Herbal Healing for Women
2 CD set by Susun Weed
Green Nations Gathering
Review by Jan Calloway Baxter
Have you ever noticed that when a book or a talk concerns specifically women’s health it is often said to be about women’s “problems?” Susun Weed has, too. She says that when they asked her to give a talk concerning using herbs for women’s problems,
she asked if they wanted her to teach about flat tires, high taxes, and the rising cost of child care. But no. They wanted her to talk about using herbal healing for the breasts and the uterus. So that’s what this talk is about.
The talk begins with Susun and her audience, all made up of people (don’t know if they were all women) well enough versed in the use of herbs to be attending this 1996 Green Nations Gathering, listing their favorite herbs used for women’s health. Even with all my intense scribbling and going back and forth on the CD, I couldn’t get all of the herbs named since I couldn’t always hear those named by the audience. I recommend listening using headphones. On headphones, I could always hear Susun’s voice, and sometimes even hear what the audience members were saying, a real plus. Good sound is, of course, a problem with any live recording.
But it turned out that missing every herb mentioned by the audience wasn’t much of a hardship since Susun went through them during her talk. Her favorites, the ones she goes into at most length in the CD, include flax, motherwort, poke, cronewort (also called mugwort, but not by Susun), and St. Joan’s Wort (also known as St. John’s Wort, but not by Susun). The discussion touches on many others: raspberry, lady’s mantle, blue cohosh and black cohosh (which are most certainly not interchangeable), yarrow, the mint family and the rose family.
Did you know that you can get the same amount of calcium (300 milligrams) from one tablespoon of mint- infused vinegar that you can from a cup of milk? (And that should be raw milk, remember.) That’s great news because I love all kinds of herbs from the mint family: peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, bee balm, oregano, shiso, wild bergamot, hyssop, sage. Got vinegar?
If you suffer from fibroids or endometriosis, this talk has much food for thought and many ideas for you to follow up on. Susun sings a chant from Maria Summerwood about naming your uterus as the center of your power and speaks to why we should touch it more. Members of the audience discuss their own treatments for uterine problems as well as mentioning those of other well-known healers such as Rosita Arvigo and Tierona Low Dog.
I always get all loaded up with information to use to face down my low-fat, artificial sweetener-using, vegetarian, raw-food-eating friends when I listen to Susun. Hearing again how much fat women need to eat daily (2 ounces at least) to keep their skin supple and their hormones pumping always makes me feel good since I could swear my friend at the raw milk dairy always looks at my rotund tummy askance when I order the whole milk. And as I dearly love toasted pecans, I’m thrilled to find that I must eat them within 36 hours after I toast them or they will go rancid—the fats from seeds and nuts oxidize that quickly.
What’s the strongest muscle in the body? No. It’s not the heart. It’s the uterus. “Can you imagine a heart strong enough to push out an eight pound baby?” Susun asks. However, many herbs that are good for the heart muscle are also good for the uterus. Motherwort, for example, strengthens the heart as well as the uterine muscles.
The CD is good for learning about other topics, too, such as a great mosquito repellent (yarrow tincture sprayed on full strength), the real meaning of the word “squaw” and why you don’t want to use it, why eating mostly raw food is not good for you, why you should take St. Joan’s Wort on your next airplane trip, and what roots were originally used in root beer.
Curious about any of those topics? Add this two CD set to your collection.
Review by Jan Calloway-Baxter
Herbal Healing For Women - 2 CD set
"Susun Weed at Green Nations Gathering 1996 - From Menstrual cramps to menopause with a focus on fibroids and endometriosis, this session includes lots of information about diet, herbs, and home remedies. Includes flax, healthy fats, motherwort, cronewort, poke, and lots more.
Time: CD1/57:47 min. & CD2/53:22 min.
Price: $22.50
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