Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Coast to Coast AM. My guest is
Speaker 2: Lisa Fazzio, and she has a book out called Della
Speaker 2: Medachina and we're talking about the book is talking about
Speaker 2: Italian folk medicine. And I'd love to find out from you, Lisa,
Speaker 2: how what types of herbs that you can recommend for
Speaker 2: just first of all, for healing if someone has, for example,
Speaker 2: upper respiratory illnesses are going around a lot at this
Speaker 2: time of year, can you recommend anything for breathing and lungs.
Speaker 2: And I know that you have a history in herbal
Speaker 2: first aid, and I think that's so fascinating. Can you
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about that. We can go
Speaker 2: through a couple of different herbal remedies.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 4: So for respiratory conditions, my favorite and like the most
Speaker 4: the one, the one plant that addresses almost every respiratory
Speaker 4: issue is mullen.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, And what do you do with the mullein.
Speaker 4: Well, usually we use the leaf mullen leaf and just
Speaker 4: a simple tea is often one way to use it.
Speaker 4: Now this time of year, for instance, as we're going
Speaker 4: in the fall I live in the northeast New York
Speaker 4: State and at around X so it's starting to get
Speaker 4: cold and flu and all the things are starting to
Speaker 4: will start to increase. So I start preparing this time
Speaker 4: of year with different herbs, and mullen is one of them,
Speaker 4: which I put in my tea almost every single day.
Speaker 4: So a simple tea can be made with the leaf
Speaker 4: and I have it growing here.
Speaker 3: What about I mean our the drops good or with the.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that so that tincture or the alcohol extract
Speaker 4: or usually it's going to be an alcohol extract.
Speaker 3: Uh, is great?
Speaker 4: You know you just take a dropper.
Speaker 2: So could that be used like cough medicine where it
Speaker 2: would stop the spasms of coughing.
Speaker 4: It's not particularly anti spasmodic, like we have others that
Speaker 4: might do that. But yes, so mullin. So every plant
Speaker 4: has a certain has a certain set of things that.
Speaker 3: They're really good at.
Speaker 4: So mullin is really good at like if you've you've
Speaker 4: got like a lot of dryness, so like more for
Speaker 4: dry cough like smoker's cough. But also it'll help pull mucus,
Speaker 4: help a little bit with expectoration, and then it also
Speaker 4: helps to tone the tissue so that the tissue can
Speaker 4: your lung tissue.
Speaker 3: Can function better and rebuild.
Speaker 4: So it's kind of like an overall so you know,
Speaker 4: there might be depending on the condition, there might be
Speaker 4: other IRBs, like it's in an acute illness that I
Speaker 4: would use with it. You could use it alone too,
Speaker 4: like if that's all you had.
Speaker 3: Well, it's always great.
Speaker 4: So the other one that I really like is marshmallow
Speaker 4: melova and the root. You can use the root, leaf
Speaker 4: or flour, but the root in particular for dry hacking, coughs,
Speaker 4: sore throat where there's just like a lot of heat inflammation.
Speaker 4: I like to make a cold infusion. So cold infusion
Speaker 4: it is really simple. You just have some marshmallow root,
Speaker 4: which you can buy at any herb store. Usually you
Speaker 4: can order online, and then you put you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know, a table spoon in like like a little
Speaker 4: jam canning jar. I don't know what size those are,
Speaker 4: pint or half pint. Put like a tablespoon, pour cold
Speaker 4: water over it, drill it on it. You can shake
Speaker 4: it every now and then you can leave it in.
Speaker 4: Just leave it like that. It really quickly develops into
Speaker 4: like this really kind of slimy, mucillogenous drink okay, and
Speaker 4: then you strain it and you drink it and it's
Speaker 4: great for restaurants, sactions, digestion. An Italian folk medicine, malva
Speaker 4: or marshmallow is kind of one of those elixir kind
Speaker 4: of plants. It's like a panacea. It's like anytime you
Speaker 4: need anything, you.
Speaker 3: Can take marshmallow roots.
Speaker 4: Partly because it'll leads very arid, you know, in a
Speaker 4: dry place, a hot and dry place. So a plant
Speaker 4: like marshmallow that's cooling, and it is very appropriate for
Speaker 4: anything where there's hot, dryness.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: And yes, especially now where it's going to be getting
Speaker 2: into the colder months and the the rise of these
Speaker 2: upper respiratory flus definitely is on the rise as more
Speaker 2: people are going inside. And good to know those are
Speaker 2: really really good things to know.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So the irvlism can be used for not only for
Speaker 2: health reasons, but also for clearing reasons. What types of
Speaker 2: herbs do you recommend for Like, you know how sage
Speaker 2: is known as clearing the energy in a room. Is
Speaker 2: there a particular urge the herb that you feel that
Speaker 2: is good for energy clearing in a space?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 4: So We have different names for this in Italian folk medicine.
Speaker 4: Fumagaccione or a humigation is one of the work, one
Speaker 4: of the herbs, one of the words, and yes there's several,
Speaker 4: and one of my favorites is mugwar Artemusia, So several
Speaker 4: different Artemisia species that are native to southern Italy and
Speaker 4: the Mediterranean, and any of those can be used for
Speaker 4: those purposes.
Speaker 3: For clearing energies. Right, yep.
Speaker 2: What do you think about sage? Does it do the
Speaker 2: same thing or is that a different culture?
Speaker 4: Well, there's different kinds of stages, right, so any stage,
Speaker 4: any stage will work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now what does that do? I mean, what tell
Speaker 3: me how that works?
Speaker 2: The properties in a plant that could actually clear energy?
Speaker 4: Okay, well that depends on your Yeah, so there's there's
Speaker 4: many right, So if we look at it from like
Speaker 4: the scientific view, we know that a lot of these
Speaker 4: clearing energetic clearing plants are have chemical actual chemical constituent
Speaker 4: that will actually like their anti infect their anti microbial
Speaker 4: that they will clear actually clear the air in a space.
Speaker 3: So that's one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So that's one. That's one thing. And then energetically,
Speaker 4: the idea is that the spirits the other animate forces
Speaker 4: in a space will be repelled by.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so that's two different ways of making of
Speaker 2: clearing something.
Speaker 4: Well the other so there's one other. So the other
Speaker 4: one is it will repel or it will attract certain
Speaker 4: protective energies. So h in like, for instance, different types
Speaker 4: of trance work, which is a big part of Mediterranean
Speaker 4: history and spirituality, in sense, different types of plants burning
Speaker 4: would be used in temples and other sacred spaces during, before, during,
Speaker 4: and after certain ceremonies and rituals to invoke particular deities.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean historically you have the frank concense right right,
Speaker 2: and those are biblical herbs.
Speaker 3: What were the are those?
Speaker 2: Do those also have the same meaning in Italian folk medicine.
Speaker 4: Well, those aren't native to southern Italy. They're more like
Speaker 4: going towards like North Africa. I'm not actually so sure,
Speaker 4: but in the levant area.
Speaker 3: So here's the thing.
Speaker 4: Every plant is going to have a different You sort
Speaker 4: of can think of it as a code, so it's
Speaker 4: like a code or an energetic imprint, or you could
Speaker 4: also think of it as a pattern of consciousness that
Speaker 4: it will match with and each of the gods and
Speaker 4: goddesses or the deities and folk Catholicism, you could say
Speaker 4: also the saints will have a matching pattern, so you
Speaker 4: would you would choose different formulas, mixtures of herbs, sometimes
Speaker 4: with other substances, like for instance, with kiffy, which is
Speaker 4: a Greek type of temple incense, and sometimes there'd be
Speaker 4: like honey in it, in wine seeds, berries, and it
Speaker 4: was made in a specific way and that would match
Speaker 4: with it's coated for whatever energy you want to bring
Speaker 4: into the space.
Speaker 3: Oh, very interesting, and.
Speaker 4: This would match with this also matches with rhythms, musical rhythms, sounds, vibrations,
Speaker 4: as well as chance and prayers.
Speaker 2: That would be something great I would love to have
Speaker 2: in here. But we would set off the smoke alarms.
Speaker 2: So is there a few other way to do that
Speaker 2: that doesn't involve the smoke.
Speaker 4: Yes, so it's not gonna be insane because smoke is clearing, right.
Speaker 4: But you know, you know, one of the things now
Speaker 4: people do I s people do is use like sprays,
Speaker 4: you know, like you could use an essential oil in
Speaker 4: a spray bot in a spray bottle or like uh,
Speaker 4: some type of other display in a spray bottle. Sometimes
Speaker 4: people use flower assences. So you could use a which
Speaker 4: is a whole different thing, but you could put flower accents.
Speaker 4: It's actually the most ecologically sustainable would be to use
Speaker 4: a flower assence.
Speaker 2: Okay and spray your space so that yes, that would
Speaker 2: make a little bit more sense. So what flower essences
Speaker 2: would work for clearing a space?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: And and the body?
Speaker 2: Oh okay, ye yep, please the body important? Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: so rose or is there any te.
Speaker 4: So there's there's flower assences that are just like smoke.
Speaker 4: There's flower acids and incense. There's flower assences that are
Speaker 4: more have more of an affinity, have more potency in
Speaker 4: terms of like protact and clearing. So you know, garlic, okay, garlic,
Speaker 4: garlic in any form uh is used that way. So garlics,
Speaker 4: you can use the garlic flower essence.
Speaker 3: Yarrow, yarrow, yarrow. Yeah, I've heard of yarrow rue. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: mm hmm. Rosemary mm hmmm.
Speaker 4: I like to burn rosemary, but you can also do
Speaker 4: the flower essence.
Speaker 3: So rosemary is wonderful. Even to cook with rosemary is wonderful.
Speaker 4: Yes, rosemary is wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's across the board. And so also
Speaker 2: so we've talked a lot about protection. What about blessing?
Speaker 2: What about blessings? Ways, Yeah, in terms of either rich
Speaker 2: or plant dialects or anything between herbal healing and the
Speaker 2: traditions quick blessings.
Speaker 4: Right, So yeah, So blessings again is the invocation of
Speaker 4: a pattern of consciousness, right, such as in a Talian
Speaker 4: folk medicine, a saint or some type of other type.
Speaker 3: Of deity where a lot of.
Speaker 4: Times in Italian folks, and we're going to be using
Speaker 4: a prayer, so for instance, the Hail Mary, okay in
Speaker 4: that will invoke the Virgin Mary and other other ways
Speaker 4: that we would do. That would be like petitioning a
Speaker 4: particular saint. And there's different ways you petition saints. So
Speaker 4: Sandiseppi or Saint Joseph is well, we petitioned Saint Joseph.
Speaker 4: This is kind of funny, and probably many of your
Speaker 4: listeners have heard of this. I don't know. Is that
Speaker 4: say you want to you have a house that you
Speaker 4: want to sell, yes, because he rules real estate and
Speaker 4: and it's not selling. So one of the praes is
Speaker 4: have you heard of this?
Speaker 3: To bury the statue upside down or something?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: And then the thing is you have to go back,
Speaker 4: and you're you're supposed to go back and get him
Speaker 4: once you sold the house. So that's that's the tricky
Speaker 4: part of somebody's already living in.
Speaker 2: So why does that work? Why the upside down? Where
Speaker 2: does that stem from?
Speaker 4: I'm not sure, honestly, I don't know why he has
Speaker 4: to be upside.
Speaker 3: Down and buried and buried.
Speaker 4: That. I'm not sure where that comes. Where that comes from?
Speaker 4: You know, I think probably if I had a guess,
Speaker 4: I'd say, you know, we're putting him into the other world.
Speaker 4: We're connecting. We're taking this solid material object imbibing it.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a certain prayer that you say, So
Speaker 4: you're going to say the prayer and then you're going
Speaker 4: to put him underground because that's like our access to
Speaker 4: the underworld. But I don't know, I'm making this up,
Speaker 4: like I'm just one. I'm guessing just knowing what I
Speaker 4: know that that's probably that could be one of the
Speaker 4: ideas is like, so the thing is that the saints
Speaker 4: and the deities plants is there are threads that connect.
Speaker 2: Us to.
Speaker 4: The social field beyond what we can see. Right, So
Speaker 4: it's like the field of not just the human relationships
Speaker 4: that we're in, or the material or physical relationships that
Speaker 4: we're in, but also the spiritual relationships that we're in
Speaker 4: that are actually part of social life in this tradition,
Speaker 4: and so these things. But because we're in this, we're
Speaker 4: in this three dimensional form, we have to there's things
Speaker 4: that we humans have designed and developed to help us
Speaker 4: to connect or link or build bridges to the spiritual
Speaker 4: or the divine.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what the entire concept around full medicine is
Speaker 2: is that it's possible, and it's been done throughout history,
Speaker 2: and I love that you're bringing it to modern times
Speaker 2: through the book and teaching us different ways to connect
Speaker 2: with the ancestral traditions and they have worked in the passage.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen an apparition or some type of
Speaker 2: thing that has actually manifested itself?
Speaker 4: Yes, I mean I don't know. I'm not sure what
Speaker 4: do you mean by manifested itself? Like, I've never tried
Speaker 4: to make anything man like. I've never tried to do.
Speaker 2: That, Okay, Yeah, I mean in terms of making it
Speaker 2: seeing an actual spirit or anything that could help elaborate
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 4: I mean I've seen things that I might you might
Speaker 4: say were like a ghost.
Speaker 3: Yeah, something like that, right, Yeah, but not.
Speaker 4: I've never intentionally tried to see They've never done anything
Speaker 4: to try to do that.
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