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The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicine to Life on Earth
This could be the most important book you will read this year. Well-known author, teacher, lecturer, and herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner has produced a book that is certain to generate controversy. It consists of three parts: A critique of technological medicine, and especially the dangers to the environment posed by pharmaceuticals and other synthetic substances that people use in connection with health care and personal body care. A new look at Gaia Theory, including an explanation that plants are the original chemistries of Gaia and those phytochemistries are the fundamental communications network for the Earth's ecosystems. Extensive documentation of how plants communicate their healing qualities to humans and other animals. Western culture has obliterated most people's capacity to perceive these messages, but this book also contains valuable information on how we can restore our faculties of perception. The book will affect readers on rational and emotional planes. It is grounded in both a New Age spiritual sensibility and hard science. While some of the author's claims may strike traditional thinkers as outlandish, Buhner presents his arguments with such authority and documentation that the scientific underpinnings, however unconventional, are completely credible. The overall impact is a powerful, eye-opening expos' of the threat that our allopathic Western medical system, in combination with our unquestioning faith in science and technology, poses to the primary life-support systems of the planet. At a time when we are preoccupied with the terrorist attacks and the possibility of biological warfare, perhaps it is time to listen to the planet. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the environment, the state of health care, and our cultural sanity.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2002
About the author
Stephen Harrod Buhner
31 books373 followersStephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.
Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
Stephen has served as president of the Colorado Association for Healing Practitioners and as a lobbyist on herbal and holistic medicines and education in the Colorado legislature. He lives in New Mexico.
from
http://www.gaianstudies.org/Stephen.html
and
http://www.storey.com/author.php?ID=5...
Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
Stephen has served as president of the Colorado Association for Healing Practitioners and as a lobbyist on herbal and holistic medicines and education in the Colorado legislature. He lives in New Mexico.
from
http://www.gaianstudies.org/Stephen.html
and
http://www.storey.com/author.php?ID=5...
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January 15, 2012
I recommend Stephen Harrod Buhner's books to people all the time. He is a poet and a mystic, and I believe his wisdom about plants could save us and the world.
April 15, 2009
It all began with a dream that Stephen Buhner had many years ago. As he was studying the the Usnea lichen for its healing properties for the lungs of humans, the lichen came to him in a dream and said that while it was good for healing the lungs of humanity it was primarily a medicine for the lungs of the earth: the trees upon which it grew. This concept was radical at the time, the idea that plants have a life outside of their subservience to humanity. This lead Buhner down a road of exploration and a final realization that humans are just one piece of the global bioweb surrounding us.
The Lost Language of Plants is the way in which Stephen Buhner shares his respect for plant life on earth and reveals the amazing chemistry, the language, that all plants speak to each other and to Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately, this subtle communications system is under a serious threat by the pharmaseutical chemicals that have permeated our ecosystem. From the waste spewed by their manufacture to their entrance into city water systems, we are ingesting unwanted chemicals all around us. When the plants regulating our environment are sensitive to the part per trillion level, a small change can have catastrophic consequences.
Humanity has developed internal and external wounds because we've lost our emotional engagement with nature. For the entire history of man's development, we've lived in small groups eating hundreds of plant species, constantly exposed to the wild nature around us. Now that most of us are fundamentally isolated from this wild world, we are missing a part of ourselves, we can feel it but we can't always identify it. The internal wounds are characterized by depression, anxiety and fear: the common words that describe the psyche of the American citizen. The external wounds are the harm we inflict on the biology around us, exemplified by the gaping holes in the ground because of the economic benefit of mining.
During a visit to New York City, Buhner held a class where three women attested to strange experiences with plants. One woman had a recurring dream where her grandmother told her to, "get her fingers in the dirt" and when she did, she felt whole again. She wondered if she was crazy. The next woman was touring a facility and begun to hear the plants in the trays calling out to her. She wondered if she was crazy. The final woman had a plant which pointed in one way at night and the other way in the morning, telling her which way to go. She wondered if she was crazy. Buhner responded by saying that this was normal. Because we've withdrawn from nature we act shocked when we come into contact with the interior world around us. A world we've know as a species for our entire history. In the past, getting advice from ancestors in a dream, hearing plants or developing a relationship with them was considered a blessing. Now it can remind us that our species is another piece of the earth, no more, no less. That can be unsettling for many.
At the core of this problem is the epistemological conflict of organic existence vs. universe as machine. Despite recent discoveries in science chipping away at the deterministic world view of Newton and Descartes, our society is built on a reductionistic view. In the world of plants that means: find every chemical in a plant, take it out, place them in unhealthy foods and sell them back to people. If we took ourselves apart would be surprised that we lost the ability to play music? Amazingly we've discovered that the universe isn't dog eat dog, the survival of the fittest has long been disproved by people like Lynn Margulis who won a Nobel prize for fleshing out the processes behind bacterial cooperation to build new species. We've lost the love of nature, the biophilia and replace it with television to substitutions for dreaming, with public schooling to substitute for the knowledge of the elders and the world around us, with machines for the living world around us and with simplistic chemistries for the plant medicines ubiquitous around us. In Sonoran Desert native populations, the children of the Yaqui and O'odham tribes claimed that their school made them superior to their parents and grandparents but were unable to identify more than 4 local plant species, whereas grandparents could identify more than 15.
With 1900 Americans killed by pharmaceuticals each week, its time to ask if chemical remedies are a practical solution to our health problems. Chemicals from pharmeceutical waste facilities generate 100 million tons of solid waste a year and 250 million liters of liquid waste per year. The average US citizen produces 1300 pounds of excrement. What's in all this stuff that we release into the world around us? The drugs we take and the drugs we will take: antidepressants, tranquilizers, chemotherapy drugs, fugicides, sythetic hormones, etc... the list gets worse and worse. Our waste streams get processed but no amount of cleaning can remove the vast quantities of chemicals we release each year. German researchers found that the North Sea contains 150,000 pounds of clofibric acid, a drug for lower cholesterol levels. Studies confirmed that this amount accumulated from excrement. What does this mean? For example, Chris Metcalf, a researcher in Canada detected esterone, a type of estrogen in wastewater at levels of 400 parts per trillion (ppt). He then exposed Japanese medaka fish to typical waste water streams for 100 days and at concetrations of 10 ppt of esterone the fish exhibited intersexual changes and eventually changed sexes from male to female as exposure increased.
I would summarize the discussion of antibiotics in The Lost Language of Plants here but its simply too chilling to break down. Basically, bacteria adapt to antibiotics quickly and communicate that adaptation to other bacteria rapidly, sometimes in hours and the amount of antibiotics increases in the environment every year. Our failure to understand that all life is important has led us to target the microorganisms instead of targeting the conditions that allow them to grow to unsustainable levels inside us.
Plants are chemists, the most complex and well adapted kind. Each plant contains a minimum of several hundred chemicals, some even containing thousands. Even a small change in the ratios of these chemicals can change everything. Seeds emit combinations of abscisic and gibberellic acids, cytokinins and ethylene which regulate germination at levels of less than 10ppt. Without these ratios, the plants don't germinate. And these ratios change based on soil environmental conditions.
When lima beans are infested by spider mites, they will release a blend of volatile oils that attracts a predatory mite which will feed on the spider mite. The plans detect exactly which type of spider mite is present by analyzing the chemistry of the saliva and then produces a different blend of volatiles depending on what kind of spider mite is feeding on it. The mix will only call the predator that feeds on the specific type of mite. Then the plants tell uninfested lima beans what is happening. And all this is cited with actual studies, it isn't just made up. Essentially this entire section was full of jaw-dropping moments which relate how plants interact with each other. With each example backed up by solid science.
We don't need chemical medicines when we have plants. Plants contain everything we need and more. The more I've thought about it, the more Buhner's crowning statement makes sense, that pharmaceuticals are an issue because of their divergence in meaning. This meaning seemed unimportant to me at first. But the reality is that these drugs are made to profit the few and to alleviate the symptoms of human bodily conditions defined arbitrarily as disease. Plant chemistries are created out of an intricately interwoven biofeedback communication loop between elements of our ecosystem that aim to maintain homeostasis. Plant chemistries are chemical messages, man-made drugs are noise.
Yes, western medicine is highly effective at quick cures, as Doctor House was asked why people take drugs he responded, "...because they work." That is no understatement. Our medicines work, but primarily to maintain the lifestyle we lead in defiance of our true nature. Western medicine saves lives, specifically in surgeries. But we can't extrapolate surgical successes to justify the continued reliance on prescription and over-the-counter chemicals. Challenge yourself to explore a remedy to your ailment that is outside the doctors recommendation. Herbs can be finicky. They only speak to certain people, stinging nettles work wonders for my sinuses, they do nothing for others.
As long as we live in our current world, we will have need for modern medicine. As KMO of the C-Realm podcast recently relayed in a story about a woman stricken with an infection, her problem was only remedied by hospital medicine after trying out indigenous approaches. We need both to survive our current lifestyle. But they can live in harmony.
Now when I hear the stories of co-workers on 10+ prescription medicines I'll cringe and hope for a better understanding of the miraculous nature of plant medicines. Perhaps my intense interest in herbs as a child was just a preparation for my future education. Read Buhner's Lost Language of Plants and your world will change dramatically. If you read the first 20 pages you'll either throw it out, claiming it is nonsense or you'll be hooked, realizing that he describes the world that we've covered up with pavement and strip malls.
The Lost Language of Plants is the way in which Stephen Buhner shares his respect for plant life on earth and reveals the amazing chemistry, the language, that all plants speak to each other and to Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately, this subtle communications system is under a serious threat by the pharmaseutical chemicals that have permeated our ecosystem. From the waste spewed by their manufacture to their entrance into city water systems, we are ingesting unwanted chemicals all around us. When the plants regulating our environment are sensitive to the part per trillion level, a small change can have catastrophic consequences.
Humanity has developed internal and external wounds because we've lost our emotional engagement with nature. For the entire history of man's development, we've lived in small groups eating hundreds of plant species, constantly exposed to the wild nature around us. Now that most of us are fundamentally isolated from this wild world, we are missing a part of ourselves, we can feel it but we can't always identify it. The internal wounds are characterized by depression, anxiety and fear: the common words that describe the psyche of the American citizen. The external wounds are the harm we inflict on the biology around us, exemplified by the gaping holes in the ground because of the economic benefit of mining.
During a visit to New York City, Buhner held a class where three women attested to strange experiences with plants. One woman had a recurring dream where her grandmother told her to, "get her fingers in the dirt" and when she did, she felt whole again. She wondered if she was crazy. The next woman was touring a facility and begun to hear the plants in the trays calling out to her. She wondered if she was crazy. The final woman had a plant which pointed in one way at night and the other way in the morning, telling her which way to go. She wondered if she was crazy. Buhner responded by saying that this was normal. Because we've withdrawn from nature we act shocked when we come into contact with the interior world around us. A world we've know as a species for our entire history. In the past, getting advice from ancestors in a dream, hearing plants or developing a relationship with them was considered a blessing. Now it can remind us that our species is another piece of the earth, no more, no less. That can be unsettling for many.
At the core of this problem is the epistemological conflict of organic existence vs. universe as machine. Despite recent discoveries in science chipping away at the deterministic world view of Newton and Descartes, our society is built on a reductionistic view. In the world of plants that means: find every chemical in a plant, take it out, place them in unhealthy foods and sell them back to people. If we took ourselves apart would be surprised that we lost the ability to play music? Amazingly we've discovered that the universe isn't dog eat dog, the survival of the fittest has long been disproved by people like Lynn Margulis who won a Nobel prize for fleshing out the processes behind bacterial cooperation to build new species. We've lost the love of nature, the biophilia and replace it with television to substitutions for dreaming, with public schooling to substitute for the knowledge of the elders and the world around us, with machines for the living world around us and with simplistic chemistries for the plant medicines ubiquitous around us. In Sonoran Desert native populations, the children of the Yaqui and O'odham tribes claimed that their school made them superior to their parents and grandparents but were unable to identify more than 4 local plant species, whereas grandparents could identify more than 15.
With 1900 Americans killed by pharmaceuticals each week, its time to ask if chemical remedies are a practical solution to our health problems. Chemicals from pharmeceutical waste facilities generate 100 million tons of solid waste a year and 250 million liters of liquid waste per year. The average US citizen produces 1300 pounds of excrement. What's in all this stuff that we release into the world around us? The drugs we take and the drugs we will take: antidepressants, tranquilizers, chemotherapy drugs, fugicides, sythetic hormones, etc... the list gets worse and worse. Our waste streams get processed but no amount of cleaning can remove the vast quantities of chemicals we release each year. German researchers found that the North Sea contains 150,000 pounds of clofibric acid, a drug for lower cholesterol levels. Studies confirmed that this amount accumulated from excrement. What does this mean? For example, Chris Metcalf, a researcher in Canada detected esterone, a type of estrogen in wastewater at levels of 400 parts per trillion (ppt). He then exposed Japanese medaka fish to typical waste water streams for 100 days and at concetrations of 10 ppt of esterone the fish exhibited intersexual changes and eventually changed sexes from male to female as exposure increased.
I would summarize the discussion of antibiotics in The Lost Language of Plants here but its simply too chilling to break down. Basically, bacteria adapt to antibiotics quickly and communicate that adaptation to other bacteria rapidly, sometimes in hours and the amount of antibiotics increases in the environment every year. Our failure to understand that all life is important has led us to target the microorganisms instead of targeting the conditions that allow them to grow to unsustainable levels inside us.
Plants are chemists, the most complex and well adapted kind. Each plant contains a minimum of several hundred chemicals, some even containing thousands. Even a small change in the ratios of these chemicals can change everything. Seeds emit combinations of abscisic and gibberellic acids, cytokinins and ethylene which regulate germination at levels of less than 10ppt. Without these ratios, the plants don't germinate. And these ratios change based on soil environmental conditions.
When lima beans are infested by spider mites, they will release a blend of volatile oils that attracts a predatory mite which will feed on the spider mite. The plans detect exactly which type of spider mite is present by analyzing the chemistry of the saliva and then produces a different blend of volatiles depending on what kind of spider mite is feeding on it. The mix will only call the predator that feeds on the specific type of mite. Then the plants tell uninfested lima beans what is happening. And all this is cited with actual studies, it isn't just made up. Essentially this entire section was full of jaw-dropping moments which relate how plants interact with each other. With each example backed up by solid science.
We don't need chemical medicines when we have plants. Plants contain everything we need and more. The more I've thought about it, the more Buhner's crowning statement makes sense, that pharmaceuticals are an issue because of their divergence in meaning. This meaning seemed unimportant to me at first. But the reality is that these drugs are made to profit the few and to alleviate the symptoms of human bodily conditions defined arbitrarily as disease. Plant chemistries are created out of an intricately interwoven biofeedback communication loop between elements of our ecosystem that aim to maintain homeostasis. Plant chemistries are chemical messages, man-made drugs are noise.
Yes, western medicine is highly effective at quick cures, as Doctor House was asked why people take drugs he responded, "...because they work." That is no understatement. Our medicines work, but primarily to maintain the lifestyle we lead in defiance of our true nature. Western medicine saves lives, specifically in surgeries. But we can't extrapolate surgical successes to justify the continued reliance on prescription and over-the-counter chemicals. Challenge yourself to explore a remedy to your ailment that is outside the doctors recommendation. Herbs can be finicky. They only speak to certain people, stinging nettles work wonders for my sinuses, they do nothing for others.
As long as we live in our current world, we will have need for modern medicine. As KMO of the C-Realm podcast recently relayed in a story about a woman stricken with an infection, her problem was only remedied by hospital medicine after trying out indigenous approaches. We need both to survive our current lifestyle. But they can live in harmony.
Now when I hear the stories of co-workers on 10+ prescription medicines I'll cringe and hope for a better understanding of the miraculous nature of plant medicines. Perhaps my intense interest in herbs as a child was just a preparation for my future education. Read Buhner's Lost Language of Plants and your world will change dramatically. If you read the first 20 pages you'll either throw it out, claiming it is nonsense or you'll be hooked, realizing that he describes the world that we've covered up with pavement and strip malls.
May 27, 2011
I really loved this book. It gave me a whole new way to interact with plants. A must read for any gardener or nature lover.
August 21, 2009
It starts out really unpromisingly, with a pretentious little story about the difference between drinking 'tame water' from the tap and 'wild water' from a stream (thanks, dude, I appreciate a little unexamined privilege--think about where most of your audience grew up, and how much 'wilderness' they had and have access to, and then come up with another introduction)--but it got far more interesting from there. The information he relates is not his, but it's fascinating--descriptions of the incredibly complex communities of plant and animal life and how they grow and thrive. The last part of the book is about herbal medicine--being a well brought up Westerner whenever I hear that expression I think hippy-dippy woo-woo, but that's just plain ignorance on my part, and I need to learn better. Several of the 'transition' books I've been reading mention that natural medicine will be just as important a skill when we can no longer rely on our global networks as growing or finding food, fixing machines and building shelter, and they are absolutely right. I have a little work to do here. No, a lot.
December 22, 2017
Could not get in to this book because the writing style did not click for me. For starters, it felt like there was rambling at the beginning of each chapter and only after continuing to read did the chapter become informative. Each chapter lacked a brief intro that explained or led into what the chapter was going to be about. Rambling. I had to work too hard to figure out what the author was trying to say and would stop and ask myself why someone would write something that particular way. Eventually, I decided I had better things to read.
Unfinished from This Reader.
Unfinished from This Reader.
February 8, 2017
Astonishing eye-opener regarding the active and interactive lives of plants and their importance--and great gifts--to all other living creatures.
Although Buhner is not himself a scientist, he references good solid science as well as expressing his themes with great clarity of thought and solid arguments. Although the book touts itself as "both poetry and medicine," and there was indeed some poetic content, including a poetic bent of perspective, there was, I was relieved to find, comparatively little "woo-woo" content, and a great deal of excellent food for serious thought.
A final caveat for the Christian reader: occasional slanted references to Christianity reveal that the author is under the sway of a particular kind of anti-Christian bias that stems from a general misunderstanding of what Christianity actually comprises. This is so common these days, though, as to be essentially unavoidable in most contemporary prose. A well-formed conscience can easily see where Buhner's error lies, and give him grace enough there to keep reading, in order to learn the amazing things he has to share with us regarding the place of plants in the ever-astonishing creation we inhabit. After reading this book, I am all the more grateful for St. Francis of Assisi and our other "nature mystic" saints who remind us that all of creation is alive with the spirit of our Creator: "You send forth Your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth."--Psalm 104:30. This book is a breathtaking look at the ways that the living plants we regularly ignore, or assume are merely passive "place-holders" in our world, go about actively doing the work God has set for them.
Although Buhner is not himself a scientist, he references good solid science as well as expressing his themes with great clarity of thought and solid arguments. Although the book touts itself as "both poetry and medicine," and there was indeed some poetic content, including a poetic bent of perspective, there was, I was relieved to find, comparatively little "woo-woo" content, and a great deal of excellent food for serious thought.
A final caveat for the Christian reader: occasional slanted references to Christianity reveal that the author is under the sway of a particular kind of anti-Christian bias that stems from a general misunderstanding of what Christianity actually comprises. This is so common these days, though, as to be essentially unavoidable in most contemporary prose. A well-formed conscience can easily see where Buhner's error lies, and give him grace enough there to keep reading, in order to learn the amazing things he has to share with us regarding the place of plants in the ever-astonishing creation we inhabit. After reading this book, I am all the more grateful for St. Francis of Assisi and our other "nature mystic" saints who remind us that all of creation is alive with the spirit of our Creator: "You send forth Your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth."--Psalm 104:30. This book is a breathtaking look at the ways that the living plants we regularly ignore, or assume are merely passive "place-holders" in our world, go about actively doing the work God has set for them.
March 13, 2019
Review: The Lost Language o Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002.
After beautifully and poetically describing his early connections to nature, connections that were taught to him by his great-grandparents, Buhner ventures into vividly describing the interior wounds caused by our soulless world and the exterior wounds of watching its destruction. Our languages, whether cultural or scientific, define who we are. The overall understanding of the aliveness of our Earth is lost when the interconnection and interdependence of everything that is of the Earth is broken down into small component pieces for study and define the languages of science. This disconnect from the Earth is also evident in our culturally spoken languages. As children we naturally experience the living Earth with love, but we are soon taught in school, religious institutions, from television and by parents that the Universe, Earth and everything of the Earth is a lifeless and soulless machine over which we have dominion to be consumed as we see fit. Buhner writes from his heart, describing emotionally where this loss of love and knowledge of Nature is taking us. This disconnect is truly terrifying, a loss that separates us from the aliveness of the world around us.
Our separation from the living Earth very direct impacts the world of medicine and pharmaceuticals. 95% of the pharmaceutical drugs we take are not metabolized by the body but excreted, drugs with questionable effectiveness that generally treat only symptoms without providing a cure. These drugs excreted in our urine and feces go into the environment and are not removed by waste treatment facilities, thus they add greatly to pollution and directly end up in the animals, insects and plants that we are so dependent upon. The effect of these pollutants on the Earth and its life is not know but is considered one cause of the extinction of so many species. Other sources of pollution to the environment come from the manufacturing of these pharmaceuticals. Also a huge amount of consumed or thrown out personal care products end up in the environment. Several other sources of pollutants to the environment are the waste products of the chemo and radiation therapies and the medical, infectious and pathological wastes produced in hospitals and other medical facilities including the toxic dioxins, phthalates and mercury. Then there is the severe problem that comes from the continued search for new antibiotics to deal with the pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms that are rapidly becoming resistant to the presently known antibiotics, antibiotics that destroy both the harmful bacteria as well as the beneficial bacteria that we so much depend upon. In addition the medical establishment has a history of violently suppressing the use of the natural medicinal herbs that had so effectively kept life on Earth healthy for hundreds of thousands of years.
After reading these frightening chapters on pharmaceuticals and antibiotics the chapter¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Plants are All Chemists provides a new sense of hope. We are dependent upon each plant for breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen, a process which has remained in its delicate and sustaining balance for all life on Earth, but a balance that the human species is now in the process of destroying. Beyond this dependency we have much to learn from Earth’s flora in how it survives and stays healthy, and how to live as part of this balance by listening to the flora as did our hunting-gathering ancestors. Plants have many thousands of chemicals in their environment that they have learned to effectively use, some to support and protect their propagation for seed germination and through their roots, some for maintaining their health by fighting disease and some for their growth. Some of these natural chemicals are pathogenic and harmful, but the plant produce antifungal, antibiotic and antimicrobial compounds when needed without creating resistant pathogens.
Plants when needing to be pruned can allow foraging predators, animals and insects, to assist in this task, but they also know when enough is enough and have chemicals to end this foraging, pheromones and scents that send the forager fleeing, some that can make the plant toxic, and some that interfere with the fertility of the foragers thus decreasing their population. When the plant needs room to grow it also has allopathic chemicals that cause the competitive plants to retreat. Buhner offers many examples for each of these situations, e.g. in this last case the toxic Juglone of the Black Walnut that has caused us problems from the several Black Walnuts that stand near our fruit trees. We have search for what we can plant near them and found that Cherries, Red Osier Dogwood and the Viburnums get along with this toxin. What is most impressive is a plant’s ability to communicate in this world of interdependency and the rapidity with which it can respond with specific chemicals when needed for growth, health and sustainability. Joining in this communication by learning to listen to the plants can be effectively facilitated by using ecstatic and/or hypnotic trance as I have used and describe in my previous writings.
Buhner then presents the concept of a “keystone plant” that attracts other plants into its community or archipelago upon which it depends for health maintenance, plants that are also dependent upon each other. His example is the community of plants around the “keystone” Ironwood trees in the Sonora Desert that have taken hundreds of years to become established. He also describes the “nurse” plant that leads the way to create such a community before the keystone plant finds its way to join it. On the wooded hillside of our acre in the Hudson Valley there are two ironwoods that are growing in the middle of a grove of dogwood. Maybe in this case the dogwoods are the keystone plants, but I have been clearing out a tangle of invasive multiflora rose and barberry, both very invasive in the area. Maybe it is a mistake, i.e. if these invasive plants have been supporting the ironwoods and dogwoods, but I have left a few of these invasives. We have a small herd of deer in residence and since the barberry is a magnet for ticks, maybe they should be removed though the barberry also has many medicinal qualities. Buhner’s book is very thought provoking, and in a personal communication he agrees that at least some of these invasives should remain.
Buhner then continues with many fascinating examples of how animals use medicinal herbs. Especially interesting is the chimpanzee’s use of the rough, bristly and hairy leaves of the Aspilia to rid themselves of intestinal worms. The chemicals in this leaf weaken and even kill the worms, but the chimpanzee folds the unchewed leaf like an accordion and swallows it whole. The folds of the rough bristly leaf catch the worms as the leaf passes through the GI track, pulling the worms loose and out. Buhner’s numerous examples reveal the high intelligence of the animals and show in an amazing way how the animals have learned to use specific plants effectively for specific problems.
The biofeedback loops of communication within a plant species, between different species of plants, and between plants and other life send messages for when to use specific chemicals produced by the plants and other soil organisms to maintain plant health, growth and fertility. The artificial pharmaceuticals that end up in the environment cause chaos in this network of life causing the loss of many species. Again the examples offered by Buhner of this chaos are frightening.
Plants are ecological medicines. Cancer has increased “exactly parallel to the decrease of diverse plants as foods and medicine” (p. 206). In 1900 a person’s diet included a much larger diversity of plants and many were wild-gathered, plants that contained multiple types of compounds that inhibit cell-division and cancer, thus cancer was much less of a problem then than it is today.
Buhner in Chapter 10 returns to his beautiful and poetic way of writing from the heart. He offers a hopeful description of what could be a healthy future if we can return to our rightful place in the continued process of evolution rather than thinking of ourselves as superior to all other life on Earth. We again need to learn to listen to the plants that also listen to us and know our needs. We again need to learn the language of the plants. The chapter ends with a beautiful series of exercises on how to listen, not intellectually but emotionally and spiritually from the heart, to the spirits of the Earth’s flora, a topic that has been so important to me personally in my teaching of ecstatic trance, a trance state that distracts us from interfering intellectual thoughts through drumming and opens us to the ecstatic world of the spirits. So important in these nine exercises are the latter exercises when the earlier exercises are repeated but this time taking with us on these trance journeys our younger selves. As it did for Buhner during his childhood, our child self so naturally knows how to listen to the spirits of the natural and wild world. By seeing this world through the eyes of our child-self we can again open ourselves to this world of the spirits as I write about in my book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers: Ecstatic Practices to Reconnect with the Great Mother and Heal the Earth.
The last chapter of the book calls upon four very articulate writers who describe from the heart their personal journeys of reconnecting with the Earth. The Lost Language of Plants is a most important book to read to help in guiding use to finding those ways to sustain the health of the Earth for our children, grandchildren and all future generations.
After beautifully and poetically describing his early connections to nature, connections that were taught to him by his great-grandparents, Buhner ventures into vividly describing the interior wounds caused by our soulless world and the exterior wounds of watching its destruction. Our languages, whether cultural or scientific, define who we are. The overall understanding of the aliveness of our Earth is lost when the interconnection and interdependence of everything that is of the Earth is broken down into small component pieces for study and define the languages of science. This disconnect from the Earth is also evident in our culturally spoken languages. As children we naturally experience the living Earth with love, but we are soon taught in school, religious institutions, from television and by parents that the Universe, Earth and everything of the Earth is a lifeless and soulless machine over which we have dominion to be consumed as we see fit. Buhner writes from his heart, describing emotionally where this loss of love and knowledge of Nature is taking us. This disconnect is truly terrifying, a loss that separates us from the aliveness of the world around us.
Our separation from the living Earth very direct impacts the world of medicine and pharmaceuticals. 95% of the pharmaceutical drugs we take are not metabolized by the body but excreted, drugs with questionable effectiveness that generally treat only symptoms without providing a cure. These drugs excreted in our urine and feces go into the environment and are not removed by waste treatment facilities, thus they add greatly to pollution and directly end up in the animals, insects and plants that we are so dependent upon. The effect of these pollutants on the Earth and its life is not know but is considered one cause of the extinction of so many species. Other sources of pollution to the environment come from the manufacturing of these pharmaceuticals. Also a huge amount of consumed or thrown out personal care products end up in the environment. Several other sources of pollutants to the environment are the waste products of the chemo and radiation therapies and the medical, infectious and pathological wastes produced in hospitals and other medical facilities including the toxic dioxins, phthalates and mercury. Then there is the severe problem that comes from the continued search for new antibiotics to deal with the pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms that are rapidly becoming resistant to the presently known antibiotics, antibiotics that destroy both the harmful bacteria as well as the beneficial bacteria that we so much depend upon. In addition the medical establishment has a history of violently suppressing the use of the natural medicinal herbs that had so effectively kept life on Earth healthy for hundreds of thousands of years.
After reading these frightening chapters on pharmaceuticals and antibiotics the chapter¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Plants are All Chemists provides a new sense of hope. We are dependent upon each plant for breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen, a process which has remained in its delicate and sustaining balance for all life on Earth, but a balance that the human species is now in the process of destroying. Beyond this dependency we have much to learn from Earth’s flora in how it survives and stays healthy, and how to live as part of this balance by listening to the flora as did our hunting-gathering ancestors. Plants have many thousands of chemicals in their environment that they have learned to effectively use, some to support and protect their propagation for seed germination and through their roots, some for maintaining their health by fighting disease and some for their growth. Some of these natural chemicals are pathogenic and harmful, but the plant produce antifungal, antibiotic and antimicrobial compounds when needed without creating resistant pathogens.
Plants when needing to be pruned can allow foraging predators, animals and insects, to assist in this task, but they also know when enough is enough and have chemicals to end this foraging, pheromones and scents that send the forager fleeing, some that can make the plant toxic, and some that interfere with the fertility of the foragers thus decreasing their population. When the plant needs room to grow it also has allopathic chemicals that cause the competitive plants to retreat. Buhner offers many examples for each of these situations, e.g. in this last case the toxic Juglone of the Black Walnut that has caused us problems from the several Black Walnuts that stand near our fruit trees. We have search for what we can plant near them and found that Cherries, Red Osier Dogwood and the Viburnums get along with this toxin. What is most impressive is a plant’s ability to communicate in this world of interdependency and the rapidity with which it can respond with specific chemicals when needed for growth, health and sustainability. Joining in this communication by learning to listen to the plants can be effectively facilitated by using ecstatic and/or hypnotic trance as I have used and describe in my previous writings.
Buhner then presents the concept of a “keystone plant” that attracts other plants into its community or archipelago upon which it depends for health maintenance, plants that are also dependent upon each other. His example is the community of plants around the “keystone” Ironwood trees in the Sonora Desert that have taken hundreds of years to become established. He also describes the “nurse” plant that leads the way to create such a community before the keystone plant finds its way to join it. On the wooded hillside of our acre in the Hudson Valley there are two ironwoods that are growing in the middle of a grove of dogwood. Maybe in this case the dogwoods are the keystone plants, but I have been clearing out a tangle of invasive multiflora rose and barberry, both very invasive in the area. Maybe it is a mistake, i.e. if these invasive plants have been supporting the ironwoods and dogwoods, but I have left a few of these invasives. We have a small herd of deer in residence and since the barberry is a magnet for ticks, maybe they should be removed though the barberry also has many medicinal qualities. Buhner’s book is very thought provoking, and in a personal communication he agrees that at least some of these invasives should remain.
Buhner then continues with many fascinating examples of how animals use medicinal herbs. Especially interesting is the chimpanzee’s use of the rough, bristly and hairy leaves of the Aspilia to rid themselves of intestinal worms. The chemicals in this leaf weaken and even kill the worms, but the chimpanzee folds the unchewed leaf like an accordion and swallows it whole. The folds of the rough bristly leaf catch the worms as the leaf passes through the GI track, pulling the worms loose and out. Buhner’s numerous examples reveal the high intelligence of the animals and show in an amazing way how the animals have learned to use specific plants effectively for specific problems.
The biofeedback loops of communication within a plant species, between different species of plants, and between plants and other life send messages for when to use specific chemicals produced by the plants and other soil organisms to maintain plant health, growth and fertility. The artificial pharmaceuticals that end up in the environment cause chaos in this network of life causing the loss of many species. Again the examples offered by Buhner of this chaos are frightening.
Plants are ecological medicines. Cancer has increased “exactly parallel to the decrease of diverse plants as foods and medicine” (p. 206). In 1900 a person’s diet included a much larger diversity of plants and many were wild-gathered, plants that contained multiple types of compounds that inhibit cell-division and cancer, thus cancer was much less of a problem then than it is today.
Buhner in Chapter 10 returns to his beautiful and poetic way of writing from the heart. He offers a hopeful description of what could be a healthy future if we can return to our rightful place in the continued process of evolution rather than thinking of ourselves as superior to all other life on Earth. We again need to learn to listen to the plants that also listen to us and know our needs. We again need to learn the language of the plants. The chapter ends with a beautiful series of exercises on how to listen, not intellectually but emotionally and spiritually from the heart, to the spirits of the Earth’s flora, a topic that has been so important to me personally in my teaching of ecstatic trance, a trance state that distracts us from interfering intellectual thoughts through drumming and opens us to the ecstatic world of the spirits. So important in these nine exercises are the latter exercises when the earlier exercises are repeated but this time taking with us on these trance journeys our younger selves. As it did for Buhner during his childhood, our child self so naturally knows how to listen to the spirits of the natural and wild world. By seeing this world through the eyes of our child-self we can again open ourselves to this world of the spirits as I write about in my book, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers: Ecstatic Practices to Reconnect with the Great Mother and Heal the Earth.
The last chapter of the book calls upon four very articulate writers who describe from the heart their personal journeys of reconnecting with the Earth. The Lost Language of Plants is a most important book to read to help in guiding use to finding those ways to sustain the health of the Earth for our children, grandchildren and all future generations.
July 19, 2020
I just loved this book. I read it right at the beginning of my herbalism journey, it has opened my mind and I look forward to reading it again and again as my knowledge and my intuition grows. I am so grateful to have found this wisdom.
October 29, 2012
I won't go into what the other reviewers [on Amazon] have already said about the beauty and sensitivity of this book. (I have had experiences in the garden with certain "weeds" seeming to beckon to me to eat them, and that is why I bought this book, to see if there might be something to this.) I was blown away by how incredibly SMART plants are!
But I just have to say that I am literally trembling now after having read the sections on the preponderance and endurance of pharmaceutical drugs, medical wastes, and antibiotics in the environment.
I am one of those who must take several of the top ten drugs "for life," but I tend to have extremely bad reactions to drugs of all types. I am disabled now, I'm convinced, in large part due to pharmaceutical drugs and ubiquitous chemicals that have seriously undermined my health. I know that it takes a very long time (a) to get over the damaging side effects of drugs that don't agree with me and (b) to find drugs that will work for me. I would not take any drugs if I could find a workable alternative, so bad have my experiences with pharmaceuticals been.
Now I am concerned like I never have been before about the effect of all these drugs polluting our environment. I have tended to think in terms of those pills ending with me, even if it might take years to get over the terrible effects on my body and brain. Now I know that every single living thing on this planet is affected by these drugs...and not just one of them, ALL of them mixed together! Any pharmacist will tell you that the more drugs you combine, the more likely you're going to get seriously bad reactions.
And then I think of all the people I've known personally who have been addicted to benzodiazepines, Ambien, Xanax, and the like who were stark raving bezonkers half the time from withdrawal effects and didn't even know it. My sister and I were at the point of strangling our other sister until she went through several years of very difficult work to withdraw from the very small dose of Xanax she was taking each night.
It is seriously worrisome how really messed up these drugs can make people, and yet they are advertised on TV and prescribed (and upped and upped) like they are candy.
And the weight. I look around at all these obese people (I am one of them), and I am reminded of what several doctors have said to me: "As long as you are taking X drug, you aren't going to be able to lose any weight." When the author of "The Lost Language of Plants" mentioned that many drugs are designed to work only in the presence of fat, and that they concentrate in fatty tissues all up the food chain, I couldn't help wondering what's going on with the human species (not to mention every other living thing) that we are growing larger and larger. It can't be just exercise plus calories or levels of sugars and fats; I know, I've counted them all religiously.
I have to ask: Are our bodies adaptively packing on weight to allow ourselves to better handle and store the huge levels of bioactive chemicals we've doused our whole planet with? Could it be that gaining weight, like forming granulomas, is a mechanism the body uses to isolate and render as harmless as possible a dangerous foreign agent (all these chemicals and drugs that are being dumped into our environment by the billions of pounds)? Is anyone thinking about this, and are they looking into the possibility? Dying of "fat-related diseases" may be the lesser of the evils.
It scares the begeezus out of me to think about all this. But get this book. It may have just the solutions we need--if it's not too late. I just hope, if this planet has to choose between us and the plants, that the plants win out. Read this book and you'll understand why I say that.
But I just have to say that I am literally trembling now after having read the sections on the preponderance and endurance of pharmaceutical drugs, medical wastes, and antibiotics in the environment.
I am one of those who must take several of the top ten drugs "for life," but I tend to have extremely bad reactions to drugs of all types. I am disabled now, I'm convinced, in large part due to pharmaceutical drugs and ubiquitous chemicals that have seriously undermined my health. I know that it takes a very long time (a) to get over the damaging side effects of drugs that don't agree with me and (b) to find drugs that will work for me. I would not take any drugs if I could find a workable alternative, so bad have my experiences with pharmaceuticals been.
Now I am concerned like I never have been before about the effect of all these drugs polluting our environment. I have tended to think in terms of those pills ending with me, even if it might take years to get over the terrible effects on my body and brain. Now I know that every single living thing on this planet is affected by these drugs...and not just one of them, ALL of them mixed together! Any pharmacist will tell you that the more drugs you combine, the more likely you're going to get seriously bad reactions.
And then I think of all the people I've known personally who have been addicted to benzodiazepines, Ambien, Xanax, and the like who were stark raving bezonkers half the time from withdrawal effects and didn't even know it. My sister and I were at the point of strangling our other sister until she went through several years of very difficult work to withdraw from the very small dose of Xanax she was taking each night.
It is seriously worrisome how really messed up these drugs can make people, and yet they are advertised on TV and prescribed (and upped and upped) like they are candy.
And the weight. I look around at all these obese people (I am one of them), and I am reminded of what several doctors have said to me: "As long as you are taking X drug, you aren't going to be able to lose any weight." When the author of "The Lost Language of Plants" mentioned that many drugs are designed to work only in the presence of fat, and that they concentrate in fatty tissues all up the food chain, I couldn't help wondering what's going on with the human species (not to mention every other living thing) that we are growing larger and larger. It can't be just exercise plus calories or levels of sugars and fats; I know, I've counted them all religiously.
I have to ask: Are our bodies adaptively packing on weight to allow ourselves to better handle and store the huge levels of bioactive chemicals we've doused our whole planet with? Could it be that gaining weight, like forming granulomas, is a mechanism the body uses to isolate and render as harmless as possible a dangerous foreign agent (all these chemicals and drugs that are being dumped into our environment by the billions of pounds)? Is anyone thinking about this, and are they looking into the possibility? Dying of "fat-related diseases" may be the lesser of the evils.
It scares the begeezus out of me to think about all this. But get this book. It may have just the solutions we need--if it's not too late. I just hope, if this planet has to choose between us and the plants, that the plants win out. Read this book and you'll understand why I say that.
December 2, 2020
I was disappointed in this book. The title led me to believe that he would discuss how plants communicate, but it started off topic and not until Chapter 7 did the author begin rambling about plant "chemistries" and their interactions. I found it preachy and dated, with a lot of generalities. He used the word "always" a lot, but nothing is absolute in regards to the complexities of biology and the environment. I also got really tired of reading about the evils of pharmaceuticals and his anthropomorphic philosophies about plant intentionality.
August 27, 2016
I would not recommend this book unless you are a botanist and want to learn a lot of science related to the world of plants. There are some amazing things Buhner describes such as plant intelligence, co-evolution, working relationships between insects and plants and plants' abilities to adjust their chemistries for their very survival . But the author has a huge ax to grind and he spends page upon page admonishing the pharmaceutical industry to the point of nausea. It seems as though Buhner would have the entire world return to herbal medicine and outlaw manufactured drugs. Not once does he mention the benefits of drugs such as polio vaccine, penicillin, the antidote for Ebola, or AZT, but rather condemns them for harming the environment. Yes, there are environmental concerns, but it would do him well to realize a lot of people are alive today because of these drugs. He blames the world-view of seeing the universe as a mechanism rather than a living organism. And yes, that view has caused some environmental disasters, but it can hardly be blamed or credited for all the problems or advances made in medicine. Mankind wants to take care of itself sometimes to the detriment of the Earth, but I'd like to believe that the possibility of finding cures for our worst diseases drives a lot of pharmaceutical development.
April 1, 2015
This book is beautifully and passionately written. Plants are AMAZING! I had known of the damage done to the environment (people, too, where else do we live?)by the misuse and overuse of prescription drugs, but the chapter "Plants Are All Chemists" stunned me; who knew plants were capable of all that? The chapter, "Two Wounds", describing how we came to view the universe as a machine, instead of sacred, and the results, was chilling. What if we could really encounter "others" in the same way we interact with a puppy, with that fresh joy? The author shows how viewing the universe as alive, sacred, and holding meaning (as opposed to everything being without meaning or value) could lead to a much more healthy, caring, and joyful place for all of us to live.
September 11, 2014
I don't really share the conclusions about spirituality/consciousness which the book seems to come to, I found the diatribe on humans' destruction of the environment too extended(I think anyone picking up this book wouldn't need convincing), and I found my eyes glazing over some of the detailed descriptions of plant chemistry...And yet, this book made a very strong impression on me which I think will remain - the reminder that we can't see ourselves as separate from the rest of the natural world, and the suggestion that we can learn to intuitively understand the role of individual plants in maintaining the equilibrium of their environment, and in the healing of our own human bodies.
Read
September 14, 2008It is hard for me to balance the interesting facts with the sound of the author's entitlement. Despite his intimate knowledge of plants and herbology, he doesn't seem to have invested any time in the understanding of his own racism. He makes some fucked up comments and some right on comments and there is no continuity. The beginning is mostly his rhetoric and it slowly moves into the facts about pollutants and endangered species. I just don't like any of the editorial. His voice creeps me out. Read "A language older than words" by Derrick Jensen instead.
July 11, 2010
Some strong stretches focusing on the depth and complexity of plant "communication" and symbiotic relationships with other plants, animals, fungi, etc. Overall, though, the sections on plant "intentionality" and perception were especially thin and lacked a thorough examination of the body of experimentation and skepticism. Still, Buhner issues an important reminder that we tend to look at organisms (ourselves included) in isolated and isolating ways, rather than as parts of complex, interpenetrating systems.
February 12, 2008
I read this book as recommended reading from the herbalism class I took. My instructor, Mary Lou, really had a feeling for me when she told me I should look into it. Buhner makes you see and feel plants in a whole new way. I am in awe of the plant world and now think they have so much to offer us if we get in tune with their life force. I encourage people to seek out this book and to take a class in herbalism.
December 23, 2016
Evidence of Hamlet's phrase, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." We think we understand the natural world, but our ignorance is so abysmal that it would be comical if it weren't simultaneously so tragically pathetic.
December 28, 2018
Just...wow! I found this book so inspiring that as soon as I finished it I was online looking to see what else the author had published. Well researched and excellently written. This book is scientific yet engaging.
February 7, 2021
The lost language of plants is a very interesting book, to say the least. It is structured and written similar to a text book with vocabulary that requires a dictionary check.
This book talks about the importance of reconnecting with the world and its environment. It talks about the life of plants, their history, their endeavor, and honestly the absolute brilliance and resilience that they have.
It also discusses human flaw and our ever changing relationship and lack of respect we have towards our world. It forewarns of what will occur if we do not change this relationship.
I learned a lot from this book, and felt a bit more knowledgeable after reading it. With that said, it is a heavy read. Reading this book will require research and patience.
The only aspect of this book that didn’t resonate with me was the ending. I feel like Stephen Harrod Buhner spends his whole book listing the magic of plants and the issues humans are creating, but never offers a solution.
The ending feels a little too hippy for me, with talk of reconnecting with your inner child and taking them out on hikes to help you identify plants.
With that being said, I did still enjoy the book and would recommend it. Just take what you can from it.
This book talks about the importance of reconnecting with the world and its environment. It talks about the life of plants, their history, their endeavor, and honestly the absolute brilliance and resilience that they have.
It also discusses human flaw and our ever changing relationship and lack of respect we have towards our world. It forewarns of what will occur if we do not change this relationship.
I learned a lot from this book, and felt a bit more knowledgeable after reading it. With that said, it is a heavy read. Reading this book will require research and patience.
The only aspect of this book that didn’t resonate with me was the ending. I feel like Stephen Harrod Buhner spends his whole book listing the magic of plants and the issues humans are creating, but never offers a solution.
The ending feels a little too hippy for me, with talk of reconnecting with your inner child and taking them out on hikes to help you identify plants.
With that being said, I did still enjoy the book and would recommend it. Just take what you can from it.
July 14, 2020
Stephen tries to put into words something which is unspeakably difficult to express - the rich interconnectedness of the web of life. In one way, you could say that our planet is like a huge Jenga tower. everything is connected to everything else, and you can only take away so much before the whole lot comes crashing down around you. Seeing this interconnectedness is part of it, and then knowing how to use this knowledge is another part.
In all traditional indigenous ecological knowledge, plants are regarded not only as persons but as among our oldest teachers. If plants are our teachers, what are they teaching us, and how can we be better students? This book weaves a rich braid of ecological science, indigenous philosophy, and literary reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island (North America) to the forces that threaten its flourishing today.
In all traditional indigenous ecological knowledge, plants are regarded not only as persons but as among our oldest teachers. If plants are our teachers, what are they teaching us, and how can we be better students? This book weaves a rich braid of ecological science, indigenous philosophy, and literary reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island (North America) to the forces that threaten its flourishing today.
August 22, 2019
Still Urgent. Pleading for an update!
This is the book I wish had been available while I was in Med school in the 1990s. Many of the questions and longings I had about ecological medicine are discussed within as well as the impact of our pharmaceuticals. The latter was staggeringly and disturbingly important when this was published more than 15 years ago. The book is still highly relevant, but there is critical need to update as the burden of radiation, pharmaceuticals, other chemicals, and sheer weather chaos in our world has magnified now. Plants and micro-organisms are even more critical to our survival. We truly do need to be able to understand their language.
This is the book I wish had been available while I was in Med school in the 1990s. Many of the questions and longings I had about ecological medicine are discussed within as well as the impact of our pharmaceuticals. The latter was staggeringly and disturbingly important when this was published more than 15 years ago. The book is still highly relevant, but there is critical need to update as the burden of radiation, pharmaceuticals, other chemicals, and sheer weather chaos in our world has magnified now. Plants and micro-organisms are even more critical to our survival. We truly do need to be able to understand their language.
January 24, 2021
Wow, what an important book. This was a treasure to stumble upon at my local library. I really enjoyed learning much more about the intricacies of plant chemistries and how/when/why they manifest.... I mean some of this stuff is WILD (the whole section on Ironwoods blew my mind). I'll admit there were a few places I skimmed a page because it was so deep "in the weeds" (ha plant joke) on chemistry or pharmaceutical compounds, but those were few, and as a whole this was an inspiring read and an affirmation I'm heading in the right direction.
July 12, 2022
Open and FEEL the living world (biophilia) to reconnect to the original deep Wisdom that is the language and pattern within everything (biognosis). Embrace the loving support of your ancestors of the plant nation that are the Earth’s medicine towards harmony and wholeness. This is the journey back to the wild water.
September 2, 2024
'The Lost Language of Plants'...
by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Great resource book for those interested in ecology, and specifically how plants interact with each other, and humans, and their healing properties and alignments.
I've had this interesting book for a few years and am always dipping back into it to re-read more.
Two thumbs up! 👍👍
by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Great resource book for those interested in ecology, and specifically how plants interact with each other, and humans, and their healing properties and alignments.
I've had this interesting book for a few years and am always dipping back into it to re-read more.
Two thumbs up! 👍👍
September 30, 2018
IF you have read his other book , plant intelligence and imaginal realm, you can skip this one. There is some good information here on some medicinal plants and harm to nature from pharma medicines, but you can get that elsewhere.
January 20, 2018
Awesome book. Really, really thought provoking. I am so reading this again to take in all I missed the first time through.
December 3, 2018
This book is possibly the most meaningful one I’ve read to date. It changes the way I look at the world and the role I play within it.
July 6, 2022
Very outdated (scientifically and ethically) and difficult to find meaning in.
May 9, 2022
There are some good moments in it.
December 20, 2012
thank you, buhner, for this excellent, excellent book. several times while reading it i found myself amazed that he took the time to write a book which would necessarily have to be absorbed by reading (even if primarily oriented toward the reading-landscape of feeling rather than thinking). and so grateful.
as with many other works in this broad canon of deep ecology/plant medicine/environmental consciousness in this time and world, the first half of the book (up through chapter 7 or so) winds through the pharmaceutical industry, the medical-industrial complex. i have to say i'd never quite thought about how pharmaceuticals cycling through our bodies end up in the earth and how they affect fragile chemical balances among plants and critters, leading to everything from reproductive abnormalities among fish to the transformation of fragrances into highly toxic chemicals in landfills to the emergence of new highly resistant disease pathogens because of the use of antibiotics. scary and horrifying.
but the second half of buhner's book was particularly powerful and new-old. a weaving of stories, lots of poems and quotes from other people, including indigenous elders and medicine people, short "essays" from some herbalists in the last chapter, and an "herbelegy," i'd recommend this book to everyone who carries the seed of interest in herbalism, plant medicine, being part of the natural world, connecting to the web of consciousness we live in, and connecting to their intuition, child-self, and old old deeper knowing about how to live well in/with the world.
i appreciated: this book is not purist. it doesn't offer a single clear answer or path, though there are some excellent exercises and suggestions. it doesn't command that you live in a particular place or in a particular way. additionally, buhner creates a compelling world while avoiding the style of many other like-minded folks, that is, of fetishizing indigenous people and forgetting the wounds of colonization. he talks explicitly about colonization, about being a white person in the world, and some of the differences between folks who are connected to an intact culture vs those of us who are children many times over of the colonized-turned-colonizers, who don't necessarily have connection to our place of origin and the pre-christian, pre-fragmentation plant- and land-based culture that is deep in our bones.
but that's just it...being of this or that place or people doesn't negate anyone's ability for biognosis ("direct, depth knowledge of nature that cannot be reduced to the assembly of a collection of bits of accumulated information" (62).
do it!
as with many other works in this broad canon of deep ecology/plant medicine/environmental consciousness in this time and world, the first half of the book (up through chapter 7 or so) winds through the pharmaceutical industry, the medical-industrial complex. i have to say i'd never quite thought about how pharmaceuticals cycling through our bodies end up in the earth and how they affect fragile chemical balances among plants and critters, leading to everything from reproductive abnormalities among fish to the transformation of fragrances into highly toxic chemicals in landfills to the emergence of new highly resistant disease pathogens because of the use of antibiotics. scary and horrifying.
but the second half of buhner's book was particularly powerful and new-old. a weaving of stories, lots of poems and quotes from other people, including indigenous elders and medicine people, short "essays" from some herbalists in the last chapter, and an "herbelegy," i'd recommend this book to everyone who carries the seed of interest in herbalism, plant medicine, being part of the natural world, connecting to the web of consciousness we live in, and connecting to their intuition, child-self, and old old deeper knowing about how to live well in/with the world.
i appreciated: this book is not purist. it doesn't offer a single clear answer or path, though there are some excellent exercises and suggestions. it doesn't command that you live in a particular place or in a particular way. additionally, buhner creates a compelling world while avoiding the style of many other like-minded folks, that is, of fetishizing indigenous people and forgetting the wounds of colonization. he talks explicitly about colonization, about being a white person in the world, and some of the differences between folks who are connected to an intact culture vs those of us who are children many times over of the colonized-turned-colonizers, who don't necessarily have connection to our place of origin and the pre-christian, pre-fragmentation plant- and land-based culture that is deep in our bones.
but that's just it...being of this or that place or people doesn't negate anyone's ability for biognosis ("direct, depth knowledge of nature that cannot be reduced to the assembly of a collection of bits of accumulated information" (62).
do it!
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