Many Medicines

In our western culture, the word "medicine" tends to mean just one thing--drugs, made in a laboratory. Such a sad misuse of such a multifaceted word. In the Native American use of the word, the sense is much broader and more holistic. It implies a force or natural power,or the powerful, spiritual essence of a thing. I know I am not doing this justice. But I only want to get people thinking of the concept of "medicine" in a broader, more natural way. Of course, there are many ways to "make" medicine with herbs-- teas, tinctures, infusions, decoctions, etc. But what they are all trying to access is the plant's inherent "Medicine," which is its healing spirit, or its "area of expertise," as one of my teachers likes to say.If you start to think of the plants as our Teachers and Caretakers,who provide us with their Medicine, with our food, and with the very oxygen we breathe, you may start to get an understanding of just what true "Medicine" is. More on this later.