Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Underlying Philosophy of this Blog

Now that I'm blogging, I am going to briefly explain where I'm coming from. In these posts I'm probably going to say a few things that will freak out a few people. Others will just think I'm crazy. This is unavoidable. I'm going to be completely honest about how I experience the world and not hold anything back. When these philosophical elements creep in, if it seems weird or doesn't make sense to you, try to go easy on the judgement. There will be a lot of information here that is useful to anyone who has a passion for herbs, regardless of their personal paradigm.

Spending a lot of time in nature and working with the plant medicines can alter the way we experience the world. When we approach life with an open heart and mind we can find ourselves living in a world that is no longer filled with objects, but instead filled with people. Humans are one among a myriad of non-human people living on this beautiful planet. So to me the plant medicines that I work with are not objects or commodities. They are people! They are my friends, colleagues and teachers. It is a great blessing that our Earth Mother has given birth to these wonderful healing beings. As an herbalist I am honoured to be able to learn from them and work with them. Without them there is no herbalism, no medicine. At the same time the plant people need herbalists in order to do their work. We are the bridge between them and the human people who need healing. So the medicine is not just the herbs or the herbalist, it is something that we create together.

Some of my plant friends and colleagues.

Some people may think that this is absurd. That's fine! We can choose to experience the world any way we want. If we approach life from a materialistic perspective, we will experience a world that is full of objects. When we approach life with humility and an open heart and mind, the world is a very different place. It's a big, awesome, living, mysterious place...

The Great Mystery!

Anyway, this is just a heads-up. This kind of stuff is going to be weaving in and out of all of the practical information that I'm going to be sharing. Herbalism is my life and my path. I can't separate it from how I experience the world. They are one and the same. Some of you may love this stuff. Others will learn to tolerate it. Still others will find it offensive and go off to other corners of the internet to read other kinds of information on herbs, such as the many interesting ways scientists are using herbs to torture the rat people. That reminds me of a study that I read about a few months ago concerning rat ethics. Apparently a rat will forgo a meal to release another member of its species from a cage within the cage, even though it would have to share the meal afterwards. Apparently scientists could learn a thing or two about ethics from the rat people!

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