From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
You are listening to Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com. I'm John Gallagher. My guest today is Brigitte Mars, an herbalist and nutritional consultant from Boulder, Colorado. Brigitte has been teaching for over forty years, most recently, Naropa University and other colleges. Her many book titles include the desktop guide to herbal medicine, beauty by nature, healing herbal teas, and rawsome.
Brigitte is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild, has a weekly radio show called Naturally on KGNU Boulder, and you can visit her while listening to this podcast at BrigitteMars.com. That's B R I G I T T E M A R S dot com. Good morning, Brigitte.
Good morning, John.
It's such an honor to have you on. Thanks for carving out a little part of your day for me. That's that's great.
And and for all of us It's my honor as well.
I love what you're doing.
Oh, thank you.
We can say, here we go. I like what you're doing.
That's great. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
And, you know, you have, so many books that I'm sure when you meet people, they probably know you right from the lens of the books they own. Like, because I've been, referring to dandelion medicine and natural first aid for years. And so when I met you, I was like, oh, I love this.
You know?
And so Thank you.
Oh, so great. Natural first aid, is that gonna get implanted again again sometime?
You know, I I hope so, or maybe come out as an ebook.
It's out in Spanish, and dandelion medicine is doing very well in Chinese.
But I think the time has come for those to come, back. So they may be done as ebooks. They're certainly, you know, not gonna go away. I'm also working on a a wild edible plant book, so a lot of, dandelion medicine will get infused into that. Oh, great. Great.
So because I definitely rely on those two books often especially when it's dandelion season.
So and, yeah, the natural first aid book, boy, that's just, like, really concise and tells you everything that you need to know.
Thank you. That's that was my intention.
So so yeah. I think they'll come back.
Well, I used to require I used to do a, well, there's a course on HerbMentor that I that I don't really put in the forefront anymore because I've I've improved it and come out with some new stuff. But, at the time, anyway, I required that book as a required text.
Oh, I'm so honored.
Maybe that's what sold them all out.
When I when I met you at the the International Herb Symposium back in June, you had yet another awesome book that I had impulse bought and snatched up right away which is the desk the desktop guide to herbal medicine. And its subtitle is the ultimate multi multidisciplinary reference to the amazing realm of healing plants in a quick study one stop guide. And, I will tell you that, you know, you said there you said this is it's got it all in one book and I'll have to agree because I have it, well, right here in my hand here, but definitely on my first grab shelf when I'm looking a plant up. So, thanks for putting that together.
Thank you. And you know, I end up using that book a lot too because you can look up a contraindication right there. Is it safe for pregnancy? Is it safe while nursing or if, if you have high blood pressure, is it edible?
Is it something you could use in cosmetics? Mhmm. And I also I worked in the health food store years ago and people would always come in from different parts of the world and they would say, I'm looking for this little spice and little spice like this. And I always said, if I ever do another Urbook, I'm gonna have the name in as many languages as possible.
So I've got the name in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Sanskrit, Mandarin, Cantonese, what whatever. It's a I have had access to the name if it's used in that country because I love making herbalism more global and accessible for everybody. And, of course, you know, we know the Latin names as herbalists, but for a lot of people, you know, they just know the name in their home language, and I wanted to make that usable for people too.
And and what was really great too, Brigitte, which is gonna be getting into what I wanna talk to you about today, because on on Urban Venture Radio, well, there's a couple of things I like to do. Is one, and we'll get to these later, is ask some member questions because, like, hey. What an opportunity.
And, and the other is, like, to kind of focus in on something that's kind of unique, to the herbalist that I'm interviewing. And, so, you know, like you said, you mentioned a lot of the features that you have in this book. And and everyone, you know, you'd expect, you know, medicinal uses, physiological effects, edible uses, appearance, contraindications, all those really awesome things that, of course, you know, you're gonna be like you're gonna you want. But there's something the but what okay but at the at the International Herb Symposium, the IHS, I listened to your doctrine of signatures talk, right?
And, which is related to the wide range of energetic correspondences that you discuss in the book. And a lot of people on our our forum on Herb mentor been bringing up things about energetics and stuff and when I looked at the desktop book even before I heard the talk, I went, oh, this is really cool. It has all these, you know, energetic things. And I get, you know, a lot of them because I'm a five element acupuncturist and I, you know, I've studied energetic stuff and I and and I can, you know, kind of kind of have a little bit maybe a little ahead of the game when I'm kind of, you know, understanding some of it.
But, but when the the doctrine of signatures talk, it seemed to be kind of almost to me anyway like a a a Rosetta Stone or a link to to understanding some of the energetic correspondences more.
And, is that true?
Absolutely.
Well, I I certainly think so. And, you know, I'm I've been a student of many other herbalists, but, you know, certainly from working with Michael Tierra, and he really helped to bring about, the understanding of western herbs and their energetics. Is it warming or cooling, moistening or drying? But I also think that it's interesting to look at, you know, what element is a plant associated with, but what planet? Is it, masculine or feminine or or yang or yin?
And so it made it more interesting to me and I also wanted to include some of the magical properties Yeah. Which made it really interesting to me. But this is what I really enjoyed, like, you know, an herb that maybe was carried on one's person to offer protection from evil influences. Mhmm. I'm gonna say like oregano, for example. Now we know, well, that herb has antimicrobial properties.
And so, you know, the ancient belief like, oh, maybe it protected you from negative energy or evil spirits or whatever, which we might, you know, kinda laugh at now, but maybe there is something. Maybe it repels bugs or viruses or bacteria or Or vampires. There you go. Absolutely. But, the doctrine of signatures, you know, when I first heard of the doctrine of signatures, I thought, you know, oh, this is really, folkloric and from ages gone by and it's going to discredit herbalism. So, you know, I didn't really talk about it. But then, you know, after all of these years, of studying in not only herbs, but homeopathy and flower remedies and botany.
I and, even years ago, I helped a company formulate a line of astrological products. Mhmm. And that's what really got me thinking about the doctrine of signatures because, you know, the ancient herbalists like Culpepper, for example, they included the planetary correspondences.
And I I think that the doctrine of signatures really is something very valid. And, you know, it could be something as simple as, you know, what does a plant look like? What is its flavor? I know when I studied with Christopher Hobbs, we do an herb walk, and a lot of times, he wouldn't tell us what the plant was.
We would just sit there and, like, you know, taste it, look at it, smell it, like, be with it. And so the plants really do tell us a lot. And, of course, you know, for those of you who are new out there, the doctrine of signatures is this ancient philosophy that, there's a pattern in the universe. And if you look at the word signature, it has in it the sign of nature The sign of nature.
So what what is the sign of nature? Because, you know, ancient people didn't like, well, Google it. We'll Google it. You know?
They, you know, they they had to observe and say, you know, I was just in the desert last week and, what I noticed growing in the desert was aloe vera. And I thought, well, how appropriate. Here you have the hot desert where you're gonna get sunburned any minute now, and you've got a plant that helps to calm sunburn. So it's not only about, that, you know, cauliflower looks like a brain or blueberries look like the eyes and hijiki seaweed looks like the hair and coconuts like the head.
I mean, that's great, but it's also like where a plant grows. And I live in Colorado, and so the higher up in the mountains you go, you find that there's plants that help respiratory distress or helping one to breathe in a thin environment.
One time I got bit by a copperhead snake in the Ozarks, and the remedy that I needed was right there. It was right there. I didn't need Wow. You know, a low boat from China to bring me, the magical herb. I it was like, wow. The herb for that kind of snake bite was right there.
So, but also, I have been a long term reader of a book called the Urantia book.
Uh-huh.
Urantia means earth and the book calls itself the fifth ethical revelation. And and I really believe this book and it talks about, that there were humans here about a million years ago, and that Adam and Eve were celestial beings that came here from the star system about thirty eight thousand years ago. And they the first garden was it's now underwater, but it's where Cyprus is.
But the actual garden is underwater. And it's and it says in the Orangio book that when Adam and Eve got here, all they had to do was look at the plants and the animals, and they knew exactly what they were for and that Adam and Eve were geneticists on their home planet. So I know that sounds a little far out, but, you know, hey, I'm Brigitte Mars. So this is what you get here. But to me, I thought that was really interesting because Adam and Eve being geneticists, all they had to do was be an observation of the plant. And, and so I think that the doctrine of signatures is a way of tuning in and seeing what the plants tell us. And I think a lot of herbalists, if you haven't read the series Clan of the Cave Bear, I highly recommend it by Jean Owl.
Be aware that there's like five or six books in the series, but they're all really good. But, you know, the heroine of the book, Ayla, is an herbalist.
And, Jean Al's herbal information in the book is actually quite accurate. And so Ayla, you know, being this, cave girl, she basically tunes into the doctrine of signature. She smells the plants. She looks at them. You know, she's, you know, she's had to get by on her own, and so she tunes into these ancient genetic memories.
And so we all evolved here on the same planet. You know, we have evolved to eat plants or eat animals or animals have evolved to eat plants or, you know, whatever your trip is. Hopefully, I think we're evolving away from eating so many animals. That's my hope.
But, I think that the doctrine of signatures is something that has enabled people to survive. And even here's just another example of a doctrine of signatures, and this does involve animal foods. And and I myself, tend to avoid animal foods, but you hear these stories of hunters years ago. The the warrior would, you know, make a kill and whoever made that kill would eat the the still beating heart or the liver or the kidneys of the animal, and they would get incredible strength from that.
And so nowadays, I wonder if people are eating, like, depressed animals that are, you know, overly confined and they're young or taken away when they're just a few days old. And I wonder if, you know, we're not getting depressed and anxious from eating animals that are depressed and anxious. So the the doctrine of signatures, it's really multifaceted. It's not only about what a plant looks like, but what it smells like, where it grows, is it abundant.
I know Susan Weed likes to say, you know, look at what grows around you. The dandelion is everywhere.
Its message is use me lots. Use me lots. I'm ever present. And then we have, like, the the golden seal and the ginseng that grow in the deep dark woods and take many years to grow.
And their message might be saying use me with respect. Use me when you really need me. Yeah. So I am a big advocate for, you know, eating the weeds.
Mhmm. I love to use the local plants. And I think the whole idea of the doctrine of signatures, it's ancient and it deserves to be resurrected because nature speaks to us with her colors, her fragrance, and her, ability to thrive in different climates. And, yeah, I'm I'm down for it.
Yes.
It seems like a way, it seems like a wonderful learning tool in a way that if you can have it in the back of your mind, you know, as something to pay attention to, that it keeps you in the mind frame of observation in nature, like looking at the colors, looking at the shapes, and looking at everything and sensing and smelling, tasting versus going, a beginner to to really Well, I certainly, I think before you eat it, it's good to look it up.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Okay.
Yeah. Or I remember one time, you know, preparing some kind of wild mushroom dish, and my husband said, I want you to I want you to write a will before you eat those.
So it's good to look things up. And again, I'm not saying we need to depend totally on the doctrine of signatures, but I'm I think it's one of the gifts of nature and that we should pay attention to it and, have fun with it and go go deep with it. Really, I think that's the gift. It's not something I depend on totally, but I, you know, I think we all have marveled, like, how did the ancient ones figure out what these plants were for? And we know that they maybe use psychoactive plants. We know that the shamans spent time in isolation or fasting or meditating or dream quest or vision quest, but they also use the doctrine of signatures.
And, I think that that's it's it's an idea that needs to be looked at. And another doctrine of signatures that I use a lot because I've been, eating mostly raw food for the past nine years, and I know that kinda goes against my background in Asian medicine. But think about this one, like, if you plant a raw sunflower seed, it has the life force potential to grow into a ten foot tall plant.
Mhmm.
If you plant a roasted tamari sunflower seed, it rots in the ground.
Mhmm. And so someone might say, oh, but it's easier to digest. Well, I think one has life force and is gonna make you feel vital, and the other one is more likely to make you feel, you know, tired. And I I think that there's other ways that we can prepare our food that protects the enzymes. And even though cooking has evolved, and I think a lot of its evolution had to do with lack of hygiene, lack of refrigeration, lack of running water.
I I also think that it's time to look at maybe it's time to do a paradigm shift and move into something that makes people feel more fresh, alive, and vital, colorful. Because when people feel bad, they often say, I'm fried. I'm burnt. I'm I'm I'm zapped. And yet we do that to our food all the time and wonder why we feel so exhausted.
Right. Right. I mean, gosh. I mean, even even those, you know, out there, you know, advocating, you know, various kinds of, you know, whether it be, you know, as far as not raw food, but just other kinds of natural food eating. Also, we'll say the same thing, like, not frying, not, you know, right, not microwaving, not and taking the life force right out of it.
And it's Go ahead.
Oh, and I and I just did wanna say because, you know, I I certainly have studied all of this for a very long time, and I wanna say that, you know, I understand that cooking food makes it more digestible, and it also preserves it longer. But in the raw world, there's ways of cooking food that don't involve heat that preserve the enzymes, and that includes, fermenting, marinating, soaking, sprouting, dehydrating, pureeing, blending, finally grating. So I just wanted to say that there are many things. I don't tell my husband, you know, here's a head of cabbage, honey.
Enjoy it. I, you know, I turn it into something flavorful and add things to it so that the cell walls are broken down and it becomes very digestible.
And and why we're on why you since you mentioned that, you do have a book called Rawson, which goes into all the phone. People wanna explore your your work there more. Right? So, so, you know, you were just talking about colors and stuff in food.
I just I just wanted to comment on a, a great thing from your talk that really stuck with me on the on doctrine of signatures, which was, like, how because we have kids and like, two kids, little ones, and five and ten. And and, you know, it's always this thing about eating and, you know, with the lead and not eat. And, you said send them into the market and have them them pick out food that they would eat that represents all of the colors of the rainbow or something like that. Right?
In in the produce section.
In the produce. Yeah. The produce.
Yeah. Not not the candy aisle.
Not in the caterpillar.
But, you know, kids kids can relate to the rainbow and, you know, you kind of and, hopefully, you know, you go in the shop with them and you say, you know, I need you to pick out, you know, one red food or two red foods or one orange food and one yellow food that you're willing to eat that you like. And that way, you know, kids wanna show that they have some choice in the matter rather than being told what to do all the time. And so if they get to choose it, they're probably more likely to eat it because they had a say in it.
Mhmm. Wow. Yeah. Exactly. So thanks for, for because I I told that to my wife who works a lot, you know, is researching and writing and does a lot in that area.
And I said, I told her what you said in that talk.
And she says, oh, that's great. That's great. So we go to the farmer's market and say, okay.
So getting back, you know, the to to the doctrine of signatures because, like, to making that connection with the energetics, you know, what would be, like, I think maybe a good place to, like, give some examples might be, that I think is a real simple place in the area. It's like colors of plants or colors of flowers or to tell you something about them. And is that is that is that right?
I mean, is, Oh, that that's a huge one.
So, you know, for example, color colors red, you know, red tends to if you think of the chakra system, you know, red corresponds to blood and survival and vitality.
And so, you know, do do beets really build the blood? Well, yes, they do. They're high in iron. I also thought it was interesting that the French word for beet, betav, comes from the same root as beast. Because when you cut up a beet in the kitchen, it looks like one has slaughtered a beast. But, you know, here's a way that you can, build your blood with without any slaughtering involved.
So, and and then we can look at herbs like, you know, red ginseng or raspberries, to build the blood. And even though nettles are not red, they kinda have that red Mars energy. You know, they sting you. They make your skin red if you touch them.
So even, you know, nettles is one of my favorite blood builders.
Well well, when it comes up in the spring, it's got a lot of red, doesn't it?
Yeah. It it does.
You're right. When it's really young, it does. And, you know, then orange is said to correspond to sexuality, and so we have plants like, saw palmetto berries and, ginger and, cinnamon, you know, some of our aphrodisiac plants, and then yellow, like, dandelion or lemon, for example. So the dandelion flower, yellow dock, if the root is more yellow.
So, again, this is not set in stone. It's, you know, it's a philosophy, but a lot of the yellow plants are good for digestion and good for liver function.
And then moving up the chakras, chakras, green you know, I'm all about greens. I think that everybody should do their best to have at least one green salad a day and even add greens to a smoothie.
Mhmm.
So I think every green is, like, corresponds to the heart chakra, and it's right in the middle of the color spectrum. And green is always appropriate. The first three colors, red, orange, yellow are warming, and they're highly visible. And then, green is like neither warming nor cooling.
It's just just right, just in the middle. And, you know, green indicates the presence of chlorophyll. And chlorophyll also builds our blood, but it also strengthens our immunity and helps our body better utilize oxygen. And then the next three chakras, blue, indigo, and violet, blue corresponding to the throat, You know, there's not that many blue foods, but we, you know, we've got blueberries and, blue corn, for example, and then indigo corresponding to our our third eye, our center of intuition, and then violet.
And I think a lot of people say, well, blue and, you know, indigo and violet are really closely related. But, so I'm gonna throw those two together. But the crown chakra violet being good for, you know, higher states of consciousness, divine, divine connection, god consciousness.
So we've got plants like elderberries and violets and raisins and purple corn and acai, berries. And so I think, you know, one just simple thing is to eat a wide range of colors. Mhmm. And, every meal, you know, make your meals colorful.
And if you're in the market, color usually indicates the presence of flavonoids and, you know, compounds, proanthocyanidins, and all of these wonderful compounds. And it seems that, you know, we're really getting the message, like, eat more colors. Yesterday, I had a client, and she brought in, like, a suitcase full of supplements that she was taking, you know, grape seed extract and pycnogenol and, you know, all all of these antioxidants in tablets. And I just, you know, it's not that that's a bad thing, but but on her food journal, she'd only eaten vegetables once in the five days that she kept the food journal.
And I just said, you know, you could look for grapes with seeds and eat the grapes with the seeds. You know? Look for organic grapes with seeds. They're getting harder to find.
Right. But here's another doctrine of signatures, John.
So many plants are being, hybridized or modified in some way so that they don't have seeds any longer. Mhmm. And I am concerned that that's really going to affect people's fertility.
Because when I work with people that are wanting to get pregnant, I say eat more sunflower seeds, more, you know, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, black sesame seeds. You know, seeds contain zinc and vitamin e and the germ of life, that spark of life that brings about new life.
The vitality and the chi.
The chi. Absolutely. And so when everything doesn't have seeds anymore, seedless watermelon, seedless oranges, because I think, you know, I'll it's hard to find. I don't think I saw them at all this summer, but I think, you know, I'll it's hard to find. I don't think I saw them at all this summer, but I've always eaten the seeds in the watermelon. Black food is a kidney tonic.
Right.
So, you know, that's just a little rundown on some of the colors. And it's also interesting, you know, indigo and violet also encompass a lot of our herbs that are good for, serenity and states of consciousness that help sleep. So we have skullcap and passion flower and lavender and, rosemary for remembrance.
So we do have a lot of herbs that are blue and indigo and violet for states of consciousness.
Yeah. I feel this is so cool. And I was listening to you talk about color because, having studied five element and you and this is in your book.
You know, when you have correspondences and you do have a key in the beginning which explains things.
So those listening don't have to get too confused.
But it but, yeah, when the color, dark blue and black and is in the water element and saying and which is corresponding with the bladder and kidney. So the dark flu or purple or black foods can correspond with those organs. I was like, well, of course.
Yeah. And like, you know, white for the lungs. Yeah. So I I I, you know, I I studied a lot of traditions, but like for white, we've got garlic and daikon radish and, you know, onions and jicama.
Mhmm. So it's it's a tool. I and I really like it. And, of course, one of my daughter's name is Rainbow.
The other one's named Sunflower. Mhmm. So I think, one one has like a color chakra name and one has a a herbal name.
That's cool. My my kids are, rowan for a rowan tree.
Oh, nice.
Because, for for protection and everything, I I had this tree magic book I saw when he was born. We were in five days, we didn't know what to name him. And, and then I opened the book just right to the page, and I started reading. I'm like, this is it. You know?
Oh, that's a beautiful name.
And, my daughter, Haley, was born. It was June, and there was a freak kind of hailstorm thing happened.
Oh, okay. Alright.
And the Wrens were calling, so we call her Haley Wren.
So, you know, we just we put a signature on a way on them about the time they were born because the people's house we were living at were Scottish and very spiritual people, and they were all into this. That was their book of the tree magic book, and that was a very magical tree for where they came from, and they knew all about it, which was interesting.
And, and yeah. And and and and there was a hawk circling a cedar when he was born. Right? So we we put cedar hawk as the middle name. So, you know, we we kinda like yeah. And I never thought about that. I'm just saying this, but I said I never really it's the first time I realized it.
Well, I I I love that, and I think it is important to know that, you know, even names are energy. They have, frequencies. They have, you know, numerology.
So, my husband actually does this system called the human design system that's based on the I Ching and the DNA code, and he reads people's genetics. And so we're all about helping to find the crossover in all these different systems. And I know that they come from a lot of parts of the world and they don't always, line up exactly. But, you know, in Asian medicine, we have five element theory. But in Native American, we have the four directions with Earth at the center, and there there is correspondences to that.
So, yeah, it's just I I love going deep with that. So And it not only it's not only about herbs, but it's about food, and it's about feng shui and how we arrange our homes. And I even wear a different color every day of the week to correspond to the planet. So today is Friday, named after Freya. Mhmm.
And it also, Vontradie. I'm I'm French Canadian, so Vontradie in French and, Viernes in Espanol.
It means Venus Day, so green is the color of Venus. And it it also keeps me from wearing purple every day, which is my favorite color.
But, you know, just to have an intention in everything, you know, being prayerful. What kind of what kind of music are you gonna play when you make your food? Are you gonna have the news on? Are you gonna play, you know, some devotional chants, you know, blessing your food. So I think it's just always of being more mindful.
And we don't have to get too serious about it, and we don't have to do it all the same way, but I I think that that intention is really a powerful tool.
Yeah. There seems to be in, you know, and and it's like in our culture that intuition, intention, imagination.
You know, these are these are things that we have for a reason that we're these and our brain does this, yet they they seem to have been, you know, stripped away from medicine, even modern herbal medicine. And, I guess what I like is the, you know, as we were saying, this is this is all a tool, and and it's it's, it's something to consider and everything. But it also gets us to connect to nature and possibly for people in their own way to bring back their way of connecting with their own intuition and intention.
That's what really struck me when I heard your talk, you know, because that inspired me that way.
Oh, thank you. Well, you know, and I really am a champion for the weeds. And when I look at dandelion and I see what a hardy survivor it is, how it can grow in our, you know, busy city streets, and how you mow it and it comes back just a little shorter, and how you dig it up and it comes back. I think a dandelion has got to be one of the best remedies for environmental illness.
Yes.
And and, you know, there's this myth out there that dandelions kill the grass. Every time I teach a class, I ask, how many of you, have heard the dandelions kill the grass? And a lot of hands go up and say, the dandelions did not kill the grass. They actually aerate the soil.
The truth is is that the grass dies because it's, you know, non native species. It's very water, needy. And when there's drought or lack of soil nutrients, the grass dies, but the dandelions survive. The dandelions did not kill the grass.
Right. Right. Right. So I I like I like that looking at that, you know, signature of them being all around and everything. And what about with the dandelions? Since from dandelions, see, we've got the color yellow. And and how would how would that where would that correspond?
Is that how's that, like, how would you correspond that to Well, you know, both green and yellow are associated with the liver Okay.
In different schools of thought. So, you know, five element theory, liver is usually green, but there's also a yellow flower to the dandelion, and yellow also corresponds to you know, I I I I'm not sure what system I'm drawing from, and so I'm taking a little poetic liberty here. But, let's say this. The dandelion looks like a ray of it looks like the sun like the sun.
Right.
And so dandelion, depression is a liver centered condition in Asian medicine. And so, I see that dandelion helps to bring sunlight into our lives.
And so when we use dandelion root, you know, traditional herbalism says dandelion helps to move stagnant emotions out of the liver because we store old emotions, you know, anger and depression and bitterness and jealousy and resentment. And so by using the dandelion, it helps to move that. And the the yellow flower of the dandelion, is a factor in helping to bring the light back into our lives.
And so and, you know, it's everywhere and it's speaking to us and That that's interesting because, when you say moving, you can also look at it like if even if you looked at the yellow being in the earth element where yellow is, that's all about movement. You know, that's the spleen energy.
You know? It's Yeah. Chi wise is movement. You know? So that's interesting too. I never thought of that.
You can look at it that way too. Yeah. So, again, I I realized that I'm taking some, you know, pioneering efforts here by bringing a lot of different systems together. And as, you know, I'm the first to say, they don't all overlap perfectly, but there's enough sustenance and continuance there to make it worthy of studying and putting together.
So Oh, I like that you did that because to me, that just shows a lot of over how much does actually overlap culturally.
And, and also shows may may show us what the strongest tools are by, you know, if if the things that everyone said. You know?
And and, you know, dandelion does have a starchy root containing inulin. It's stabilizing to blood sugar. So, you know, we could say that's good for earth element too. And so the yellow color so so dandelion, it's certainly good for digestion. And, you know, a lot of herbal books that say the root is best for, cleansing the liver, the leaves are best for cleansing the kidneys, You know, the so it's it's a big subject.
It's a huge subject. So one one before I get into some questions for some members, I am wondering, we're studying yellow dock this month. So if you're gonna look at yellow dock, would it be a similar type of thing as we just this thing we just talked about dandelion? Because, you know, just to throw that in just for people listening to learn a little more about the plant they're studying.
Well, certainly, it's, you know, it's common. It it thrives under difficult conditions. You see it growing by the roadsides.
You know, for two and a half years, I lived in a teepee and ate nothing but wild edible plants in the Ozarks. And so Right. Yellow dock is in the buckwheat family or polygonaceae family. And we would, take the red, crispy flowering heads that were, like, now ripe and, put them in a shoe box and kind of mash them with our hands, separate the little grain from the chaff, and and then comb it in the shoe box with, like, a big, tarot card or something, and all the little seeds would roll down.
And then we would use that as a grain. And then you can also sprout the yellow dock seeds and have, you know, little tiny young green, high vitamin c, greens in the winter as well. But yellow dock, we could say, you know, the the it's the root that's really yellow, and then the rest of the color is kind of red. But we could say red, building the blood.
Yellow dock is a great herb When people are anemic and they're, you know, doing everything to build their iron stores, try adding yellow dock and you'll see that your hematocrit levels go up.
But we could also say that yellow color, and in the root can be a sign that it's helping to move energy in the liver. I find yellow dot to be a greater for skin condition. So it's one of my favorites for eczema, acne, psoriasis, and so forth. But you've got a grain, you've got edible leaves, and you've got a medicinal root. And, yeah. And it's everywhere.
And it's everywhere.
The big leaves must have something to say. So I wonder what the you know, because of the structure of plants we can look at and leaf types and shapes.
Well, the It's endless.
Yeah.
The leaves are well, the leaves are curly and they're outwardly expanding rather than being really, contracting.
So the leaves you know, not every yellow dock is gonna be delicious, but, you know, if you taste a little of them in the springtime, it's a nice sour plant, and I've made I juice yellow dock. What one of my favorite things to do, John, is and I try to do this almost every day, you know, from March till October. I stuff the blender with weeds.
Oh, nice.
You know, dandelion greens, yellow dot greens, plantains, stinging nettle, you know, whatever I have, purslane, and then I add maybe an apple, and then I add I fill the blender with water, and I blend it all up, and then I strain it through a paint straining bag.
Ross would just call them a nut milk bag, but you can buy it for a dollar fifty at a hardware store, a paint strain bag, and then you squeeze the heck out of it, and it only takes about a minute. Believe me, I don't use the juicer to do this.
It takes three hours to clean it.
Metal. Yeah. Right. Exactly. But by doing it in the blender, I'm likely to do it almost every day.
And to to gain the life force from plants that were growing five minutes ago because this really is a, you know, a two minute process from clipping the herbs really fast with a pair of scissors. I'm extremely busy, so, unfortunately, I I end up doing a lot of things really fast. Filling it with water, blending it, and straining it, and then be drinking it within two minutes. The life force that you're getting from something that was growing two minutes ago.
So Wow. You know, I changed a lot of the ways I use herbs to, even process my herbs as much as possible with less heat, use plant juices instead of teas, especially in the warmer months.
Mhmm. And so that I I that is truly a superfood, and it's free, and it's wild. And I do think that the wild plants are going to impart their survival instinct into us.
Well, this actually leads right into some questions here too because I'll skip to a question where Julie asked that. I know you said before that raw foods have improved your health dramatically and you don't and you said you don't need to take as many herbs. So she wants to know what herbs you take religiously and why daily Okay. Whatever. And also and also, like, you know, do you connected to that, like, do you believe in the cocking barks and roots? So, I mean, you know, that whole thing about what do you take and also your preparation.
Okay. So, the the plant juices has become one of my primary ways of using plants. Mhmm. And the I tend to use the wild things that grow around me, as I just said, you know, nettles, dandelion, purslane, malva, lamb's quarter, you know, the wild edibles.
And, you know, plantain can be a little tough to eat, but when you and so can, you know, nettles. But when you blend it up, and strain it, you're just extracting the plant juices. In the springtime, I might not strain it out. I might even leave the pulp in there.
But as it they get more tough and fibrous as the season goes on, then then I do strain them. So those are some of my standbys. Nettles is definitely, an almost everyday herb for me. And in the winter, when there are no fresh nettles, then I, I make the tea out of them.
But as far as boiling roots and barks, you know, a lot of the herbal techs you know, we we found out a few years ago that, you know, cooked garlic, it it does not have the medicinal properties that raw garlic, that a lot of our roots that are high in essential oils like ginger and valerian, you really don't wanna boil. So the way that I tend to make a lot of my, teas is I do the glass jar, the overnight glass jar method. So I will put a generous amount, you know, maybe an inch or two of herb in a quart, ball jar, cover it to the top with, you know, hot water, maybe almost boiling, and then put the lid on and let it sit overnight rather than boiling and boiling and boiling the herb.
And, you know, I learned that method from Susan Weed, and maybe I don't do it exactly like she says to do it. I don't know. Susan and I, are great friends, but we agree to disagree on something, including, having had a debate on TV about raw food versus cooked food.
Oh, I wanna see that.
Yeah. I think I I'm sure you could find it on YouTube. And I I do believe she says things that are not accurate. I do believe that enzymes survive the stomach, because, you know, if, if if you eat a sunflower seed and poop in the woods, it could grow.
I don't the life force has not been killed. That's old, old, research that says enzymes are killed. I believe they survive. So anyways but we love each other anyways.
But I like the, idea of doing the overnight jar method of teas, and that's been one of my primary methods. I rarely, you know, simmer anything on the stove. Although, I do drink teas. I live in Colorado.
I often get up early in the morning to write, and a cup of hot tea in the morning is great. Or maybe I'll warm up my overnight infusion.
So, yeah, it's been a long time since I boiled any herbs.
Okay. Good. I'm sure that's appreciated, that information.
And I and I even try to make salves now. So I do the herbal infused oil, and then I strain it, and then I just, heat the beeswax.
So I've been I've been experimenting. You know, I'm not a professional medicine maker.
You know, I I tend to have so many samples of things from my students and all that I haven't that hasn't been, like, a big business for me. But, you know, I've been even experimenting with different ways of making herbal preparations using less heat. And I think that that may be a way that we find that herbs are even more effective.
Yeah. Well, I know, like, a lot there's a lot of wide range of philosophies on our on our member base, so I that's why I wanted to make sure I ask Julie's question for sure.
You know, like, you you can juice ginger. You can do the overnight with valerian. You can do valerian tincture. But, yeah, I I really try not to heat those things.
Oh, great. Thank you. I mean, it's a yeah. But, you know, the whole to to me, I can connect with the whole, chi thing and the you know, because the whole post the whole thing about, you know, after we're born, then we get postnatal chi from from our the food we eat, what we drink, the air we breathe. And so yeah.
And even though, you know, Chinese medicine is so big on you know, you cook things to make them more digestible, I you know, there's a lot of things in, you know, Asian history that are no longer fashionable, like, you know, binding women's feet or, you know, meaning no disrespect. Every one of our cultures has done things like, you know, that were like, that wasn't such a good idea. You know, the the drew you know, animal sacrifice has been a part of almost every world culture. So just because something's been done for thousands of years doesn't mean we can't evolve into a new way. And I really think that in, you know, countries where lack of refrigeration, lack of running water, lack of hygiene, and eating meat, like, you've got a a goat sitting there with flies all over it, You probably wanna cook that.
I guess so.
But, you know, maybe maybe there's another way. And if really, that way was working so well, maybe we wouldn't need so much medicine. I mean, the biggest books in my library are my, you know, two volume Ayurvedic medicine texts and my Bensky's materia medica, and it's like, woah.
Like, wouldn't it be really cool if we weren't having to treat all this stagnant, stuck chi? Right. And I really do believe that enzymes are the secret to that.
Wow. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
I wanna get into a thing, one, just well, you know, I I guess it can be, you know, it doesn't have to be a huge topic, but I Bonita was wondering about the prevention and treatment ideas for h one n one in this, flu season when people are concerned about that and probably just flus in general. But, you know, but what do you what's your take on on all that and what what what do you tell people?
And, you know, that's a good question. I personally, I'll tell you what I do. I work at a holistic pharmacy called Farmica.
We have twenty three stores around the country, and I'm to Wildcraft.
They're they're buying Wildcraft. They're they're they just placed a big order.
Oh, is that your is that your line?
Game that that I see.
Yeah. Oh, I'm so delighted.
See it in your store.
I'll sell the heck out of it.
Thank you.
Yeah. That's great. Okay. Well, good then.
Well, anyway, back to each one anyway.
I'm so delighted.
Okay. So, so I'm around a lot of sick people. And, actually, the pharma guy work at is right across the street from the hospital. So people are either, like, just getting released from the hospital or stopping in before they go to the hospital, to come and, you know, check-in with the herbalists there. So, what a lot of our staff does is we use a homeopathic remedy, oscillococcinum.
And what I've done for a number of years is I take one vial of oselococcinum a week for three weeks in a row, and then I take a break for three weeks. And then the third week, I take another vial.
And, you know, supposedly, it is said to contain all the, you know, very minute amounts of the various flu viruses that are believed to circulate for any given year. And I I've always felt that that was a good thing to do. And I I also don't think the flu doesn't have to kill you. I mean, most people get the flu.
I mean, haven't we all had it a dozen times in our life? You get the flu, you you rest, you eat lightly. But, you know, I do like things like elderberry syrup. I do like garlic.
I love oil of oregano.
I do think that, you know, taking to your bed and fasting. I like isatis, andrographis are a couple of the Asian herbs that I might use.
And I also think unpasteurized sauerkraut. You know, when I first started hearing about, oh, this flu thing is gonna be really big this year, I bought three, pickle presses from a company called Goldmine in San Diego.
And, I need to get on this because I've been out of town for a few weeks. But I, you know, ideally, I have a thing of sauerkraut going all the time, and that's something we eat several times a week. Because, one of a doctor that I studied with, doctor Tim Binder, he said that's, you know, one of the best things we can do against the virus. So it's a probiotic rich food and all those friendly, you know, friendly flora, and I think that's a great way to protect ourselves. So that's what I'm counting on. And, you know, I think our big concern is for our children.
So the ocellococcinum, have the elderberry syrup ready, and and get enough rest and minimize your consumption of sugar and eat a wide range of antioxidant rich foods, all your colorful fresh fruits and vegetables.
So I think that's what we can do, and do our best.
Thanks. I'm glad that matches up with most of what I've been telling people.
Yay. Well, good.
I'm a big into the sauerkraut thing too. We I've interviewed Sandor cats last time too. We have a big jar going.
So that, that that that that homeopathic, how do you spell that?
I mean, that's o s c I l l oh, that's a big word. We're close to the o s.
C I l l o c I n n, oscilococcinum.
I don't take it from there. Yeah. I'm sorry. If I write it, if I but I know if you're just going to help with store that homeopathic remedy that starts with a no.
And, you know, a lot of herbalists don't use homeopathy, and it is made from a goose liver. So, like, but, you know, I think they only kill one or two geese a year and make millions of remedies from that. So to me, I think that's a legitimate, use to if it can really benefit people. I you know, we do offer at Pharmica mercury free vaccines and all that, but I think that, you know, getting sick once in a while is is really a good thing for you.
It gives you some time to rest and to eat lightly and to take a break from the world. And this idea that we have to prevent every illness that comes around, I think we miss out on the opportunity.
You know, as they say in the Native American tradition, we get sick in order to get well.
Amen. Thank you. That's great. Paul Bergner was saying something about vitamin d or something. Is that needed? Yeah.
I I know he's really big on that. And, you know, I I haven't I know that's, like, the big hot thing right now. You know, personally, I don't wear sunscreen, and I try to get a little full spectrum light on my body.
So I I know, you know, that's probably a good thing too, but I'm I, you know, I tend to use more herbal and other remedies and, you know, maybe vitamin d. It's only been, like, in the past two years where the vitamin d's been the big thing. I'm sure you know as a a practitioner that, you know, just five years ago, they're saying, oh, don't take too much vitamin d. And now the dose it's stored in your liver, and it can be toxic. And now the dosages are, you know, like, ten times more than what's considered safe a few years ago.
I'm not quite ready to go that route personally yet, but Yeah.
So I'm kind of I'm just kind of, like, stepping back and saying, well, I'm an observation. I do use vitamins in my practice. And, but I also wonder if this great vitamin c deficiency is not from people just slathering themselves with sunscreen all the time and being phobic about getting a little sunlight. I mean, if I go to the beach, I try to go to the beach before eleven in the morning and after four in the afternoon. I don't sunbathe. I don't, you know, try to get a tan, but I do try to get some full spectrum light and wear, you know, skimpy clothes when appropriate.
And sometimes I even take a five or ten minute sun and air and light bath nude on my balcony. I just put beach towels around it, and think I lost you there. Are you still there?
I'm there. I'm there. I'm there.
Okay. And then, you know, Ben Franklin used to be big on, like, a, you know, five minutes of of sunlight and air. I think that women would have, much less, yeast overgrowth if we could expose ourselves to the sun for five or ten minutes a day once in a while.
Unfortunately, that's hard to do in our, culture that's but Or if you'll be living in Seattle.
Well, you know, I think that still you get the light. You may not get the, you know, the strong sun, but you still get that light and air. And, I think that, you know, bad things happen to the parts of our bodies that never see the light of day.
Good good advice. Thank you.
Well, well, we all last question.
And it wasn't right. You know, I'm gonna squeeze this one in because, because you mentioned before about yellow dock and eczema. And a person had a question about persistent eczema and doesn't wanna take a steroid cream, and she's tried plantain and yarrow poultices, wormwood vinegar, comfrey oil and poultices, and nothing worked. So would yellow dot be the answer, or do you like something else?
Well, I mean, for me, you know, even though I disagree with some things with Susan Weed, and I I also really like the wise woman approach. And so, you know, when you have an illness, the first thing you wanna look at is what is this trying to tell me? And so, you know, emotionally, sometimes eczema could be am I frustrated with, a situation I'm living in? Am I trying to claw out of my skin or jump out of my skin?
Like, am I frustrated in my work situation or what?
This is doctor and his signatures for for for conditions, isn't it?
Abs absolutely. And, you know, Louise Hay in her wonderful book, Love Your Body and Heal Your Body, she's always saying, you know, what is this trying to tell me? Like, you know, rather than what's the remedy, the first step is what is this trying to tell me? And then, then I would also look at things like, well could I be sensitive to, you know, the bubble bath, the sunscreen, the lotion, the soap? And, you know, I think yeah. I I knew I was always gonna be a a health practitioner because when I was thirteen years old, my sister had this terrible skin condition called roseola, and she went to three different health practitioners, you know, experts.
And my observation was my little baby sister has had roseola since she started using, and I won't say the name, but, like, the leading brand of kids' bubble bath. I said that's when the roseola started, when she started using this bubble bath. And it turns out was that, you know, after spending countless hours with all these specialists and having all these, you know, tests and everything, it was the bubble bath. But I figured that out when I was, like, you know, thirteen years old.
Wow.
Because I I said I was in observation, like, that's when she started getting the skin condition. So I I look at things like natural fiber bedding, you know, a lot of people sleep in synthetic, you know, sheets. What's what are you putting on your skin? Are you wearing clothes that are dry cleaned?
Are you sensitive to the, detergents that you're using? So that's the first step. And then the second step is, like, how can you tweak your diet? And I think a lot of people with eczema, acne, psoriasis have a food allergy.
And so eczema eczema is an inflammatory skin condition. So the one of the first things I do for almost everybody is I have people keep a food journal, and I look at some of the patterns. I do think that wheat is a highly inflammatory food. So I try to get people off of not only wheat, but gluten.
I said, you can try it. It's worth a try. Before you sign up for a drug, like, have you tried that? And it's usually the food that we love the best. And I know Paul Berg, Berger, who lives here in Boulder. It's Bergner. Right?
Right.
Yeah. Paul Bergner, because we have a doctor Berger in town as well and whose name is Paul. But Paul Bergner, who I love dearly, you know, he says that we're often addicted to the foods we're allergic to. You know, people like, because when we eat, you know, the bread or the peanut butter or the dairy or whatever it is, that we often stimulate white blood cell production and have an immune response that makes us temporarily feel comforted.
So I'm always suspected. What is it that you crave? That might be the problem food. And, you know, again, there's a lot of different opinions, but I I do find that so many people get better when they go off of those foods.
Right. Right.
And, you know, milk isn't, you know, maybe you've got your own goats and all that, but, you know, most people are eating milk that's even if it's a hormone and supposedly organic, the cows have their own hormones. They're still probably miserable and depressed because that milk is supposed to be for their own babies and, it's pasteurized. It's homogenized.
Okay. So maybe you got raw milk. You know, I don't know. But those are the things I tried. Peanut butter is really difficult on the skin. It's, you know, contains a mold called aflatoxin.
It's causes stuck chi in the liver. The liver can't do its job in cleaning the blood.
So I do think that enzymes can be really helpful and enzymes are found in I I had acne until I went raw. So it's an enzyme rich diet and believe me, even as a professional herbalist and using all of these herbs, I it really cleared up when I started eating, you know, lots of greens and lots of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables in their enzyme active state.
But not only is yellow dock a good herb, but burdock root, dandelion root, red clover blossoms, You know, there's combinations out there. You can make a combination yourself, whether it be a tincture or a capsule.
But I I usually use herbs in combination and, you know, I like the idea of, you know, mixing a few things together. I might use a couple roots, a couple leaves, and a couple flowers. So, you know, dandelion and burdock, maybe dandelion leaf, maybe red clover blossoms, you know, there you go. You've got a a nice simple herbal combination.
And then, the other thing is to look at the quality of fats people are eating because people are often eating, heated oils which are loaded with free radicals. So when people are eating salad dressing made from canola oil, soy oil, safflower oil, keep in mind that that oil was heated when it was made because to press the oil out of the seeds, involved a heat of about two hundred degrees. And then to put it in a a salad dressing bottle mixed with, you know, vinegar and fructose or whatever Two hundred. It's heated again.
So you are getting a lot of free radicals. And another thing I'd suggest, not only eat one big green leafy salad a day, but make your own dressing with extra virgin olive oil.
Yeah. Yeah. And herbal infused vinegar.
There you go.
So and yellow dock infused vinegar. That might be your eczema, remedy. You have salad with yellow dock infused vinegar and olive oil.
And, you know, it's good to look at, you know, what where is the eczema occurring? Is it over a particular organ? Is it over a particular meridian?
You know, these can also be hints for us.
So so, you know, just a couple last things. You know, with with with the raw food to have more enzymes, I mean, people I I'm I'm imagining that, like, you know, like, I I have for I use fermented foods, but I don't eat all fermented foods. So people can benefit a lot from just adding, like, exploring and adding some raw food things in there that you talk about. Right? I mean, it's not like an all or it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. Right?
No. I I totally agree. And I think for, like, nine years, I was a hundred percent raw, and now I'm probably, like, ninety five percent raw. But, you know, even just going, you know, fifty percent raw, like, you know, could you have fruit for breakfast?
Could you have a a big green salad a day and have your fish or chicken on your big green salad rather than the rice, the potatoes, the pasta? Mhmm. And then could you have another salad with dinner with, you know, some steamed vegetables? So those are all those are all that's so beautiful.
Those are all wonderful ways of getting started. So it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. But, you know, quit thinking that you're doing yourself a service when you buy, you know, pasteurized juices in a plastic bottle or a thirty dollar bottle of juices that are pasteurized because, you know, juices the good thing about them is they should be high in vitamin c. What happens to vitamin c when you pasteurize it?
I know.
Duh. Both of them. You know, what Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
What happens to the enzyme? So really, I'm I'm kind of encouraging people to unplug from the, you know, a lot of the big systems out there and, you know, make your own remedies and and, you know, not cook everything. And could you find another way of cooking it? You know, I found that you know, here's a common thing and I know we're almost out of time, but, you know, clinical nutrition says you get more beta carotene from a cooked carrot than a raw carrot.
Okay. Great. And I can see that because most people, they eat a carrot and they don't chew it very well and it passes through them mostly undigested. But what if I puree that carrot with some ginger and a little bit of, orange and some water and some garlic, and I make a carrot ginger soup.
Right. Now it's very bioavailable.
Right.
Right. So there are ways of making our food more digestible. So, you know, I think what we have to look at is here we are in the early two thousands and we have not achieved perfect health. And people still struggle, and even herbalists get cancer, and even people that eat natural and macrobiotic and all that get these terrible diseases. I mean, maybe not as often, but I think, like, maybe there's something else we ought to try. Yeah.
Yeah. I like because the other day, I almost bought a a a thing of, blueberry pomegranate juice and as a whole foods, and and I went and then I said, no. I think I was a lit probably listening to one of your talks and then, you know, I went over and I just bought the pint of blueberries, and I smacked on those instead.
I mean, could it really be improved upon? I mean, could you could put those blueberries in the smoothie? And I know there's a lot of good intentions out there, and I don't wanna knock, you know, people that are, like, having amazing effects from all of these juices because I'm sure people are. I mean, I've I've heard the stories too.
And for some people, that might be a bridge to get started. They're gonna feel better when they drink the pomegranate juice and the goji berry juice and all that. But could they also start incorporating pomegranates into their diet? And I I think that, it's a lot about taking responsibility and creating products ourselves and just, spending our money wisely, something we all need to do.
And that eating the weeds, maybe it doesn't have to be a nerve from a faraway land.
Yes. Well, you said nettles before. And I had a question about nettles.
When you when you're, you know, are are you when you're putting those in your juice in your in your in your, you know, in your blender, you said you have through this summer. Are you are you doing that even after flowers?
What I am doing is I'm cutting the tops constantly Uh-huh. And to prevent them from flowering.
That's what I thought was probably happening.
Yeah. And I'm just like the there there might occasionally be, a flower or even some seeds in there because nettle seeds are a great thyroid tonic. But for the most part, by constantly topping the nettles, it's always young green growth because nettles when they're too old can have irritating cyst systolites or crystals in them.
So I'm sure you told me hear that in everyone's head after you said that earlier.
Yep. There you go.
And I went, oh, I gotta ask her that.
I'm so glad to use that. So, yeah, by continuing to, to top them or cutting them, you've got the new fresh growth all the time.
Thanks. So folks, you can pick up a copy of the Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine and many other of Brigitte's books at brigitte mars dot com. And on Herb Mentor Radio, as you all know, and I say it every time, we always encourage you to go to the author sites to pick up the book.
And there's other if you can't find titles, you're looking maybe some out of print titles, you can you can check those other online sources. They're gonna be there, I'm sure, like Naturally First day natural first day.
So, let's see. Oh, and your, your radio show, naturally, I I think I saw on your website. Is that is that gonna be podcasted so people can, like, listen to that no matter where they live?
You know, I hope so. I haven't I'm not as computer savvy as I'd like to be. I don't know how to do that yet, but I am, beginning to write a blog for the Huffington Post under the Denver section, and it's gonna start on Monday.
And, you know, I have I I read that every day.
Okay. Well, it's starting Monday. I'm gonna have a little blog, but I think you have to go to Denver. I'm not sure how it works.
I'm new to this. And then, I have a new book coming out in January called The Sexual Herbal. And please check out my supermodel, daughter's website, rainbow mars dot com, r a I n b e a u, mars as in the planet, dot com, rainbow mars dot com. She grew up on herbs and natural remedies, was born in a teepee, grew up eating wild plants, and, had a double rainbow in the sky after she was born.
So she's, you know, an example of living the natural life. And, Sunflower doesn't have a website, but she's also extraordinary. But check out Rainbow's website because she is, she's really been a big teacher for me. They both have been.
So many blessings. It's been such a pleasure. You're great. You do a great show, and I hope I get to talk to you again, John.
Oh, I'd I'd love that. Thank you so much, Brigitte, and we'll see you soon.
Many blessings.
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