Kin based medicine

Before modern nut and seed oils – expressed by expensive machinery, chemically fractured plant products or petroleum-based products imported into the UK  – our ancestors  used animals fats rendering tallow from cow and deer tallow and pig lard – to create medicines with plants. When our ancestors hunted for food they did so in an respectful way to both spirit and body. Using ceremony and ritual and prayer to appeal to the spirit of the hunt and forest to pass them a sick and weak animal. This “ritual” would also have passed on information to the hunters, through performance and…

The struggles and revelations of Scotland’s people are stamped into the landscape, like wrinkles on the palms of old lady history some say put there by the Cailleach herself. Some experiences deep ravines. Other lines the soft touch of poetry skimming the surface like scree. With such deep history surrounding us it can’t help but inspire thoughts about the riddles of these places. Secrets coded in name and metaphor. Dark brooding and inspirational names captured in Gaelic given to desolate munro, shadowy river and unfathomable loch. Names such as Bod an Deamhain – the devil’s penis (point), Dùn dá Gaoithe…

Trying to find a moment’s peace. Well, that’s trick in itself for most of us. Trying to find a time for ourselves, to relax and just be peaceful is a gift for most parents and busy folk these days. But non the less peace is important both at home and globally. There is so much tension in the world these days.  We could all use a little peace & quiet.  A little respite and repose. What better day to celebrate peace, both at hearth and home and across the world than on the International Day of Peace today (21st September) with a cup…

I have recently been reflecting about a conference I spoke at a while ago. A few people were discussing a problem they felt they had in getting to know plants. What is plant communication, the delegates were asking? What does it feel like? I didn’t have any answers for them as a lot of this tends to be subjective and I’m not an expert on this area at all. We discussed expectations and experiences though. What did they mean? What was their understanding of communicating with plants? I said in summary “If you’re a herbalist you are already connecting but…

There is nothing more ubiquitous as the Blackberry or Bramble. Sméar Dubh or Smearagan in Gaelic, meaning black berry. Dris, druis bramble. The bramble was much valued by the old Highlanders, and where not indigenous was cultivated. The fruit was used for food, the root for dyeing, and an infusion of the leaves was used for medical purposes. Alone, and in combination with the ivy and the rowan, the bramble was placed above the lintel of the byre door to ward away witches and evil spirits. It is spoken of as ‘an druise beannaichte‘–the blessed bramble. It is said that a branch of…

The weather has been hot. Today is no exception. Hot, wet and humid with a wind coming from the south. The breeze brings the heady scent of hawthorn bloom through my open window. The scent of these mingling with the earthy aroma of petrichor. That deep patchouli like smell of the nearby forest in the rain. A base note to it all. It’s a smell unlike any other. It’s a smell of home. The smell of the start of summer. Its time to Preserve the May and make some flower jam. It got me thinking. How I might capture this very moment? This…