January 2017 newsletter

Foundations of Herbal Medicine Program for 2017
Herbal Certification Course Starts April 18, 2017.  We are re-designing our upcoming Foundations of Herbal Medicine Program to include ongoing intensives and laboratory studies in medicine making, therapeutics, diagnostics, field botany, and more.  Contact Tomas at 505-820-6321 for more information and applications or get more details at www.milagroschoolofherbalmedicine.com.  Our focus has always been hands-on, practical, informative, bioregional, multicultural, and holistic. 250 hours of pure herb learning you take anywhere in the world. We need more herbalists and community health workers as our modern medical system continues to become unaffordable, erratic, and irresponsible.  Become a herbalist, a skill you can use for a lifetime. 
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Ongoing 6 Week Seasonal Herb Classes
Starting in February we will offer 6 week intensives and ongoing field trips.  All classes limited to 12.

January Newsletter View this email in your browser 419 Orchard Drive, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-820-6321 Medicine Circle Newsletter – January 2017 The Ethnobotanist Beat  Being with the Unseen Winter, White, Whole, Empty, Full, Fearful, Grateful, the time of the Unseen.  I am speaking of walking in the forest among our plant friends that are now dormant, resting, reassessing, readying for the next spring.  All of our botanical companions are there, just underground, out of view, resting, rebuilding for the upcoming growth adventures. You can feel their presence as you walk by them. Do you recognize them by their dried stalks, withered leaves, and unique seed shapes? Put your hands close to the ground where they live. Can you sense their strength and desire to live and give? Can you sense their healing ability? Kirlian Photo of Coleus Leaf Winter is a powerful time to give thanks, we think of it as the end but it is also the beginning. In your mind you can remember those plants that grew near you last year; can you recall them, and what they meant to you? We would not be alive without their life giving oxygen, nourishment, and vibrance.  When we have our herbal allies close to us in winter we are just a little more likely to survive the challenges our environment presents us. They go deep into our kidneys and adrenal glands where they dispel wind, cold, ice, fear, darkness.  They warm us, hold us, fight for us as we live through the dark times.  They are the roots of our existence.  Hold them near your mid-section with your hand closed, draw them in deep to your inner self. If you don't have the plant with you imagine it near you, it is unseen but not unfamiliar. You know it just like it is in front of your eyes.  Can you imagine your plant friends healing you? Can you take the leap of faith to allow them to protect you, rebuild your health, and give you another day of healthy living? If we have faith in them, we accept them, and they will heal us. It has happened that way for thousands of years, that is why cultures around the globe have continued to use herbal medicines as their primary form of care. Just talk to anyone from those earth-honoring cultures and they will tell you how much faith they have in their plants, how they feel better knowing they are nearby, and how they remember so well when their ancestors healed with the plants they harvested.  Over and over again we experience the same in our store in Santa Fe. People come in with hope and leave with faith that they will be healed with herbal medicines. You can see that the healing process has begun as they receive the bag or bottle of herbs and leave with them, even before they ingest them or apply them to their bodies. The actual herbs keep us all grounded in gratitude of our Mother Earth. But the healing goes deeper into our souls, it takes place in the space of the unseen spirit, it is there because of our faith and appreciation for the Earth gifts, for all of our valued plant medicines, and all our relations.    Rain Falls from trees and the Sky, From under rocks And logs, Anywhere the Sun is not. In the desert You don't look for Rain It looks for you - When you don't expect it. I find it underneath sand, Inside ant hills, On warm skin, Under bird wings. Look anywhere other than nowhere Even inside your Heart. The moon shines surrounded by Rain, I can see it as dust settles the day, When flowers cry from heat in May, That is when I become Rain  Again SPECIALS FOR JANUARY and FEBRUARY 2017 Mention this announcement for discounts at the Retail Store and Phone Orders… Allergy Relief Tonic - $9.99 / 1 oz Immune System Tonic - $9.99 / 1 oz  Healing Way of Plants Foundations of Western Herbalism   Classroom: February 8 thru March 29                                         Field Experience: April 14 - 16 This seven week, classroom and field experience combination will introduce and broaden students’ knowledge and understanding of using plants for creating balance and wellness in their life.We will take a walk through time to understand our ‘roots’ and heritage using plants for healing, as well as explore current trends at the crossroads of ‘folkloric’ and medical herbalism. The classroom format includes discussion and ‘hands on’ medicine making labs.Topics and labs include: History of Herbal Medicine, terminology, understanding plant actions, plant classes, medicine making – water extracts, tinctures, oils, salves, vinegars, honey, materia medica – plants and their uses, aroma therapy/essential oils, plant identification, wild crafting practice and ethics, bioregional medicine                 Classroom sessions held at Milagro Herbs meet on Wednesdays from 6:00-8:30 February 8 through March 22 Field experience: Chihuahuan Desert camping trip April 14-16      Classroom session not required to sign up.                                                Cost:  Class room: $225.00   Field experience: $225.00   Combined: $375.00  To register contact Milagro Herbs (505) 820-6321                                      Limit 12 Students Instructor Stefan Link has been working with plant medicines for over 20 years with a passion for sharing what he has learned about the harmonious relationships between plants and people. Having learned through the Michael Moore tradition of Herbalism in the Southwest, he has worked with Bear Creek Herbs in Silver City, NM and taught at Just For Health in Denver, Co., Milagro Herbs in Santa Fe and has wild crafted herbs for numerous companies around the world. Foundation of Herbal Medicine Program for 2017 Herbal Certification Course Starts April 18, 2017.  We are re-designing our upcoming Foundations of Herbal Medicine Program to include ongoing intensives and laboratory studies in medicine making, therapeutics, diagnostics, field botany, and more.  Contact Tomas at 505-820-6321 for more information and applications or get more details at www.milagroschoolofherbalmedicine.com.  Our focus has always been hands-on, practical, informative, bioregional, multicultural, and holistic. 250 hours of pure herb learning you take anywhere in the world. We need more herbalists and community health workers as our modern medical system continues to become unaffordable, erratic, and irresponsible.  Become a herbalist, a skill you can use for a lifetime.  Herbal Apprenticeships  As part of our Level 2 Foundations in Herbal Medicine Program, Apprenticeships will be offered at our flagship store for those who have gone through Level 1.  We believe you can learn more while working at a herb store than just about anywhere else. Ongoing 6 Week Seasonal Herb Classes Starting in February we will offer 6 week intensives and ongoing field trips.  All classes limited to 12. Our first of the season is described above... "The Journey of the Soul" This month we feature a another personal journey with Jane Hatch of Milagro Herbs  Wolf Full Moon:   Wolf’s Prediction for an Unprecedented Earth Woman (and a warning) in 2017. The first full moon of the year in January is The Wolf Moon.     Fox, Cougar, and Wolf were my first power animals (that I can remember). Wolf energy is tribal, protective, and intuitive. Wolf will guide you to a new life path to follow. Wolf is a teacher and innovator and leader.  I love all power animals -- Bear, Panther, Owl, Fox, Jaguar-- but when Wolf entered my heart, each day now is a little empty without him because Wolf is family, and I had to let him go. As a shaman, you try to humbly accept the powers given to you, and then gracefully submit when the Powers That Be decide to put you on a new path, for which you often need different strengths and skills (which means different power animals and spirit guides). For a year I was frantic about the loss of Wolf and nothing my Teacher said pacified my sense of loss and dismay and loneliness (about fifteen years ago). That is the strength of Wolf’s tribal love. Wolf Medicine is bone strong (I feel Wolf in my marrow) and corresponds to the North, winter, ice, the moon, the night, Spirit World, Ancestors, and following new paths. This Wolf Full Moon, in 2017 (today, actually) may be particularly powerful for new beginnings and new paths. The numerals 2017 vibrate with the energy of “1”. Two plus one plus seven equals ten—which is a one vibration in numerology. Wolf and the number “1” and a grand cross appearing on the same day as the full moon, January 12th? Wow. This could be powerful. Warnings have been issued by astrologists. I’ve read things like “stay home” and “try not to react to the strong emotions; wait until the energy has passed and emotions have settled”. I was wondering what Wolf had to say about His namesake Moon, combined with the “1” vibration of 2017 (not to mention the emotions and issues connected with the presidential inauguration on January 20th). So I closed my eyes and call upon Wolf-- Snow falls onto a meadow already blanketed in snow. The sky is gray and the air is moist. Wolf steps into the meadow from a natural opening in a pine forest. He looks left and right, then straightforward, and begins to trot toward a light in the sky, which is over my left shoulder. I merge with Wolf. Through his eyes I see, in the sky, a strange, never-before-seen sun and moon “collaboration”—more like collusion. It is an uncomfortable light (too bright) and awkward, as if masculine and feminine energies are too close and need to move apart to find their own place in the sky (universe). We continue beyond this light, through the snow. We walk quietly now alongside an old gray rock wall that reminds me of the stone walls in New England, where I grew up. The woods are silent and empty and the sky is a dark gray now. We continue to trot up and down snow-covered hills. We cross a body of water and then land gently in sunny field of green grass.The sun (again) seems too bright. We follow a path through the grassy meadows until we reach the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. It’s not a cliff in America. It feels and looks like England. Large waves crash against the wall of the cliff--the spray misting our fur. Wolf turns left and continues along the cliff. We walk until night and then we enter a forest. Ahead, deeper into the woods, a black hooded cloaked figure sits on a log. A crystal ball is perched on another log beside him. We can’t see his face (as he keeps it hidden) but large, frothy waves and tumultuous seas slap against the inside of the ball. “What does this mean”?  I ask the Hooded Person “Changes are coming,” he says, like a business man who is disguised as Monk or a mystic. “Well what kind” ? I reply. He nods towards the ball. Turbulent ocean waves still crash the sides of the inside of the crystal ball. I simply stare and then Wolf and I start to trot away, when I stop and look back. “Is that all?”  I ask. Telepathically someone says “No”. Aside us the earth opens up and a downward tunnel is revealed. We trot down the sides of a tunnel into we are in the middle of Earth. A woman, maybe an elder, but it seems to be all women, of all ages—the Feminine is before us. She is not quite a spirit, not quite incarnate or in human form. She glows and as she moves she radiates with joy and mysticism. Then I understand. The feminine will evolve to a new height; a new dimension; a new quality of mysticism not quite seen on earth before. This shift on earth will heighten her abilities and transform her relationship to her own body and the earth and her work. She will be a new form of human, completely healed. On the other hand, as I think back on the Monk/business man, I realize the male will experience a duality, of trying to be spiritual and evolved, but hanging on to old archetypes. He will hang on to the old, but give an appearance of having changed (so be wary). Clashing will occur until the masculine takes his proper place in the universe as an equal (but not a superior) to the feminine. Wolf and I return to the surface of the earth and begin to re-retrace our steps. First, along the coastline in England, and then through the green meadow, then crossing an ocean and back into the snow-covered meadow. Now the ancient grey rock wall is on our right as we trot through the snow. Wolf stops where I had originally seen him—at the edge of the forest. I unmerge with Wolf, kneel down in the snow and hug him, my tears invisible in the wet fur. Snowflakes fall gently onto my hair. I let go. “Thank you” I say, standing up. He nods and I watch as he trots off back into the woods. I’m now a solitary figure. After a moment of reflection and awe, I retrace my own steps back to Middle World.   So that is the message from Wolf. Interpret as you see fit. Since January 12 (today) is also my birthday and a full moon, I will, of course, be walking in the moonlight.   FOR OUR WARM WINTER... Our unusually warm winter with a few occasional cold spells is a challenge for our immune systems. Keep taking small doses of our Immune System Tonic with Echinacea to maintain good health. Soon to come will be the Allergy Season in mid February; the Juniper trees are sure to have massive amounts of pollen, so modify your diet accordingly, reducing gluten foods and excess dairy. I always take a 2 month sabbatical from Cheese Enchiladas with New Mexico chile, a most difficult journey but worth the avoidance of suffering! Could it really be Global Warming? Don't ask an oil company executive! What's in Our Drying Room... Dust and spiders.  We will be designing and building a new Passive Solar Drying Cabinet, 4 ft. x 12 ft this spring, thanks to a grant from the USDA.   What to Read... Dental Herbalism by Leslie Alexander and Linda Straub-Bruce Healing with Herbs and Rituals by Eliseo Torres Invasive Plant Medicine: The Ecological Benefits and Healing Abilities of Invasives by Timothy Lee Scott And Finally, Follow Us outdoors as Dr. Enos gets down and dirty with a GoPro... Check out our Wild Forest Walks on our Facebook page, Milagro Herbs Now loaded are videos on Hierba mansa root harvesting and Herb Walks in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains Let us hear from you; we love visitors in the store and we love to receive your orders on the phone. Don’t care for the Internet hassle of shopping? 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