Numen: The Healing Power of Plants

Let's face it, herbalists are lucky. We get to interact with plants and people in a very special way, one that emphasizes an age-old evolutionary connection between the two. This was recently brought home to me, yet again, sitting in circle with a group of herbalists, on a warm October day, after harvesting a bunch of excellent roots. We spent time giving thanks to the land, to the plants, and to the gatherers' hands. We spent time just participating in a moment of deep animal-vegetable relationship, one which humans must have experienced over and over again in the course of our long journey.
In this timeless moment, we tapped into something more than the botanist, with her rich knowledge of the vegetable kingdom, or the physician, with his clear insight into the human body and pharmacy, can routinely experience. Something born of the fact that the roots we pulled, painstakingly, from the soil can help people feel better - and that people, plants, and ecology can all thrive when they actually interact. It's more than observation, it's more than knowledge. It's something akin to the essence of life itself. The ancients called this essence "numen", or spirit-power, life-force. It isn't something that "is", it's something that "does": the counterbalance to entropy, the destroyer-force. It organizes, creates, loves, heals.



The excellent film by Ann Armbrecht and Terence Youk elegantly brings this life-affirming force into view. Through the words of those whose journey is devoted to plants, healing, and ecological connection, the timeless life-power humans have thrived on becomes clear. For me, it is a celebration! Experiencing the images and words Ann and Terry have woven together reinforces the feelings of connection all herbalists have known. But perhaps the greatest gift that they offer is to those who haven't ever felt this life-power for themselves. It is those who haven't tasted the call of springtime roots and greens, who haven't heard the words of mugwort on a full moon night, who have only a vague idea of how individual and ecological health might be connected, that really need to grok this film.
Which is why I'm really excited and grateful that Numen: The Healing Power of Plants is available for free viewing, for ten days starting on October 20th, to everyone everywhere. It is an opportunity for herbalists to celebrate, and be filled and renewed by, the joy of being plant people. But crucially, it is a chance for us to bring nature-based, herbal life-power into the lives of those who haven't really experienced it yet. It is a chance for our families, and our extended communities, to really "get" why we love this art so much, why we have chosen this path. I hope you share this with those you love. Who knows what will follow.

Herbal Internet Resources

Some links to excellent free online material for herbal research, historical exploration, or just hours of gazing at full-resolution botanical illustrations...

Current Herbal

Herb Med Pro
www.gaiaherbs.com/herbs.php

Free access to a database of over 200 medicinal herbs with complete links to relevant research, categorized by pharmacological, in-vivo, and human trials. Extensive referencing and links.

WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants - Volume 1
www.who.int/medicinedocs/index.fcgi?a=d&d=Js2200e

WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants - Volume 2
www.who.int/medicinedocs/index.fcgi?a=d&d=Js4927e

WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants - Volume 3

http://www.who.int/medicinedocs/collect/medicinedocs/index/assoc/s14213e/s14213e.pdf

Plants-for-a-future Database Search
www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html#NAME

Select from a wide range of plants, based on edible, medicinal, and agricultural uses. Extensively referenced.

Materia Medica Articles Index

www.medherb.com/Materia_Medica/materia_medica.htm

Paul Bergner's searchable online archive of newsletter articles pertaining to specific items in the Materia Medica.

Jim Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
www.ars-grin.gov/duke/

A searchable database of plants providing chemical
constituents, cross-linked with the actions of said chemicals. An
interesting exploration of phytochemistry.

PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS

plants.usda.gov/index.html

Extensive database providing information on plant distribution and taxonomy. Also describes commercial and ecological uses, and reports on endangered status. Extensive links and photos for most plants.

Classic Herbal

Henriette's Herbal Homepage

www.henriettesherbal.com/

Massive online library that includes many older N. American texts, but also an extensive collection of the best of online herbal questions posted to Usenet, and thousands of pictures by Henriette.

Herbal Therapeutics Research Library
www.herbaltherapeutics.net/herbal_therapeutics_lib...

David Winston's Online library

Maude Grieve's "A Modern Herbal"
www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/comindx.html

The classic 1931 text that covers a wide array of medicinal plants, includes rudimentary chemical analysis, extensive preparation notes, and medicinal activity for each plant.

Medical Historical Library: Electronic Texts in the History of Medicine
www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/siderits.htm

A variety of classic European texts scanned into images, usually with browsable indexes. Includes a full copy of Fuch's 1544 herbal, extensively illustrated.

MBG Library: Rare Books

www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/

Over 130 rare and classic herbal and botanical works. Incredible full-resolution pages, many containing stunning botanical illustrations.

Medical Reference

THE MERCK MANUAL MEDICAL LIBRARY: The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy
www.merck.com/mmpe/index.html

Professional version of the manual of human disease, including mainline conventional treatment and medications used.

eMedicine The Continually Updated Clinical Reference
www.emedicine.com/

Professional reference, most extensive and up-to-date, for conventional medicine, diseases and diagnoses, and medications used.

Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com
www.nutritiondata.com/

Specific nutritional information on almost any food or prepared product. Portion sizes, conversions, and cross-references.

HerbMed Pro

Thank you to Larken for picking up on a new, free location for accessing HerbMed Pro. You can visit Gaia Herbs for the full list of over 200 referenced herbs, or enter a search below.
This database is a great place to start for contextualized research on the properties and applications of medicinal plants. Be wary of modern studies: please read Henriette's quick primer before delving into PubMed abstracts...

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