed the weekend nearby and got to meet the night before at the moonlodge held every Friday before Susun's weekend one-day workshops.Susun seems to me to love to share her knowledge. All questions seem welcome and often come with detailed answers -- I believe I've heard "there are no stupid questions".
We went out right away for a gentle walk in the woods (there are something like 45 acres to the Center) stopping often to visit a plant or tree, learning her beauties. One thing I remember from taking these classes two years ago is SOO much learning is offered. Though I think I absorb it all, I don't always remember it consciously. I could take the same class every year for ten years (and more) and get new and deeper understandings of what is presented to me. With that said, I will share with you some of what I remember.
I remember visiting partridgeberry, or twin flower, getting close to the ground where she lives and seeing her leaves and red berries that have been there since last year. I saw how her berry had two flower ends explaining her second name.
Anyone who has learned from Susun knows how she abounds with stories. This is probably one of the best ways I have encountered for remembering what I have learned, though sometimes they are just pure enjoyment. I heard of a girl who, after seeing all these red berries in a partridge belly, concluded these partidges "laid" them there all over the forest floor. Makes sense to me!
Wintergreen, we were told, who also lies close to the ground and has similar looking red berries (at first glance anyway), tastes dramatically different. Its berries taste like wintergreen, while mitchella repens (partridge berry) has extremely tasteless berries.
Though the specifics I can't remember, my largest impression of this plant is it is a wonderful ally for women! I also remember reading this in an article on Susun's website about fertility.
Please don't take my lack of detailed knowledge as an indication of what's offered at the class. Some women chose to take notes and could probably recite many "facts" about this plant alone. I chose to learn differently. I listen and watch and feel and don't put much priority on memorization except when there is something specific I really want to know NOW.
I prefer a feeling in my body that allows me to spot this plant when walking the woods and feel it as a woman's friend, rather than words without feeling. I know in time, as my learning works into deeper layers, this knowledge will come along with the feeling. So when a time comes that I am looking for a "woman's friend" I will research more of the details, and they will be familiar because I know that all I heard in this class and others lives in me. Can anyone else relate to the type of learning I am talking about?
Okay, so back to our walk. We visited eastern hemlock (thuja?) and white pine, both predominant in our area. We tasted them. We experienced them as we chewed, encouraged by Susun to notice the sensations in our mouth. The hemlock, I noticed, made my mouth get wetter. It encourages mucus production, she shared, and mucous is good! Yes, it protects us, cushions us, it lines our sensitive skin. We want it. Perhaps, then, I thought, the mucous that accompanies a cold, isn't the "evil cold" itself, but our protection kicking in. And, perhaps, why steaming our face over a pot of hemlock needle brew, clears the stuck mucous isn't because it is "drying" (as my experience chewing it proved), but because it encourages the production of mucous, allowing it all to move!
As we moved from plant to tree to plant we heard of properties in plants and the best mediums to extract them in. All of this, of course, can be read in articles written by Susun and her books, and though this is wonderful knowledge, it cannot, for me, compare to the memory sensation that goes with the moment of hearing it from her.
For example, I have read more than once before about extracting the oils in a plant with oil (olive oil). So though this is not new to hear, now I can know this with the taste of the oil from the hemlock needles I am chewing in my mouth, the sight of this tree's branches in front of me, the women I have just met all around me, and all the sights, sounds, and smells, that go along with a beautiful spring day in the woods.
We were told how white pine carries five needles in a bunch, less common in a pine than three. Looking at the base of these needles we see white, hence its name, and I hear Susun say while counting on her 5 fingers W-H-I-T-E, five needles in a bundle!
We look down the hill and around the corner from this pine and and see big (for this time of year) green plants along the hillside. We curiously surround them, these leaves reminiscent in shape, color and size of lily bulbs I have been seeing lately emerge from the ground. What family does this remind you of? we are asked. Liliaceae, someone knows. What plants are in this family? we are also asked. People say what, if any, they know. Among the many pretty flowers common to spring, some mention onions, garlic, etc. We are encouraged by Susun to smell and taste a leaf that offers itself to us. Yum, onion! They are ramps.
Before we head back for lunch (yes, we're not even half done with class!) we visit two more plants growing near each other at the bottom of the hill near wet land. They are wild chives and trout lily. We sit among them, taste them, and listen to Susun share much knowledge about them.
We walk back to the deck we will be eating lunch on. Susun goes inside to heat the nettle soup she explains was prepared the night before so the nettles could infuse in the water overnight. The two apprentices took two groups of women who wanted to help collect wild greens to add to the salad. They were the tender tips of madder (gallium - related to the sweet woodruff that is often made into "may wine") and garlic mustard leaves pinched off where they meet the stem. Garlic mustard has a bit of bite like mustard, and a taste of garlic.
The bell was rung, we sang a song and we ate a feast of salad with wild greens and nettle soup. Water and infusion was provided to drink. So were condiments -- olive oil, salt, tamari, miso, gomasio, and a sampling of vinegars. Other than umeboshi vinegar the others were herbal ones made from plants we were introduced to this day. And I certainly can't forget the bread from freshly ground organic grains baked by one of the apprentices (I am so sorry I am not remembering their names right now).
Organic butter was provided as was delicious!!!! cheeses made there from the goats' milk -- three kinds, garlic, aged and wild chives. I have to say such a simple sounding meal is heavenly (more accurately, earthly) and left me bored that night with my more complicated or empty feeling comfort foods like pasta. In fact I went home that night and drank the nettle infusion I (thankfully) prepared that morning before class.
After lunch we stayed nearer to the house and the gardens there fenced off from munching goats and such. There was sweet birch (which actually I think we visited before lunch). The description for this class mentions we will "bite buds" which indeed we did -- sweet birch buds, yum! Wild root beer or sarsaparilla? We learned how her sap is flowing now and won't stop if tapped. We watched the drip drip of her yummy water from the thin branches where her buds were taken.
We learned how to collect these thin branches (with scissors please for a clean cut), the length of a quart canning jar and a bundle that would fit in the circle made by connecting my thumb and longest finger. We could the put them in the jar and pour boiling water over them, cover and let infuse overnight. We could drink the mild brew in the morning, we could then pour more boiling water over the same branches and drink that night. The taste would be a little stronger!
We could repeat this process with the same branches day after day, with the taste getting stronger each time. At some point around the fourth day I think is when I would stop drinking and start cleaning with the water! Susun says it is a wonderful degreaser. I think I remember her saying this could go on for about a month. How's that for a spring tonic?!
A wonderful taste of a tree's spring sap in my water, then something to help my spring fever desire to clean out winter! My understanding from Susun was this is a wonderful spring tonic, though not something to use as one of our regular nourishing infusions. In fact, if we wanted we could dump the first few days of brew to get to the cleaning water. I personally savor my spring cups of sweet birch water.
We visited more plants and at this point I am confused which were on this day and which on the next. And since this is long enough I will continue in my next post about the Sunday class "herbal medicine chest" which will probably come tomorrow!
Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoyed my memory of this "spring tonics" class.
karen joy
info@ashtreepublishing.comSusun 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 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.
