Holistic Vs. Allopathic Herbalism
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As a naïve, sprouting herbalist, I assumed that because I was working with something of the natural world, I must be embarking on a holistic path. I did not realize yet that the modern medical paradigm of the West (allopathic) had created a deeply embedded foundation that shaped my lens of healing—one that saw humans as parts and plants as simply alternatives to pharmaceuticals.
It was through my studies with Sajah Popham at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism that I began to see the holes in this healing perspective. I want to make it clear that there is most definitely a place for modern allopathic medicine in very acute situations. For the lives it saves every day, I am extremely grateful.
Through further investigation, however, I began to realize there was another way of viewing our health—one that innately honors the sacred wholeness of our body, mind, and spirit as something intelligent, alive, and working for our healing even when we don’t recognize it. We can see this in the simplicity of our effortless heartbeat. If we are looking for lasting change, it takes learning the energetic language of the world around and within us in order to begin to understand how to heal in a holistic way.
The allopathic model of medicine is the standard medical model of the Western world that uses surgery and drugs to treat symptoms. As I’m sure you’ve experienced, you go to the doctor, tell them your symptoms, and they give you something to make you feel better. That may temporarily relieve discomfort, but when our lens of healing is fixated on getting rid of or suppressing the symptom, then by its very nature we are not honoring the body as something intelligent.
This is true because our body sends us the message that something is wrong through our symptoms. When we suppress that symptom, we are not actually getting to the root of the problem. At the same time, we silence the body’s message. The disease can then continue to manifest as something new and potentially more chronic.
An example of allopathic healing approach is the suppression of a fever. A fever manifests when the hypothalamus is alerted to a pathogen, and it ramps the temperature of the body up in order to burn off the pathogen. When we understand the function of a fever as the body's natural protection mechanism then it becomes clear that bringing down the fever enables the pathogen to continue to live and grow and is actually counter intuitive.
With a holistic herbal approach, we would use diaphoretic herbs that bring blood flow to the periphery and simultaneously open the pores of the skin so the body can cool off while still allowing the function of the fever. To get even more specific, and this is very important, we want to understand what kind of fever is present so we can match the underlying energetic pattern with the appropriate plant. This is where cookbook answers like “use this herb for this” do not hold ground. As you may have observed, there are many plants with diaphoretic properties, but each plant may serve that function in a different way. For someone with a tense fever, you would want to use relaxant diaphoretic plants that relax tension in the skin so that heat can escape through the pores. If someone is having a fever but feels very cold and weak and pale, you would want to use stimulant diaphoretics that move blood and support the fever so the body can burn off the pathogen more effectively. In each case, there is a different underlying tissue pattern that needs to be addressed in order to choose the right remedy.
It’s also important to understand that herbs are not like pharmaceuticals. By their very nature, they are vital and intelligent. Understanding the energetic quality of both the fever and the plant is really what will determine if we can actually help someone.
Let’s go back to this very simple experience of going to the doctor, which I’m sure we can all relate to. We share our symptoms, but that may not be enough information to actually understand why the symptoms are happening in the first place. There are many different reasons a similar symptom can manifest. Without a keen sense of reading the body, a deep understanding of a person’s unique constitutional makeup and lifestyle patterns, as well as the underlying tissue pattern we are lacking vital information as to why the disease manifested to begin with.
I hear all the time, and have experienced in my own life, that symptoms are met with a simple formula that temporarily fixes the problem (potentially) but gives us no further prevention or understanding of how to maintain health moving forward. This is a big flaw in the allopathic model because ultimately it keeps us reliant on coming back. And because we are not getting to the root of the problem, more symptoms may even present themselves in new ways until we finally get the message from our body.
Here, I am trying to emphasize the importance of a holistic model of medicine that recognizes the uniqueness of each person’s constitutional makeup. We see this model in the ancient Ayurvedic system of India, as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the astrological “zodiac man” in the Western lineage.
Each of us is made up of varying elements in perfect proportions, which is our natal constitution—how we come into this world. Over time, however, our lifestyle patterns, life experiences, and environments can begin to affect our constitution or create excesses and deficiencies of certain elements. In Ayurveda, this is called Prakruti (natal) and Vikruti (current constitution).
It is important to understand that these factors impact our health. Predisposition to certain ailments or disease exists in the strength or weakness of parts of our natal composition. These diseases, however, are more easily manifested through our lifestyle, environment, and experiences—not just physical, but emotional, mental, and spiritual as well.
If we are going to practice herbalism in a holistic way, assessing the foundational layers of health comes first. We need to make sure we are taking care of all the elements that make us whole and happy: Diet (earth), Hydration (water), Movement (fire), Mental health and breath (air), and our sense of connection to the world around us (ether).
If we want to heal from disease, we have to know the nature of it. If we are dealing with specific problems, we must be patient and curious detectives. We must see the entire body as an orchestra: if one part is not playing, that will impact the entire harmony. If one part becomes weak or tired, other parts may step in and compensate. Eventually, those stronger parts may burn out, and now we are sick.
It is important to understand where the problem began and why in order to truly heal. The tissue state model of the physiomedicalists is a powerful way of seeing the “why.” It uses the energetic language of temperature, moisture, and tone to describe the quality of what is happening in an organ system, a specific organ, or a tissue.
For example: if a tissue is too dry, it will also be atrophied or weak. Hydration of tissues allows them to absorb nutrients and carry away waste. If an organ is hot, we can call this tissue excited—bursting with energy! The next question is how this impacts surrounding organs or its function. Too much heat in the small intestine, for example, can break down food too quickly, bypassing assimilation of nutrients. Too much heat over time can eventually dry us out. You can see how complex and interconnected the state of our tissues and their impact can be.
Once we understand a person’s constitution, the underlying pattern of disease, and lifestyle patterns, we can then turn to our plant allies with a whole view of the person and a strategy. To choose remedies that truly support healing, we must also understand our herbs in a whole way.
This means asking:
Where do they grow?
What is their morphology?
What part of the plant do we use?
How do they taste?
What is their energetic quality: temperature, moisture, tone?
What systems, organs, or tissues do they have an affinity for?
What are their actions on the body?
How do they like to be made into medicine?
When do they like to be harvested?
What planets or elements rule them?
And what is their Prabhava?
Prabhava, or “special potency,” is a concept from Ayurveda that recognizes that plant categorizations only take us so far. Eventually, we reach the spiritual essence of the plant, which cannot be easily named. Simply put, there is a spiritual nature to plants, and it is through our heart perception and direct experience in communion with the plant that we begin to encounter this essence.
If we are to heal with plants holistically, we need to see them as intelligent, living beings—not just as alternatives to pharmaceuticals. Our holistic model sees that the chemical constituents of plants work better together than when broken into parts.
The call of stepping more fully onto the plant path became undeniable. It also required me to loosen my identification with other things I was studying in my life. Through doing so I began to see how my background in yoga and different lineages of energy work actually set a super strong foundation for me to more easily connect with the subtleties of the natural world. It became so clear to me that these were prerequisites in deepening my holistic plant practice.
In his wisdom, Sajah Popham, started the alchemical herbal course with the first lesson on connecting with plants through the perception of our heart. In order for our work with plants to be holistic, we need to absolutely have a strong mental understanding of the recorded and experienced and observed knowledge of plants. This mental orientation must also be coupled with our intentional development of a personal and very intimate relationship to each plant through our own living experience. This allows for the information we know in our minds to settle into our body, as well as to come into direct perception with the spirit of a plant in a deeper felt sense. This is when plants begin to become our personal teachers and allies.
We all have this ability to connect with nature in a deeper way. Though because our culture does not foster developing these heightened sensitives, we have to intentionally practice cultivating them.
I believe the disconnection from this vital intelligence can be felt in the longing hearts of most humans today. I believe this disconnection from the natural world contributes to many of the problems we face on Earth today, including our health epidemic.
Each moment offers us the opportunity to connect to this intelligent world. We must be patient with ourselves, yet persistent in our efforts to remember this connection more often than we forget it.
With love,
Isabel Cali