The dedicated study of plants and medicine, though, came online in my 3D experience about 23 years ago with my studies at Flynn's School of Herbology. Then, I found Robin Rose Bennett at the Open Center and was soon later told (by a friend of my godmother) about the teacher with whom I wound up staying for 13 years, Susun S. Weed. I wasn't interested at that moment. That chapter would begin some years later...
I'll write about those years when it's safe to do so. Seriously. One thing I can say is, one of the very first phrases Susun said to me, when I got paired with her to go harvest plantain leaves for that day's workshop, "You seem to have a way with the plants. Why don't you apply for the scholarship for women of color, and come apprentice with me?" Perhaps it was somewhere in there, in that time, where I began to hear them speak and intuit their presence. I have and continue to enjoy the relationships with each Being of the Devic Kingdom/Plant Kingdom.
So, that expressed, in the beginning of my solo practice (on my own, without my teacher) as an herbalist in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing, I would set a harvesting schedule. This of course was in a bit of a different Time, the energetics of the world and mass-consciousness was different than it is now. And I, was a being- before soul realignment was even invented, before talk of 2012 and ascension, etc. My daily agenda was written on a legal-sized piece of paper, and that page was filled on every-other-line with a task for that day, each item which I slave-drove myself to cross off. That quality of activity was 'normal'. Now, there is a flow that imbibes all of the lovely qualities of that word.
Here is the example which is the whole reason that I began this musing. There are certain plants, Green Allies, that I have been feeling like I need to tincture this year. Motherwort was one. Ginko was the other. I was actually a little too desperate for the Motherwort this year, as I'm in Menopause, and the night sweats had been kicking my ass earlier in the year. Motherwort, energetically as well as physically is also specifically healing and soothing to the heart.
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| Motherwort |
So, of course, since I was so desperate to find Motherwort, I wasn't finding any. And it was June, already. Her flowering season is until the end of June. Depending upon the quality of the weather, you could squeak by and find some still in flower in early July, but it will only be the tippy top in flower, and that's really not enough. The flower must be amply represented in the tincture. And, for what I may require for the coming year, it is not cost effective to keep buying the preparation by the ounce in the health food store, not when I know that I could make it. {I'm currently buying Burdock root until I can locate a good first year plant, in a place where I will be able to dig it up after first frost. I've got that "put out there"...}
June 21st. It's getting late. I'm definitely going to miss the St. Johnswort this year. Good thing I got some tinctured last year, and the old oil I made a few years back still is effective, so... I bought the vodka anyway and managed to find a tiny clumping of Motherwort on someone's unmowed section of lawn near the road. I got a tiny tincturing out of that, but I'm uncomfortable going there for more when I see cars there. I decided that I would need to live with and be thankful for what I did get. It's better than nothing. I decide to keep the basket of empty jars and the scissors and vodka in the car, though, in case I encounter another plant whose medicine we need this year... * (how I got those tinctures made, part two, on Monday 11/13)
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