Pioneers of Natural Medicine

Posted On November 25, 2018

Hi, hope your day is full of love, gratitude, and well-being, if not that’s okay, depression, anxiety, and other struggles are just ‘the other side of the coin’ so to speak but moving through them is the goal to well-being.

Nurture yourself and don’t be afraid of difficult emotions there to help you understand the story of your experiences. Honour your story and realise you also have the empowerment to decide on your role in it, you are the writer of your own character and you get to choose how you respond to life, so get creative and enjoy the process!

Be kind to yourself and take some time to allow your senses to experience nature and the environment without judgement. Notice the supportive aspects of life and take heart that Gaia is love and the universe loves you unconditionally too if you will acknowledge its goodness.

Pioneers of Natural Medicine

Paracelsus

Paracelsus (1493-1541) was a pioneer of medicine. A physician and visionary of his time who wanted to integrate the laws of nature into medicine and demonstrate on a practical level how the human body is composed of the material found in nature and therefore how it could also be healed by assistance of nature.

Paracelsus demonstrated how health is restored to the body in the most natural way, whilst altogether preserving the life force of a person by means of utilising herbs, base metals, vitamins, minerals, water and spiritualist living.

In his time, many treatments such as bloodletting purging, and large doses of poisonous substances were used as cure all methods for many disease. His life work was to write, teach and to speak out against conformity to a ‘one size fits all’ approach to medicine and living.

Early on in Paracelsus life, he studied chemistry with Sigmund Schwarz, and from this study he made an important discovery abut dosage in the use of toxic substances in medicine. He scientifically documented findings about dosages of drugs such as base metals and minerals. Vitamin and certain herbs, and their safety for use in healing if their dosage was kept from having a toxic effect on the human body. This led him to recommend that doses be small and administered only with the individual patients circumstances in mind.

Paracelsus famous book the doctrine of signatures goes into detail about plants, their colours, shapes and sizes, uses in healing the human body and their requirements for growth according to earth conditions and astrology, such as the moon and planetary phases.

He was able to consistently convey in his teaching the inseparable connections existing in healing and the laws of nature.

Today his teaching resonates in the 21st century to the popular mind, body, spirit and emotion approach to well being. His vision and efforts at documenting his findings even in a time of opposition to his beliefs show a man of courage and makes him an accomplished chemist, medical scientist, alchemist, philosopher, teacher, writer, spiritualist, and herbalist. He is remembered for the gift of his legacy of teaching people about their connection to nature and its importance in health and well being.

Pioneers of Natural Medicine

Nicolas Culpeper

Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) contributed to herbal medicine by teaching his knowledge about herbs to the general public. In his youth, Culpeper studied Greek and Latin at Cambridge university however became unhappy with academic life. After the untimely death of his fiancé, in his grief he began to form the view that academics which were taught in Latin precluded everyone except the privileged classes.

In light of this, he decided to take an apprenticeship in London in an apothecary where he learned the basics or herbal medicine and preparation of remedies. At this time a book called the London pharmacopoeia was widely used by apothecaries, but it was written in Latin which was difficult for some apothecaries to translate, and therein he saw an opportunity to put his knowledge of Latin to good use and he translated the book into English.

This step was welcomed by colleagues and the general public, he gained notoriety for this translation and was an advocate for social change and the benefits of herbal medicine. He was outwardly appalled at the medical establishment of the day that still practiced bloodletting and over prescription of toxic substances.

Rather his point of view was that there was much beauty in the simplicity of herbal remedies and uses for the whole plants active constituent’s capacity for healing. He promoted accessibility of plants to the general population and taught how to cultivate and harvest then in connection with nature.

From his job and translation of the London pharmacopoeia, he went on to write a book called the ‘English Physician’ and this book allowed many people to identify herbs and recipes for making of medicines, the nature and properties of each herb and how to cultivate them. It taught how to plant according to astrological phases and described the connection of nature and astrology. The book sold as a best seller, but did not have an impact on mainstream medicine at the time and it received mostly general criticism by the medical establishment as being an incomplete science; perhaps due to a continuing lack of scientifically documented evidence about herbs even though herbalist consistently proved their findings contributed wonderfully in the management of disease.

Nicholas Culpeper’s contribution to education of herbs and their preparation and uses was a gift to many and to herbal medicine today. His book is still in print and can be downloaded free at google books, therefore its knowledge about herbal medicine continues to educate us today.

Pioneers of Natural Medicine

Samuel Thompson

Samuel Thompson (1769-1843) is famous today for his ‘Thomosonian system of natural medicine’, which was patented in 1813. He was born in Alstead, New Hampshire, in America. His work was influenced by a lifetime of experience and then research into herbal medicine. He had received various herbal remedies as a child from a local practitioner in his community known as Widow Benton who had originally learned practices with roots and herbs from the Native American Indians. In order to teach people about the benefits of natural living Thompson started his own clinic where he applied simple and effective treatments strategies and practiced healthy living and vis medicatrix naturae ‘’the healing power of nature.’