My first formal intern/apprentice
This month, I have my first intern. I met Marisela Alvarez through the Institute for Civic Leadership at Mills College, where I was asked to be her mentor. I am very grateful that Marisela will be working with me. As the owner and sole employee of my small business, Ancestral Apothecary, I always have much more work than I can handle.
Also, there is a age-old tradition of young people apprenticing with healers. Much of what there is to learn about the art of herbalism, healing and curanderismo is best absorbed by first hand experience.
Much of my own training was through apprenticeship. I have been blessed to work alongside many great healers, including Choctaw herbalist Karyn Sanders, and Mexican curanderas Dona Enriqueta Contreras and Estela Roman.
Dona Enriqueta, Curandera from Oaxaca, Mexico
Living and working with her really demystified my romantic view of curanderas. I learned that the life of a curandera is 95% hard work and selfless dedication to serving one’s community.
There are many projects Marisela will be helping me with, including:
Medicine making
Herbal inventory
Herbal gardening
Marketing my business & products
Promoting my classes
We decided to start blogging about our experience of working together. Mari has already created a wonderful blog: Remembering Ancient Healing.
Hopefully I can keep up with Mari! I hope you enjoy this special dialogue between us.
Herbal Medicine Faire & Healing Arts Salon
Saturday November 26th
1-5 pm
3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA
Come out to support your local grass-roots herbalists, healers and business women as you enjoy an afternoon of free herbal and healing classes.
Stock up on your supply of herbs for winter and find unique holiday herbal gifts.
Taste, sample and enjoy the herbal products from Ancestral Apothecary and Community Herbalist.
Our offerings include:
Tarot readings & dreamwork
Free mini herbal wellness classes
Free Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help class
Flower Essence and Cordial Bar
October Newsletter
It’s been another busy month for me!
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of teaching the Curandera’s Toolkit Class at the Sol Collective in Sacramento.
We made delicious herbal honeys, elderberry cordial, and a wild cherry cough syrup.
The weekend included a sweat lodge and a trip to the oldest community garden in Sacramento. A special and healing time was had by all participants, including several young people who came to the class.
I will be teaching several more workshops at Sol as part of their ongoing Curanderismo Class Series which will be happening the first Sunday of the month. To keep up to date on this exciting class series, visit Sol’s Facebook page.
Fall is the Time for Berries.
Last week, I went on two herbal field trips with my herb school students. My first trip was up to the high Sierras, where we enjoyed an abundant harvest of elderberries.
Elderberries, which are strongly anti-viral, are the perfect herbal ally for this time of year. To learn more about this amazing plant and to get some great recipes, see my blog post on elderberries.
My final trip was to the coast, where we gathered the last of the season’s aralia berries and camped overnight at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
Aralia is our native California relative of the highly esteemed medicinal plant, ginseng. I was glad to be able to gather some berries this year to add to my immune boosting cordials.
To view the rest of this newsletter, see: http://community.icontact.com/p/ancestrlapothecary/newsletters/php/posts/medicinal-berries-ancestral-dreams
Fall Blessings,
Atava
Herbal Body Care: Brown Sugar Body Scrub
Herbs are great to take internally to improve our overall health and they also can be incorporated in a wide range of body care products. My current favorite is the Brown Sugar Body Scrub that I made for Valentine’s Day last year.
Each shower I take is a delightful and sensual experience with this scrub, plus it leaves my skin feeling smooth and silky. Moreover, it costs only a few dollars to make- a similar sized product by Neiman Marcus retails for $65!!!
The recipe that I used is adapted from the Mountain Rose Blog, which I recommend highly for its fun & creative ideas for all kinds of herbal products.
Ylang Ylang
Edible Brown Sugar Body Scrub
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup plus 3 Tbs sunflower oil
- ½ tsp vanilla extract, damiana cordial, or flavoring of your choice OR
- 20-30 drops essential oil (lavender, bergamot, cardamon…)
- Optional: 1 tsp ground spices such as cinnamon, cardamon or ginger (will have a warming effect); or finely ground rose petals, chamomile or calendula.
Mix the sugar & oil. Add herbal extracts, essential oils, ground herbs & mix well. Store in glass jar.
To mine, I added about 20 drops of Floracopeia’s Ylang Ylang essential oil, which smells like heaven in a bottle.
Report Back from Valentine’s Herbal Love Potion Party
Last month we had a great turnout at the second annual Valentine’s Herbal Love Potion party.
Those attending enjoyed sampling some of the most popular Damiana Delight cordials from last year ( Spicy & Vanilla Cardamon). This year I created a few new exciting flavors including Flower Kiss (rose & jasmine) and Lady Grey’s Delight (vanilla & bergamot).
Happy truffle makers
Liz and her helpers were busy rolling out dozens of chocolate truffles, all infused with special herbs and flower essences to inspire love and
Magic, romantic truffles
romance. They were a big hit and completely sold out.
Each workshop participant had the opportunity to craft their very own love potion by adding flower essences to a base of damiana cordial.
Thanks again to our wonderful host Marie. A good time was had by all.
Herbal Strategies for Dealing with the Flu
This past month, despite my best efforts to stay well, I caught the flu.
As an herbalist, getting sick is always an educational experience. Each time I have a chance to learn first hand what natural remedies are helpful for my condition. Here’s a list of things I found helpful when dealing with the flu:
* If you can catch the flu at the very beginning stages, try taking a hot bath while drinking a hot cup of ginger-cayenne-turmeric tea. After about 20 minutes in the bath, get out, wrap yourself in blankets and sweat.
* A fever is a good thing. Fevers are your body’s natural way of warding off infection. Reducing a fever with aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen may decrease your body’s immune response, prolong the illness, and increase chance of complications. If the fever goes about 104 degrees, seek medical attention.
* For the aches and pains of a flu, try a hot cup of herbal boneset tea, or one of my favorites, lemon balm.
* A flu is caused by a virus and can’t be appropriately treated with antibiotics. Anti-viral herbs include elderberry, echinacea, olive leaf, ginger, shiitake mushrooms & lemon balm.
* Eat lots of raw garlic, which has been a cure for many ailments since ancient times. Garlic helps with many aspects of colds & flu including cough, sore throat, bronchitis & pneumonia. A medicated oil made of garlic and mullein flowers is also helpful for ear aches.
* Decongest your lungs & sinuses with herbal team inhalations. Get a big pot of hot water and add 2-5 drops of Floracopeia essential oil of eucalyptus, thyme, tea tree, fir or peppermint. Cover your head with a towel and inhale deeply. Can repeat several times per day.
* Keep hydrated, drinking lots of water and herb tea. Eat light soups, broths or cooked cereal (congees).
* Rest, rest, rest! It is important to give your body enough time to heal. Pushing yourself to go back to work too soon can result in getting sick again.
* To rebuild your vitality after a flu, try adaptogenic and chi-building herbs like eleuthero, codonopsis, reishi, ashwaghanda, or one of Ancestral Apothecary’s Power Mushroom
Extracts.
* Check out the blog by Mountain Rose about herbal cold and flu remedies.
* For more specialized treatment, make an appointment with an herbalist.
* To help get your body back into harmony, try Acupressure or Jin Shin Jyutsu®.
How Plants Heal Us In Dreams
Chapparral, larrea tridentata, one of the oldest living plants on earth
I have been observing the messages plants give to us in dreams for many years now with myself, my herbal students and my dream group members. Here is an article that I wrote for the Dream Tribe about dreaming with plants.
http://thedreamtribe.com/how-plants-heal-us-in-dreams
I also am collecting plant dreams, so if you have one you’d like to submit, you can email me at atava@ancestralapothecary.com.
Blessings,
Atava
Tips to Stay Healthy this Season
I hope each of you is enjoying this powerful time of year when we have a chance to remember and honor our ancestors.
Every autumn season I like to share some basic tips to stay healthy. As I reflect upon this, what comes to mind is the old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure.”
As an herbalist, much of what I do is to teach people to pay attention and listen to their bodies. Most of us know when we are coming down with something. Each of us may have our own set of symptoms that is typical for us- it might be a sore throat or a feeling of being tired, run down and achy.
When we listen to our bodies and take the appropriate action to take care of ourselves, we can greatly decrease our chance of getting sick.
This means, when you start feeling a little bit unwell, slow down and rest. Don’t ignore your body and keep pushing it. Our bodies need extra energy to fight off unwanted pathogens and it is important to give your immune system a chance to do its job. The more you ignore your body’s need to rest and repair, the more you put stress on your immune system and interfere with your body’s innate ability to heal itself.
There are several things that I do myself and recommend to my clients to employ at the first sign of a cold:
1. Rest, rest, rest. Allow your body the time and space to heal.
2. Mega doses of echinacea root. Echinacea stimulates your body’s immune cells that destroy bacteria, viruses and fungi. For adults, it is safe to take up to 1 tsp of echinacea extract every two to three hours at the very first onset of symptoms. Make sure you have a good quality echinacea root tincture- it should make your tongue tingle when you taste it.
3. Elderberry. Elderberry not only strongly anti-viral, but it also is a great remedy for respiratory infections. I like to pour a shot of Elderberry cordial in a glass and cover with an equal amount of hot water to make a delicious hot elderberry toddy. For an extra boost, add ginger, cinnamon or cayenne to your elderberry cordial.
4. Garlic. Garlic is one of the most powerful, natural anti-microbial substances on earth. It has an affinity for the respiratory tract and is great for all respiratory tract infections, from sore throat to bronchitis.
It is important to eat garlic raw to get its anti-microbial effects. For people who may experience stomach irritation from garlic, you might want to try garlic honey or other easy recipes.
5. Essential oil steams. Steams are helpful to try when you feel infection, congestion, or inflammation in your respiratory tract (sinuses, throat, lungs). My favorite oils are from Floracopeia.
Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, put on your kitchen table or other sturdy surface. Add 3-5 drops of respiratory supporting essential oils like Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Fir, Cedar or Rosemary. Cover your head with a towel and breathe in the steam.
6. Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Help. The healing art that I practice, Jin Shin Jyutsu®, a kind of acupressure, has a wonderful system of self-help to help nourish and harmonize your total being. My sister Jenny is leading a Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Help Circle on the first Wednesday of the month at our Oakland office. For more info, contact her at 510-839-9252 or email her at jennyrebeccajsj@yahoo.com.
The Healing Power of Herbs, a Client’s Testimonial
MY STORY: During the Fall and Winter of 2008-2009, I was incessantly sick. I had cold after flu after cold, back to back, most of the winter. By January ’09, I got such a bad flu I was in bed for over a week and once back at work, symptoms lingered for weeks more. Historically, I tend NOT to get ill — ever!!!
So, frankly, I was worried. I made an appointment with my primary care doc at Kaiser who — though meeting me for the first time — spent about 3 minutes with me and did not really look me in the eye! But he quickly wrote out the referrals I asked for. Thinking something might be seriously wrong, I asked for and took a battery of tests, including chest x-rays. Thank goodness everything appeared “clear.”
A month or so later, I began taking Atava’s Power Mushroom Extracts. I have taken this formula since, and — except for a couple mild head colds — HAVE NOT GOTTEN SICK ONCE! Atava explained that after years of continual stressors — being a single parent, putting myself through law school, post-graduate career challenges — my natural immunity was badly depleted. Her formulas have gotten me back to optimal health!
I have also taken herbal formulas for other needs as they arise — but I believe the above story illustrates how taking a regular immune-boosting supplement can have dramatic results! (And, in particular, how amazing the mushroom formula is.) I have also taken several classes from Atava, including two in her “Herbal Medicine 101″ series, where we learned to identify local plants and make simple remedies from them (including the oh-so-delicious Elderberry cordial!) One big reason I am so enthusiastic about promoting Atava’s work is that I admire her commitment to sharing knowledge for self healing. It is very fun and empowering to make your own medicine!
LV, attorney, Oakland, CA
To order Power Mushrooms, visit our on-line store.
Loving Lemon Balm, Part 2
Lemon Balm has so many great benefits, I had to write two blogs about it!
• Lemon balm also has anti-viral properties. It can be used topically and internally for viruses like herpes and shingles. It mixes well with another anti-viral herb, licorice. A suggested formula would be 3 parts lemon balm to 1 part licorice as a tea or tincture.
• Lemon Balm is good for your heart. It helps to lower blood pressure and can be mixed with motherwort to strengthen the heart.
• Lemon Balm is helpful for colds and flu. Drink hot lemon balm tea to help with the aches and pains that accompany fever. It can also help to induce sweating to break a fever.
• Lemon Balm also can lower the thyroid and is useful in hyperthyroidism. However, it is good to avoid too much use of lemon balm is you have a hypothyroid.
Lemon Balm essential oil has also been studied to be helpful with calming the agitated state of Alzheimer’s. To order the best, high quality organic lemon balm (melissa) essential oil, visit the Floracopeia website.
Tags: herbal medicine, Herbs, lemon balm
