The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism Quotes

“Whatever people say they believe in terms of spirituality and religion, what they do when they are sick and in need reflects the true basis of their belief system.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“We have, seemingly, jumped over the simplest expression of depression. Cold from the environment will reduce cellular activity. The hypothalamus reacts with shivering and fever to return the organism to health. If the organism does not adequately respond, there will be “internal cold” or depression. If it gets stuck in the shivering phase there will be tissue constriction. If it gets stuck in the fever stage there will be tissue irritation. Accordingly, a chill or cold from the environment needs to be treated according to the stage it is moving through or the tissue state where it gets stuck. The”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“As far as herbs are concerned, they are neither drugs nor nutritional supplements, but something else which has not been recognized or defined by modern science. Medicinal plants are powers or forces which act on the body in a milder fashion than drugs, but in a stronger fashion than foods. They do not force, but “exercise” functions in the body by increasing or decreasing the level of activity, tension, and hydration. Medicinal”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“The usual biomedical approach is to compensate for the incapacity of the body by introducing a drug that makes the body do what it is supposed to do. The holistic approach is different. Instead of trying to force the body to operate as we want it to, we try to return it to a state of health where it can take care of itself. In”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“No internal organ is as sensitive to food as the pancreas.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“The carbohydrates are thus broken down into glucose, the proteins into amino acids, the lipids into short fatty acid chains, and the minerals freed for absorption.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“The lymphatic system is the vehicle through which the immune system acts.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“In traditional medicine the blood is considered to be a functional unit by itself. It is looked upon as a universal medium carrying food and water to all parts of the body, while carrying waste products away.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Cells in the body form into tissues, of which there are four basic kinds: muscular, nervous, epithelial, and connective.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“We cannot, however, go wrong with the understanding from biomedicine that there are four levels of organization in the living body: cell, tissue, organ, and system.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Thomson saw the importance of maintaining the central fire, as well as opening the periphery. The stomach was the seat of this central fire and it must be kept warm and healthy (Botanic Guide, 1825, 8): “The stomach is the deposit from which the whole body is supported. The heat is maintained in the stomach by consuming food; and all the body and limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source; as the whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fireplace.” The natural heat in the center of the body is continually radiating out to the periphery, dominating the economy of the body in all its activities and parts, maintaining it against the cold, toxins, and attacks from the outward environment. Thomson attributes death to the cessation in this outward movement. “It is immaterial whether we lose this power by losing the inward heat or raising the outward heat about it, as the effect is the same,” writes Thomson (1825, 17). “When the outward heat becomes equal with the inward … cold assumes the power and death takes place.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“An important observation to be made is that the skin will always show the “dragon tracks” of disease. If the disease has penetrated from the exterior, the skin will remain too red and hot, or too cold and pale, or too dry, or sweat excessively, showing the “track” the disease took to get to the interior. If the disease originated in an internal weakness it causes a disturbance in the skin. Toxins, excessive heat, cold, dry, or damp will try to move from the interior to the exterior, in an effort to unburden the organism.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“The modern approach is to “kill the bacteria.” Thus, we have antibiotics, while alternative practitioners, aping the mainstream, use their various “natural” antibiotics. This, however, was not the approach of the traditional healers. They did not try to kill the little critters directly, but to change the environment that either led to the invasion in the first place or was caused by the invasion. This is the reason why diaphoretics play such an important part in the old literature.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“the condition of the skin reflects the condition of the grand regulator of the body, the hypothalamus”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“every herb and poison ultimately has a primal essence or identity pattern and this, whether delivered in a gentle or a toxic envelope, possesses curative power.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“excitation/depression, constriction/relaxation, atrophy/torpor.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Action and reaction generates the six tissue states.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“As long as the organism is able to act and react it will be able to recover from disease.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“It is easier to study books and “objective facts” than to develop one’s subjective life, senses, perceptive abilities, and method of thinking.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“For Scudder, that which lives senses life. Like Hippocrates, he taught that the study of medicine begins by training the senses to experience life. The human senses are the foundation of medicinal knowledge and they are trained by exposure to life in all its forms.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“For Paracelsus, the basis of empiricism was the experience that Nature is alive and intelligent. Since this knowledge is subjective, it is hidden. Thus, the individual mineral, plant, or disease has an innate arcanum, intelligence, virtue, power, or energy.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Herbs can be used for either material or energetic purposes, to suppress or cure.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Astringents are contracting, but large doses can bind so thoroughly that they cause dryness and tension.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Acridity relaxes, but in large doses it agitates (valerian).”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Acidity (sour) turns down oxidation (heat) in the cells, but in large amounts it causes oxidation or burning”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Sweets nourish and sedate in moderation, but prolonged overuse causes the cells to reject insulin and blood sugar, resulting in a depressed tissue state, i.e., type II diabetes”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“In practice, most people will exhibit a mix of tissue states—usually two, and sometimes three. Diseases often go through a progression of states. Opposites are often active: irritation/depression, constriction/relaxation, and atrophy/stagnation. In chronic cases, the organism seems to reduce to the least active: atrophy, torpor, and depression. The”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Characteristic symptoms of stagnation or torpor include swollen, flabby, apathetic, weak tissues. The tissues show a “want of expression” as Scudder remarks. This extends to the face. “The patient is dull and apathetic, the eye dull, the face expressionless, the tongue somewhat full, and the pulse lacks sharpness in the wave—oppressed” (Scudder, 1874, 303, 314). Lack of expression is one of the most characteristic symptoms of hypothyroidism. The leading symptom of bad blood is a tendency to hangover conditions and feelings, because the liver and lymph system cannot handle heavy or toxic foods and excesses of various kinds, including exercise.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“the relaxed tissue state is associated with a generally alkaline condition of the blood, fluids, and urine, yet with demineralization, bone loss, and weakness of the bones.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification

“Relaxation describes tissue that is atonic, flaccid, saggy, or collapsed. In addition to sagging and losing its tone, it does not hold fluids, so there is a continuous loss of fluid, called “free secretion” in the old authors. The tendency to discharge is so strong that running ulcers may form. Discharges of saliva, mucus, urine, sweat, and diarrhea are thin, clear, watery, and copious.”
― Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification