The Three Pillars of Effective Herbal Formulations
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 22 June 2022
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An effective herbal formula does not happen on its own. While you can combine a bunch of herbs and hope they work together, the results will often lack consistency and precision.
By integrating a methodology into your medicine-making practice, you gain the knowledge and skills you need to make dependably effective formulas every time.
In this week's episode, you'll learn:
- The main differences between Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine formulating approaches versus the Western method
- The three essential strategies you need to make an effective herbal formula
- How to fine-tune your formula and tailor it for the person you are helping
- The importance of ratios in formulating and how to experiment with different ones
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CONNECT WITH SAJAH AND WHITNEY
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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. |
| 0:23.6 | Hey there everybody, Saja Popham here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. |
| 0:28.6 | And in this week's episode here on the channel, I'm going to be talking a little bit about |
| 0:32.6 | herbal formulation. And I got a question this week from a student |
| 0:38.0 | about, you know, what's the best number of herbs |
| 0:41.8 | to put in a formula, right? |
| 0:43.2 | Is there a too few or too many? |
| 0:46.1 | What's the best way to think through combining herbal pairs, |
| 0:50.9 | combining formulas? |
| 0:52.8 | What are some of the different approaches to formulation and how to do it |
| 0:57.2 | strategically? And so there's, you know, a lot of different schools in terms of how to approach |
| 1:04.3 | putting together herbal formulas from, you know, the very simple formulas that we see in traditional Western herbalism to some |
| 1:14.6 | the very complex, many, many, many dozens of dozens of herbs in a single formula that we see |
| 1:21.6 | in Chinese medicine, in Ayurveda. And so what's, is there a right and a wrong? |
| 1:29.2 | Is there a better or a worse? |
| 1:31.0 | That's really the topic of discussion in this week's post. |
| 1:34.4 | And I think this is something that's really important to talk about |
| 1:37.1 | because one thing that I've noticed in a lot of verbal text |
| 1:41.1 | is that we'll see, you know, here's a formula for this condition, |
| 1:46.4 | or here's a formula for this organ system, or here's a formula for this, that, or the other. |
| 1:52.1 | And while that's really great and can be very helpful, |
| 1:55.8 | what I don't find too often is really discussions on like, hey, here's the fundamental principles |
... |
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