The practice of traditio.., p.1
The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism, page 1
Other books by Matthew Wood
Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers
Vitalism: The History of Herbalism,
Homeopathy, and Flower Essences
The Book of Herbal Wisdom:
Using Plants as Medicines
The Earthwise Herbal:
A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants
The Earthwise Herbal:
A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants
Copyright © 2004 by Matthew Wood. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.
Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327 Cover art and illustrations by Matthew Wood
Berkeley, California 94712 Cover design by Suzanne Albertson
The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.
North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800-733-3000 or visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wood, Matthew, 1954–
The practice of traditional western herbalism : basic doctrine, energetics, and classification / by Matthew Wood.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-738-8
1. Herbs—Therapeutic use. 2. Medicine, Botanic.
[DNLM: 1. Phytotherapy. 2. Eclecticism, Historical. WB 925 W877p 2004]
I. Title.
RM666.H33W657 2004
615′.321—dc22
2004002681
v3.1
Dedicated to the late William LeSassier
A Teacher of Teachers
Acknowledgments
THE MODEL OF THE SIX TISSUE STATES is derived from The Philosophy of Physiomedicalism (1900) by Dr. J.M. Thurston. The model of the tastes and pharmacological actions in relationship to energetic categories is largely derived from the work of David Winston, registered herbalist (AHG). These are the major influences which, in addition to my own thoughts, have shaped the development of this book.
The following people have contributed to the development of this book through their ideas, inspirations, proofreading, editing, and support: the late William LeSassier, herbalist/acupuncturist, New York City; Phyllis Light, herbalist (AHG), Arab, Alabama; Steven Horne, herbalist (AHG), St. George, Utah; Julia Graves; David Winston, herbalist (AHG), Broadway, N. J.; Michael Moore, herbalist (AHG), Bisbee, Arizona; Lise Wolff, herbalist (AHG), Minneapolis, Minnesota; Karyn Sanders; Dennis Anderson; Margi Flint; Deb Soule; Kathleen Maier; Kate Gilday and Don Babineau; Rosemary Gladstar; Pam Montgomery; Denese Ullom; Halsey Brandt; Andrew Lange, N.D.; Matthew Becker; Carl Robinson; Barbara St. Dennis; Ellen Hopman; Sondra Boyd, RN; Alan Dattner, M.D.; Hannah Cohen; Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.; Paul Red Elk; Yago Tahnahgah; and William Winter, D.V.M..
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Craft So Long to Learn
Part One
Forgotten Energetics of
Traditional Western Herbalism
The Forgotten Language of Energetics
The Green Tongue
The Four Qualities
Energetics of Ancient Western Medicine
The Six Tissue States
Forgotten Energetics of Nineteenth-Century Western Medicine
Specific Medicine
Energetics of the Medicinal Substance
The Fountain of Life
The Energetic Organism
Organs and Systems
Primary Structures of the Body
The Three Primary Constitutions
Assessment of the Whole Person
Part Two
Classification of Medicinal Plants
Sedatives
Heat, or the Excited Tissue State
Relaxants
Wind, or the Constrictive Tissue State
Nutritive Tonics
Dry, or the Atrophic Tissue State
Astringents
Damp Flowing, or the Relaxed Tissue State
Alteratives or Blood Purifiers
Damp Stagnation, or the Torpid Tissue State
Stimulants
Cold, or the Depressed Tissue State
Bibliography
The life so short, the craft so long to learn,
experience difficult to obtain,
experiment dangerous, judgment hard.
—THE FIRST APHORISM OF HIPPOCRATES
Western herbalism was originally a part of Western medicine. In order to understand much of the herbal tradition we have inherited, we need to comprehend some of the concepts of old time Western practice. The old doctors did not possess the modern scientific technology that allows researchers to gaze upon the exact molecular structure of tissues, drugs, disease lesions, microorganisms, and the human genome itself. Instead, they had to define diseases and medicines in terms of broad physiological patterns, processes, characteristic symptoms, and symptom-pictures observable with the naked eye, or a few simple instruments.
Until 1930, the Western pharmacopoeia consisted largely of plant and mineral substances which were defined in terms of constituents which are sensible to the hand, eye, or tongue—mucilage, astringent, bitters, and so forth. These substances act on general physiological conditions, rather than molecular lesions. Within this milieu, plant medicines made sense. They provided sources of such ingredients in different combinations suitable to different problems and structures of the body. With the change to modern biomedicine, drugs came to be defined according to a specific molecular structure. Herbs, with their less refined ingredients composed of masses of different constituents, became increasingly irrelevant. If they had value, it was because they might contain an ingredient that could be separated and refined to become a drug. The whole herb was no longer valuable in and of itself.
In a similar manner, diseases are now defined in terms of molecular structure and change rather than as general processes, functions, or symptom-pictures. Thus, not only are herbs ignored, but the entire system of medicine of which they formed a part has also been forgotten. This has made it very hard to understand the old herbal literature, interwoven as it is with an old-time Western medicine which has become irrelevant and been forgotten.
Recently there has been a revival of interest in Western herbalism, along with other systems of natural, traditional, and holistic medicine. Most of these approaches—acupuncture, homeopathy, and Ayurveda, for example—possess a long-standing medical philosophy and system upon which they may be practiced. On the other hand, Western herbalism, bereft from old-time Western medicine, possesses very little doctrine or guidance by which herbs can be related to diseases or parts of the organism. As a consequence, those who attempt to practice Western herbalism are forced to adopt a system from one of these other disciplines, or from biomedicine itself. Unfortunately, this causes the medicinal plants of the West to become, as it were, homeopathic, Chinese, Ayurvedic, or biomedical agents. They have lost their unique identity and history, associated with thousands of years of popular and professional use.
To compound this problem, Western science dismisses folk medicine as unscientific or even fraudulent. This has caused the demise of traditional healers, if not by outright persecution, then by economic and legal exclusion. By comparison, in China the folk medical applications of a plant are taken as the basis from which research may be conducted and traditional healers have been encouraged within government regulations.
Another side effect of this situation has been that herbs are now described and sold according to advertising based on “science.” In many cases the science is incomplete or misrepresentative, but only when a product sounds scientific will people flock to it. Thus, much of the herbal and nutritional marketplace apes conventional biomedicine.
If we are to use Western herbs in a holistic fashion we need to return to the physiological medicine with which they were associated. This is the system within which Western herbalism developed and its limited restoration allows us to recognize nuances in the Western herbal tradition which are lost when we adopt foreign concepts. We do not need to resurrect the old system entirely, only the most fundamental elements. We also need to bring it up to date.
Not all physiological processes were understood in the old days—they are not, indeed, understood today—but, by using the physiological approach of old-time medicine, we can generate a system of medical understanding which is physiologically accurate and conducive to holistic care, i.e., cure. Plant medicines, constructed as they are from a broad slurry of chemical components, are naturally suited to the treatment of broad phys
The radical concept of traditional folk medicine is that disease is curable, i.e., the organism can be returned to self-regulation and health. Most modern people still go to their doctors nursing this quaint folk concept, but are instead treated to the modern theory: the organism is broken, nature is not able to take care of herself, hence science will take care of it through “health maintenance.” Modern biomedicine does not attempt to cure, but to maintain the organism through artificial means.
In The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism we will focus on the use of humors, qualities, or tissue states to describe basic, simple categories of pathology. We offer this as a contrast to the conventional view of molecular lesions. Due to the complexity of the subject, there is not enough space to include more than introductory material on the physiological patterns seen in the behavior of the major organs and systems of the body. This will have to await further publication. I am also reserving, for now, discussion of the regulatory systems, which oversee the general physiology of the organism. All these topics can be learned from the standpoint of holism, rather than conventional materialistic science.
Anyone who masters the terminology in the second chapter (qualities and degrees) will be able to understand the basics of Greek herbalism down to the Renaissance. The whole tradition will lie like an open book before the eye. Texts, which before seemed baffling or incomplete, will reveal depths not guessed. Likewise, anyone who masters the terminology in the third chapter (tissue states and a few herbal actions) will find the whole of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century herbal literature lying before the mind as an open book. There will then be no question what the old authors meant, or whether or not Western herbalism can be practiced upon a holistic foundation.
The tools we use in complementary and alternative medicine are weak compared to those used by biomedicine. However, they can perform miracles which biomedicine cannot achieve. All of us in the field have seen this. How is this possible? It is because our tools work with one of the most powerful forces available, the energy of life or Nature herself.
When we look at an animal or person we see an enormous amount of energy. When thwarted by sickness, this power is blocked or even empowers the illness. Supporting the self-healing power with simple methods like food, herbs, homeopathic medicines, acupuncture, therapeutic touch, mental attitude, and prayer can do wonders that can never be achieved when Nature is ignored or suppressed.
Matthew Wood
Sunnyfield Herb Farm
January, 2004
In vain hath He made Nature if we dwell on our own conceptions and make no use of her principles. It were a happy necessity if our thoughts could not vary from her ways.
—THOMAS VAUGHN
It has often been said that Western herbalism lacks a “system of energetics.” What that means, in short, is a vocabulary for describing “energy patterns” or physiological and psychological patterns in the body. The point is to express the activities and configurations of energy, qi, or the vital force—call it what you will. Examples of energetic systems include the yin/yang theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the five elements of China and India, or the four humors of Greek medicine.
The use of an energetic system is virtually a prerequisite in holistic medicine. Biomedicine is constructed upon a materialistic interpretation of nature, which looks to molecular structure as a guide. Holistic medicine is founded on the concept and experience that the organism is a functional unit or whole under the directing hand of an intelligent, self-regulating, and self-correcting guiding life force or energy. Since Nature in the organism is self-maintaining and self-healing, holistic medicine is further based upon the assumption that the organism can be cured, that is, returned from an unbalanced state to one of balance or homeostasis. As mentioned in the introduction, biomedicine does not seek to cure or return the organism to self-regulation, but removes and replaces broken parts through drugs or surgery. Thus, modern medicine speaks of “health management” rather than cure, while holistic or traditional medicine speaks of cure, vitalism, and energy patterns. The language is intrinsically different, and in order to practice holistic medicine, or to practice Western herbalism on a holistic basis, we need to learn a new vocabulary.
It should be understood that herbs can be used either way: to stimulate the self-healing powers of the organism to return to health, or to artificially manipulate the organism to fit an artificial goal. For example, goldenseal can be used in small doses as a bitter tonic to stimulate the digestion and mucosa, removing tendencies to bacterial infection and mucus production, or it can be applied in massive doses as a “natural antibiotic” to kill bacteria. It contains a potent antibacterial, berberine. The first use is holistic because it increases the health of the organism while the second is an example of “health management” because it assumes that the organism cannot get rid of the bacteria on its own and the knowledge of the practitioner is superior. The use of herbs is not necessarily holistic.
Whatever qi or life force is, most of us see it indirectly, in its effects. It is the fact that this energy forms patterns that interests us. There are particular patterns to health, and to disease. Thus, Hippocrates bids us learn the medical art by looking at a man in the bloom of health, and comparing him with a man on the edge of death. In order to describe and influence the patterns of disease formed by unbalanced energy or qi, we need a “language of energy patterns.”
A survey of various cultures around the world shows that a simple system of two, three, four, or five elements, qualities, or humors forms the basis of diagnosis and treatment in traditional holistic medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the yin/yang system and the five elements. Ayurvedic medicine uses the three doshas and the five elements. Greek medicine used the four elements, qualities, humors, and temperaments. American Indian medicine acknowledges four to seven directions.
These different terms are translated fairly easily from one system to another. Yin and yang resemble fire and water in another system, the five elements of China and India are similar to the four elements of Greece, and the magical fifth element of alchemy. Local culture, weather patterns, and epidemiology determine the arrangement and number of elements or humors but they bear considerable resemblance to one another.
One further point should be made. The arrangement of elements, directions, or humors into a fourfold mandala (cross or square) serves an important psychological and spiritual function. The psychiatrist C. G. Jung showed that the mandala was a symbol of wholeness for the psyche. Many of us, when we read about or look at pictures of the four or five elements, feel this deep sense of meaning and fulfillment. Although this symbol is mythological and spiritual in nature that does not mean it should be excluded from medicine. Rather medicine, to be holistic and curative, must include mythic elements to satisfy the soul and spirit.
The Forgotten Energetics of Western Herbalism
At the beginning of the chapter, it was said that Western herbalism lacks a system of energy patterns. Actually, this is not true—it is just that this special vocabulary has been forgotten.
These energetics still exist. They are inferred in the list of herbal “actions” which are found in the front or back of just about every herb book. These include terms like diuretic, diaphoretic, stimulant, emmenagogue, aromatic, and astringent. When I first began the study of Western herbalism, I couldn’t get very far because these terms seemed so wooden and mechanical. I thought the terms were unrelated to a deeper energetic context connected to the life force, and which could stimulate my intuitive understanding and problem solving. After many years, I came to appreciate that they were the remains of an energetic system that had been forgotten.
There are two basic subdivisions of herbal actions, one referring to the “tissue state” or pathological condition, and the other to the organ or seat on which the agent operates. The first category is composed of terms like astringent, emollient, mucilage, stimulant, aromatic, refrigerant, antispasmodic, antiseptics, and normalizer. The second refers to specific local organs or functions: diuretic (kidneys), nephritic (kidneys), expectorant (lungs), pectoral (lungs), diaphoretic (skin and fever), febrifuge (fever), nervine, emmenagogue (menses promoting), cholagogue (gall bladder), etc. There was originally a third category, which described whether the herb raised or lowered, internalized or externalized, thinned or thickened, but this was dropped by the end of the eighteenth century. A classical reference for these three categories can be found in A Key to Galen’s Method of Physick, (c. 1650) by Nicholas Culpeper.
