A note from Herbstalk...
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We are very excited to partner with the inspirational, world-changing Ayni Institute. At this year's Herbstalk event we will host a film screening of their new documentary, 'Voices That Heal', which features the healing practices, cosmovision and native languages of indigenous communities of the Peruvian rainforest. Read on to learn more about their important work and how you can get involved...
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submitted by Fhatima Paulino

The Ayni Institute began as a coaching, training and incubating institute for organizations, movement builders and community organizing leaders. In collaboration with others, we have done trainings such as The Psychology of Organizing, Momentum (the science of popular movements), SWARM (decentralized organization), the Long View (10,000 years of history in six days), and Social Movement Ecology (about the deep conflict that prevents movement collaboration).

​We have also deeply supported Movimiento Cosecha and have been tracking the lessons that this groundbreaking movement is producing; including how to build a decentralized network and how to bring millions of people into a general strike in the 21st century.

After the first Long View training in 2015, we began the Memory Fund & Program to support artists and communities that are working towards keeping alive the history and wisdom of indigenous traditions. Our first project is The Mysteries of the Andes, a 9-documentary series by Director Jose Huaman Turpo and Producer Alejandrina Calancha. Their vision is to preserve the ancestral traditions of indigenous groups in the Andes and Amazons of Peru from a holistic perspective, which means that those communities share their stories, their culture, and their wisdom through their own voices.
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This year, for the first time, we’re bringing together our teachers and elders from the Andes and Amazon of Peru for our Yachay (Wisdom) Seminar on April 19th-21st at Boston University. We’re hosting an intercultural dialogue between the indigenous world in the South and us in the West. For three days, our guests will be sharing their lifelong wisdom on the Amazon Rainforest and the Andes.

​Together, we will cover topics related to storytelling, art, healing practices, and so much more. It will be a one-of-a-kind opportunity to be guided by and learn from indigenous voices of Peru.

We will also be premiering the next film of The Mysteries of the Andes documentary series: Voices That Heal on Saturday, April 21st at 5:30pm. This documentary is about the healing practices, the cosmovision, and the four native languages that are on the verge of extinction in the rainforests of Peru. One of our guests, Alberto Manqueriapa, is featured in the documentary and will be sharing about healing practices and medicinal plants of the Amazon during our Seminar.

You can purchase your ticket, which will guarantee you entrance to all three days of the Yachay Seminar and the premiere of Voices That Heal, by clicking here. We are selling our tickets based on scale, so you can give according to your financial capabilities.

We feel honored to be able to be a bridge between two cultures and to bring the lessons we’ve been learning to a bigger community in Boston. You can visit our website to find out more about our guests and the seminar: ayni.institute/seminar

Fhatima Paulino is the daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and Mexico. Since 2017 she has been Co-Coordinator of the Memory Program at the Ayni Institute. Before joining Ayni, Fhatima was a community organizer in the PICO National Network and then a full-time volunteer with the Cosecha Movement. She's a lovable organizing handy woman with a focus on training, coaching, conflict resolution, and healing. These past years have blessed her with a life of voluntary simplicity while traveling across the country to germinate and grow Cosecha and Ayni's Memory Program. Fhatima is currently finding her way back to her creativity through writing, food, meditation, movement, and loved ones. Hear more on the Healing Justice Podcast at www.healingjustice.org

Violet for Type 2, The Helper
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The common Violet (Viola sororia) is delicate but strong, abundant, casting a deep purple carpet upon springtime lawns and gardens. With its heart-shaped leaves this is the plant that represents Type 2 in the Enneagram — the Helper/Giver who needs to give to thrive, but also needs appreciation to flower themselves. They tend to hide their inner selves while giving their maternal wealth to others.

The violet is unique as it has two flowering stages, the more obvious showy flowers of early spring and the small hidden flowers of fall (these latter flowers are the ones that actually produce the seed of the plant.) This two-stage process is botanically unique and few flowers claim this special distinction. Violets also have runners that spread easily, as our lawns attest to. It’s hard not to notice them!

​Likewise, Type 2’s can be quite assertive when it comes to giving and spreading their abundance. They are excellent hosts & hostesses and their honey personalities sweeten whatever they touch.

2’s, however, cloak their own needs and do everything possible to not show their “neediness,” not realizing that everyone is needy. We are all interdependent upon others and the earth, water and air that nurtures us. 2’s protect themselves by over-giving to others, sometimes without welcome.

Being the giver can be a controlling position, while the receiver might be more connected to their vulnerability, risking being hurt or mis-given to while in a “need” position. 2’s would rather be givers who manage the situation, but they equally need to learn to be on the receiving end and be more defenseless. They need help and support, too, like all of us.
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Type 2’s certainly are beautiful, adorning themselves with color and attractive scents. They can be like seductive goddesses and gods, wanting their allure to magnetize others to their offerings and gifts. 2’s can tune into what you need and offer your wildest desires to be met. However, if you reject or don’t receive their gifts, they can get angry! Sometimes your independence can be squelched with a 2.

Shakespeare gives us many references to Violet. Here are the opening lines of Sonnet 99:

The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
​If not from my love’s breath?

Shakespeare named the leading lady of Twelfth Night after this herb, and like the flower, Viola hides her beauty in plain sight, posing as a boy and falling in love with the Duke she serves.
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Violet is a bridge between the world of the 2’s outer sweetness and their inner shyness, risking whether to reveal their needs or not. The Giver is strong in generosity to others but not always to themselves. Violet shows 2’s how to balance their inner and outer worlds and gives strength to support time alone to nurture one’s self and discover their own self-love.

Herbalist Asia Suler writes of the flower essence:

“Violet essence opens a space of deep self-acceptance, contentment, and individual wellbeing. Calming, steadying, and maternal, this unassuming, yet sweetly robust flower helps you to feel comfortable and supportive of yourself as an individual. Letting go of negative attachments and patterns of relating (especially to oneself) Violet helps you to foster good connections that come from a deep recognition of self-importance.”

Violet is associated with the skin, breasts and glands, all elements of nurturing and giving. Drinking or taking Violet in its many forms, balances over-giving to others. Eating its beautifully contrasting dark green, heart-shaped leaves and its richly delicate saturated flowers, is also a remedy. The plant is traditionally used for soothing coughs and sore throats — with this affinity for the throat & voice it can help 2’s speak up about their own true needs.
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Violet symbolizes both the giver and the receiver, showing us that at its core giving and receiving are exactly the same -- for we are all in relationship with -- and interdependent upon -- one another.

References:
https://feedingthemuse.net/botanical-lore/violet/
https://onewillowapothecaries.com/product/violet/

Blue Vervain For Type 1, The Perfectionist
Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) is such a “perfect” plant for Type 1, The Perfectionist. Perfectionists, sometimes called Reformers, tend to see the world from how it should be. They want to improve, reform, correct and fix things to the ideal of how it “ought” to be. They can be rigid, overzealous and black and white in their thinking, and can have a hard time with gray tones, mistakes, and the imperfection of things and people, including themselves. They tend to notice what’s missing instead of the perfection of what’s here with its limitations, flaws and quirks as part of the package.
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They can push people to a point of view that doesn’t offer the flexibility of personal choice and nuance. 1s can’t handle crooked pictures or dead leaves on plants without fixing them. They may clean up the forest when the dead, fallen down trees are exactly what the insects, birds and soil need for nourishment.

Blue vervain is tall with an erect stem, like 1s who tend to hold an erect posture. 1s are the headmasters at right posture and proper etiquette schools. It’s about propriety, good manners, polish, and doing what’s right, following the customs and traditions of what’s worked before. They are responsible, reliable and steady. Blue vervain flowers bloom from the bottom of each flower stem to the top in a steady sequence, as 1s tend to be steady, reliable, consistent and loyal.

Blue vervain is a strong plant and a favorite among garden lovers. The bluish flower heads are beautiful and bright yet small in comparison to the stems. No drooping flowers here! The unique square stems fit the Type 1 personality, sharp angled with exact edges. The root, being a perennial, is deep and strong.

Enneagram 1s make lists and tend to work hard to accomplish their tasks. Things need to be defined and acted on. No idle hands here! My grandmother was a 1 and I didn’t always look forward to visiting her as she “encouraged” me to work in her garden pulling weeds when I was a child. For 1s work and accomplishment tends to be more important than play.

Blue vervain is a bitter herb which helps to support the liver (and release pent-up anger) and it also acts as a supreme anti-spasmodic, releasing tension in the muscles, especially the neck. As herbalist Lisa Fazio says:

“I choose Blue Vervain to be second to none when it comes to muscle constriction caused by nervous tension especially in people who are intense by nature and overdriven. It's cool blue medicine eases and relaxes not just the musculature, but the soul… Blue Vervain is considered an antispasmodic and relieves spasm caused by overwork that is not so much physical in nature, but that is intellectual or mental activity with a perfectionist tendency. This high intensity is more than the individual’s body can maintain and so it produces a tension throughout the viscera causing the muscles to tense and knot. I see this plant as being appropriate for those of us who don't have the physical container or constitution to hold the nervous and mental energy we are inclined to create.”
Lisa Fazio, Earth, Root & Flower: An Herbal Blog

1s tend to face reality head-on with responsibility and hard work, handling the toughness of life so taking bitter medicine is in alignment with their personality. Blue vervain can filter out some of the anger that 1s have with the imperfection and irritation of others not doing what’s right.
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Taken as a flower essence, Blue Vervain can help Type 1s learn “tolerance, patience and broadmindedness…and that the big things of life are done gently and quietly without strain or stress.”
Blue Vervain balances the Perfectionist who tends to over-work, over-effort and over-think the right thing to say or do. Blue Vervain adds flexibility, being in the moment, ease, acceptance of imperfection, allowing for the world and individuals to be as they are without forcing anything to live up to a pressured idealism.

REFERENCES:
https://www.hawthornehillherbs.com/node/158
http://www.flowersociety.org/vervain.html
https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/​

by Patrice Green

So often I find myself faced with a crisis of sorts only to realize after it’s over that it was really a test and an opportunity to learn something new, firsthand, so I could share it with others. 

A few weeks ago while clearing brush I came in contact with Poison Ivy. At first, I wasn’t even sure what had caused the immediate rash on my forearm.  I was near some jewel weed, Impatiens capensis, so I quickly picked some, made a spit poultice (hey, you do what you must when in the field, kids) and got some immediate short-term relief. 

What really surprised me, once I realized I was dealing with poison ivy, is that jewel weed didn’t stop it in its tracks. Oh, no.  I was treated to an agonizing 10 days of utter misery as the rash spread over much of my arm, both forearms, torso and hip. 

I tried many of nature’s antihistamines – yarrow, reishi, lavender and chamomile essential oils. I tried comfrey, oatmeal baths, baking soda and witch hazel compresses.  Nothing seemed to help in any significant way.  My body was thoroughly pissed off and that was that. 

Then two things happened, almost simultaneously.  The first was a message from a Canadian friend who shared that a swim in the ocean cured his bout with poison ivy.  When talking to my friend and neighbor about this, she mentioned her parents’ penchant for going to the beach each weekend in all weather and bringing home gallons of ocean water to have on hand for cuts, skin ailments, etc. 

So, I did what any desperate, suffering person would do: I bought gallons of spring water and drove to my favorite beach.  I offered the spring water to the plants growing along the shore.  I’ve harvested those roses and the mugwort there for years. It was my special thank you for their bounty.  Then, armed with an empty gallon jug, I waded into the ocean to bottle it for home use. ​

“The Queen has hairy legs” said my teacher Tommy Priester and he’s right. One clear identifying trait of Queen Anne’s Lace is the fine “hair” on the stem of the plant. ​

Wild Yarrow is always white, and its flower is quite similar to both Queen Anne’s Lace and Water Hemlock.  Upon closer inspection, Yarrow’s flower is typically more “dense” than Queen Anne’s Lace, and does not have a center spot so common to the Queen. ​

To identify Yarrow properly, however, it’s always best to look at the stem and leaves.  Yarrow stems are smooth, and its leaves are quite different, as one can see upon closer examination. ​
​Yarrow leaf:

Queen Anne’s Lace leaf: ​

For more information about water hemlock, we encourage you to visit these sites: 
https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonous-plant-research/docs/water-hemlock-cicuta-douglasii/

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/cicuta_maculata.shtml

a cautionary tale: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026056.htm

Ultimately, the safest rule of thumb is that if you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it. If you are unsure of the soil conditions in the area, don’t harvest it. Take a photo and ask your herbal community to help you ID the plant. ​

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

by Patrice Green

We are just a few days away from the next Herbstalk, arguably one of my favorite weekends of the year.  If you’ve never been to this wonderful event I ask, “What are you waiting for?”  The classes are wonderful, the sense of community created by Steph, Henry and Catherine is unlike any other, and the marketplace is filled with fabulous herbal products made by some of my favorite people.  ​

In its sixth year it now feels more like a great herbal reunion, a chance to catch up with old friends and former classmates.  It’s an opportunity to learn, explore and experience herbal medicine in a fun, friendly, warm environment. 

This year I’m honored to teach about one of my dearest plant allies, the beautiful rose, in an experiential class.  There are many ways to learn about a plant. You can study it through the writings of other herbalists.  You can research its historical use.  You can learn about its constituents, and read about any clinical studies done on the plant.  All of that information is wonderful to have and certainly will give you a great body of knowledge about any plant, but my feeling is that the best way to really, truly know a plant requires that you get your hands dirty. ​

Buy some seeds or a plant from a reputable grower and plant it in your garden – even if your garden is a pot on your front steps due to space limitations.  Tend the plant, watch it grow.  Observe how it responds in sunlight, extreme temperatures, and the blooming cycle of its flowers.  Learn about how the doctrine of signatures might apply.  Take notes on it, sketch the plant.  

Choose various menstruums.  Make a glyceride, a tincture and a vinegar.  Experience the differences of each.  Experiment and take notes.  Use the essential oil of the plant in a diffuser or aromatherapy blend.  Use the flower essence. Observe how you feel when you use it, what parts of your body or spirit respond to the plant. Meditate or journey to the plant.  Ask what lessons it has for you, physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Wait for the answers.  Take notes on your meditations and journeys, then work with the plant to deepen your understanding of its myriad gifts.  

While there is a left brain component to herbalism, I prefer to learn about plants from a right brain perspective, as to me, herbalism is an experiential process. Studying a plant energetically, through meditation and journeying offers direct access to the spirit of the plant itself.  A skillful teacher, books, studies can all give you great information about a plant, but the best teacher is the plant itself, with the human teacher acting as a mediator or facilitator to the student’s relationship with the plant.  This requires the student’s willingness to go on an inward journey, to be still and wait for the lessons the plant has to offer to be revealed.   ​

I hope to see you at this year’s Herbstalk, and maybe even to have the good fortune to share class space with you!  Until then, many blessings!

by Ryn Midura

Don’t let the diagrams scare you! Don’t let the long names drive you away. Phytochemistry can be intimidating at a first look, but it does have some useful insights to offer even the most folksy of healers. The best parts of it are those that bear directly on your practical experience working with herbs.​

Let’s take an quick look at the salicylates, those famously anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving constituents found in willow (Salix alba) and other herbs, as an example.

First, aspirin: it’s acetylsalicylic acid, a synthetic derivative. Both natural salicylates and aspirin are pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and fever-reducing; however, as it turns out, it is the acetyl group there which provides the blood-thinning actions. So, the natural salicylates found in willow and friends do not thin the blood. (Though admittedly, you may occasionally read otherwise! This seems to be one instance, among many, of back-forming conclusions about the activity of an herb based on assumptions about the activity of its constituents. Be wary!)

Second, we have the natural salicylates which we find in our herbs. There are many different forms. Two of the most common:

Methyl salicylate is volatile – that is, it evaporates and travels through the air – and lends the distinctive aromatic scent to the wintergreen plant (Gaultheria procumbens), as well as birch (Betula lenta) and meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). It is rapidly and readily absorbed by the skin.

Salicin is slowly metabolized into salicylic acid after you consume it. This conversion isn’t completed until the constituents pass through the intestines and liver – which, on the one hand, means that willow usually isn’t as fast-acting a painkiller as aspirin can be.
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On the other hand, this delayed conversion is a good thing for your GI tract! It is the exposure to free salicylic acid, released during the relatively rapid metabolism of aspirin, which leads to its notorious gut-irritating and ulcer-forming effects. For this reason, willow bark and meadowsweet are much safer: they don’t cause potentially serious damage the way aspirin can.

Plants generally contain a blend of salicylates; wintergreen has lots of methyl salicylate, and willow has lots of salicin. That means, if you’re looking to manage topical pain, wintergreen might be a better choice due to the benefits of rapid absorption. As part of a formula to mitigate an arthritic condition over the long term, however, willow might be a better option.

Constituents work more effectively in their naturally occurring mixtures than they do when isolated or synthesized – synergy is a key factor in herbal medicine. So, of course we don’t reduce all the actions of a plant down to one constituent! However, it is handy to know a little phytochemistry to help you sort through claims made about herbs, and also make better choices about which plant to apply.

If you’d like to learn more, join me for my Practical Phytochemistry class at Herbstalk!