Doing something that helps others, writing a book, setting an example for others
Getting the most out of life, having a good retirement, living an ethical, balanced life
Which would be your ideal sleep cycle and pattern for the day? Don’t need a lot of sleep, jump up ready to go, power nap when needed
Need lots of sleep and sleep routine, early to bed, early to rise, have energy during day
Have trouble falling to sleep, like staying up late at night, should nap
Sleep late, sleepy after lunch, sometimes stay up late, naps make groggy
What is your favorite type of meal? Red meat, potatoes, vegetables, not big on sweets
Seafood and chicken, vegetables, pasta, likes sweets
Meat, likes traditional breakfast foods anytime, soups and stews
Likes hearty food, root vegetables, chicken and grains, dessert with meals
What is your favorite time of year? Early spring and early fall, cool weather that promotes activity
Winter and cold weather, snow
Warm and wet, late spring or summer
Cool fall, harvest time, early winter
Which of your five senses seems to be most active? Sight
Touch
Sound
Smell/taste
What is your decision-making process? Quick decisions, go with gut, intuitive
Take time to gather opinions, makes an emotional decision
Snap assessments and decisions, but as new information is gathered may change mind
Take time, think long and hard, once a decision is made may be stubborn about changing decision even with new information
What is your view of friendship? I make friends easily.
My friendships are based on emotional connections.
I have a lot of acquaintances but few friends.
I’m cautious in friendship, but once a friend, always a friend.
Which of the following best describes your approach to rules of society? Rules are made to be broken or ignored.
Rules should be followed but may need getting around on occasion.
I will whine about the rules and encourage others to break them, but will follow them anyway.
There must be a reason for the rules, so I’ll follow them as they provide structure and safety until it is no longer safe.
Which of the following best describes your attitude toward money? I can always make more money, so I’ll spend what I have.
I’m going to be careful with my money to take care of my family.
Money? I don’t care about money. Maybe someone will give me some or I’ll win the lottery.
I spend frugally and save money for a rainy day.
You are all finished!
Add up all the As, Bs, Cs, and Ds to determine your elemental mix.
A=Fire
B=Water
C=Air
D=Earth
The letter with the most numbers is your dominant element and so on.
Afterword
We are all born with seven talents. You’ve got to use all seven of your talents.
—Phyllis Light
Like kids waiting for Santa Claus with baited breath, quite a few of us herbalists have been waiting for years for Phyllis Light to publish her work on southern folk medicine. Phyllis is one of the outstanding herbalists of our time. But she is not just a great practitioner and fount of wisdom. I’ll tell you a secret: she’s an “herb whisperer.” The herbs live inside some people. When these people meet a little plant along the road a conversation might break out. It might not be in audible words: more like pictures, associations, and memories of cases, people, and constitutions—and suddenly, a new insight breaks out. Or it might just be, “Howdy down there!” “Thank you, how you all doing up there?” “Fine, thank you.” The explosion of knowledge might come on another day. You never know.
One day Phyllis and I were walking through the woods in a park in her hometown. The ground slanted slightly to the north, so the woods were more like what I was familiar with in the Midwest, while the southern slopes were clad in the vegetation of the Deep South. “A perfect place to be an herbalist,” I thought to myself. “You can pick in both regions only yards apart.” As the reader will find out, Phyllis’s herb knowledge reflects where she grew up—almost as if it sprang right up out of the ground.
We were looking at a wild yam vine tangled into the low-hanging branches of a white oak. The leaves come out in a whorl of six around the stem. Suddenly both of us had an insight. Many of the great Native American female medicines have three or six leaves, flower petals, or divisions in their terminal leaves—black cohosh, blue cohosh, trillium, raspberry, and wild yam. “How many pairs of tendons hold up the uterus?” I asked Phyllis.
The American Indian female medicines are one of the great “heritage gifts” of North American herbalism. In Europe, China, and India, there are four or five great female medicines in each tradition (lady’s mantle, peony, cooked rehmannia root, shatavari) but in ours there are a dozen, learned in better times, when Native American healers and midwives taught their white and black neighbors about medicine plants—before the Trail of Tears and the terrible removals to the West. Before people forgot, or didn’t care, or ignored the fact that Native people had an extra-sensory knowledge of wood and plant lore.
Phyllis is not just an herbalist, she is a conservator of the tradition in which she grew up—southern folk medicine. This heritage gift could easily be swept under the rug. Northerners think “Southern culture” is just an excuse for racism or backward-ism. They think theirs is the only legitimate culture and the “slow learners” will catch up one day. What they don’t realize is that Southern culture is deep, different, and a little mysterious. In the North the “experts” are scientists and people with good diction, reflecting good education. In the South, Granny is an expert, and you better listen to your mama, ‘cause what that scientist says may or may not be true. Anyway, Northerners don’t really trust people that speak with a Southern accent, whether they be black or white—it’s a dialect that sounds “rebellious” and “dangerous.”
But Granny was right. She didn’t put people on opioids, did she? Who’s the danger here? The commercial/regulatory out-of-control monster system pampered by what I call “Northern folk culture”—or Granny? Can a monopoly see through the haze of its drug-infused, money-infected vision enough to judge Granny? No, it can’t. Monopolies don’t self-examine; their eyes look to the bottom line like magnets drawn to iron. Meanwhile, little herbs sneaking along the ground, like convicts on the run from pesticides and scientific facts, have more truth in their little green leaves than a system that can’t come to terms with its financial addictions, can’t listen to the people it is supposed to serve, can’t tolerate what the patient says if it doesn’t fit a defined category, can’t acknowledge other forms of healing, can’t understand the human condition except through lab tests and not imagination, art, emotion, intuition, instinct, or even sensation.
Phyllis Light is a conscious conservator of her culture and her healing heritage. She has studied her tradition in depth, bringing it into clarity in a time period when it could instead have lapsed into a final oblivion. And in giving her beloved tradition a voice she has done even more than that: she has given us a personal glimpse into what it was like to grow up in the Old South—not the South of gracious plantations, but of hardscrabble sharecropping, life-saving prayers, Holy Rollers, rattlesnake lore, and “sang hunting.” She tells us why one “picks herbs” but “hunts ginseng.”
I’m afraid that we herbalists will have to share our wonderful colleague and friend with a wider audience because—we could have predicted it—Phyllis has written a book that is fascinating beyond the little universe of the practicing herbalist.
—Matthew Wood
Martell, Wisconsin
“Up North”
Index
Please note that index links to approximate location of each term.<
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A
ADD/ADHD, 232
Adrenaline, 221, 226
African-Americans
enslavement of, 82–85, 91
Great Migration of, 94–95
influence of, on Southern Folk Medicine, 82–85
Air
breathing, 216–18
characteristics of, 126
deficient, 233–34
excess, 231–33
nature of, 222–24
nervous system and, 218–20
neurotransmitters and, 225–27
traits, 228–30
wind vs., 214–16, 219, 222
Akenson, Donald Harman, 85
Alabama tribe, 80
Aldosterone, 206, 207
Allostasis, 28
Almanac Man. See The Signs
Aloe vera, 4, 106
Alternative medicine, definition of, 11
American Medical Association, 10
Anger, 183
Anise, 106
Antidotes, 129–30
Antioxidants, 173, 179
Apprenticeships, 18–19
Asclepius, Cult of, 69–70
Astrology
constitutional makeup and, 161
folk, 107–110
ATP (adenosine triphosphate), 31, 172, 174, 216-18, 217, 244
Audubon, John James, 153
Avavares, 102–103
Avicenna, 60, 71
Ayurveda, 13, 72
B
Bacon, Francis, 135
Bass, Arthur Lee “Tommie”
herbal practice of, 22–25
illness classification and, 37
life of, 21–22
parents of, 89
personality of, 21, 24–25
quotations of, 1, 21, 25, 34
recognition of, 23
training of, 22
Bass’s Salve, 23–24
Bay laurel, 106–107
Beecher, Donald, 66
Berly, William, 91
Bernard, Claude, 26–27, 30
The Bible
as healing tool, 104–105
herbs in, 105–107
The Bible continued
importance of, 104
King James Version of, 75, 104
Bile
bitter taste of, 176–178
black, 72, 73, 74, 248
functions of, 118, 174
herbs for, 118
in the humoral system, 72, 73, 74
Birth
-marks, 48
order, 47–48
rituals, 136
special circumstances around, 46–47, 48, 51
tree, 113
Bitter taste, 130, 174, 176–178
Blood
bad, 121–122
bitter, 124–125, 163–186
cold, 124
fast, 122
functions of, 116
good, 121
heat associated with, 142
herbs for, 116
high, 120
hot, 123–124
in the humoral system, 72, 73, 74
low, 120–121
salty, 125, 187–210
slow, 122–123
sour, 125, 211–234
state of, 120–124
sweet, 125, 235–258
thick, 123
thin, 123
types, 124–125, 157–159
water and, 198
Blood-stoppers, 49, 134
Body
dynamic nature of, 27–28
holistic approach to, 32
self-healing by, 29, 31
self-regulatory mechanisms of, 26–27
symptoms as messengers of, 31
Body fluids
categories of, 119
important, 116–118
measurements of, as pairs of opposites, 119
movement of, 114–115, 116
observation of, 116–118
Bonaldo, Francis, 120
Bone marrow, 246–247
Bones, 240–242, 243
Bowel movements, regular, 132
Brain
composition of, 218–219
oxygen use by, 219
at peak performance, 218
Breathing, 216–218
C
Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nunez, 63, 101, 102–4
Caesar, Julius, 241
Calcium, 241
Calling, 46–51
Canker, 200
Cannon, Walter Bradford, 27
Carbohydrates, 249
Carbon dioxide, 217
Carranza, Andres Dorantes de, 102, 103
Cartier, Jacques, 66
Cartilage, 242–243
Castillo Maldonado, Alonso del, 102–3
Caul births, 46–47
Cayenne, 168–169
Cedar, 69, 136
Cherokees, 9, 34, 35, 66, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 89, 113
Chickasaws, 9, 77, 80, 89
Chiron, 69
Chishti, Hakim G.M., 74
Choctaws, 9, 77, 80, 89
Cholesterol, 178
Christianity
fish as symbol of, 206
role of, 101–7
Citric acid, 250, 251
Clay, 127–128
Cleanliness, 135–136
Cold, 145–148
Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), definition of, 11
Complementary medicine, definition of, 11
Connective tissue, 239–243
Constitutional makeup
astrology and, 161
components of, 156–157
development of, with age, 157
elements and, 157–159
genetics and, 154–156
guidelines offered by, 157
quiz to determine, 259–265
Convalescence, 34, 36
Conventional medicine
benefits of, 10–11
definition of, 10
language of, 11
natural health techniques and, 38
preventive health and, 33
Cortisol, 226–228
Cotton, 53–54, 56, 67
Creeks, 9, 76, 77, 80, 81, 89
Crellin, John, 23
Culpeper, Nicholas, 71, 108–9
Culture, influence of, 41–42
Cumo, Christopher, 80
Curie, Marie, 182
Curie, Pierre, 182
D
Damp. See Wet
Death rituals, 136–137
Depression, 132
Descartes, Rene, 228
De Soto, Hernando, 62–64
Diabetes, 235–236, 253
Digestion
chronic disease and, 132–133
immune system and, 28–29
importance of, 28–29, 130–132
as oxidative process, 171–172
of protein, 222–225
Dill, 106
Dioscorides, 71
Disease. See Illnesses
DNA
epigenetics and, 155–156
mitochondrial, 155
nuclear, 154–155
Dopamine, 180, 221, 226
Dreams, 48
Drugs, side-effects of, 32
Dry, 150–151
Duke, James, 95
Durant, Ariel, 182
Durant, Will, 182
Dylan, Bob, 228
E
Earhart, Amelia, 182
Earth
characteristics of, 126, 237–238
clay of, 127–128
connection to, 42
deficient, 257–258
definitions of, 237, 238
excess, 256–257
humans as part of, 128
nature of, 247–248
sweet taste of, 248–250
traits, 254–256
types of, in the body, 238–247
Egyptians, ancient, 68–69
Elements, four, 73, 76, 126, 158–159. See also Air; Earth; Fire; Water
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 45
cellular, 172
producing, 250–254
raw, 172
Vital, 155, 173
Epigenetics, 155–156
Epithelial tissue, 245
Estevan, 102
F
Faith healers, 49, 133–135
Family culture, 41
Fat, 174–175
Fermentation, 225
Fett, Sharla M., 84, 91
Fever, 142, 143
Fibromyalgia, 38–39, 143
Fight-or-flight, 226–227
Fire
characteristics of, 126, 169–171
connotations of, 166–167
deficient, 185–186
excess, 183–185
fat and, 174–175
influence of, 178–179
traits, 180–183
types of, in the body, 171–173
Fire-blowers, 49, 134
Fischer, David Hackett, 8
Folk medicine
attitudes toward, 19
commonalities of systems of, 13–15
definition of, 9
evolution of, 15, 17
global view of, 16–17
language of, 11–12
prevalence of, 15
teaching methods of, 17–19
tenets of, 25–34, 36–43
Folkways, definition of, 8
Foods
bitter, 130
cheap, 131
of the New World, 67
plants as, 128
Frampton, John, 66
Franklin, Benjamin, 16, 108
Free Holiness, 98–101
Free radicals, 172–173, 174, 179
Freeze response, 226
G
Gaiman, Neil, 53
Galen, 31, 60, 70–71, 73, 90
Gänger, Stefanie, 66
Garlic, 69, 106
Gately, Iain, 84
Gentleman of Elvas, 62–63
Geography, influence of, 42–43, 153–154
Ginsberg, Allen, 228
Ginseng, 1, 3–8, 67, 168
Glucagon, 253
Glucose, 252–253, 254
Gluten sensitivity, 42
Glycogen, 227, 252, 253
God, 13–14, 191
Great Depression, 59, 94
Great Mystery, 77, 78
Greece, ancient, 69–71
Grey, Catfish, 110
Southern Folk Medicine Page 34