Steven Horne's Newsletter Articles

July 7, 2020

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo leaf from clipart.com In 1972, I took my first field botany class, Trees and Shrubs, at the University of Utah. It was during that class I first learned about ginkgo. My teacher told us that the ginkgo tree was a living fossil, a tree that was believed to be extinct at one time because Western botanists had only found fossils of the leaves. As it turned out it was still growing in small areas in China thanks to the cultivation of Chinese monks. Since…

June 30, 2020

St. John's Wort

St. John's wort is a perfect example of what Paul Bergner was saying at a conference of the American Herbalist Guild many years ago. He said that modern herbal commerce was impoverishing herbalism. What he meant was that herbs tend to become pigeon-holed as remedies for specific health issues and the other uses of the herb tend to be forgotten. If I were to ask most people what St. John's wort is used for...

June 17, 2020

Stinging Nettles

Being stung as a child didn't leave me with a very favorable impression of stinging nettles. So, when I learned that it is actually an edible plant in my early teens, I was surprised. It is also surprising that despite identifying many other medicinal plants, like yarrow, it was the first wild plant I ever tried to use.I’d been studying edible and medicinal plants for over a year, but I was afraid to actually try any of the plants because I was afraid I’d poison myself by taking something I hadn’t…

June 11, 2020

Yarrow

Over my years as an herbalist, I've had the pleasure of learning about hundreds of different herbs and using them to help heal myself and those around me, but there is one herb that has a special place in my heart. It was the first herb I identified, the herb that got me interested in edible and medicinal plants, the first herb I tried to use, and the herb that got me interested in flower essences, as well. I once read that native healers often had a plant that was their special medicine plant. If…

April 28, 2020

An Introduction to Herbal Energetics

For forty years I've been trying to find ways to help people understand herbal medicine better. I believe ordinary people can solve most of their own health problems with some very basic tools such as diet, a healthy lifestyle, and herbal remedies. In my quest to make herbal medicine easier to understand, I've been gradually developing a Western system of herbal energetics. I've finally completed my herbal energetic chart, which will be released shortly. You can see a copy of the herbal energetics…

December 23, 2019

The Endocannabinoid System

This is the second article on cannabis and CBD, which will be part of my forthcoming book on the subject. It's also next month's member topic (January 2020).

December 14, 2019

What's Your Excuse

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Practice what you preach.” Well, I’ve modified this saying a little. I like to “Teach what I practice.” I’ve adopted this saying for two reasons. First, I prefer teaching to preaching because I don’t like the “holier than thou” attitude preaching assumes. Second, and more importantly, I think that we can’t help anyone achieve something we haven’t worked on ourselves. Because of this, in the past, I didn't stress the importance of physical…

November 11, 2019

Medicinal Mushrooms

Most of us think of mushrooms as food. If you grew up in the sixties, you might even think of “shrooms” as a way to get high. But few people recognize what powerful medicines mushrooms (also known as fungi) can be. Yet, mushrooms have been used for healing for thousands of years, most notably in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Today, scientific research has confirmed that more than 270 species of fungi have therapeutic value.Fungi are not plants. They are more closely related to animals…

Ginkgo biloba

St. John's Wort

Stinging Nettles

Yarrow

An Introduction to Herbal Energetics

The Endocannabinoid System

What's Your Excuse

Medicinal Mushrooms

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