79. Sunshine Medicine: The Healing Magic of St. John’s Wort

Medicine Stories

St. John’s Wort has evolved over millennia to capture the ultimate expression of sunlight on our planet and turn it into the molecule hypericin, which has numerous profound effects on our human bodies.

Find our St. John’s Wort Oil & check out my teacher Kami McBride’s course Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils.

From deep nerve healing, relaxation, and pain relief when applied externally to its antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive properties when taken internally, SJW has always occupied an exalted place in the medicine cabinet of the ancestral humans who were lucky enough to live where it grew, and is one of the most used and loved herbal medicines in the world today.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• St. John’s Wort acts as an extension of sunlight

• The endless external uses include the healing of wounds, bruises, burns, blisters, cuts, eczema, growing pains, inflamed skin, muscle pain, nerve pain, neck tension, spasms, back pain, neuralgia, sciatica, insomnia, anxiety, and stress

• The oil is indispensable for menstrual pain, pregnancy, postpartum, babies, children, elders, empaths, and highly sensitive people

• Photosensitivity, precancerous skin cells, and using SJW as sunscreen

• Internal uses: notes on the antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive effects (including my shingles story)

• Hypericum feeds our inner radiance and summons forth our purpose and power

• This ancient herb has always been associated with fairies and other magical beings

• How empire co-opted pagan rituals and herbal practices

• The widespread ritual use of St. John’s Wort as a protective herb

• A word on wildcrafting and non-natives v invasives

• Making your own high potency, shelf stable herbal oils

• Herbal medicine is so simple, yet also endlessly complex

• Kami McBride speaks about St. John’s Wort

RESOURCES (if listening on an app that doesn’t support embedded links, find these at https://mythicmedicine.love/podcast):

• Mythic Medicinals St. John’s Wort Oil (finally back in stock!)

• Medicine Stories Patreon (patrons can download Rosalee’s ebook here)

• Cute, short video showcasing our St. John’s Wort garden

Learn to Make Your Own Herbal Oils:

• Kami McBride’s Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course

• My video Sneak Peak at the Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course from Kami McBride

Podcast Episodes & Books Mentioned:

• Episode 23 The Profound Medicine of Herbal Body Oils

• Episode 53 with Kami McBride Healing Herbal Oils: How to Make and Use Them

• Episode 55 with Lola Pickett Highly Sensitive People are the Psychedelic Plants of the Human Realm

• Episode 67 with Nadine Artemis Harvesting Light: the Alchemy of Sun & Human

• Episode 65 with Rosalee de la Foret Wild Remedies: Tending Relationships with the Land Around Us

• Episode 17 with Sajah Popham True Holistic Healing: Bridging Plant & Human Consciousness

• Episode 62 with Sajah Popham Called to the Plant Path: Herbal Myths, Healing Forward, and Human Ecology

• The article Feeding Your Inner Sun with St. John’s Wort from The School for Evolutionary Herbalism

• Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han

• The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present by Wolf D. Storl

• The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: The Healing Power of Medicinal Plants by Wolf D. Storl

• A Modern Herbal II by Maude Grieve

• The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More Than 130 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies by Michael Castleman

More Good Stuff:

• Kathi Keville’s website

• My website MythicMedicine.love

• Take our fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz

• Medicine Stories Facebook group

• Mythic Medicine on Instagram

• Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)