Herbal Medicine
Way back before we had Big Pharma, pills and expensive patent medicines folks depended on local herbalists to help them heal when they got sick.
Every generation of herbalists built on the knowledge and experience that had been gathered by the healers who had lived before them.
These early herbalists were holistic healers who recognized that every plant was put on our planet for a reason, including the ones that we consider weeds today.
This ancestral herbal knowledge was utilized by the wise women and men in communities to heal and ease the suffering of their people.
The infamous witch hunts of the middle ages identified many healers and herbalists as witches and warlocks and gruesomely executed them, which resulted in the loss of much herbal lore and knowledge.
At the turn of the 20th century, medicine in North America became the sole province of rich white men, and any herbalists and community healers that were still practicing were now outlawed.
These healers weren’t being burned at the stake anymore, but their knowledge and expertise was declared to be illegal as patented pills and potions became the only recognized lawful medicines.
Herbs were discounted and suppressed. Many of these new patent medicines of the time contained hefty amounts of morphine, cocaine and alcohol.
Medicines for women’s complaints and colicky babies worked like a charm, because they were full of narcotics!
In the early and mid 20th century, as the AMA gained in power and control, herbal formulas that successfully treated cancer were ruthlessly suppressed.
People were conditioned to think that herbs and herbalists were just a passing fad for hippies and earth muffins.
But herbs work, and are always safer than chemicals. In fact, you can take it as proof that they are effective since Big Pharma and the AMA keep trying to make herbal supplements illegal!
Our woods and fields are filled with a bounty of herbs and plants that heal. Learning more about healing herbs and natural cures will help to put us all in control of our own health as nature intended.
Stephanie Kelley
