Feverfew Flowers
A historical digest:
- 2000 B.C. - “Here, eat this root”
- 1000 B.C. – “That root is heathen, say this prayer”
- 1850 A.D. – “That prayer is superstition, drink this potion”
- 1940 A.D. – “That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill”
- 1985 A.D. – “That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic”
- 2009 A.D. – “That antibiotic is artificial”
- “Here EAT THIS ROOT” … ~Author Unknown
The history of Herbal Medicine is as old as humankind. Green plants are everywhere around us and they are the key to our survival: producers of oxygen and food source for herbivores on the lower ranks of the food chain.
We are very much part of the natural world, even though we sometimes (more often than not) loose a sight of it.
Living plants are always our faithful companions. Truly, from cradle to grave, when we once more become one with the Earth Mother. She gave us our Life, supported, nourished and healed, Plants are always crucial to this relationship.
We will never know when the Ancient people first used plants in healing and rituals. Over pass millennia the knowledge and wisdom grew, accumulated, and was constantly added to. It is a still very much a living heritage, still changing, taking in new developments, but in its core, it is still peoples medicine.
Great Greek physician Hippocrates (460 -370 BC) compiled an incredible amount of relevant knowledge of the time into Corpus Hippocraticum, a massive compendium of medical works. Lots of which is, surprisingly, still very relevant to our life today, and which influenced development in medicine for many hundreds of years to come.
Arguably apart from observation and folk knowledge, lots of wisdom came directly from the ancient Gods (Apollo, Artemis, Asclepias, Hygea, Panacea… do these names ring a bell?). It is not not at all surprising…
This only applies to the Western world. In the East, the Indian tradition of herbal medicine Ayurveda is documented by at least 5000 year old writings and encompasses a whole lifestyle management based on philosophical teaching, seamlessly integating body, mind and spirit. Treatments include Herbal Remedies, cooking, meditation, breathing exercise and yoga.
A very similar system is still alive in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Both of these systems are very much current and are practiced alongside scientific, or orthodox medicine (sometimes also called allopathic). For most of the Western world, orthodox medicine is the main and only predominant healthcare system.
The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated. ~Plato
It is worth remembering that despite the scientifically based medicine predominating in the Western developed world, most of the the world, some 70% of the world’s population, still relies on natural resources in the treatment of disease!