Pondering and Dreaming
When we ponder, we mull things over with our intellectual mind. We make judgements and decisions from the facts as we understand them. We are limited by what we have studied and by some of our opinions.
Dreaming on the other hand, requires suspension of the intellectual process, and thereby tapping into the universal source – Mind. We can see that by this definition, we are not just talking about sleeping dreams but are consciously accessing another realm of thought (also known as Dreamtime), and consciously entered at will by shamans and spiritual seekers the world over.
It is here that the intelligence behind plant and animal life operates, and here that we can contact them. If we wish to do this with ease, we need to be familiar with the way.
Sit, hands on knees, feet on floor
Imagine you can hear the meaning of what you want to know,
Imagine you can see the connections to the answers you need.
This exercise only need be done once, to establish a shift into dreamtime. Each time it is repeated, it creates a well-worn pathway, access soon becomes effortless. Once we can pass into this state of mind, we can truly appreciate the full extent of a plant’s being.
What is the point of doing this? Apart from knowing a herb, which is a fine thing for a herbalist anyway, each plant is but one of the myriad strands of the overall Thought of this Earth. It is therefore a pathway towards a greater knowing of Nature. As we know a few more plants, we gradually realise how Nature nurtures all things, and we become part of that process.
The Role of the Herbalist Today
It is evident that there is enormous power yet to be tapped from Herbal Medicine. Yet this power must be largely gained from experience, it can’t be transmitted at a school along with a certificate. It is also true to say that a good body of medicine, hitherto undertaken by herbalists, is nowadays better left to modern medicine. These are the acute, or life-threatening syndromes.
This leaves us with the bane of modern health, the chronic conditions. These are of two kinds; those that have depleted the patient, and have been poorly treated, and those whose emotional cause has been ignored or poorly addressed. Either way, if we want to make a serious impact on society, we need to progress beyond teas and tinctures per se. To do that, we must work on ourselves. The few seemingly simple exercises on this site, will enable this. We can then use these medicines in a knowing way, confident in the reality of the centres, and the effect we are having on them.
Looking at the over burdened NHS, we can see that if the huge numbers of chronic patients could have been treated in this way, many of them would have not become chronic. Let us imagine a patient in their thirties, whom we can heal of a potentially serious condition e.g. asthma or a bowel condition. It is quite possible that they would otherwise need treatment for most of their life. The cost of this is impossible to guess, but will ongoing for decades. As would be the cost of a blighted life.
We can see from this, that we would be easing the work load of the system for the future. Potentially, a department using this form of treatment, would be incrementally reducing the number of return patients into the future. This is a real goal.
Pulling it all Together
Plants can affect the human being, from the soul right down to the physical flesh and bone. We need to be aware that our general treatment with teas and tinctures affects the physical energy, and is therefore quite effective at treating the functions of the various glands and organs. Physical structure and symptoms can be further healed with fresh plants. But they cannot treat the cause at mental level.
However, by gathering our own herbs, we automatically gather with a certain input from that plant spirit. This is the basis of herbal medicine thoughout the ages. We have lost some of the power and function of herbs, by relying on commercially produced substitutes. By gathering some of our own herbs, we increase their effect, and start to feel the Joy of a partnership with them.
If we can eventually gather with full spirit, we would witness a shift to another level of results, whilst using far less herbs. We become aware of really getting to the root of case, at least some of the time.