Gail Faith Edwards 2016

Description

Lecture: Baltic Amber – Myth, Medicine & Magic

This lecture is experientially based and will demonstrate that warming, magnetic, stimulating, aromatic, bitter and beautiful Baltic amber is an energetically protective substance that has been revered as such for millennia and is now being revisited as a potent and effective medicine.

Baltic amber has a long and illustrious history of medicinal as well as magical/spiritual uses throughout China, India, the Middle East and all of Europe, from the northern Boreal forests to the Mediterranean Sea. In this lecture we’ll take a look at its magnetic properties and dive deep into the magical lore that has clung to Baltic amber down through the millennia, including its significance as a protective amulet and/or talisman, burning amber to invoke good fortune and its use in sacred ceremony.

This will be an extensive sharing about the many diverse and compelling properties and uses of Baltic amber. We will peer into ancient myths from a number of cultures associated with the sun stone and discuss its historic and traditional uses, as well as attitudes toward it and beliefs about it, from the Neolithic, through the Middle Ages into the present. We’ll review the most recent science, talk about succinic acid, take a look at amber in the history of medicine, and examine some of the traditional as well as innovative new ways this millions of years old tree resin is being used to enhance immunity, relieve pain, and boost over-all vitality.

Biography

Gail Faith Edwards is an internationally recognized Community Herbalist with well over thirty years experience. She is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Herbal Pharmacy: The Art of Herbal Medicine Making.. Gail has taught Herbal Medicine in India, Italy, Poland and Russia, at the Yale School of Nursing, the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic and numerous national conferences. She is the founder of Blessed Maine Herb Farm and Director of the Blessed Maine Herb Farm School of Herbal Medicine. Gail lives on her farm in Maine during the growing season and in her ancestral village in Italy for three months each year. She is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of four beautiful boys.