Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies. David Hoffmann

(Dried herbs can be substituted by other preparations, for instance by tinctures, in which case the same proportions apply. For details on the dosage of tinctures see the specific dosage information in the herbal section.)

      Symbols are used to indicate the amount of mixture to use per cup of water, given in teaspoonfuls

. When a mixture is to be prepared as an infusion, the symbol of a cup is used

; if it is to be a decoction, a pan

is used to indicate this. Detailed information on how to prepare an infusion or decoction can be found in the section Preparing the Herbs. The length the mixture needs to be infused or simmered is indicated in minutes

.

Thus

means that 1–2 teaspoonsful of the mixture per cup of water should be infused for 10–15 minutes to make an infusion.

      

means that 1 teaspoonful of the mixture per cup of water should be simmered for 10 minutes to make a decoction.

A herbal medicine chest for the home

      There are well over two thousand plants which can be used in herbal medicine in the western world. The planet-wide list is far greater. So what can you realistically provide in the home? A daunting prospect faces the fledgeling herbalist, yet by using the actions approach presented in this book, it is possible to stock a small herbal medicine chest which will fulfil most day-to-day needs. The following list of herbs includes representatives of all the main actions, but also specific ones as well. If you are going to stock such a medicine chest, become thoroughly familiar with these 25 plants, and use them at your discretion. They may be stored as dried herbs or as tinctures.

Aniseed	Boneset
Black Willow	Burdock Root
Cayenne	Celery Seed
Chamomile	Cleavers
Coltsfoot	Comfrey
Dandelion	Echinacea
Elder	False Unicorn Root
Marshmallow	Meadowsweet
Nettles	Peppermint
Senna	Skullcap
Thyme	Valerian
Wormwood	Yarrow
Yellow Dock

      In addition to these specific herbs, it will be helpful to have the following in the form of ointments:

       Arnica Chickweed Comfrey Marigold

      Distilled Witch Hazel, obtainable from chemist shops, should also be included.

       The Holistic Approach

       We are on a quest, individually and collectively, to create wholeness within ourselves and within all of our life, to find it within ourselves and to release it—a process of communion and education. What is created will not be separation, conflict and diversity among peoples, but wholeness, oneness, peace, a new earth for humankind that reflects the oneness and wholeness of the earth that has always been.

      David Spangler

      

      In the hands of a holistic healer, who works with the life force and with the integrated whole that the body represents, herbs are a powerful tool. In this book I would like to present a context for holistic herbalism. There is the need for a new kind of herbal which goes beyond the more common medicinal approach where herbs are listed alphabetically, prior knowledge is assumed or symptoms are listed with their appropriate remedies. While herbs can be used effectively to treat symptoms, such an approach is just an organic form of drug therapy if we do not take the whole person into account. I offer this book to all who use herbs, all who work in healing, and all who are growing in ecological awareness.

In the holistic approach to healing we can see how ‘all disease is the result of inhibited soul life, and that is true of all forms in all kingdoms. The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul so that its life can flow through the … form’.^* Any illness is a manifestation of dis-ease within the whole being. To truly heal, we need to look at the interconnectedness and the dynamic play of all the parts in the whole—the physical, emotional and mental bodies and the enlivening presence of the soul. And then we need to further expand our view and see this wholeness as part of a greater whole: the person’s group, humanity, the entire planet, as all these work together in a dynamic, integrated system.

This ideal may be daunting, but it is an opportunity and a gift to explore this vision and to bring it through into reality. There are many new approaches today to healing, with differing attitudes and terminologies, and together they contribute to a planetary change. As the Tibetan in Alice Bailey’s mystical writings says: “There is no school in existence today which should not be retained. All of them embody some useful truth, principle or idea. I would point out that a synthetic group would still be a separative and separate entity, and no such group is our goal. It is the synthesis of the life and of the knowledge which is desirable. There will be eventually, let us hope, hundreds and thousands of groups all over the world who will express this new attitude to healing, who will be bound together by their common knowledge and aims, but who will express this to the best of their ability in their own particular fields, in their own peculiar way and with their own peculiar terminologies.”^*

      Herbs are part of our total ecology and as such lend themselves to us to integrate and heal our physical bodies. By taking the wider context of the whole being into consideration we see