The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [150]
Continuing the progress of this reconnection, we will review in this chapter the laying of simple herbal waters and succulent pulps upon our skin. This time-honored process is well used in concert with the vehicles discussed in the accompanying chapters.
At this point, I trust you are comfortable with the terms “self-medication” and “self-medicating.” I realize we lay folk, over the last ninety years, have conditioned ourselves to believe and feel that “therapeutics,” “medicine,” and “medicating” are professional mysteries which are the sole domain of licensed medical doctors, and only a doctor by using medical pharmaceutical products can competently and safely medicate us. The medical/pharmaceutical licensing and marketing lobbies have successfully conjured this collective illusion. Yet I believe the current search for therapeutic “alternatives” and disease-preventive measures by ever-increasing numbers of individuals, along with the obvious swell of self-education in personal health care, illustrates our grassroots disenchantment with this tenet.
If you feel uncomfortable with the ideas of self-medicating, I respectfully suggest that it is time to root out and possibly reconsider the beliefs that underlie these feelings. Boundless numbers of us in this society are extremely intelligent human beings, fully capable of making excellent decisions about our lives, particularly when given access to valid information as a base on which to work. And in response to this collective calling there is an ever-increasing number of knowledgeably responsible books, seminars, hands-on workshops, and intensive school programs supplied by highly competent herbalists, teaching people how to use herbs safely, responsibly, and effectively for individual and family health care (see resource guide). We have every right to medicate our own persons, and the freedom to do so. (I believe the ninth amendment to the constitution focuses attention on this inalienable right.) And unless the state, in fact, does own our children, we have the same right and responsibility to find out what is best for them. The knowledgeable use of herbs administered in the home in place of pharmaceutical drugs is frequently a far more pragmatic, benign, and responsible choice for an ailing child’s (and adult’s) well-being. In the face of media blitz with its perennial promise of medical miracle cures waiting around every corner, we have allowed ourselves to lose sight of the true healing intelligence and wisdom each of us possess. We merely need to recall and revive this basic human function. Healing is inspired, not ordained.
In Iine with these thoughts, we will extend the previous chapter’s focus on baths by looking at the uses of poultices and compresses, as these are some of the simplest and most pleasant feeling (bath-like) vehicles for the home delivery of herbal health care.
POULTICES
Classically, a poultice (a.k.a. cataplasm) is a soft, mushy preparation composed usually of some pulpy or mealy substance which is capable of absorbing a large amount of liquid and of such consistency that it can be applied to any flat or irregular surface. This herbal material is made into a paste, using hot liquids, and is spread thickly upon cloths and applied directly to the body while hot. Poultices owe their primary virtues to the moist heat which they contain and therefore must be renewed every few minutes, or somehow kept warm by other means. An exception to these mechanics is the Mustard (Brassica nigra) poultice, which supplies its warming action through a volatile component produced when its crushed seed is mixed with water. In herb land, however, the scope of the term poultice has broadened and now covers a wide range of preparations, some of which are applied hot, some cold.
Poultices