About Health & Medicine

Mix a teaspoon of honey with 20-30 drops of Echinaforce tincture and you will have a splendid healing salve for grazes, minor wounds and cuts, boils, and even scabs and crusts.

For wounds that are refusing to heal properly, mix some honey with 10 per cent horseradish; the horseradish can be finely grated, or use the fresh juice or tincture. Apply this reliable natural remedy to the affected part, and you will be surprised at the good result. This mixture is an excellent remedy for whitlows, nail mould and similar stubborn conditions that suppurate and take a long time to heal.

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For applying to tumours an infusion made from horsetail (shave grass) or oak bark produces good results when mixed with clay. Inflammation of the nerves is best treated with a mixture of lemon balm and clay; and for rheumatic problems, an infusion of eucalyptus leaves, needle-like juniper leaves, or wild thyme with clay is recommended. Never boil aromatic herbs and leaves; merely pour boiling water over them and allow them to steep in the hot liquid (infusion). Non-aromatic herbs can be boiled a little. When ready, strain and mix the liquid with clay to make a paste. If you infuse the herbs in a small cloth bag, this will be useful for laying on top of the clay-herb poultice when it is in position. As previously explained, this will help to retain the heat.

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The fact that ’spring fever’ is partly a result of a deficiency in vitamins and important minerals should impel us to include in our diet plenty of early spring and wild salad greens and fresh vegetables. Then there are certain flowers and leaves that make superb herbal teas. For example, the bright yellow flowers of coltsfoot are a means of eliminating any phlegm and catarrh that may still linger on after the winter has passed. An infusion of various new leaf shoots is a rich source of minerals; as soon as the raspberry plants, blackberry branches and blackthorn and hawthorn bushes put forth tender new shoots, busy yourself with gathering them to prepare a wonderful spring tea from these fresh leaves. Do the same with young strawberry leaves and the tender shoots of the birch tree. Not only does such an infusion supply you with certain nutritive salts, but it also stimulates the kidneys to function more efficiently – an important aspect of any spring-cleaning treatment.

When the stinging nettles have grown large enough, gather some young shoots every day and add them, finely chopped, to your salads. They are delicious when lightly steamed as a vegetable, tasting something like spinach – which, incidentally, can also be used – or make them into a salad if you prefer. A little finely chopped bear’s garlic (ramsons) will enrich any salad and a number of people enjoy bear’s garlic leaves lightly steamed as a vegetable.

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It is hardly believable that the poison of the hairy Cuban tarantula should possess such remarkable curative powers when homoeopa-thically diluted, but it does. Boils, felons (whitlows), or any other infection of the fingers or under the nails are cured by Tarentula cubensis as if by a miracle. In most cases the affected parts are characterised by a bluish colour and cause severe, burning pains, particularly during the night. For small abscesses on the hands and feet, as well as whitlows, there is no better medicine. Tarentula is without a par among homoeopathic medicines in the treatment of furunculosis (the recurrent appearance of furuncles and boils). To produce immediate results, use the injection method. As a word of caution, Tarentula cubensis should only be used in high potencies (8x-12x). It is also important not to confuse Tarentula cubensis with Tarentula bispanica (Spanish tarantula).

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Black Eagle’s ideas about illness and disease were of great interest to me, and in this respect we discussed the importance of medicinal herbs as well as nutrition, or proper diet. He believed that the white man’s customs and habits had overtaxed the regenerative powers our Creator, or nature, had implanted in us and that he often had only himself to blame for the resulting diseases.

It was from Black Eagle that I learned about the curative effects of various plants growing in South Dakota, the home of his tribe. One plant in particular enjoyed his special appreciation. Considered as sacred, this medicinal herb had been a life-saver on many occasions. His ancestors, he said, used it to cure cases of blood poisoning.

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