It’s OK, I understand. It is very common to want to help others! But in order to really kick ass, it helps to treat underlying causes. If someone gets foot pain from high heels, they don’t need a salve. They need flats. If someone wants palliative care for their ulcer but can’t/won’t deal with stress that induces it, they need support and a nervine, not  just “ulcer tea”. If someone gets recurring infections, they may need air flow or movement rather than an “antifungal cream”.  

We do ourselves and our clients a disservice when we let them off the hook too easily. When we don;t ask questions, when we “don’t go there”. Dudes, it’s time to go there. Insomnia? Ask about mommy issues, exercise, food, sexuality. Light pollution, safety, dreams.Talk about sugar, talk about screen time, talk about fear and shame, talk about classism and racism. Relationships. Addictions. Trauma.

It’s time for us to say : Hey, maybe you don’t need a salve for that rash? Maybe you need to take a daily walk, solve a longterm problem, switch to cotton underpants or as herbalist Rebecca Altman geniusly calls it “tree time”. Outside time. Earth time. A notebook and pencil, a chair in the shade.

I am not saying we should withhold palliative care and force our clients to conform to our ideas of what is up. Quite the opposite, as we sometimes must palliate as a step towards something else. But that is all-a step, not the end.
We as herbalists have a responsibility to ask questions, to be obnoxious if needed,(and it IS needed) to observe and point out patterns, to explore those places where it hurts to go. We need to do our job, as problem solvers, as jesters or as shapeshifters, a job that is as old as dirt but is now mainly filled by a few remaining great comedians.
It helps noone to abdicate our responsibilty, it is a copout to hand out some cream and see ya later. We CAN tell people “you are beautiful”. We can tell people “I hear you”. We can point out that the emperor wears no clothes, that they are not insane, that they are not “toxic”, that the pain of this world is real, that they CAN let go. That we are all in this together and hell we’re all stardust anyway, so Gimme a freaking hug.
We can point out the relationship between having a great ad and your product being crap, between fancy packaging and actual content. We can talk about the follies of Dr Phil, Dr Oz, overmedication, New age bullshit, pubmed, repression, “some guy on the internet”, the “last 10 pounds”, and expensive green cleanses. We can dive into the places where fear takes us, and come out better for it.
For like it or not we are on the fringe. It’s called alternative medicine, so act like it. Be the alternative. Be flexible, Ask why. 1,000 times. Kick some ass, my friends, stop waiting around for a certificate or someone else’s approval and dive in, ask questions. and don’t be afraid to hear the answers.

One of my absolute favorite herbal medicines is Black Haw-Viburnum Prunifolium. It spent years in the Caprifoliaceae family amongst the lovely Honeysuckles and Elders but someone moved it to Adoxaceae, I’m going to need to mull about that one for a bit. The Viburnums are a pretty big bunch and also includes the more well-known Crampbark plus Nannyberry, Arrowwood Viburnum and Possumhaw. What’s a haw? It means fruit, as in “Hawthorne”. Oh, and it also means “a command to a horse, telling it to turn left”.  Just in case you’re reading this on horseback.

So Blackhaw-it’s a shrub. On the large side for a shrub, with opposite branches and it flowers in late spring with tiny flowers not unlike the Elder’s flowers. I’d call it cream color, and the bark is grey and sturdy. It is a common shrub in my area of upstate NY but is native to the whole northeast and midwest area and has been, in my experience, pretty easy to grow in a moist to medium area with part to full sun. I have yet to see it decimated by critters and the haws are not super desirable because they are mostly seed-one big flat seed in each dark purple haw, sometimes called a drupe amongst botanical types.

To make medicine I harvest bark and twigs, taking just a bit from each shrub so as to not be a jerk, and tincture it fresh. I use it both internally and externally. I will make a liniment with rubbing alcohol for external use only and a tincture with grain alcohol for both internal and external use.

My most important use of Black haw tincture is to address spasms and muscular tension. Our muscles spasm for various reasons-tension, dysmenorrhea, “charlie horse”, injury, overwork, asthma. I take a high dose-1/2 to 1 dropper-internally for menstrual cramps and I’ll do so every 2-4 hours if needed. But all types of so-called uterine colic responds to Black haw including the pain of endometriosis, fibroids, threatened miscarriage, afterbirth pains, ovulation pains, and -I haven’t tried this-but Winston says testicular pains.

“As a uterine tonic it is unquestionably of great utility”-King’s American Dispensatory. Yup.

The urinary tract also responds to Black haw and I’ve started to add it to my standard UTI formula of Alder/Monarda tincture if there is pain of a spasmodic nature.

I also use it in tension headaches. I will use it straight up or mixed with Crampbark and  Lobelia-a little bit internally, and a lot externally. In my first aid kit this blend is in a spray bottle-it is a great way to get tincture on places you can’t reach that well or-when you are in the throes of a debilitating tension headache or spasm- to just push the sprayer and avoid messing around with a dropper. I strongly recommend addressing tension and other headaches BEFORE they get bad, thus the joy of carrying such a blend about. Of course, no tincture will deal with all tension, and I recommend combining herbal treatment with deep breaths, tree time and whatever therapeutic practice works for you. My favorite meditation to use with Black haw is “let go”.
For neck pain I blend it with Goldenrod tincture-fresh flowering tops. Aviva Romm recommends adding Jamaican Dogwood bark for headache, which I love for menstrual headaches but is a bit more relaxing than some folks may want. Experimentation is always called for when formulating!

The Eclectics call it a specific for leg cramps and I have used it externally on very intense calf cramps to near-miraculous effect. It is indicated for restless legs, pregnancy induced leg spasm, pain from overwork or over exercise in all parts of legs, feet, and it has a place in back pain formulas.

Matthew Wood calls it a nutritive tonic which improves the powers of digestion and nutrition and Margi Flint indicated it for high blood pressure, these are 2 areas I have yet to explore but seem to make sense to me. 

Black haw is an ally which has been used for a long time and has no reported negative qualities that I’ve found. It is a special plant which I love in every way and which deserves a place in our forest gardens, in our first aid kits and medicine chests.

thorn

i’m lichen self care

We all have our own strategies for dealing with difficult times. I find I really enjoy feeling great and doing what I have to do to stay great. But of course wallowing in self-pity has its own value at times. I think, if I have one piece of advice to sum up my winter wellness strategy, it would be: Don’t just lay down and die becasue it’s kinda cold out. Take your time for introspection, take your sleeping-in and snuggling, and balance it with getting up off your ass and moving, challenging, creating and connecting.

I did not become an herbalist to sell stuff, to make friends or to be nice. I got into herbalism becasue a giant green hammer was pounding in my brain, leading me outside and into the arms of the plants. I am a fly in the ointment and I have learned to stop fighting that role and embrace it. I am the drunken bridesmaid of herbalism, the elephant in the room, knocking stuff over and crying at inappropriate times.
I question becasue I believe herbalism is an explosion, a compost pile, hot inside, constantly growing and changing, expanding and making a mess. I believe herbalists are red wrigglers eating crap and giving back black gold,and I believe the transformational possibilites are endless.
We can choose to embrace this or not, and neither is right or wrong for everyone.
But should we give simple answers to simple questions? That is up for each to decide, but I believe mostly no-we may do a disservice to others by asnwering oversimplified “what’s good for x” type questions. This fly wants to teach you HOW to learn, not what to do. I do not want to make a sale or make friends, I want to push people a little, to make folks think–I myself have been offended by words that later, upon reflection, changed my life.
Often we are taught to never rock the boat, to give short answers, sound bites and polite euphemisms. School, work, institutions, “check this box!” Well, fuck that! Are we trying to spark people, to change the world? Or are we more concerned with offending someone? Are we more afraid to challenge others and ourselves?
Herbalism is not an ossuary. There is no one master list where we look up this for that. Herbalism is a bullet train full of green revelers, hurtling through space, a dynamic and evolving force. herbalism is resistance, resilience, evolution. We are artisans practicing a craft-practicing for life-never mastering. For an artist can master painting a still life, over and over, 3 pears and a vase of flowers until it’s perfect. But every single living thing is different and awesome and every herbal interaction is a dance between herbalist and plant medicine, between client and herbalist and between plant emdicine and client. We are painting a volcanic explosion not a still life.
This is beautiful and exciting as well as sometimes frustrating, but we must accept that there is no easy answer, there is no box to check off. I reject the marketing schemes and the lifelong indoctrination that we can fix things easily and simply with pills.
So our craft needs the cheerful, the positive, the nice and the linear. Our craft needs all of you wonderful people who choose not to alienate or offend others, all of the different styles and all of the choices. But herbalism also needs the obnoxious, the questioners who poke at life with a stick to see what happens. Herbalism also needs to get shaken up sometimes, to crack our minds open and see what comes out, even if it is messy and challenging, hilarious and painful. That is one of the ways we learn.

Winter is beautiful. I hear folks say “everything is dead” but really that’s bullshit. Just because a plant isn’t flowering doesn’t make it dead. Are you dead when you are resting? And hey-what about lichens? ferns? mosses? sheepsorrel? evergreens? mullein? celandine? ajuga? garlic mustard? HELLO! You have to get down there on your hands and knees and look!
We have created highly unrealistic conditions indoors, with temperatures which do not in any way reflect the reality of life. The disconnect is shocking. I saw 2 different humans outdoors in pajamas yesterday. The high was like 7. I was cheerfully sweating in my thrift store coat and wool socks.

And I value a feeling of accomplishment. I value building character. I don;t wish to avoid discomfort at all costs, and I question how our culture constantly gives us messages that our comfort and convenience are more important than
our character! Additionally, we would benfit from feeling responsible for our own wellness, and both exercise and outdoors time contribute immensely to our well-being.
So my advice is get yourself appropriately dressed and motivate to get outside and move, check out the amazing ice and brilliant sky, keep moving and soak up a little sunshine. The best way to really feel grattitude for the warmth we have is to feel it deep down in your bones… coming in from the cold!