The People's Medicine

Before we had Google filtering our access to herbal and natural health information, there were typically well-trusted members of the community or family that we could just go and ask.

I dare say that just a few generations ago, nearly every granny would have an apothecary in her kitchen. A basic understanding of the herbs, folk remedies, and symptomologies pertaining to the local natural environment was not a hobby but a long-passed-down tradition and system of knowledge that was ongoingly cultivated out of necessity. Even when peoples were uprooted from their original territories, they brought their seeds with them and would quickly adapt, learning and incorporating new plants into already-existing wisdom traditions.

"Early African American herbalism was based on a relationship and connection to the land. Enslaved Africans brought the seeds of their homelands braided into their hair and the knowledge of medicinal plants in their stories and songs..." ~ Penniman, 2020, exerpted from "ROOTS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HERBALISM" by Alyson Morgan.

Today's Western "conventional medicine" is...different, to say the least. The body is just a machine to be "fixed" and manipulated with chemicals. Doctors learn little to nothing about herbs (or nutrition) in their 8+ years of intensive study, let alone sing songs about them from their grannies! And if you want to treat yourself naturally, don't expect the insurance companies to sponsor your decision – even at a small fraction of the cost of "conventional treatment."

Perhaps the modern medicalization, standardization, and commercialization of herbal/health information are not all bad, though...there are some pretty strange recorded folk remedies that I would rather not try (ever try wrapping a dirty sock or bacon around your neck to cure your soar throat?). And emergency medicine, after all, is an absolute saving grace in dire times.

When it comes to the treatment of chronic illness, however, it doesn't seem like much has improved at all. In fact, we are sicker than ever and most modern people are equipped with little to no knowledge or confidence to prevent or remedy their own sickness (Gushée, 2016; Freeman, 2011).

Have we as a people signed over our rights of self- and body-sovereignty to the massive industries of big Pharma and big farms? What happened to all of those age-old traditions and the herbal wisdom that kept us alive and vital when we didn't have hospitals or the internet?

NEWS FLASH!

Plant medicine and herbal wisdom didn't go anywhere – it's right here!
It's in your backyard, sprouting up through your concrete sidewalks as the fierce little dandelions do. It's in the fresh breath of air that nourishes your lungs when you step outside, the same air the trees are breathing out.
When you enjoy a simple green tea or a coffee in the morning, these plants are communicating with your body, sharing their information with you. The same goes for the food that allows you to live.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, we are all in an ongoing symbiotic relationship with plants, all the time. Love 'em or hate 'em, we can't live without them.

"Herbal medicine is people’s medicine. Herbal medicine is the primary medicine of most people on this planet, right now. It’s not something old and dusty. It's not a bunch of doctors and chemists figuring out how to use herbs like drugs. Herbal medicine is a 3-year-old picking plantain and putting it on a skinned knee or an insect bite. Herbal medicine is the medicine of women and children. It is the medicine of the earth. It’s medicine that’s free. It’s not something that must be studied before it can help you. Start with one plant. Approach herbal medicine directly, hands on, in the back yard with your children."
~ Susun Weed

Plant medicine has been here all along.
What has changed is human awareness, modes of perception and interpretation of the natural world and all of its beautiful diverse beings. The modern Western mind has developed a tricky habit of "othering" and objectifying the outside and/or natural world. Rather than entering into a relationship with a wise teacher and healer – a specific plant – we reduce it to an inanimate substance or a conceptualized chemical effect.

Thus, our capacities for true listening and presence are diminished by unconscious habits of thought and unquestioned assumptions. The possibilities of our experienced reality are streamlined by the limits of our imagination, the ideas we have about things and how we choose to name them.

Do you spray dandelions in your yard with round-up every Spring because they are a weed, or do you celebrate their arrival and accept them as a gift & medicine? The first name triggers a labor of destruction and typically, frustration when you lose the battle against these persistent and determined little flowers. The second interpretation initiates a labor of love and creativity, most likely to be characterized by joy, thankfulness, and downright practicality.

The ones who still remember the original stories of the plants, who carry their songs and can translate their languages may be few and far between. But that doesn't mean that the wisdom of the plants has been lost – where do you think those songs and stories came from originally?
From the plants themselves, of course!

And for those wishing to recover their ancestral memories and cultural seeds, plants offer a pathway into the information and memory contained within a territory. If we can learn to listen...if we can remember how to properly use this body and our heart as the highly sensitive instruments of perception and communication that they are...if we can pay attention...we may again be able to enter into a relationship of respect and reverence for Nature as our greatest healer and the direct reflection of the Divine.

We can begin again to relate to ourselves as expressions of both, through the lense of Beauty, Wonder, and Mystery.

We can work with plants as our allies and teachers in reclaiming our sovereignty over our own bodies and our health, and keep ourselves and our loved ones not only free from "dis-ease" but vitally alive and thriving.

Most of it is free and it's here for everyone. You cannot patent it. It is the incredible intelligence of Life itself, in a vast diversity of forms.

Nature is the true medicine for the people. We may isolate it, distort it, objectify, conceptualize and manipulate it beyond recognition...but the source is always One and the same. It is my belief that the closer we get to that original Source – i.e. living, whole foods & herbs – the greater the benefit for ourselves and the environments we inhabit.

And so too do We – in the experience of ourselves as extensions of that same natural intelligence and active participants in the great weaving of mutual reciprocity with all of Life – become medicine for the People.
Messengers, teachers, healers, farmers, artists, lovers, sons & daughters.
We are all here, and everything we need is provided in abundance. That is – if we know where to look and how to give and receive in balance.

It is time to free ourselves and our relationships with all "others" from the limited stories and unconscious beliefs that dampen our powers of imagination and creative action. It is time to remember, activate, and share our gifts – our true presence – with all of Life.

With Love, Ness