Herbal Energetics
Herbal actions — it doesn’t sound nearly as exciting or sexy as botanical monographs or the latest cure-all, does it? I’m aware that a fair number of beginning and intermediate herbalists tend to gloss over this particular subject, probably in part because of the typically vague and boring explanations given in many books and classes. What you may not realize [...]
The Sensory Continuum in Herbal Energetics
Before you can even begin to understand energetic terms like stimulating and relaxing, cooling and heating, moistening and drying, you need to realize that we are not speaking in terms of dichotomous polarities. Rather that viewing different herbs and herbal actions as opposites, realize they are actually dynamic continuums.
A continuum is “a continuous sequence in [...]
Human & Herbal Energetics: Stimulant & Relaxant
Stimulating
Tthe typical definition of stimulate is something like “to encourage or cause increased activity in a state or process”. In vitalist herbalism, as defined by Paul Bergner and the Physiomedicalists of the early 1900’s, it is “the increase of vital expression in a tissue or organ”.
Let’s be clear, this is not just cocaine, methamphetamines, and [...]
The Elder Mother’s Pantry:
An Herbal Materia Medica for Influenza and Other Cold-Weather Ailments
As the colder weather begins to move into the northerly reaches and higher eleveations of the Western hemisphere, there’s been much talk of the dreaded H1N1 as well as other virulent strains of cold and flu. The most important action you can take this is preventative in nature, including [...]
The foundation for experiencing and understanding herbal energetics and human constitutions is to learn to speak with the natural world (including plants and the human body) through our senses (which is what they’re there for, after all). Thus, one of the most important practices of the aspiring or practicing herbalist is to thoroughly awaken, engage and refine the senses.
Of the [...]
Human Energetics: Excess and Deficiency
Herbal energetics and human constitutions are predicated upon specific underlying concepts, including the spectrums of hot/cold, dry/moist, relaxation/stimulation and deficiency/excess. Herbal and dietary therapeutics will vary a great deal depending where the individual currently resides within these spectrums.
Deficiency and excess are a primary energetic spectrum and are defined in relation to the flow and concentration [...]
The *Core Nature of Plants
by Kiva Rose
Our relationship to the plants is an ancient one, and we humans are well designed to engage the magic and medicine of the living earth we are a part of. All we need is right here – the vast and verdant world of the plants that speak to us, the extraordinary capacities of our senses [...]
