The Earthwise Herbal Repertory Read online

  The Earthwise

  HERBAL REPERTORY

  Books by the Author

  Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers

  Vitalism: The History of Homeopathy, Herbalism, and Flower Essences

  The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines

  The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

  The Earthwise Herbal, Volume I: A Complete Guide to Old World Traditional Plants

  The Earthwise Herbal, Volume II: A Complete Guide to New World Traditional Plants

  Traditional Western Herbalism and Pulse Evaluation, A Conversation (by Matthew Wood, Francis Bonaldo Bégnoche, and Phyllis D. Light)

  The Earthwise

  HERBAL REPERTORY

  The Definitive Practitioner’s Guide

  MATTHEW WOOD MSc (Herbal Medicine)

  Registered Herbalist (American Herbalists Guild)

  with DAVID RYAN CMT, C Ac

  North Atlantic Books

  Berkeley, California

  Copyright © 2016 by Matthew Wood. “The Traditional Homeopathic Repertory” © 2016 by David Ryan. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

  Published by

  North Atlantic Books

  Berkeley, California

  Cover design by Jasmine Hromjak

  Cover photo and interior photos by Frank Wood; original plant pressings by Matthew Wood

  The Earthwise Herbal Repertory: The Definitive Practitioner’s Guide is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

  North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

  MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Wood, Matthew, 1954-, author. | Ryan, David, CMT, author.

  Title: The earthwise herbal repertory : the definitive practitioner’s guide / Matthew Wood with David Ryan.

  Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016005293| ISBN 9781623170776 (trade pbk.) | ISBN 9781623170783 (e-book)

  Subjects: | MESH: Plants, Medicinal | Phytotherapy—methods | Homeopathy—methods

  Classification: LCC RM666.H33 | NLM QV 766 | DDC 615.3/21—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016005293

  To the younger generation of herbalists. —Matthew

  To my long-suffering wife Sarah and children Enrique, Helen, and Malachi, for enduring many hours absent for study. —David

  Contents

  PART I: ABOUT REPERTORIES

  Introduction

  Considerations on Two Sister Arts

  The Traditional Homeopathic Repertory—

  by David Ryan and Matthew Wood

  Bibliography

  PART II: THE REPERTORY

  1. List of Herbs

  2. Energetics: Constitutions and Tissue States

  The Ayurvedic or Tridoshic Constitutions

  The Three Doshas

  Energetics of Western Herbalism

  The Six Tissue States

  Adjuvants, Accelerators, and Synergists

  3. Organs and Systems

  Mind, Emotions, Will

  Sleep and Dreams

  Brain and Head

  Face and Complexion

  Eyes

  Ears

  Nose, Sinuses, and Upper Respiratory Tract

  Mouth, Gums, Teeth

  Throat

  Tongue

  Lungs and Lower Respiratory Tract

  Blood

  Pulse

  Heart, Circulation, and Cardiovascular System

  Stomach and Upper Gastrointestinal Tract

  The Autonomic Nervous System

  Intestines and Lower Gastrointestinal

  Assimilation

  Liver

  Gall Bladder

  Pancreas and Sugar Metabolism

  Lymph and Immune Systems

  Kidneys

  Bladder and Urethra

  Urine

  Female Sexual System

  Male Sexual System

  Endocrine System

  Nervous System

  Muscular and Skeletal Systems

  Skin

  4. Chronic Conditions

  Stages of Life

  Exhaustion, Low Energy, Fatigue

  Environmental and Dietary Toxins

  Weight

  Cancer

  5. Acute Conditions

  Fever

  Injuries, First Aid

  Therapeutic Index of Clinical Conditions and Diseases

  About the Authors

  PART I: ABOUT REPERTORIES

  Introduction

  Such simples as the dandelion, celandine, wormwood, comfrey, misseltoe, and holy thistle, taken in decoction, infusion, or tincture, will, if properly used, restore to health many who have been considered incurable, and in most cases preserve the life of the patient for a considerable time, if they should fail in effecting a radical cure.

  —SAMUEL WESTCOTT TILKE (1844)

  In traditional Western herbalism, the application of medicinal agents has often been very poorly defined. Dr. John M. Scudder (1829–93) described the situation as he found it at the end of the nineteenth century:

  In the past it was deemed sufficient to enumerate the remedies that might be employed in any given disease; as, for instance, in a case of pneumonia, you may give an emetic, cathartics, any of a dozen or more expectorants, diaphoretics, diuretics, narcotics, stimulants, tonics, etc. But the reasons for administering the one or the other, or the time or condition in which they would prove most available, was not, and could not, be designated. In a case of pneumonia, there was authority for the use of a hundred or more different medicines (Scudder 1898, 10).

  Dr. Scudder was the “leading light” of the eclectic medical movement, a historically important school that used “whatever worked”—hence the name “eclectic” (Wood 2000). Among their characteristic approaches was a very strong emphasis on the use of medicinal herbs. Scudder tried to remedy the problem highlighted above by developing a list of “specific indications”—precise symptoms indicating both a distinct pathological state and a corresponding single agent exactly suited to the problem.

  Scudder matched the “specific medicine,” as he called it, to the “specific indication”—a precise symptom complex that points to a pathological expression, not to the name of a disease. An example is the strong, hammering, driven pulse, which indicates the remedy Veratrum viride. This pulse also indicates that the heart is being driven or stressed by fever or high blood pressure. This “specific indication” can occur in any number of named diseases. It leads to a precise remedy, where
as the disease name leads (as Scudder shows above) to dozens or perhaps a hundred undifferentiated remedies. Scudder called both the remedy and the approach “specific medicine.”

  While The Earthwise Herbal Repertory does not follow Scudder’s specific medicine exactly, it attempts to interject this kind of specificity into the application of herbal medicines. This is done through the use of specific indications (where known), “organ affinities” (when an herb acts on a particular organ or function), “energetics” (general tissue states, i.e., hot or cold, excess or deficient), and other known differentiating factors.

  Despite Scudder’s trenchant criticism, many herbal writers continued copying the old sources without improving the virtually useless “system” they had inherited. Herbs were still placed in long, undifferentiated lists under disease names or traditional “actions”—expectorant, diaphoretic, sedative, stimulant, etc. Since modern biomedicine had long ago moved some of these to the history books and generated new terminology. The focus on “action” puts an herb in a category that seldom relates to pathology or even modern biomedical diagnosis. “Actions” are essential herbal terminology, but not always a good basis for finding the right herb for the case.

  The context for many actions died with Greek medicine, hundreds of years ago, and many new actions have been added to the traditional list through the adoption of new concepts such as antimicrobial, antibiotic, mucolytic, adaptogenic, etc. However, Scudder’s criticism still goes unanswered: these actions do not tell us which case requires which mucolytic or adaptogen. This sort of poor description and classification—essentially, the lack of a system—is still found in Western herbal texts down to the present. Herbalism needed to be renewed.

  The Herbal Renaissance

  What were students to do without a system? Most figured out how to use Western herbs by applying other systems. These included Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, and biomedicine. Here we particularly think of William LeSassier, Michael Tierra, Vasant Lad, Candace Canton, D. Winston, Michael Moore, Paul Bergner and other practitioners who first linked these old systems with Western herbs. In some families, the old ways of herbal medicine were not completely forgotten. Some herbalists such as Rosemary Gladstar, Phyllis Light, and Karyn Sanders learned herbalism from their elders.

  My family were homeopaths, not herbalists. My Quaker grandfather was delivered by a Quaker homeopathic physician in 1900. In the little Quaker circles in which I grew up, the family physician was a cousin, and grandfather to one of my friends. On my mother’s side, there were more recent converts to homeopathy; the late Julian Winston, longtime editor of Homeopathy Today, was my mother’s first cousin. From him I learned the rudiments of homeopathy—but I was an herbalist at heart. So I applied homeopathic principles as best I could to herbal remedies. I also learned from the Bach flower essences; although Bach did not list physical indications, his little remedy descriptions for choosing a flower essence were quite complete and often worked for prescribing herbs as well.

  From studying homeopathy and the Bach flower essences, I learned that each plant possesses an internal character that shows through disparate symptoms, properties, and uses, integrating them into a whole picture of a physiological function and its maladaption. Each plant also has a psychological profile that is related to the expression of the plant in physiological terms. Agrimony, for example, is useful for both psychological and physical tension. It turned out that most of the herbs used for homeopathy or flower essences have analogous uses in herbal tradition. Later I would discover Scudder’s specific indications, which also emphasized the unique nature of each plant medicine.

  Scudder and his eclectics were one of two major herbal medical movements in nineteenth century America. The other consisted of followers of the herbalist Samuel Thomson (1769–1843); they eventually called themselves “physiomedicalists.” From them we learn the system of “six tissue states” used in this repertory. I have discussed both these herbal movements is my book Vitalism (2000).

  The late Dorothy Hall of New South Wales, Australia also applied lessons from homeopathy and the Bach flower essences to the use of herbs. She also emphasized the unique psychological and physiological profile of each plant, and how they may be indicated by symptoms that are highly characteristic for each herb. I learned much from her, and I recommend her opus, usually entitled Dorothy Hall’s Herbal Medicine.

  Then, remarkably, Phyllis Light stepped forward to teach us a tradition that almost none of us had ever heard of—the folk medicine of the Southern United States.

  The North American herbal renaissance was greatly assisted by herbalists trained in Great Britain, where herbalism still survived. David Hoffmann, Amanda McQuade Crawford, Jonathan Treasure, Anne McIntyre, and Mary Bove brought valuable contributions. David Hoffman’s Holistic Herbal (in various editions from 1991 to the present) brought a breath of fresh herbal air to us from abroad, emphasizing organ systems and holism, and including one of our first herbal repertories. It turned out that physiomedicalism had survived in Britain. A. W. and L. R. Priest, in Herbal Medication: A Clinical and Dispensary Handbook (1983), contributed greatly to a more clearly defined use of herbs in the late twentieth century.

  While I am recounting history, I would like the younger generation to appreciate some of the experiences we went through. The practice of herbal medicine was illegal in virtually every state—and all of us felt it. We feared arrest, and some of us were arrested—Dr. John Christopher more than a dozen times. A friend of mine was arrested as late as 1998. She told an undercover investigator, posing as a client at her clinic, to go to the emergency room for a diagnosis: that was enough to be considered the unlicensed practice of medicine in Minnesota. But at least she wasn’t firebombed, as was one herb store in Sonoma County, California in the 1970s. In that case it was rednecks showing their disapproval of hippies.

  Most of the herb stores, health-food stores, and alternative restaurants I knew of in my area in the ’80s were fronts for drug money. The herb store where I was employed was robbed at gunpoint more than once because—well, that’s what happens in the drug trade. Occasionally we were also raided by the police. Those days are gone now, but I still value some of its lessons. I learned how to take a case history from a drug dealer: don’t commit yourself to anything until you know the agenda of the person you are dealing with.

  I’ve heard a lot of personal stories from herbalists about how tough it was in the old days. Phyllis Light told me how she dreaded becoming an herbalist because all the herbalists she knew “lived in shacks.” But that was a step up from the late Tis Mal Crow, a Native American herbalist who started his career living under bridges. “Until I met you, Matthew,” he told me, “I thought the only people interested in this kinda stuff were a bunch of little old people.” The biographers of the late Tommie Bass (Crellin and Philpott 1990) noted that he never made more than five thousand dollars a year—and that amount was indeed about what I myself made for the first decade of my career.

  There was an emotional toll to pay too. William LeSassier, the first in the younger generation of the “herbal renaissance,” was saddened and tortured during the thirty-five years of his career by the long-term illegality, social ostracism, and just plain stress of being an herbalist. He didn’t complain, but I could feel it in him. When he was young there were no prominent herbalists besides Dr. Christopher and himself. With real feeling, William once said to me, “If they’re asking for volunteers to come back to this planet in the future, I’m sure not signing up.” We miss you, William.

  From Symptom List to Repertory

  Whatever methods we adopt, competent practice, as Dr. Scudder foresaw, must be based on some degree of specificity in the relationship between a medicinal agent and the disordered physiological condition. Herbs are not suited to artificially imposed disease names but to naturally occurring and evolving processes within the body. To use herbs effectively, we need to educate ourselves to read pathological and physiologica
l processes, not just parrot biomedical disease names. The former are the actual expressions of disease; names are invented for the convenience of doctors and patients.

  Having said all this, we still need an “index” for looking up herbs when we need them. It needs to be more detailed than the lists Scudder criticized. Also, it needs to be suited to herbal medicine, specifically Western herbalism. It needs to include specific indications, organ affinities, energetics, and holistic thinking about physiological processes, as opposed to the reductionist approach of modern biomedicine. We also need to include input from our green-oriented friends from India, China, and elsewhere. And yes, sometimes we still need to list herbs by disease names.

  Biomedicine is based on reductionism, which holds that the smallest particle operative in a system is the source or determining factor. For instance, disease is attributed to changes in molecular structure, and is to be treated by substances that change that structure. Modern drugs, therefore, are defined by their molecular structure. Holism, by contrast, views the largest tendencies or structures in the process or system as the governing powers and, if maladapted, the source of the problem. Treatment is therefore by holistic agents that act on the whole physiological process or whole person. These agents include homeopathy and herbalism.

  The homeopaths long ago invented an index to suit their system. They called it a “repertory.” Several prominent herbalists, including David Hoffman, Michael Moore, and Matthew Alfs have composed short “herbal repertories.” I included a “repertory” in the back of The Book of Herbal Wisdom (1997). Over the years I have wanted to expand this reference tool—and finally I have. Here it is.

  The Homeopathic Repertory

  All herbal repertories are based on the homeopathic prototype, and our study of the subject must begin with homeopathy. The repertory is a tool used by homeopaths to narrow down the number of possible remedies from many to several or one. It is arranged on a clear plan. It is not just a list of diseases and remedies, but contains tools to differentiate between remedies. That’s the genius of a repertory.