Weeds at Our Feet: What Do They Mean?

In my heart, the practice of the Wise Woman Tradition is an ancestral health-affirming belief that passes down from generation to generation even in our subconscious. We may step away from these hands-on skills for multiple generations, but they never really leave us. Harvesting juicy violet leaves, nibbling on early-spring chickweed, pawing through dense clay for potassium-rich dandelion roots - these rituals are built into our cellular memory. They are our birthright and biological imperative.

Our ancestors used what they could reach or what grew right outside their back door. So do/did the "granny (or grandpa) witches" who are still alive today. Who had time, resources, or the ability to buy from afar or transport goods along great distances? Exotic Amazonian (as in the jungle, not the retail mogul) antioxidant-rich superfoods were accessible only to those who lived in the Amazon. The name of the game out of necessity was “hyperlocal", and not because it was a buzzword, but because it was life. 

The substances we use as beneficial to health shift from region to region and may even change among microclimates within one community. A homestead up in a shady holler might use broad-leaf plantain to pack a wound, while those near the sunny meadow down the way might use the lance-leaved variety of the same plant. There is a magic simplicity in knowing the weeds or wild plants which grow closest to your home and touch your bare feet. Gathering abundant beneficial species and making them into tinctures, oils, dried herbs, vinegars, and salves for your own personal herb stash or herbal first aid kit can be done even with scarce monetary resources, as long as the intention, solid identification skills, and willing desire is present. 

Most important for the home herbal preparation maker is some familiarity with botany, a good field guide, and pure keen observation of when to harvest herbs and how to handle them quickly once harvested so that their peak beneficial potency is preserved. Key rhythmic elements of wise woman preparation making include harvesting leaves and flowers in the spring, collecting seeds in the late summer, and digging roots in the late fall or winter.

Harvesting according to the lunar cycle and clipping the aerial parts of plants during the full moon while saving underground roots for the dark of the moon/the new moon is another ritual practice that dates back many centuries. Both our ancestors and modern herbalists understand that they must get to know a plant intimately in order to come into relationship with it and to properly harvest plants at different seasons, therefore gleaning varying nutrients that manifest differently from seed to root and summer to winter.  The cycles of the plant-body, human-body, and earth-body align and the synergy of this collision makes for the best preparations. 

If I had to pick only two herbs to have in my herbal emergency kit and home herb hub, powerful poke would be my first choice. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) - for its styptic (blood-stopping) and anti-infective properties - is a close second. But faced with the impossible task of only choosing one, I'd have to regretfully say goodbye to yarrow and stick with poke; that’s how versatile a lymph and immune system-amplifying first aid plant it is, both internally in low doses and topically in an oil or salve. You can learn to make your own pokeweed salve or oil here.

We have begun to see dandelion greens for sale on the shelves of natural food stores, elderberry has become a mainstream staple for surviving seasonal immune threats, and beneficial mushrooms like reishi are taking their rightful place as adjunct allies in complementary and "alternative" health clinics. I take heart in believing that the popularity of the benefits of the common, abundant, and hyperlocal plant will one day allow some of the more at-risk plants (see United Plant Savers, an incredibly big-hearted organization we choose to support and partner with, for a full updated list) to have a chance for survival, as people turn back to their indigenous roots and ‘eat the weeds’ again. May these plants that volunteer in your garden, city sidewalks, or patio pots find a special place in your heart and in your kitchen or bathroom cabinet.