Clinical Patterns vs. Uses
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2017
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We've all seen it before. You get super excited about a new herb and want to learn more about it. So you pull your herb books off the shelf and open it to the monograph on that plant.
Unfortunately what you end up with is oftentimes only a few paragraphs, many of which begin with "This herb is good for…." followed by a list of symptoms.
While this type of information can be useful, for me, it's just not deep enough. It doesn't ultimately lead to me having a comprehensive understanding of how that plant functions physiologically and alters the state of the tissues, organs and systems within the body.
What an herb is "good for" doesn't concern me as much as who that herb isand how it functions physiologically.
This has led to me to describe medicinal plants based on their clinical patterns, meaning what are the constellations of symptoms, physiological imbalances, and underlying tissue state/constitutional energetics that makes that plant beneficial for certain problems.
So rather than saying "Willow is good for headaches." I want to know why Willow is good for headaches. What is it doing on a physiological and energetic level in the body that makes it beneficial for headaches? What type of headache is it good for? Because many people take Willow for a headache and it doesn't do anything, but others do and it helps immensely.
In essence, we want to get more specific with our understanding on how to apply medicinal plants within a therapeutic context, and in my opinion the best way to do that is to understand the underlying patterns within the plants and how they match certain patterns within a person. This is often achieved through the synergy of looking at the actions, affinities and energetics of the herb then applying that synergy of information towards how it is applied medicinally.
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CONNECT WITH SAJAH AND WHITNEY
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ABOUT SAJAH
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Sajah Popham, founder of Organic Unity and The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, is committed to creating a new paradigm of plant medicine anchored in herbal, medical, and spiritual traditions from around the world. His work integrates the science and spirit of herbal medicine, creating a system that is equally holistic, healing and transformational. His unique synthesis bridges herbalism not only east and west, but north & south, above & below, into a universal philosophy that encompasses indigenous wisdom, Ayurveda, western Alchemy and Spagyrics, Astrology, clinical herbalism, and modern pharmacology.
Sajah's vitalist approach utilizes plants not only for physical healing and rejuvenation, but for the evolution of consciousness. He never allopathicallyl focuses on just what a plant is "good for" but rather who the plants are as sentient beings. Sajah's teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife where he teaches at his school, makes spagyric medicines, and practices his healing art. For more information about his products and programs, visit www.organic-unity.com & www.evolutionaryherbalism.com
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ABOUT THE PLANT PATH
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The Plant Path provides unique perspectives for the modern practitioner of herbalism that doesn't just want to "fix what's broken" in the body, but seeks to serve others with deeper levels of healing and transformation with herbal medicines.
A unique synergy of clinical herbalism, alchemy, medical astrology, and herbal traditions from around the world, The Plant Path focuses on giving you a truly "wholistic" perspective on herbal medicine so you never fall into the trap of allopathic herbalism.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Plant Path, Your Window into the World of Urban Medicine, with Saja Popham, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and Organic Keenade. |
| 0:26.6 | Hey there, everybody, Saja here. And I'm just hanging out in my little library here, |
| 0:30.6 | in the classroom where I teach all of our workshops |
| 0:33.6 | and shoot a bunch of our videos here, |
| 0:35.6 | and just been doing some research |
| 0:38.0 | for my Materia Monthly program where I'm going in depth on individual herbs each month. |
| 0:48.6 | Each video for that program has been averaging two to three hours just on one herb. |
| 0:55.4 | So I think I've been going getting into a lot of detail and it's been really great for me too to have that consistency |
| 0:59.8 | in my studies and research and focusing just on one plant at a time and really going deep into |
| 1:05.7 | that one remedy for that month, which is a really good way to learn your herbs, right? To just focus maybe on |
| 1:14.1 | one plant at a time and really go deep into that herb, study it inside and out through your |
| 1:19.6 | experience, through your research, through other people's experiences, tasting that herb, and every way that you can immerse yourself |
| 1:30.0 | in that plant. |
| 1:31.0 | Just for four weeks, that one herb, man, you're going to really know that herb very, very |
| 1:35.9 | well. |
| 1:36.8 | And I think that's one of the best ways to learn about an herb. |
| 1:41.0 | But, you know, whenever I'm doing my research and putting these monographs together, I'm |
| 1:46.9 | really compiling from like every possible resource that I can, from scientific information, |
| 1:55.4 | clinical information, Ayurvedic perspectives, Chinese perspectives, eclectics, physiomedicalist, naturopath, science, |
| 2:04.4 | chemistry, everything, everything about that plant. I want to learn about it because it's all |
| 2:10.1 | a different piece of the puzzle. But one of the things that I've noticed in a lot of herbal |
| 2:15.5 | books, and this is just my own personal opinion on things, is that a lot of herbal books, and this is just my own personal opinion on things, |
... |
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