Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you.

Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here, says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers, says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this.

We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together.

Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours?

Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space.
Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold.

Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

What are the best herbs for happiness? How can herbs make you happy? What does “happiness” even mean? These questions are important to consider before we dive right in, searching for “herbs for happiness.”

When we say it, we’re thinking: what are the things preventing you from being calm & steady? It’s not so much about finding the herb to “make” you happy, as it is finding the herbs that alter your state such that happiness is something you can access.

If you’ve ever heard “mimosa is the herb of happiness”, well, you’ve come across a very common but not very nuanced approach to herbalism. Instead, we need to ask: what’s in the way of feeling happiness, and how can we help you get past it? More important than any list of herbs is the method of thinking through how we can identify the herbs that are likely to help a specific person.

In the episode we share a couple common tendencies – excess tension and laxity, stuck heat – and describe how those can show up as happiness blockers. Then we share a few herbs we’ve found helpful in opening the way to happiness for ourselves, our students, and our clients.

Keep Calm and Help Your Neighbors with the Birthday BOGO Bundle!

Every year for Katja’s birthday, we choose a course to offer at 50% off – but this year, we couldn’t pick just one course.

So instead, we’re offering a bundle with the herbs and skills to help you stay steady & grounded, and to help you help your community, and it’s more than 50% off!

Click through for all the details!

You might also want to check out our…

• Herbs to Help You Feel Happiness – a living/growing list we’ll work on all year!
• Herbal Activity Calendar

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

The best-seller herbal supplements we’re covering today are yohimbe & horny goat weed. They placed #30 and 31 on the list we’re using for this sequence of episodes. These two are marketed & sought-after as “male aphrodisiacs”, “testosterone boosters”, and even “herbal Viagra”.

While it’s true that each can “help” with some forms and manifestations of erectile dysfunction, in the short term or “in the moment”, they cannot correct the underlying issues… and might even make them worse.

They’re also quite potent, energetically speaking: heating, drying, and tonifying to a high degree. These qualities are primarily derived from potent constituents such as yohimbine and icariin. Each herb also possesses a multitude of other constituents apart from those more famous ones, which means its actions are diverse and in some cases self-contradictory.

There’s also a very serious problem in the supplement market for these herbs, which is that these products are frequently contaminated or adulterated. Many cases of ‘herbal’ supplements for ED have been found to contain pharmaceutical drugs. In other words, that “herbal Viagra” was actually just… Viagra.

Of the two of these herbs, Epimedium is significantly safer – but to be honest, we don’t advise people to work with either of these plants. Other methods of addressing the issue at hand are more successful and more permanent, starting with herbal work to improve circulation and emotional steadiness. That’s perhaps not as exciting as “herbal Cialis”, but it’s safer and more realistic!

CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES

It’s worth emphasizing that the majority of cases of erectile dysfunction, and several other types of sexual dysfunction or performance issues, are attributable to circulatory issues rather than hormonal imbalances. If you’re looking for herbs to help with this trouble, and to address circulatory, blood, and heart health more broadly, then our course Cardiovascular Health is for you!

Like all our offerings, this online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more.

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!