Freedom is a personal and intimate relationship that, in the end, is for the future generations so that they will be holders of the wisdom of the past for their own measures. This is to increase their degree of autonomy and self-determination so that they represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way and act upon their own authority as nature intended. Let’s keep the magic alive.
For the interest of personal freedom and the right to choose our own medicine, I embark on this journey to stay out of the throws of “organized” medicine and in the ancient realms of teaching and mentoring the way of alchemy.
I am concerned at the state of our “health” and “health care” and that concern is enough for me be and become a rebellious gardener speaking out to that which is dark and evil. I grow my own plants and take pride in the life of all my green friends. My apothecary begins in the seeds that takes years to mature and travels to my kitchen for blending. I give space and time the freedom to develop relationships with this green way so that the “medicine for the people” stays alive. I am the new generation of plant lovers who is being asked by the plants to become a rebel for the connection of plant and humans by remembering and harnessing the past so that I give to the future the magical seeds.
Most of us know we are deep in the clutches of a controlling arm of state-controlled medicine. The game is played with the movers causing unnecessary “fear” in our views on healing. The chess players tell us they “protect” us, the people. The rules and regulations appear as “noble” for our benefit. The practitioners find themselves “paying” for their right to be healers joining boards and paying dues to a system that has no intent on healing. We are hobbled by bureaucracy and organized control and as such, we have moved far from the tenants of true health and healing.
“They” (the system) don’t want us to know or tamper with our materia medica. They tell us it is dangerous. They plant fear in our hearts. And, we are losing the song of stories the plants sing that has been handed down for generations. “They” want to dismantle the song into parts and pieces and label them drugs. They don’t want us to make our own medicine. They want our money. They want us to be “good” men and women and follow the standard rules. When we can’t recommend a fruit because that means we are dispensing medicine, gosh, it has gone too far. And, we have agreed to this on many levels. I am at a point in my life where I get any participation in that “system” is my acceptance of that “system”. You can’t be half in and half out. Frankly, I don’t accept it. So, I choose to stop and be a rebel. For me, it is a human rights issue that has taken the “kind” out of our ability to heal ourselves. It is an issue that causes us (wants us) to forget and neglect the wisdom of grandmother/father healing. It is intricately related to our freedom of choice. However, this principle of freedom of choice extends beyond the relationship with your “healer”. Herbal Medicine is the indigenous traditional healing system and a folk Medicine. It is the medicine of the people. And, whether we understand or acknowledge it or not, we are are being duped and we are in danger of loosing it.
There are many plants that legally have been nominated for “practitioner use only” – once again denying the public a freedom of choice. Unless you have sat in a classroom for 8 years plus, you can’t have a recognized patient/healer relationship. Patients are clients and you are “educating” them. You can not prescribe. You are not recognized. And, you are underground if you choose otherwise.
Let’s consider the freedom of choice of future generations. I don’t know how long the Empire of the Capitalist bureaucrats can sustain itself, but it’s already shown itself to be vulnerable and one day, (if we have learnt anything from history), fall it certainly will. What are we going to do then? Have we merged too intimately with the pharmaceutical monster? Will we remember our own medicine?
Do we have a choice? Well, we do! That choice is a personal one and one needs to be outside of the systems and “taken back”.
I am very blessed to have the resources to grow and make most of my own medicine. I am blessed to know the plants…to work with them daily. I am blessed to feel their characters and Spirit and intimate with them. I am also fully aware of how “the system” bites deeply into the heart of healers taking away their connection and demanding the “be clinical” way.
Herbal Medicine’s great and enduring strength is that it can function to a high degree of sophistication on spectacularly low technology. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an amazing “art”. It takes much wisdom and time to understand the plants and it definitely is not taught in classrooms. The ancient art of alchemy will have a come back..but that come back will happen in our gardens and kitchens.
Humbly, I feel I am one of many custodians of this priceless knowledge and I am determined to protect it and keep it safe, come what may. I continue to learn. I have lots to learn. I am blessed to be in a situation where I can dedicate most of my waking world to learning. My garden and kitchen are my laboratory.
Many of you may not truly realize how wonky our state controlled system is. After many years of discovering the claws of organized health care, I have learned that I do not want to be a state-controlled. That means I can not call myself a “healer” in the world of business. I am simply a gardener teaching others what I know. But, I also know that what I am doing is crucially important for so many levels of healing from the health of the soils, the life of the plants, the reclaiming of the alchemy of making medicine for the protection and force of future generations. I intend to pass on this to my daughter and my daughter’s daughter so that they are infused with the power of the sacred world of plants.
However, I am very concerned for the fate of herbal medicine as a whole. I am convinced that modern medicine is a runaway train careering towards disaster.
Herbalists are by nature people who choose freedom – we don’t like being organized. But, if you turn aside from the “organization”, you are deemed a criminal. You are feared into “being a good person” and “playing the game presented”. Herbalists out there are suffering – they’re not doing well. There is a pouring out graduates from the various universities and schools of texted book teachings that have little to do with a garden. And, we are doing precious little to help them gain a living understanding of their work.. Instead all we have is the fond hope that once we’re registered, they will find work. You must be joking! Herbal medicine is about the garden, first and foremost. It takes years of labour in the garden to even have a small understanding of healing.
So an even greater priority is for us to place a hand on the reins of self empowerment and get back to the garden and kitchen. At this point, we need to be prepared to sacrifice so that what we gain is a remembrance that this is “the people’s medicine”. If you don’t take courage and grasp the nettle of the medicine of the people, it will be forever lost. I get that many do grasp this loss of our medicine, but they are also operating within the system because of fear. They have been bullied to be “politically correct” and participate in that system. We have been manipulated to have a “picture” of what healing looks like that has been drawn from the corridors of hospitals and doctor’s offices. We have placed our trust in this white coat environment and have made gods out of the practitioners. After all, they studied long and hard in the white classrooms and lecture halls. I wonder how many nurses and doctors have sat in their own garden surrounded by the plants they grew and deeply listened. Sure, some “doctors” and “nurses” are gardeners…but do they get it? I wonder how many have seen a plant at the side of a road, stopped, took a sample and spent hours and hours studying it (meaning smelling, touching, tasting, making elixirs, drinking, infusing, feeling)? I wonder if health care is more about money than healing.
I am also gaining more and more shitty understanding that we, the people, are being plagued with unnatural disease. The medicine of our future will be coming from those who have intimately understood the mineral and electro-magnetic power of the plants to protect us. Alchemy will make’s its’ comeback in a future magic required to protect us from biological warfare. Now, this is an other story and I will present on this too in the future. It has been on my mind and in my heart for a long time.
So here is my little presentation of our “rights” to use the “medicine of the people”…presented from my garden with my medicines cheering me on…. It is the right of all people to use plants for their sustenance and healing. It is our essential freedom to seek advice from those who have devoted themselves to the knowledge and application of the health-giving properties of garden and plants.
Herbal Medicine is the indigenous natural healing tradition of the ALL Peoples. It is a living tradition that has adapted and remained relevant through all times. It is more about the chemical parts of the plant.
We, the gardeners, are charged as custodians of this living tradition, for the benefit of all who would choose it and for generations to come.
We conjoin with indigenous traditional healers throughout the whole world in seeking to protect our plant heritage and maintain the practice of all such natural therapies. This medicine can not be regulated by office workers or contained to articles of legal tampering.
We are determined to keep this aspect of our knowledge alive for ourselves and future generations as an integral element of a healing planet.
Thank you for listening so patiently. Now it’s over to you….it is a choice!
