The Magic Of Herbs

I am a week away from finishing up my Herbal Pharmacology class…one of a number of classes I must take if I am to receive the certification in healing arts that I working towards. I knew little about herbs prior to taking this class. What I did know was in the form of negative biased opinion…the result of the various new age nut cases or old hippies I’ve known. They were, for the most part, so off the wall in their thinking and life-styles that I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that what they had to say about herbs were just as off the wall.

But no sooner had the class started did I begin to realized the genuine magic that is contained within many growing things that God designed and caused to grow across the face of the earth. And in retrospect that would only make sense. All naturally growing food from the ground is natural medicine. Freshly grown herbs, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes provide us with all that we need to live and grow in natural health and well being.

I also realized that many of us are unhealthy. Most of humanity eats highly processed, man made foods and cholesterol producing animal products in far greater amounts than we should, and in quantities far in excess of the natural foods God has given us. Processed sugar based products are eaten with far greater frequency than naturally sweet fruits. And when we do eat naturally grown fruits and vegetables they are usually processed with added sugars or cooked all to heck killing all the live enzymes and nutrients making them just as nutritional dead as the other man made products. All of this horrendous eating has lead to disease and poor health, and the rise of giant pharmaceutical companies to fix the problems our poor eating habits have wrought.

One of the first realizations I had regarding the magical, medicinal properties I became convinced were contained in the numerous herbs and plants that grow upon the earth was this; God knew that the moment we were kicked out of Paradise and were left to depend upon our unenlightened minds for survival, we would soon wreak havoc upon our mind and bodies from ignorance and misuse of our appetites and cravings. And as a good Father, he would not leave us completely defenseless in our ills. He would see to it that there were ways to heal and recover from the self inflicted ills that lack of common sense would bring upon us. As He made plans for the redemption of our souls, He made a way possible for the redemption of our sick bodies as well.

Herbs are indeed truly magical things. It is no surprise that man still sends investigators deep into the Amazon and other primeval places on earth in search of magic herbs. Many of today’s man-made pills and formula have their beginnings in Gods own medicines. So the question becomes which is better; the original or the processed man-made product? Perhaps we could look at the question from a slightly different angle. Let’s ask this. Which is better; a bowl of fresh pineapple, banana and strawberries or pineapple, banana and strawberry flavored jello? Personally I am of the growing opinion that the pure, unadulterated, alive and natural is almost always superior to the processed but nutritional dead man-made product. Can we say the same for medicinal products? I suspect that the principle applies, but stay tuned…more on herbal pharmacology as I learn more.