Herbology 101. Introduction

Transcription

1 Herbology 101 Introduction Hi! Welcome to the Wild Rose College Herbology 101 course. My name is Terry Willard, I'm a Clinical Herbalist. I started practicing Herbology in a clinical setting during the early seventies. In 1975 I taught the first version of this course, under the name of Herbology 1. Since then, this course has been taught many times, by myself and many others. It can now be taken in class in a few locations, through streaming videos, as PDF file and paper-based correspondence throughout the world. Wild Rose has grown into a comprehensive Natural Healing College offering many individual courses, as well as multiple diploma programs. There are also several out-reach courses in different locations around North America, offering instruction under our umbrella. Wild Rose College offers this course and several others in a correspondence format. (For more information go online to wrc.net). I started the pursuit of Herbology almost by accident. It didn't take long before I knew it was my path to practice and teach Herbology. I began studying biology in university where I developed a secondary interest in ecology. During my undergraduate degree, I was hired for a summer job studying the population dynamics of mice, in a secession fire burn area of Banff National Park. When I showed up for work on the first day, it was discovered that there were two people hired for the mouse job and no one hired to do the plant job. Since the other person was working on a master s degree in small mammal population, I found myself out of a job. I was then asked if I knew anything about plants. Since, I had taken a very basic botany course in first year, I said I knew a little and was immediately 1

2 hired. That got me running back to the books and brushing up as fast as I could. In my first year I didn't really know many of... let's face it, I didn't know most of the biological classifications for plants. So when I was counting them for my study, I had to give them names. I named them after my friends; George, Sue, Fred, Rainbow. Yah, you ve got to remember this was the early seventies! I would go back to our main camp every night and look up their names in books, leafing through the picture books and laboring through plant keys. I found myself going out into the field saying; Hi Epilobium angustifolium, you know, the one that changed his name from Fred. I found I really liked roaming over the mountain sides, breathing the fresh air, relating to the plants and seeing the wild life. Maybe because I had named many of the plants after my friends, I looked at them as more than just big Latin species names, with associated numbers. This 'friendship' personalized the plants and sent me searching for and collecting little trivia, notes, uses and stories about the plants. I stored these facts in a card catalogue that for some reason, now long forgotten, I called Herbia Ferbia. These activities served to stoke an even greater interest in plants, so I wrote a paper on edible and medicinal plants. Some of these notes can now be found in the book Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rocky Mountains and Neighbouring Territories. Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) As I studied the medical history of the Rocky Mountain plants, I became more and more enthusiastic about their properties. Like every convert, I never hesitated to bend someone's ear when it came to talking about my interests. People came to know me as the herb guy, and they started to ask me for more specific information on how to use herbs. Between my studies and the questions of others, I started to experiment with plants as a means of simple first aid and health improvement. As time passed, my enthusiasm grew and became a dominant force in my life. Rather effortlessly I became a novice herbalist. The university took some notice and I was asked to teach an extension course on the edible and medicinal properties of the Rocky Mountain plants. Fig: III When I completed my B.Sc. degree, I found myself at loose ends. I considered applying for medical school but realized that the knowledge about the natural world which I had worked to collect was all but ignored by modern medicine. I had a decision to make and ultimately I decided to become a professional herbalist, to seek the training wherever it could be found and to combine my scientific training with the real health benefits of the plants that surrounded me. 2

3 The best place for me to start was in my own backyard. I bought a tipi and went up to the mountains to live in the tradition of the First Nation peoples. At that point in my life I was a vegetarian and I decided to eat only wild plants. It wasn't long before I had learned all the edible plants within walking distance of my tipi. I found myself grazing for many hours of the day. As winter approached, I decided I could weather the -45 o F temperatures in a tipi, but to do this I'd need to join with other people. As winter set in, a small group of like-minded people set up camp on North Burnt Timber Creek. It was surprisingly easy to acclimatize to the cooler weather especially after others in camp convinced me that deer meat was not all that bad for humans. I spent the next two years learning from some elders, while gleaning anything I could on herbs from written accounts. At this point in time I was fortunate to also meet an extremely charismatic man, Dr. J.R. Christopher, who had tremendous herbal knowledge. Over the next few years I spent a fair amount of time with Dr. Christopher and eventually helped him with his burden of lecture tours that he conducted for the Nature's Way herb company. As he grew older and less able to keep up the hectic tour pace, I had the chance to travel all over North America lecturing in his place. Throughout this period, I had a chance to study with other well-known natural healers such as Dr. Bernard Jensen (Iridology) in southern California and Frater Albertus (Western Alchemy) in his mountain Paracelsus retreat. When not travelling to lecture or study, I began consulting for the public on the use of herbs. My small consulting business grew into a series of courses on Herbology and Iridology. In 1975, I started the Wild Rose College of Natural Healing. Since then Wild Rose College has been responsible for introducing thousands of people to concepts about herbalism and alternative medicine. Our curriculum branched out to offer diploma programs, weekend seminars and intensive research projects. With classroom courses in Calgary and Vancouver and correspondence students scattered around the world, the college has been a major part of my life. So much so that my own education has often been wedged into small parts of a busy teaching schedule. Throughout the early 80's the Wild Rose College of Natural Healing continued to grow and the Herbology course grew from a set of handouts to a set of heavy manuals. By the mid-80's a line of Wild Rose herbal products were formulated for distribution in Canada. In addition to the busy clinics and classrooms in Vancouver and Calgary, I was making regular trips to conventions, travelling on lecture tours and published twelve books on the subject. So here you sit, maybe ready to start a great journey and career in the field of herbs, or maybe you are just looking for a casual interest or hobby. Whatever the case, Herbology is a fascinating field of study. It boasts a long line of 3

4 intriguing characters in its past, from great scientists to warlocks, wise women, witches, and medicine men and women, with an accent of a wee bit of magic. Today that eclectic blend has actually changed little. You find serious academic scientists researching plant medicine, and you also have the lay householder using herbs to help their family. As well, there still remain many medicine people around the world using plants in traditional ways. In many parts of the world, botanical medicines still comprise the primary form of health care. Herbology 101 is set out as an interaction between this workbook and the text (Textbook of Modern Herbology 2nd Revised Edition). Learning is an interactive process. First you see something new, the second time you recognize it, and the third time you start to integrate it. We have designed this course with that process in mind. For each lesson you start with the workbook. It will lead you through the steps to complete the lesson. If you can do this before class, you will get more out of it. If not, use it as a review afterwards. Yarrow Willard Cl.H. * * * Now I am lucky enough to have one of my sons, Yarrow Willard, take up the field of herbal medicine too. He spends lots of his time formulating product for his Harmonic Arts Botanical Dispensary ( which he co-founded with his wife Angela Willard. They both travel doing lecture across the country. You will be seeing a lot of Yarrow in the videos as he is contributing to your educational process too. Both Yarrow and Angela have gone through this whole process many years ago and are now Clinical Herbalist. But before you go on reading too much let s take a video break with three (3) videos on that first herb, Fireweed that I started studying over 40 years ago. Three (3) Bonus Videos On Fireweed 1. Blackfoot Indian Princess Fireweed story Angela Willard Cl.H. *** 4

5 Read pages 1-11 of Textbook of Modern Herbology (2nd ed.) In the first reading assignment we looked at herbal study as part of a long tradition, one that is still alive today in many parts of the world. It is interesting to note that most forms of healing consider the energy (Qi; pronounced chee) of the medicinal material as an important component of its medicinal makeup. Some systems have even defined how this Qi energy travels in the body. An example is Licorice which is believed to travel through and cleanse all the acupuncture meridian pathways, letting our personal Qi flow better. Most botanical medicines were not discovered in one brilliant scientific insight. Plant knowledge evolved slowly into medicine systems around the world, seemingly independent of each other. It is remarkable to see peoples with completely different systems coming up with the same use for a herb. Often this developed without any way of communication between cultures. Many people feel this alone is a good enough reason to trust in the validity of plant medicine. Of course the fact that some of these herbs have been used by billions of people, over thousands of years, is further evidence of their efficacy. Many of the healing systems, including the modern (w)holistic model, consider a person to be made up of Physical, Emotional and Mental parts. These are parts that make up our individual personalities. It is Qi that animates or vitalizes the whole system. When we are dealing with botanicals, we are looking for the Qi signature in its personality, as well as the chemicals in the plant. Part of the process is to match up the Qi pattern in the plant, with that of the person. Kind of like a key and a lock. THE HISTORY OF HERBOLOGY Read Chapter 1, pages of the text The tradition of Herbology goes back many thousands of years, at least 5,000 years in a written form. When Europeans first came to North America, they had already developed a fairly sophisticated form of herbal knowledge. Similarly, in North America, the Amerindian peoples also held a long tradition of plant medicine, which is considered to reflect a deeper understanding and relationship to the plant kingdom. There were several British expeditions (like the Lewis and Clark expedition) sent out for the main purpose of learning more about the medicines of the First Nations peoples. Many of these ideas and practices were blended together so long ago, it is not always easy to know which knowledge come from which group. There was undoubtedly much cross-pollination of information. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Herbology in North America had organized itself into a system that held the principle of vitalism at its core. Vitalism teaches that the obstruction, or restriction of this vital force is what caused dis-ease. This is similar to contemporary Oriental medical systems. 5

6 One of the many prominent characters in the history of North American Herbology is the important writer and healer Samuel Thomson. He is responsible, (directly and indirectly) for the formation of the Friendly Botanic Society, a home cure healing system. He is also accredited for some of the founding philosophy behind the Eclectic School of Medicine in Cincinnati. To this day, one of the largest sources of information on Herbology in the English language is in Cincinnati at the Lloyd Library. The Lloyd Library houses most of the original documents from the Eclectics. It has a massive selection of material from 15th century Herbals, hand painted and written in European monasteries, up to and including current scientific publications. Eclectic Medical Institute in

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8 Read pages of the text It is important to understand that at the turn of the century, many of the top medical minds of the day were focused on Herbology. Many of these medical doctors were much like the Doc popularized on the 1960's TV show 'Gun Smoke', or the 1990 s Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. They carried around their bags of herbal tinctures, liniments and often homeopathic remedies. By 1918 a deep split occurred in the ranks of Natural Medicine when philosophical differences made various groups splinter off. The forming of the A.M.A, the Rockefeller Foundation and the publication of The Flexner Report, made this split even deeper. Some now feel that because these organizations profited from the outcome of the report, it was like having a goat guard the garden. We are now entering a new era in the field of Herbology. North America is rediscovering its knowledge and roots in Natural Medicine and becoming a sophisticated contributor to this important field of study. Herbal and preventive medicine could aid in lowering the spiraling cost of health care in the 'developed' countries. * * * BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING This is a stepping stone and background for understanding later materials. Many know this information well, so might find it boring, but others will find it a necessary foundation for future information. Our physical body is made up of the material around us, with some 96% being made up of Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen. These can be found mostly in water, protein, fat and carbohydrates. There is an array of some other 21 minerals that are important to our health. These materials make up the three basic building blocks of our body; cells, glue (collagen), and fluids. The cells are the only truly 'living' parts. The other two provide support for the cells. Because our body is a sophisticated nutritional network, it is important to understand the four basic concepts of physiological functioning. Review them on page

9 Homeostasis is a very important function of our bodies. We have to keep many nutrients in very narrow parameters. It is interesting to look at the twelve body systems to see how they contribute to this homeostasis. The twelve systems are: 1. Integumentary 2. Articulatory 3. Muscular 4. Skeletal 5. Reproductive 6. Respiratory 7. Digestive 8. Circulatory 9. Excretory 10. Lymphatic 11. Glandular 12. Nervous There is another very important system that doesn't have one location, the Immune system. It protects us from invading diseases. It is kind of like our police or military force. It can protect us from the bad guys. If the immune system is too strong, it can also cause problems. Strong armies around the world have often caused a coup, overthrowing their own government. If our immune system does this, we end up with something like arthritis, lupus and even cancer. All of these are auto-immune diseases. The body s defense system turns on itself. Even though it is sometimes useful, or just plain simpler, to call a problem by its disease name, (w)holistic healers don't treat a specific disease. We deal with the body as a whole, seeking to restore health in the body, mind and spirit. Wholistic healing is not usually directed at only one organ, even though that organ might appear to be the center of gravity of poor health. The ailment will usually heal when the rest of the bod(ies) come into harmony. It should be noted that harmony is the goal. In a clinical situation it is not always that simple. The client might not be interested in following all of these therapies. often the patient's interest is to be physically symptom-free as soon as possible. Sometimes it is most appropriate to relieve physical symptoms first, before you put a person on a long program to create better harmony. If you had a house on fire, you would put out the fire first, before you fixed the faulty wiring that caused the fire in the first place. One of the simplest, and I feel most important concepts of Natural Healing is the IN-DO-OUT philosophy. You are what you take in, what you do with it and what you do not eliminate. What we take in has to be processed, acted upon, integrated or discarded. This applies to emotions and mental bodies, just as much as it applies to food and exercising of the eliminatory organs. Since this is the introduction, there is no assigned quiz. 9

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