Medicine from Disaster: Herbs of the Mountain Meadows

Medicine from Disaster: Herbs of the Mountain Meadows

Today I saw many miles of what’s pictured above. Black, dead trees and ground covered in a thick layer of ash. Exploded Pine limbs littering the periphery of the fire’s path and shattered trunks that collapsed into dust with a gentle exploratory touch on my part. While many sections of the burned forest were old growth Pine and burned so hot that they will be a long time indeed in regrowing, there are also many areas where lighter fires swept through and green patches that escaped entirely unscathed. Fire itself is of course an age old occurrence that has a natural and beneficial place in the ecology of these mountains. What’s more recent is the decades of fire suppression combined with humans lighting accidental fires much earlier in the year...

Posted | 14 comments

Fires of Change: A Wallow Fire Retrospective

Fires of Change: A Wallow Fire Retrospective

The Fires Of Change Passion and Transformation, Destruction and Renewal A Wallow Fire Retrospective by Jesse Wolf Hardin Anima Sanctuary and School Sniff the wind, and it’s not hard to imagine the acrid smell of smoke or the fires of change ever lapping at our heals. They threaten not only our drought-plagued forests and homes, but also old illusions about management, protection and “control.” And it’s by their light we come to know what to hold on to and what to let go of. As I post this article, the horrendous Wallow Fire of June, 2011 has been officially contained at around 540,000 acres in size, the largest in the region of Arizona and New Mexico in recorded times. It generally lifted and leaned toward the northeast, often rushing directly at us...

Posted | 1 comment

Prevention of and Herbal Therapeutics for Wildfire Related Smoke Inhalation

Prevention of and Herbal Therapeutics for Wildfire Related Smoke Inhalation

While I have previously dealt with the side effects of smoke inhalation from wildfires in my practice, never in the volume, length or intensity of this year with the smoke from Wallow fire (as well as that from the Horseshoe and other surrounding fires this year). The issues experienced as a result of or triggered by the smoke were exacerbated by both the incredible dryness (1-5% humidity many days this Spring) as well as a hard, cold winter during which there was a higher incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia and related respiratory dysfunction than I’ve seen in my seven year practice here. This post applies generally to any situation in which there is exposure to smoke, especially from a wildfire. You’ll notice an emphasis hot, dry respiratory diagnostic...

Posted | 8 comments

Reading the Terrain: Understanding Tissue States

Reading the Terrain: Understanding Tissue States

At the core of how I practice herbalism are two elements. The first is my personal relationship with the herbs, and my intense adoration of both plants and fungi (and lichen, I might add). The second is the sensory and common sense approach I take to working with both herbs and humans. I teach herbal energetics as being primarily organoleptic, perceivable to a great degree through our senses. While I am certainly (and constantly) informed by passed-on knowledge (tradition, texts and teachers), scientific research and biomedical understandings it is the experiential that underlies it all. Because after all, how will I integrate and utilize something unless it functions well in the context of my work? So I start here, with characteristics that I can observe with my...

Posted | 8 comments

Pantry Medicine: Onion Poultices, Syrups and Tinctures

Pantry Medicine: Onion Poultices, Syrups and Tinctures

Pantry Medicine: Onion Poultices, Syrups & Tinctures by Kiva Rose Botanical Name: Allium cepa Botanical Family: Amaryllidaceae Taste: Spicy, sweet, acrid, diffusive Energetics: Warm, dry Vital Actions: Diaphoretic, diuretic, rubefacient, expectorant, circulatory stimulant, smooth muscle relaxant Therapeutic Effects:  Antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, cough suppressant (not a true suppressant, but does usually reduce frequency and intensity of spasmodic and insistent lingering coughs) As a little girl growing up in both urban and rural areas, I was fascinated by the wild onions that grew in my family’s yard and all in surrounding fields and riversides. I grew up with gardens, but the very idea that a familiar food in the form of a much more smelly feral...

Posted | 19 comments