Authors: Janet Lee Carey

In the Time of Dragon Moon (33 page)

BOOK: In the Time of Dragon Moon

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Author's Note

The Moon, Medicine, and More

T
HIS
BOOK
'
S
DEVELOPMENT
began with cliff jumping, magic, dragons, and murder, before it focused back on the primary character of Uma and her Euit culture. The moon entered somewhere along the way, setting a strict lunar timeframe, enhancing the drama as it orbited the story.

As the animal moons rooted themselves into the story with greater force, I was inevitably drawn to research. I found ancient peoples that named various calendar moons after plants, weather, or animals. I discovered moon stories in the Hawaiian, Native American, African, Asian, and European cultures. The most commonly known moon names still used today are: September's Hunter's Moon, October's Harvest Moon, and the occasional Blue Moon. Both Native Americans and medieval Europeans called January the Wolf Moon.

The Euit Moon Months entered this story not only as tribal tradition but as an integral part of the healing approach of the Adan who seeks to balance the elements of earth, air, fire, and water within the human being. He also pays close attention to the dangerous and enhancing animal power released each Moon Month.

Tribal and medieval medicine also played another vital role. I created the Adan's medicinal approach from many sources starting with books about medieval medicine, and expanding to books and articles on tribal medicine, preferably written by indigenous healers themselves. I was also privileged to listen to firsthand accounts of traditional healing practices. All these influences quickened my imagination and helped me create the Adan's close relationship with plants, and his healing philosophy. The Adan's cures mirror some of the herbal remedies I studied, but I changed them and guised them with Euit names. Thus all the remedies are from my imagination and have an implied “don't do this at home” disclaimer. There were a few exceptions to this. Yarrow, for example, was made into a highly valued wound ointment in ancient times, and went under such names as soldier's wound wort or knight's milfoil.

I was with two wise women healers, Lei'ohu Ryder and Maydeen Iao, on the Maui Immersion when I first heard about Peruvian healer Eda Zavala Lopez. I'd already written the first draft of this book and was taking a breather (note: Writers never really stop working. When not writing we “sit around plotting and scheming,” so says my husband). I felt that familiar tingling sensation as I learned Eda's story. Eda is a descendent of the Wari people of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest who comes from a lineage of native women healers. She travels the world as a healer and educator with an ongoing mission to save the indigenous healing plants and healer's knowledge that are quickly passing away in her homeland. From her website:

The beautiful and pristine sacred forests, the head waters of the river basin where pure, crystalline waters feed the waterways and woods, the incredible biodiversity of plant and animal life where scientific observations have identified medicinal plant species yet to be documented and studiedÂ .Â .Â . will be forever and irrevocably changed if the plundering of the Peruvian rainforest continues.

In the course of writing this book, I learned more about the ways so many plants vital to curing human diseases are being destroyed. Research often leads to action.

Readers who would like to join me to help save the plants in the Amazon Basin can visit the “giving back” page on my website: http://www.janetleecarey.com. Or go directly to Nature Conservancy and join in their effort to preserve the Amazon rainforest: http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/southamerica/brazil/placesweprotect/amazon.xml.

Thank you, and as Uma says:
Ona loneaih
âbe you well.