Isatis tintoria – Dyer’s Woad

Sonya McLeod, of Little Mountain Homeopathy, approached us to join her group to do a residential trituration. We had worked with her group before in Vancouver, doing a trituration of the Ghost Redwood, and looked forward to working with her again. She rented a large house while we were tasked with choosing the substance.

Mt. Shasta is one of the spiritual centers of the world. The mountain was sacred to indigenous peoples and not to be approached lightly. We considered very seriously what would be a good substance. We consulted with local people and Frans Vermuelen and eventually settled on Isatis tinctoria, or Dyer’s Woad. It is one of the top ten noxious invasive weeds in the West with has a long relationship with people as the source of a blue dye dating all the way back to ancient times.

We had a number of reasons for choosing Woad. Despite its long historical usefulness, no previous proving has been done and no remedy made from it. It is another window into the Brassica family. The substance is very important in the Shasta area because it is taking over the native plants. Animals don’t eat it, and there is no method yet found to control its spread. Most importantly, invasive plants are very dynamic and highly energetic. The trituration could possibly tell us something important about the cultural, social, political situation in Mt. Shasta and the American West where the non-native weed is running rampant.

We see the issue of Intolerance as being a key feature of this remedy, along with themes of fire, irritation, barely controlled rage, cultist insularity, and utter lack of respect for other points of view or other people’s property. It is several months after the experience and normally we would have expected to see a case or two by now. This could mean that the type of person needing this remedy is less likely to live in an urban environment such as the San Francisco Bay Area.

We look forward to our next trituration experience with Sonya and the Vancouver group. We will also travel to your location if you are interested in having our guidance in doing a trituration with your group.

CLICK HERE to read the proving.

A full set of Sonya’s provings will soon be available from Saltire Press (sometime in 2019).