Guest Posts » The Medicine Woman's Roots

TWH Conference Concerts …and Ride Needed for Arborea

Our Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference, Sept. 17-19, is blessed to have not only 20 of the most respected and cutting-edge teachers of herbal medicine… but also two nights of live music featuring bands we know our registrants will love. Perhaps the most energetic of these acts, Rising Appalachia, will be [...]

Deep As Root & Song: In Rambling Praise of Wildcrafting

This is for the July Blog Party on Adventures in Herbalism, hosted by Darcey Blue of Gaia’s Gifts.

I’m all about the up close and personal. I learn best through my senses and direct experience. This is perhaps more true in the way I practice herbalism and relationship with the plants than almost anything else. While [...]

Mending With the Devil’s Darning Needles: The Pain Relieving Properties of Clematis

Common Name: Virgin’s Bower, Traveler’s Joy, Love Vine, Lady’s Bower, Sugar Bowls, Devil’s Darning Needles, Pepper Vine, Leather Flower, Vasevine
Botanical Name: C. neomexican, C. chinensis, C. virginiana and other related species.
Botanical Family: Ranunculaceae
Botanical Description: Generally semi-woody climbing vines with opposite leaves, trifoliate. Dioecious flowers with four sepals, no petals and numerous stamen. Achene fruits that [...]

Herbal Conformism and the Illusion of Normalcy by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Herbal Conformism and the Illusion of Normalcy:
A Response to Charles W. Kane
from the ‘Freak-Show Field’
by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Intro:
Charles W. Kane is an experienced clinical herbalist and self described “veteran of the war against terrorism.” Unlike the majority of modern day herbalists, he would not be likely to describe our field as “alternative medicine”, and brings [...]

The Medicine Woman Mobile Clinic

Friends and clients joined in celebrating the launch of herbalist Kiva Rose’s mobile Village-Herbalist Clinic at her office in Catron County, New Mexico, in a formalizing of her years of providing herbal health consultations to the residents of this singularly remote region of the American Southwest.
The Medicine Woman [...]

Summer’s Spice: Beebalm Flower Infused Honey

It won’t be long now until the first brilliant purple flowers of Beebalm explode into bloom here in the Canyon. Locals call this gorgeous wildflower either Oregano de la Sierra or just Wild Oregano. Because yep, it tastes spicy and rather Oregano-like. The botanical name of this particular species is [...]

Wild as the Day is Long: The Restorative Medicine of Avena

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a warm spring wind rustling through a vibrantly green patch of Oats. Bowed with the weight of their ripening fruit, they nod and toss their heads with each breeze. Their sweet smell and long smooth leaves certainly invite us to sit down and get acquainted with them. In [...]

A Taste of the Enchantment Yet to Come…

The below video will give you a small but vivid taste of what you can look forward to if you plan on attending this September’s upcoming Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference. It includes a look at our outstanding selection of teachers, a glimpse of the beautiful site in the high desert of New Mexico and [...]

New TWH Conference Poster – Please Print and Pass On!

Please Download, Print & Share
THE NEW COLOR POSTERS
for the

TRADITIONS IN WESTERN HERBALISM CONFERENCE

Your help is kindly requested, sharing the new trifold brochures for the conference, and making time to put up some of the matching posters. TWHC CoDirector Jesse Wolf Hardin spent nearly 20 hours designing and creating them, with his logo framed [...]

Sawtooth Sage: A Soothing Southwestern Nerve Tonic

Botanical Name: Salvia subincisa
Botanical Family: Lamiaceae
Common Name: Sawtooth Sage
Energetics: Cool, dry
Taste: bitter, aromatic (skunky)
Actions: Relaxant nervine, nervous system trophorestorative
Parts Used: Flowering tops
Come August and our annual summer rains, a lush abundance of flowering plant will grow in the cool shade of Alder trees. Among these will be a diminutive and graceful plant with tiny [...]

The Core Nature of Plants

The *Core Nature of Plants
by Kiva Rose
Our relationship to the plants is an ancient one, and we humans are well designed to engage the magic and medicine of the living earth we are a part of. All we need is right here – the vast and verdant world of the plants that speak to us, [...]

Call For Help with Conference Sponsor/Vendor Outreach

Free Registration, Acknowledgment & Unending Thanks Offered to Volunteers
doing outreach to potential event Sponsors, Vendors & Practitioners
and
Any Amount of Help Welcomed from Anyone
who is willing to send a Sponsor or Vendor Invite and Application to any business or nonprofits you personally know of
The TWHC is getting huge amounts [...]

Terms of the Trade: Excess and Deficiency

Herbal energetics and human constitutions are predicated upon specific underlying concepts, including the spectrums of hot/cold, dry/moist, relaxation/stimulation and deficiency/excess. Herbal and dietary therapeutics will vary a great deal depending where the individual currently resides within these spectrums.
Deficiency and excess are a primary energetic spectrum and are defined in relation to the flow and concentration [...]

From the Lion’s Mouth: Dancing a Weedy Revolution

From the Lion’s Mouth: Dancing A Weedy Revolution
by Kiva Rose Hardin http://animacenter.org

Common Name: Dandelion
Botanical Name: Taraxacum spp.
Taste: Bitter, sweet
Energetics: Cool, dry
“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a [...]

Green Wealth: Our Wild Plants & Weeds

by Kiva Rose
http://animacenter.org
We meet in a canyon greened by early spring rains and filled with the lush plant life that will fill our baskets and bags by the afternoon’s end. The people who gather to celebrate and learn about the local flora are as diverse as the plants themselves, [...]