ALCHEMICAL HERBALISM
“PLANTS, LIKE MOTHERS
LIKE GODDESSES
I TURN TO YOU
MAY I OBTAIN THE ENERGY, THE LIGHT,
AND THE SUSTENANCE OF YOU SOUL,
WHICH IS THE SAME
AS THAT HUMAN EXISTENCE"
A Hymn to the Plants from the Rig Veda
(Translated by David Frawley in Ayurvedic Healing: A Comprehensive Guide, 1989)
Plants hold a sensitive system and natural intelligence that decodes reality in a precise and poetic manner. Each plant brings in itself a specific alchemy that allows being in the ecosystem using its means for surviving in an abundant and harmonious manner. Going into contact with any plant, in an encapsulated medicine, tea, seasoning, bath, oil or perfume we access this intelligence that contributed to the alignment of individual strengths. So, a lot of care and respect is needed in the way in which one addresses vegetal intelligence, because it acts on channels from which human capacity is not always capable of translating.
The use of herbs is an important part of integrative health treatments, but it shouldn’t be isolated from the whole. According to Ayurveda, plants work better when linked to proper diets and lifestyle. They are part of an organic and integrative therapeutic method and may not have the efficacy in disease treatments if separated of a global life context.