The Healing Medicine of Trees......Part Six Focuses on Pine....

PINE trees grow where it is too cold, too rocky, and too steep for deciduous trees. They cover great expanses of the earth and provide much of the oxygen we breathe. The most common pine tree of temperate North America is white pine (Pinus strobus), the Tree of the Great Peace, and the tree of the Great Mistake. The symbol of the Great Peaceful Nations – the Iroquois – is an eagle perched in a white pine with weapons of war buried at its roots.

            Pine is the tree of Winter Solstice; pine is the Christmas tree. The evergreen brightness of pine in the dark days is balm to the heart and spirit. The scent of pine is soothing and uplifting at the same time. How do you feel when in a pinewood?

            The needles of white pine, collected at any time and steeped in apple cider vinegar, make a delicious homemade balsamic vinegar at a fraction of the cost of the real stuff. Pine vinegar is loaded with vitamin C, too, and helps prevent colds.

            If the advice in old herbals to dose animals with turpentine has left you wondering how the animal survived the cure, here’s answer: Before turpentine was distilled from petroleum, it was “made” by tincturing the bark of pine. All parts of the pine are antiseptic and beneficial against organisms in the upper respiratory tract. It’s easy to make your own tincture; use 198 proof alcohol; pine resin is hydrophobic. Use your pine tincture to disinfect wounds and counter respiratory problems.  

            Pine sap/resin was used to seal canoes – and cuts. It is one of the resins that bees use to make propolis. If you’ve ever leaned on an oozing pine tree and found your hands black, or worse yet, sat on a freshly cut pie stump and permanently blackened your favorite jeans, then you know  why ointments made with pine sap are called  “black” salves. The antiseptic, vulnerary, and wound healing abilities of pine are used by all indigenous people, and they have a variety of clever ways of using the bark and sap/resin to heal wounds and broken bones.

In the days when Britain was a great naval power, northeast North American was a territory worth fighting off because it was extraordinarily rich in for oak (for shipbuilding) and white pine (for masts). Pine is still valued as a softwood, for furniture, houses, tools, and a wide variety of other uses. My area is rich is small local sawmills milling white pine rough-cut boards that I have used in every building I have erected over the past forty years.

Pine brings such joy to my heart. It seems always to be near. Pines grow in the city. Pines grow in the forest. Pines grow in parks, by themselves. Pines grow in groves, colonizing the earth so the succession of trees can arise and be in beauty.

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Trees are everywhere. Breathe with the trees every chance you get. Cultivate an “attitude of gratitude,” as Grandmother Twylah used to admonish us. Your life, your corpus, and your spirit will benefit.

The Healing Medicine of Trees....Part Five Focuses on Oak......

OAK is the ogam Duir or Dair, the door. It holds the center place in the ogam of the thirteen moons. The words Druid and dairy are derived from the same root as Duir.

Oaks (Quercus) are one of the most common trees of the temperature regions. I’ve been told that North America was so densely covered with oak forest five hundred years ago that a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without ever setting foot on the ground. Oak forests also covered Europe several thousand years ago.

One might say civilization was possible due to oak. It provides heat, tans hides, heals wounds and infections, and can easily be fashioned into bows, spears, oars, boats, and houses. When green it bends well. Once dry, it becomes as hard as steel, and is exceptionally durable. (If the second little piggy had built his house of oak, no wolf would have been able to blow it down.)

Oak is not the hardest wood. (That’s ebony.) Nor is it the toughest. (That would be ash.) But it is the hardest tough wood. Oak logs submerged for more than a thousand years have been used in modern buildings. Oak was once valued due to its ability to be worked into rot resistant ships, barrels, and wagon wheels. We rarely use those things today, but oak is still prized: for furniture, musical instruments, firewood, and floors. It burns for a long time, puts out a lot of heat ,and leaves a bed of coals that lingers.

To the botanist, oak is Quercus, which means, literally, “a fine tree.” Oaks are roughly divided into red oaks and white oaks. The leaves of the red oaks are pointed; the leaves of white oaks are rounded. The acorns of the white oaks are the best to eat.

Acorn meal was a staple food of the Native Americans of the west coast of North America. I prepared it once; once. Not only is the labor of picking up acorns literally back-breaking, the process of leaching them, drying them, and grinding them – before they can be cooked, which is a tricky business itself – is more than my modern self wants to endure. Acorns are still important food for livestock. My goats love to (over) eat them. In Spain, I was introduced to “black leg ham” from pigs fed only on acorns. Delicious.

Magically, the oak wand is used to maintain a strong center under adverse conditions. Or, in beneficial circumstances, oak wands are used for help in creating openings to new realms of understanding. Acorns are magical, of course, and are featured in many European fairy tales.

Oak bark is used medicinally as an antiseptic, astringent, and tonic. The tea – four tablespoons of bark per half-gallon of water simmered for ten minutes, and taken half a cup at a time – is said to shrink goiter, reduce glandular inflammation, stop diarrhea, restore loss of voice and ease coughs, dry up mouth sores, and bring down fever.

The Iroquois considered oak an aid for “when your woman goes off and won’t come back.” To cure sinus problems and infections, they smoked the leaves and exhaled the healing smoke through the nose. A strong infusion of the bark or leaves is used as a sitz bath to ease hemorrhoids, fistulas, vaginal discharges, and chronic pelvic pain. Poultices of the leaves are applied to heal stings, bruises, ulcers, broken bones, swellings, and painful joints. Oak is also of value as a wash to remove dandruff and encourage hair growth, and to heal varicose veins, sore eyes, umbilical stumps, burns, and oozing sores.

Oak trees are sacred to Taranis, Indra, Jupiter, Yahweh, Ukho, Rhea, Cybele, Thor, Artemis, Brigid, Balder, the Erinyes, and the Kikonian Maenads.

“My roots touch the Earth’s heart.
My leaves touch the Bear’s heart.
I am the Queen, I am the oracle,
I am the center of the whirling Universe,
I am the door of the year.
I am the mill shaft; I am the axle.
Around my stillness all is motion.
I am fullness and promises fulfilled.
I am love’s memory; I am love’s grandchild.”

The Healing Medicine of Trees.....Part Four Focuses on Linden.........

LINDEN is one of my favorite trees. It goes by many names: basswood, lime blossom, and tille. To the botanist it is Tillia; and this is the name most of the world knows it by. It thrives in many places and is harvested from China to France for commercial sale.

            Euell Gibbons said linden is the tree you find by listening. When linden blooms, its fragrance is so sweet that the bees flock to it. Their buzzing is the sound one must tune in to if identifying linden by sound. (I usually find them by smell!) When I harvest linden blossoms, I am careful to wait until after the bee has left the flower, so I don’t get stung.  

“I smell fairies at my feet, I’m sitting under a linden tree;

Bees abuzz and birds atweet, linden blossoms sure smell sweet.

Linden, linden heal my heart,

You can bring me a brand new start.”

Linden blossoms hang from a green strap-like structure that looks a little like a leaf, but isn’t. The green structure is part of the remedy and needs to be harvested along with the cluster of flowers dangling under it.                       

I reach for linden when I want to quell inflammation. A student lowered her C-reactive protein (C-rP) levels, and her risk of suffering a heart attack, by drinking linden infusion for three weeks. C-reactive protein is a measure of the amount of inflammation in the blood vessels specifically and the overall body in general. With the licensing of a drug (Crestor, rosuvastatin calcium) to lower C-rP levels, we are going to be hearing lots more about this substance in the near future. (Find out why you don’t want to take this drug at www.worstpill.org)

Lowering inflammation is key to achieving a happy, healthy old age. Toward that end, I drink at least two quarts of linden infusion a week. I believe that most chronic diseases are the end result of inflammation. Joint pain is inflammation. Dementia is inflammation. Blood vessel disease is inflammation. And adult-onset diabetes is inflammation. It seems to me that many cancers are a response to inflammation too. A recent study found women who taken NSAIDs regularly are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Linden is the world’s leading anti-cold and anti-flu herb. It prevents and heals all respiratory distresses (but is not an anti-infective). It is a cooling and strengthening herb. Linden is considered safe for children and elders.

Linden is primarily used as a tea, though I prefer the curative powers of a strong infusion.  I use one-half ounce of linden blossoms to a quart of water and steep for four hours. I strain off the first brew and refrigerate it, then rebrew the wet linden flowers by adding two cups of cold water to them in a saucepan. I bring this rebrew to a boil, cover, and let sit for four hours to extract the healing mucilage that is triggered by the cold water. 

            Linden flowers are the usual medicine, but the leaves are medicinal as well. They are heart-shaped and even more mucilaginous and anti-inflammatory than the blossoms.. A student who had been kicked by a horse found relief from a nasty wound (already more than a week old) by applying chewed up linden leaf. If I didn’t have so much plantain at hand, I am sure I would use more linden leaf poultices.

            Linden grows well in cities; I have rarely been in a city in North America or Europe that does not a Linden Avenue. A highlight of my love affair with linden come with a visit to Linderhof in Bavaria. The day I got there, the three-hundred-year-old linden tree was blooming and buzzing and throwing off a scent that made me swoon with delight. My local lindens are tall at fifty feet. This giant was over a hundred feet.

Catch the YouTube of me harvesting linden with my apprentices in the parking lot of the local mall. We attracted many interested people, including one adventurous man who sawed off an entire branch of the tree we were harvesting from, so he could try it out!



The Healing Medicine of Trees....Part Three Focuses on Willow.....

WILLOW is also an ogam: Sail or Salle, meaning “the color of death.” (That is, the wood is white, like bones.) The early Americans carved willow trees on gravestones because the willow rises up from the earth, then bends her branches back down to it. Willow, like elder, symbolizes a gateway between the worlds.

 Everyone knows and loves the willow; it is a common tree throughout moist, temperate regions. The weeping willow comes to mind first for many people; pussy willow is rarely far behind.

            Probably every one of the 400 species of willow has been used as medicine. For example, herbalist Ellen Evert Hopman cites Daniel Moerman who recorded Native Americans using S. nigra  (black willow) as an anaphrodisiac; S. caprea  (goat willow) as a specific against whooping cough; S. amygdaloides (peachleaf willow) as a sacred herb in the sun dance ceremony; S. arbusculoides (littletree willow) as an Eskimo/Inuit wound healer and soother of sore eyes; S. fuscescens (Alaskan bog willow) as a cure for mouth sores and an analgesic; S. Babylonica (weeping willow) as we do and as a “wind” tonic; S. candida (silver willow) as a reliever of fainting and trembling; S. discolor (pussy willow) as a stomachic; S. fragilis (crack willow) as a styptic, S. cordata (heartleaf willow) as a way to increase appetite; and S. purpurea (purple osier), S. gooddingii, and  S. caroliniana (coastal willow) as an ally for rapidly cooling off the feverish.

Willow is anodyne, diaphoretic, digestive, sedative, astringent, tonic, and anti-rheumatic.

To the botanist, willow is Salix. The active compound is salicin. When extracted into vinegar (acetic acid), the compound acetisalicylic acid is formed. Thus, willow has long been used as a muscle relaxer, pain killer, inflammation cooler, and fever reducer. It is generally the inner bark of white willow (Salix alba) that is used medicinally, but I have it on good authority that the inner bark, the leaf buds, or even, in an emergency, the mature leaves, can be used successfully.

For ease of use, put up some willow in vinegar or one-hundred-proof vodka. A dose (the equivalent of two aspirin) is a tablespoonful of the vinegar or a dropperful of the tincture. If using the dried plant, steep four tablespoons of inner bark in a quart of cold water overnight, then bring the whole thing to a boil. Cool and take a cup at a time.     

Willow is one of the original Bach flower essences. He suggests using it when there is bitterness and resentment. Willow is and was the wood of choice for the Druids’ harps. Willow is said to “speak the truth.”

Willows always grow near water; so the sight of them signals water to the primitive parts of our brains. The wood of the weeping willow is so wet that, even when well dried, it hardly burns at all; rather it seeks up a choking and awful-smelling cloud of thick yellow smoke.

Did you know that willows are unisexual? Male trees have yellow staminate flowers. Female trees have seeds surrounded by light, fluffy, whitish down. The seeds blow about in the wind and collect along the roadsides in great numbers.

Willow is cultivated for use in making baskets and wicker furniture. In previous times, willow withies were used to create wattle walls, wattle fences, and coracle boats. Willow can be coppiced or pollarded to produce long, thin, straight rods that are flexible and easy to work with. An ancient Celtic house found in Ireland required five miles of willow rods in its construction. Willow is also used to make cricket bats and various useful hoops.

Willow produces a rooting hormone that allows it to root when merely stuck into the ground. Willow tea helps other plants form roots as well.

Willow is from the same root (wicce, to bend) as wicker and wicked and wicca. The early Greeks believed that nine wild orgiastic Muses lived in the willow tree. A willow wand is used magically for working moon charms and for casting spells to entice creative visions.

A Japanese folk tale tells of a man who so revered a willow tree that it became a real woman, whom he married and had a child by. When the villagers cut down the willow – ironically, to build a temple to Quan Yin – the wife dies. Trees are our natural places of worship.





The Healing Medicine Of Trees....Part One Focuses On Birch Trees......

From Susun Weed-Herbalist



Trees are some of the most fascinating of all plants and of all herbal medicines. The lore surrounding any one type of tree – even some individual trees – is vast.

Consider doing a brief meditation with each tree, breathing with it, listening to it, and being open to the messages that it has to share with us. Every breath is a give away dance of joy.

BIRCH is the tree of beginnings. Birch (Beth) begins the ogam alphabet. Birch was the first tree to take hold in Europe as the glaciers retreated after the last ice age. Birch is one of the first trees to grow in disturbed soils. A birch tree in your dream is a strong indication that you are beginning a new aspect of your life, and that new spiritual understandings await you.

Birch is Betula to the botanist. In Sanskrit, it is burgha, meaning “that which is good to write upon.” The use of birch bark as a material to write upon is thought to predate paper, and even to be the model for papermaking. Magic spells are often written on a piece of birch bark.

Birch is the “way shower.”  Birch is safety and warmth in the cold. Birch is the sky ladder of the Siberian shaman. Birch is the cradle for the newborn. Birch twigs are used to whip the skin in Scandinavian saunas; a kind of rebirth. Birch twigs are used to light the sacred fires in Wales. Birch torches were used to “purify” the land, to expel “evil spirits” and maleficent fairies, and to “beat the boundaries” at winter solstice throughout old Europe.

Birch bark will burn whether wet or dry. This knowledge has saved my life at least once in high mountains when hypothermia threatened. Birch bark is antiseptic. Because it is pliable when fresh, it may be fashioned into containers which preserve food. Strangely enough, a simple birch bark cup can be use over an open fire to boil water without bursting into flames.

There are many Native American stories in which birch saves the. The European fairy tale we know as Cinderella is based on an older Russian story in which a woman becomes a birch tree in order to take care of her orphaned daughter. (Some versions say it was a beech tree. Walt But the original tale centered on the caring love of the birch. Disney left out the tree, alas.)

Notice that the wood of birch rots away quickly while the bark remains intact, often in one piece, for many years. Birch bark canoes are justly famous.

Birch leaves – collected in the spring only – can be used to make a tea which eases sore throats, bleeding gums, sores in the mouth, constipation, gout, rheumatism, kidney stones, and bladder problems. The tea has a slightly sedative effect and eases sore muscles, too.

Older birch leaves can be added to a hot bath or made into a strong brew and poured into the tub to heal moist, oozing skin conditions.

Recent studies have found an anticancer compound in birch sap: betulinic acid. Older herbals contain recipes for birch beer made by fermenting the sap; and for birch vinegar, also made by fermentation. I have never tapped a birch tree as they don’t heal easily and can bleed to death. The sweet birch that I use to demonstrate on in the spring often drips sap for several days after I break a small limb.

Sweet birch is my favorite of the birches. It smells of wintergreen and is used commercially to produce essential oil of wintergreen. A hot water infusion of the twigs gathered before they leaf out is all I use as a household cleanser. A handful of twigs in a quart jar may be rebrewed up to thirty times before they need to be replaced. This cleanser is safe for children to drink, but effectively loosens and removes grease and grime.

Birch wood is primarily used as a veneer. It is light in weight and light in color. It is favored in the manufacture of electric guitars.

Who can fail to be moved by the mystery of a white-barked birch shining under the light of the full moon on a snowy winter night?

Resources:

Celtic Tree Mysteries, Steve Blamires, Llewellyn, 1997.

Myths of the Sacred Tree, Moyra Caldecott, Destiny, 1993.

Sacred Tree Medicine, Ellen Evert Hopman, Destiny, 2008.

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