Intro To Planetary Herbology

Herbs are not only our first medicine; they are also the source for many things we need for our survival, including food, shelter, clothing and medicine, all of which reflect the profound relationship between humanity and the plant kingdom.

But in the 21st century it seems that we have come a long way in achieving control and dominion over the unpredictable elements of nature, which in the past had such a determining influence over the daily course of our lives. One may even excuse our inadvertent arrogance each time we forget about the intimate role that plants play in our daily lives, which includes their serving as the basis for at least 25% of all pharmaceutical drugs. Of further thoughtful consideration is this: in a world which today seeks to lessen its dependence on petroleum, the remaining 75% of all pharmaceutical drugs are derived from petrochemicals.

Only in times of crisis are most of us reminded of the importance of being less dependent on highly industrialized, technological systems as our source for food and medicine. This is especially true if we realize the extent to which our food chain is compromised by the heavy-handed use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified foods.

What we face now is a world health crisis. For too many, mainstream medicine remains inaccessible due to the rising cost of health care insurance. Add to that the inability of conventional medicine to offer a satisfactory solution for many diseases. Then there’s the plethora of adverse side-effects from prescription drug use. Given all of the above, it’s easy to see how a $15 billion-a-year alternative health care business was born. That hefty figure represents what people are willing to pay out of pocket; most alternative health care is still not funded by insurance.

In response to this state of affairs, many people consciously make the choice to assert their birthright to find out how herbs might serve their personal, family, and community health needs.

Those of us who pursue that birthright have found healing in simply re-establishing our connection with nature and plants. I certainly did when I lived in a rural community, where I also learned that people are naturally curious about the uses of different local plants. In such a place, the first and most common question people ask when they encounter a new plant is, “What’s it good for?”

Even in the most built-up cities, healing plants regarded as “weeds” are found everywhere — some even pushing through cracks in concrete! Could these plants be trying to tell us something?

This kind of curiosity may not always come naturally to city dwellers, whose surroundings, by definition, are less “green.” Of course, in the city, where a person may not even know the name of his next door neighbor, it’s not likely that he would make the effort to learn the names of local plants.

But in even the most built-up cities, healing plants regarded as “weeds” are found everywhere — some even literally pushing through the cracks of asphalt and concrete!

Could these plants be trying to tell us something?

Whether you live in an urban or rural environment, if your innate interest and curiosity in “‘things green” is active, and you want to know how to begin putting healing plants to practical use in your life, you have a hurdle to cross: Where can you turn to learn about the uses of herbs and how to employ them with safety and maximum efficacy?

It’s ironic — at this juncture in history, where the Internet and mass communication are supposed to increase our awareness of each other and the world we live in, the large majority of people living in the West find themselves even more cut off from their fellow human beings and nature. And unfortunately, despite the fact that more information on almost any subject is available now than ever before in history, we have somehow been separated from the historical stream of empirical knowledge and wisdom passed through generations about the uses of the oldest inhabitants of this planet: plants.

In the West, what many are left with is a lifeless catalogue of information and random facts stating how a specific herb was used for a specific “named” disease. Used in this drug-like way, plants are remarkably unpredictable in their effects even compared to pharmaceutical drugs.

However, if we are guided to one of the three powerful traditional world healing systems, which to a greater or lesser extent have somehow miraculously survived the neglect and assault of time, we may learn the art of using herbs to treat underlying causes of diseases in the form of toxic excesses and/or deficiencies.

“Planetary Herbology” is an approach that teaches how to heal with plants, integrated with seasonal, lifestyle and dietary patterns. It brings together primarily, but not exclusively, the three great systems of herbal healing: Western Herbal Medicine (WHM), Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and East Indian Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine (TAM), which I integrate with Yoruba Herbology.

Why not limit ourselves to the study of just one or the other of these systems?

Today, where ethnic and cultural boundaries are increasingly blurred, any student of herbal medicine is exposed to a wide variety of herbs from around the globe, along with different ethnic herbal healing systems. Each herbal tradition’s own materia medica (catalogue of plants used for medicine) has a unique relevance and value that another tradition may lack.

But a student herbalist must not only immerse himself or herself in the study of materia medica; one must also become proficient at an assessment (diagnosis) methodology appropriate to the use of herbs. For this methodology, we turn to Yoruba Herbology (the world’s first healing system) from which traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, the two most powerful herbal systems in the world. This healing system spans at least 5,000 years of accumulated wealth of herbal knowledge. From these lineages we inherit elegant and sophisticated systems that correlate the energies and properties of plants to specific differential diagnostic signs and symptoms.

Using these systems, along with the long-lost traditions from Western herbal medicine, the Plant Immersion Herb Course offers a comprehensive and truly planetary education in materia medica and Body Immersion Herb Course offers education into assessment. Of course, the transmission of many of these ideas in writing has its limitations, so the Prairiewise Herb School holds classes via Zoom with in-person intensives coming soon. All of these options are reserved for students who wish to deepen their experience and knowledge.

Look for the next Herbalism excerpt, where we will get an overview of the World’s Healing Systems. We will go over a few herbs and their actions, how the healing systems play their role, and more.