Background: The Madder plant is a forgotten medicinal herb. It suggests the secretive “code” of forbidden medicine. Although the madder root has been used primarily as a dye (the red cloak of Red Riding Hood would have been colored with the Red Madder Root), it was also used to hasten childbirth, to treat kidney and urinary tract infections, and as an emmenagogue, that is, as a way to prevent pregnancy by forcing the flow of menstruation.
Over centuries of European history there were always movements to suppress women’s knowledge and use of herbs, specifically the use of herbal birth control. At one point, midwives were forbidden by law from using any herbs at all, for fear that the herb might be an abortifacient.
Therefore, the title, Red Madder Root, Tales of Initiation, suggests the ongoing oppression of women’s wisdom, the narrowing of our western understanding regarding women’s reproductive medicine (including for milk production), and the kinds of human strengths, knowledge and skills that are needed to navigate being a woman and taking on a positive role in our culture.
The book is particularly valuable for those working in the alternative health field, those who are intrigued by the mysteries of human consciousness, and aware of those areas of human experience that are routinely denied or neglected by today’s mainstream science teachers.