Connecting Our Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Health
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As a holistic herbalist, our goal is to work with the WHOLE person. From many traditional perspectives, there are three primary organizational layers of the human being. In Alchemy these are referred to as Salt, Mercury and Sulfur. In Ayurveda it is vata, pitta, and kapha, or prana, tejas, and ojas. The Chinese refer to Jing, Shen, and Chi. From the most simplest orientation, we can say that we have a body, a spirit and a soul- the spirit in this context referring to the vital force, as well as our specific psychological and emotional patterning.
For the herbalist, we want our understanding of a person to orient around the physical, psychological and spiritual levels of health. But essential to the holistic model, is that THEY AREN'T SEPARATE! Rather, the body is the condensed aspect of the soul, and the soul is the most subtle, ethereal, or volatile aspect of the body. They are connected, part that constitute our wholeness.
Unfortunately for a lot of herbalists, there is a separation in regards to how the body's health is perceived from the health of the mind, emotions and spirit. We may understand the body through its' anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, or energetics, but then have a totally separate pattern or framework for understanding the psyche and soul. This makes seeing the connections between physical, psychological and spiritual symptoms quite difficult.
This is where the astrological model comes in. Through astrology, we have our natal birth chart, which is commonly seen as representing our core personality, qualities and characteristics. In the evolutionary approach to astrology, the chart also shows us our growth edges and what lessons life is presenting to us for our soul to further its development and evolution.
But what's commonly NOT looked at in astrology, is the fact that the chart also represents our physical body, our organs, systems, tissues and constitution.
In this way, through our natal birth chart, we have the ability to see the pattern of relationship between what's happening in our physical body and it's connection to the mind, heart, and spiritual growth. This gives the herbalist an incredibly precise and specific tool for holistic assessment and evaluation, especially for those with an interest in attending to helping people beyond their physical health.
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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 | Hey there, everybody. Sagea Popham here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. |
| 0:06.2 | And in this week's blog episode, I wanted to talk about the importance of being able to see the |
| 0:14.3 | connection between what's going on in our physical bodies with our thoughts, our emotions, and ultimately to our |
| 0:25.2 | soul's development here on this Mother Earth? |
| 0:29.4 | Last week, I was talking a bit about medical astrology and how the astrological model |
| 0:37.4 | gives us as herbalists this incredibly |
| 0:40.3 | powerful tool and framework for developing a truly holistic model in the sense that we see |
| 0:49.1 | the whole person and the whole plant in connection to the wholeness of nature. |
| 0:55.6 | And, you know, people ask me all the time, like, how does that work? |
| 0:59.3 | Like, how exactly does medical astrology work? |
| 1:03.1 | And how does it allow us to see that connection between kind of the physical symptoms of our body |
| 1:10.1 | and the patterns that we experience |
| 1:13.3 | throughout our lives in terms of our emotions and our feelings and our thinking and how that |
| 1:18.5 | relates to our spiritual development. |
| 1:21.3 | And, you know, one of the ways that I like to think of this is just basically looking at |
| 1:26.9 | the human being, right, and thinking through what are the |
| 1:31.8 | main organizational levels of our being, right? Like how is a human being put together, so to speak? |
| 1:38.4 | And one of the most simple ways of approaching that is based on the three-fold model used in the Western alchemical |
| 1:48.3 | tradition where they say that everything in nature is composed of these three philosophical |
| 1:55.3 | principles, what they refer to as sulfur, mercury, and salt. And those correlate to the soul, the spirit, and the body |
| 2:04.9 | respectively. And in terms of the, just real quick, that difference between the soul and the |
| 2:12.6 | spirit, in the Western alchemical model, you know you know the spirit it kind of relates to our |
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