Incensed....

Picture a flaming hearthfire, on top a pot bubbles away with a  soup, or stew, or stir fry flavoured with herbs and spices. Smoke from the fire is mixing and blending with the scents of cooking, slightly tinged with the particular tree who gave of their wood to this scene. Perhaps some bread is baking, to dip into the meal. This picture is taking place all over the world, the localised herbs and spices varying what hungry noses are tempted by. What we are observing is highly likely the origin of incense...

Plants, and the scents they release when burned, have inspired, blessed, healed and comforted for eons. Be their form chunks of sap, branches or leaves straight from a tree, or the more processed mixtures of dried and powdered herbs burnt on charcoal, bound to a stick or swung in censors.

A newborn baby is held over a small fire, laced with leaves, be they spinifex or eucalypt, depending on what grows nearby, there is a blessing and welcoming into her new environment by  passing through the smoke. A connecting to plants, and the hearth. For who is the bridge between earth and animals, even human ones, if not plants, it’s been thus since we were pondscum feeding on algae.

On the other side of the planet sage is rolled into a stick, bound in thread and allowed to dry like this, to be later lit and used to ‘smudge’ before a ritual dance, ceremony, or soul retrieval. The smoke brushed around the body using a cluster of eagle wingtip feathers it curls into where its needed, then rises high into the sky, and upper realms of spirit.

Incenses origins often reside in resins and barks. Sandalwood is so desired, that all the trees in Mysore, the place it occurs naturally are government property wherever they occur, and harvesting is watched over. There is also an Australian sandalwood, Santalam acuminatum, a interior species thats being used similarly as an alternative. The seeds of which were traditionally made into necklaces, not unlike the ones in india that saddhu’s wear and consider holy. They look like small round brains, interestingly enough considering the sacredness of them.

With such deep ancestral memories and associations is it any wonder that incense has been adopted by nearly every kind of faith, including atheism, on the planet. A precursor and codeveloper with perfume and aromatherapy, varying scent to mood and occasion. How blessed are we to have such a tool for shifting consciousness at our fingertips? It doesn’t have to be expensive, with a charcoal block any mix of dried herbs can be sprinkled on and encouraged to share its smoke.

Home feeling a bit stagnant? Setting a romantic or meditative scene? Taking a luxurious bath, got a candle going? Bit blue? Why not light up?

woman o the woods....

Comfrey, is she safe?

Today i harvested some comfrey leaves to infuse in oil so i can make a comfrey salve down the track. How green and good does that look? All ready to go in  a cool dark place to brew.
Reconnecting with her , Ithought Id address the much maligned plant. Is she safe?

There are two types of comfrey, wild comfrey (Symphytum officinale) and cultivated comfrey (Symphytum uplandica x , the x means its a hybrid). Wild comfrey is a smaller plant with yellow flowers. Cultivated comfrey is a large plant often surpassing 2 metres with blue or purple flowers. Symphytum uplandica x was created post the 2nd world war by Henry Doubleday as a survival food. People tend to be growing uplandica, and that is what can be sold in stores, mislabeled.

Just to confuse things a little more, the roots and leaves of comfrey contain different constituents. Comfrey root, like most perennial roots, contains poisons. Wild comfrey (Symphytum officinale) leaves contain some of the poisons but cultivated comfrey (Symphytum uplandica x) leaves dont. Comfrey leaves are protein rich, a great source of folic acid, many vitamins, minerals and trace minerals we need for a strong immune system and a calm nervous system. Comfrey ointment heals wounds, cuts, burns, itches and most skin problems.

I once cut myself with a razor, it would have needed stitches. I put a comfrey leaf poultice on the cut, replacing it a couple of times with pressure applied and it closed up and healed, so i look forward to making a batch of ointment and sharing it....even if its not harvested from our wee patch yet...

The banes.

Most of the herbs I use day to day are safely nourishing and able to be used in quantity. I drink them in infusions, tinctures and cook with them. Yet recently i find popping up, mostly in dreams, or shamanic journeys, some other pretty powerfull, and potentially poisonous plants. So far, Henbane (Gafaan, Hyoscyamus niger),  Hemlock ( Muinmhear, Conium maculatum) and Wolfsbane ( Fuath mhadhaidh, Aconitum napellus). Is it the call of the wild, or the draw of the dangerous?

This is the forest primieval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep voiced neighbouring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
                                                     Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Oddly enough the book I have with the most detail about these plants is in  a textbook on pharmacognosy from the 1930s designed to train pharmacists and medical practitioners of the day. They liked their plants potent, but referred to them as 'crude medicines'. They suggest hemlock as a sedative, one which by the way can kill you via parlysis with your mind totally concious till the end. Spine chilling stuff.

These same plants were allys of a different sort of practitioner in making their much spoken of flying ointments. Salves containing henbane, hemlock and friends rubbed on the skin to aid journeying, or 'flights'. Those chicks knew what they were doing, and would probably have used a specific harvest time and part of the plant to control dosage plus including some seemingly inert ingredients that play a role, knowledge I just dont have at this time. These plants are to be treated with caution, lest we travel roads from which we can no longer return, but also now, and in the past, they are teachers.

deep thou takes me, and far
travelling the world tree
to its rooted source, and branched heights
where dwell spirits and goddesses
remedies and brews remembered
i didnt even know i had forgotten

making space for plant medicines...

Just recently a friend offered me this 1930s cupboard, a little dusty n mouldy, but nothing a bucket of hot bubbly eucaltyptus wash couldnt handle. I decided to use it as our medicine cupboard. I do believe by making spaces for that which we honour and love theres an energy about of drawing these things into our lives. I love making salves, tinctures, elixirs and brews and it lets the plants know that I value their giveaways. Kinda like an altar to herbs eh. One that can be closed up n away too, like those curiousity cabinets folks made in victorian times filled with, well curious stuff. Often bones, talismans, amulets, taxidermy or just plain ol exotic things from far away places. Sitting ontop are all my gathering baskets, sadly unused of late. Also my dried herb ( aka coffee) grinder that I got for a couple of bucks, which was pretty grotty, but cleaned up, sanded back and oiled came up a dream.....
Ive gathered all my herb and gardening books in shelves next to the cupboards, so all in all my plant shrine is rather well rounded. Now hopefully some herbs will cross my path and wanna play! Next task is to design a logo / label to use for my medicines.....

Some ponderings on wildcrafting...

Beneath our very noses are growing some fine foods, and medicines, that are easily overlooked until you get to know them, then it’s likely you’ll be inviting them to dinner more often.  Wild herbs and vegetables are packed full of nutrients that more cultivated vegetables have to a lesser degree. But just because they’re abundant please don’t be uprooting an entire patch. Some folks believe you should walk past the first seven plants seen to leave enough for the next seven generations.

Theres usually a 'grandmother' plant, or deva, who oversees a patch and who you can address explaining your needs to harvest and asking permission. You could leave an offering of food, or  water, or do some caretaking such as to trim dead branches, spread some seed or reduce the numbers of a particularly dominating or invasive species that will out compete your ally.

A general rule of thumb is that plants should be gathered when at the peak of their growth, generally spring and summer. The best gathering times are early in the morning after evaporation of the dew, as dew wet herbs will become mouldy on drying. The same also applies to rain wet herbs. Also when collecting for drying its best to take plants at the time of the month when the moon is waning, in the early days of this time as there is less sap in the stems and the herbs dry more easily.
*Only harvest a third of any patch. This could mean a third of the amount growing there, or a third off each plant. I harvest dandelion and other greens leaves much like a nonheading lettuce, collecting leaves fresh daily as needed.

*Avoid harvesting endangered, threatened or sensitive species, especially native plants have  limited corridors surrounded by human development .

*Harvest plants in places you are familiar with, so you can observeand learn how your practices effect them over time.
* Check if the plant you wish to harvest is slow growing like sasparilla  (Smilax australis). I was taught to use the young leaves only, but also that its very slow growing, so not to harvest too many baby leaves from one plant. Learn the growth patterns and cycles of plants you wish to harvest.

*If youre harvesting the root of a plant, will a small part replanted take shoot and continue to grow? If so replant as you go.

*Harvest only an amount that you can in reality process.

*Gathering from as pollution free area as possible, avoiding agricultural or other pesticide spray zones. The same goes for heavily trafficed roadsides and parks where dogs are walked regularly.

Wildcrafting your own medicines and foods rocks, lets face it. If youre coming to doing so with an attitude of respect youll likely find when you ask a plant "would you like to be in some medicine Im making"  youll hear "yes! Me, me, over here!"

Resources : 'A PLant Lovers Guide to Wildcrafting' by Krista Thie
                        'Common Herbs for Natural Health' by Juliette de Baracli Levy