Énergétique des plantes : une introduction

Hello, in 2014 I wrote an article called Energy of Plants. It's an article that has aroused a lot of questions and interest over the years and so I finally decided to make you a series on the subject. We're going to talk about temperature, humidity, and no it's not an episode on the weather, we're going to talk about the state of the fabrics and no it's not an episode on sewing, I'm not really qualified to talk about sewing, although I can take off my socks, as my grandma showed me at the time. No, no, no, we're going to mainly talk about how to understand the properties of plants, a way that I learned from the Americans and that I liked a lot because of its simplicity. So this concept being a little long to explain, I'm going to divide it into several episodes, you have the first one today and then I'll try to do the others more or less in a row. Well, I'm not sure I can do it, but don't worry, they will happen. So before we start, I remind you of two important things. First of all, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a pharmacist, I'm not a health professional, I'm here to share information with you, but this does not replace a medical follow-up and is not intended to be a diagnosis or prescription or other medical act. And last point, to register for my letter of free information, receive the little gift booklet, the link is under this episode. So first a little bit of history, this concept of energy, it comes to us from the night of time. Humans have always wanted to understand and explain the world around them and they did it with the tools they had at their disposal. That is to say that at one time we did not know the chemistry of plants, we did not know the functioning of the human body from the inside seen through a microscope, but we knew how to observe, we knew how to use all the senses, the nose, the mouth, the touch, the very precise observation of a situation, what appearance a person had overall, what appearance had a part of the body in imbalance and how it evolved. And then over time we created models of understanding that managed to explain these observations and we linked them to the world all around us and to the elements that make up life, water, air, earth, fire, wind. So a situation could be hot or cold, to the touch, with the appearance of a flame, or on the contrary, cold because it was a situation that lacked a little bit of life, or cold to the touch. So the heat is life, the coldness at the extreme is death. A situation could be wet or dry, to the touch, to the observation, to the listening, and it was a model that everyone could understand. The microcosm, the world inside the body, reflected the macrocosm, the world outside. This model we will call it the energetic. So energetic in imbalance and energetic plants that will come to restore the balance. And in all the traditions of the world, at one time or another, we see these notions appear of hot, cold, dry, wet. We find them in Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Hunan, and even in our traditions which are a little bit at the base of our currents of thought, that is to say the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, we see these notions in the writings of Hippocrates and Galen for example. But then you will tell me, why dig up an old dusty model like this one which has largely been supplanted by science? So first of all, why want to create exclusivities? Why couldn't we use different models of practice? There is no contradiction between the energetic and the human physiology, as we understand it today. And besides, the Americans knew how to connect the two very well. I like to dig into different traditions, to understand plants by botany, human physiology, by the categories of main constituents, by the tradition of the different countries and by the energetic. So all of this can be complementary. So here in France, we sometimes see quite interesting reactions like, wow, what is your thing to dig? Don't start with your New Age stories of the spirit of nature, of the duck, etc. Energetic is not that at all. It is something very anchored, very down-to-earth. We are in the touch, the taste, the feeling and the feeling. We are really in our body. So today, as far as I am concerned, I like this model. So not as an exclusivity, but as a complementarity. It is not my primary model of practice, but I would say that it is perhaps a secondary or tertiary model. So why do I like it? Because first of all, I think it is beautiful. It is beautiful in its simplicity, it is beautiful in its way of bringing us back into our body, our feeling. And then it is beautiful because it reconnects us to the elements. So at this stage, I have to explain to you where I acquired these notions. I think it is important to have this context. So I did my apprenticeship in the United States. I spent fifteen years of my life there. This is where, for me, everything started in the world of plants. So I am quite close to American herbivory. Today, these concepts of energy are very present in the American practice of therapeutic herbivory. So, well, I estimate that it is they who have developed the most the integration of this vision in our Western practices. So let's be clear, I'm not going to tell you about the energy of Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine, which includes very sophisticated models of practice. Other people do it much better than me. Here we are going to talk about a very simplified model, but which can be easily integrated into our Western work models. So in the rest of this episode, I will tell you about energy as I learned it, American version. And note by the way, you know me that my goal is not to appropriate this term of energy, which will have different meanings for different people. Here, I bring you a definition of the term. Well, now that we have set the context, we are going to dive into the subject and I will explain the plan of attack. In this first episode, I will tell you about the energy terms that apply to plants. And in a future episode, I will explain to you how these same terms apply to an individual, his overall constitution, but also locally in his body, to a particular state of imbalance, what the Americans call the state of the tissues. And then we will end with the association of the two, that is to say how a plant that has an energy opposite to the condition can bring back the balance. And of course, we will only be able to fly over the situation, you can imagine. It's a subject that is quite complex, but already if you start to intuitively feel some basics, I think that for me it is mission accomplished. To describe the energy terms, we will use three axes. The first two axes, you already know them, I think, the third probably not. So the first axis is the temperature, simple, hot or cold. Does the plant have a warming or cooling character? So of course, we are not talking about real temperature in degrees Celsius here, but the impression that the plant will leave. If I put a thermometer in a fresh pepper and in a fresh cucumber from the garden, the temperature will be about the same as that of the room in which I stored them. On the other hand, the energy of the pepper is clearly warming, and that of the cucumber is clearly refreshing. In the summer, when it is very hot, I will rather be attracted to a cucumber salad and a slice of watermelon, two vegetables of refreshing energy, while in winter I will rather be attracted to a slightly spicy soup. So with practice, we can also talk about different degrees of heat or freshness. So a plant can have a very warming or just warm energy, and the same for the refreshing part. Moreover, it is sometimes called cooling, which notes a degree of cold greater than refreshing. A plant can also be of neutral temperature, neither warming nor cooling. Second axis, humidity. So it's also simple, wet or dry, humidifying or drying. And there, it's the same, it's not necessarily related to the amount of fluid that the plant contains, but to the effect that the plant will create in our system. We can have different degrees of humidifying or drying there too. And the third axis, tension. And this one is a little bit special, it is specific to American practice. It was developed in large part by what the Americans call the physio-medicalist current of the 1800s, early 1900s. And there, the dichotomy is tense or relaxed. And we also talk about tonifying or rather relaxing plants of the tissues. So this last axis, I will talk about it especially in a next episode when we talk about the states of the tissues of our body. So I repeat, warming or refreshing, drying or humidifying, tonifying or relaxing. These are notions that take time to mature from a point of view of understanding, so you will have to go over it again and again on the subject, don't be in too much of a hurry, we are starting to plant some small seeds. A few examples. Let's take a plant like ginger. It is a warming plant, it will not surprise you. It is the effect that it leaves us in the mouth and then in the digestive tract and then later in the whole body with its circulatory effect. And then if we also applied a ginger-based oil preparation on muscles or joints for example, it warms up. So overall the spices are warming up. Cinnamon, pepper, saffron, turmeric, pepper, clove, etc. And each at different degrees. We understand that the pepper is much warmer than the turmeric for example. The aromatics of the south, such as thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, are also of a warming nature. And here we could say that everything that is rich in aromatic substances, that irritates the tissues a little bit, that stings a little, well, it's warming. What irritates brings back the circulation and therefore the heat, the life, the function. It is raining, I will try to continue filming, we will see what happens. Garlic is considered, for the little joke, the energy of Provence at the moment, it's hot and dry. So the humidifying part, we are happy. So garlic is considered as warming. Garlic is a great medicinal plant. All plants that contain glucosinolates, these famous soufflé constituents, such as brassicaceae, mustard, are warming. Yes, because it's spicy, it makes you feel dizzy. How do you think the mustard cataplasm works? Well, by creating an irritation that brings back the circulation and therefore the heat on the surface. Everything that is exciting and stimulating in the nervous system is often considered as warming because heat is associated with movement. So activity, metabolism, it's the person who has a lot of activity, who moves a lot. So Asian ginseng is considered as warming. And in our country, all aromatic tonics, such as thyme, rosemary, sage, sage, these plants that we take during convalescence are also warming. So overall, everything that circulates, that warms up inside, that feels good in winter, when you feel a little cold, which will be my case very soon, these are plants that have a warming energy. So be careful, we are not talking about plants that we used in severe fevers, because here we are going to get into the cooling, and we will talk about that in a next episode, these health conditions, these imbalances. Here we were talking about the very beginning of a cold, when you feel the cold that penetrates the body, and at this stage, we wanted to warm up, while later, when you have a severe fever, we wanted to cool down. Let's talk about the cooling nature now. The pepper mint, or the other mints by the way, have a cooling energy, they leave this impression of freshness in the mouth, or locally, if you apply a preparation based on mint on a part of the body. The diaphoretic plants that make you sweat, without being spicy in nature, but that evacuate the hot water from the body during a fever, such as sauerkraut flowers, such as thyme inflorescences, are classified as refreshing. Bitter plants, such as gentian, apricot, verbena officinale, passiflora, california pavo, etc., chardonnay, all these pure bitter plants are refreshing in nature, the bitterness is refreshing. Plants that have an acid taste, like acidulé, citroné, are refreshing. So in plants, we have the hibiscus carcadée, the mellis, the sumac berries, the sorbet berries, they are refreshing in nature. And then the plants rich in mucilage are also refreshing in nature, because they capture and carry the water, and it is this water that will bring freshness to the situation, that will leave a soothing feeling when an area is a little irritated. And I'm kidding because I'm wrong, that's it. Now let's talk about the humidifying nature, the guimauve, that's the typical example of the humidifying plant, it won't surprise you, its richness in mucilage, its gelatinous effect in the mouth, this soothing effect if we apply it locally where it is dry. And then we just saw that it is also refreshing in nature, so it has both labels. And overall, plants rich in mucilage will be humidifying and also refreshing in most cases. And last category, drying, the brush is drying in nature, it leaves this astringent effect in the mouth, it will slow down the exchange of liquids at the local level of the mucous membranes of the skin, dry mouth effect, and overall all the plants that are rich in tannin will be drying, especially locally on the tissues. And very diuretic plants like nettle will be drying globally on the whole person and a little more in the long term, because we will lose a part of our fluids if we take it on a certain duration. Spices and other plants classified as warming goods are also drying because here we have this image of fire evaporating water. So you can already see how I make the distinction between the overall effect on the person and then the local effect on tissues, but we'll talk about that a little later in another episode, otherwise I'm going to complicate things too much today. So for now I'm not going to talk to you about this last axis either, tension-relaxation, I'll introduce this later, but I just wanted to plant this little seed about tissue tension, we'll come back to that. So based on what we just said, you start to see how the same plant can be classified on two axes, warm-cold, dry-humid. So we saw that the guimauve was refreshing and humidifying, the rosemary for example is warming and drying, and ideally all the plants would be classified on these two axes, but I would tell you that in practice it is complicated to find this couple together. Sometimes we just have a classification on a single axis and then sometimes there is no agreement between the different traditions, the different countries, the different authors. Sometimes the reflection is also complex because the action of the plant is complex. An example, our dear Achillea millefeuille, it is rather bitter, so rather refreshing, but it also has this aromatic and circulatory part, it moves the blood, it decongestates, and therefore a rather warming aspect here, and then it is also diaphoretic, it helps to evacuate heat. So how do we do? Well, for now we are going to touch on beauty, because if I start talking about all these particular cases, I will lose you, and we will also leave aside the beauty and simplicity of the model, so we will stay with the simple, but I still wanted to show you that we too, over the course of practice, we will decline this energy model to slightly rising levels of complexity. If you read English, you will not have too much trouble finding classifications for the most common plants. We have a lot of authors or American practitioners who talk about it regularly. Matthew Wood, David Winston, Jim Macdonald, Rosalie de la Forêt and others. It is really a subject that is quite discussed on the American side, but you may also want to do the energy assessment yourself. And I think it is important to do it if you are interested in this subject, to train in some way. And if you do it, an important point, you will have to stay in the body, in the sensations. I know it's a little complicated at first for the most cerebral of us, but don't go too much to analyze the why, how it works. We will stay in the impressions, in the feeling, we will be guided by the mouth, the nose, what we feel inside the body and this at different times. First, when we are going to touch, taste, feel, take this little piece of fresh plant or put a few drops of dye in the mouth or a sip or two of infusion. For example, if we chew a small piece of violet leaf, we feel a small mucilaginous gel that forms, we have a feeling of humidity. We drink a sip of infusion of red wine, we have the impression that the mouth has dried up all of a sudden with the tannins. Then a few minutes, sometimes a few hours later, we can have other feelings in the body. There are often small things that move at the digestive, pulmonary, nervous, circulatory, cardiac or other levels, and sometimes even a feeling in the body after a few days or even a few weeks of use. For example, the drying effect of the orifice is often felt after a few days. Sometimes this assessment will seem obvious to you. So yes, ok, we come back to the pepper, it's obvious, it's hot. And then often at the beginning it can seem a little pulled by the hair because you are not going to feel much. It's normal, you need experience, you need to practice a little bit like wine tasting. You have to practice this energy tasting. Once you have done a first reading of the situation, you can go and validate this in the rankings that are already made. As I told you earlier, on the American side, if you want an approach that integrates into our Western views. So it's beautiful, but what is all this for? It is a way to associate plants with people, constitutions and conditions of imbalance. What conditions? Well, I think you can imagine. Cooling plants will relieve conditions that are hot. Drying plants will relieve conditions of humidity, stagnation, etc. But we will keep that for a next episode. Thank you for being there. See you soon.