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Writer's pictureDana Kay

Tinctures: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World

Tinctures have been used as herbal remedies for hundreds of years.


Ancient Egyptians and Arabic alchemists made them using alcohol to extract the medicinal constituents of the plants.


This was a process closely linked to the alchemical traditions, which was a precursor to modern chemistry.


The alchemical tradition focused on working WITH nature to enhance and illuminate her magic.


The alchemical tradition has deep roots in animism, which was the belief that an animating force moved through every aspect of life, to include rocks, trees, plants, and animals, infusing everything with consciousness and life force.


Essentially, this was a belief that nature is alive and intelligent and capable of working with us rather than just being something lifeless that we are meant to exploit and control.


This way of relating to nature informed the practice of medicine making and brought the soul of nature all the way through the process and into the final product.


The practice of tincturing is also deeply rooted in traditional folk herbalism, which shares similar animist roots and a belief in the sacredness of plants.


By the Victorian era, tinctures were very popular and one of the most common forms of medicine available in herbal apothecaries.


Shortly thereafter, the split from nature and the pathway to a more reductionist scientific approach started to gain traction.


With the industrial revolution, the alchemical traditions started to become a distant memory. With the rise of mechanistic models in education, business, science and many other areas of life, traditional folk herbalism also faded into the background as standardization and mass production became the new holy grail.


Modern scientific methods, such as the isolation of particular molecules, eventually led to the development of pharmaceuticals and the modern industrial medical complex that we all know today


But the memories of the old ways are still there.


And as we remember our ancient connection to the earth and the world of plants and return to the alchemical roots of our scientific traditions, we can start to create a way of working with nature that merges our modern wisdom of science and technology with the ancient wisdom of the earth and our ancestral traditions.


As we explored creating something like tinctures that have such a rich and deeply rooted tradition, that's what we wanted to tap into.


We noticed that there was a misunderstanding about what tinctures even are, as we saw sugar water and artificial flavors flooding the market.


The tradition of tincturing comes from a time when we lived closer to the earth and could more easily tune into the wisdom of the plants.


We wanted to create tinctures that honored the rich traditions of alchemy and herbalism, so instead of sugary, artificial flavors, we made our tinctures in the old ways, with powerful, synergistic blends of organic herbs and medicinal mushrooms.


Our mission is to create purposeful products for a modern world that honor the ancient connection between people and plants.


We believe that nature is our greatest partner in doing that, so just like the ancient animists and alchemists, we bring the wisdom and soul of the earth into our work.






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