Sun Medicine / Moon Medicine: An Alchemical Approach to Balance

by Dave Meesters. Summer solstice, when the sun's powers are at their height, is a good occasion to recognize and give thanks for the gifts bestowed by the sun and the light that it brings into our lives, as well as to be thankful for the night, and the dark that gives us reprieve from …

Earthwork Part Two: Herbs for Grounding

by Janet Kent. We talk a lot on this blog about reconnection, the potential for healing of individual, society and environment when we reconnect to the more-than –human world. Here, I want to talk about a kind of reconnection possible wherever we are, the medicine of presence. In this culture of over-stimulation and information overload, …

Earthwork, Part One: Staying Grounded in Tumultuous Times

by Janet Kent. Our world has become increasingly chaotic. Uncertainty is the rule. For many who live subject to the whims of the current administration, fear and powerlessness have become the dominant emotions.  Arbitrary and cruel executive orders come down from the oligarchs daily, sending shock waves through an already stunned public. News of the …

Venerable New Language for the Human “Reproductive” System

by Dave Meesters. In all the years that I’ve been studying, teaching, and discussing health and the human body with students, clients, and fellow practitioners, I’ve always felt a disconnect, something a little off, with the customary use of the word “reproductive” to describe a certain portion of the human anatomy & physiology. The term …

Herbs for Resistance

by Janet Kent It’s mid-December, 2016. I write that for future readers who may not know the context and urgency of this post. I hope these future readers are on the other side of the fight against the forces of hate and domination. But for now, I write this to you, and you know exactly …

Herbalism as a Tool for Social Justice

by Janet Kent and Jen Stovall *CONTENT WARNING: this essay details elements of the violent and racist history of American Biomedicine. We also discuss contemporary injustice in medicine. Take care of yourself. Fifty years ago in March, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led the march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights for African …

Radical Vitalism

by Dave Meesters and Janet Kent Holism and vitalism are related concepts—frameworks for observing, interpreting, and acting—used by herbalists and other practitioners in the quest to support health.  They both encourage us to understand the broader patterns and interrelations between all of life, to see the flows and interdependencies that make life and health possible, …

Bidens as an Herbal Antibiotic: A Case Study

by Dave Meesters I got curious about using Bidens species as an “herbal antibiotic” after reading about it in Stephen Buhner’s book Herbal Antibiotics (2nd edition, Storey Publishing, 2012).  I usually take the clinical information in Buhner’s books with a grain of salt, as he always seems to be reporting much more on the results …

Winter Reverie and Rant (and why its a good time for Hawthorn)

by Janet Kent  One of the great joys of living in the woods year round is watching the seasonal changes of the plants and landscape. While fall and spring in the Southern Appalachian Mountains are famously beautiful, winter receives less acclaim, except when the hills and trees are covered with snow. Though the snowy landscape …