3. The Essence of Plants, the Earth spirits, Water nymphs, Elves and the Fire spirits.

The essence of plants, the earth spirits, water nymphs, elves and the fire spirits

The enchantment and magic of plants over life and death are as old as the origins of humanity itself. For instance, we know from cultural history how Socrates died from the effects of the poison cup.

Socrates (469-399 BC) passed on secret initiations to his disciple Plato. When the Delphi oracle named Socrates the wisest man in Greece, he began to question others with a reputation for wisdom and denounce their pretensions. And then there were the vehement criticisms of the democracy of the time. How could it happen that Athena, the first bastion of democracy, violated its own principles by condemning a philosopher for his non-conformist views and teachings. Socrates died by the poison cup, with a drink made of spotted hemlock. His last hours are known to us through the dialogue ‘Phaedon’ by his pupil Plato. The poison potion was prepared from the unripe fruit of the spotted hemlock (conium maculatum). The poison causes paralysis of the skeletal muscles and finally of the respiratory centre, causing sudden death. Usually, consciousness remains intact until the very last. Socrates lived his last years of life in his villa in Ephesus. Similarly, the hidden healing powers of plants are undoubted realities, independent of the present known substances present, which are merely carriers of the healing powers.

Even before ‘spiritual man’ incarnated on the uninhabited earth, there were two major energy fields at work; that of the earth itself and cosmic energy. Plants are the only living things that, through chlorophyll, are able to absorb, convert and store the energy constantly flowing in from the cosmos, especially solar energy. With that energy, plants can build something so organic (sugar, fat, protein, vitamins, etc.) from the inorganic (water, air, minerals and trace elements). We should never forget that every animal, as well as every human organism, is a metamorphosed plant substance and was formed in the last instance only by cosmic forces. When we as humans ingest food such as vegetables and grains, we spiritualise this energy in our consciousness.

Many spiritual experiences then lead us, experiencing the plant world with it, to a multitude of beings, many of course without a self-consciousness of their own, which carry us back to the old times of intuitive clairvoyance, as many people then still knew these beings, but later they were forgotten, and can only be found in the symbolism of fairy tales and myths. When we take an even deeper insight, we see that the plant allows its root to penetrate the soil deeper and deeper.

Those who look through these natural ‘mysteries’ with their spiritual eyes see that the plant root is surrounded and interwoven with nature spirits. By spirits we mean driving energies of nature. We can, in a sense, see inside the creative energy of these nature spirits and experience them, as if in an instant and then release them.

Ultimately, these are fine material energy fields, which reveal their appearances and ‘forms’ because we as humans transfer our creative ideas, projections and part of our self-consciousness into this form of life. This is how we look into our outer world, as if these are mirrors of our inner life. When we transcend these particulate atmospheres, we become one again with the great Source of all Life. The mystical one becoming, or one in becoming. One in consciousness.

But now we go back to the essence of plants. When we see the plant growing upwards, it has left the realms of the earth spirits and growing through the realms of the moist earth into that of the moist air, the plants develop their leaves. Now other beings or nature energies; water spirits, nature spirits of the watery element work through the plant ‘together with our clairvoyance’, those called water nymphs for example. These water nymphs are very different from earth spirits according to their inner being and aura. These water nymphs can travel to the entire cosmos, in the moist air element and are therefore much more translucent than earth spirits. They actually dream constantly, these water nymphs, but their dreams are at the same time their own stature. Thus, these water nymphs have their peculiar intertwining with the higher beings, called Muses in mythology. As I described in my previous book ‘The Mystical Life’, in Greek mythology, Muses or Miousai are daughters of Zeus and Mnémosyné (goddess of memory). Thus, as higher spiritual beings, the Muses can occasionally recall their initiatory experiences when they lived closer to these water nymphs.

Yes, these water nymphs evolved through the water atmospheres of the Muses. The Muses were originally goddesses of song, later also of art and science. The Muses often stay on the Olympos, where they entertain the gods and goddesses. They also dwell on the Helicon (now the Zagora mountain range in central Greece), where they still cooperate in the ethereal atmospheres, at the Muses' well Hippokrene, and on Parnassos. At this Muses' source, these muses revive their ‘water spirits’ together with the water nymphs and many water-like creatures to feed in their water elements to complete their divine inspiration work. These water nymphs can be perceived very clearly through their playing around and from within the dewdrops, at dawn, on the leaves of flowers and plants, infused with solar energy, thus transmitting their energy to the Muses, who continue to inspire so many poets, painters and dreamers. When these drops of water fall down into a river or stream, they become very sensitive to everything fish-like, for they're ‘threatened’ by the fishes' form, which they sometimes also assume when swallowed by fish, but immediately leave it again to pass into another metamorphosis. They dream their own existence. And in this dream of their own existence they bind in a water-like manner, and loosen back up, binding and decomposing the substances of the air, which they carry irradiated with light energy into the leaves of flowers and plants, adding to them what the root spirits have already pushed up from the earth.

There is an unusual delicate spirituality to be seen in the water nymphs, a spirituality that has its element where water and air meet and flow through.

And so the plant develops its leaf growth. Now the plant grows through the atmospheres of life, upwards, into the fine material world of the airy-warm element of beings, who in our time are called, from our older instinctive clairvoyance, sylphids or elves.

These elves, now then plant elves, however, because the air is everywhere permeated with light, penetrate to the light, become light-related and are especially receptive to the finer and also wider, larger movements in the atmosphere and the cosmos.

The elf feels intertwined with the bird form , but the cosmic force fields keep her from becoming the ‘bird being’, for she has a different task in the natural developments. She has the vocation and task of infusing love with light through the plants.

Nymphs carry the energies of the chemical ether into the plants, elves carry their love radiated with light through the plants, the fire spirits (fuelled by the sun's rays) carry the ether of heat into the flowers and plants. The fire spirits carry their warmth deep into the seeds of plants. When we look through the plant world, the earth is the mother and the sky is the father, as was described accordingly in all ancient cults, initiation rites and nature religions. Thus, we see that everything that happens outside the earth's soil does not belong to the mother's womb (mother earth) for the plant.

The cooperation of the earth spirits (root spirits) and the fire spirits in the ‘spiritual form’ of the seed, ensures the fertilisation of the new plant. And as the fire spirits, infused with solar rays, move in to the interior of mother earth, with the help of the earth spirits (root spirits), they awaken the ‘spirit form’ of the plant to life. This ‘spirit form’ has trickled down from the cosmos, through elves and nymphs into the earth.

This has allowed us to see through the delightful, uplifting and lovely plant world animatedly.

Thus we see these plant atmospheres working through the consciousness of human beings, when we take them to us as food or for the medicinal effects of some plants or flowers.

The essence of Bach Flowers

And so we know, for example, the mystic and clairvoyant doctor Edward Bach, who developed his subtle healing method in the last century under the name Bach Flowers. He followed his higher inspirations by letting go of his fruitful practice as a physician and, as a meditating mystic, went on long trips into the great outdoors to develop the most natural medicine from the life energy of flowers and plants.

In 1912, Bach received his medical degree, was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons and received the licence from the College of Physicians.

In the following years, he obtained several additional diplomas. In 1914, he qualified in public health at Cambridge.

His practice in London's Harley Street continued to grow. The First World War brought many war dead into the hospital.

Bach's commitment was too great and, out of idealism, there was predatory activity in his own energy system and his body. In July 1917, he suffered severe bleeding from a tumour in the abdomen. Doctors feared for his life and only an operation could save him.

Bach had not regained consciousness after the haemorrhage, so his parents agreed to perform the operation. The doctors treating him afterwards told him that he had only three months to live, as the disease would spread rapidly.

After his recovery, he mentally surrendered to even higher inspirations.

He worked day and night for the time he was still given. His colleagues saw the light burning day and night and called him ‘the light that never goes out’. What a beautiful symbolic statement that was.

Bach noticed, to his own surprise, that his health kept improving, and became increasingly convinced that his own inspirations and motivation and his life's purpose had cured him. His work was like the balm (the blossoms of Star of Bethlehem, bird's milk) and healing for his own soul and body. He learned through his own illness process that the key to healing lies in healing the moods of the human soul.

Bach constantly looked for flowers and plants that could restore harmony between body and mind. He learned through his own illness process that the key to healing lies in healing the moods of the human soul.

Bach constantly searched for flowers and plants that could restore harmony between body and mind. Doctor Bach retreated into the wilderness of Wales to search there, following his higher intuition, for flowers and plants that have strong vital healing properties.

It was for him, from his spiritual experience of the subtle energies within himself and his own aura, the great universal connection with the essence of plants. In this way, he found, for example, Mimulus guttatus (mask flower) particularly effective in states of anxiety; Ornithogalum umbellatum (bird's milk), for feelings of indecision; Scleranthus (hard flower), for lack of confidence; Gentiana (gentian), for obsessive thoughts; Aesculus Hippocastanum (white flowering horse chestnut), for states of panic and various kinds of constriction; Helianthemum nummularium (sunflower).

Today, sunflower is also used in the rescue remedy.

During one of his morning walks, he walked through nature and saw the dew still abundant on the plants.

He could see through it that every dewdrop, through the action of the sun and fire spirits, must contain something of the healing power of that plant. The complete cosmic imprint of the plant had to be stored in these dewdrops. Thus he intuitively learned the new way of preparing plants.

The higher nature spirits or devas made him gain the insight, also through the practice of preparations.

According to his new spiritual insights, the flowers were placed in a bowl with spring water, allowing it to transfer its healing power to the water. Thus the fire spirits and the water nymphs transferred the healing powers irradiated with sunlight into the pure spring water. Bach learned in these experiences that the dew of plants that were in the sun was more powerful than the dew of plants in the shade.

The meditative practice of the glass bowl of blossoms in the sun, made it much easier for him to obtain more healing fluids, like the dew in the morning sun.

Bach used the pure water of a spring from the vast countryside.

We can see through from the higher spiritual realms that Doctor Bach was actually gathering and assembling energy from the great Source of all Life, both cosmic and from man himself. The miraculous effects of medicinal plants.

But now we return to natural medicine in general. Of course, modern medicine is undoubtedly supported by the teachings and writings of Hippocrates, who is one of the most outstanding representatives of the scientific medicine of antiquity. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that his works are based on the knowledge of numerous predecessors.

Long before Hippocrates and his four-juice doctrine, we find among the Chinese, for instance, the ancient, widespread herbal medicine (phytotherapy) and acupuncture, with behind it the whole philosophy of Yin and Yang and the esoteric knowledge of ‘fine bodies’ and meridians.

The Indians too explored great medicinal heights and insights with their Ayur-vedic teachings, from their ancient mystical scriptures, the Vedas.

The ancient Germanic people too, under the inspiration of the Celtic Book of the Dead, among others, maintained their therapeutic knowledge, mostly through oral tradition and initiations, uninfluenced by Greek or Roman culture. This ancient knowledge was rooted in close connection with nature.

Hippocrates lived in his time where magical-mystical ideas and practices formed the foundations of medicine.

Hippocrates (460-337 BC), a resident of the Greek island of Kos, formulated other views, seeing disease as something that man himself can understand and reason and influence on the basis of observation and thought.

Official medicine regards Hippocrates as the founder of today's medicine.

Hippocrates, as the first philosopher and physician, formulated a number of rational reflections and principles for medicinal action. His initiations and teaching systems are distinct from the (folk) medicine of his time, which was mainly in the hands of ‘pagan’ priests. Inspired by the wisdom and insights of Hippocrates, the medical school of Alexandria elaborated on Greek ideas.

Galenus (130-200 AD) did most to spread Greek medical knowledge across the Roman Empire.

From ancient Greece, Hippocratic medicine based itself on the ancient teachings of the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. In analogy, we then know the four main juices (humores) as carriers of life; blood (sangius), mucus (phlegma), black bile (melancholia) and yellow bile (chole).

Our health, therefore, rests on equal amounts of the four juices (eukrasia), and disease on wrong division (dyskrasia). This doctrine was thus extended by Galenus with the theory of capacity.

At the beginning of the Roman imperial era, we also saw the emergence of several important medical works, such as, for instance; The Materia Medica, by Dioxorides, some of which is still used today in an Arabic translation in the East.

This important work was written in the mid-first century AD by the Greek Dioxorides, who was a physician in the Roman army. The Materia Medica, consisting of five volumes, remained the standard work of the pharmaceutical faculty at universities until long. Dioxorides described the known medicines, especially the herbal ones, and gave detailed treatises and instructions on their locations, preparation, manner of storage and their medical applications.

During the 1100 years that followed, the ancient writings of Galenus continued to exert their influence for official medicine in Italy.

It was only through the Byzantine Empire (395-1453 AD) that a fusion emerged between the insights of Hippocrates and Galenus and those of Arabic medicine.

New medicines were brought in from the Arab world; sesame, saffron, amber and spices such as pepper, cloves and nutmeg.

Only after the rise of the universities (Salemo, Montpellier, Paris, Bologna) in the 14th century did a wider interest in medicine created in Greece emerge.

With the spread of Christianity, the first hospitals founded by monks emerged.

In the teachings of the abbess Hildegard von Bingen (12th century), we see a merging of ancient knowledge with the Christian-Germanic worldview. Hildegard von Bingen attributed to the stars and planets their great influence on all living things; humans, animals, plants and minerals. She knew a large number of folk remedies. A mystical woman, she wrote her physics half in Latin, half in German. Hildegarde von Bingen (1099-1179) was a seer, and said of her vision: ‘The visions I perceived, I beheld not in sleep, nor in dream, nor in madness, nor with the eyes of the body, nor with physical ears, nor in hidden places, but watchfully, attentively, with the eyes of the mind and inner hearing. I became aware of them with open eyes and according to the will of God.' She speaks of a radiant red light; ‘From my earliest years to this day, now that I am over seventy years old, I have always seen that light, in my mind and not with eyes outwardly, nor with any thoughts of my heart, nor by means of my senses. But my outer eyes remain open and the other bodily senses retain their vigour. The light I see is not defined by any place, yet it is brighter than the sun, nor can I study its height, length or width, and I call it ‘the cloud of living light’.

But sometimes I behold within this light another light that I call ‘the living light itself’. And when I look at it, all sadness and pain disappear from my memory, so that I am again a simple girl and not an old woman. Hildegarde was an ecstatic woman with medicinal gifts; moreover, she was a woman of high intelligence and practical abilities.

She conducted extensive correspondences with popes and emperors. For instance, Bernardus of Clairvaux praised her visions and prayed for her mediation.

Bernardus of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was born at Fontaines castle near Dijon, entered the monastery of Citeaux in 1112 and founded his own monastery of Clairvaux three years later.

The secular institute for training doctors at Salerno, experienced its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries and as a result, the practice of medicine increasingly fell into the hands of lay doctors, rather than clergy or initiates from other schools or cultures.

It is remarkable to see that the East (the Orient) and the West with many spiritual worlds are so strongly intertwined. Mystics from all over the world and from the ancient mystery schools met and still do. Carl Gustav Jung, the well-known Swiss psychiatrist constantly describes this in his many books, such as, for example, Western Consciousness and Eastern Insight. The battle for thousands of years between the Christian church and the Eastern religions is just an earthly illusion, which in the end is just the struggle for religious, social and earthly power.

Nostradamus leaves no doubt about this, at least if we have read his quatrains enough and in depth. In short; spiritual wisdom is of all worlds and cultures and the ‘earthly people’ turn it into battle and war. Yet spiritual man is far above that, and also we are intertwined with it.

And what then is the real spiritual life? For this, there are many spiritual schooling paths and initiation cults open to us.

But now we return to Hippocrates himself, he not only handed down to us his Hippocratic oath, but also gave many ethical rules such as for example; ‘The one, who wishes to acquire the proper knowledge of the medical art, must possess the following things: natural aptitude, schooling, an appropriate living environment, from childhood teachers (male or female,) work ethic and sufficient time.

One of the main objectives for a Hippocratic doctor was the experience and observation of the sick person and the diagnosis and prognosis based on that. His therapy included the way of life for the healthy person, with medicines, hygiene, diet, physical exercises, philosophical talks, and so on.

In the 4th century BC, botany came into full swing and in the 1st century BC we find the first illustrated herb books to describe the collection and preparation of plants.

For example, using the doctrine of sympathy, Paracelsus (1493-1541) stated that a person can go blind or limp if a nail sticks into the eyes or sole of his image.(Here we see strong similarities with the black voodoo cult, sadly at the expense of white voodoo).

Parcelsus believed that these ailments cannot be cured by natural means. One will have to seek the cure in the same direction as the cause by, for example, bandaging or treating the effigy in question.

This brings us into the realm of ritual magic.

Parcelsus wrote; magic has the power to experience and fathom things inaccessible to the human mind. For magic is a great secret wisdom, the mind on the other hand, a great general folly.

Parcelsus-Theoprastus of Hogeygeim studied medicine at Italian colleges and then led an irregular nomadic existence. He travelled as far as the East (the Orient).From 1526-1528, he was professor of medicine at the University of Basel. He is called the ‘father of chemistry’ because he introduced the distillation and sublimation of medicines. To the world, he left his incredible knowledge in 400 notebooks, most of which were written in German.

These have now been preserved in the original text in 14 volumes in the famous Sudhoff Collected Edition.

The idea that there is a universal connection between all things and manifestations shaped medicinal thinking from ancient cultures.

For example, it was assumed that there was an important relationship between the newborn child and the afterbirth. One had to carefully bury the afterbirth. If a dog or a cat ate it, the child would be afflicted by evil influences. If someone (e.g. the midwife) took the afterbirth, she would thereby gain the power to influence the child for evil.

The same influence could happen when someone possessed another person's urine, faeces, blood, hair, nails or other body parts.

Hippocrates and Paracelsus used the so-called muck pharmacy on several occasions.

Pig stool was recommended for external use for abortion and uterine bleeding, horse dung worked well against hysteria and abdominal complaints. To cure gonorrhoea (gonorrhea) and plague, people drank their own urine. From other cultures, faeces and urine, were magical demon repellents. Hippocrates considered urine a means of draining excess bodily fluids.

In ancient times, many people went with family and children to Greek temples called Asklepicia (inspired by the legend of the physician Asklèpios, elevated to demigod status).

Asklèpios, the Greek god of medicine, is considered a son of Apollon and the Thessalian princess Koranis. He is entrusted by his father to the wise Centaur Cheiroon, who teaches him in the art of medicine. Centaurs were nature demons in the ancient world, horses with an upper body and the head of a man. This allows us to see through the fusion of the animal manifestation of man and animal, horse and man. In the highest particulate forms, we then see the spiritual sage Centaur cheroon appearing. At the wedding of King Pirithous of the Lapithen people, the lower centaurs violate the women, after which they are expelled in a bloody battle (called centauromachy). In Greek myths, the centaurs populate the horse kingdom in Thessaly in northern Greece.

Scenes from the centaur battle are depicted on the west frieze of the Temple of Hèphaistos at Athens on the Temple of Apollon at Bassae and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Several times in these myths, we see animistic movements emerging. Animism is the ancient world-wide belief that all natural manifestations such as hills, mountains, trees, springs and rivers, possess their own spirit. The name comes from the Latin animus; life, soul, spirit. Humans, too, are constantly animated and influenced by higher and lower invisible beings that we can perceive with clairvoyant eyes, but ultimately, down to the true essence, everything can be traced back to different forms of energy. Thus we then see in our own imaginative faculties how Asklèpios becomes such a good student that he can not only heal the sick but also bring the dead back to life. Zeus, envious of this, kills him with his lightning. Originally, Asklèpios was a Thessalian heros (demigod) or prince of Tricca, whose sons were doctors in the Greek army before Troy. Towards the end of the 6th century BC, his worship was transferred to Epidauros in Argolis and later his reputation as a healer rose to unprecedented heights. In the early 4th century BC, an Asklèpios temple was built at Epidauros.

Much of social life (drama, sports, festivals, rituals and so on) took place in these hallowed places.

There was also a place for the treatment of the sick in this temple. Here, the sick were admitted to an open, covered space (abaton) that housed sacred snakes. These snakes were revered as living symbols of man's spiritual rebirth, and they were protected by initiates and priests. The initiate was called a ‘spiritual serpent man’, after the chakra symbolism as worlds of consciousness in man and the subtle serpent energy called ‘kundalini’.

Before the sick were allowed to enter this space, they were purified with arcane rituals, fasting, sexual abstinence , baths, anointings and incensed with various herbs. Prayer and chanting were necessary. After these preparations, people were taken to the abaton where, while asleep, intoxicated by fragrant scents and trance-inducing music, they were told by divine revelation which medicines to use to get better. Each time, it was a magical and mystical event.... The priests acted as doctors and mediators between the divine and the sick person. After sleep, the priests could give initiations or clarifications.

Throughout the ancient world, hundreds of Asklèpicia arise. Well-known is the sanctuary (excavated and partly reconstructed since 1902) on Kos island because this is where medicine after the school of Hippocrates was practised scientifically by doctors (the so-called Asklèpiads). Remains of an Asklèpicion from the 4th century BC can also be seen on the Athenian Acropolis. For the Egyptians, Asklèpios is their Serapis. Asklèpios is depicted leaning on a staff with a snake winding around it. The stroke symbolism is again obvious. The asklèpios sign derived from this is the international symbol for the medical professions.

We want to conclude our cultural history reflections with Indian medicine. The oldest evidence of this dates from 1500 to 1400 BC. They are the four holy books, written in Sanskrit, called the Vedas=knowledge, which were considered divine revelations. These are still used as textbooks today.

According to Ayurvedic medicine and way of life, all living beings, as well as all human beings, are born in a state of spiritual and physical balance. However, some human incarnations may bring all kinds of disturbances and disorders from their past lives. The unity of body, psyche and spirit is the starting point for Ayurveda - as for many Eastern medicine and natural medicine (holistic). In Ayurvedic medicine, various lifestyles and treatment methods are used and brought together; nutrition, herbs and minerals, aromas, colours, the various forms of Yoga (kundalini yoga, tantra and yoga, hatha-yoga, karma bhakti-yoga, japa-yoga, jnana-yoga, raja-yoga, samadhi yoga, and so on).Above all, the pure spiritual way of life is pursued as much as possible.

In Ayurvedic medicine, we recognise the three basic principles, namely; Vata, consisting of air (vayu) and ether (akash), Pittha, consisting of fire (tejas) and water (jala), Kapha, consisting of water (jala) and earth (prithivi).

The energy fields also work through the seven chakras in humans, these are fine material sources of energy and also lotuses or centres of consciousness in the aura or energetic body of humans.

Our constitution can be divided into seven types: vata, pittha, kapha, vata-pittha, pittha-kapha, vata-kapha and vata-pittha-kapha.

So the ancient philosophical considerations in Ayurveda are based on the doctrine of the five elements; ether (akash) or throat chakra, air (vaya) or heart chakra, fire (tejs) or manipura chakra in the abdominal cavity, water (jala) or svadisthana chakra in the middle of the sexual organs, and earth (prihivi) or called muladhara chakra.

This entire ancient knowledge thus includes the purification of the body, and the balanced relationship between the body, soul, mind and cosmos.

Emperor Ashoka (273-232 BC) of the Maurya dynasty founded the first Indian empire and finally converted to Buddhism. He inspired and promoted the fine arts and sciences and bequeathed numerous edifices carved into the rocks. The king had hospitals built for humans and animals everywhere. The famous Ashoka column shows a very strong symbolic power; the lion is the reflection of natural power, the wheel on a lotus flower symbolises the continuity of life (also called the wheel of Karma).

From these ancient natural remedies, we naturally come to herbal medicine, as practised and experienced today. One of the many miracle healing herbs, for example, is St John's Wort, (Hypericum Perforatum).

It is thought that the Latin name ‘Hypericum’ may derive from the Greek word ‘hyper’ = above and ‘eikon’ = image or representation. Perforatum then refers to; with holes, which refers to the leaves being full of transparent oil glands.

The name St John's wort refers to its flowering date, late June, around St John's Day (24 June). The freshly picked plant, or the dried one, is used for medicinal purposes. In this process, one prepares the whole plant together with the root. The active substances are then; essential oil, tannins, hyperosida (yellow dye), hypericin (red dye = hypericum red).

St. John's wort has been described in detail throughout the ages and praised by many famous botanists, such as, for example; Hippocrates, Paracelsus and the many herbalists of the 16th and 17th centuries. For example, it is mentioned: for use on burns and wounds ‘being cut or stabbed’; even in our times, it is still an excellent remedy for external and internal damage to the nervous system caused by injuries with severe, screeching pain in the nerve tracts, the consequences of concussions and bruises of the spinal cord with pulling headaches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, depression, sleep disorders and further in burns and poorly healing wounds.

Especially for today's Western man weighed down by spiritual emptiness and negative stress caused by all kinds of influences in modern social structures, we will now consider the healing solar powers of this miraculous medicinal plant. In doing so, we should first take a closer look at the connections of the sympathy doctrine.

Sympathy doctrine is strongly based on the spiritual conviction that all phenomena of the visible world are to be regarded as manifestations and cosmic carriers of one mystical, higher and conscious force or interplay of energy fields, which determines their form, outer appearance, properties and, in the case of plants and herbs specifically, their toxic or healing effects.

We find these philosophical and mystical beliefs in all ancient mystery cults and spiritual schooling paths. From these contemplations, there are so many relations between all living and even inanimate objects. There is then the intuitive connection between all life forms and phenomena in nature and the cosmos. One then assumes the intimate relationship and influence -sympathy- between humans, animals, plants, minerals and planets.

Thus, we can see through the energy of the sun in the sunlit yellow flowers of St John's wort. These flowers then impart positive sunlight-radiated uplifting and at the same time soothing powers to humans who take them to themselves in the form of these plants.

Paracelsus already knew the nowadays scientifically proven antidepressant effects of this plant, as they release the necessary serotonin (neurotransmitters) in the human brain. Paracelsus said that every doctor should know that God has put a great arcanum in the herb, just because of the spirits and maddening fantasies, which make people despair and not by the devil, but by nature. Thus, the plant also has its beneficial influences on the heart, liver and kidneys.

Otto Brunfels writes about St. John's wort: Many people call it Euga demonum, because they think that where this herb is kept, the devil does not enter and no ghost wants to stay. That is why in many countries the maternity wives are smoked with it, but they have it blessed beforehand on the day of our Lady's ascension, and also have their pastime with it.

The blessing of herbs on Assumption Day (15 August) is still performed ritually in many parishes.

The 15th-century manuscript Lexicon plantarum also describes St John's wort as an important medicinal herb and evil repellent plant.

The active substances of St. John's wort are thus: hypericin, flavonoids, essential oil and the tannins. As phytotherapy, they are used against psycho-vegetative disorders, depressive moods, anxiety and/or nervous agitation. In homeopathy; Hypericum from the fresh plant for nerve pain, depression and disturbances of the female cycle. Externally on wounds, burns, injuries.

The hypericin present in the plant can irritate the skin and cause increased photosensitivity.

In the more scientific sense, the active substances release serotonin in the brain of humans who ingest St. John's wort.

The main building blocks of the brain are the nerve cells or neurons. These are interconnected in complex and deep networks and transmit information and energy through chemical messenger substances called neurotransmitters. In anxiety disorders, for example, noradrenaline and serotonin are the main neurotransmitters.

Serotonin concentrates mainly in an area of the brain slightly above the locus coeruleus, in the Raphe nuclei. Serotonergic drugs have long been known to be effective in combating depression, but recent research shows that they can also combat panic attacks. Serotonergic drugs inhibit the breakdown of serotonin in the synapse cleft (between neurons) or prevent the reuptake of this transmitter, thus increasing the amount of serotonin.

St. John's wort as a natural medicine thus releases more pure serotonin into the human brain biologically. In the subtle realms, we see the healing energy of the sun working its way into the upper chakras in the human aura, with the solar plexus generating new life force. These healing influences biologically transform into melatonin in the brain, preparing the entire life-energetic field around and through the human being for a beneficial night's rest with beautiful dreams.

Thus, St. John's wort provides life-giving creative energy in daily life.

A second miraculous healing and magical plant we want to consider is the Papaver Somniferum or sleeping globe.

The common, red poppy should never be mistakenly confused with its lilac-blooming, famous, dangerous ‘brother’ Papaver Somniferum, the sleeping globe (Somnifer = sleep-inducing). But also deadly in connection with its toxicity, which provides medicine with the important analgesic (morphine), as well as a whole range of medicines (such as, for example, codeine and papaverine).

Homer, as an ancient Greek poet, already mentions in his Iliad (as a spiritual journey of discovery) the use of an oblivion potion called ‘nepenthes’, which is believed to have been an opium preparation. ‘Opium’ (from the Greek “Opion”= plant juice).

Papaver Somniferum stills the pains of earthly life in mind, soul and body, and opens the gates to other spiritual realms and ‘psychic underworlds’.

In Greek mythology, the sleeping globe was closely associated with the goddesses Demeter and Hekatè, both of whom were intertwined with the underworld (in the human aura, the energetic energy field, experienced in the lower chakras).

Persephonè was shaken by Hades, the god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom.

Persephonè as the Greek goddess of the underworld was the daughter of Zeus and Dèmètèr. Hades took her while she was a young girl picking flowers, and while no one noticed the robbery, he married her. Since then, she has been sought by Dèmètèr, and when the latter learns from the sun god Hèlios that Persephonè lives in the kingdom of the dead, she strikes the earth with infertility. Thereupon Zeus sends his winged messenger Hermès to Hades, who must send Persephonè to earth.

Hades lets her go on condition that she will spend a third of the year in the kingdom of the dead. Persephonè, also called Korè (girl), with her mother in particular, was worshipped in the Eleusinian mysteries.

In her despair, Dèmètèr is said to have eaten sleep bulb to find temporary sleep and oblivion. Thus we read this ancient poem; Here it pleases me, in the circle of my light poems, to mention now the field poppy, which mother Latona weeping for the robbery of her daughter enjoyed, so it is said, so that longing oblivion freed her breast from worry.

In the garden of Hecate, a great sorceress and powerful death goddess (comparable to the Indian goddess Kali) who was accompanied by dogs and often roamed the cemeteries and graveyards, sleeping bulbs also grew, according to mythology.

Hypnos, the god of sleep, was ritually offered smoking offerings containing poppy seeds and opium.

In Indian mythology, the Soma is known; a drink prepared from pure spring water and alcohol, cannabis, opium and other magical and medicinal plants, which were usually used highly diluted. Even today, in some ancient Hindu temples, as initiates, we can take this drink.

This Soma drink could bestow spiritual immortality. At the Soma sacrifice, the most important in the (Old Indian) medical cult, the Soma juice mixed with milk, water, butter and flour was offered or offered to the initiate as a drink. The plant is guarded in heaven or on a high mountain by celestial beings, also called Gandharvas along with some demons. There, the Soma was robbed by an eagle, which gave the plant to the god Indra. Soma is also the name of the god of plants and later the moon god (who bears similarities with the Old Iranian god Haoma).

For thousands of years, opium was a highly valued, though not harmless analgesic, intoxicant and aphrodisiac. It was natural that the sleeping bulb belonged to the magical plants. So in India, opium enjoyed high esteem as an aphrodisiac and the herb was dedicated to the god Shiva along with hemp (cannabis). Still today, some groups of Sadhus (holy men) in India, use opium decoctions, cannabis or other magical plants to reach higher levels of consciousness from their Raja-Yoga rituals.

Opium (from the Greek ‘opion’ = plant juice), contains about 25 different alkaloids and is the dried milk juice obtained by scratching the unripe seed pods. When cutting the unripe box fruits of the sleeping bulb, a sticky, white milk juice comes out, which dries up resinous and turns brown under the influence of oxygen. People manage to extract the highest levels of morphine from it by notching the grey-green box fruits in the late morning. Around 10 o'clock in the morning, the morphine content is highest. It then decreases rapidly to rise again in the morning of the next day.

Morphine has gotten a bad name because of its drug use. Heroin, for example, is a semi-synthetic opiate prepared by acetylation of morphine. The ‘shadows’ of the Papaver Somniferum are thus made into a dangerous drug, and sometimes life-threatening, by man-made and chemically unnatural substances. But before this resurgence of use as a hallucinogenic drug, it was and still is one of the most useful analgesics available to the medical profession. Still today, pain sufferers and terminal patients are helped get rid of their pains by administering morphine (in the form of pills, suppositories, patches or intravenously).

It used to be customary in many a place to mix an infusion of unripe dried poppy seed pods into the drinks of small children to help them sleep peacefully. This thoughtless habit is said to have had harmful effects on the child's development. People also gave it to crying and overactive children. In the process, serious accidents sometimes happened due to overdosing.

The ripe seed does not contain morphine. It is called poppy seed, blue moon or blue moon seed. In our regions, too, the sleeping ball is grown on a large scale to extract oil or seeds. The seeds are baked with bread, which is then called poppy-seed bread. The oil is regularly added to paints, soap and all kinds of ointments.

In certain places in the world, sleeping bulbs are cultivated on a large scale (e.g. in Afghanistan and in the so-called ‘golden triangle’, the border region of Thailand, Burma and Laos). The strict opium ban dates back only to the time when people could manufacture synthetic opiates.

There are so many beautiful, healing but also dark death forces woven throughout the Papaver Somniferum.

From clairvoyant realms, we see the angelic translucent beings that deliver humans from hellish pains. Fire spirits and solar energy irradiate the red flowers. Through the human blood, they carry redemptive powers to the human brain and nervous-sensory system. We can also see through the luminous lunar spheres with their bright purifying and cold enticements to the realm of spirits and passed human souls. They play through the blue-grey slabol, so that man who has taken to the slabol sees his near and dear ones for phantoms.

In a more scientific sense, we can talk about endorphins. Endorphins are the chemical (neurotransmitter), which we produce ourselves in our brains and which is about three times stronger and more natural (in its actions throughout the brain and nervous system) than the active substances we know from lettuce leaf or Papaver Somniferum. The biochemical ‘cause’ of anxiety disorders is regularly associated with endorphins; these endorphins have their calming, tension-relieving and pain-relieving effects.

We can generate and actively stimulate these endorphins ourselves through meditation, creative visualisation, alpha training (generating soothing alpha waves in the human brain) and relaxation exercises or yoga and autogenic training. For example, with healing powers of visualised light energy. Thus, we can experience the positive energy of meditation and endorphins ourselves in everyday life.

-Karel Meul (in loving memory) 

Published in the summer of 2008

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