New Essiac Book! Black Root Medicine – The Original Native American Essiac Formula, by Mali Klein

Ever wonder what it must have been like to have a breast cancer diagnosis 120 years ago?  Enter Black Root Medicine - The Original Native American Essiac Formula (softcover, 2014, 54 pages). This easy-to-read companion volume to The Complete Essiac Essentials book takes a uniquely inclusive look at the early history of the Native American formula that was the basis for Canadian nurse Rene Caisse's Essiac. The book is available as of September 1, 2014  on Amazon and here at ReneCaisseTea.com, for $12, or $30 for both Black Root Medicine and The Complete Essiac Essentials.

Mali Klein and her late writing partner Sheila Snow have documented the history of Rene Caisse and Essiac extensively in a series of Essiac books: Essiac Essentials (1999), Essiac the Secrets of Rene Caisse's Herbal Pharmacy (2001), The Essiac Book (2006).  and The Complete Essiac Essentials (2010). Sheila co-authored the Canadian Homemaker's Magazine article that brought Essiac back from obscurity in June 1977: Could Essiac Halt Cancer? The final installment, Black Root Medicine - The Original Native American Essiac Formula, takes a step further back in time, to the days before the herbal remedy became known as Essiac. 

In the 1920s when Rene Caisse was working at a hospital in Haileybury Northern Ontario, she met the woman who had originally gotten the formula from a Medicine man some 30 years earlier.  The woman had recovered from breast cancer using the remedy.  "Mrs. Johnson" is the only scrap of this woman's name not lost to history  - "or it might have been Johnston."  "A mining camp in northern Ontario" is as specific as it gets for the town she lived in.  "A very old Native American medicine man" is as specific as the tribal affiliation gets - Ojibwa is just a guess.

Piecing together  the details with such little hard evidence and a long-cold trail is a challenge Mali has met in good form.  She has taken a step into the mists to reconstruct life in those days for us and in doing so has penned one of those books you can't put down.  It is a quick read and a worthy bedside companion for ending each day on the final section!

If you are familiar with the Snow/Klein work, well, you'll be checking your preconceived notions at the door to Chapter 1.  This amazing little book draws from the written history found in the Essiac archives while shining the light on the most recent research findings about the properties of the original herbs. Black Root Medicine adds another dimension, bringing  late 19th century culture, traditions and worldview in the wilds of Northern Ontario to life in a way that makes perfect sense and symmetry. Through the pages of this book, Mali continually sheds very compelling light on how this original 8-herb formula may hold important clues for the 21st century.

‘Time is comin’ when all us on Mother Earth will be part of the army to save her.’ - Little Bill Penn (Uncle Yum), Twilight on the Thunderbird.

The book resonates with a feeling set by the illustrations as well as the pure prose of the writing.  While the earlier Snow/Klein books have been outstandingly informative, this book takes things to a new level, with a view to sorting out another time and conjuring up images as they might have been seen through the old medicine man's eyes. The intimate connection with nature and the power of the animals and plants comes alive in a palpable way in the pages of this book.

What a read! Order now and get the first copies off the press!  Only $12.  Buy it with The Complete Essiac Essentials for $30!

 

An April afternoon at the Place of Gathering

We've just made our first foray of the spring out to the Place of Gathering, up at Dayton MT, one of a few different places where we'll be growing the Essiac herbs! It hasn't greened up a lot yet, but my favorite six months of the year officially began today! The Place of Gathering has great energy and Dayton is always so sunny.

We will be direct-seeding Sheep sorrel within a few weeks, if spring decides to stick around. I started Burdock in seed trays and will transplant it out there. Ditto on Turkey rhubarb. I am planting a veritable grove's worth of Slippery elm seeds, and they will probably stay in their pots for at least a year. This year I am soaking the seeds for 24 hrs. before planting. Update:  They are planted, but what a soggy mess..I took "soak" literally. But when they dried off it was as if they'd never gotten wet.

Horizon Herbs has Slippery elm seedlings! Read More →

Notes from Essiac Master Class 2, October 2013 – and a tour of Yellowstone Park

October 2013 has come and gone.  Like October '12, it was full of activity here at ReneCaisseTea and all about Essiac! Once again we sponsored Mali Klein, author of The Complete Essiac Essentials and the forthcoming book Black Root Medicine: The Original Native American Essiac Formula, for this year's Essiac Master Class 2 - Surviving Cancer.  Again, it was in Missoula Montana and, again, it was so much more than what any of us could have imagined.  Each year there are new friends made and continuing connections that just keep growing stronger!  We already have next year's class planned for Saturday, October 11, 2014: Essiac Master Class Part 3 - Black Root Medicine at the Open Way Mindfulness Center, Missoula, Montana.  So, mark your calendars to learn first-hand more about this herbal remedy that has been with us now for over 100 years…and hear what Mali will be saying as Black Root Medicine: The Original Native American Essiac Formula comes off the press. And gosh, it's about a lot more than Essiac.

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A few highlights from Master Class 2013:

• In France, the standard Western medicine cancer protocols allow for beginning with radiation and chemo followed by surgery, rather than performing surgery first.  This lets the other therapies kick in first, knocking the cancer back before surgically removing it. Many French medical doctors are trained in homeopathy as well as allopathy.
• There is too much positive anecdotal evidence not to justify lab testing of the Essiac formulae, using top quality herbs and including the proper ingredients - something which has, to date, never been done.
• Rene Caisse first worked with the original 8-herb Native American formula, but she subsequently discontinued using all eight herbs once the four-herb Essiac was refined for use on a large scale. The original indigenous formula had quite an amazing track record and has not been reproduced since 1926.
• You should harvest Burdock root in its first year as it gets woody after that.  If you plant in the fall, you can go beyond a year until harvesting if you dig it before the spring growth has gotten underway, in the second spring.
• Greater Periwinkle can be identified by the small 'hairs' along the edge of its leaves.
• When harvesting Sheep sorrel stems and leaves, do so on a dry day and don't wash them.
• Life is about making it count, with or without a cancer diagnosis! We are all here with a mission and we are here to do it well.
• Connecting to the power of your intention with a higher consciousness using the power of prayer can have a profound effect on a prognosis. The power of thought can be more powerful than the spoken word.

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October '12 began with a trip to Bracebridge, Ontario, Rene Caisse's hometown. This year we stayed closer to Montana, visiting Yellowstone Park just a day after it re-opened following the Federal government shutdown. It was practically deserted and what a great time to visit.

Yellowstone is the nation's oldest national park, and was established in 1872, "For the Benefit and the Enjoyment of the People." Nice concept and a good motto to take to heart perhaps for other matters of State. 🙂

Most of the Park is one huge volcano with Yellowstone Lake in the caldera's center.  The Yellowstone Caldera was created 640,000 years ago, with two even larger super-eruptions before that, the biggest one being 2.1 million years ago and producing 2,500 times as much ash as Mt. St. Helens did in 1980.  I remember when that event occurred - St. Helens, that is, ha ha.  It laid down several inches of ash in Helena, Montana, which was nearly 700 miles to the east!  That multiplied by 2,500 times is truly unimaginable.

There haven't been any huge eruptions since 174,000 years ago, but here's what Wikipedia has to say about the magma chamber just below the Yellowstone caldera's surface:  "According to the analysis of earthquake data in 2013, magma chamber is 80 kilometres long and 20 kilometres wide, and is …. thought to be the largest magma chamber in existence on Earth."  

Its quite a place. Glad I finally got back to Yellowstone, its been far too long. What amazing power below our feet, up there right on top of a sleeping giant!

Apparently the grizzly bears thought the spectators were all gone, because they were out and we were so lucky to see two of them!  The weather was beautiful... pictures below. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going local

"You can help save the environment with your spoon and fork. You can actually stop big-agribusiness and build a better world by eating right."  This was a line in an ad for the upcoming  2013 Food Revolution Summit.  Its from April 27-May 5. its online and free, and has a lot of interesting folks presenting.

I really liked the connection that statement made.  Eat right (I would define this as eating local, organic, whole foods.) and you become healthier while at the same time supporting the local economy, making new friends and being part of the greater good.

My number one reason for eating mostly organic is that is is guaranteed non-genetically modified (GMO free), plus organic foods taste better and last longer.  I believe  organic can help those that eat them last longer too 🙂 There are deleterious effects from GM on not just insects and weeds but humans and the environment as a whole and I've read enough that I know I want to avoid foods with GM ingredients.

This is no easy thing when eating out. Just as one example, most likely the chips at Mexican restaurants in the US are all GM corn. The odds are some form of GM corn is in the fine print on any US - made packaged cracker or cookie that's not organic or certified GMO-free. What better reason to avoid all of this junk food!

State governments don't legislate controls that would at least require labeling, because of the powerful lobby from Big Agra. The Non-GMO Project is a voluntary program that provides labeling to show that manufacturers have verified that their products are GMO-free.

I love it when restaurants use locally grown vegetables!  It would be great to have organic dishes on the menus.  Even though it costs more, I for one would pay more for it at a restaurant.  But .. most of the time we can be spending our food dollars with more awareness and creativity at a grocery store or farmers' market.  We can be growing our own food and perfecting the slow food movement of home-made meals and simplicity.

Its time to get back to the garden. The Essiac herbs are part of an amazing range of foods you can grow, even if your garden is tiny and in containers. Guaranteed best produce:  home-grown, or bought locally, GM-free and organic.

And so I say, find some Good Seeds and plant a garden! And support your local farmers' markets!

Coming next:  Part 2 - Growing and Wildcrafting the Essiac herbs...Oh No Snow

Vitamin D – Lovely!

Happy new year!  Here in Polson MT we don’t get a lot of sun in the winter due to the ‘lake effect’ so I have been refreshing myself on Vitamin D3 supplementation.  I have gleaned the following info from Mercola.com. For much more info and recommendations I recommend the two articles I am summarizing below.

The First article is entitled Little Sunshine Mistakes that can give your body cancer instead of Vitamin D – catchy little title.  Here are some interesting facts:

Sunscreen (moisturizer with an SPF value), while blocking the UVA rays, which can tan - or burn - your skin, also keeps out UVB rays, which bring D3 to you, which is good for a lot of things.  It is recommended therefore to allow your skin (not counting your face, which should be protected from exposure by a cap or sunscreen) to be exposed without sunscreen initially Read More →

All Essiac is not created equal: Notes from the October 2012 Essiac Master Class

Its the first day of November.  The Essiac master class has come and gone.  We had a great group - a real cross-section of folks including naturopaths and other healing arts practitioners, growers, people on their journeys with cancer, nurses, folks from Canada as well as the U.S., both original inhabitants and us 'imports.'

The master class was not recorded or videotaped so that the discussion could be candid.  In this time of webinars and info going 'viral' on the internet, we decided to go 'back to the source' - a sharing amongst those there, just like the beginning of this tea, person to person.  From there it grows, naturally.  Read More →

Back to the Source – Rene Caisse’s home town Bracebridge – Part 3

"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up.  What was is not and never again will be; what is is change." - Edwin Way Teale

As the Bracebridge tour winds down, I sense how the passage of time can erode the memory of something once very special.

Our next stop on the tour is a visit to Rene's grave.   Read More →

Back to the Source – Rene Caisse’s home town Bracebridge – Part 2

After visiting Rene Caisse's statue and Bracebridge Falls, we took a stroll up the main drag, Manitoba Street, where Rene's Father had his Barbershop.  Manitoba Street, then and now:

Read More →

Back to the source – Rene Caisse’s home town Bracebridge, Part 1

The road was new to me, as roads always are going back.  ~Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country Road of Pointed Firs, 1896

What a week it has been. We've gone back to the source..me for the first time, but for Mali Klein, the road going back did look familiar.. Mali, over the course of nearly two decades' worth of writing and researching the history of Rene Caisse and Essiac,  has witnessed Rene's legacy in this place pass from its youth into the 21st century. Mali's writing partner Sheila Snow lived her whole life here.  Sheila worked with Rene Caisse directly during the last years of her life.  She wrote one of the first Essiac books, The Essence of Essiac,  as well as an article for the Canadian Homemaker magazine entitled "Could Essiac Halt Cancer?" which played a major role in putting Bracebridge on the map in the 1970s.  Sixteen years ago she showed Mali the sites to see for the first time, just as Mali shows me today. Read More →

Just say no – to GMO

Yesterday morning the sun came up pink, ushering in the autumn equinox.  I started the new season learning more about GMOs than I'd bargained. It was the last day to view the newly released documentary Genetic Roulette for free - I took notes so I could share this really important info. Update:  here is a link where you can still watch it -

Genetically modified organisms - GMO - are created when the DNA of one species is forced into the DNA of another species.  There are a couple of different varieties that have been patented.

Herbicide-tolerant crops (Roundup-ready). You can spray them with Roundup and it doesn't kill them but it kills the weeds.

Insecticide-producing crops (BT, for bacillus thuringiensis) kills insects when they eat the plant.

Mind you, GMO food is not about better flavor, nutrition, or saving money at the grocery store. Monsanto  marketed this seed to farmers for better crop yields and increased profit.  However, that hasn't panned out.  In fact, GMOs are turning out to be bad for everybody but Monsanto. But, the citizens of California once again are coming forward with a unique proposition that could change things for the better and lead the way for the rest of the nation.  Read More →