There are many herbalist that I admire and I love collecting their books. There is a sense of security in knowing you have cures for your maladies in your back yard and information on how to use them easily accessible on your book shelf.
Right now I am engrossed in "Herbal Antibiotic; Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria." by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
Click Read More to see the complete post.
This book is terrifying and empowering all at the same time. It is chocked full of scientific data and folk plant wisdom, but it is the lens by which this author views herbal medicine (and life) that I find most inspiring. He challenges us to"...synergize within ourselves; to develop our abilities to feel and think simultaneously, neither in competition with the other, and blend those capacities together into a unique perceptual tool of tremendous elegance.....As Erich Fromm once commented: "Reason flows from the blending of rational thought and feeling. If the two functions are torn apart, thinking deteriorates into schizoid intellectual activity and feeling deteriorates into neurotic life-damaging passions."
Buhner addresses synergy in a way I have not encountered with other herbalist/authors. The value is not only in the synergy between the components in each individual plant, but the combined effect of using multiple plants to achieve healing that could not have occurred with the individual use of each plant.
The beginning of the medicine making chapter had an introduction that resonated with me in a very significant way, it reminded me why I do what I do and why I feel so passionate about nutritional and herbal healing.
An excerpt .....
Tremendous empowerment comes from learning to recognize the medicinal plants that surround us, even more in learning how to make them into medicines for healing. And though it takes time, as your knowledge increases, as you learn how to tend to your illnesses and those of your family, the sense of helplessness that so many of us have experienced when we become ill, often ingrained since birth, begins to dissipate.
We have been trained to place our health in the hands of outside specialists who, very often, know neither ourselves nor our families, not the fabric of our lives, nor the communities in which we live. They have no understanding of; and often no interest in, the complexity in which we live and from which our illnesses emerge. But for most of us, those specialist are the only place we know to go when we are ill, uncertain, and afraid, to seek help - for ourselves or our loved ones.
The world, however, is a great deal more complex than that frame allows and there are many more options to healing than that system acknowledges. All of us live, all the time, in the midst of a living pharmacy that covers the surface of this planet. And that living pharmacy is there for you, or anyone, to use- anytime you wish. Once you know that, once you have been healed by the plants in that living pharmacy, often of something that physicians said could not be healed, things are never the same again. You begin to break the cycle of dependence on which the health care system depends.
Taking back control over personal health and healing is one of the greatest forms of personal empowerment that I know. It does take time and effort, this kind of learning, but the learning goes quickly. Harder perhaps, is learning to trust the plants with your life. It is a truly frightening moment, that moment of decision, when trust is extended in that way, for, before it occurs, there is no way to experientially know what the outcome will be. Most people on this planet, though, people who do not live in the Western, industrialized nations, make that decision every day of their lives. It is a trust they extend every moment of every day. Trusting the healing capacities of the plants is not a new experience to the human species.
The next step in the journey is learning how to turn the plants you are learning about into medicines for yourself and your family. It isn't that hard - people all over the globe have been doing it for a hundred thousand years. At least.
Buy this book, read it, and when the terror subsides let your empowerment begin.
Please note: The objective of this blog is to raise awareness of alternative ways to achieve wellness and to empower you to take an active role in your health decisions. To accomplish this, you will need to explore these subjects in greater depth and then determine what makes sense for your life. My hope is that this information will inspire you to start your own search into ways to make your life happier, healthier and more fulfilling.
Right now I am engrossed in "Herbal Antibiotic; Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria." by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
This book is terrifying and empowering all at the same time. It is chocked full of scientific data and folk plant wisdom, but it is the lens by which this author views herbal medicine (and life) that I find most inspiring. He challenges us to"...synergize within ourselves; to develop our abilities to feel and think simultaneously, neither in competition with the other, and blend those capacities together into a unique perceptual tool of tremendous elegance.....As Erich Fromm once commented: "Reason flows from the blending of rational thought and feeling. If the two functions are torn apart, thinking deteriorates into schizoid intellectual activity and feeling deteriorates into neurotic life-damaging passions."
Buhner addresses synergy in a way I have not encountered with other herbalist/authors. The value is not only in the synergy between the components in each individual plant, but the combined effect of using multiple plants to achieve healing that could not have occurred with the individual use of each plant.
The beginning of the medicine making chapter had an introduction that resonated with me in a very significant way, it reminded me why I do what I do and why I feel so passionate about nutritional and herbal healing.
An excerpt .....
Tremendous empowerment comes from learning to recognize the medicinal plants that surround us, even more in learning how to make them into medicines for healing. And though it takes time, as your knowledge increases, as you learn how to tend to your illnesses and those of your family, the sense of helplessness that so many of us have experienced when we become ill, often ingrained since birth, begins to dissipate.
We have been trained to place our health in the hands of outside specialists who, very often, know neither ourselves nor our families, not the fabric of our lives, nor the communities in which we live. They have no understanding of; and often no interest in, the complexity in which we live and from which our illnesses emerge. But for most of us, those specialist are the only place we know to go when we are ill, uncertain, and afraid, to seek help - for ourselves or our loved ones.
The world, however, is a great deal more complex than that frame allows and there are many more options to healing than that system acknowledges. All of us live, all the time, in the midst of a living pharmacy that covers the surface of this planet. And that living pharmacy is there for you, or anyone, to use- anytime you wish. Once you know that, once you have been healed by the plants in that living pharmacy, often of something that physicians said could not be healed, things are never the same again. You begin to break the cycle of dependence on which the health care system depends.
Taking back control over personal health and healing is one of the greatest forms of personal empowerment that I know. It does take time and effort, this kind of learning, but the learning goes quickly. Harder perhaps, is learning to trust the plants with your life. It is a truly frightening moment, that moment of decision, when trust is extended in that way, for, before it occurs, there is no way to experientially know what the outcome will be. Most people on this planet, though, people who do not live in the Western, industrialized nations, make that decision every day of their lives. It is a trust they extend every moment of every day. Trusting the healing capacities of the plants is not a new experience to the human species.
The next step in the journey is learning how to turn the plants you are learning about into medicines for yourself and your family. It isn't that hard - people all over the globe have been doing it for a hundred thousand years. At least.
Buy this book, read it, and when the terror subsides let your empowerment begin.
Please note: The objective of this blog is to raise awareness of alternative ways to achieve wellness and to empower you to take an active role in your health decisions. To accomplish this, you will need to explore these subjects in greater depth and then determine what makes sense for your life. My hope is that this information will inspire you to start your own search into ways to make your life happier, healthier and more fulfilling.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments and questions are welcome!