Medicine Stories

Fay Johnstone is a Shamanic Practitioner, Herbalist and Reiki Master with a passion for helping people and plants grow together. She believes that restoring our sacred relationship with the Earth and connecting to our natural environment, seasons and cycles is essential in order for us to maintain our vitality, health and well being. Fay is the author of the book Plants that Speak Souls that Sing, a guide to transforming your life with the spirit of plants, inspired by Fay's five years as an organic flower and herb farmer. It’s her goal to help us weave nature and enchantment back into our own lives to feel more in harmony with our true nature and sense of self. Fay offers workshops educating on Plant Spirit connection and Earth based ritual and shamanic treatments across the UK, online and from her home in Scotland. In the Intro: Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course (registration ends August 24th!) Becoming a plant spirit explorer How Stephen Harrod Buhner healed his chronic back pain Mugwort, oldest of herbs In the Interview: Returning to an ancestral homeland and taking up ancestral activities Being called by something invisible When something that feels like failure turns out to be a blessing How plants can connect us to the source of creativity Giving ourselves the time and permission for inner exploration and play Bringing enchantment and ritual to our relationship with plants A deeply transformative mugwort medicine story Generational forgetting & shame around using plant medicine A vision/visitation from the great-grandmother that Fay never knew Our bodies carry our stories Meeting the spirit of plants with the breath The benefits of not having a ton of plant knowledge Bypassing the brain to get to the heart Links: Fay's website Fay's Plant Spirit People Facebook group My website MythicMedicine.love Podcast bonuses at Medicine Stories Patreon  Medicine Stories Facebook group Mythic Medicine on Instagram Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

The simplest and most potent form of herbal medicine that I know, so easy to make yourself at home, so powerful and immediately relaxing... Herbal Body Oiling is an ancient, ancestral practice that the nervous systems of modern folk are in desperate need of. For MUCH more check out episode 20 guest Kami McBride's FREE Healing Herbal Oils Online Workshop! When we think about taking herbal medicine, we tend to picture teas, tinctures, or some other way of ingesting the medicinal benefits of the plant through the mouth. But the skin is our largest organ and is incredibly absorbent, with direct access to the nervous, lymphatic, and immune systems. By keeping the body hydrated with fat (oil) as opposed to water (like in lotion), we keep these systems nourished, running smoothly, and functioning at the highest possible level.   In this episode I talk about: The simplest yet most profound form of herbal medicine The healing effects of fat/oil on the nervous system Carrier oils, fresh v dry plant infusions, how long to steep, etc. Which fresh herb to use if you don’t have a garden & there’s nowhere to wildcraft Medicinal specifics of lavender, calendula, St. John’s Wort, mugwort, and yarrow Oiling for pregnancy, babies, children, and motherhood in general Coming back into your self Don’t get tripped up. Herbalism is your birthright. Just make an oil. Start where you are. It is enough. You are enough. Scented plants = volatile oil content = antimicrobial action = longer lasting oil Extending shelf life Whole plant infused oils are much more medicinal than just adding essential oils to a carrier oil The nervous system, being in a sympathetic dominant state (most of us are), and being an empath/Highly Sensitive Person The lymphatic/immune system & breast massage Self knowledge & being deeply familiar with the terrain of the only body you're ever gonna have Practical tips & techniques for making herbal body oiling a part of your daily life Oiling the face Should you use heat and/or sunlight in herbal oil making? The home remedy with the least amount of effort for maximum return

 In the Intro: Books to live by Mitochondrial meanderings The deep ancestry of all humans In the interview: The sound of the thing you are called by, and choosing a name with multilayered meaning From outcast to leader What being the daughter of an immigrant taught Yaya about communication & self expression When you realize you're magic Making the radical choice to express the way you really feel (that way, if people hate you, at least they hate the real you and not a false impression of who they assume you are) (also, that way, you attract the exact right people into your life) Why dreams are real, our favorite dream teacher/writer, & how to work with your dreams (and nightmares) Fear is never the truth Magic, nature, and layers & layers of ancestral depth ("I feel like I have an intact ancestral identity in a way I didn't even three years ago") Healing chronic pain Sensory overload and how "there's a lot of undeniably magical things happening all the time, but life is loud" Navigating the world as an empath/Highly Sensitive Person A lot of chronic conditions are due to long term nervous system overwhelm Herbal body oiling How a radical diet change healed Yaya's endocrine (hormonal) and nervous system It's good to do things that our ancestors would recognize from their time on earth Shapeshifting mythical archetypes & fields of consciousness Discovering your own relationship with the plant realm   Links: Yaya's website Active Culture Family The GAPS Diet My website MythicMedicine.love Podcast bonuses at Medicine Stories Patreon Medicine Stories Facebook group Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Mythic Medicine Instagram Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

In the Intro: I share an ancestral story  How I define spirituality The food your bones are made from Herbal body oils & elderberry elixir In the Interview: Being the the daughter of a secret witch + becoming a botanical bruja years after the mother passed and the chance to learn from her was gone Racism, secrecy, lineage, and cultural evolution Following the breadcrumbs to get a bigger picture of who your people were (there are more holes than solid information in all of our lineages) Letting your silvers shine Locating yourself within the myths of your ancestors Being empowered to heal yourself Listening to the understory- amplifying the voices of people of color within the worlds of herbalism, spirituality, and the creative arts Comida es Medicina Most magic is mundane When women's knowing and/or calling out injustice are labeled "irrational" What white folks are learning/dismantling right now Links: Lola's website  Lola's Branch + Bone Medicine Show podcast Kitkitdizzi in Nevada City Lola's Instagram Medicine Stories Patreon The Mythic Medicinals online herb shop Mythic Medicine on Instagram The Medicine Stories Facebook group Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

In the Intro: My number one herb book My healing pilgrimage to the skull of a blue whale I say somthing that's hard to say Edible & Medicinal Flowers eBook The dark places of the soul & sharing our stories In the Interview: The strong childhood memory, and teenage crisis, that started Kami on the plant path Recalling the era when being an herbalist was an underground, misunderstood, frowned-upon thing You never know where or when the seeds you plant will sprout Bringing information to the culture so that it can later be mirrored back to our children (or loved ones) by someone other than us Unspoken soul transmissions from the ancestors How to extract ancestral stories from your living relatives (do it now!) What you are seeking is also seeking you We are downloading decades of ancestral information right now & it’s causing information overload- when do we know enough?- an ancestral strategy for simplifying our herb learning You don’t have to know everything, too much information clogs the channels Stepping into power as bleeding women Healing menstrual shame & a look at the learned cultural practices of plugging and drugging (which, in the long run, just repress and create more pain) How your blood & bleeding time reflects your state of health back to you Aligning with the energy of your moon time- enhanced perception, clarity around boundaries, awareness of emotion Menstruation is a truth serum Sensitivity is what’s gonna save us Women, exhaustion, and rest One small change that has dramatically reduced PMS symptoms for many of the women Kami and I know (including me!) Returning to our innate body wisdom  Links: Kami's website The Herbal Kitchen book Kami's Instagram Herbal Medicine Woman Retreat  MythicMedicine.love Medicine Stories Patreon bonuses Medicine Stories Facebook group Mythic Medicine Instagram Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)  

Calling in the grandmothers! The more dependent we are on the industrialized food system- and the more entranced we are by diet culture- the further removed we are from our ancestors. Food is a bridge between the land, our bodies, and those whose bodies we come from. Darla Antoine is a mixed race Okanagan tribal member, ancestral activist and healer, mother and accidental homesteader in the high mountains of Costa Rica. Darla helps mixed-race and mixed-culture seekers become rooted into place and lineage by combining her master's degree in food and culture, ancestral healing and her own experiences as a mixed race woman and expat. In the Intro: My unexpected, super transformative podcast hiatus: shingles and a family emergency Fat is love (and an absolutely necessary nutrient for the brain & every single cell in the body) Giveaway! In the Interview: Ancestry that’s deeply embedded in the land The Grandmother Hypothesis How diet culture keeps us separated from our ancestors Disordered eating & how the fear of fat is pushing us away from what it means to be human To learn about your ancestor’s lives, look below the level of empire (& what that means) Reclaiming kitchen wisdom as an act of resistance against the dominant, patriarchal, industrial food system The medicine that people of mixed race are bringing to the world right now Dreams as guideposts A mythic matriarchal dreamscape Charting serendipity: When you’re in the right story, nothing doesn’t fit Links: Darla's website The Medicine Stories Patreon page The Medicine Stories Facebook group The Mythic Medicine website Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Zach Bush's website  How to Feed a Brain by Cavin Balaster Head Strong by Dave Asprey Fat for Fuel by Dr. Joseph Mercola Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)        

Our denatured modern culture doesn't work for our Paleolithic human bodies, as the epidemics of autoimmune issues, degenerative disease, and so many other modern health problems show us. Relearning what our ancestors knew about plants, animals, the land, and the human body in order to integrate that knowledge into today's world is a vital step toward health and wholeness. This is an in-person conversation between two close friends, two mothers (Suuzi once nursed my baby for me y'all), two women trained in different forms of holistic healing who share an interest in ancestral wisdom and a commitment to honest vulnerability. Suuzi Hazen runs a small mixed farm in Northern California, where she lives with her husband and sons. She has a Master's Degree in Oriental Medicine and a BA in English Literature and Women's Studies. Growing up in rural Canada, she spent her childhood outdoors exploring nature and enthralled by stories of her farming ancestors. She's fascinated by and very knowledgeable about traditional and aboriginal lifeways, especially regarding families, child rearing, hunting and foraging, nutrition, and sexuality.  Best NOT to listen with kids in the room. In the Intro: Giveaway! In the Interview: How we met & accepting help as an exchange of energy Sex & bodies & desire after having a baby and other realities of modern motherhood How we've lost basic wisdom about health The microbiome & the deep self (Dr. Zach Bush is everything) Mitochondria & degenerative disease Autoimmune issues are the new infectious disease Everything that happens in your body has meaning & everything you do has an effect (damnit) Modern Western medicine is LTRLY based on cadaver studies- dead bodies are considered baseline Our food journeys- from processed food and industrialized agriculture to vegetarianism and veganism to traditional foods  Ancestral food resonances  My past with anxiety, depression, self harm, weight gain & loss, and the aftermath of my vegan pregnancy Nursing babies literally deplete the minerals from your bones- deep nourishment is needed  The illusion of human supremacy: there's not such a big difference between plant and animal consciousness Nature is an ongoing life/death/life cycle and we all consume the bodies of other entities; as Susun Weed says, "Now I eat you, now you eat me"- we are not separate from nature Animism as the oldest form of human spirituality Distorted notions of clean v dirty food  Why our ancestors and modern hunter gatherers prefer organ meat over muscle meat A deep dive into the liver- human livers, animal livers, the functions and energetics of this vital organ Food choices, food prices, food privilege  Love languages and more on sex & motherhood (in which Suuzi introduces me to the word "choreplay") Links: Suuzi's website Mother's Best Liver Pills MythicMedicine.love Medicine Stories Patreon Medicine Stories Facebook group Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Dr. Zach Bush- such important info!! The Weston A. Price Foundation: Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts  Real Food: What to Eat & Why by Nina Planck Head Strong by Dave Asprey  U.S. Wellness Meats  The Five Love Languages 

The vital intelligence of nature is the force behind all growth, healing, and renewal, and our work as plant healers deepens greatly when we can match whole plants with whole people living inside the dynamic multiverse of the whole cosmos.  One of the most common stumbling block upon the path of the budding herbalist is the this-herb-for-that-ailment approach to plant medicine. If you ever catch yourself asking "What's this plant good for?" then this mind blowing episode, and my guest Sajah's FREE online video course (which changed my life forever last year by deepening my understanding of what true healing is), is for you:  Vitalist Herbalism Mini Course Sajah Popham, founder of Organic Unity and The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, is a student of the universal truths found within both ancient and modern herbal traditions from around the world. The focus of his work is on integrating ancient teachings for a new paradigm of plant medicine, one that is truly holistic in its honoring of the spirit, energetics, and body of both people and plants. His unique synthesis bridges herbalism not only east and west, but north and south, above and below, into a universal philosophy that encompasses Ayurveda, western alchemy and spagyrics, astrology, clinical herbalism, and modern pharmacology.  Sajah’s vitalist approach utilizes plants not only for physiological healing and rejuvenation, but for the evolution of consciousness, for a truly holistic practice of plant medicine. Sajah’s teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife Whitney where he teaches at his school, makes spagyric medicines, and practices his art. In the Intro: The way in which most of us (including me) are called to the plant path It's time to remember who we are The multidimensional medicine of Calendula What I do when I want to remember new information forever How understanding the ancient idea of vitalism changed my approach to plant healing In the Interview: The real definition of holistic medicine (it's probably not what you think it is) Approaching plant relationships the way we approach human relationships Why a balanced approach to herbal learning includes intellect, intuition, science, tradition, personal experience, and the experiences of others The best way to get to know a plant The two words that Sajah saw in a newspaper while clearing tables at a coffee shop job and how they changed his life forever The role synchronicity played in introducing Sajah to one of his most beloved plant allies Alchemy- the wholeness of the plant and the wholeness of the person integrated into the wholeness of the cosmos, and the importance using plants for the psyche and spirit as well as for the physical Mythic astrology, the archetypes of the zodiac, and plants as bridges connecting our internal microcosm to the celestial macrocosm Lung herbs and grief Ancient ancestral resonances and the memory we carry in our DNA The vitalist approach to herbalism- “something that is created by the whole is going to be more intelligent than something created by the part” Plants mentioned include oregon grape root, devils club, wood betony, ceanothus, osha, and mullein Show Notes: Vitalist Herbalism Mini Course Evolutionary Herbalism website The Plant Path Podcast The Medicine Stories Patreon page The Medicine Stories Facebook group Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

What fate is your intuition calling you toward? Who do you walk with outside of time? With what and with whom are you most deeply interwoven? This is the story of a flower I fell in love with and what happened when I made an essence with it. It's about intuitive connection with the earth, the ancestors, and the deep self. Show Notes: Episode 4 guest Asia Suler's Intuitive Plant Medicine online course (registration closes 4/28!) My blog post Flower Essences are Story Medicine  

Our human roots go deep, both into the earth and into the past, and we cannot know ourselves if we don't know our roots. Yet most of us in the modern West feel adrift, cut off from those things which fundamentally belong to us and which have always sustained humanity. This sense of isolation and the loss of meaning causes us to feel lost, bereft, without purpose. A lived, daily relationship with the natural world and an embodied connection with our ancestors are the birthright of every one of us, and more and more of us are reclaiming ourselves by reclaiming these simple, sacred things. Vicky Salcido-Cobbe is an herbalist, gardener, teacher, writer, and the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. After years of feeling lost to herself and engaging in self-destructive habits, her life changed in an instant when a clinician offered her a bottle of herbal extract as medicine. She and her husband Russ now work with the land to create small-scale remedies for their herbal apothecary La Tierra Buena Collective (formerly Grandmother’s Medicine.) In the Intro: The usual, plus my crying toddler Herbal Medicine Giveaway from Vicky! Sorry not sorry In the Interview: Names as seeds planted by our parents The years Vicky was lost to herself (with some drugs and tall cans), and how she found herself again (with the moon and tall trees) How having big, mystical experiences without proper integration can cause more confusion and pain  How nature and the ancestors have always sustained humanity, why we feel so bereft when we lose connection with them, and how we find ourselves when we rekindle those relationships How this suburban SoCal girl stumbled upon the plant path- “herbalism was the way I reclaimed myself” The realities of running an herbal products business (Random segue into One Weird Use for Breastmilk) Dreaming about Wal-Mart (& what it means when you have mostly mundane dreams) Vicky gets really really real about the evolution of her sexuality- masturbation, porn, the shameful stuff we don’t like to talk about in our culture- and being extremely candid with her husband now that she's figuring herself out 70s v 90s porn Why the dominant image and dynamic of women needing to please men and get their approval in order to gain entrance into a sexual relationship is the opposite of reality, the opposite of biology in most animal species, including humans, and is a dangerous paradigm that upends nature and hurts girls, women, boys, men, and everyone else Vicky’s recent transition from embodying the maiden to mother archetype (without having physically birthed children) Show Notes: La Tierra Buena Collective Grandmother's Medicine The Medicine Stories Patreon page The Medicine Stories Facebook group MythicMedicine.love Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Music by Mariee Sioux (from the song Wild Eyes)