Blogging with Lee

Dateline: Munich, Germany

Due to a scheduling conflict I was unable to meet today as planned with Germany’s favorite modern herbalist, Eva Aschenbrenner. I was fortunate, however, to spend time with my good friend Dr. Barbara Hendel, who took me to visit a number of local “reformhaus” retailers, the German equivalent of our health food stores in America. There, Dr. Hendel introduced me to the works of a key figure in the history of Europe’s herbal medicine movement, Hildegard of Bingen.

Hildegard was born in Germany in 1098 AD. She was born into a relatively wealthy family and at a young age expressed a highly developed sense of spiritual consciousness. In her early teen years she became a nun and later, a widely respected abbess. In addition to her theological works and various other pursuits, Hildegard dedicated much of her time to the study of herbal medicines and natural healing. Her published works on herbal medicine are still published today and widely read in Europe. Herbal medicines based on Hildegard’s writings and original formulas are enjoying a resurgence in Germany today.

For more on this remarkable woman click the link above. After hearing about the work of Hildegard of Bingen from Dr. Hendel and talking with people who have used formulas based on her methods, I’m convinced that her medieval teachings have tremendous healing potential still viable in today’s world. Today I’ll be visiting a number of book stores in search of English translations of Hildegard’s writings. I look forward to sharing with you what I learn from these historic texts in future blog posts.

Off to Europe

Two of the most famous herbalists in the last half-century are Maria Treben and Eva Aschenbrenner. I first became acquainted with Maria in the early 1980s with the publication of her bestselling book Health Through God’s Pharmacy. Maria was born in 1907 in Austria and devoted her life to the study of herbal medicine. In the 1960s she popularized the world-famous Swedish Bitters formula that is still popular around the world today.

Unfortunately, Maria is no longer with us, having passed away in 1991. But Eva Aschenbrenner is still very much alive and well, living in a small mountain town about two hours outside of Munich, Germany.

I’ve been a big fan of Eva Aschenbrenner for a number of years. In the 1970s she developed a general health and wellness tea using wild grown herbs that she harvested on the land near her Bavarian home. I’ve been using this tea, sent to me by my good friend Dr. Barbara Hendel, and I’ve found it to be an excellent and very effective health tonic.

As much as possible I enjoy traveling to meet developers of the natural health products we offer in our catalog, and this weekend I’ll be flying to Europe for 11 days. In the course of this trip I’ll have the honor and privilege of traveling to Bavaria to meet with Eva Aschenbrenner. Although she speaks no English and I no German, her son, Robert, has kindly consented to attend our meetings and serve as translator. I very much look forward to meeting this legend in European natural medicine. Now 82-years-old and still actively cultivating wild-crafted herbs, Eva Aschenbrenner is a true celebrity among herbalists. I’m very excited to bring her health and wellness tea to America in the fall of this year.

For more on my adventure and my visits with Eva, please check back later this week. I’m sure you’ll be as interested as I am in how Eva’s natural, wild-crafted tea was created and how it can contribute to the health of you and your family.

As always, I wish you the very best of health.