Even from a young age, I turned to nature for healing—most often in the arms of the large beech tree outside my home. I would seek solace in the strong limbs until I felt safe and restored. As I jumped down to the ground, I gathered dandelion blossoms and plantain seed heads, twisting them into flower crowns. Long before I knew about the physical properties of the herbs, I instinctively felt called to the plants. I felt safe in nature and I knew I could always turn to her.
As I entered adulthood I struggled with various issues, from an eating disorder to compromised immunity and cervical dysplasia. I wasn’t sure where all the conditions came from or how they fit together, but intuitively I knew the plants would support me, and they did. Over time I applied nature’s lens to the emotional realms for deeper healing of the physical body.
Working With Plants Through the Seasons
For herbalists and those who love plants, the concept of healing with the seasons comes naturally. You watch the seasons change as you harvest blossoms, leaves, berries, and roots. As you work with the plants each season, you’re grounded in the rhythms of the Earth and reconnected with timeless traditions—herbal rituals, if you will.
For example, each spring you might explore edges of your lawn or garden for chickweed, violet, and dandelion to add a splash of wild greens to your salads. Perhaps you return to a familiar patch of stinging nettle for adding deep nourishment to a soup pot.
To break the summer heat, you might pick flowering garden mints for refreshing coolers—such as peppermint, spearmint, anise hyssop, or lemon balm. Maybe you harvest the straw of oat plants to dry for oatstraw infusions.
As the leaves become tinged with yellows and red in the fall, you might make a tincture from ripe brown vitex berries or deep red hawthorn berries.
When the first frost comes in early winter, you might dig up the roots of dandelion, burdock, or yellow dock to harvest their potent nourishment.
The more you engage directly with the plants, the more physical and energetic benefits you receive—including the inherent connection with the seasons.
Seasonal Healing in the Emotional Realm
Through focusing on the changing seasons, you can turn to the rhythms of nature to support your internal heart and soul healing. Each one of us is innately part of the natural world, which reflects and supports our internal landscape.
Through my own healing journey, I applied an earth-based lens to inner growth and healing. I was delighted to discover how through that perspective, it becomes clear that feelings and needs are as natural as the cycles of the sun and the moon. I developed the Wise Woman Needs Wheel, overlaying innate human needs with the cycles of nature.
You may wonder why you find yourself feeling sad, scared, angry, or tired. You’re not alone, especially in these intense times we’re living. Those feelings point to your underlying needs.
You may have been told that it’s not okay to have needs—that you “should” put the needs of others before your own. Yet just as the plants need sunlight, healthy soil, and water, your innate human needs are natural and normal.
In my case, it turned out that feeling safe was the biggest issue for me all along. Having grown up with childhood trauma, many of my ongoing physical conditions later in life were related to chronic issues around safety that were hard to shake.
As it turns out, there is a time of year—Imbolc—which reflects innate human needs for safety and security. The season of Imbolc falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, late January and early February—as supplies of food, firewood, and candles in traditional societies would run low. You might wonder, How much longer will the winter last? It’s natural to feel vulnerable around your needs for safety in that late winter time of year. After all, seeds that germinate at that time risk freezing—they might not make it.
Likewise, the need for rest is reflected and supported by nature during the winter solstice season—consider this not just a single day, but a whole season. In those shortest days of the year, the trees and plants send their energy down to the roots. Animals are hibernating. Nature is resting and restoring—and it behooves your body and soul if you too can heed that call.
Your internal compass attunes you to cycles of nature—day and night, dark moon to full moon, winter solstice to summer solstice. And that internal compass is grounded in your innate human needs, around the wheel of the year. (Curious to get the scoop? See my video on the Wise Woman Needs Wheel above).
One fun and nourishing way to explore seasonal energies is through incorporating herbal infusions into your life. To make a seasonal “simple” herbal infusion with the recipe below, begin by selecting one herb from the seasonal suggestions that follow.
In the fall as you reach for the sweetness of hawthorn berries among the thorns, you’re reminded to look carefully and reconnect with your heart in savoring the harvests of life. Known as a hawthorn whisperer, Wise Woman Herbalist Eaglesong Gardener (my very first herbal teacher, over 30 years ago) writes, “If you want to strengthen a weak heart or carry an old heart into a healthy future, consider hawthorn as an ally.”
As the winter calls you back to your own roots for rest and restoration, call upon the roots of dandelion, beloved worldwide for supporting health and vitality. According to Rosemary Gladstar, this herb is "invaluable to women going through menopause." Long prized as an herb from France to China, dandelion root has been considered an alterative by various traditional peoples.
You might find that another favorite herb emerges for you to explore in a given season—enjoy the process of discovery and experimentation. Over time, perhaps you’ll even add in additional infusions for the “in between” seasons such as Imbolc and Beltane (aka May Day).
Yields 2-3 cups of infusion
My preferred preparation method for water-based extraction is herbal infusions, with a high volume of herbs brewed for hours—a deeper, richer cup of tea. Of course, you could simply steep a small quantity of each of these herbs in a tea bag for 10-15 minutes. However, you’ll receive far more of the nutritive and tonifying benefits with this full-strength infusion method.
By making a “simple” infusion with one seasonal herb at a time, you deepen your understanding of the herbs through your daily life—from noticing the color as your infusion brews, to how your body feels after drinking it.
Supplies
Ingredients
Directions
To use:
As you drink in the nourishment of the plants, savor your connection with nature and the healing support of the season.
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