The Book of Herbal Wisdom Quotes

“Let us bring our account to a summation. Burdock acts so widely on the system that it is somewhat difficult to pin down its exact affinities. Yet, we can say that it opens pores and promotes secretion from internal and external surfaces. It seems to act particularly through the liver, lymphatics, and kidneys. It stimulates metabolism through the liver, cleansing and feeding through the lymph, and waste removal through the veins. Thus, it strengthens, wrings out and lifts tissues and organs, including the uterus and prostate. It acts strongly on the skin, to promote or correct perspiration. On the psychological level, Burdock helps us to deal with our worries about the unknown, the “Hedge Ruffians,” the bears, which lurk in the dark woods beyond our control. It seizes upon deep, complex issues, penetrates to the core and brings up old memories and new answers. It gives us the faith to move ahead on our path, despite the unknown problems which may ensnare us along the way. It helps the person who is afraid become more hardy, while it brings the hardy wanderer back to his original path. It restores vigor and momentum. Preparation,”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Calendula was used in German folk medicine as a remedy for wounds and glandular problems.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Magic or “good medicine” is sometimes simply a matter of the proper timing of events, while poor timing can be the source of “bad luck” or “bad medicine.” Someone might say it is “the spirit” acting through our lives. I wouldn’t object to that sentiment. However, I would add a further idea: plants can influence this element of timing. They participate in the life of the spirit just as we do. We should not be so chauvinistic as to believe that we are the only ones on this planet who enjoy that life. Whether we find the right healing remedy or not may be a matter of timing, or being open to the spirit, or believing in the possibility of healing from an unorthodox source, or believing that miracles can happen. Plants, just like any of us, would like to participate in the occurrence of a miracle.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Modern doctors have also noted that cancers set in where there has been a trauma from a blow, bruise, or chaffing years before. They also understand that many cancers prefer to grow in an oxygen-depleted, stagnant, venous blood supply. This gives us a great tip to the treatment of cancer. Herbalists have followed up on this hint, but doctors have not. They do not understand the thinking behind traditional medicine, which attempts to treat general conditions of hot and cold, excess and deficiency, etc., rather than specific pathological lesions and entities.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“The simple beauty of the yin/yang system is based on the observation that everything has two sides. The word yin designates the shady side of a mountain; the word yang represents the sunny side. By extension, yin came to mean all things dark, cool, damp, hidden, withdrawn, interior, feminine, while yang represented all things light, warm, dry, exteriorized, visible, masculine.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“The five phases are associated with the five basic flavors received by the human tongue: bitter (fire), sweet (earth), pungent or acrid (metal), salty (water), and sour (wind). Although the flavors fit the elements neatly, they function very pragmatically, as guides for knowledge about herbal properties.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Jung named the four functions intuition, thinking, feeling, and sensation. (We are, of course, dealing with the English terms used in translation, which are not as expressive as the original German.) Everybody has all four functions, but there is a tendency to favor one. The intuitive person tends to look for connections, patterns, and relationships between different objects and people. He or she tends to see how a pattern will work itself out in human society, in individual psychology, or even in the physical organism. The thinking person looks for what makes sense according to deductive reasoning and rational thought. The pattern does not matter as much as the logic behind the process. The feeling person does not care whether the experience makes sense or fits a pattern, but what it feels like emotionally. (Unfortunately, English is a little ill-prepared for these concepts. “Feeling” is used to describe emotional experiences, physical sensations, and intuitive “hunches.”) Sensation people are somewhat more difficult to recognize or define. They do not look for the pattern, the logic, or the feeling, but learn from the sensation of what they are doing. These people are the ones who have to learn from experience. Theirs is a hands-on knowledge, a physical feeling of “what it felt like,” which helps them to proceed from one experience to the next. They have a hard time trying to explain why they did something or what somebody else should do; they would rather just show you how to do it. And if they have not had the experience, they will not attempt to explain it. The four functions match the four elements: intuition (fire), thinking (air), feeling (water), and sensation (earth). Jung laid out the four functions on a cross, as follows: Jung found that each person tended to have a dominant function, a secondary function that he or she was fairly good at using to supplement the first, a third function that could support the others, and an “inferior function” that was difficult to grapple with or use with ease. This function was the Achilles’ heel of the psyche. On the cross, the inferior was always the one opposite the dominant function. The two supporting functions were on either side. In addition to these four functions, Jung identified a fifth which he called the “transcendent function.” He placed this in the center of the cross, or quarternio, like the quintessence. This function was not immediately available to ordinary consciousness, but through special development or critical experiences, it could be brought to bear on solving the issues of life. This function tended to look above and go beyond ordinary functioning with the four regular faculties of the psyche. These, after all, tended toward domination and inferiority. The “transcendent function” was so named because it jumped above these prejudices and brought in new solutions for the soul. Jung identified this function with the “active imagination,” or the imaginative faculty actively used.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Habitat. The environmental niche occupied by a plant reflects stresses and conditions which it has had to adapt to, and these often correspond to conditions in the organism. Plants which grow in wet situations often relate to organ systems which handle dampness in the body, such as the lymphatics and kidneys. They correspond to diseases produced by an excess of dampness—respiratory problems, mucus, lymphatic stagnation, swollen glands, kidney and bladder problems, intermittent fever and rheumatic complaints (rheuma = dampness in Greek). Here we think of Horsetail (low, wet sands/kidneys), Eryngo (salty, sandy seashores/kidneys), Gravel Root (swamps/kidneys), Swamp Milkweed (swamps/kidneys), Hydrangea (sides of streams/kidneys), Boneset (wet soils/joints and fever), Willow (low ground/joints and fever), Meadowsweet (low ground/rheumatic pains, intermittent fever), Northern White Cedar (cedar swamps and margins of lakes/lymphatics), Labrador Tea (cedar swamps and margins of lakes/lymphatics), various Knotweeds (low ground/kidneys), Sweet Flag (swamps/mucus, lungs and joints), Angelica (damp, shady, cool valleys/damp, cold rheumatic and respiratory conditions). It is interesting to note that sandy, gravely soils are also a signature for kidney remedies (Horsetail, Eryngo, Gravel Root, Gromwell, False Gromwell, Uva ursi, etc.)”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Habitat. The environmental niche occupied by a plant reflects stresses and conditions which it has had to adapt to, and these often correspond to conditions in the organism. Plants which grow in wet situations often relate to organ systems which handle dampness in the body, such as the lymphatics and kidneys. They correspond to diseases produced by an excess of dampness—respiratory problems, mucus, lymphatic stagnation, swollen glands, kidney and bladder problems, intermittent fever and rheumatic complaints (rheuma = dampness in Greek). Here we think of Horsetail (low, wet sands/kidneys), Eryngo (salty, sandy seashores/kidneys), Gravel Root (swamps/kidneys), Swamp Milkweed (swamps/kidneys), Hydrangea (sides of streams/kidneys), Boneset (wet soils/joints and fever), Willow (low ground/joints and fever), Meadowsweet (low ground/rheumatic pains, intermittent fever), Northern White Cedar (cedar swamps and margins of lakes/lymphatics), Labrador Tea (cedar swamps and margins of lakes/lymphatics), various Knotweeds (low ground/kidneys), Sweet Flag (swamps/mucus, lungs and joints), Angelica (damp, shady, cool valleys/damp, cold rheumatic and respiratory conditions).”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“I always used to say, “Herbs work on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of existence.” Later I came to understand that they also work on the magical level.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“7Song made a comment which is significant in this regard. He said that Burdock is for “liver acne,” when the pimples are singular, large, and nasty, while Goldenrod is for “kidney acne,” when they arise in little sheets of fine pimples accompanied by a general patch of reddish, dry, irritated skin. The”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“(Rash, boils, profuse sweating, and lack of sweat are usually good indications of clogging in the lymphatic glands.)”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“The true physician should have a therapeutic eye, which notices disease whenever it appears, not just when the time clock is running”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“I find that Burdock seed (or root) is beneficial for both profuse sweating and lack of perspiration.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Burdock helps the body remember what it was like to be healthy” and is suited to chronic cases “where the thread of health has been lost.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“(Right angles and switchbacks in the pattern of plant growth are signatures for gall bladder remedies—see Chelidonium as well as Apocynum.)”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Werewolf Root is for changes that are complete, so that one cannot go back to the old life one was living.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Medicine Lodge Root is the remedy for people who are fighting against natural and divine order, or who are losing the battle to remain a separate, conscious individual. The personality, ego, or spiritual will is weak; they are battered down by outside influences and too easily dominated. They need to make a ninety degree turn or they will die—spiritually or physically.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“The oil of Lady’s Mantle, taken internally, eases colic, expels wind, and opens obstructions of the kidneys, ureters and, bladder, expelling gravel, stones, and sand, “cleansing them from any Tartarous Mucilage lodged therein.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“A tincture made from vinegar has the same virtues, but “it opens the more, and removes Obstructions of Stomach, Liver, Spleen, and other Bowels … whereby it effectually stops Vomiting, strengthens the Stomach, and causes a good Appetite and a strong Digestion, but it stops not Fluxes of the Bowels so well as some of the former Preparations.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“By no means is Lady’s Mantle exclusively a female medicine. Maria Treben learned from folk healers in Burgenland, Austria, that it strengthens the heart muscle. As a result, she applied it to enhance the muscular tone in general. She used it for muscular atrophy, weakness of the muscles, serious and incurable muscular disorders, multiple sclerosis, poor nutrition, prolapse of the uterus, and hernia. She combined Lady’s Mantle with Shepherd’s Purse for treatment of prolapse and hernia. I have seen it work several times for hernia.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“Alchemilla to warm and dry the joints, removing pain, gout, and arthritis. For this purpose, he prefers that it be preserved in oil and applied externally. In this form, “it is a famous thing against a cold Gout, and all Pains or Aches proceeding from a cold Cause in any Part of the Body.” As a warming and drying remedy it would be effectual against that “cold, wet” complaint, arthritis. “Outwardly applied to the Gout, Sciatica, or other like Pains of the Joints, proceeding from Blows, Over-straining, or the like, it gives Ease, and speedily cures them, adding also Strength to the Part.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“It is an excellent thing also against Bruises, Cuts or Punctures of the Nerves and Tendons; for it suddenly eases the Pain, and alleviates the Inflammation, and thereby induces the Cure.” (Remember, it contains salicin.) Lady’s Mantle also staunches bleeding, making it “effectual against all sorts of Bleedings both inward and outward,” so that it “stops the Over-flowing of the Terms in Women, and cures the Bloody-flux, as also all other Fluxes of the Bowels.” And it cures “Bruises by Falls or otherwise, whether inwards or outwards.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“We sent her Lady’s Mantle tincture, which she applied externally on the ear and took internally as well. The eardrum sealed up”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“In simple green Wounds or Cuts, it has such an exquisite Faculty of Speedy Healing, that it cures it at the first Intention, Consolidating the Lips thereof, without … suffering any Corruption to remain behind.” If a wound becomes infected, “it is one of the best of vulneraries, for it digests [corrupted material] if need be, absterges or cleanses, incarnates [new tissue], dries and heals, almost to a Miracle.” It is useful for hollow wounds, ulcers, fistulas, and sores. It is most amazing how Lady’s Mantle can restore the integrity of torn, ruptured, or separated tissues, as seen in hernias or perforated membranes. It not only supports the cohesion of the cell wall, but of the muscle wall and other such structures, at every level of the body. It is well to remember that Lady’s Mantle was used in folk medicine to “restore virginity,” i.e., reseal the hymen. This sounds like a folkloric absurdity, but I have no doubt it could restore this membrane, as I have seen it restore others.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“As far as can be determined at the present time, Dandelion seems to have a small scope when used in a specific or homeopathic manner. Perhaps this can be enlarged upon in the future. When used as a general “liver cleanser,” as it is in Western herbalism, Dandelion may accomplish much, but it is difficult to determine exactly what it does in any given case. It is a medicine illustrating the differences between the specific and a general approach.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“According to homeopathic literature, Capsicum is called for in patients of lax fiber and flabby muscles, who don’t exercise and eat the wrong foods. Has a red face, yet the face feels cold to the touch and is generally chilly. At times he or she gasps for breath, or can’t catch the breath. Worse from slight drafts, cold air, cold water, uncovering, dampness, bathing, drinking, and eating, better from continued motion and exercise.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“The highly stimulating and heating properties of Cayenne Pepper rouse the circulation, move the blood to the surface, and engorge the capillaries.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“An orderly approach to cardio vascular disease, according to Beach, was to first relieve the inequality in the circulation, so that the burden is removed from the heart. After this has been accomplished, it is possible to see the real condition of the heart, and to treat it with heart-specific remedies, if necessary.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

“It only not calms and tones the nerves, but it acts very deeply to restore and improve the nerves of sense and thought.”
― Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines