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WEED WANDERINGS
~ Herbal Medicine with Susun Weed ~

December 2002 ~ Volume 2 Number 12


Legal Disclaimer

 

 

What's Inside Weed Wanderings this Month...

Feature Article
The Childbearing Year


Book Reviews

 


Herbal Medicine Chest
AMAZING ARTEMISIAS

Wise Woman Feature
Empowering words for you..

LIFE AND PEACE
THE WHEEL


 

 

Weed Wise Recipes
CHICKWEED WEED WALK

~ FEATURE ARTICLE ~


The Childbearing Year



by Susun S Weed

The childbearing year is a thirteen month year: the two months before conception, the nine months of pregnant, and two months following the birth. The childbearing year is a time of change and an opportunity to grow, filled with rapid physical adjustments and fierce emotions. The childbearing year touches every season. This book [Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year] is about herbs for the childbearing year.

In Europe, five hundred years ago, men tortured and burned the Wise Women who healed with herbs, the midwives, the ones who celebrated the cyclical ways. Calling them witches, they burned them in millions and broke the flow of mother to daughter transmission. In the Americas, their sons down the way killed the medicine women and curanderas, the Wise Women of the New World. Then they denied the existence of Wise Women in history.

Without our connections to each other and the earth, without our mothers' wisdom, we forgot our power. When we were told that we had no souls, and no minds, and no sisters, we believed it was true. When they told us that childbearing was too dangerous and difficult for women, midwives, and herbs, we believed it was true.

But the Wise Women live in our dreams, our visions, our deepest memories. We hear their whispers and we listen.

Wise Woman healing works in cycles and seasons, with the turning of the planets, and the pulsation of life. Wise Women gather each herb at its time and use it to nourish and build the sixty million cells we each create every second. They understand the attunement built into our cells after thousands of generations nourished on wild foods, the special kinship our bodies have with the vital elements condensed in herbs.

Wise Women herbalists see the whole herb, the physical forces and the subtle forces, and respect this wholeness. Wise Women make use of the color, form spirit, and substance of a plant, using it as a whole, not dividing it into parts and seeing power only in the "active" principle. Wise Women know that we are each whole and unique, in an individual, everchanging, symbiotic relationship with herbs.

Wise Woman healing is grounded, earthed, rooted. The Wise Woman accepts herself and her changes, her moods and her bleedings. She tends to birthing and dying without alienation from herself or the ones she helps. She is open to the life song surrounding her; devas bless her. All that she needs for health and well being grows within the fall of her foot. She prepares the nourishment, she concocts the medicines. She is filled with creativity. Her life, her children, her art, her healing are shaped by her understanding of color, tone, harmony, and balance. She is wise in the ways of heart, body, and spirit.

This book speaks to the Wise Woman in you, the pregnant woman, and to the Wise Woman in your mat, lover, midwife, doctor, childbirth educator, and friends. It is based on the belief that you are capable of observing your own body, heart, and mind, responding to the messages you receive during the childbearing year, and caring for yourself in a context of loving support and assistance.

The information I share with you here represents the careful experiments and experiences of many herbalists and ordinary people. It is not a compendium of herbal remedies gathered from other books with the hope that these herbs will work, but a record of herbal practices which have been tested in many situations and with a wide variety of people. I see this work as a link in remembering ourselves as Wise Women, joining with the Wise Women in China and other areas where herbal medicine has an unbroken tradition, joining with the Wise Women in plants, joining with the Wise Woman mothering earth.

Do you remember? Is that a picture of your grandmother in her garden? We are all Wise Women. ~ Susun Weed

 


For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@herbshealing.com

Excerpt from Susun Weed's Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year



INTRODUCTION

Women are carriers of life. We hold the fruit of our loving beneath our hearts. For too long we have lost touch with the fullness of this mystery due to modern, technological culture.

Wise Woman Herbal is another ally in reclaiming our lost gnosis as healers for ourselves and one another. It demonstrates beyond doubt that now is the time to be fully who e are throughout the childbearing year, guardians and nurturers of new life.

Susun S. Weed has created a magnificent testimony that the wise woman within is irrepressible. SHE will arise in all her glory if we but open our souls to our natural world. True to the essence of the herbs themselves, the material is presented mythically, botanically and lovingly. Susun not only introduces the novice to plant allies but further refines the already practicing herbalist's relationship with healing the fertility cycle.

It is challenging to choose one particular part as outstanding, as I found it all to be consistently excellent. Even after many years teaching herbal workshops to perinatal professional and natural parents, and mothering five children myself, I found much new and helpful material. It is kindred to my work, just like the book I would like to write.

In the many years since I wrote Hygieia: A woman's Herbal, I have re-envisioned my personal relationship with herbs to exclude their usage for abortions. I cannot endorse emmenagogic prescription in cases of pregnancy no matter how new the embryo. As a healer I strive to be harmless. With this clarification I heartily endorse Susun's wonderful book, for within its pages is distilled much worthwhile wisdom for mothers and mothers-to-be. This book is sweet word-medicine.

Wise Woman Herbal is a book I would give my best friend and her daughter contemplating pregnancy. I will certainly share it with my sister-midwives. It speaks to the deepest needs of women wishing their childbearing year (and years) to be the best that it can.

Blessed Be Gentle Mother!

With Love,
Jeannine Parvati Baker,

Jeannine Parvati Baker teaches at the Wise Woman Center in 2003!

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Wise Woman Feature...

LIFE AND PEACE

THE WHEEL





 

Dear Friends of Life and Peace
by Donna Henes, Urban Shaman


We have been inundated lately from all fronts — astrological, spiritual and political — with predictions, warnings and threats of terror and trauma.

These are indeed scary times. What is at stake is our safety, our peace of mind, our centered inner selves, our very lives and the lives of all the species who share our lovely planet home.

Indeed, our Mother Earth, Herself, is very vulnerable right now.

What to do?

We can shrink in fear and wallow in our worries — just close down. OR we can be radical optimists and use this time to work toward the expansion, openness and love that we all know in our heart of hearts is possible. We know that worrying is like praying for what we do not want.

Instead of wasting our precious mental reserves, let us put our intentions, attention and energy toward what we do want.
We can actively resist the urge to freeze. We can breathe deeply to fill ourselves with the air of the ages, the oxygen that can calm us. And as we exhale, we can sing, chant, talk and shout out our respect for life and our sacred prayers for peace on the planet.
Yours for blessing upon blessing of peace, love and joy, xxMama Donna

(c) Donna Henes 2002


The Wheel

The Wheel is always turning,
The seasons come and go,
Today we are naked in the Sun,
Tomorrow, bundled against the snow.
The Wheel turns, the Wheel turns,
Around and around it goes,
The dance of life continues,
As the energy ebbs and flows,
And with the Wheel we turn,
For to it we are bound,
Whatever we send forth,
Will once again come 'round.
The Wheel is always turning,
The Wise One can see,
That the Universe is infinite,
Accept this and be free.

-- Conny Jasper



 

Wise Woman Recipes


Chickweed Weed Walk

Excerpt from pages 116-118 Healing Wise

Put on your warm coat, and boots, and your hat, and come out with me to pick some chickweed. Yes, it is the middle of January! No, I'm not crazy. The sky has cleared and we'll have some good foraging down where the river widens and seeps toward the sea.

I have the basket and some scissors. There's no dirt to wash off if we carefully cut an inch away from the ground, like giving the plants a haircut. Come on, already; you won't need gloves. It's warm out today.

I love chickweed. It's my favorite salad green. And not just because I can harvest it fresh all winter long. The taste is exceptional: clean, bright green without a trace of bitterness, but just a little salty , Umm !

Umm...smell the fresh sea air. There's our supper. Ready to be cut. Snip, snip. We'll be like the hairdresser for the little star lady. Our haircut will encourage the chickweed to branch many times and provide that many more tender shoots for our next cutting.

And our cutting keeps the leaves large. Well, large for chickweed. I see your point, but, look, some of these are nearly as big as your thumbnail. In a, harsher habitat, the leaves don't get any bigger than your tiny toenail.

But large or small, all the leaves are an even, bright, clear green, absolutely smooth, and growing in opposed pairs. See how the leaf stalks get longer and longer as they get farther and farther from the growing tip?

Old chickweed is mostly stalk and not as edible as the tender leafy parts. Snip the growing leafy tops off, like this. And leave behind the soiled, stalky stuff. Lay it in the basket in a neat bundle, with all the stalks parallel. That makes it easier to chop for salad when we get back to the kitchen, No fuss, no mess, no dirt, no tedious washing.

Look at this line of hairs that runs up the stem. Just one tiny line of hairs on an otherwise totally smooth plant. That's not a second line of hairs; this one merely jumped to the other side there at the leaf node. It goes around to each of the four directions, as in a prayer to the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air.

You almost need a magnifying glass to see the hairs, unless you hold the stem to catch the light, just so, making the hairs visible.

Take another look at the stem. See how it barely rises from the ground? Not that it exactly creeps or lies on the ground, but chickweed can be said to grow out instead of up. There are so many branches to the stalk, and more here than usual, since my cutting increases the branching, that a single plant seems to grow like a super-nova, radiating out and up.

Pick one and feel the slightly swollen joints. Crush it, and note the juiciness. This is such a great plant to use as a poultice. Nothing like it for juicing things up and cooling off heat at the same time!

An inconspicuous plant, say most writers: smooth, green, small, low, no strong taste, and not very active medicinally. Inconspicuous, if you mean easily overlooked. Many a lawn owner is totally unaware of chickweed at play in the grass. What a feast of food and fun and fantasy they could have if the lawn mower didn't work.

Few town dwellers notice it either, though I've never been in a city yet, except in the tropics, that wasn't graced with chickweed. I was picking and eating chickweed off a curbside in West Berlin just a few months ago, much to the dismay of my German companions. At first, that is. A few salads later, they wanted to help me gather some more!

Most gardeners notice it. Small stature seems only to encourage our little star lady to a glorious abandon of abundance in vegetable or flower bed, thus bringing many an unladylike gardener's curse to little star lady's ears. As any annual does, chickweed focuses her energy on producing as many viable seeds as possible.

Here's a seed capsule. Not much more visible than the rest of the plant. Maybe that's why wise women love the little star lady so: she's as invisible as they are.

The seeds in here will ripen even if you cut the plant or uproot it. If I pick a lot of chickweed and leave it in the refrigerator (it's one wild green that keeps well), within a few days the bottom of my storage bag is covered in a layer of tiny yellow-orange seeds that have ripened and fallen loose.

With your magnifying lens you'll see the teeth on the seed capsule. When the seed capsule gets wet, these teeth swell, and keep the capsule tightly shut. When the sun and wind dry the capsule, the teeth loosen and allow the wind to shake the seeds free.

These patches of chickweed seem almost perennial, they self-sow so readily and constantly. But we don't curse the chickweed; we bless it, and accept its blessing of abundant green.

Few patches of chickweed can outproduce my appetite for it! Last year I served chickweed salad to thirty women on spring equinox from this very patch. When I don't have that much help, I can eat quarts of chickweed a day all by myself .

Sometimes the chickweed's already flowering by spring equinox. Wouldn't you be surprised in this little plain plant had flashy flowers? Don't worry, it doesn't. Unless you use a magnifying lens.

Magnified, the pattern of delicate deeply-divided petals, each set off by a pointed green sepal, becomes a whirling mandala, a glittering star. The symmetry of the flower vibrates and the five white, cleft petals become ten slivers of light in your eye. The sepals' five-pointed under-star of shimmering green adds to the effect.

There you are peering through a magnifying glass at a tiny flower, and suddenly you're having an experience of cosmic proportions. That's the little star lady for you!

This patch of chickweed is out in the sun, so it dies early, as soon as the days lengthen and the heat builds. But there's a patch back at the house, under the roses. That patch doesn't give many greens in winter, but it stays so shady and moist that stars bloom there almost all year.

The little star lady prefers cool, rich, moist soil. Along misty coasts, deep in mountain valleys, and even in cities, she has no shortage of likely habitats.

She thrives here, along my quiet strand, though not as lushly as I once saw her growing.

I was in northern California, along the coast. The wind was fierce, so my walk that day wasn't far. Just far enough to find a little stream that ran down to the sea, spreading herself out and out as she came, and smoothing the way for acres of nearly knee-high chickweed (with a healthy bit of miner's lettuce mixed in to add to the bounty).

I would have lain down on the ground and eaten my way to bliss, but it was too wet. With my outer shirt as a makeshift carrying basket, and my ever-handy pocket knife, I cut enough to feast on for days to come, and plenty for sharing the earth's bountiful gifts with my chickweed-loving friends, too.

And why don't we do the same? Though we have a proper basket and won't have to undress to hold onto our chickweed! The days are short. Let's cut our salad and go have a cup of hot cider by the wood stove.

Excerpt from Susun Weed's Healing Wise

 

 

~ BOOK REVIEWS ~

 

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way,
reviewed in Echoed Voices by M.L. Benton, Copyright © 2002


   

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way

Whether you or perhaps a friend or family member have had breast cancer, or you are a woman, period, this is a book you should have in your personal library. Author Susun Weed brings you every step of the way in breast health, which modern medicines and practitioners tend to either ignore or not explore.

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way is the first step to wellness and staying healthy. Author Susun Weed has certainly done her homework, with research and a natural lifestyle. She begins with a small personal story and the awakening from it, which leads to the disclosure of her anti-cancer lifestyle, a one page insight of balance and harmony, then ends this section with a how-to on using this book, about herbs and their dangers.

She begins her chapters with the statistics of breast cancer and how they make her feel, how it makes us all feel. She leaves nothing out with her research with complete scientific data and what is accepted in the medical society and what may be likely but not proven. She explores every angle in a not so easy subject.


Moving on to "Can Foods Prevent Cancer?" Again she has done her homework and provided a wealth of information on anti cancer foods, she explores foods, herbs, oils, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. In "Taking Our Breasts into Our Own Hands, Breast Self Massage", Ms. Weed goes far beyond just the how-to that we so often get from our Doctors and clinics, thoroughly discussing the many aspects of self-breast exam, including an extensive list and uses of different oils.

As you make your way to the following chapters, you begin to expect much more from her. This is exactly what she gives you! With "Building Powerful Immunity, Journey to the Wise Healer Within", " Mammograms -Who Needs Them?" and the last of the first Section "There's a Lump in my Breast!", she brings you completely full circle as she delves into each of these subjects.

Section two has some of the scariest of topics, but the author gently eases your anxiety as if she is right beside you holding your hand, letting you know you are not alone by exploring every aspect of having Breast Cancer. From "What is Breast Cancer? The Diagnosis", dealing with your emotional state, to "Choosing Surgery Questions to Ask," the topics just continue to flow to give you a complete in-depth exploration, with recipes, suggestions and what to expect no matter what you decide. She gives you extensive resource lists on just about every topic. This book is not a get healed fast pill, but instead an exploratory journey, on one of the most feared and extended taboo subjects in our time. Through it all Susun reminds you; this is Your Life, take control!

Hail to Susun Weed who has brought the light in an age of darkness with this book! Every Clinic, Gynecologist and Oncologist worth their weight should read, then recommend "Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way," to all their patients. I give this wonderful archive of information my highest of recommendations!

M.L. Benton,
Copyright © 2002

 


 

Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
The Wise Woman Way

by Susun S. Weed
Foreword by Christiane Northrup, MD
380 pages, index, profusely illustrated.
Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen.
Retails for $21.95

Read a Review

Read some excerpts:
Mammograms - Who Needs Them? from Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
Using Herbs Safely from Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
My Anti-Cancer Lifestyle from Breast Cancer? Breast Health!

 

Order BREAST CANCER? BREAST HEALTH! in our Bookshop

What a gift to women of all ages! This book helped me overcome my fear of what I might discover during self-examination. I am so grateful that this book came my way and I am healthier in mind, body, and spirit thanks to Ms. Weed's wise words! If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every woman in the world!

 





NEW LINKS to check out...

http://www.ancientsky.com/ The consciousness of the ancients is recreated through the scholarly works of various astrological writers. Learn about the poetic connection between the myths and the constellations. View the night sky with the special reverence of antiquity. Claire-France Perez, author and astrologer, presents the Ancient Sky.

 

 

Alternative Baby: Offering alternatives to traditional baby products, including cloth diapers, diaper bags, slings, clothing, bathtime products, and toys. Mom’s aren’t forgotten either, with a great range of luna pads, nursing pads, and the beautiful nursing necklaces!

 

Moon Rites

SPIRALDANCER is the mother of two daughters, an author, a regular writer for “Witchcraft” Magazine Australia and a teacher of Women’s Mysteries and Wisecraft. She is committed to reclaiming Menarche, Menstruation, Motherhood and Menopause as more than just biological experiences, for all women and their daughters. Her website has information on her first book, “Moon Rites - ritual myth and magic for the modern moon goddess” , some of her favourite links, and will soon have simple rituals you can use to enhance your female journey and hopefully much more. It’s expanding all the time, so do come for a visit! Click here to read an excerpt from MoonRites- ritual myth and magic for the modern moon goddess

 

 

Woodland Temple, Inc. takes great pride in having been included in Susun Weed’s family of honorable sites. We are an e-commerce store dedicated to the whole person: mind, body and spirit. Our intention is to educate and encourage alternative ways to meet each need. Enjoy essential oils and herbs to specialty/property candles and spiritual bath and body products. Made with pure essentials, Woodland Temple Blends are individually created using numerology, then magickally charged for their purpose and are presented with a parchment scroll offering a brief description. Our newest offering is Animal Essences. Produced without causing harm to animals, prayerfully infused with vibrational energies of each totem.


Breast Wishes Institute

Breast Wishes Institute - Created by Mary Olsen Kelly, a breast cancer survivor, Breast Wishes Institute shares the information Mary looked for and had a hard time finding and learning. It has personal stories, told straight and to the point. It provides tips, tools, helpful recipes and household hints from other women about how they managed to survive the ordeal of breast cancer treatment. Mary says, “Please enjoy these tools, tips, recipes, and stories. I sincerely hope they will help you to prepare yourself for your medical journey and help your friends and family who are already on it.“

Gather the Women

Women of Vision and Action is sponsoring a historic week-long event beginning March 3, 2003. The week will culminate on March 8 with locally sponsored Gather the Women events around the world. We all know that humanity needs healing and we believe that healing will come about when the masculine and feminine energies on the planet are brought into balance. In gathering, we women are setting the stage to reawaken the divine feminine and generate the healing energy needed to support and empower all women to speak out and to take the collaborative actions necessary to create a balanced, harmonious and peaceful world. In this Sacred Global Retreat we will connect with one another, feel our own innate power and initiate collective actions worldwide to bring the planet into harmony and balance. From this gathering positive action will flow and everyone will benefit from the healing power of our unique expressions. The site includes a list of daily activities to help women prepare internally and energetically for the Gather the Women event on March 8; ideas on how you can volunteer your time and resources to the event; a Resources section; and some inspiring quotes from women around the world.

 

Hawaiin
Hawaiian Huna Village: Your best resource for Huna, Hawaiian Shamanism, and alternative healing

 

Earth Wisdom Teachings provides sacred space for women and men to rediscover their inner wisdom and wise-healer within. Based upon the Wise Woman Tradition of healing and indigenous teachings of North America, EWT helps support individuals in the process of embracing their true voice and personal power. Blade is a Wise Woman, shaman, certified herbalist and founder of EWT. She has completed apprenticeships with Susun Weed and Creek/Seminole shaman, Puma Renya de Luna. Blade has been initiated as a warrior and shaman and is an adopted member of the Fox/Bird clan. EWT offers workshop, plant walks, ceremony, herbal consultations, spiritual-counseling and apprenticeships.

 

 

 

 

Purple Coneflower Herbals offers a select line of high quality herbal extracts, hand-crafted in sacred tradition in Vermont since 1989. The plant material used in our extracts is meticulously sourced from quality organic, biodynamic and responsibly wildcrafted botanicals, assuring a pure, vibrant product. We work consciously with the spirits of the plants, in a context of deep respect for the connectedness of all life, so that the healing benefits of the herbs are fully imparted in the extracts. We are a small, herbalist owned and operated company offering personal, responsive service. Blessings, Annie McCleary, herbalist and owner.

 

 

http://www.seniorresource.com/ is a comprehensive, informational site defining and explaining traditional and leading-edge senior lifestyle options, related services, estate planning, insurance and product information. Our staff has more than 13 years consulting expertise with companies that provide for seniors. We understand the great value of qualified leads. We are the “E-cyclopedia” of housing options and information for retirement, finance, insurance and care, and a free monthly ezine.

 

Brutus of Windhorse Healing Arts & Holistic Academy. If you are interested in redefining your life, making a difference in our world, finding a better path to peace and wholeness, reclaiming your birth-right gifts and learning the sacred metaphysical arts, then you have found your path to home! Brutus of Windhorse Healing Arts and Holistic Academy began with a promise ... a promise made to honor the sanctity of love and life. It is within that conceptual framework that we offer courses that speak of hope, balance, alternative healing modalities, inner strength, knowledge and spirituality. The curriculum embraces various cultures and is an international collage of wisdom. It is our belief that through knowledge comes understanding. Respect and peace, wholeness and enlightenment emerge through this portal. It is within this hologram that the wellspring for enrichment and fulfillment and ultimately for redefining our place in life will manifest.


 

Star Source - Explore Easter Island on horseback. Take workshops in the homes of tribal artists. Create friendships with the indigenous women of Rapa Nui. Starsourse is an opportunity for women of North American to come to Easter Island to create friendships with the indigenous women of Rapa Nui. Explore the island on horseback. Visit the Moai. Participate in prayer circles at the ancient village of Orongo and at Terevaka, the highest peak on the island. Meditate in lava cave Ana Kai Tangata. Join our Rapanui sisters in ocean front, full moon gatherings of drumming and singing. Take workshops, in the homes of local artists: mahute weaving, woodcarving, jewelry making, Rapa Nui cooking, Polynesian dancing. This is a unique opportunity experience know Rapa Nui culture, cultivating friendships with the tribal women of the island. March 12-24, 2003.

 

 

Black Herbals


BLACKHERBALS.COM
Generally in all areas of health, Women of Color in N. America and the Diaspora suffer greatly as a result of their particular genetics, environment, stress levels, availability of information, access to health alternative professionals, etc. Blackherbals.com specializes in heterogeneous, "African, Jamaican, Indian, Chinese" herbs, herbal extracts and formulas, spices and condiments and beauty aids. The products we carry are derived from "traditional African" formulas, herbal customs and principles and from "traditional Indian and Chinese" herbal practices. We will soon be adding a new line of beauty products from India using the principles of Ayurvedic medicine. We also shop the Caribbean, South and Central America and the Amazon Rainforest for authentic products, to help our customers build and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

 

MoonCircles

 

MOONCIRCLES This website is the joint project of Dana Gerhardt (a professional astrologer, writer, and student of Buddhism) and Pythia Peay (a spirituality journalist, and student of astrology and Sufism), devoted to rituals and attunements honoring the cycles of the waxing and waning moon. We hope you will regard this space as your space. With the help of many moon lovers, we've seen MoonCircles grow as a cyber lunar temple, with more and more of us connecting to the moon's cycles and keeping attuned to the ever-changing ebb and flow, rise and fall of the times. Living and creating in harmonic rhythm with the moon -- musicians of time -- what magic we can bring! We update the astrological Welcome, Moon Meditations, and Season Teachings at each New Moon and offer a special Meditation for each Full Moon. The day's Moon sign, phase, and aspects are given in Today's Moon. And we invite you to share your own reflections with fellow members in the Talking Circle. If you'd like to receive email notifications of the New and Full Moons, register with us and we'll keep you in the lunar rhythm.

 

 

Mystical & Magickal Art by Sabrina
Pen and Ink drawings of the Goddesses, The Sabbats, Pagan Art, Fantasy Art and Faeries.

 

OPTION INSTITUTE - We are the International Learning and Training Center for The Option Process, offering personal growth programs to help people maximize their happiness. What does it mean to be an Exceptional Woman? Exceptional women know who they are and what they have to offer the world. They wake up every morning with energy, passion, and purpose. They are ready to take on the world. Being an Exceptional Woman is not about feminism; it’s about being yourself and being truly comfortable with that. It’s about claiming your place in the world and refusing to settle for an inauthentic life determined by who and what others think you should be.

ArtemisPress publishes fiction and nonfiction e-books of interest to the worldwide women's community, with an emphasis on lesbian-related titles. We specialize in high quality, thought-provoking and entertaining stories that celebrate the strength and diversity of our life experiences. We offer a variety of electronic formats, including Palm and PDF! No special reading devices required! All e-books available for immediate online sale and delivery. Free e-books, too! Where women readers support women authors!

 

 

 

 

 

Empower Yourself with Corrine Champigny, Singer/Songwriter
From ten to ten thousand in attendance, Corrine Champigny has been performing and sharing her unique style of uplifting music world-wide for over ten years. With four CD's to her credit in which she has written all of her own material, Corrine plays her guitar and shares with her audiences all of her journeys in life through her songs. Corrine shares the secrets of her inner Peace, success and happiness through her music. Moreover, what is very unique about Corrine is that she also speaks about her own personal meditation and yoga practices that have changed her life and often inspires her audiences to want to more about how they can make some of the changes in their lives that they have so often contemplated and also often have put off. She also offers and also shares with her audiences the invaluable tools of simple meditation and yoga practices that fit into your busy life!

Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique

Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique Eliminates all types of allergy and related disease. Permanent allergy elimination promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine. The diagnosis of 'hidden' allergies, itself, is not revolutionary. However, the process of allergy desensitization is unique since it allows patients to live symbiotically with food and environmental allergens. Permanent allergy elimination technique retrains the central nervous system to be in contact with the known allergen without causing adverse reactions. Through the process of NAET, we can train our central nervous system to perceive all energies as beneficial to facilitate both energy flow and balance.

Code Pink is a site encouraging women to oppose the war in Iraq. We love our country, but we will never wrap ourselves in red, white and blue. Instead, we announce a Code Pink alert: signifying extreme danger to all the values of nurturing, caring, and compassion that women and loving men have held. We choose pink, the color of roses, the beauty that like bread is food for life, the color of the dawn of a new era when cooperation and negotiation prevail over force. Includes a link to the Code Pink Diary by Starhawk, a sister in women's spirituality who has been active as a High Priestess for more than twenty years, and has done so many courageous actions against war, pollution, nuclear threats, clear-cutting, and violence against women.

Know of a good site to recommend?

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Herbal Medicine Chest


AMAZING ARTEMISIAS

c. 2002 Susun S Weed

 

Artemis - Goddess of the herbalist - gives her name to a genus of marvelously aromatic, safely psychedelic, highly medicinal, dazzlingly decorative, and more-or-less edible plants in the Asteraceae family. I love Artemis, and I love her plants.

WHO IS ARTEMIS?

Amazonian moon goddess. Goddess of the hunt. Goddess of the wild things. Goddess of the midwife. Goddess of the herbalist. Mother of all Creatures. Leader of the sacred bitches. Great she-bear. Diana. Selene. Ever Virgin; owned by no man. We will visit her sacred wood on a shamanic journey. Who knows what will happen then.

HOW DO ARTEMISIAS GROW IN YOUR GARDEN?

Most Artemisias are perennials and grow best from cuttings, not seeds. Sweet Annie is the exception, being a self-seeding annual. Although you can buy tarragon seeds, you can't grow true tarragon from them. Wormwood and southernwood and tarragon (the last not winter-hardy in many places) are woody perennials which regreen each year on last year's new wood; I prune only dead wood from them. Cronewort is an invasive perennial that creeps underground; it dies back to the ground each year and can be heavily harvested (clear cuts are ok) without damage to its further prolific productivity.

Most Artemisias require little care. Lack of soil nutrients and lack of water do not faze them. Many are native to deserts, and know how to thrive in hot dry weather. Except for tarragon, all can overwinter without fuss.

Flowers are usually small and green, in other words, nearly invisible.

WHAT DO ARTEMISIAS CONTAIN?

bitter principals: wormwood
coumarins: cronewort, tarragon
essential oils (complex, variety specific, with hundreds of components per plant): cronewort (high in camphor, thujone), tarragon, wormwood (high in camphor, thujone)
flavonoids: cronewort, tarragon
glycosides: cronewort, tarragon
hormones: cronewort (sitosterol, stigmasterol)
sesquiterpene lactones: cronewort

HOW ARE ARTEMISIAS USED?

Artemisias, with their grey-green or white-green foliage bring beauty to the garden throughout the growing season. They also make long-lasting, aromatic and beautiful indoor decorations: bouquets, wreaths, swags. They are popular strewing herbs, too.

Those which are high in essential oils are thereby antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial. They also improve digestion and appetite if taken in small doses.

Any Artemisia growing beside the door - or painted on it - was, in days of old, the sign of the midwife, the herbalist. Magical and folkloric uses are numerous.

"Mugwort possesses both natural and supernatural qualities. [It] excels as a woman's herb, easing the pain of labor, menstrual cramps, and effectively treating various uterine complaints." Gai Stern (1986)

Cronewort/mugwort = smudge, dream pillow, moxa, birthing steam, vinegar of roots and young leaves, salad green when young, mugwort noodles, mugwort mochi. American colonists used the sundried leaves as a tea substitute. Formerly a popular beer flavoring (hence the name mugwort). Controls worms in goats. Urinary tonic. Uterine tonic. Digestive tonic. Nerve tonic. Circulatory tonic. Cronewort eases pain and fever, comforts grief and depression, eases irritability and burdened joints, brings peace and sleep, and reassures the nerves.

Moxa demonstration and discussion.

"That torturous, barbaric practice, the use of the moxa, is closely related to this plant." Millspaugh (1892)

Wormwood = tincture, oil. Ingredient in absinth. Stimulates mid-brain activity and increases creativity, but repeated use disturbs the central nervous system. Prevents giardia, dysentery, amoebas. Cholagogic, digestive, appetite-stimulant, liver-stimulant, wound healer. Caution: Use can lower seizure threshold; interacts adversely with seizure-reducing medications.

Sweet Annie = capsules, in fairly large daily dose, to prevent malaria; source of antimalarial drugs. A strong tea, taken frequently, kills giardia and amoebas.

Tarragon = vinegar, seasoning. Appetite stimulant according to Herbal PDR.

Southernwood = dream pillow, sachet, charms. To see the beloved.

SPECIES

Some of the many Artemisia species that herbalists and gardeners use:

A. abrotanum (southernwood)
A. absinthium (wormwood)
A. afra (African wormwood)
A. annua (sweet Annie, qing hao)
A. camphorata (camphor-scented sothernwood)
A. drancuncula (tarragon, estragon, little dragon)
A. frigida (fringed sagebrush)
A. lactiflora (ghost plant)
A. ludoviciana (silver queen)
A. pontica (Roman wormwood)
A. schmidtiana (silver mound)
A. stellerana (old woman, dusty miller)
A. tridentata (sagebrush; three-toothed sagebrush)
A. vulgaris (cronewort, mugwort)

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Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional western medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat,cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material on this website/email is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Always check with your personal physician when you have a question pertaining to your health and healthcare.

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Menopause-Metamorphosis is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and provides sound advice to help women get through the menopausal years. I found this site very empowering as it offers hard-to-find herbal information and helpful hints for the menopausal woman who is looking for alternatives to western medicinal treatments. This site has been designed to promote Susun Weed's book, NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, however she offers the visitor lots of content in the form of useful articles ( I found Herbs for Women Using Hormones especially useful). I did not feel as thoughI was in a commercial site at all. Ms. Weed covers a wide variety of hard-to-discuss topics, such as: digestive distress, weight gain, hairy problems, and vaginal dryness. Susun Weed also offers articles on important subjects including; Building Better Bones, and how to deal with Emotional Uproar. I will recommend this site to friends and loved ones who are menopausal or who know some one who is entering the Change. Of final mention, this site not only offers information for women in menopause but it also provides help for women in pre- and post-menopause as well - see Three Stages of Menopause. This site is not depressing - quite to the contrary, www.menopause-metamorphosis.com offers great alternative health options, spiritual advice, an art gallery, and there is even a humor section. It is definetly worth at least one visit!
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