“I experience the
recognition of an archetype in a signature or the true nature of a plant or
creature as a beautiful experience, which harkens my spirit back to paradise
before the fall, before the human archetype decided that he was a god.”
–Matthew Wood
One of the most intriguing things about herbal healing is
its ability to operate beyond the physical. Plants are great for healing the
body, and that alone is a wonderful gift from nature. Yet despite what our
reductionist science tells us, herbal healing goes much deeper than the actions
of phytochemicals upon bodily systems.
There is an element of the unseen in herbal medicine. Call
it what you will: plant spirit healing, plant spirit medicine, plant spirit
shamanism. I like to call it plant spirit magic, because that’s how it feels to
me. Connecting and communicating with plants is definitely healing, but working
with plants has other benefits as well. They show up in strange synchronicities
to teach lessons; they deliver messages; they offer guidance and perspective.
Reading the signs of nature is not only healing--it’s fun. It imbues a sense of
magic into my life; it makes me feel like the world is speaking to me, and the
sheer act of learning its language is causing me to evolve.
Traditional cultures have long viewed plants as teachers and
guides. Shamans and mystics use plants for gathering information. Plants are
used in divination; some can induce prophetic dreams; others stimulate visions
or help one traverse alternate realms. But learning how to read the signs of nature doesn’t have to be as wild as all of that. It can simply be a matter of
learning the medicinal uses for a plant from the plant itself. Some shamans
have mastered the art of plant communication and can simply connect with a
plant and discover how to use it for medicine. But for those of us who are
still working on mastering clear communication with the plant world, nature does
provide clues.
The Doctrine of
Signatures
These clues are embodied by the doctrine of signatures, the concept
that a plant resembles the condition or part of the body that it can heal. For
example, flowers from the herb Eyebright look strikingly like human eyes, and
the plant is a remedy for eye ailments like conjunctivitis. Horsetail, as its
name implies, has the appearance of a thick horse’s tail, and is used to
strengthen the hair. Signatures are also found through touch, smell, taste,
odor, and even sound.
In the words of Matthew Wood in
his book Vitalism (p. 20), “The idea is that the
shape, color, appearance, environmental niche, taste, smell, etc., of a plant
or medicinal agent will display the tell-tale signs, marks, or configurations
indicating how that agent may be used in medicine.”
The doctrine of signatures is said to originate from the
Middle Ages, when it was used by folk herbalists and wise women. Yet, it seems
that no one really knows precisely when or where this concept originated; it
may be that the tradition is quite ancient, and the Middle Ages was simply the
time frame when it was first recorded. For example, Swiss physician Paracelsus is
sometimes credited with creation of signatures, or signatum. Certainly, he was a proponent of them, writing, “Nature
marks each growth… according to its curative benefit” (Doctrine of Signatures,
n.d.). Wood (Vitalism, p. 20)
provides a quote from Hartman, who paraphrases the concept from Paracelsus:
“The soul does not perceive the
external or internal physical construction of herbs and roots, but intuitively
perceives their powers and virtues, and recognizes at once their signatum…This signatum is often
expressed even in the exterior forms of things, and by observing the form we
may learn something in regard to their interior qualities, even without using
our interior sight.”
In 1621, German Christian mystic Jacob Boehme published The Signature of All Things, a text which
identifies and discusses the law of signatures as a universal, magical law. In
this fascinating tome, Boehme (Chapter IX) casts such pearls of wisdom as:
“The
whole outward visible world with all its being is a signature, or figure of the
inward spiritual world; whatever is internally, and however its operation is,
so likewise it has its character externally; like as the spirit of each
creature sets forth and manifests the internal form of its birth by its body,
so does the Eternal Being also.”
Or, as the Hermetic texts put it, “As
without, so within.”
Thus, the doctrine of signatures is an
ancient concept with roots in folk herbalism, mysticism, hermeticism, and
esoteric teachings on the healing arts. It’s a fascinating and rather mystical
approach to plant medicine that stands in stark contrast to modern,
conventional medicine. Rather than recognizing spirits, archetypes, or signatures
within plants, science reduces them to their component parts based on a
strictly materialistic view of reality.
Although modern medicine rejects the doctrine of signatures,
scientific research tends to validate it unintentionally. Modern science picks
apart herbs and classifies them down to each chemical component present in the
plant. As it turns out, Horsetail contains large amounts of silica, which is
beneficial to the hair, as well as the skin, nails, and bones. In other words,
it does help you grow your hair long and strong, like a beautiful horse’s tail.
While scientists may inadvertently come to some of the same conclusions about
plant medicine as mystics and folk healers do, their way seems a lot less fun.
The Case for
Intuition
“Every time you don’t
follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a
sense of spiritual deadness.”
-Shakti Gawain
Perhaps modern medicine’s dismissal of the doctrine of
signatures stems from a larger societal trend that also discards intuition. Not
only does modern, Western society undervalue the primal intuitive force within
each of us; it out-and-out rejects all but a tiny sliver of the broad spectrum
of spirituality--namely, that which falls under the precepts of organized religion.
What’s more, these religions often place little value upon one’s personal
experience of the divine. In fact, sometimes they actually prevent people from seeking the divine for themselves, mandating
instead that the sacred is only to be reached through a human middle-man. Of
course, this is not always the case, and some religious people are also very
spiritual, possessing a great deal of devotion and faith. But the Western world
itself is not run by devotion and faith, not by a long shot.
Modern, Western society is quite secular indeed, driven
first and foremost by what we can perceive while operating within a hectic,
chronically-stressed-out, coffee-fueled, goal-driven state that we have come to
think of as normal. Instead of cultivating faith in the unseen, we have placed
our faith in the bottom line: money. Instead of producing citizens trained to
cultivate inner balance, kindness, and humility, we school people to be selfish,
egotistical, and materialistic and call it “successful.”
According to the prevailing winds of our culture, the
practice of going within is not hip-- unless it’s enacted by a beautiful woman
in trendy clothing and then posted on social media. Cultivating intuition is
not practical, unless it helps you win the lottery. Psychic ability is not a
reality, because if people were truly psychic, wouldn’t they have already won
the lottery? Miracles, if they ever really happened at all, must have only
transpired in some far-removed, mythological past to which nobody can return.
And yet, we live in a time when many are beginning to
question the long, strong hold of patriarchy that has gripped our religious,
political, financial, and social systems for so long. Several spiritual
teachers have said that the Divine Feminine is on the rise, despite what we may
read in the papers. I see this myself; I see people waking up, protecting
Mother Earth with their lives, valuing the women in their lives, and valuing
the Feminine within themselves, regardless of gender.
I have often wondered what it might look like for society to
start valuing the Feminine as much as it values the Masculine. And I don’t mean
simply valuing women, though that would be nice, too. I mean the feminine
energy that exists in both men and women. The side that values internal
processes, dreams, visions, and feelings; the side that listens to an inner
guidance system; the side that is receptive to messages from the invisible
world.
I picture people showing up to work in the morning and
sharing the previous night’s dreams around the coffee maker. I picture doctors
saying, “Let’s look at the astrological influences of the next few weeks before
we schedule your surgery.” I picture business meetings that include Tarot
spreads; I picture politicians asking for guidance in Ayahuasca ceremonies; I
picture farmers consulting the phase of the moon before planting and giving
gratitude to the Earth before harvesting.
I believe that cultivating intuition is a valuable practice
that benefits society as a whole. By reconnecting with the still, small voice
within, we become more aligned with our highest potential. In a world so
desperately in need of healing, our highest potential is what we must develop to create a better reality
for all.
Reading the Signs of
Nature
“Nature is alive and
talking to us. This is not a metaphor.” -Terence McKenna
Of course, intuition can be cultivated in a number of ways. Learning
to read the signs of nature is only one, but it’s a powerful practice. Perhaps
you already do this in one form or another. Many people, for example, interpret
animal sightings as portends. If a bobcat crosses our path, we look up its meaning
in a book and try to determine what message it might hold for us. Because this
is such a popular concept, an entire language of animal totems has been
developed by key authors like Ted
Andrews and Jamie Sams. We collectively understand Hawk as the messenger and
Coyote as the trickster.
Plants can also be read as nature’s portends and
message-bearers, although there isn’t as much literature out there regarding
their meanings. This is part of why I wrote
The Herbal Healing Deck--not as a definitive encyclopedia of plant meanings,
but as a way of developing the conversation about plant totems. As
with animal totems, plants can have different meanings for different people at
different times. Thus, I don’t expect people to view my book as a static,
authoritative reference; rather, my hope is that working with the deck helps
people tune in with plant spirits and signatures in order to develop their own
intuitive senses about plant archetypes.
The messages offered by herbs are plentiful and can be
expressed and understood in a number of ways. I once got a clear message from
Mint plants overtaking my garden: “Be careful of what you start, as each
project can take on a life of its own.” Anyone who has dealt with the ceaseless
underground runners of this plant knows what I mean. (You can read
the full story on Mint Magic here.) What we will focus on below is a very specific brand
of messages offered by our green allies: specifically, reading the signs of
nature as expressed in medicinal plants to determine what those plants can be
used for--also known as the doctrine of signatures.
To my mind, the doctrine of signature is like an intricate
system of winks and nods from Mother Nature herself. (In fact, the word signature
is a mix between the words “sign” and “nature.”)
Gaia knows exactly how immersed in 3-D reality we are most of the time.
She understands that we might need an occasional nudge in the direction of our
intuition. From the beginning, Nature has wanted us to understand how to use her
abundant medicines to stay healthy and happy in a dynamic and shifting world.
So, she has left a trail of breadcrumbs--a map, a blueprint, a signature within
the physical form of each of her medicines to help us mere mortals along our
rocky paths through life.
Reading the
Signatures
“If we struggle with
the uncertainties of imagination and intuition, after some time we may begin to
feel that there is indeed a hidden logic with Mother Nature. Images, similars,
signs, correspondences, and coincidences infer a different way to look at the
world; they give rise to a different kind of knowledge.” -Matthew Wood
Matthew Wood, an American herbalist, author, and teacher is
known for his attention to the doctrine of signatures and the archetypes of
plants. As he points out, the more specifically you can match the archetype of
a healing plant to a patient’s condition, the deeper the healing can be. Wood
tends to use much lower doses of herbal medicines than most practitioners. His
books were among the first I read while beginning my herbalism journey a decade
ago, and for a long while I believed that a few drops of tincture was
considered a normal dose. This was before I understood the true genius of
Wood’s system: the more precise the remedy, the deeper the healing, and the
less physical plant matter you need.
This aligns with the concept in shamanic herbalism that you
don’t necessarily need a plant’s physical presence to invoke its healing
effects. In the words of seminal plant spirit medicine teacher and author
Eliot Cowan:
“There is only one active ingredient in plant medicines--friendship.”
Using intuition as a guide for discovering herbal remedies
allows the herbalist to sustain a sense of magic and mysticism in his or her practice.
It is both exciting and deeply fulfilling to get to know herbal allies, and it
is a blessing and an honor for those who practice this work. While intuition
plays a leading role in discerning signatum,
many signatures have already been discovered and tested. This gives us a
wonderful starting point and a reference for learning about individual plants
and their uses.
However, it is also helpful to study the methods of
perceiving signatures, in order to develop a vocabulary for this intuitive sense
and learn how to discover signatures for ourselves. In
The Book of Herbal Wisdom, Wood outlines several types of
signatures to look for in herbs:
One has to do with the environment
or habitat in which the plant grows.
For example, many kidney remedies grow in wet areas. Returning to the example
of Horsetail, this plant grows along streams and creeks, and it is also very good
for the urinary tract. It has been used to treat kidney stones and urinary
tract infections. Nettle is another plant that likes to grow in wet areas, and
it has an affinity for the waterways of the body, such as the blood and urinary
tract. Meanwhile, plants that thrive in full sunshine often possess sunny
qualities. Think of such cheerful, warm remedies like St. John’s Wort, which
can ease seasonal affective disorder or wintertime blues, or Calendula, which
can soothe dry and irritated skin caused by winter weather.
Also notable is the color
of a plant, as different colors of berries, leaves, roots, and flowers can
point to their work on different bodily systems. Herbs with a dark red color,
like Sumac berries and Beet root, are associated with building the blood. Plants
with white flowers, such as Boneset and Comfrey, are associated with healing
broken bones. The color of a decoction or tincture made from an herb can also
be a signature. For example, the blood-red color of a St. John’s Wort extracts
has lead some herbalists to consider it a protective herb for women during
their moon cycles, which can otherwise be an emotionally vulnerable time. Colors
can also correspond to the chakras; for example, goldenseal’s bright yellow
root is a signature for its action on the solar plexus, including the digestive
organs.
Wood points out that a plant’s shape or physical form was one of the first associations made in
modern records of the doctrine of signatures. If a plant looked like a human
organ, it was thought to act on that organ. Walnuts, which look strikingly like
a human brain, are in fact very good for brain health. They are high in DHA, an
Omega-3 fatty acid which has been shown to improve cognitive function and
prevent age-related cognitive decline. Wood writes about using Black Walnut for
treating scalp conditions, showing another affinity that this plant has for the
head. Boneset has leaves conjoined at the stem, so it looks like the stem pokes
through the center of a single leaf. This appearance of fused leaves points to
its use as a means of helping to heal broken bones. St. John’s Wort has tiny
perforations on the surface of its leaves that glow with light when held up to
the sunshine. Likewise, St. John’s Wort can let the light into one’s heart and
mind during times of seasonal affective disorder or depression.
An herb’s
texture
is another signature. Furry plants are sometimes used for organs that are
covered with hair-like cilia, such as the lungs and intestines. Mullein is a
plant whose broad leaves are covered with soft fur, and indeed, Mullein is a
used to heal the lungs. Comfrey leaves have cells that resemble a microscopic
view of human skin, complete with hairs, and the plant is one of the best skin
healers. Meanwhile, thorny plants are often used as pain relievers, “not by
sedating it but by striking at the root cause of it,” according to
Ellen Evert Hopman (2016, “Overall Shape and Formations” section, para. 6). For example,
Wild Lettuce is a prickly plant that is used to treat physical pain. This can
also extend beyond physical pain and into emotional pain. For example,
Hawthorn is a thorn-bearing tree that can heal emotional pain of the heart.
Scent is another
element to consider within the doctrine of signatures. Think, for instance, of
the smell of Eucalyptus, and your nose will recall an intense opening
experience. Highly aromatic herbs contain large amounts of essential oils, which
exit the body via the breath, helping to open the lungs and nasal passages. Another
example is the stimulating and cooling aroma of Peppermint, which exactly
mirrors its cooling and stimulating actions on the body.
Even the sound that
plants make can be a signature. Wood cites the rattling sound of Black Cohosh
seedpods as a signature of the plant’s use among Native Americans for
snakebites. Wood calls this a “spirit
signature,” the Native American idea that if a plant calls to mind a
certain animal, or if it attracts a certain animal, then the plant possesses
the medicine of this animal.
Thus, we have come full circle back to animal totems, which
really aren’t so different from plant spirit totems. To my mind, one of the
biggest differences is that plant totems are more subtle--they don’t jump out
in front of your car or scratch at your door. Thus, we must keep our eyes open
to the quiet urgings and messages of the plants. Yet, plants can occasionally
speak to us in more dramatic terms: a Pine tree falls across your driveway,
Mint takes over your garden, or you get a Poison Ivy rash. These may not be
signatures, but they can certainly clue you in that a plant is trying to tell
you something!
Enjoying the Journey
Using the doctrine of signatures is a way to deepen your
practice of herbal medicine. But more than that, it’s a way of communing with
nature. Observing a plant and attempting to discern its uses based on
signatures a valuable thing to study, even if you never plan to start your own
clinical herbalism practice. It’s a way to start reading the signs of nature
and allowing your intuitive self to open up to the messages of plants. Plants
have many messages for us, if we only pause to listen.
Signatures can go beyond physical uses for plant medicines
and into the realm of energetic uses, messages, and lessons. One example I gave
above was
Hawthorn’s thorns being a signature for its ability to relieve
emotional pain. Another example is the yellow color of Daffodil blooms, which
can be
made into a flower essence for boosting the solar plexus, the yellow
chakra. Daffodil helps with solar-plexus-related issues such as self-worth,
confidence, and the recognition of one’s gifts and talents.
Don’t be afraid to open your mind and use your imagination
when looking for signatures. I encourage people to open up to nature with a
sense of childlike wonder and awe. Children often talk to animals and plants
before society programs them into believing that such things are silly. It’s
time to take back our innocence and start talking with the plants again! Even
Matthew Wood admits that some of the signatures he perceives can be silly or
even cartoonish at times--but they still work. Imagination is just another
level of intuition. So, the next time you’re playing in the garden or hiking
through the woods and find yourself drawn to particular plant, ask yourself:
What does this plant remind me of?
Of course, it takes patience to work with plants--their
signs, signatures, and spirits. In the same way it takes several years for a
single American Ginseng root to develop into a mature, medicine-ripe specimen,
the plants often share their teachings bit by bit, over the course of months or
even years. Synchronicities will often line up to confirm something I’ve
learned by intuition, and sometimes this process happens in slow-motion. Just
when I think I have understood a plant’s message, it evolves into something new
as more information comes to light. It’s a process, a journey that is well
worth the effort, even if it never leads to an exact destination. Working with
plant signatures is much like a hike through the forest. It’s such an enjoyable
experience of exercise and expansion unto itself; does it even matter where you
end up?
References
