Approaching the Long Night • Solstice, Stillness, and the New Cycle Ahead

Asheville Herbals • Seasonal Update

With the final Gladheart Farm Market of the year behind us, I want to offer a sincere thank-you for another rich season of community, conversation, and plant wisdom. The weekly rhythm of the market becomes its own kind of ceremony—one that will return in March, when the ground begins to soften and the first green things reappear.

Until then, Asheville Herbals shifts into winter mode: slower, quieter, and more deliberate. This is not a dormant season—it’s a formative one.

And this year, the timing carries particular weight.

🌑 Winter Solstice Arrives in About a Week and a Half

We are moving toward the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and one of humanity’s oldest ritual markers. Across Indigenous, agrarian, and ancestral traditions, solstice was never treated as an endpoint, but as a cosmic still point—the moment when the wheel stops turning just long enough to reset itself.

At solstice:

• the sun reaches its furthest descent

• the land enters its deepest rest

• outward motion pauses

• and the seed of returning light is planted in darkness

This is a time for tending the inner fire rather than projecting energy outward. Dreams deepen. The nervous system asks for gentleness. The body remembers that rest is not the opposite of productivity—it’s the foundation of it.

Solstice is especially well suited for:

• dream incubation and inner listening

• nervous system restoration

• immune fortification for the long winter stretch

• reflecting on what the past year actually taught you

• quietly clarifying what wants to emerge next

🌀 A New 260-Day Tzolk’in Cycle Has Just Begun

Layered directly on top of the solstice is another major threshold: the beginning of a new Tzolk’in cycle, the 260-day sacred calendar used throughout Mesoamerica to track spiritual, agricultural, and psychological development.

When the Tzolk’in resets, the entire sequence of 20 day signs moving through 13 tones begins again. The first days of the cycle are considered embryonic—they imprint the energetic pattern that will unfold over the next nine months.

That this reset occurs so close to the Winter Solstice is significant.

Two different systems—one astronomical, one calendrical—are signaling the same message:

Something new is beginning, but it begins quietly, in the dark, before it is visible.

This is not a time to force decisions or rush clarity. It’s a time to notice subtle movements: dreams, intuitions, bodily signals, and the quiet sense of direction that often gets drowned out during busier seasons.

🌿 Winter Restock & New Tinctures — Coming Online Soon

Winter is extraction season. While the green world rests, roots, seeds, resins, and stored plant material offer their deepest chemistry. Behind the scenes at Asheville Herbals, tinctures are being filtered, refined, and prepared for release.

New Single-Herb Tinctures (Releasing Soon)

These allies are being prepared specifically for the nervous system, immune tone, and the introspective demands of the dark season:

• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
  A classic ally for dreamwork, liminal states, and deepening intuition. Traditionally used for visioning, menstrual support, and navigating the boundary between waking and sleep.

• Milky Oats (Avena sativa, fresh tops)
  One of the most reliable long-term nervous system restoratives—slow, nourishing, and ideal for burnout, depletion, and chronic stress.

• Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
  Mineral-rich and deeply supportive for immune health, inflammation, and overall vitality, especially during seasonal transitions.

Each tincture is crafted in small batches with attention to harvest timing, extraction ratios, and real-world use.

🌲 Returning Favorites & Seasonal Medicines

Several long-requested medicines are either available now or moving through their final preparation stages:

• Natural cold tonic — Available Now
  A fresh winter batch designed for early intervention and acute seasonal support.

• Amanita muscaria — Returning Soon (previous batch still in stock in very limited ammount)
  Carefully prepared, intentionally dosed, and offered with clear educational context.

• Sassafras — Later Release
  Harvested sparingly and released only when timing and stock allow.

🍎 Fall / Winter Tonic — Available Now

A warming, circulatory, and immune-supportive seasonal formulation made for the dark half of the year:

Goldenrod • Horseradish • Rose Hips • Sage • Local Honey • Apple Cider Vinegar

This tonic supports:

• sinus and respiratory health

• immune resilience

• circulation and lymphatic movement

• recovery and seasonal recalibration

Prepared with local honey and raw apple cider vinegar to preserve enzymatic activity and bioavailability.

❄️ Winter Vending & Availability

Gladheart Farm Market will return in March, but Asheville Herbals may appear at occasional winter pop-ups, indoor markets, or community events as opportunities arise. These will be announced through Instagram, Facebook, and the Plant Wisdom Newsletter.

Because winter production is slower and more intentional:

• quantities are limited

• some items sell out quickly

• restocks are announced as soon as they’re ready

This is also an ideal season for custom blends, deeper consultations, and building a winter medicine cabinet that can carry you through until spring.

🔥 Working With the Solstice Window

The pairing of Winter Solstice and a new Tzolk’in cycle makes this an unusually potent inner-world threshold. Practices that harmonize well with this time include:

• plant-assisted dreamwork (Mugwort, Blue Lotus, Calea)

• immune and lung support (Reishi, Propolis, seasonal tonics)

• nervous system nourishment (Milky Oats, Tulsi, California Poppy)

• journaling through the first 13 days of the Tzolk’in to track emerging themes

• gentle clearing of accumulated emotional residue before the year turns

This is a season for listening more than pushing.

🌱 Until the Light Begins Its Long Return

Thank you for supporting small-batch herbal medicine made with care, precision, and respect for the living intelligence of plants. More updates—new tinctures, winter availability, and upcoming events—will follow soon as the cycle continues to unfold.

— Joseph
Asheville Herbals

Dreaming the Fire: Blue Lotus and the Spirit Plants of Lammas

At this moment in the wheel of the year—late July—the world is radiant with abundance, yet something begins to stir beneath the sun-drenched fields. The air thickens. The light turns gold. The harvest is not quite here, but the threshold has opened.

This is the portal of Lammas, the ancient cross-quarter festival celebrated midway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. Known to the Celts as Lughnasadh, it honors the first fruits, the cutting of grain, the sacrifice of fullness to seed the future. It is a time of fire, of transformation, of offering and inner ripening.

Lammas is not only a celebration—it is a moment of reckoning with the sacred fire, both around us and within. As the outward blaze of summer begins to tip toward inward harvest, we’re invited into dream, reflection, and spiritual integration.

At Asheville Herbals, we honor this turning point through plant spirit allies that bridge the waking and dreaming world—those that hold both scientific efficacy and mythic resonance, those that whisper in the language of the soul.

This season, three plants stand at the gate:

Blue Lotus – the sacred flower of vision and surrender

Ghost Pipe – the forest specter who teaches us to witness pain

Calea zacatechichi – the dream leaf of revelation and clarity

Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea): The Flower of the Threshold

Blue Lotus, native to the Nile basin and sacred to the ancient Egyptians, is more than a plant. It is a symbol of divine consciousness, of resurrection, and of stillness within transformation.

In temple art, it is often shown opening with the sunrise and closing at dusk—mirroring the soul’s daily cycle of waking and descent. Pharaohs were buried with it. Lovers adorned themselves with it. Priests drank its essence before communion with the gods.

Chemistry & Preparation

Blue Lotus contains two primary alkaloids:

Apomorphine, a dopamine agonist with subtle euphoric and anti-parkinsonian properties.

Nuciferine, a calming, antipsychotic-like alkaloid shown to promote stillness and mild sedation.

These compounds are alcohol-soluble, which is why our tincture begins as a strong alcohol extract. But to make it gentle and accessible to more people, we evaporate most of the alcohol and replace it with vegetable glycerine, preserving its psychoactive profile while adding sweetness and softness to the medicine.

Spiritual and Energetic Use

Blue Lotus is not a sleep aid. It is a lucid dreaming plant, a crown-opening, heart-softening gateway. It asks for presence. It helps us release mental rigidity and feel again.

Taken at twilight, it slows the mind, opens the heart, and allows the inner voice to speak in color and symbol. It is especially powerful during seasonal transitions like Lammas, when the body resists change but the soul is ready.

Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora): The Silent Witness

Ghost Pipe is a paradox. Pale as bone and translucent as a spirit, it emerges from the forest floor in early summer—often weeks before Lammas—and quickly fades. Not a mushroom, though long misunderstood as one, Ghost Pipe is a mycotrophic plant: it lacks chlorophyll and lives in relationship with underground fungal networks.

Its presence is a blessing of rarity, and a reminder that deep medicines do not shout.

Ghost Pipe has long been used in Appalachian folk medicine for pain and trauma that lives beyond language. It is not about numbing—it is about changing one’s relationship to sensation and perception.

Chemistry

Ghost Pipe contains isoquinoline alkaloids and related compounds with potential modulatory effects on the nervous system—especially how the brain interprets pain. Though not extensively studied in clinical settings, traditional use and modern anecdote align: this plant does something profound to the soul’s interface with suffering.

Energetic Teaching

Ghost Pipe is the plant of the silent witness. It teaches us to be present with pain without needing to fix, suppress, or flee from it. It’s a balm for those in grief, heartbreak, psychic rupture, or ceremonial threshold.

In dreamwork, it can help hold the space for difficult symbolic journeys—where the subconscious processes old wounds or invites release.

It is not a casual herb. It is sacred. It is seasonal. And when it calls, it carries.

Calea zacatechichi: The Dream Leaf of the Chontal Healers

Calea, or "Leaf of God," is revered among the Chontal people of Oaxaca for its use in divinatory dreaming, symbolic clarity, and nighttime guidance.

It does not lull you to sleep—instead, it wakes you inside your dream. People often report sharper visuals, stronger dream recall, and increased agency within the dream world.

One of the most profound effects Calea offers is this:

It extends time inside your dream.

This doesn’t just mean longer sleep. It means more dream per moment—a feeling of expanded narrative, more story, more insight. Like dreaming in higher resolution.

Chemistry

Calea is rich in germacranolide sesquiterpene lactones, potent bitter compounds that appear to influence REM cycles. It also contains flavonoids and volatile terpenoids which may contribute to its subtle psychoactive effects.

Most users find the tea nearly intolerable (though traditional), so our tincture offers a palatable alternative—allowing you to take it with precision and intention.

Ritual Use

Set a clear question before bed. Speak it aloud. Take Calea. Dim the lights. Sleep near nature or with open windows if possible. When you wake—record everything. Even fragments may hold keys.

A Lammas Dream Ritual

To mark this season’s turning, here is a simple ritual crafted from the plants above:

1. At twilight, prepare your space—smoke, salt, or silence. Light a candle.

2. Take Blue Lotus (3–10 drops). Sit and reflect:

What is ripening in me? What am I harvesting? What must I lay down?

3. Before bed, take Calea zacatechichi and speak your intention aloud.

4. If grief or heaviness is present, take Ghost Pipe in small dose and hold it like prayer.

5. Sleep. Listen. Record what comes.

Fall Medicines on the Wind

As the light begins to wane, new medicines arrive:

Milky Oats Tincture – for deep nervous repletion

Holy Basil (Tulsi) – for centered clarity and adaptive calm

Mugwort – the classic dream herb, for vision and boundary walking

Stinging Nettle – grounding, nutritive, and boundary-strengthening.

More to be revealed soon

New Arrival: Local Propolis Glycerite

We’re also honored to now offer a glycerin-based tincture of local propolis, sourced directly from our friends at Miraculous Buzz Honey Company in Leicester, NC.

Propolis is a resinous substance collected by bees from tree buds and used to seal and protect their hives. Rich in flavonoids, phenolic acids (especially CAPE – caffeic acid phenethyl ester), and antimicrobial compounds, propolis is a potent immune ally and topical antiseptic with a long history of use in folk medicine and scientific research alike.

This preparation is made from locally gathered raw propolis, full of Appalachian plant resin signatures, then extracted low and slow into vegetable glycerine for alcohol-free accessibility.

Gentle yet powerful—ideal for seasonal immune support, oral care, or wound use. It carries the energy of both tree and bee, and the medicine of a specific bioregion. This batch was small. Sacred. And we’re grateful to offer it while supplies last.

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Visit Asheville Herbals This Weekend

Friday – Lammas Dark Market @ Highland Brewing

Sunday – Weekly booth @ Gladheart Farm

Come say hello, share your dreams, and meet the new fall allies taking form.

May your dreaming be deep. May your fire be true. May your path between worlds be blessed.

Field Notes for Late Spring: Healing Storms, Seasonal Formulas & the Return of Vital Force

Spring Nears Its Zenith

The Earth has entered the late phase of spring—a time of floral peak, swelling green, and solar intensity building toward the summer solstice.

With just a few weeks remaining before the longest day of the year (June 19, 2025), we stand in a liminal moment: where emergence gives way to expression, and the light prepares to crest.

At this stage, the body is highly responsive to detoxification, immune recalibration, and nervous system restoration. As always, Asheville Herbals works in rhythm with this turning—offering plant medicines that reflect the intelligence of the season.

Ceremony as Ecological Repair: Releasing the Imprint of Hurricane Helene

Earlier this spring, I co-facilitated a ceremonial healing alongside three other practitioners to address the energetic residue left by Hurricane Helene—an event that impacted not only the physical environment but also the subtle energetic field of our region.

The ceremony took place along the banks of Reems Creek in Weaverville, in close relationship with the water, trees, stones, and wind that inhabit that sacred corridor. Rooted in ancestral traditions and reciprocal prayer, the intention was to clear and harmonize what the storm left behind in the land and collective body.

The Four Directions of Healing:

• South – The Offering: A traditional despacho—crafted with cornmeal, flower petals, and intention—was offered to Pachamama, allowing dense energy (hucha) to be returned to the Earth for composting. We called on great serpent to help us shed the skin of the past.

• West – The Waters: Water was sung to, imbued with grief and memory, and returned to the flowing creek with prayers for transformation and renewal.

• North – The Wind: With the help of drum and song, we worked to re-pattern the air and the field, bringing gratitude and coherence to the space.

• East – The Fire: A small sacred flame was kindled to bear witness and to call in clarity. We invoked the archetypal medicine of eagle and condor—visionary guides from above—to complete the transformation cycle.

This was not performance—it was shared ecological and spiritual stewardship. A quiet act of tending the unseen.

New Extracts for the Season of Vital Force

In keeping with the late-spring shift toward action, expression, and nervous system resilience, I’ve released three new tinctures. Each was formulated with both clinical precision and energetic sensitivity:

Cinchona Bark Extract

• Primary Actions: Antipyretic, bitter, antimicrobial

• Energetics: Cooling, draining, purifying

• Best Used For: Fever cycles, immune support, digestive reset

• Key Compounds: Quinine, cinchonine, other alkaloids

This classic South American bark was historically used for cyclical fevers and microbial burdens. Today, it’s an ally for clearing internal stagnation and revitalizing the immune matrix.

Passionflower Tincture

• Primary Actions: Anxiolytic, sedative, antispasmodic

• Energetics: Cooling, grounding, descending

• Best Used For: Insomnia, tension, emotional turbulence

• Key Compounds: Flavonoids (vitexin), trace harmala alkaloids

Perfect for this active season, Passionflower helps regulate nervous overdrive, calm intrusive thought loops, and deepen the quality of rest.

Lion’s Mane Tincture

• Primary Actions: Nootropic, neuroregenerative, adaptogenic

• Energetics: Neutral to gently warming

• Best Used For: Mental clarity, focus, neuroendocrine support

• Key Compounds: Erinacines, hericenones, beta-glucans

This fungal intelligence supports cognitive function, dream insight, and long-term brain health—particularly beneficial as we navigate high solar output and overstimulation.

Looking Ahead

As we move toward summer, there are a few quiet expansions on the horizon at Asheville Herbals. A new wildcrafted tincture is in progress, and updates to our signage and printed materials are underway. As always, future offerings will unfold in rhythm with the season and guided by right timing. I look forward to sharing more when the time is right.

Gratitude for Community at Drip Sauna

I’ve recently had the opportunity to vend at Drip Sauna, and I want to share my appreciation for the warm welcome. It’s been a true pleasure meeting new folks, having real conversations, and offering herbal support in such a vibrant and supportive space. Thank you to everyone who stopped by—you’ve made the experience meaningful and energizing. I look forward to returning soon.

In Gratitude for This Path

Thank you for trusting Asheville Herbals as part of your wellness journey. Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or simply re-learning how to listen to the land, your presence in this work matters.

Together, we remember.

With seasonal blessings,
Joseph Willard
Herbalist & Shamanic Practitioner

Spring Equinox: A Time to Sprout, Stretch, and Sync with the Earth

As the sun hovers in perfect balance over the equator—neither favoring night nor day—we find ourselves at a potent threshold: the Spring Equinox. Known to scientists as the vernal equinox and to gardeners as “finally!”, this sacred moment marks the Earth’s tilting back toward warmth, growth, and light. It's one of only two days each year when day and night share equal time—a cosmic handshake between light and shadow.

At Asheville Herbals, we honor this celestial event not just as a seasonal shift but as a spiritual turning point. It’s a time to plant seeds—literally and figuratively. Whether you're tucking calendula into raised beds or sowing intentions for creative projects, the energies of balance and renewal are rooting for you (pun deeply intended).

On the scientific side, this is a moment of astronomical elegance. The Earth's axis isn't tilted toward or away from the sun, giving us near-equal light in both hemispheres. That balance triggers a cascade of responses in plants, animals, fungi—and us. Trees begin to move sap upward, birds tune up their mating calls, and mycelial networks quietly surge beneath our feet in fungal celebration.

Spiritually, ancient cultures from the Andes to the Appalachians recognized the spring equinox as a holy time—an opportunity to realign with the rhythms of nature. The Cherokee people, whose ancestral lands we walk upon, observed the cycles of planting and harvest in deep relationship with the spirit of the land. The Q’ero of the Andes call this sacred balance Ayni—right relationship and reciprocity with the natural world.

Both perspectives ask us to wake up. To feel the surge of life returning, and to meet it with presence, curiosity, and care.

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Suggested Seasonal Rituals & Practices

1. Tend Your Inner Garden:

What needs weeding in your emotional landscape? What dreams are ready to sprout? Take time to journal your intentions, then offer them to the soil—yes, literally. Write one on a piece of paper and bury it with a seed.

2. Sip the Season:

Our favorite spring herbs include nettle, chickweed, dandelion, and cleavers—all allies that help the body shift from winter stagnation to spring flow. They support lymph, liver, and vitality. Try them as a tea, tincture, or wildcrafted snack (but mind your plant ID—no one wants to chew on poison ivy in a moment of spiritual zeal).

3. Align with the Light:

Set your sleep rhythms to the sunrise. Go outside at dawn and observe. Breathe. Let the birdsong rewire your nervous system. Light isn’t just physical—it’s psychological and spiritual. Let it in.

4. Clean Your Space, Clear Your Mind:

Spring cleaning isn’t just for junk drawers. Smoke-cleansing with mugwort, pine, or juniper (harvested respectfully) can shift energy. So can rearranging your altar or composting that pile of “one-day-I’ll-read-these” books.

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Reflections from the Field

Here at Asheville Herbals, we’re blending the botanical with the cosmic every day. We see the Spring Equinox as both a practical reset (time to refill the allergy blend!) and a sacred activation. The plants are speaking—softly, firmly, in green and gold and ultraviolet. They're whispering:

This is the time to grow.

This is the time to balance.

This is the time to remember your place in the great web of life.

As the sun rises higher and the days stretch longer, may you feel that same rising within you. May your roots sink deep and your visions reach wide. May you greet this season not with urgency, but with reverent curiosity—asking not just what do I want to grow this spring, but how can I grow in right relationship with the world around me?

Joe at Asheville Herbals

In Lak’ech

I am another you

New Market season

I've been working hard to get stocked for the spring and will have some new offerings, and plenty of the old offerings too.

Whether you are just beginning a journey toward wellness and wholeness,or well down that path I'm here to help select herbal remedies to help. Don't hesitate to contact me!

This year I will be offering more services. These include sound healing sessions, general shamanic consultation, shamanic cleansing (limpia) and illumination, despachos, and more.

I also offer custom formulations and custom herbal remedies These can take time if you are requesting herbs I do not normally work with.

On another note I'm still a person too, and have normal person stuff happening haha. Unfortunately most recently this included the death of my father. Ill miss him dearly but his light lives on through me. His passion in life was wood. I learned alot from my dad, and plan to start creating wooden goods to offer for sale here at Asheville herbals. This will be later in the year, or even next year.

Another new development is that we are no longer selling on etsy. Even after removing all information from my listings they still insisted I was making medical claims, and deactivated my account. So if you found your way here from etsy- you for coming on over!

I plan to turn this blog into an inspiring short read on a bi-weekly basis.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading!