July 2011
Volume 11 Number 7

What's Inside Wise Woman Herbal Ezine this Month...

 INDEX | HEALING WISE BODY & SOULWISE WOMAN WISDOM | EMPOWER YOURSELF
NOURISH YOURSELF
| MOON MAGIC |  WISDOMKEEPERS
| FEATURED LINKS | FEATURED ARTIST


Grandmother Gaia...
The
Two Wounds


by Stephen
Harrod Buhner

Chapter Two
The Two Wounds
Excerpt from The Lost Language of Plants
The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth

by Stephen Harrod Buhner

The exterior and interior wounds that have come from no longer sharing soul essence with the world around us are pervasive, though the interior one is more difficult to see. The exterior wound, however, is easily perceived. . . . By now it has widened, deepened, become so severe that most people routinely acknowledge its existence. This wound is the logging of the rainforest, the pollution and destruction of rivers . . . all the desecration of our exterior world. It has been talked about so much, and we have become so inured, that it is easy to forget that there is a feeling to this exterior wound. A feeling before words, before thinking. A simple, deep response from somewhere inside us recognizing damage to the fabric of life. We can shut these feelings off. But to understand the impact of the exterior and interior wounds it is important to feel them—even if only briefly—even if it hurts.




I had been invited to New York to give a talk on . . . the process whereby historical indigenous people developed their knowledge of plant medicines and, to some extent, how, in this present time, we could explore that process for ourselves. . . .

I asked the students if they knew anything about herbalism or plant medicines. None of them did. . . . So I asked them, "Why are you here?"

And they told me the truth. . . .

I turned to the next woman. . . . She looked up shyly, nervously conscious of the women on either side.

"Well," she said, "lately, I have been thinking of becoming a naturopath. So not too long ago I flew out to Portland to the naturopathic college there to see if it was something I wanted to do." She paused and moistened her lips, her head tilted slightly down. "Well, there were ten or fifteen of us on a tour and we were stopped in the middle of this hallway. I wasn't paying attention to what the guide was saying, my mind was wandering, thinking about something else, when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse as she opened a door to my right. I turned and looked and it was the room where they keep all the plants, all the herbs they use for medicine. And I could hear each one of the plants crying out to me, talking as clearly as I am talking to you now. And there were hundreds of them." She paused for a moment, then went on. "I came today because I thought, that perhaps, something in your talk could help me understand what had happened. I have been thinking, you know," and here she moistened her lips again and looked nervously around, "that maybe I'm crazy."




Our disconnection from nature and our disavowal of interior depth—of soul—from animals, plants, and landscapes occurs all the time in all of us. But there is more depth in the world than we have come to believe, than we have been taught. Connection with the interior world of nature has been a part of our species' experience for millennia. Contact with it still occurs when we least expect it: In the glance in a loved one's eyes, the shadowed green in an old-growth forest, the primal power in the majestic walk of a bear. Or, unexpectedly, in dreams of our grandmothers or our daily interactions with plants. Since the words to describe this kind of depth are atrophied or no longer present in our language, the experience, when it does extrude itself, is often difficult for people to deal with; they sometimes think they are crazy—crazy and alone, the only intelligent life form on Earth..

Excerpt from The Lost Language of Plants
The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth

by Stephen Harrod Buhner

The Lost Language of Plants:
The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life

Paperback by Stephen Harrod Buhner. 326 pp. Nourishes your soul.

Well-known author, teacher, lecturer, and herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner has produced a book that is certain to generate controversy.

The book will affect readers on rational and emotional planes. While some of the author's claims may strike traditional thinkers as outlandish, Buhner presents his arguments with such authority and documentation that the scientific underpinnings, however unconventional, are completely credible.

This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the environment, the state of health care, and our cultural sanity.

Price: $19.95

Order The Lost Language of Plants:
The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life

 

HOME | ARCHIVE | FORUM |  SITEMAP |  SUBSCRIBE


Wise Woman Herbal Ezine is sponsored by www.susunweed.com and www.wisewomanbookshop.com

©Susun Weed -Wise Woman Center
~ Disclaimer & Privacy Policy ~

 INDEX | HEALING WISE BODY & SOULWISE WOMAN WISDOM | EMPOWER YOURSELF
NOURISH YOURSELF
| MOON MAGIC |  WISDOMKEEPERS
| FEATURED LINKS | FEATURED ARTIST