How to Learn the Unwritten Herbs
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2021
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A student from Africa asked some questions about how to start to fit herbs into our Western model of understanding them when that information isn't readily available. In Africa, there are lots of local medicinal plants that you can't look up in your typical materia medica reference book. But if you are studying Western herbalism, it's helpful to understand your plants in terms of their medicinal actions, their energetics, their organ system affinities, and so on. So where do you start? How do you figure that stuff out?
I've got a nice framework for how you can start to approach a medicinal plant that you don't know or that you can't look up and reference, and how to start to build your experiential knowledge and understanding of that medicinal plant.
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CONNECT WITH SAJAH AND WHITNEY
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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. Sajah's approach honors and acknowledges the chemical, energetic, and spiritual properties of plants for a holistic model that uses the whole herb to heal the whole person. 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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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.
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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. |
| 0:23.6 | Hey there everybody, Saja Popham here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. |
| 0:29.6 | And this week had a really great question in one of our student Q&A sessions. |
| 0:35.6 | A student from Africa was reaching out and asking some questions about, |
| 0:42.3 | you know, how do we start to, you know, fit herbs into kind of our Western model of |
| 0:51.3 | understanding them when that information isn't readily available, right? |
| 0:55.0 | A student being from Africa, there's lots of local medicinal plants there that you can't |
| 1:00.0 | necessarily go to your typical Materia reference book and look them up in a book. |
| 1:07.0 | But if one is studying Western herbalism, it's really helpful to understand your plants in terms of, you know, their medicinal actions, their energetics, their organ system affinities, et cetera. |
| 1:21.3 | So where do you start, right? |
| 1:23.3 | How do you figure that stuff out? |
| 1:25.4 | So that's what this week's post is all about, is really looking into how do you start to decipher |
| 1:31.2 | the properties of a medicinal plant when you're starting from scratch, when you can't look that |
| 1:37.5 | herb up in a book, when maybe even you don't have any teachers to turn to or local references or traditional people that |
| 1:46.8 | have used that plant in that culture for a long time. How do you start to understand how to use |
| 1:53.8 | those plants? Well, that's what this week's post is all about. I've got a really nice framework laid out |
| 1:59.4 | for how you can start to approach a |
| 2:03.3 | medicinal plant that maybe you don't know or that you can't look up in reference and how to |
| 2:08.8 | start to build your experiential knowledge and understanding of that medicinal plant. So |
| 2:14.6 | hope you enjoy this week's episode here on the channel. |
| 2:18.8 | Be sure to like and subscribe and we'll see you in the next one. |
| 2:24.1 | Question number one is coming from Titilio Faschola in the Vialis Herbal Practitioner Program. |
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