The Human Body: Machine or Ecosystem
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2020
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Modern biomedicine tends to view the human body like a machine made up of multiple "gears." When something goes wrong, we simply need to fix the broken part. This mechanistic view of the body is significantly different from more traditional perspectives on our anatomy and physiology.
Central to the vitalist traditions of herbalism is the perspective that the body is a reflection of the natural world, a microcosm of nature- that it is an ecosystem.
The practice of true holistic herbalism is rooted in this perception of ecological physiology, which gives us a lens to directly match the energetics of the plants to the constitution of the person.
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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
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| 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. |
| 0:24.6 | Hey there everybody, Seja here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. |
| 0:28.6 | And lately I've been talking a lot about this concept of vitalism and how vitalism is one of the more traditional models and approaches to not just practicing |
| 0:40.4 | herbal medicine, but a perception of the way that we see life, of being able to see that the |
| 0:47.0 | natural world is intelligent, that it has consciousness, that it has purpose and meaning. And I think this is a critically important |
| 0:56.8 | way of learning to see the world kind of on a big picture level because I think some of the |
| 1:03.1 | biggest problems we're facing on the earth at this time are because we don't have this |
| 1:08.7 | vitalist perspective of the natural world, |
| 1:11.6 | we don't see nature as intelligent, |
| 1:14.4 | and that has led to the human being separating ourselves |
| 1:18.2 | from the natural world, which I believe is at the root causes |
| 1:21.8 | of a lot of the major ecological issues that we're facing, |
| 1:25.2 | health issues that we're facing, |
| 1:27.3 | and it goes on and on and on. |
| 1:28.7 | But from a more practical perspective in terms of herbalism, the vitalist view brings us to a very |
| 1:37.6 | different approach to looking at the body, a different way of understanding our anatomy, |
| 1:43.6 | our physiology, and ultimately leading to a very |
| 1:47.8 | different approach in terms of our therapeutic application of plants. And one of the critical |
| 1:54.6 | elements of a vitalist worldview is seeing that the body is intelligent as we are as much a part of nature as anything |
| 2:05.0 | else. And that through following the intelligence of the body, that our healing work with the |
| 2:12.2 | plants is oriented in a way that we're simply supporting the body and doing what it is naturally trying |
| 2:21.1 | to do on its own, that we're supporting the body's innate internal healing mechanisms rather |
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