Sage Wellness

Tea is not for the light-hearted.  Making tea should be easy, but making herbal tea if you are using herbs as medicine is a different story. The tea plant, Camilia sinensis, is what all "tea" is made from. Tea includes white tea, green tea, oolong tea, black tea, and puerh. These are all made from the same plant, just processed different.  Herbal teas are technically not tea at all, they are tisanes. Tisanes are herbs that drank and steeped like tea, but not made from Camilia sinensis.  Herbal teas have a long tradition in Western Herbalism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. To make a herbal tea there are a few options depending on what outcome you are looking for and what...

(edited from the original post by The Urban Herbalist on 10/10/2012) For those of you who are trying to conceive, or thinking at some point it may want to, then I advise you to begin preparing your body and your mind for the daunting task of taking care of a child while in the womb, and out of it. Raising a child ain’t easy. But raising ourselves isn’t easy either. Finding a partner to conceive with, WHOA! is enough work as it is. Choosing to have a child without a partner is an adventure only the truly brave with a higher calling will accomplish (well done!). Then, the idea of actually growing a human in that little womb of yours (or partner’s),...

There are numerous health trends that are coming into fad from antiquity: turmeric, bitters, a paleo diet, farm-to-table dining, to name a few. Bone broth is one of the best health fads we have today. But why? Bone broth has so many health benefits it's hard to point to just one reason (heals leaky gut, increases metabolism, decreases inflammation, high protein content...). But, I know one of the main reasons it has stuck is the anti-aging benefits of collagen and gelatin. Yup, it'll keep you looking young, folks. Now, I consider myself age-positive; happy to be going grey and encourage all to grow and accept aging as it is the one inevitable thing we all experience. But, I don't like the...

Rose has been touted for centuries for it’s beauty invigorating qualities. It is well-known that Cleopatra used Rose Water on her skin to keep her complexion fair (it was all the rave), and she bathed in petal soaked milk. It has been documented that rose water has been used in Persia for almost 2000 years in perfumes and cosmetics. It’s now come back into fashion with a vengeance. We now know that rose water and rose essential oil has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, which is why it’s in so many beauty products you see these days. Rose hip seed oil (taken from the fruit of certain fruit varieties) is high in vitamin C, which helps protect the skin from sun...

It's a time for deep grief. This is the kind of grief that is multi-generational, grief that has spanned multiple lives, in multiple communities. This grief looks many ways, it's rage at times, sadness, depression, indulgence, praying, silence, confusion. The biggest issue we all (the people that voted for Madame Hillary Clinton) is that the future is unpredictably barren. We are concerned about women's rights (all of them!), rights for gay couples to get married or stay married, gender inclusive bathrooms, immigrant families who have already fought so hard to get here and stay here, more violence toward people of color, more divide between our own families. Yes, it's unpredictability is why we are so very scared. And it all...

Colorful tissue paper is cut and hung, the fragrant cempasuchil flower is harvested, skulls molded out of sugar and meringue are decorated with vibrant icing. All are placed upon the altar set like a banquet—an invitation to the ancestors to join the living in the celebration of loved ones passed. El Dia de Los Muertos is a two-part celebration that reaches further back than colonization, to when the altars were laid and rituals performed during the Fire season. The Four Elements are also always represented on the altar, which becomes a home for the spirit being called from the spirit world. Traditionally, altars were built on the floor, with offerings of squashes, maize and other harvested foods. Contemporary offerings include...