Historical Footnote

I made a Lilies-of-the-Valley tincture. It's an olde cardiac tonic, which has fallen into disuse in the Americas with the advent of pharmaceuticals owing to the many contraindications this plant has with many drugs on today's market. It is stimulating to the heart. Calcium supplements are not to be taken with this botanical. Calcium supplements are prized by many in the prevention of osteoporosis and other rheumatic conditions of the bones, however, there are a great many superior articles of the natural world that help to build bones naturally including teas made from nettles, oatstraw, horsetail, and the controversial comfrey root. Calcium supplements of any kind should be avoided by those who have had kidney problems, gallstones, or kidney stones, and those who do not get adequate exercise.

It is said by some that calcium supplements may contribute to the calcification of the pineal gland, which can be decalcified with the regular usage of loose leaf gotu kola tea, chorella or spirulina tablets, raw apple cider vinegar dressing, and a ginger-lemonade apertif. It is interesting to note that those who have suffered numerous concussions such as boxers, football players and the accident-prone, have a tendency toward angry fits and bouts of general confusion. It has been found that such persons also have significant cerebral calcification.

Lily-of-the-valley was used in antiquity for irregular heartbeat, dropsy (edema), urinary obstructions (kidney stones), epilepsy, strokes and resulting neuralgia, and leprosy. Sounds appetizing, does it not?

According to Botanic.com:
"Culpepper said of the Lily-of-the-Valley: 'It without doubt strengthens the brain and renovates a weak memory. The distilled water dropped into the eyes helps inflammations thereof. The spirit of the flowers, distilled in wine, restoreth lost speech, helps the palsy, and is exceedingly good in the apoplexy, comforteth the heart and vital spirits.'"


Historical Footnote:
An upcoming project is a wood betony extract, once used in the treatment of wildly-weeping-at-the-sea-and-claw-the-walls-hysteria. The archaic term "hysteria" comes from the notion Hippocrates put forward in his teachings, which is that a woman's womb wanders, floating up sometimes under the "cartilage of the heart"! The closest modern day equivalent might be panic attacks. Plato on the wandering womb: "It delights also in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them; and, on the whole, the womb is like an animal within an animal.[1]" Ah....this explains so much

Raspberry Leaf-Spearmint Lemonade

This lovely electrolyte drink helps maintain your acid-base balance.
A hydrating and energizing Late Spring libation. Today I dug three more deep corrugations in my herbal garden by ten AM, and this delightful beverage helped me recuperate and get back to my studies.


Raspberry Leaf-Spearmint Lemonade

Two *organic lemons
Two *organic limes
4 springs of spearmint
a whole mess of raspberry leaves
tablespoon local honey
heaping tablespoon stevia powder



*It is very important to use organic, because the nature of these astringent citrus is that if they are carrying pesticides, you will be getting a very potent dose by an agent with a strong direct purative action. These citrus fruits are marvelous at helping your body to eliminate waste in the form of layers of morbid matter in your intestines and mucous membranes, allowing proper function of the digestive and respiratory systems. Digestion is so important as it effects the quality of the blood and its movement, allowing the blood to bring nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide, chemical messages (hormones) and metabolic waste to and from their proper tissue systems through a labyrinth of blood vessels. Without effective elimination of waste within the cells, through the lymphatic system, spleen, etc., we quickly become out of balance. When the blood is impure and the digestion is shoddy, build of lipids and fats in the arteries and around the organs happens. So much so that it is not uncommon for people to have the manual removal of debris, and the extraction of organs. The tonsils and the spleen and pancreas are useful organs to have, and not toss like yesterday's salad. Employing the use astringent foods like lemon helps the breakdown of toxic waste within the systems of the body. Bile-stimulating cholagogue herbs like gentian helps the liver to produce and the gallbladder to concentrate bile for the purpose of the digestion of fats, something most people need.

It's actually best to drink beverages slightly warm, especially cleansing agents like lemonade. It will help induce sweating which is actually best on a hot day, in terms of cooling down your body and improving your immune system.

I love my school. I've really been enjoying my studies, and have grown to adore the writers of the texts and bits and pieces of the historical context. Strangely, my grandmother grew up on a farm near the original college in Canada and I wonder if she knew any of the staff. Her mother was said to be an herbalist of sorts and it was speculated that she helped give women of large poor (Catholic) families abortions. Being that my distant relatives are very conservative and have very little imagination to speak of, it might actually be true. However, there is no evidence of this. Perhaps she knew her abortifacients, as the native Chumash and others who recalled the wisdom of the ages in the use of contraceptives such as wild rose hips to keep their cycles regular.

Nerve Tonic/ Colic Elixir

Hot off the stove and out of the tea pot. Sure to relax the body! Febrifuge, diaphoretic, nerve tonic. Good for colic and cranky kids. May this recipe inspire you to use your garden herbs or plant some seeds.

Use these fresh herbs minced:
1 sprig of fennel (2 tablespoons of Foeniculum vulgare)
11 sweet woodruff leaves (Galium odoratum)
1 lemon balm leaves (Melissa oficinalis)
3 raspberry leaves (Rubus idaeus)
3 catnip leaves (Neptea cataria)
1 pine bud (Pinus strobus)
1/8-1/4 tsp. ginger powder (zingibe officinalis)
1 tsp. local honey

Wash thoroughly and mince the herbs. Pour 8 ounces of boiling water over all the herbs except ginger in a cup. Mix. Add the honey. Simmer the contents in a pan, bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat for long enough to release the alcohol from your raspberry flavoring. Strain into a teacup over the ginger powder.

This remedy brought my son's mild fever down, gave him his appetite and energy back. They seems to have relieved flatulence and indigestion. It's a wonderful nerve tonic. I hope you can try it or something like it. Nice digestive tonic, carminative and stomachic. Pictures when my batteries are charged.

Morning Constitution

My morning constitution on our acreage (nearly one technically) involved the fondling of flora, libating with day old coffee, the digging of a corrugation in the herbal garden, and an offering of tobacco to my stalwart botanical companions. They've withstood the dubious weather conditions well, the digitalis in has a particular vibrant aura about it, perhaps because its poisonous, probably because its shade-sated. In my long leather coat with a large furry lapel I felt like Hildegard of Bingen, if she'd been dressed by Oscar Wilde and given 2cl of raspberry Mathilde liqueur by Henry David Thoreau and thusly schooled in living a solitary life on the precipice of civilization. (His family lived not a mile from his infamous shack. But no matter. His connection with nature was pure nonetheless despite the nearness of hot home-cooked meals and location of train tracks paces from his dollhouse dwelling.) I myself could hear the chirping sounds of my cheery five-year-old boy making the endless ne-nahs of fire engines and chu-chu-chu-chu-chu of military helicopters from the urtica dioica.

The Parathyroids Glands and Prohibition

The parathyroid glands are pea-sized glands situated to the sides of and behind the thyroid. These glands help to distribute calcium to the cells of the body and help to build strong bones in concert with the pituitary gland. Its function benefits from the use of kelp and dulce alongside a tea of Rosa canina and Matricaria chamomilla.

Calcium is an essential element in composition of the digestive juices. Even a slight malfunction of the parathyroid glands may lead to significant insufficiency of the digestive system. Poor calcium assimilation can lead to wasting diseases such as osteoporosis and other common rheumatic ailments. It is interesting to note a person with adequate calcium in his or her cells does not develop such diseases. It isn't merely a folly of old age that such extreme bone loss occurs. Bones do tend to lose their mineral deposits in old age, becoming more porous. Vitamin D deficiency and lack of exercise to properly assimilate calcium is necessary, as are healthy parathyroid glands. My health message of the day is: be good to your glands, all of them.

On another note entirely, I have the beginning of a new theory I have yet to pursue, it's only now left the proverbial ovaries, and it may be flushed in a fortnight. Was prohibition fueled by propagandists behind the movement? Was it really the conservative Protestant religiosity of tight-lipped schoolmarms and ladies auxiliaries of rural America that was the driving force behind the temperance movement's attempts to quell the promiscuity of the times, straighten up the the lower and working classes, and improve the health of Americans? It is well-known that the result of the 18th amendment was the fomentation and prosperity of organized crime families, and corruption within governing bodies.

Little known, is that one of the leaders behind Prohibition, The American Temperance Society, had reached 1.5 million members by 1826, one hundred and six years prior. I suspect that the advancement of the ATS's agenda was in no way hurt by the American Medical Association which formed officially in 1847 and American Pharmaceutical Association which formed officially only five years later. With the emergence of pharmaceutical medicine, a new wave of doctors who prescribed pills and treatments with new, hip, and extremely toxic substances despised and discredited herbal medicines (often tinctures and liniments made from alcohol) and the successful doctors of herbal medicine who promoted their usage.

These early surgeons who experimented with toxic chemicals knew there was no money in making people well, but there is a lot of money in keeping people unwell. Or, perhaps they just thought newer is better, favoring manufactured to naturally-ocurring. In either case, we do know that there's a lot to profit by making patent drugs in man-made laboratories and not from medicines people can grow on their own land. (To get a full historical picture, and therefore trajectory, the first surgeons were barbers...and blood thirsty Barbarians.) By 1920, I suspect the wealthier urban populations were going to doctors, undergoing surgeries, popping pills and generally taking new, hip medications. Were the poor urban populations like the pagans of the religious crusades of Europe four hundred years prior? In other words...Was this religious uprising of the rural prohibitions sponsored by those who wished to convert the poor agricultural population whose closeness to the land afforded them knowledge and a tradition of the usage of herbal medicine?

Like Balls of Lightning in the Indian Summer

by Pandora Peoples


What would I do without creatives whose synapse-firing milleflorium-axon-consciousness allows them to take flight through the universe, like balls of lighting sparking plasma-producing liberated colors and psychic firewalls that defy the conception of dinosaurs like deadbolts whose attempts at locking theoretic doors with technological sign posts are vibrationally dwarfed and outdated despite what the data indicates on the physical plain, sometimes. The creatives in their tribal moccasins and flame retardant cesium-proof leather co-polymers derived from rainforest booty and antler marrow..(from a moose who group-married a whole marketing department of PETA-neo-hippies in a hapless shotgun wedding on a commune in Idaho, which harmed none but ended in questionable 'birthmarks' and rumors of divorce)....armed with isms and antiquated diction, archaic beauty, and punctuation marks that are relics of the past...

Taking heed of fair weather warnings, an elaborate scalersquare-dance of gratitude involving the juggling of frozen hail the size of grandpa's dioxin-induced tremulous back tumors, entertains grandpa on the back porch of his foreclosed home, which is now in a lump of pickup sticks. The piles don't smart anymore with the frozen flag from the Kiwanis clubroom for an icepack. The artist samurai, a brethren linguist of peace, grips the balls of a sodium-addicted vector in a disembodied tango for two as part of a spectral debate. The vector, whose DNA is more elliptical than most...part this...part that...ceremoniously feeds like a rat on the circus leftovers of manufactured disaster and dissonance under a false idol with other rats in drag. Leeching vampirism and sadism is the only aphrodisiac the stinky old rat knows.

It's a balletic waltz through the chambers of mixed metaphors, through the house of mirrors, fractured by corporate mantras and religious ideology, refracted by ideals and agnosticism and guarded by those whose breath never asks ethical questions, by those who hold their children up under the magnifying glass like ants to the sun...In one false click all privacy is stripped. 'Please don't make me accept the terms and conditions which allow access to my mail, my contacts, all of my documents and personal information which will be disseminated through the biliousness and gall of your organization to whomever you please for whatever purpose you fancy. It's worse than Mayan sacrifice.' "OMG! The Bible of Our Personal Secrets (Comcast Publishing House, ed. Skype PR, 2020) just came out, it's a collection of every unpublished thought anyone ever had in their laptops. Four thumbs up all the way!"

What are those creatives up to now? Wizardly swan dives? Tiptoeing through the tulips...spying out the backdoor of the safe house never looked so intellectually mangled or emotionally crippled. The boardwalks of superficial delights never looked like such plasticine paradise. Is it truly a breech of contract to be yourself? Being inauthentic is a haunting uphill climb to battle lifelong dis-ease. The creatives hold steadfast to their souls, taking to the air like bats when the fair winds hit. They take surefooted tap dancing steps, screaming while meditating, meditating while screaming, reaching for the flowers amid the false, the fresh amid the dying. They praise the delicious whipped cream and other delights of the torpid tundra and the morbidly vicious. They see the rubies in the eyes of the contortionists, the sultry gate of the gladiators, the wilted soul of the status quo robots who think they won't be fenced in. They adore the pretty thieves who archive the petals of original personality to wear like floral bonnets. Ah, the orchard of humanity, in all its fragrant versatility, shape, taste, color and melody. Traversing through the many layers of this strange contradictory place is a delectable affair for the curious mind and the body mobile enough to move furtively away when necessary.

Pandora's Apothecary

Stomach Tonic, Calendula Oil, Analgesic Liniment...

Desert Sage Liniment (2011), Heliochrysum Extract, The Stinky Old Devil

Flu Vinegar, Antispasmodic Tincture, Astringent Extract, & Stomach Tonic

Animal Totem...This owl mask has a prominent beak...
...the better to smell you with my dear...

Herbs For Allergies & Arteriosclerosis

Urtica Dioica Stinging Nettles, are usefully as a parturient tonic. I have found it to be useful with other galactogogues used both during pregnancy and lactation to enrich milk, and prevent stress associated with sleeplessness and prolonged nursing. Wonderfully nutritive tonic. It is a diuretic and an astringent. Its diuretic action makes it helpful in the treatment of eczema. Its histamine constituency makes it a 'homeopathic' treatment for allergies. Hay fever, sinusitis specific to Spring, and mucous membrane polyps of the nasal passages can be helped with its regular use. Wonderful for prevention of pregnancy edema, helps to prevent hemorrhage. Rich in iron, vitamin C, and minerals.

Chelidonium majus, Greater Celandine, is useful in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, constipation, stomach cancer, and liver and gallbladder disorders. Its antispasmodic application as a poultice or fomentation has been used in the treatment of menstrual cramps, pulmonary diseases, pain, breast lumps (as is Galium aparine, Cleavers), and chest pain due to lack of oxygen (angina). I would use a fomentation topically for such a purpose, drenching and wringing out a clean cloth in an infusion of Chelidonium majus with a 1/4 tsp. powder capsicum as a stimulating agent. It is used in arteriosclerosis and hypertension. Used externally as a poultice for painful skin conditions.

You don't have to wait for the electricity to go out, or the car to run out of gas, to get back to the wisdom and medicine of the earth. Perhaps every one should have tinctures in their disaster preparedness kit in their basements or cellars. A tincture of nettle is useful in blood loss and a patch of comfrey for external poultices for bone breaks and post natal lochia isn't a bad idea. Red Raspberry bushes(Rubus idaeus) growing in a patch of medicinal briars is another helpful remedy...as it is a parturient for nausea, uterine tonic, diarrhea tonic, astringent, and a treatment for gingivitis, sores, and leg cramps. Good for your 'Global-Warming-Weather-Shelter' Medicine Kit.

Emerging Immersion

Lobelia inflata
"An analysis of the action of the alkaloids present reveal apparently paradoxical effects." (The Holistic Herbal by David Hoffman) I told you plants are like people. Stimulates catarrhal secretions and expectoration, yet it is a respiratory relaxant. Stimulating and relaxing. Useful in asthma, bronchitis and in adults with a combination of ADD, anxiety, panic attacks, and sore muscles.

Betonica officinalis (Wood Betony) Strengthens the central nervous system and has a nervine and sedative action. Treats the cluster symptoms of anxiety, headaches and tension. Used with scutellaria for headaches.

Valeriana officinalis (Valerian) Helpful for tension, anxiety, and panic. Good to induce sleep, except in my opinion during menopause, depression or major life transitions when there is an unwillingness to look deep into self, or if one becomes easily overwhelmed by slipping into hypnotic states. Relieves migraines associated with tension, but not liver or kidney ailments. Leonurus cardiaca (Motherwort) has been used in compound formulas and in combination with hawthorn berries to support a healthy heart. Seems helpful in murmur, arrhythmia...it strengthens the heart without straining it. It is useful in delayed and suppressed menstruation, menopause, rapid heart beat and where anxiety and tension are coupled with these conditions.

It's That Time again...

for wild flowers abounding in among the ground cover,


for making liniments,


for anti-inflammatory lemonade...

(two organic lemons, two tsp. organic turmeric, 1 tsp. ginger and local honey in a quart of water all shook up, in a Mason jar),


and for eating alfresco with friends and familia!

The circulated newspaper version of the Wicked Local had more photos accompanying the article than the online version...

From the Realms of the Garden

Verbascum thapsus, ...is best known as a demulcent, but has astringent, emollient and expectorant properties. It also makes an effective remedy for earache, in the form of an oil mixed with garlic. Used in the treatment of pulmonary diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema, cough, hayfever, asthma and pneumonia. Used in fomentations for glandular swellings.

For croupy cough or other offending respiratory conditions
use this fomentation externally over anterior thoracic cavity :) (over lungs)...

Use 2 ounces of Verbacusm thaspus (Mullein) leaves and flowers
1/4 ounce Lobelia herb,
1 tsp. capsicum powder
Simmer 15 minutes in two quarts of water. Drench a clean hand towel is the warm liquid and wring out a bit, before application.

Taraxacum officinale... is a wonderful blood cleanser, hepatic, and kidney tonic. As such, it helps to remove impurities in the blood, improving skin quality, gently moves bowels, and improves overall conditions of the blood, with its cooling effect. It has it's place as a coffee substitute (try the root roasted!), and in weight loss.

It is used in an old Indian recipe to treat cancer, which is now sold under the name, Essac, after Dr. Rene Casse, who used it with rewarding results in the treatment of hundreds of patients after learning about it front local First People indigenous healers. The recipe, if memory serves me correctly is one part dandelion root, one part red clover, one part Turkey Rhubarb, one part Sheep's Sorrel. As a recall, it required the consumption of nearly a gallon of tea daily, so for those who don't like herbals or bitters, it may not be a viable option in the reversal of the disease. Dandelion is also lithotriptic, helping to dissolve kidney stones. Useful juiced as a regular part of the diet along with ginger and parsley, where a lack of exercise and over consumption of calcium results in the frequent passage of stones.

Hydrastis canadensis... Powdered Hydrastis canadensis is wonderful to heal and protect a newborn's newly cut umbilical cord. It helps it to dry up and protects against infection. It has a stimulating effect, helping to tone and sustain venous circulation. With ginger or gentian it stimulates the stomach, with senna the bowels, with elecampane the bronchi, with uva ursi it can stimulate the urinary tract. Small and frequent doses of the decoction, is advisable. Grow your own in a shady spot, as it is endangered do to overuse. Oregon Grape root and Barberry can be sufficient substitutes.

For shooting nerves along spine...
Add 1 ounce of Hydrastis canadensis (Goldenseal)
3/4 ounce of Humulus lupus (Hops)
1/2 ounce of Scutellaria laterifolia (Scullcap)
to 1..5 pints boiling water. Cover. Cool to room temperature. Take 2 tablespoons 3x daily.
Recipe is care of Dominion Herbal College.

Mentha Spicata.... This is a diaphoretic, diuretic, stimulant, carminative and antispasmodic. It eases imflamed kidneys and bladder, encouraging urination. It induces perspiration, helpful in fever relief and mild skin conditions. Allays stomach sickness. Wonderful in pregnancy when emesis is ongoing. Useful in colic, panic attacks, flatulence, and good old fashion hysteria, Especially when those conditions intersect. Infuse a heaping tablespoon of minced ginger root with a handful of spearmint in 2 pints of hot water for fifteen minutes. If you like cardamom add a few pods of it as well. Enjoy!

None of the traditional herbal usage I relay should be construed as a substitute for medical advice. These herbs may be contraindicated with medications you are currently taking or medical conditions you have. You should always speak at length with a qualified practitioner who takes your medical history, general vitality, digestive processes, diet, and the types of exercise you currently doing, and heed your inner guidance before ingesting any plant with whom you are unfamiliar. Plant people are our potent allies, when we approach them with reverence, respect, caution, and forbearance, our relationship with them can reap huge rewards.

Hubby's Commercial

The client wanted whiny and annoying. Great job, babe! http://vimeo.com/66375473

Plant Person

Perhaps as a result of the solitary nature of spending many hours in trance translating words of wisdom from beyond, making herbal formulas, and writing recommendations, I can at times feel like more of a plant than a person. A green force of Earth consciousness. Plants like to be nurtured too...

Speaking of plant people..Is The Giving Tree a terrible, horrible book, glorifying unconditional, pain-inflicting, self-sabotaging love? Or a neglected child's best friend which can inspire the most selfish of parents, lacking in nurturing skills, to aspire to be more giving of themselves? Maybe it can. Often it is remembered as a lovely and poignant story about unconditional love that is bittersweet. Maybe it's an allegory about how we treat the earth? Is that why it collectively moves us? For we know love that isn't reciprocal is unhealthy. Even moms need some reciprocity from their children.

May all the plant spirits help me to pass my final exams. In return, I will sing to them, dance for them, give give them offerings and never stop believing in their magnificent, magical properties.

Gardening with my Animus

Did a little emergency gardening due to the forthcoming rain showers expected. Moved some goldenseal and a Mother's Day sunflower outdoors for the time of their lives. Sewed my seeds hastily and sloppily. That's the way to get it done. Sooner or later, Mother Nature's gonna get you. Quick as lightning I weeded my veggie boxes. Nipped the flowers of my parsley plants so they will grow horizontally. Turns out a rusty ax and a pile of dead trees needed me, as did my ceremonial rock circle. Wielding an ax feels so right. What's good for the inner machismo is good for the inner goddess. Been a long time, since we rock n' rolled.

Interview with Wicked Local!

http://www.wickedlocal.com/dennis/news/x1506809449/PHOTO-GALLERY-The-Geometry-of-Women-at-Danton-Studio?zc_p=0#axzz2SvHjpjP8

Interview with the Barnstable Patriot!!

Look what the Barnstable Patriot has to say about Sacred Shapes: The Geometry of Women.

http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32776&Itemid=34