My favorite herb books!

I love to read and collect books on herbs.  I have stacks of them and while some of the information is repetitious, most books have some area of information that is unique, others are well illustrated and may be a joy to just browse through.  So, some of my favorites:

• Anything by Susun Weed.  If my house were on fire, I would grab her books first!  Very practical, well researched and full of very easy to make tinctures and infusions. Wise Woman Herbal is a great basic and narrows the essentials down to a few main herbs for health. Her books on Breast Health and Menopause are a must have for all women.  She not only covers herbal remedies but compares them to conventional medicine and she is the best researched author I have read yet on the pros and cons to both approaches. Her approach has reduced my fears enormously in these areas.
• Common Herbs for Natural Health by Juliette de Bairacli Levy---a classic and practical.
• The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook by James Green.  Filled with easy to make recipes for creams, lotions, tinctures, infusions.  This book is a classic and a must have essential.
• The Holistic Herbal by David Hoffmann.   Another essential filled with practical recipes for home cures and great information on herbs.
• The Complete Book of Herbs by Lesley Bremness. This is a beautiful book filled with gorgeous photos but also filled with very practical information on making eatibles, ointments and also paper and craft uses.  One of my all time favorites.
• The Enclyclopedia of Medicinal Plants by Andrew Chevallier.  Beautiful photos along with complete information on hundreds of herbs worldwide and also their chemical makeup. 
• The Cherokee Herbal by J.T. Garrett.  Great book on Native American uses for North American plants.  It covers the plants and also how the Native Americans classified them according to the four directions and their healing system.
• The Herb Book by John Lust.  No photos but one of the best complete books on the uses of herbs!! Easy to carry around since it is standard paperback size!

So this list covers some of my favorites on basic herbalism.  At some point in the future I will do a blog on my favorite books on the magical and ritual uses of herbs!  Until then, Happy Reading!!

A Winter Solstice Meditation

Get comfortable, sit quietly, close your eyes.  Pull yourself down into your heart chakra.  Picture that chakra as a cosy cave.  Sit there for a couple of minutes, breathe deeply, relax, feel your heartbeat.  When you feel quiet and calm visualize a tunnel that leads down through your body out your feet and into the earth.  It is a safe warm tunnel.  Follow it down deeply into the Mother Earth.  Go very slowly and very deeply, down into her womb.  Eventually you will come out into a warm dark cave.  It is the center of the Mother.  Sit, relax, breathe deeply.  Feel your heart beat in time to hers.  Feel her comfort you and pull out all of your stress into the earth.  Relax, feel the Mother huggging you.  Slowly open your eyes and notice that the walls of the cave are covered in crystals.  Sparkling crystals!  Perhaps one specifically calls out to you!  Reach out and take that crystal in your hands, it is yours.  Hold it close to your heart and fell the light that shines out from it.  Spend a minute enjoying that light within the womb of The Mother.  When you are ready, follow the tunnel back up through the earth, bring your crystal with you.  Follow the tunnel back up through all of the layers of The Mother, back up through your legs and back into your own heart center, that warm cozy cave.  Pause a minute and hold your crystal.  Feel the glow of it's light, the light of The Mother, fill your heart chakra.  Feel it fill your body and feel it expand out into your whole energy field.  That light will warm and comfort you thoughout the coming cold days of winter. When you are ready, come back into your waking consciousness.

Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice has been a time of peace.  My teaching duties are finished for the semester.  My time is my own.  Solstice evening was spent in the woods, under the stars drumming while my big dog Max explored the darkness and night smells.  A few days earlier saw a more formal ritual with my women's group, calling in the directions, visioning, drumming and feasting.  The slower days this week have allowed me time to contemplate, process tinctures, and set my house in order.  Next week will see a new surge of creativity as I get back into my studio and prepare for an upcoming solo show and a workshop.  But for now, peace.