We've traveled a long way together.

Through fire — the yellow bile of ambition and the cost of burning bright. Through air — the blood of connection and the art of giving without losing yourself. Through water — the phlegm of stillness and the wisdom of waiting. Through earth — the black bile of melancholy and the courage to feel.

Now, in this Season One finale of Ash & Honey, host Alexandria Quinn Love weaves it all together. What does it mean to hold all four elements at once? To be a whole person in a world that constantly tries to reduce us to one thing?

This episode is about integration — living with the seasons, knowing your constitutional tendency, and working with your nature instead of against it. It's also about vision: the larger world of Ash & Honey that's beginning to take shape. A cookbook called The Iron Orchard: A Kitchen Pharmacy Companion. A philosophy of living called Ash & Honey Living. And a Season Two that will explore Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and more ancient wisdom waiting to be remembered.

But most of all, this episode is about the mantra you've heard at the end of every episode — and what it truly means.

🎧 In this episode:

• The dance of elements: why you are not one thing
• Living seasonally: a practical framework for the humoral year
• Knowing your constitution: which humor is your home base?
• The Kitchen Pharmacy: food as the first medicine
• The larger vision: introducing Ash & Honey Living and The Iron Orchard
• The mantra explained: what "let the burn teach you, let the honey keep you" really means

You are whole. You have always been whole.

Coming Soon: The Iron Orchard: A Kitchen Pharmacy Companion — Simple Nourishments for Body & Spirit

Coming in Season Two: Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the continuing journey.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.

This episode is different. It's the one that asks us to sit with something our culture desperately wants us to avoid.

The ancient Greeks called it melaina kholé — black bile. The humor of earth, of autumn, of endings. The darkest of the four vital fluids. And they understood something we've forgotten: there is wisdom in the dark. There is medicine in melancholy. And some of the most important work of being human can only happen when we stop running from the shadows.

In this episode of Ash & Honey, host Alexandria Quinn Love descends into the deepest of the four humors. We'll explore why Aristotle believed all great thinkers and artists were melancholic. We'll name the gifts of black bile — depth, authenticity, creativity, compassion — and we'll face its shadow: the despair that has no bottom, the isolation that feeds itself, the darkness that becomes prison rather than passage.

Because here's what the ancients knew: black bile is not your enemy. It's the compost from which new growth emerges. It's autumn's necessary work. And learning to honor it — without being consumed by it — may be the most important skill we ever develop.

🎧 In this episode:

• What is black bile? Earth, autumn, and the melancholic temperament
• The gifts of darkness: depth, creativity, and the wisdom of impermanence
• When darkness becomes prison: recognizing dangerous excess
• Tending black bile: ancient remedies for warming and moistening the spirit
• A meditation on autumn: the tree that knows when to let go

You are not broken. You are composting. Something is being made in you that could not be made any other way.

Content note: This episode discusses grief, depression, and despair. If you're struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or a crisis resource.

Next Episode: Season One Finale — The Whole Person: Weaving Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.

We talk about "bouncing back" like it is a virtue—as if the goal of trauma is to return to exactly who you were before the fire. But you cannot un-burn a house. And you shouldn't try.

In this inaugural episode of Ash & Honey, historian and herbalist Alexandria Quinn Love opens the door to Apocotherapy: the practice of healing by moving away from the toxic and returning to the root.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Table in Texas: The moment Alexandria realized her body had forgotten how to exhale after three years of grief and hyper-vigilance.
• The Ancient Diagnosis: Why the Greeks wouldn't call it "stress"—they would call it a war between Yellow Bile (Fire/Ambition) and Black Bile (Earth/Grief).
• The Nervous System Bridge: Understanding how Fight or Flight dries out our internal resources, leaving us brittle and locked.
• The Invitation: A simple practice to stop fixing yourself and start naming your season.

If you are tired of treating your burnout with more productivity, this episode is your permission slip to stop.

Join the Circle: Subscribe to Ash & Honey for weekly episodes on reclaiming ancient wisdom for modern healing.

Next week-Fire in the Blood: Healing Anger, Ambition & The Hustle

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.

You know that person. The one who walks into a room and makes it warmer. Who remembers your name, your dog's name, that thing you mentioned three months ago. Who laughs easily and makes everyone feel like they belong.

Maybe you are that person. Or maybe you're the one who can't stand to be alone — who gives and gives until there's nothing left, then wonders why you feel so hollow.

The ancient Greeks called this the sanguine temperament, from the Latin word for blood. And blood, in the humoral system, was the humor of warmth, connection, and joy — mapped to air, to spring, to the heart itself.

In this episode of Ash & Honey, host Alexandria Quinn Love explores the gifts of blood: the ability to connect, to hope, to savor life's pleasures, to build communities that hold us. But she also explores the shadow — the people-pleasing, the scattered energy, the inability to be alone, and the slow depletion that comes from giving without receiving.

Because here's what the ancients understood: blood has to circulate. It flows out and it comes back in. And if you're always giving your warmth away without letting it return, eventually there's nothing left.

🎧 In this episode:

• What is blood? Air, spring, and the sanguine temperament
• The gifts of blood: connection, optimism, pleasure, and resilience
• The shadow of blood: people-pleasing, depletion, and the fear of being alone
• Tending the blood: ancient remedies for excess and depletion
• The rhythm of warmth: why givers must learn to receive

You are allowed to have boundaries. You are allowed to rest. You are allowed to need.

Next Episode: Phlegm — the humor of water, stillness, and deep calm.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.

Have you ever had one of those weeks — maybe one of those years — where you just couldn't stop? The to-do list was endless. The deadlines were screaming. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a voice kept saying: just a little more. Just push a little harder. Sleep when you're dead.

The ancient Greeks had a name for this. They called it an excess of yellow bile — the humor of fire, ambition, and heat. And they understood something we've forgotten: the same fire that drives you can also destroy you.

In this episode of Ash & Honey, host Alexandria Quinn Love explores the choleric temperament — the fire in your blood that makes you a leader, a creator, a force of nature. We'll uncover how the Greeks mapped yellow bile to the liver, to summer, to the element of fire itself. And we'll get honest about what happens when the fire burns out of control: the inflammation, the insomnia, the irritability, the crash.

But this isn't a condemnation of ambition. It's an invitation to tend your fire instead of letting it consume you. Learn the ancient remedies for cooling excess heat — and discover why your fire is worth protecting.

🎧 In this episode:

• What is yellow bile? Fire, summer, and the choleric temperament
• When fire serves us: ambition, courage, and the drive to create
• When fire destroys us: hustle culture and the epidemic of burnout
• Cooling the fire: ancient remedies for modern exhaustion
• Balance, not elimination: building a hearth for your flame

Your ambition is not a disease. But a fire without a hearth becomes a wildfire.

Next Episode: Blood — the sanguine humor of warmth, connection, and joy.

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.

After an injury left me at just 15% functionality, the road back wasn’t quick — or quiet. In this episode, we talk about the slow art of healing: the ancient wisdom of Humorism, the lessons of blood and movement, and how two unruly dogs (and a very cautious husband) helped me rediscover strength, patience, and joy.

You’ll learn how ancient healers saw motion, warmth, and balance as medicine — and how those same principles can still guide us through modern recovery.

Whether you’re rebuilding your health, your spirit, or your faith in your body, this conversation invites you to start where you are, move gently, and celebrate the small victories that lead to wholeness.

Humorism & holistic healing, modern recovery, resilience after injury, balance in motion, the mind-body connection

Let the burn teach you. Let the honey keep you.
Until next time — be gentle with the body that carries you.