Customer Reviews

Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

The author says, "This book grew out of our need to be healthy and re-own the powers of naturally healing ourselves". Contains three indices, a glossary of mythological, feminist and gynecological terms, and blank pages in the back for notetaking. There are also herbal lists for emenogogues, infertility, temporary and permanant sterility, anaphrodesiacs, aphrodesiacs, reproductive organs and your cycle, pregnancy, childbirth and lactation. here's a short synopsis.... chapter #1 - "on the rag" and other menstrual rituals (contains pattern for making your own menstral pads) #2 - fertility #3 - herbal birth control #4 - anaphrodesiacs #5 - aphrodesiacs #6 - herbs for the mind #7 - self health - what's the matter, coming off the pill #8 - balancers and toners (herbs for the cycle and reproductive organs) #9 - pregnancy, childbirth, lactation (plus placenta recipes, celestial influences) #10 - menopause: the change

This is a very comprehensive, useful, and entertaining book. I like to just open it up at random and read a chapter. Or, when I want specific advise, I can just look in the index and turn to whatever pages fit. I find I get so engrossed, though, that I just can't stop! I especially like the letters from women and the dream interpretations"

When I got pregnant a couple of years ago, from the moment of conception until miscarriage, I was beset with horrendous morning sickness. I couldn't get out of bed those first few days except on my hands and knees. I was often too dizzy to even stand up. I didn't know if I would make it to the bathroom before vomiting. As a result, I began keeping a plastic bucket in my bedroom. I also decided it was time to figure out how to squash my queasiness so I could get on with the important task of getting to work on time everyday.

I was living with my sister then, and she had a copy of Jeannine Parvati's Hygieia on her shelves. On day three, I made a beeline for it. Inside this beautiful off-size book were hand lettered pages, original artwork, and personal testimonies of herbal efficacy in promoting women's health at every stage of the life cycle. What a relief it was to find this information so close as hand, especially after my early dissatisfaction with my M.D.'s suggestions.

Parvati has particular interests in menstruation, contraception, fertility, sterility, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause; she is the mother of five children at my last count. Parvati urges women to be in touch with their own inner cycles and to trust our relationship with the moon for guidance. Parvati includes myths, stories, and recipes. Reading this book was like remembering knowledge I used to have but couldn't quite dredge into consciousness. Of course, ginger for nausea. Of course, mint. As a result I began to keep a thermos full of herbal tea next to the bed so I cold drink it first thing in the morning.

Parvati takes the reader well beyond these common herbs into the realm of herbal abortions. But, as Parvati wisely advises, "Herbal abortions are not necessarily any easier than a technological one-in fact sometimes they are more difficult. . . . But let us not use these herbs like pills; use herbs always as tools to understanding ourselves. Meditating on the mythology of the herbal emmenagogue while you use the plant will bring you closer to the spirit of healing (p.19)." It is precisely this spirit of healing that makes Parvati's book so indispensable to me.

While this book might be a bit difficult for beginners to grasp, the effort is well worth it. Hygieia is one of the most important guides to women's health that I own.

I was lucky to find this book when I was a college student, just beginning to understand and appreciate the power of herbs. It is a book that has stuck with me as I've grown older and now one that I'm re-reading more thoroughly now that I'm expecting my first child. For any woman interested in getting touch with her own health, and for tapping into the aged wisdom of generations of women before us, read this book and adopt some herbal traditions. It's a shame this wisdom isn't an integral part of our lives.

I am thrilled to be able to write a review of Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal, so I can tell everyone how much this book means to me. I had seen this book mentioned in the resources section of a number of other herbal books and I decided to order it. When it arrived I read it from cover to cover in 2 days, because I could not put it down. I am now rereading Hygieia at a much more leisurely pace so I can contemplate and interpret the wisdom to be found in each page. I feel that this book should be required reading for women everywhere. From menstruation to menopause and all the cycles in between, the information that is contained within Hygieia is invaluable. I love it!

i would recommend this book to any women with any level of interest in healing and herbology. physically, the book is beautiful. many pages are adorned with the author's skillful calligraphy. the photos are moving. the pages themselves are made from thick, creamy paper. jeannine talks about healing women on all levels, from physical to spiritual. with a definite feminist slant, she takes us through the personalities and properties of several herbs. it's so much more than a reference, i've read through it several times.

When HYGIEIA-A WOMAN'S HERBAL by Jeannine Parvati was first published in July 1978, it filled a void. Much of what she had to say needed to be said. If you're interested in historical artifacts (how dumb we were), this book is a good read. I believe much of Parvati's text will interest most contemporary women-at least women who have difficult questions and want to know more about the female body. Two decades ago, many of us fit that description as most medical research was conducted with male subjects. Most of what affected the female body was not discussed in public or even in books. In spite of their notoriety, Master's and Johnson didn't cover this stuff and I doubt Dr. Ruth did either. Imagine your deepest secrets about your body, those things you might not be able to discuss with your best girl friend without difficulty. Well, Parvati is the girlfriend you never had.

Much of Parvati's material is geared to younger woman-probably because she was younger when she wrote the book and authors tend to write about their experience, but she does have some good stuff on menopause. Given the outpouring of books on the topic of herbal healing in recent years, you might wonder what this book covers not found in other herbal volumes, and the answer is plenty. Parvati's book is about herb uses and the reproductive organs of the female body. Parvati organizes the herbs by topics, covering subjects such as aphrodisiacs to whet the sexual appetite, as well as herbs to improve fertility, assist with birth control, boost lactation, ease menstruation, et cetera. She has lots of graphic illustrations and pictures (naked bodies) and discusses herbal applications you probably won't find discussed anywhere else.

Parvati is Native American with a few other good qualities thrown in such as six children conceived and delivered a la natural. This is a book for liberated women (and men) or those who want to be.

Hygieia is an important and fascinating compendium of many kinds of heath lore about women's health. This hefty paperback with the cramy, near-square pages and the fine line drawings and calligraphy outgrowth of the author's master's project written while raising three small children (she had three more after the early editions of the book appeared.) Hygieia combines listings of traditional botanical remedies from North America and Western Europe with new ways of using the imagination and ,ythology to create a self-health model for women.

Parvati-Baker's book is not so much intended as a guide to how to USE herbs to build health as a guide to new ways of thinking and feeling about women's reproductive and sexual lives. There are chapters and sections devoted to thinking about sexual desire, about natural birthing options including natural home birth and non-separation from the placenta (Lotus birth, about re-visioning menstruation as a time to celebrate, about Western and Asian myths of heraling and women;s power, about re-thinking fertility itself, and about many types of spiritual and psychological practice, especially those that have leant meaning to the author.

Hygieia is a personal book, a sort of a glimpse into the inner as well as the family life of its creator, Jeannine Parvati. It is about many aspects of being a woman involved in creating one's own healing, as Parvati-Baker experiences this. The openminded reader is drawn into her world, where she (or he) can pick and choose those ideas and images that speak to her (or his) psyche, while leaving that which does not work as well to bloom in the same garden for another. It reads as a journey into a way of being where healing and honoring one's reproductive and living self is a birthright that can be claimed by all.

Those lookig to use this book as a sort of alternative pharmacopeia will probably be disappointed, for the author is calling the reader into a more broadbased, holistic understanding about the relationship between plant allies, the earth, and women's health and well-being.Hygieia does not prescribe; it brings seeds for further contemplation on ways of regarding botanicals, health, adn the experience of being female.

Hygieia is not for those women seeking pre-digested, one-faceted answers to their ailments, nor is it a "Herbal for Dummies." It is not a "how to" book which will give you quick, easy answers. It will require you to find those answers for yourself, all the while guiding you in the process of self-discovery.

It is written for those wise women seeking to deepen their knowledge of themselves through contemplation. It is for those fortunate maidens and mothers who enjoy being in tune with their lunar bodies, women who think and dream and live moment to moment, day by day. It is for Changing Women, and not the clinical, bare females of medical journals and anatomy books. Hygieia is for responsible women who first take their inner wisdom as gospel, before that of any book or doctor or even healer.

Those women who are open and ready for such an approach will love coming back to it again and again, picking it up with a specific question or simply leafing through it and letting it guide them to what is right for them. It is a guide for finding our own relationship with plants, our own balance in healing ourselves. Jeannine Parvati Baker's herbal is akin to a philosphy, a way of life. It is a herbal for a lifetime, not simply for a "quick fix."

The thing that has always amazed me, and many other people, about Jeannine Parvati, is her uninhibited combination of the power, perceptivity and instincts of an ancient curandera with the skills and sophisitication of a modern professional midwife. I can't speak from the perspective of a woman, but I was the first to welcome all 3 of my children into this world. At such times, Jeannine Parvati has helped me to contact the macrocosm through my microcosm. "Nine powers of nine flowers,/Nine powers in me combined,/Nine buds of plant and tree./Long and white are my fingers/As the ninth wave of the sea."

Here, presented in a gentle Earth mother (or stoned-out hippie?) tone, is a lot of interesting information about self-medicating with herbs, especially as related to sexual, pregnancy and birth issues.

However, am I the only one bothered because the author not only promotes combining sexual activity and psychedelic drug use, but specifically suggests that some pregnant mothers-to-be consider ingesting LSD so they can "trip out" with their fetuses?

Here is the author's quote about LSD from page 81, part of the same paragraph where she writes about the difficulties of "planning those orgiastic trips at infertile times of one's cycle":

"If you feel comfortable making the decision to trip with your baby (baby getting a magnified dose due to her tinier body weight or mass), then make an informed decision. Refer to science, your own experience, and information coming from any channel. LSD is magnificent and for a fetus, it must be ultra-magnificent-but is it dangerous?"

The author never answers her question about the dangers ofpsychedelicizing a fetus, the implication being that women should trust their "feelings" on the matter (with no indication if it matters if you are stoned or straight while tuning into those "feelings.")

I'm not square, (to answer Jimi Hendrix's famous question, yes, I am experienced) and you can blame it on me being male, but first off, never mind it being illegal, LSD is not an herb, and second, isn't it a little irresponsible to suggest to young, pregnant mothers that it might be a "magnificent" idea to dose their fetuses with hallucinogenic street drugs?

On the very next page the author writes about peyote suppositories and women inserting slices of the hallucinogenic cactus "high in their vaginas like a cervical cap." If such things are appealing to you, hey, far out. But can we leave the children and fetuses out of it, please. Thank you.

And what exactly is the purpose of including, on page 12, a full-page close-up photograph of the abdomen and bare genitalia of a prepubescent girl?

File this book under "What The Heck Were They Thinking (or Ingesting)?"