A Guide to Understanding Healing Plants (Vol. II)

A Guide to Understanding Healing Plants (Vol. II) “The way a plant is formed is what we see when we vividly grasp its form, colors, smell or composition and enter into its spatial and transformational totality without using abstractions.” Jochen Bockemühl’s Guide to Understanding Healing Plants II presents an elementary botanical experience of fundamental chemical activities to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of pharmaceutical processes within plants and their connection to the human organism from a spiritual perspective. In this volume, we meet a scientist who practices what he preaches—an approach to an imaginative way of viewing phenomena, in which outer sensory perception and soul participation unite in a loving understanding of nature. This links Bockemühl’s approach to those of scientists such as Paracelsus and Goethe, for both of whom love became the highest power of knowledge and without which life and healing processes would remain forever incomprehensible. The foundation for this approach is the Goethean method of observing nature, and the study of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science offers the working hypotheses for our own path of research. Originally published in German as Ein Leitfaden zur Heilpflanzenerkenntnis, Band II (Science Section of the School of Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 2000). C O N T E N T S: Foreword by Dr. Michaela Glöckler Introduction I: Steps in Cognition First Step: Cognition which Classifies Morphologically and Formalizes Second Step: The Extension of Consciousness through the Imaginative Mode of Cognition Third Step: Internalizing the Way a Plant is Formed into an Overall Two Fundamental Experiences for achieving a New Understanding of Healing II: A Revision of the Alchemical Concepts Sal, Mercury, Sulfur and Ash based on Experience Mercury, Sulfur and Ash based on Experience Becoming part of the Earth: Sal Breathing Development: Mercury Revealing the Cosmic: Sulfur Reviving in Chaos: Ash III: Human Organs as Orientations towards the World Human Organs as Orientations toward the World Organs of the Nerve-Sense System (Sense Organs and Brain) from the viewpoint of Sal Organs of the Rhythmic System from the viewpoint of Mercury Organs of Metabolism and Reproduction from the viewpoint of Sulfur Limb Organs from the viewpoint of Ash Formation Holistic Effects IV: Getting to Know Plant Substance through Seeing, Smelling, Tasting and Touching Seeing, Smelling, Tasting and Touching Seeing—Standing Opposite the Phenomena—and Touching Smelling—Atmosphere affects the Soul Tasting—Substances affect the Body Transition to Imaginative Smelling and Tasting V: Ways to a New Understanding of Chemistry Chemistry—Science of Transformative Processes • Substance Formation in Plants • Cosmic effects of plant substances • Earthly effects of plant substances Chemistry—Science of Transformative Processes • Our relation to the four elements Earth, Water, Air and Fire • Four aspects of chemistry of the inorganic • Plant chemistry—qualities of the liquid state in the life processes of plants • The four “humors” in the chemistry of the human being VI: Chemical Elements as Principles of Action in the Context of Nature Examples of Principles of Action and the Capacities that Plants and Human Beings gain through them • Carbon • Nitrogen • Silicon or Silica • Lime • Sulfur • Phosphorus • Oxygen • Hydrogen Summary of Elements as Principles of Action VII: A Comparison of Chicory and Dandelion First Impressions of Chicory and Dandelion Illustrations for Studying various aspects of Chicory and Dandelion Stages in Development From a Picture Movement accompanied by experience to an Experience of Gesture A Higher Formative Principle Smelling and Tasting with Chicory and Dandelion Healing Effects of Chicory Healing Effects of Dandelion Form Variants of Chicory with regard to their Healing Effects Comparison of Three different Types of Chicory (Torsten Arncken) VIII: Effects of Substances in Common Horsetail and Common Valerian Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense L.) from the viewpoint of Silica and Sulfur Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis L.) from the viewpoint of Sulfur and Phosphorus IX: Menodoron as an Example of a Specific Compound of Five Healing Plants General Description of Menstrual Rhythms Processes on Four Overlapping Levels of Reality in the Human Organism Distinguishing the Various Levels at which Processes Occur in the Human Organism The Five Healing Plants in Menodoron Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica L.) Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa pastoris L.) Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.) Oak (Quercus robur) Marjoram (Marjorana hortensis) Summary of Menodoron X: Pharmaceutical Processes The Use of Pharmaceutical Processes to Extend Perception of Special Plant Substances Dry Heat Processes on Marjoram and Stinging Nettle The Importance of Pharmaceutical Processes Further Processing under Wet Conditions Conclusions for the processing of Marjoram for the Menodoron Preparation APPENDICES 1. Supplements to Chapter X, on Pharmaceutical Processes 2. Supplements to Chapter VII 3. Supplements to Chapter VIII, Valerian 4. Supplements to Chapter VIII, Horsetail, and Chapter X About the Author Jochen Bockemühl was born in 1928 in Dresden. He studied zoology, botany, chemistry, and geology and, since 1956, has been a coworker at the Research Institut at the Goetheanum. From 1970 to 1996, he was director of the Natural Science Section, and since 1980 he has led seminars on landscape in Europe and elsewhere. His english publications include: In Partnership With Nature, Dying Forests, Toward a Phenomenology of the Etheric World, and Awakening to Landscape.