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SPIRITUALITY / NATURE "What a fitting title for a marvelous book! From the opening paragraph . . . I was thoroughly and completely captivated. . . . Thea's account is refreshingly unique, deeply authentic, and easily accessible to the reader. Woven into Wisdom of the Plant Devas is Thea's own wonderful story and her heartfelt deep relationship with plant devas. I was sorry when the book ended. I wanted more!" --Rosemary Gladstar, herbalist and founder of United Plant Savers, author of Rosemary Gladstar's Family Herbal and Planting the Future Each plant has a story to share with us, a healing story to guide us in trying times, a spirit medicine for the New Earth that is presently unfolding. Herbs are some of the most powerful allies we have for these transitional times--we just need to learn how to listen as they share their knowledge with us. In Wisdom of the Plant Devas, Thea Summer Deer reveals a new dimension of herbal medicine, one where the plant's spirit is consulted for guidance and healing beyond the physical. Examining the botany, modern and traditional uses, history, and folklore of 13 special herbs, such as rosemary, uva ursi, and datura, she shares divinations and messages from their devas, or plant spirits, explaining how these stories carry the herbs into our lives, letting them work their magic on us. Exploring herbal medicine from an energetic perspective, she reveals that by communing with the deva of a plant, we can call on the plant's physical, psychological, and spiritual medicine and guidance--without ingesting it or even being in its presence. Detailing the sacred space of a Medicine Wheel Garden, whether in a backyard or our imagination, she connects us with the devas and empowers us to seek our own answers with their much-needed spiritual guidance and divinatory advice. Creating a bridge between botanical medicine and plant spirit medicine, she shows how by coming into community with the devas and co-creating with the world of nature, we can gain tremendous insights to help heal our hearts, our minds, and our spirits and consciously evolve as together we birth the New Earth. THEA SUMMER DEER is a clinical herbalist, singer-songwriter, midwife, and childbirth educator. Raised with the Seminole Indians in South Florida until the age of eight, she lives surrounded by Cherokee ancestral land in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina.
List of contents
Foreword by Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction The Devas: The Architects of Life In the Garden of the Devas
The Elementals
The Medicine Wheel Garden
The Herbs Borage: Borago officinalis ~ Courage
Calendula: Calendula officinalis ~ Subtlety
Comfrey: Symphytum officinale ~ Healing
Sacred Datura: Datura wrightii ~ Night Bloomer
Ephedra: Ephedra viridis ~ Anchoring
Lavender: Lavandula angustifolia ~ Duality
Lemon Balm: Melissa officinalis ~ Alignment
Red Clover: Trifolium pratense ~ Divine Nourishment
Rosemary: Rosmarinus officinalis ~ Remembrance
Sagebrush: Artemisia tridentata ~ Time Keepers
Self-Heal: Prunella vulgaris ~ Unconditional Self-Love
Sweet Basil: Ocimum basilicum ~ Sovereignty
Uva Ursi: Arctostaphylos uva ursi ~ Introspection
Herbal Actions
Resources
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
About the author
Thea Summer Deer is a clinical herbalist, singer-songwriter, midwife, and childbirth educator. Raised with the Seminole Indians in South Florida until the age of eight, she lives surrounded by Cherokee ancestral land in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina.
Additional text
“The devas will tell you their stories, recite their poetry, regale you with pronouncements, and show you their portraits. You may fall in love. You may never return.”
