Osha: Spirit of the Bear

My Favorite Plant – Martin Hansen

My favorite plant is Osha – Ligusticum porteri. Often in everyday conversation, I hear people speak of their spirit animal. While I do not have a strong attachment to this particular concept, I wholeheartedly believe that Osha is my sacred spirit plant. Perhaps Osha bridges the connections between man, animal, and earth spirits because it is known as Bear Medicine.

Osha has deep roots in Native American cultures where it is known as bear medicine. Bear medicine is medicine that harnesses the spirit of the bear bringing strength, awakening unconscious thoughts, creating balance, and healing. Native Americans observed the bear digging up and eating the roots and leaves of Osha when it came out of hibernation. This helped the bear wake up its digestion and expel its lungs after its long slumber. The bear would also chew the plant and rub it into its fur, protecting itself from pests and parasites.

Osha was known as The Guardian Spirit, bridging the human spirit to the spirit of the earth. The bear taught people to use Osha as medicine and food but also for spiritual protection. Osha was often burned in ceremony and sweat lodges, worn as a charm for protection, chewed to improve endurance, even worn on the ankles to ward off snakes. The choice became between avoiding snakes and attracting bears.

Osha goes by many other names, including Snake Root, Bear Root, Chuchupate, Porter’s Lovage, and Colorado Cough Root. Osha is part of a beautiful and magical plant family known as the Apiaceae family. It is commonly referred to as the parsley or carrot family. This family is wildly diverse, having many foods like carrot and celery, several strong medicines like Angelica and Gotu Kola, and various poisonous plants like Hemlock and Cowbane. The genus Ligusticum refers to the Liguria region of Italy, which is where a cousin of Osha’s, Lovage (Lovisticum officinale), is native. The species name porteri is in honor of the Colorado botanist, Thomas Conrad Porter, who took many samples of the plant in 1873.
Although Osha is not classified as endangered, it is considered “at risk” by The United Plant Savers due to irresponsible over harvesting. It only grows throughout the Rocky Mountains and parts of northwestern New Mexico and understandably, all who know Osha love it. Despite years of attempt, Osha has not been successfully cultivated. The uniqueness and relative rarity of this plant instills a feeling of witnessing something important and special every time I see it growing.

As a cautionary tale, we can look to the way the Romans failed to sustain a plant that was cherished by the Greeks, which was thought to be similar to Osha in the Apiaceae family. The plant, Silphium, was cherished by the Greeks as a food, medicine, aphrodisiac, and perfume. The Greeks had strict conservation laws around the plant, as it could not be cultivated. When the Romans conquered Greece, they did not observe these conservation laws and overharvested the plant. They even had sheep graze on the plant, making the meat of the sheep more valuable like wagyu beef. The plant went extinct and fell into history with only a few line drawings and the revered plant being put on the face of a Roman coin to prove it ever existed.

My first experience using Osha was in the late 1990s when I was selected to join my peers at a company retreat in Las Vegas. I was newly 21 and had never been to Vegas; I had delusions of grandeur and lady luck. I was so excited to visit “The City of Lights” for the first time. Two days before my trip, I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. I had a fever, painful unproductive cough, and severe fatigue. There was nothing that would stand in the way of me and the experience of the “Sin City,” though. I began taking a mixture of Osha and Propolis every hour. By the time the plane touched down in Nevada, my lungs were almost clear. With every dose, I could breathe better and better and felt stronger and stronger. My cough became more productive, my fever reduced, and my fatigue was ultimately eradicated. I continued taking Osha throughout the trip and arrived home feeling like I had Herculean lungs. I returned from Vegas $200 dollars richer and having the plant ally of my life.

Aside from Osha’s amazing effects on the respiratory system, Osha is a powerful carminative, dispelling bloating and gas, antimicrobial, antiviral, effective for allergies and hay fever, and a strong tonic for altitude sickness. With ethical harvesting being hard to determine, purchasing Osha tincture in commerce can be problematic. This is best as a personal medicine that is harvested in small amounts for personal use. My favorite way to use Osha responsibly is to make a honey from a small amount of the root. The honey can be used when needed and stretched by covering and recovering in more honey as needed for years with the same root.

As a way to engage the profound powers of this plant without impacting the population, I use Osha as a flower essence or a single root totem. The flower essence can be made without harvesting the plant. The flower essence harnesses the vibrational energies of the plant offering profound healing to the energetic and emotional bodies of a person. Taking the flower essence of Osha softens repressed grief, allowing us to process our pain and safely heal. It is no coincidence that the organ representation of grief is the lungs.

I also have a large root cutting that I have had for years that I hold to the heart to stabilize and protect my emotions and spirit. This cutting is my guide as I dig deep into exploring myself and the divine. I also use the cutting with my clients when they feel emotionally unstable during a service as feelings unexpectedly arise.

The first time I met Osha in person was almost 12 years ago. The memory is forever burned in my mind as the moment I understood plant medicine, not just intellectually but also on a deeper level. It was that first introduction that showed me that herbal medicine, i.e. plant medicine, was not just constituents in a bottle. Herbal medicine is the gift of the earth, giving the life force of living and breathing plants that live in harmony with the earth and with us. I sat to commune with Osha to seek understanding and guidance, to offer my love and thanks. The spirit of the plant reached out to me offering guidance, leading me to an understanding of my own self-worth and inner strength. It helped me let go of what doesn’t serve my emotional health. Osha expressed its love, radiating a desire for connection to the world around it.

When I need to center myself for any reason, I drop down into that moment sitting with Osha. I am in a shady Aspen meadow, the sound of a rushing stream, all the green smells of old and new foliage. Next to me is the beautiful fern like leaves and billowy white umbel flowers of Osha. I sit with my back on an aspen next to Osha. I take a small piece of the leaf to hold it on my tongue while caressing the leaves and stems. I lay my head on the earth under its leaves and feel the sunshine through to my face. My soul can rest. My plant spirit ally is with me.
This article was written by our Herbalism instructor, Martin Hansen. He has been an Herbalist and Aesthetician since 2000. He also teaches for our sister school, The School of Botanical and Medical Aesthetics. Martin is a treasure to our school – his understanding of herbal medicine, both physically and spiritually, and his ability to share his unique experiences with these medicines endears him to all who learn from him.
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