Brother Charlies Herbal Buddy Artwork

Be sure to visit Brother Charlies website!!!

The Lonely Dandelion (A Hardy Plant)

Brother Charlie has submitted a story from the point of view of his Herbal Buddy.

I am a lonely dandelion. My roots expand below me and around me, sapping the precious little moisture from the earth. It hasn't rained in a while, but I'm fine. I am a hardy plant. I can survive anything. But I'm lonely. There was once another dandelion on the other side of the path. We waved to each other in the breeze. Sometimes I dared to dream of our roots stretching to one another, and I worked towards this goal with each day. But one day, a tall, rootless, leafless tree came along and carelessly ripped up my friend from the ground, roots and all. And now I'm lonely again. Lonely and sad. The sun only touches my petals for a short time each day, as it glistens through the tall, elderly trees around me. They are much older than I. They need it more, they say. Greedy, I should think. But it's okay. I am a hardy plant. I once survived being sprayed by something that made me shrivel into myself. The fumes were in my veins for weeks, and I struggled mightily against the desire to fade to nothing. But I'm fine. I'm a hardy plant. I shed my wilted leaves and grew back twice as strong. Sometimes I wonder why I grew here all on my own. I've heard stories from nearby plants of fields full of dandelions just like me. Whole communities of dandelions, with families and roots all connected. I wonder how my seeds ended up here, on this lonely stretch of nowhere. Disconnected from others like me. But I'm fine. I'm a hardy plant. I once survived being trampled. My stem bent in several places, my leaves turned mushy. But I grew back twice as strong. I was once plucked from the ground. I survived for a few moments as the rootless tree carried me away down the path, slowly plucking my petals from my head, counting off in a quiet language that is not my own. "He loves me, he loves me not". I died for a short while. But it's okay. I'm a hardy plant. My roots were still alive, and I grew back twice as strong. One day, my petals turned fuzzy grey, and slowly the breeze stole them away one by one. I thought maybe it was finally my time. I grew back next spring, and to my surprise and delight, I was surrounded by dozens of dandelions in a field of my own.

Brother Charlie Hester

How to Make Nourishing Herbal Infusions

In my last Note on this sort of topic I shared with you about the joys of sitting on the porch with my wife and drinking herbal teas. I also shared with you about how to prepare medicinal teas. In today's note I said I would cover how to make Nourishing Herbal Infusions.

Each night before I go to bed I put my#teapot on the stove until it whistles and then pour it over 1 ounce of dried herb in a quart jar. I then set it on the breakfast table and go to bed. When I wake up the following morning I strain and then enjoy.

That my friend is how I make Nourishing Herbal Infusions.

A tea is made by using a little bit of an herb steeped for a short period of time but a Nourishing Herbal Infusion is made with a lot of herb steeped for at minimum 4 hours or overnight.

Susun Weed the Voice of the Wise Woman Tradition says …

“A cup of nettle tea, for instance, contains only 5-10 mg of #calcium, while a cup of nettle infusion contains up to 500 mg of calcium.”

My wife and I make Nourishing Herbal Infusions using #nettle, oatstraw, red clover and comfrey leaf. Never at the same time! 1 herb per infusion per day.

My wife has found that Nourishing Herbal Infusions have been very beneficial to her in dealing with her Lupus.

Learning how to prepare Medicinal#Teas and Nourishing Herbal Infusion is a great way to start your journey into the world of all things herbal.

Sister Abigail Hester

How to Make Medicinal Teas

It has been said that it takes 7 lifetimes to become an herbalist. Not sure if this is true or not but a fun way to get started learning about herbs is by consuming herbal teas. There is a variety to choose from and you do not even need to go to a specialty store to find them. My wife and I are always able to find Peppermint, Chamomile and Echinacea teas at our local grocery store. We have found sitting on our porch after a long day with a relaxing cup of herbal tea to be one of the best parts of our day. In today's note I would like to share with you how to make medicinal teas.

My wife and I woke up this morning and decided to make some Nettle tea to sip as we conversed on our front porch. In the evening we generally drink some Chamomile tea to help wind us down before bed.

In order to receive medicinal benefit from an herbal tea we have found that it is best to pour boiling water over our chosen tea bag, cover and then let sit for 15 minutes. This is a great way to get started experiencing the many benefits of herbal teas. Peppermint for instance is good for soothing stomach pain. Chamomile is beneficial for helping you to rest. Echinacea is a wonderful herbal antibiotic. Chamomile tea is also a wonderful herbal remedy for pink eye!

Now making herbal teas is great but in my next note I will share with you how to make nourishing herbal infusions.

 Sister Abigail Hester

Creation Care / Environmentalism

In my last note I made the statement “This IS Eden” and I kind of used that as my lead into upcoming notes related to the use of local plants for healing and health maintenance. Those notes are on the way but I feel like it’s important to consider creation care first.

In the first 3 chapters of the Book of Genesis we are told that God created the heavens and the earth and all that was in them. The story continues with the creation of Adam and the Bible says that God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. So Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and were to tend and to keep it.

It is hard for me to read the opening chapters of Genesis and not be compelled to Creation Care. Now “creation care” is of course Christianese for the better known term today which is environmentalism.

One of my conservative friends said to me “well it is all going to burn anyways so what do you care?” He said I was missing the point of the entirety of God’s Word and was moving into New Age “mumbo jumbo”.

The fact is however that within the pages of the Bible and certainly within Christian Tradition there is a strong foundation to which I can build my case.

- God gives Adam and Eve the responsibility to care for the Garden of Eden.
- Many theologians from John Calvin to Matthew Fox have made environmentalism a part of the Christian message.
- The Book of Romans calls us to reclaim nature from its current spoiled position (Romans 8:19-22). - Saint Francis of Assisi believed that every creature was created for the purpose of worshiping God. - The Celtic Christian Tradition is committed to environmentalism.

 As a Christian you can choose to believe the message of those doom and gloom preachers or you can stand with me as an advocate for creation care. How do we expect the earth to help us if we are unwilling to return the favor?

I would like to close out this note with one more Scripture:

Psa 148:7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
Psa 148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Psa 148:9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
Psa 148:10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
Psa 148:11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
Psa 148:12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
Psa 148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

Sister Abigail Hester

This is Eden!!!

This IS Eden!!!

 Back in my more fundamentalist days as a researcher of all things Bible I came across the location of the Garden of Eden. Using clues found in the Bible and the Book of Jubilees its location was in Egypt. - http://logoschristian.org/eden.html.

The above information may be true if the Garden of Eden was a literal place. Modern Biblical scholarship however does not see the Garden of Eden as a literal place. I am starting to see the Garden of Eden more as a figurative place a metaphor used to explain about how humanity learned the difference between good and evil.

That being said it is not a stretch for me to see all of the earth as the Garden of Eden the Paradise in which God works in and through humanity. So when I am able to go into my yard and pick a nourishing medicinal herb to aid with my medical woe I think to myself: This IS Eden!!!

 Thanks for your interest in my writings. I look forward to your thoughts, questions and comments. In upcoming Notes I will be sharing with you how you to can use local plants for both healing and health maintenance.

 Sister Abigail Hester

Lacie Love Hester’s Testimonial About The Benefits of Nourishing Herbal Infusions

Hello everyone!  For those of you that don’t know me, I am Lacie Love Hester.  I have Lupus.  Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes me to have severe pain due to inflammation.  It also makes me feel totally exhausted and makes all my joints swell.  I also am super sensitive to sunlight, my hair easily falls out and I get blood clots very easily.  I hate having a Lupus flare up.  (A flare up can be caused by infection, stress, and etc)

Most doctors manage Lupus flare ups by giving a patient steroids, pain medication, antibiotics (if there is an infection), and an anti malaria drug that helps with the Lupus. High doses of steroids are used to help reduce the inflammation. Steroids make me constantly hungry and very emotional.  Not to mention, it also makes me feel even more tired.  So, one day my wife, Abigail Hester, made me a Nettle Infusion. She said that it would help me feel better.

Abigail got her quart size jar and put the nettle and boiling water in it, until it was full.  Four hours later, she drained the nettle infusion and put the liquid in a cup for me.  I was quite skeptical that this spinach green water was going to taste good much less help, but I took a sip anyways.  I ended up drinking the whole cup of it.  It wasn’t that bad tasting and I am a pretty picky eater.  (if it isn’t junk food or sweet, I generally don’t like it)

The next day, I actually felt a little less achy.  I even had a little more energy than I did the day before.  So, I got Abigail to make me another Nettle Infusion.  I drank it and the next day, was the same way, a little more energy and a less swelling.  So, it got to the point where I was drinking these infusions every day for a week.

At the end of that week, I actually felt better all over.  I felt like I had some of the energy that I so missed. I was able to get actually get some relief from all the pain I had been in as well.  I began to actually consider my daily Nettle Infusions as a part of my Lupus regime. Because of the Nettle, I don’t have to take a large dose of steroids for all the inflammation. I actually take half the dosage amount of steroids that I used to take every day for inflammation. When I skip a day drinking my Nettle infusion, I can tell a huge difference.

So,if you have any inflammatory disease, you might want to try doing Nettle Infusions. What do you have to lose?  You might be surprised how a large cup of a Nettle Infusion helps you feel a little more energetic and less achy.  It works for me.

Stinging Nettle Infusion

The amazing health benefits of Nettle and how to best prepare it for your needs.

Each day my wife and I enjoy a Nourishing Herbal Infusion made popular by Susun Weed the founder of the Wise Woman Tradition.

There are a number of herbs you can use to make Nourishing Herbal Infusions. For today's infusion my wife and I will be enjoying Nettle Infusion.

Susun Weed says the following regarding Nettle Infusion.

"Nettle is amazingly rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals, especially the critical trace minerals: anti-cancer selenium, immune-enhancing sulphur, memory-enhancing zinc, diabetes-chasing chromium, and bone-building boron. A quart of nettle infusion contains more than 1000 milligrams of calcium, 15000 IU of vitamin A, 760 milligrams of vitamin K, 10% protein, and lavish amounts of most B vitamins." - Susun Weed

http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/October08/healingwise.htm

To make a Nourishing Herbal Infusion is fairly simple.

- Fill your Quart Jar with 1 ounce of herb by weight
- Fill jar with boiling water
- Cover jar with lid and let sit for 4 hours

Nourishing Nettle Infusion

I have made it a habit of enjoying my Nourishing#Nettle Infusion daily. If I drink Nourishing Nettle Infusion in the morning I have sustained #energythroughout the day without the crash so typical of#coffee and other caffeinated beverages.

Dr. Christopher's Cayenne Pepper Tea

Doctor Christopher in his book The Three Day Cleanse: Mucusless Diet & Herbal Combinations recommends drinking Cayenne Pepper Tea 3 time a day. 

Dr. Christopher’s book along with a number of others can be found in our bookstore

The health benefits of Cayenne Pepper Tea are numerous and have been discussed in a past radio interview with Glenn Reschke. 

Directions

Add 1 Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper to a glass of cold water and drink.

I use Nature’s Sunshine Capsicum capsules which have been broken open over my glass full of water.

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Honey & Apple Cider Vinegar Drink for Arthritis

Learn how to make Dr. John R Christopher's Honey & Apple Cider Vinegar Drink.

Dr. John R. Christopher in his book Three Day Cleansing Program: Mucusless Diet & Herbal Combinations recommends drinking Honey & Apple Cider Vinegar 3 times daily.

I have found relief from arthritic joint pain following his directions and no longer have to use chronic NSAIDs for pain management. 

Directions

Place 1 Tablespoon of Honey and 1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in warm water so that the Honey will liquefy.

Drink this mixture 3 times daily. 

The Three Day Cleansing Program: Mucusless Diet & Herbal Combinations can be found in our bookstore.

Healing Massage Protocol

Welcome to Spiral Path Interfaith Shrine of Healing. My name is Sister Abigail Hester. One of our focuses as a Shrine is Healing. Below, I will be sharing our Healing Massage Protocol.

Healing Massage Protocol

American herbalist and Naturopathic Physician Dr. John R. Christopher is the one that I would have to credit as the originator of the Three Oil Massage. Our Healing Massage Protocol is what could be called the Dr. Christopher Method.

The Healing Massage Protocol is based on a 7 day cycle. For the first two days you will use castor oil. For the next two days you will use olive oil. Then for two days you will use wheat germ oil. On the 7th day you will rest ceasing from The Healing Massage Protocol.

The proper massage technique for The Healing Massage Protocol is in a clockwise circular motion from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, always working toward the heart.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact SisterAbigail Hester.