Cultural Differences in Medicine Making
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Herbal medicine is and has always been, the peoples' medicine.
Just as there's significant variation in the people and cultures that fill our world, there's a myriad of medicine-making techniques that reflect these differences.
What are some traditional forms of medicine making and how do they compare to today's more "scientific" approaches to herbal pharmacy? Furthermore, is there one that's better than the rest?
In today's topic, we'll be discussing:
- How formulating herbal medicine is a practice as nuanced as the development of herbalism itself
- The ancient, modern, spiritual, and medical practices that all offer unique pathways to healing and their medicine making methodologies
- The pros and cons of taking a standardized approach to medicine-making versus taking a more personal approach
- The unique aspects that each tradition specializes in
- How to identify the best medicine making practice for yourself
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ABOUT THE PLANT PATH
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The Plant Path is a window into the world of herbal medicine. With perspectives gleaned from traditional Western herbalism, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Alchemy, Medical Astrology, and traditional cultures from around the world, The Plant Path provides unique insights, skills and strategies for the practice of true holistic herbalism. From clinical to spiritual perspectives, we don't just focus on what herbs are "good for," but rather who they are as intelligent beings, and how we can work with them to heal us physically and consciously evolve.
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ABOUT SAJAH
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Sajah Popham is the author of Evolutionary Herbalism and the founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, where he trains herbalists in a holistic system of plant medicine that encompasses clinical Western herbalism, medical astrology, Ayurveda, and spagyric alchemy.
His mission is to develop a comprehensive approach that balances the science and spirituality of plant medicine, focusing on using plants to heal and rejuvenate the body, clarify the mind, open the heart, and support the development of the soul. This is only achieved through understanding and working with the chemical, energetic, and spiritual properties of the plants. His 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 on a homestead in the foothills of Mt. Baker Washington with his wife Whitney where he teaches, consults clients, and prepares spagyric herbal medicines.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the plant path, your window into the world of herbal medicine, with Saja and Whitney Popham, founders of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. |
| 0:24.8 | Hey there, everybody. Sagea Popham here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, |
| 0:28.9 | and welcome to this week's episode here on the channel. And got a really great question this |
| 0:34.6 | week about the spectrum of preparing plants into medicines. |
| 0:40.8 | You know, we look at different cultures and traditions across the world of verbal medicine |
| 0:44.7 | from traditional cultures to modern science. And there is a whole bunch of different ways |
| 0:51.3 | that plants are prepared into medicines from as simple as picking it |
| 0:57.4 | and eating it to supercritical CO2 extractions to spigyrics to just making a simple cup of tea. |
| 1:05.6 | There's a lot of different ways we can get medicinal plants into our bodies and I think there there's a lot of questions in the air sometimes of, you know, are they all effective? |
| 1:16.6 | Are some better than others? How do people do it traditionally? Are these fancy new modern ways of extracting plants any better than just making an infusion or decoction. So that's what I'm talking about |
| 1:30.3 | in this week's post. Thanks so much for joining me in this one. Be sure to take that second |
| 1:36.8 | and hit the like, hit the subscribe button. It really does help the channel out and helps us to |
| 1:43.0 | continue to provide a bunch of free content for |
| 1:45.8 | you once a week. So thanks so much for joining me here in this video and I hope you enjoy |
| 1:50.7 | learning about this variety of medicine preparations. |
| 1:56.3 | All right, question number two from Kelly Lachimie in the Vitalist Herbal Practitioner Program. |
| 2:01.6 | And Kelly is asking, who's where to go, there we go, okay, and Kelly is asking, |
| 2:10.6 | I follow Dr. Cheryl Tilgener's methodology of tincturing herbs according to her book, |
| 2:16.6 | herbal medicine from the |
| 2:17.7 | heart of the earth. The percentages are very precise for achieving the recommended strength. |
| 2:23.3 | I'm wondering if herbalists of old, the eclectics and old physicians, had 95% alcohol to work with, |
| 2:29.9 | and do we have any way of knowing their extraction methodology? |
... |
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