A practical guide to understanding plant language. Isla Burgess introduces the reader to the often unnoticed logic of nature by detailing 13 common New Zealand weeds and how to use our five senses to decipher what healing value the plant offers us. Colour photography of the plant...s illustrate other clues. Convinced that herbal medicine is ot based on a system of trail and error, Burgess aims to capture insightful logic and the true essence of plant healing in the same tradition of the Wise Woman healers, the Shamans and the plant gatherers. The Process explains the keys she uses. Then in The Plants , 13 common weeds are discussed in detail. The reader is encouraged to engage his or her senses to observe the external features before considering its flower-colour according to the rainbow/chakra system. The internal features are documented, using taste and scent, to place the plant in a koru spiral moving outwards from the intense, internally toxic essential oils in the tightly curled centre, through alkaloids and bitters, to mineral salts and mild-tasting greens and roots. The humoral theory of hot/cold, moist/dry, adds another dimension before the plant is revealed in minute detail under a magnifying glass or microscope. Then, major keys for each are summarized and proposed actions and/or conditions for use with guidelines for preparations and the season/s when the plant should be used. Finally, references from a variety of books are gathered to support the evidence. The Insights offers information which is spiritual (meditations, visualizations), scientific (phytochemicals), and practical (preparations, plant families). The book concludes with worksheets.
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