The idea of this book is to help us reclaim and restore a hugely important part of our heritage: our plant medicine path. In some parts of the world plant medicine is still taught at the kitchen table, by the cooking fire, or in the fields, passed down from parent to child and woven through the fabric of the culture. In many places it has been severely eroded, but it has not been lost. Plants feed us most generously and give their medicine freely, and we have the right to reclaim our ability to use plant medicine, to restore our access to the knowledge and the plants themselves—not just for humans but for all species and ecosystems.
Conversations with Plants is an invitation to step into your own relationship with plants—their stories and meanings—feel into their medicine, and then understand how to work with them by bringing your own medicine into the conversation. Being an herbalist is not about prescribing, it’s about reconnecting with the herbs and their consciousness and holding a discussion with them and the people for whom you are asking their help, nourishment, nurturing, support, protection, and healing along with their wisdom and ability to remind us who we are.
This book is about bringing herbs back into your daily life and remembering the direct intimate relationship that has always existed between people and plants. There are plenty of books that provide information on preparations and dosages, but Conversations with Plants shows you how to relate to the green community and use specific plants in your daily food and medicine preparation, explaining the meaning and process behind it, so you can work out appropriate doses and preparations by using common sense.
By:
Nikki Darrell
Imprint: Aeon Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9781911597643
ISBN 10: 1911597647
Pages: 294
Publication Date: 31 March 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Setting some context PART I: OUR GREEN ALLIES CHAPTER ONE Understanding plant anatomy, their parts and their medicine CHAPTER TWO Plants as alchemists (including organoleptic exercises) CHAPTER THREE Plant families and their medicine CHAPTER FOUR Wild gardening and a new paradigm of growing and harvesting PART II: ENERGETICS, INTENTIONS AND MEDICINE CHAPTER FIVE Evolving energetics CHAPTER SIX Intentions in medicine making; the wild kitchen and pharmacy PART III: THE HUMAN PLANT CHAPTER SEVEN Community, connection and boundaries CHAPTER EIGHT The lower cauldron physical survival of the individual and species (reproduction) CHAPTER NINE The middle cauldron the emotional being CHAPTER TEN The upper cauldron CHAPTER ELEVEN The cycles of life PART IV: PLANT STORIES NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
Nikki Darrell has been working with plants, their medicine and healing, for over four decades as her fascination with the green beings started in early childhood and her primary teachers are the plants she works with. She has worked as a research scientist in the field of plant science; a practitioner of herbal medicine, aromatherapy, aromatic medicine, reflexology, massage, and body work; a gardener; an educator at all levels from introductory to 3rd level, campaigner, and author of five books and many articles. She holds a Masters in Social and Co-operative Enterprise which she embarked on due to her love of sustainable community development. She is devoted to the recovery of our societal and culture connection to the plant beings and our kin in Nature, bringing herbal medicine back into the centre of our communities.
