Guide-Letter #6 - Ancient Irish Herbology And Its Timeless Message For All
“I remember the Chieftains of Ireland used each to give a piece of land to a healer who lived with them;…. Each such healer has a book crammed with specific remedies bequeathed to him by his forefathers. Accordingly, he who inherits the book inherits also the piece of land. The book describes the symptoms and ailments and the country remedies used for each, and the people of Ireland are cured more successfully when ill, and have generally far better health than the people of Italy.”
Happy Monday My Friend!
I hope you’re feeling wonderful today, I know I am! More on that later..
The above quote is a statement made in the 16th Century by a famous physician J.B.van Helmont (1577 -1644). He wrote in his book Confessio Authoris about medical care in old Gaelic Ireland after touring Europe to learn from other cultures about their mechanisms for health and healing. It seems he was very impressed with Gaelic Éire.
So why were the ancient Irish among the healthiest peoples in Europe and more healthy generally than the people of Italy?
This Irish/Celtic system of healing spans thousands of years, handed down from generation to generation from the Ancients. Some say it goes directly back to one of the legendary early peoples of Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Dannan (people of the Goddess Danú) and their God of Healing, Déin Chécht (Swift Power).
There are many stories of how 3,000 years ago, Swift Power healed people using herbal medicine, chanted incantations, medicinal baths, charms, prayers and rituals. One of these stories from the 2nd Battle of Moytura, details how he healed mortally injured warriors by bathing them in a medicinal bath of sacred well water imbued with every herb in existence in all of Ireland.
Now that’s quite a concept. As I covered in an earlier Guide Letter, true well water is already in a very high living state of water in its form and structure, something we cannot find in any bottle or tap water. Living water like that found in wells can heal many aliments depending on the nature of the well water and those aliments. Adding further to this water every known herb in Ireland, is powerful beyond our usual modern understanding.
This ancient story has a very strong etymology, but whether it is completely factual or not matters less. What matters is that there is a very solid basis for the medicinal benefits of such a process and in this lies a deep timeless message we can use today to empower our vitality to higher levels.
An Luibh Ghort - The Garden of Herbs
A corner stone of this ancient system of healing was a garden of medicinal plants known as “An Luibh Ghort” which existed in every community in all of Ireland. The skilled healer who owned the medicinal garden and was the custodian of the book of remedies handed down from their ancestors, was “An Liaig” - the healer/doctor or physician.
The Liaig's field was filled with an array of indigenous medicinal plants and the Liaig was a highly skilled gardener as well as herbologist and healer who could bring the frequency of the plants and their nutrient composition to bare as a cure for all kinds of alignments.
An Liaig worked with the soil of earth, with the elements and the plants and the seasons, as well as with their fellow humans. They saw the plants for what they really are - living sentient beings. They deeply respected them and understood how their life force could be used to heal and bring life force into us. They understood that the plants themselves held great wisdom and as such were great teachers.
This is a real understanding of timeless, universal, higher laws of vitality.
Their business was healing, making people better, it was not for sales or profit. Their livelihood was assured by the local chieftain so long as they worked their craft.
Unfortunately, colonisation and the cruel forceful confiscation of the land meant their gardens of medicinal plants was taken away from them. A truly ancient and effective system of healing was no more.
Nothing is as old as the truth
There is a saying I love, "nothing is as old as the truth, and nothing is a new as the truth".
Truth has a way of finding its way back again, and today a lot of this knowledge is experiencing a great revival.
We are on a journey of forgetting and re-learning over and over again. We learn something new, only to find out it was already known by the Ancients and the Mystics.
Life force from life Source
When we take in something from Source, it means its in original form and still contains all the life force energy and nutrition that is intended by nature. Examples includes sun light, true living earth water direct from Earth, plants and animals directly from Earth (animal straight from land, fish straight from sea, fruits off tree, plants straight from soil).
Anything not from taken from here, is at least one step away from Source. Supermarkets etc will have a huge range but generally most items are a multitude of steps away from Source, after spraying and gassing for transportation to other parts of the world, processing down into packets and cans etc, artificial additives and many other issues.
Even foods grown in the field in industrial-chemical standards are removed from Source as is shown clearly in the nutritional profile of organic vs non-organic fruit and vegetables.
The Timeless Message
What was true for our well-being 3,000 years ago in the time of Swift Power, is still true today. Nature is the source of all our vitality without exception. There is no other. The closer we get to that source the more nourished and vital we are, the more we are healed, the less illness we will have now and in the future, the more we are enlivened and emboldened to live our true callings!
Take Empowered Action for Your Wellbeing and Vitality
The body generates on average, 50 million new cells per second, entirely new blood network every 3 months, new bones and organs every 7 years.
When you take in Source nutrition, you are building your cells, bones and organs of the future to a much higher quality. This is often not understood.
When we know we’re doing this, not only do we feel a lot better because of the Source nutrition, but it also has a placebo-compounding effect on our health because knowing we are doing something so good for ourselves it makes us feel even better again.
The flip side is more steps away from Source, the less nutrition and life force energy remains in it.
1) Start a new habit (if you don’t already have one) of consuming even one herbal plant per day. This will up your level of nutrition from Source significantly, imagine 1 year later, 365 days of source nutrients.
Even the act of going outdoors and foraging reconnects us with something deep and primal and has its own benefits. If you live somewhere where this isn’t possible buy a herbal plant and care for it, and use its leaves for making tea. I do both.
2) Go to the light (sun) often. Sun light is very powerful Source nutrient for the human body mind and soul. Make sure you look at the sky more than you look at the screen!
3) Find out where your nearest local well water is, known by local people to be safe to drink and in use for a long time. Start a practice of drinking this sacred Earth water. This can have profound spiritual as well as physiological benefits.
4) Find a local meat and/or fish source direct from the land or sea. Bring this in as a practice and gift to yourself as often as you can. The life force energy in this is at another level.
5) Have a Swift Power bath! Or at least have a bath with natural salts, but why not add in some herbs as well and go one step further, add some sacred well water also? Getting into the ocean is a mineral medicinal bath too.
6) Think of our soul as needing nutrition as well as our body, what does your soul need next in your life? Make your next move a bold one aligned with your heart!
I do all these practices and that is why I’m feeling wonderful today.
Thanks for reading this Guide Letter.
When it comes to hitting high states of vitality and living your true purpose, KNOW you can feel more and be more!
Cheering you on and wishing you Irish blessings on your way of the heart.
Grá,
Dillon
Today's Irish Proverb from our Ancestors:
"Ta an Luibh gach ar Leighas" - For every aliment, there is a herb.