Wise Woman Ezine with herbalist Susun Weed
July 2009
Volume 9 Number 7
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What's Inside Wise Woman Herbal Ezine this Month...

INDEX  |  BREAST HEALTH  | WISE WOMAN WISDOM | EMPOWER YOURSELF
COOKING for LOVE  |  THE GODDESS SPEAKS  | GRANDMOTHER GAIA  |  WISDOMKEEPERS
| FEATURED LINKS


Healing Wise ...
Herbal Adventures
with Susun S Weed

the Poaceae family - Grasses
- the beating heart of life on earth

 


Herbal Adventures with Susun S Weed
the Poaceae family - Grasses
- the beating heart of life on earth
by Susun S. Weed
read other Herbal Adventures part 1, part 2 , part 3 , part 4

as seen printed in Sagewoman magazine

 

The earth offers us so many green blessings: an abundant, overwhelming, brimming basket of beauty, food, and medicine.the Art of Roslyne Sophia Breillat  With so many choices, it's hard to know where to start. Let's learn herbal medicine from the ground up, by focusing on the families of plants.

In previous issues we visited with the mallow family, the knotweed family, the rose family, the aster family (and the genus artemisia), the cabbage family, and the lily family. Altogether, that's more than 30,000 plants we've learned how to identify and use. What's next? The grasses!

A garden catalog (Heronwood) says it poetically: "No wonder visitors feel drawn to the grasses -- we were born in them. Grasses signify water and whisper, 'You're home," more than any other group of plants."

Few people think of grass as a flowering plant; but it is. Many of us think of grass as a lawn or a golf course, not the sacred sustenance of human kind; but it is. Our ancestors had great respect for the grasses. They, in their multitude, are the beating heart of life on earth, the prime mover of agriculture, and the tuning fork of universal nourishment. The grass family -- the Poaceae -- is found in every habitat all over the world, and includes more than 10,000 plants, all of which bear edible seeds.

Grass flowers, it is true, are not fancy. You'll need a magnifying lens to see them clearly . They don't have showy, colorful petals. They just have what's needed: male stamen for pollen, female pistil to capture the pollen and gestate the seed.

And how we value those seeds. Whether it is wheat or rye, oats or barley, corn or millet or rice, almost every person on the planet bases their meals on grain, the seeds of grass. We honor the grain mother whose seeds support our lives: Corn Mother, Ceres (who gives us " cereal"), Demeter, Amaranth Grandmother. Her names are as numerous as Her nourishing seeds, as beautiful as Her seas of golden rippling grass. She sustains us with Her gracious bread of life: mana. "Corn," that is, grain, was the greatest of the Eleusinian mysteries.

"Sedges have edges; rushes run round; grasses have joints," is the saying I learned to help me distinguish between three look-alike plant families. Sedges, fond of wet places, flower from the sides of stalks which have edges. Rushes, also fond of wet places, flower from the top and have round stalks, no edges, like grass. Grasses prefer dry places and flower from the top of round stalks which are jointed, like bamboo, a woody grass. Pluck a flowering stalk of grass and see if you can find the joints. Then, look at the leaves.

Like the lily family, members of the grass family have flat, long, narrow leaves with parallel veins. Unlike lily leaves, grass leaves are micro-serrated along the edge. If you gently pull your fingers up the sides of a grass leaf you'll find it's as sharp as a razor. Careful! It can cut! That's one reason we eat the seeds of the grasses and leave the leaves to the animals (with the exception of those who drink wheat grass, a tasty juice which, unfortunately, lacks value as either a curative or a nutritive).

Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions Cookbook and advocate of Weston Price, reminds us that grazing animals and grasses benefit each other. It's not a choice between plants and animals, grain or meat. Our planet, and our bodies, need both. Without cattle eating winter wheat shoots, we would lose more than half our grain crops. Why? Because, although grass roots and leaves are extremely cold hardy, the jointed flower/seed stalks are not. Most wheat is sown in the fall, when the soil is drier and easier to work, rather than in the spring when the soil is wet and likely to rot the seeds. If the late fall weather is not cold, however, the grass will start to flower too soon. Pasturing cattle on it prevents this, giving us healthy grass-fed meat and grain to eat as well.

One of my favorite herbs -- oatstraw -- is a grass. Oatstraw is the dried leaves, or straw, of the plant that gives us the grain oats, found in most households as rolled oats. I use a full ounce (by weight) of dried oatstraw, with or without seeds, in a quart of boiling water, steeped at least four hours, to make a restorative tonic. Oatstraw is considered an herb of longevity in India. American herbalists value it as a strengthener and nourisher to the nerves. Like oats themselves, oatstraw infusion is heart healthy and cholesterol-lowering. Many a menopausal woman has praised oatstraw's cooling, calming ways.

There are many stories of grasses. Listen to them; let them take you home. Let them take you back to your Ancestral, sacred self. Herbal medicine is people's medicine, heart medicine -- free, simple, and accessible, a gift of love from our Mother. I'll be back with more plant families and more green blessings. -- soon.

 


Dear Susun,

My yearly Pap smear shows dysplasia. My doctor says that's a precancerous condition and I need to do something. What?

Sandy

 

Dear Sandy,

In all likelihood you are fine and your next Pap smear will be normal. Remember that a Pap smear is not a diagnostic test. It is a screening test. About five million American women every year are told that their Pap smear contains abnormal cells (dysplasia), but less than one percent (16,000) are actually diagnosed with cervial cancer. Unfortunately, most of them will be overtreated with procedures that are expensive, painful, damaging, and generally useless.

Unless you have severe dysplasia (CIN-III), you may choose to wait while your cervical cells return to normal. Between 80-99 percent of women with mild to moderate dysplasia, and 50 percent of those with severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ return to normal without any treatment. Repeated Pap smears every 3-6 months can reassure you and your doctor that your dysplasia is reversing.

Women whose dysplasia advances to cervical cancer are usually malnourished smokers with a history of early and frequent sexual contact with many people. And 95 percent of them are infected with human papilloma virus (HPV), some strains of which cause warts, and some strains of which cause cancer.

HPV is very contagious. It lives in the skin of the genitals as well as in the vagina, penis, anus, and urethra, so condoms can not prevent infection. HPV can live outside the body for up to three days as well; there are substantiated cases of women becoming infected without sexual contact of any kind. Lesbians can get HPV, too, but it is far less common. Nearly all HIV-positive men are infected with anal HPV, and their rates of rectal/anal cancer are high.

A doctor can use a special magnifying instrument to examine your cervix to look for the whitish lesions typical of HPV infection (colposcopy). You can do it yourself at home with a speculum, a mirror, a flashlight, and cotton swabs dipped in white vinegar to paint the cervix so the HPV shows up. Or you can ask that your Pap smear be sent for HPV-DNA analysis.

If your smear does show HPV-DNA, remember, surgery only removes the abnormal cells, not the HPV which remains able to initiate cervical cancer.

A diet rich in carotenes, folic acid, and protein is the best remedy I know for preventing cancer and reversing dysplasia. I get carotenes from cooked sweet potatoes, winter squash, pumpkin, leafy greens, and tomato sauce. I get folic acid from nettle infusion, leafy greens, lentils, beans, seeds, whole grains and nuts. I get protein from organic meat, especially liver, organic milk, yogurt, and cheese, and nourishing herbal infusions such as nettle, oatstraw, red clover..

And, I avoid soy; it may encourage abnormal cell growth by disrupting thyroid functioning. And I let the anti-cancer trio -- red clover, dandelion, and burdock -- as infusions or in tinctures, power up my immunity and help chase away cancer. Chinese herbalists remind us that abnormal cells are overheated and we do well to avoid peppers and hot spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg when we have dysplasia.

I repeat, in all likelihood you are fine and your next Pap smear will be normal. Envision it so.
Green blessings, Susun

 

Nourishing Traditions
The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
Revised Second Edition, October 2000
by Sally Fallon with Mary G Enig, PhD
This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper funciton of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Sally Fallon dispels the myths of the current low-fat fad in this practical, entertaining guide to a can-do diet that is both nutritious and delicious.

Order Sally Fallon's book at our bookshop

Or order via mail: Ash Tree Publishing PO Box 64 Woodstock, NY 12498
include a check or money order for $29.95 (Nourishing Traditions retails for $25.00 plus $4.95 shipping


Healing Lyme:
Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its CoinfectionsHealing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections

by Stephen Harrod Buhner

Healing Lyme examines the leading, scientific research on Lyme infection, its tests and treatments, and outlines the most potent herbal medicines and supplements that offer help, either alone or in combination with antibiotics, for preventing and healing the disease. It is the essential guide to Lyme infection and its treatment.

 

Paperback, 272pp

"The first 75 pages are as good a review of the scientific literature as I've seen. . . I was impressed by [Buhner's] grasp of the literature. He really did his homework." - Richard Horowitz, President ILADS.

Price: $19.95

Order Healing Lyme in our Bookshop

 

 

Study with Susun Weed via Correspondence Course

Green Witch focuses on personal and spiritual development. You'll create rituals, prepare an herbal first-aid kit, encounter your Goddess archetype, discover the magic of menstrual & menopausal changes, and develop wise woman ways of living and healing. Learn more ...

Green Allies explores herbal medicine through direct experiences with plants, plant spirits (fairies, devas), and plant medicines. For those who want to deepen, rather than broaden, their knowledge of plants: a year's worth of investigation and experimentation with one plant ally. Learn more ...

Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition focuses on understanding, internalizing, and using the Three Traditions of Healing (Wise Woman, Heroic, and Scientific) and the Six Steps of Healing. Health-care practitioners find this course exceptionally helpful, but anyone who cares for the health of others (even family members) will benefit. Learn more ...

ABC of Herbalism!! This is a special course for the aspiring herbalist who'd like to have me "by your side" teaching you how to harvest, prepare, and use 52 healing herbs. Your studies will be both experiential and intellectual and you will make and use herbal remedies as well as reading about them in a variety of sources.
Learn more ...

 

LOVE LETTERS

Dearest Susun,

I am grateful for being drawn to pick up a copy of the Awareness mag yesterday, and went directly to your interview pages.

This is much bigger than a ray of hope!

Please include me in the e-zine and I will be studying with you soon through your programs.

I look forward to the schedule of classes as well. Many thanks.

Light and the Fire that sends It,
Cynthia

 

read more...


 

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INDEX  |  BREAST HEALTH  | WISE WOMAN WISDOM | EMPOWER YOURSELF
COOKING for LOVE  |  THE GODDESS SPEAKS  | GRANDMOTHER GAIA  |  WISDOMKEEPERS
| FEATURED LINKS