One of the stars of naturopathic and herbal medicine died Saturday morning, 15 October 2005. Dr. Silena Heron, who influenced a generation of herbalists and naturopathic physicians through her teaching, clinical work, medicine making, writing, and speaking, practiced as an herbalist then naturopathic physician for over 20 years. Dr. Heron was the first chair of botanical medicine at Bastyr University and a member of the faculty from 1985-1991. She is survived by her 19-year-old son Paige.
Dr. Heron was born Nancy Joan Feldman in 1946 in the Queens borough of New York to a secular Jewish family. Her father was an electrician, who, among other things, helped build the World Trade Center.
Instead of going to college, Dr. Heron opted to attend nursing school. By age 19 she was a nurse working in intensive care and then psychiatric medicine in New York City. She attended the original Woodstock concert in 1969. She moved to Bolinas, CA in 1972, where she was known as Nancy Denmark. There she became the first apprentice in the Baulines Craft Guild as a weaver under the tutelage of Alexandra Jacopetti Hart. Her most notable work during this period was in helping create a macramé playground in 1974 in Bolinas.
One of her tasks in the weaving collective was to tend the garden. This was her first significant encounter with herbs, for as a city girl she had never had much direct connection with living plants. Eventually she developed such an interested in and love for the plants that she decided to leave her life as a weaver. Initially though, she incorporated plants into her weaving practice at a private studio in Bolinas by using and teaching natural dyes. She also taught health classes at the local adult education program.
In 1975 she sold her studio so she could travel to Central America. There she attempted to connect with native weavers and also began studying herbal medicine in earnest. By 1976 she was in West Marin, CA, practicing as an herbalist and teaching classes on herbal medicine. She particularly favored giving herb walks so people could learn the local flora and use that as food and medicine. In California she was part of the growing renaissance of herbal medicine. She studied with the late William LeSassier among other notable herbal teachers.
Dr. Heron became somewhat involved with the Native American Church at this time, and through this and other paths ended up spending time with Soloho, a Hopi bone setter, and working with the late, great, medicine woman Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel on the island off Traverse City, MI. She also spent some time in Norman, OK. Through her many travels she was exposed to a wide range of herbs in numerous habitats and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of hundreds of herbal medicines. Her experiences with Soloho also convinced her to change her name. Silena is a Hopi word meaning both the carpel and stamen of a squash blossom.
By the early 1980s, Soloho told Dr. Heron that she should use her gifts and bridge the two worlds of traditional and scientific medicine. He urged her to get further scientific training and to spread the knowledge of herbal medicine. Given this impetus, she decided to become a naturopathic physician and enrolled at the Pacific College of Naturopathic Medicine. After this school unfortunately closed in 1983, she transferred to what is now known as Bastyr University.
Despite being a single mother starting in 1985 she not only commuted by ferry every day to school but also taught many of the botanical medicine classes and became the first chair of botanical medicine at Bastyr University. She also started an herbal company during this time known as Botanical Pharmaceuticals. Initially this was mainly a way to import tinctures produced by the late Hein Zeylstra, MNIMHÕs company Phyto Pharmaceuticals from Great Britain. Dr. Heron was instrumental in bringing Zeylstra to the US to teach on numerous occasions. Botanical Pharmaceuticals still exists today, renamed Heron Botanicals in her honor.
Dr. Heron graduated from Bastyr in 1988 and by 1990 moved to Sedona, AZ. There she wrote and lectured extensively while maintaining a busy family practice. She was one of the few clinicians who very actively combined botanical medicine and constitutional homeopathy, and wrote two long articles about the rationale and her successful experiences doing so in the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine. She was co-recipient of the NF Formula's In-Office Research Award in 2000 for a study of the safety of bitters containing Artemisia absinthium (wormwood).
In the late 1990s, Dr. Heron successfully championed the drive to start the Botanical Medicine Academy, an AANP-recognized specialty society in botanical medicine. The BMA has since worked to develop continuing education and credentialing for experts in botanical medicine, a lengthy and difficulty process, but always driven in part by Dr. Heron's unwavering desire to raise the professionalism and acceptance of herbal medicine to new levels.
In April 2000, Dr. Heron was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. Within a year she was too debilitated to keep practicing and making ends meet financially became difficult. In 2001, the American Herbalists Guild established the Herbalist Health Trust, a financial trust to which individuals could make tax deductible contributions and specify specific recipients in need of medical care that may otherwise not be eligible for insurance reimbursement. Dr. Heron was the first recipient of help and was the motivating force behind its creation.
After two surgeries and a wide-range of natural therapies, she managed to keep the cancer at bay for many years. After a round of low-dose chemotherapy for a recurrence in 2002, unfortunately, her heart was damaged. She had two operations in an attempt to stop the resulting arrhythmias, which did not respond to natural treatment. Weakened by these operations and the heart problems, Dr. Heron developed a severe cancer recurrence that ultimately led to a fatal intestinal obstruction.
For some, Silena was often difficult to get along with and demanding. For others the relationship was uncomplicated and deep. Regardless of the relationship one had with her there were a few things that could not be questioned; her commitment to healing others was unequaled and if she was a friend, she was a friend of the truest kind . She was a strong woman, uncompromising, dogged and persistent.
My own love of herbs started when Silena led an herb walk at the University of Washington herb garden. She knew everything about every herb, no matter how obscure. Such dedication and knowledge appealed to me greatly, as they did to everyone who could look past Silena's particular foibles (for we all have some after all).
Eventually she asked me to come and be her apprentice, which I foolishly refused at first out of not wanting to live in a the small town of Sedona. However, I saw Comet Hale-Bopp and realized it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, just as it was to work with one of the great masters of naturopathic and botanical medicine of our time. So I went and found out what a deep, complicated, and amazing person Silena was. Throughout her struggle against her cancer she both changed immensely and stayed completely the same. One of her last acts was to work on a book about formulating herbal medicines with me, which we did not finish but which I will complete (never as well as she would have done) and hopefully it will serve as a small reminder of her wisdom about medicinal herbs. She will be missed.
Silena requested that anyone interested in giving a tax deductible donation on behalf of her, to please give to the following organization: The Conscious Alliance Attention: Justin Levy 903 Summit Street Barrington, IL 60010 (for tax deductions, please include your name, address and phone number if possible)
Eric Yarnell, ND, RH(AHG)
Thank you to Noel Bergman-Benson, Sherry Hirsch, Jim Kravets and the Point Reyes Light, Paul Bergman, and Roy Upton for filling in details.
