Moving On

Opening the Heart

Until we have opened our Heart centre to a certain point, we are only working with our intellect. This incredible tool may be all we need to achieve impressive results. If we are drawn to working with plant spirits, we must learn to put it aside momentarily, to expand another area of awareness.

To open the Heart is to discover another level of understanding, which can guide our intellect, and tap a source of great power:

Sit quietly and centre your awareness in your heart.
Know that it is one focal point in a field of energy that permeates the whole planet.
Hear it beating and know that the energy that powers it, is yours to tap for healing.
Press your palms together and hold in front of your chest, centre your awareness in your forehead and feel the two merge.

Repeat this a few times until it seems automatic.

This exercise merges our vision with a level of understanding beyond our intellectual limits. It can then guide us subtly in our work. As we learn to respond to it more and more, it becomes an easy and natural part of our lives. This is Intuition.

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 intelligences behind plant and animal life operate, 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 jump 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.

Most of us have come across someone who seems to get results better than the norm, and thereby a reputation. This is done by a), intuiting the prescription, and b), having a connection with those plant spirits (via Teas), even if this is unconscious. The way to this greater awareness is through the Heart. The images on the Heart Diagrams in the ‘Origins‘ section are a journey to this point.

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 imput 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.

We have discussed throughout the site how disease mostly originates from thought and emotion, and how we can use plants at this level. Finally, we have touched at treatment on soul level.  This is a lot to take in. Healing emanates from the Heart. Empathy with plants, emanates from the Solar Plexus. The exercises in ‘Origins‘ section, especially the Diagrams, will surely develop that understanding.

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