The Healing Tree: Botanicals, Remedies, and Rituals from African Folk Traditions

"A beautiful blend of folklore, botanical science, acquired wisdom, and spiritual guidance."
--from the foreword by Luisah Teish

"If you want to learn about the reciprocal spiritual connection between humans and trees, you're going to love this beautiful book."
--Tess Whitehurst, author of The Magic of Trees

Reclaiming traditional botanical and herbal practices has never been more important than it is today. So much of our future depends on our ability to use ancient earth knowledge. In this crucially important book, author Stephanie Rose Bird recounts the story of the sacred wood: how to live in it, learn from it, and derive spiritual enrichment from it, as well as how to preserve and protect it. The Healing Tree offers functional, accessible recipes, remedies, and rituals derived from a variety of African and African American traditions to serve mind, body, soul, and spirit.

The Healing Tree celebrates the forest: its powers, spirits, magic, medicine, and mysteries. Bird shares how trees have provided her with personal healing, then allows us to share in that process for our own benefit. Bird's book follows her own personal journey, but Africa is always her touchstone--the persistent and tenacious ancestral mother wisdom and spiritual foundation that refuses to fade away. The Healing Tree preserves this knowledge, presenting it as relevant and viable and demonstrating in intimate detail how vestiges of that knowledge took root in the Western Hemisphere, in African American culture, and more broadly in American culture in general.

Previously published as A Healing Grove, this updated edition includes a new preface by the author and a source guide for the botanicals discussed within.

Author: Stephanie Rose Bird
Publisher: Weiser Books
Published: 03/04/2024
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.05w x 0.91d
ISBN: 9781578637829

About the Author
Stephanie Rose Bird is a painter and the author of several bestselling books on earth spirituality, hoodoo, and anthropology, including Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones; 365 Days of Hoodoo; Light, Bright and Damned Near White; and African American Magick. Bird, who holds a BFA cum laude and MFA, is a devotee of the Divinely Feminine. She is an Elder, Priestess, magick maker, and keeper of the spiritual wisdom of her indigenous African ancestors. Her work centers on the nexus of earth wisdom and the legacy of Black cultural heritage. Find her at stephanierosebird.com and follow her on Instagram @s.r.bird.