Mullein Legacy

The connection between Receptivity and Healing

I wanted to share a couple of things that happened last week which illustrates how just a small amount of receptivity or openness can impact our lives, health, community and our planetary connection.

I had a client last week who told me her journey with herbalism started from a talk I gave where I was speaking about the gifts of Mullein. She’s in her seventies and had been having problems with a lingering lung ailment, so after my talk she went and bought Mullein from a reputable source and took it as a tea. It worked so well to clear and heal her lungs she became evangelical and began converting other older people in her community into believers of Mullein, many of whom had chronic lung issues. And, those friends after being healed passed the knowledge of this plant onto younger people like their children and grandchildren. She said these folks were always coming back to her and thanking her and telling her how it helped them and how they’d passed it on. Such a simple, amazing and hopeful story! Herbal knowledge can spread that easily, and be reclaimed as a multigenerational legacy just like that. And the herbs are “free” and just waiting to be recognized and asked for help. It’s just waiting to happen. But that little bit of receptivity, of fertile soil to help the seed grow is essential.

The other factor in this story is Mullein. Mullein is an ambassador to the world of herbal healers. Everyone knows Mullein whether you think you do or not. You know Mullein and have looked right at it many times even if you don’t know the plant’s name. Mullein’s head-height erect flowering stalk of the second year plants calls our attention from a hundred yards. When we wander over to have a closer look, the plants in their basal first year form surround the elders. These are so beautiful with their fibonacci pattern of emerging leaves and soft plush lamb’s ear-like texture that cup the rain or morning dew.

This story of herbs and healing only came back to me because my new client who heard me speak four years ago only now needed a herbal consultation. I’ve been teaching for forty years, hundreds of people, so how many others who have heard me (or anyone) teach about plants have generated the same experience? Of being a conduit for this ancient healing knowledge, that is a living mystery surrounding our lives, and which generally goes unseen or spoken of.

Also in the last week I heard about two people close in my life that were scheduled for medical procedures. One for gallbladder removal, one for a heart operation. Sadly, these folks were not open even a little bit to some simple herbal advice. Not open to me or the idea of herbs enough for them to trust me and listen for one minute. From treating myself and countless other folks for gallbladder blockage and heart irregularities I feel in both cases the surgery could have been avoided if they had just been willing to try a herb for a couple weeks. This is very frustrating and tragic in my mind because I can see they believe so deeply in the monolithic medical establishment that they trapped themselves in a dead end, but in reality there was such a simple solution in both cases.

Celandine for gallbladder blockages is miraculous. Hawthorn for heart ailments equally so. That herb and dietary changes may have been all that was needed for a lasting non-invasive, no risk solution. If they had been open to those plants they’d be cured by spring. And on recommendation this summer they’d be growing or looking for those plants in the wild. When these connections are made with the plant people it’s like a miracle, so one wants to tell their children, grandchildren and caregivers every time they see the plant. And they’d likely treasure and protect those places on the land where they grow. Win, win, win, win. But in this case, as it actually happened, the medical establishment and Pharma industry gets all the glory, and payment of tax payers money and government support in the tens of thousands of dollars. The plants and the earth get nothing but industry waste, and the community just gets more dependent on these industries, and convinced of their omnipotence. This is a win (you might be better after the operation), lose, lose, lose situation.

Most herbal remedies and treatments are very simple and extremely low risk. It’s always worth a try in my opinion. Herbs always have a place. If not as the sole treatment then adjacent and supportive to the allopathic treatment. When you are learning through books or you are advised by someone who is new to using herbs you can get things wrong, and the herbs might not work, but it’s extremely unlikely they will make things worse. You can also get crappy quality herbs, and unless you use enough of them they also might not work. So herbs don’t work all the time for everyone, but they are very inexpensive (compared to pharmaceuticals) and super low risk. They’re low risk because herbs have been healing us for much longer than recorded history. For as long as we have existed as a species. Many if not all animals self medicate using herbs. So when we use herbs we are part of a much bigger much larger continuum of healing. Their growth and production helps the environment (pollination, food for wildlife, reconditioning the land, fixing carbon). They are safe because we literally evolved with them. As opposed to pharmaceuticals made from chemicals of altered petroleum based molecules, for which no long term testing has been done. And whose production and by-products can harm the planet and other mammals, like with birth control and antibiotics found in many cities’ waste water. That goes largely unspoken of and is an ongoing public health disaster.

The only way change can happen is if we get up and step forward and do something to create a spell of hope and connection that can break through and dispel the patterns of submission we are caught in. If you can find a few herbs in your area, even in the city, that you can interact with in their domain and harvest, you are turning your energy away from the monolithic medical industry and casting a spell of connection to the earth and ancestral reclamation.