Diagnosis Identity, Trauma, and the Human Condition

The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy

Sajah Popham

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 570 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this post, I'm delving into a concept that has been on my mind for the past few months. I call this concept "diagnosis identity," and it's about the nature of the human condition, the role of suffering in our lives, and how we navigate it. It's about what we choose to do with suffering and illness, and a call to rise above our suffering, learn from it, and ultimately not allow it to take over our lives and become a part of our identity.

In this piece, we'll explore:

Why suffering is both inevitable and potentially transformative
The difference between trauma and the normal struggles of life
The cultural trend of over-identifying with a diagnosis and how it can become an obstacle to healing
The alchemical idea of transforming poison into medicine
A vitalist approach to healing through strength, forgiveness, and meaning
How practitioners can spot "stuck" cases and support deeper transformation

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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	Hey there, everybody, and welcome back to the plant path.
0:15.1	I'm your host, St.
0:15.9	Apopham, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and Nature Sophia Spajerix.
0:22.2	And the topic of discussion here this week is on a concept that I've been thinking about,
0:29.5	this is something that I've just been kind of pondering and thinking about over the last number of months
0:34.2	and formulating thoughts around.
0:37.0	And I want to talk about a concept that I have come to term diagnosis identity,
0:43.5	as well as the nature of the human condition and the role of suffering in our lives.
0:53.3	You know, I think as herbal as herbalist and or healers or physicians or doctors or whatever
1:00.7	your approach is, I think our main goal is really quite simple.
1:05.9	It's to help alleviate suffering from our fellow humans or animals, if there's any vets out there
1:14.5	watching or listening. And I would say to take it a little bit further as a vitalist or
1:22.3	more of a holistic practitioner, I would say we want to go maybe a little bit further than that and not just,
1:29.2	not just relieve suffering, but really help people to build health, uh, to build
1:35.4	vitality, try to promote some longevity and, uh, not just have them be symptom free,
1:42.1	but actually live a healthy life, uh life where they are building resiliency, I would say, within the body, as well as on other aspects of the self, too. And, you know, from here, our medicine is not just, is not only healing, right, but we want to utilize our herbs in a way that
2:04.2	is preventative as well as rejuvenative at the same time. And, you know, from my approach in the
2:12.0	model that I, you know, I've coined of what I do, I just call it evolutionary herbalism.
2:19.0	To me, it's not just working with the plants to alleviate suffering, nor is it just about preventing disease and
2:24.0	rejuvenating our health, but also to use the plants to aid in our spiritual development,
2:30.3	in our psychological clarity, in our emotional health, emotional stability, emotional
2:38.0	buoyancy, being clear within ourselves, and having a perceptual orientation to our life where
	...

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