09/26/2025
It can be hard to brag on yourself, but as a creative sometimes you feel like you are a channel for something beyond yourself, and the results make you so proud you want to share it with everyone. Through the depths of healing last winter, an herbal formula emerged through my work to untangle fascial patterns long held in my body.
Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place. The tissue does more than provide internal structure; fascia has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin. When stressed, it tightens up. Physical or emotional trauma, inherited ancestral limitations, repetitive movement, or lack of movement may cause the fascia to harden as well.
Our heart's electromagnetic field extends a measurable 12-15 feet away from the body (much larger than the electromagnetic field of the brain). Almost 60% of the cells in the cardiac tissue are neural cells. Thus the heart is an organ of perception and communication in more than a metaphysical meaning. The fascia receives the electromagnetic impulses of the heart, and when there is a disturbance it is felt in the fascia. This relationship cycles back and tightness in the fascia is felt in the heart. The fascial web expresses the HEART (mind)/ body connection.
When working on emotional and physical healing, we must address this feedback loop in tandem. These herbs are picked specifically for their ability to do just that. When we have experienced trauma, we sometimes set up a wall around our heart in order to protect ourselves. Flexible boundaries are a beautiful thing, but often trauma forces us into a reactionary rigidness in what we allow into our heart space. Dandelion sees the cracks in the walls we have built around ourselves and brings the light back in.
Black cohosh engages the parasympathetic nervous system with its acrid and bitter taste, allowing the pulses of the heart to entrain back into the rhythm of the earth. As the nervous system and heart recalibrate, these electrical stimuli travel through the fascia, where our body holds the memory of past traumas. This "snake" medicine plant weaves its way through our body and space/time, unknotting dense energies to assist us in shedding our skin. Animistic herbalist Sean O'Donoghue utilizes cohosh when "someone is in despair... with grief hanging over them... a hunched over posture, and a heavy feeling in the chest. These people will also have a tendency to take on other people's grief."
In Chinese Medicine calamus is used to clear the "dampness misting the orifices of the heart." So that you may perceive (with your heart) the world more clearly and put the sensations pulsing through your heart into words (or put them out into the world in whatever way you express). Calamus grows in marshy, mucky places. It's resinous root has a spiciness to it that clears the waters of the heart. Ayurveda describes calamus as an herb that purifies kundalini to bring clear perception and understanding. Calamus is not just an herb that aids in sharpening the mind. It clears the murkiness that has clouded our highest expression and heart's truth.
Crossvine was added to the formula as a fascia supportive Southern Folk Medicine plant. Tommie Bass (1908-1996) utilized this remedy in a tea for overworked horses and mules who had developed a condition old-timers called “hidebound.” The animals would lay down lifelessly, having dull eyes, dry inflexible skin, and would die within a few days. Crossvine tea mixed with Pipssissewa would bring them back to life.Crossvine is our native adaptogen, with a restorative action on a depleted body. One mechanism of action of this is likely crossvine’s ability to restore dried, stuck fascia to a greater state of fluidity. It seems to have a mild nervine action as well. For it’s fascia healing action crossvine can be utilized both topically and internally.
Solomon’s seal also gives this tea a uniquely Southern Folk Medicine twist. In my opinion this magical herb is the herb of flow and fluidity in the body, modulating the tension in tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue while bringing greater lubrication to those areas.
Pink lady's slipper (as essence) rounds out the formula. This plant helps hold the space for a heart forced shut by trauma to open back up to connection and delight. Trauma and shame make humans want to isolate. Vulnerability and connection (in safe spaces) are the antidote. Pink lady's slipper helps us tap in to these feelings of safety so we can connect with our childlike innocence and delight in life.
Formulated for deep healing of patterns of emotional or ancestral trauma that have solidified into patterns of tension held in the heart and body. Take as needed while focusing on these patterns. Pair with massage, yoga, craniosacral therapy, etc to speed the return of fluidity to mind, body, and spirit.
