59. Herbal Rituals, Rhythms, & Remembrance - Judith Berger

Medicine Stories

My favorite herb book has been out of print for decades, but is now available again! In celebration, I had the extreme honor of interviewing the author. We talk about weaving enchantment and changing our inner states through language, the opposing paradigms of holistic, herbal healing and modern, mechanical medicine, how resting and rooting down in the darkness creates space for creativity and wholeness, and so much more.

IN THE INTRO:

• Slowness Medicine

• Herbal Rituals

IN THE INTERVIEW:

• The role of story in our human lives

• Remembering, rather than learning, ancient herbal knowledge

• How Judith decided, after a violating experience in a doctor’s office at a very young age, to take her health into her own hands

• Why the mechanical medicine system is trauma producing to the creatures that we are

• Growing up in Brooklyn, living in NYC as an adult, and being a city herbalist

• Widening the lens by learning about the animals is the ecosystems where our plant friends live

• How our senses and capacities become stunted when we don’t engage in ancestral human practices, and instead spend all our time in the narrowness of digital technology

• Mycelium as both the neurons and the fascia of the earth

• Morphic resonance between similar tissue types in the body

• Anecdotes and subjective experience are data to be trusted

• How Herbal Rituals came to be

• Changing states and casting spells of enchantment with words

• Along with species and ecosystem loss, we are also losing the capacity to retain certain states of consciousness

• The story of healing told by modern medicine does not actually lend itself to healing

• Radical, empowered self health care

• Our bodies and herbs are meant to be together

• Rooting and slowing down- viewing the dark time of the year (or day) as the beginning of a new cycle

• Our culture doesn’t support descent into inner realms

• The magic of mugwort

• Smoke medicine as an instant nervous system reset, and how burning mugwort helped Judith remember her life path

• Taking in a plant’s medicine via the skin, just by touching it

• Growing and deepening through life’s challenges

LINKS:

• Buy the world’s most beautifully written herb book Herbal Rituals

• Judith’s website

• Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)

• The Overstory by Richard Powers

• On Being interview with author Robert Macfarlane (Judith mentioned the author, I found the interview and wanted to share it here): The Hidden Human Depths of the Underland

• My website MythicMedicine.love

• Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz

• Medicine Stories Facebook group

• Mythic Medicine on Instagram

• Music byMariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Get the PDF transcript of this episode here.

Donate to the Transcription Fund