The Teeth of the Lion—
The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion
by Anita Sanchez
Massachusetts, About 1621
A woman kneels in the rich, dark soil of a garden. Golden sunlight pours down on the freshly-turned earth, and the comforting warmth helps her to forget the cold. After a winter filled with hardship, death, and sorrow, it had seemed as if the sun would never shine again. But now the grass is greening, and spring has come at last.
She crumbles the soil between her fingers, preparing it carefully for the seeds. It is vitally important that these seeds grow: she is planting an herb garden, of plants carefully chosen for their healing powers. She lifts her tired eyes and scans the forbidding tangle of trees crowding close to the huts of the little settlement. Here there are no doctors' offices or apothecary shops, only wilderness. The plants she grows in her garden will be medicines that might make the difference between life and death for her family in this terrifying New World.
She etches a furrow in the fertile soil, then carefully sprinkles in a row of tiny brown specks. She pats the soil over them lovingly, murmuring a prayer over the precious seeds: a heartfelt prayer that dandelions will grow, where before there was only the barren grass.
…While the men did the heavy work of cutting down the trees and plowing, gardening was the women's chore. In the newly-cleared sunny spaces, they set themselves to create herb gardens, little square-edged plots seeded with familiar, home-like plants—small and hopeful patches of order in the chaos of the wilderness. The herb gardens were filled with plants that were the housewives' indispensable medicine chest.
…All parts of the dandelion plant—leaf, root, and flower—had been known for a millennia as efficacious remedies against a host of ailments, and were hailed in popular "herbals," or books of plant lore, as powerful medicine. The anxious wives and mothers, facing so many hardships in the New World, early planted the seeds of such useful plants. Although no one understood why dandelions were good medicine, everyone knew that they worked. Dandelions' golden blossoms were considered one of the most useful flowers in the garden.
You may recall from your childhood eating dandelion greens or drinking dandelion tea, making chains of the stems and flowers, blowing the seeds from the puff ball into the wind, being carefree while enjoying this prolific flowering plant. You may have been disappointed to learn that you were playing with a disgusting weed. But, now the world can learn the true, amazing, secrets of this wonderful herb, the dandelion!
In Anita Sanchez' new book, The Teeth of the Lion—The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion, 
you'll journey through the natural history of the dandelion and learn about its long association with humans. Well adapted ecologically to spread into and thrive within disturbed sites—such as the lawns, playgrounds, roadsides, and parking lots in which they are most often encountered today, and viewed as weeds—dandelions also have had a lengthy, welcomed association with humans as medicine, food, and objects of ritual, magic, and folklore. The Teeth of the Lion…may be purchased for $14.95 from McDonald & Woodward Publishing at www.mwpubco.com, via Amazon.com, or may be ordered through your local bookstore. ISBN 978-0-939923-22-9.
The Wise Woman Herbal Collection
Get all four of Susun S. Weed's best-selling herbal medicine books together and save $14. The total value of this offer is $76 plus shipping,
Yours for $62 plus shipping.
BUY THE WISE WOMAN HERBAL COLLECTION & Save...
Susun Weed’s books: |
|
Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
Author: Susun S. Weed. Simple, safe remedies for pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and newborns. Includes herbs for fertility and birth control. Foreword by Jeannine Parvati Baker. 196 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $14.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
|
|
Healing Wise
Author: Susun S. Weed. Superb herbal in the feminine-intuitive mode. Complete instructions for using common plants for food, beauty, medicine, and longevity. Introduction by Jean Houston. 312 pages, index, illustrations. Retails for $21.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com |
|
NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
Author: Susun S. Weed. The best book on menopause is now better. Completely revised with 100 new pages. All the remedies women know and trust plus hundreds of new ones. New sections on thyroid health, fibromyalgia, hairy problems, male menopause, and herbs for women taking hormones. Recommended by Susan Love MD and Christiane Northrup MD. Introduction by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. 304 pages, index, illustrations.
Retails for $19.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
For excerpts visit: www.menopause-metamorphosis.com
|
|
Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
Author: Susun S. Weed. Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen. Foreword by Christiane Northrup, M.D. 380 pages, index, illustrations. Retails for $21.95
Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
|
Buy THE WISE WOMAN HERBAL COLLECTION & SAVE..
LOVE LETTERS
Hi Susun,
I was actually just enlightened to your website by my husband. …..
Your website is amazing, I only wish I knew about it years ago.
Thank you,
Maria
read more...
|
COMFORT TOUCH DVD
This beautifully produced video introduces the viewer to the principles and techniques of Comfort Touch, a nurturing form of acupressure massage designed to be safe and appropriate for the elderly and the ill. Drawing on her many years of experience practicing and teaching this work in home-care and medical settings, Mary Kathleen Rose shares the essential elements of Comfort Touch with demonstrations of its applications in the seated, supine and side-lying positions.
This program will inspire the viewer - whether healthcare professional or family caregiver - to offer the benefits of touch to those for whom conventional massage may cause discomfort or even injury. While Comfort Touch provides soothing relief for the elderly and the ill, it can enhance the quality of life for anyone in need of a caring touch.
Includes 40-page Video Guide, complete with Principles and Techniques of Comfort Touch, Benefits of Comfort Touch, Precautions in the Use of Touch and Self-Care Exercises for the Caregiver. Yours for $29.00 plus shipping.
