Lately my work with plant medicine seems to be divided into two categories: 1. Mental/physical 2. Spiritual/emotional. I know – at the core, there’s a combination of all four realms, yet the distinction in my recent educational experiences has been noticeable.
A couple of weekends ago, I recertified as a Wilderness First-Aid Responder. As much as I would like patient care to be intuitive, the idea of assessing a scenario, scanning a person, and thinking into possible medical conditions, takes a lot of mental discernment. It’s another structure in the field of medicine that I believe deserves great respect (thank you to those who choose medical care as a full time profession!). When teaching herbal first aid to this year’s Foundational Apprenticeship, I could see the students’ minds spinning when thinking into different body systems, common conditions and treatment strategies. Here’s where recognizing what is appropriate for plant medicine or necessary for conventional medicine is especially important. And, as cerebral as that may seem, there’s always a touch of intuition.
The physical components of this take on plant medicine and first aid falls within the applications. How do we physically respond? What is needed here? Is the problem and/or treatment internal or external? And so forth… Be it an acute emergency or an ongoing chronic ailment, these principles are almost always applied.
And then there’s that intuition again… that inner knowing or that part of you that acts without thought. When balanced, this part might be calm and present – when disturbed, this might be chaotic and disembodied. In the scope of medicine, the emotional and spiritual attributes are crucial, yet more challenging to teach.
What I have seen in teaching herbalism, is that the felt sense of plants deepens as we spend time with them, work with them, and learn through them. Yes, it is important to understand the constitutional makeup, and even more so, botanical identification – yet when we can move beyond that, a shift may occur.
The juxtaposition of mental and emotional was heightened the other day in class as we focused on flower morphology (and plant family identification) in combination with flower essences. In the late morning, students sat with certain plants where they collected flowers to infuse in the sun. The emotional and spiritual essence of the plant’s flowers were observed and imbued. Be it felt or implied, we opened to another layer of plant medicine.
I find that this is where a great divide occurs by onlookers of herbalism – be it people that are interested in working with plant medicine or those repelled by it – there’s often a division between the science and the spirit. Yet, diving deeper into the practice and principles, I see herbalism as both. As one teacher said to me, “there’s two ends to the rainbow of clinical herbalism; the barefoot/braless and tie-dyed t-shirts on one end and the rigid, bleach-white coat on the other.” The full spectrum is everything in between.
Where is this going? As I think into “what is alive” at the beginning of June, it’s this rainbow of plant medicine that can be wrapped around a four-quadrant circle holding the ways of working with plants: mental, physical, spiritual and emotional. And, I hope that my value of these four elements are felt as I rev up my teachings in the months to come.
May you join me on this plant medicine continuum? There are a lot of opportunities to connect, learn and be in community with the plants…
To science, spirit, and beyond,
Rachael