Rowan Remedies

Most people are defined by the forces they choose to rebel against. Whether it is their parents, teachers or government we are all a reaction to something. But what about rebelling against yourself?

Consistently we are encouraged to box ourselves into a type. Are you, an emo? A hippy? A punk? A chav? A yummy mummy?

This “typing” of people comes from the advertisers and psychologists. They came together in the 50s to analyse the worlds psyche and how to best please/manipulate the public. By the 80s we had mastered this skill so well we were able to group people into their types and produce products to please the individual in all of us. But I digress..

I have always classed myself as a hippy and thought of myself in this way too. I always believed this allowed me to operate freely to find happiness outside of the average 2.4 children and marriage scenario. But as I grow older I realise this in itself gave me a parameter to operate within.

So, the ultimate rebellion? To throw away my preconcieved notions of the hippy stereotype I so easily fit into and accept that I am a person.

So on the outside I may seem to you to be a vegetarian (i am not), have many experiences with festivals (ive been to a hand full) and detest marriage. I in fact am none of these. I am slowly having to accept that true happiness for me may indeed lay within what I like to call “the norm”.

So, you won’t find me down at st.pauls protesting, and you may find me in a mac donalds late at night after a long shift. Maybe one day you’ll even see me in a white dress walking down the isle to an unsuspecting victim. But that’s alright. Because I am an individual and no psychologist/advertiser combo is going to tell me otherwise.

So next time you pick up a magazine with a questionnaire in the back trying to sort you into a type, I urge you to tear it out, and spit on it. Preferably publicly. Then look at yourself and wonder which category you have already placed yourself in.

Walking in the forest today I realise how scared I am of the wilderness. Having grown up in London my experience of it is restricted to holidays walking in the lake district with my Dad. But the fear is worth it for the deep sense of satisfaction I feel on walks such as these.

It is this deep satisfaction that makes me so unimpressed by the satisfaction that comes from making purchases. It seems like such a waste of time and money when I know I can get a better fix for free!

On this picking trip I come across Sloes, Hawes, Hips, Grapes, Yarrow, Red clover, Conkers, Hazelnuts, and more. I picked many Hawes to make medicine with. I like to use Hawthorn Berries (Hawes) to treat problems associated with the heart chakra. It is a cardiac (heart) tonic working on physical problems with the heart such as angina, palpitations, high blood pressure etc. and emotional problems such as a broken heart, coldheartedness or anger. I make a tincture of hawthorn berries each year and use vodka as it seems to bring out a sweetness which I have never experienced with Ethanol preparations of the tincture. The sweet taste used to be a good indicator of an energy source which would have been a very comforting thing to our hunter/gatherer ancestors. Even to this day we find the sweet taste a comforting one and this is why I like to include it in medicine for the heart.

I picked some yarrow as I plan to make a magical ward with it for my door. This will repel any unwanted guests . Medicinally I use yarrow to manage a fever but picked it earlier in the year as it is coming to the end of it’s season now. It is less well known for its uses as a womens tonic helping with heavy periods and menstrual pains as well. It is best known for helping to staunch wounds as its latin name is Achillea millefolium referring to how Achilles used it to staunch the wounds of his army on the battle field.

I picked sloes for my sloe gin this year. I couldn’t make enough of this last year and I will en devour to make more this year! They are currently in the freezer so that when they come out the sugars break through the skin. My sloe gin is made in the same way I make a tincture but I use gin as the alcohol instead. So check out the tincture making section to find out how.

I feel Autumn in the air, don’t you? The warmth of summer is dissipating and in London it feels like an oven just turned off, warm and a little muggy. The rain is coming and I love to watch it fall on my new apartments single pained windows. It slides down like a slick across the glass. I feel like a fish in a fish bowl watching the elements outside, being so close to it yet protected in my home.

This is the feeling everyone should have during the colder seasons. Safety brought about by the ever-present ‘dangers’ of the weather outside. I feel connected to the seasons more with every year of my wiccan life. I am settling into the seasons with my habits.

This month I am beginning to think about the cold setting in. I am due to insulate my home tomorrow. I’ve already hung the heavy curtains and I am going to add another layer of insulation to my loft. I’m also going to add a curtain to my open plan living room so as to make a closed room which I can heat alone as I spend most of my time in here. This should cut down on my energy consumption/bills significantly. I will also show you how to create a double pane where there is only one using simple techniques.

I have also been enjoying the harvest as it has come early this year. I have shown you recently how to make elderberry syrup but if you don’t fancy making it you can always buy a bottle from me (follow the contact us button to contact me). Get out there and get your berries now people, they have come early this year!

Most berries this time of year are packed with vitamin C which is great for combatting a cold. The black berries (elder, blackberry etc.) have their colour thanks to Anthocyanins which are generally anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, venotonic and improve night vision (Ganora, 2009). Be careful when picking and processing elderberries as although they are great when ripe they can be toxic when they’re not. Avoid the stem, bark and leaf for the same reason. Those parts of the plants toxicity is due to Cyanogenic glycosides (sambunigrin) which are bitter (Ganora, 2009). Rose hip (Rosa canina) is full of vitamin C also, in fact they were encouraged to be picked by the government during the war as we could not import citrus fruits from abroad and these were a good way to avoid scurvy.

After picking and washing my elderberries and blackberries I put them in some rum that should warm the cockles of my heart on a cold winters day.

Oh and Alys Fowler has a new book out all about foraging whcih I would highly recommend even though my copy hasn’t arrived yet. Check it out. I’ve enjoyed the rest of her books so far and see no reason why this won’t be great too.

Happy picking

References
Ganora, L. (2009) Herbal Constituents: Foundations of Phytochemistry. Colorado: Herbalchem press.

So, the harvest has begun. Summer has reached its peak and there are fires in the streets of London. They throb  with the heat of misguided anger and gluttony. Perhaps the working class of London got in the harvest mood as they went out looting the shops for their pleasure products of our western consumerist society.

Many have been asking why this happened. Why did these people think it was ok to steal from these shops? But ask yourself, what have these shops ever done for them? Can you see how they may think that they have been stolen from by these shops all their life with their rediculous prices.

Goddess knows they were wrong in what they did as it won’t cause even a chink in the armour of the biggest companies and will utterly ruin the small family owned businesses. But was it really that surprising?

I grew up in forest hill in London and this area sits between, new cross, lewisham (hit by looting), peckham (hit by looting) and catford (hit by looting). I know full well of the “youths” of today. They are brought up in sometimes perfectly functional homes (sometimes not) where their parents scrape by for a living and they come to school just to get their EMA (education) benefit. They may go to school but they don’t listen and in a London where all activities cost money, their main source of fun is destruction and drinking.

The skate park in Bromley is heaving today but I know that in New Cross plans for a skate park are close to being dashed thanks to a group of adults that believe it will bring misbehaving youths to the area. Don’t you get it?!

The irony I find in the riots is that these people were rioting, for stuff. Rioting not for a cause just.. stuff. Some even claimed they were getting their taxes back. Luckily for the bankers these people were so lacking in knowledge they didn’t know who to target other than someone with more money than them. These people are not working class, they don’t work. They are the benefits class, and with the benefits being cut, what do you really expect?

Word to the wise; don’t shit on your door step to annoy the neighbours, you’ll come home drunk one night and stand in your own mess.

I would really like to write a blog about my sexuality and spirituality but I don’t feel this is the place for it. As my sexuality is well.. some-what x-rated. I used to have another blog that was dedicated to just this but have forgotten literally all of the information I’d need to access it again!

It has got me thinking about why I made it in the first place.

I feel that despite the sexual revolution of the 60′s which we experienced in the western world female sexuality has remained repressed by a patriarchal society in which female sexuality is viewed as such a turn on that women don’t like to talk about it generally. This seems similar to one of the hijab arguments; men should not see any part of a woman because it’s too much temptation.

However, in England we have avoided this problem to a greater extent by parading around almost naked a lot of the time. Supposedly this has increased their ‘tolerance’ to such sexual implications (Although I think men are much more intelligent than this anyhow). I’d like to think that if women were more open about their sexuality/spirituality they would be able to speak about it freely among men and women alike without the threat of it being viewed as an attempt to entice anyone.

Perhaps I am wrong about all this, as I don’t really talk about this subject with my female friends much, but that in itself seems to tell me something is wrong here! I’ve only recently begun telling my most intimate of friends about my masturbating habits and sexual desires and lo and behold we are remarkably similar. Whereas, before I assumed I was a freak.

From being a young woman I have been raised to believe my sex drive/desires are strange. This started when at school we would pass around teen magazines and generally ridicule the poor girls that had been experimenting and got vibrating gadgets stuck in themselves, for instance. (It’s a funny story!) However, I think there was a split among us that day. Some of us would have inevitably gone home to try out this new idea, some of us would have thought it was ridiculous and taken the general laughter as a sign that it shouldn’t be done or you’ll be laughed at.

I have always been the experimenting type and I see my sexuality as divine regardless of what shape it takes but I still don’t like to go about telling everyone.

I take a lot of pleasure from trying to analyse where all my desires come from. From what I can tell by talking to male partners, all the women folk are very similar in their desires whether it be domination, objectification, pain as a stimulant, or general love making. But through a lack of communication among the women folk there seems to be a growing paranoia. One which, I would like to help us all with by speaking my truths unabashedly and unashamedly.

Herein lies the problem, I feel this topic requires a different domain name which is totally untraceable back to myself for professional reasons. But doesn’t that in itself prove that I feel there is something to hide? That my sexuality is dangerous, forbidden or dirty? I fear that the shame of Eve still walks among us centuries later.

I do not have answers to my questions today. Comments are welcome x

Each herbalist is individual and sits on what I see as a sliding scale between spirit medicine and biomedicalism. A healthy mix of both only makes a herbalist a stronger practitioner. However, it is this philosophical difference which divides us. We consistently debate amongst ourselves whether the research methodology holy grail of the double blind placebo controlled trial really has any place in modern herbal medicine. This then morphs into a more ambiguous argument for and against evidence based practice of herbal medicine altogether.

I have often asked myself why, after my experience of writing a literature review on ginger for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, there is not more herbal medicine research. I recently read an interesting article by Mr Ben Goldacre who wrote that herbal medicine does not have more research because, rather than it being a lack of funding, we never allow the research to affect our practice.

We are so blinded by the need to prove we work, as a therapy, to the masses that apparently we filter the results of our research to only include positive results. Or so this is what Ben Goldacre has written. As he has done the research and I haven’t I’m inclined to believe him.

If we really want to make herbal medicine valid to the nhs we need to take on all research and adjust our practice accordingly. To not do so only insults the generations of people which have continued to discover more about the natural world and improve the techniques we use to do that.

I am not arguing that the double blind placebo controlled methodology suits the holistic practice of a herbalist but that we should endeavour to work with the researchers and scientists rather than alienate ourselves from them with blind hatred. It is only if we unite on this topic that such things as improving herbal medicines validity and reliability can be worked on.

I see in the humans a growing pattern. That of treating the symptoms and ignoring the cause. I am beginning to see patterns where illness expresses itself in a way which affects our ability to work. Singers with asthma, builders with arthritis and physicists with migraines. Rather than these being the weak points in the body it seems to be where the illness will be most noticed. These chronic problems are ignored until they can be ignored no more. And still the pharmaceuticals help us to support our ignorance and blindness to the cause by treating the symptoms. We need a kick up the back side and a slap on the face to wake us to our disconnection with our bodies and the world.

It is this connection I aim to teach on my course this summer. I see it as the cause to many problems in humanity. The pattern repeats in the majorities opinion that global warming can be ignored. Ignored till it effects our every day living. Regardless of the fact so much harm will have been done before then.

The world needs more agrimony, rose and motherwort. Agrimony to stop them saving face, motherwort for the kick up the back side and rose to support and ideal of love and respect for all things, especially ourselves!

On my course ill be teaching experiential, practical, hands-on tehniques to get everyone using their senses to identify what herbs can be used for when treating themselves and how to treat acute problems safely with the most common herbs in your back garden. I hope that by our interacting with nature and our own bodies the group will find a new respect for nature and a desire to protect it and ourselves as well. Details can be found on the “upcoming events” link on the menu.

I’ve been out picking and have found things in season long before we would expect. Everyone beware, nature is racing ahead this year. I have already picked hawthorn tops and they are drying as we speak. I found them at perfection a week before May even began! Perhaps we should start calling them April-blossom? If you are one for foraging keep your eyes pealed and make sure you are out in nature as regularly as possible as things are popping up rather quickly and unexpectedly. I have begun to see elderflowers out already and will be keeping an eye on this. If you wish to make elderflower champagne you need to ensure you spot the flowers before the rain gets to it or most of the natural yeast on the flowers will be washed away.

I find a lot of pleasure in the fact the weather changes require us to be even more observant than usual. I have calendars which guide me as to what to forage for in what month but they are useless this year. I enjoy my herbal medicine life so much because it requires a harmony with nature, a bond which is created and maintained by constant observation, Stephen Buhner says this ultimately creates biophilia; a love for nature.

On another note, I’ve been watching Super Scrimpers on 4oD lately. I didn’t realise I was a superscrimper untill I saw this program and it opened my eyes to how much other people waste. A superscrimper is someone which refuses to waste anything which leads to money saving as well as resource saving. These people are usually those which grew up in world war two when everything was scarce and reducing and reusing was a necessity.

I, on the other hand, did not begin scrimping for money reasons. I scrimp for the sake of the environment. I realise that everything I throw away ends up in a landfill where it has to naturaly biodegrade. This takes up space and usually releases toxins into the atmosphere. I found this interesting quote from an article concerning how long it takes a plastic bag to biodegrade (it’s worse than I thought): “Although standard polyethylene bags don’t biodegrade, they do photodegrade. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, polyethylene’s polymer chains become brittle and start to crack. This suggests that plastic bags will eventually fragment into microscopic granules. As of yet, however, scientists aren’t sure how many centuries it takes for the sun to work its magic.”- By Juliet Lapidos. For this reason I try to not buy anything that dosen’t either save me money or make me money and is recyclable as well. Natural/biodegradable science-made materials are a must.

My aim would be to create a complete waste to resource cycle (cradle to grave) within my house in which all waste becomes a resource for something else. However, at present I rent and next year I will start pushing the boundaries as to how much can be achieved when renting. Especially when it is difficult to plant and harvest with enough time when renting. More on this in the future.

If you would like to be shown around the Nottingham area as to what is ready to be harvested already this year I will be giving a herb walk on the 21st this month at Woodthorpe Park Grange in Nottingham for £5. For more information see Facebook or the Upcoming Events page.

Epistemology is the philosiphical theory of knowledge.

There seems to be, with many herbalists, a basic disagreement with current science favouring the quantitative methodology of a double blind placebo controlled trial. I think this disagreement travels much deeper than the airy fairy herbalists valuing human experience higher than quantitative proof.

Herbalists are ultimately returning to the medical epistemology we had before the 20th century. In a way we believe what we thought in the past is superior than what we believe now. Not in terms of anatomy and physiology or pathology or pharmacy. Rather, I believe we disagree with a fundamental flaw in current science methodology, or at least the denial of its own incapability. It is thus; herbs are too complex chemically for us to monitor its effects upon the body nor measure the effectivity or safety of one.

Therefore, we have processed herbs to make singular chemicals (drugs) which can be tested for safety and effectiveness upon the body using the holy grail of scientific method; the double blind placebo controlled trial.

However, what is clear to herbalists and their patients; drugs have side effects and herbs don’t. In this respect they are considered more dangerous than herbs, generally speaking.

We theorize that this is the case because as we evolved with herbs we are better at metabolising them in their whole state and also they appear to have their own built in safety measures in some cases. For example, meadowsweet created aspirin. Aspirin is likely to cause gastric ulcers however, meadowsweet contains something to counter this effect.

So rather than herbalists disagreeing with science as an epistemology we are lead to believe we do because some idiot thought it would be better to simplify the product to fit our testing capabilities than improve our ability to observe complex chemical substances effects upon the human body as a whole. 

So where do we go from here? Herbalists seem to love the tradition of herbal medicine and the idea we are using something old and steeped in history is quite magical (it certainly appealed to me). But surely we are doing our ancestors a diservice by not seeking to further our practice of herbal medicine to the most effective and safe we can.

  If we want to further our use of herbs past individual experiments based upon past tradition and knowledge surely some research should be done. It seems to me that herbalists are performing and recording experiments all the time whenever they take a patient and write their thoughts and results down. If this information was collated in a central database we could begin to statistically analyse it and perhaps discover what dosages are most effective with certain herbs, most popular combinations for certain problems and generally improve our knowledge of herbal medicine as it is used by the folk of today.

I hope that rather than trying to go as far back in history as we can to find traditional practice we begin to look to the future and what it might hold. We owe it to ourselves and our sisters and brothers of old.

Well it’s Spring Equinox and I didn’t even realise! I went picking nettles and it was glorious.

I’ve been looking forward to this all year. My fingers are stung but the tingle is quite welcome and warming. I’m recovering from surgery and I feel each sting will help me avoid arthritis in my affected knee in the long run. Traditionally it was used to whip the joints to help with arthritis and promote circulation. It is quite a firey herb pointy and aggressive. It is a tonic used to fortify a person after the cold winter months providing much needed nutrients such as iron; giving a sensation of inner strength. I like to use it to build boundaries and imagine it giving myself stingers growing from my skin. It is associated with the planet mars astrologically for all the above reasons.

However, it is often found beside water. Perhaps this is contrasting, perhaps it is to do with its ability to encourage change in a person (not to mention the fact that as a diuretic it makes you wee). In fact, I believe it is an old fasioned alterative. This was used to describe herbs which could cleanse the blood of toxins. Toward the end of my walk I got chatting to a lady who was walking her dog. She told me her Mum used to give her nettles to eat like cabbage during the spring because her Mum said it would cleanse her blood. I also picked some hawthorn blossom as it smells gorgeous at the moment. I told her Hawthorn is used for high blood pressure and how to use it… I hope she picks it when the time is right.

And to top it off I cooked some nettles (simply wash and lightly boil like spinach) to have with my jacket potato and put some in with my loaf while the rest is drying by the fire.

Happy Spring Equinox