Good morning my herbalism lovers,
I wanted to make a small post to talk about herbal energies today. This is something that can seem confusing until you really get a grasp of the concept.
When you look up “what are herbal energies” you get long posts talking about what it means and there is no real way to answer the question in a way you can keep as a handy reference, unless you are paying for an herbalism course — which is what I did. I paid for my education and I want to make herbalism easy and accessible for you.
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Let’s do a quick history of herbal/medical energies and elements.
The energies date back to the time of humorism or humoralism. The Greek/Roman view on sickness and medicine is at the heart of humorism. These were based in the four elements/four directions. To read a full article on humorism, click here. We may get into that later on doctrine and history, but for now we are just stating origin and meaning.
The four elements
fire
air
water
earth
The four qualities, respectively
hot
cold
damp
dry
The four humors:
yellow bile — fire
blood — air
phlegm — water
black bile — earth
The four temperaments of people, respectively :
choleric
sanguine
phlegmatic
melancholic
“Having the right amount of humor is essential for health.” There are a lot of different stories, histories, and you might hear of substances like yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm in period piece tv shows being included in medicine.
These are all the basis of humorism and has been used and construed by other people over time — this is just where we get the wording and history of how medicine was used.
This is a lot to remember, but once you get a general idea of an energy of an herb and what to use it for, it becomes so much easier to connect in practice.
The four qualities:
We are going to go over the description of pathologies. These are how they described people’s symptoms - not the herbs themselves.
Hot: this can be used to describe ‘hot’ symptoms such as inflammation, redness, tenderness, or blood flow to an area. This is also something that describes fluid stuck in the body as opposed to fluid discharge. What other things would you think that could fit here?
Cold: this is used to describe inactive symptoms such as poor circulation, lack of sensation, heavy, and things like that. What else would you consider cold?
Wet: this describes fluid leaving the body which coincides with phlegm like a ‘wet’ cough or a runny nose. This is slippery, clammy, soft, and can be lots of fluid discharge in this one.
Dry: This is lacking fluid — think of an area with a drought. This is dehydrated, low energy, rough, brittle and things like this.
So you can describe your symptoms with multiple of these like cold and wet or hot and dry. With these you can get a gauge of how to counteract with the four elements that your herbs contain.
The four elements of herbs
What to do if you have a hot condition? What do you do if you have a cold condition? Wet or dry?
Well, if you go back to the basic four, we can get into basic workings of the herbs so you can properly use them.
Hot: opens pores for sweating, thins out fluids, increases body temperature, burning.
Cold: reduces heat, thickens fluids, lowers body temperature, restricts fluid loss.
Wet: moisturizes/moistens, softening of tissues, nourishing systems, increases discharge
Dry: astringent/tightening, closes pores, tightens tissues, hardening of symptoms.
“By working with both the individual’s temperament and the energetics of the herbs and foods, we can craft our herbal therapeutics to treat the individual situation. This is a much more effective approach than allopathic substitution herbalism, which takes a more superficial “this-herb-for-that-disease” approach.” - Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism
Examples:
Let’s look at some herbs. We will go over their actions and energies along with what they are used for. Take some notes because you are going to make some connections and get a better understanding of how the energies work.
Marshmallow:
actions — anti-inflammatory, demulcent, emollient, expectorant
uses — dry coughing and sore throats, GI tract inflammation, irritation of the bladder, skin inflammation.
energy — cooling (cold), moistening (wet)
Peppermint:
actions — analgesic, antimicrobial, antispasmodic, nervine, stimulant, carminative
uses - GI tract complaints such as pain, cramping, and gas, motion sickness, viral and bacterial infections, cold and flu, muscle aches or cramps, fever, tension and anxiety, headaches
energy — cooling (cold), drying (dry)
Cinnamon
actions — anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antioxidant, astringent, carminative, circulatory stimulant
uses - digestive stimulant, excess menstrual flow, circulatory flow to hands and feet, nausea, bloating, skin infections, depression, added to fever blends, blood glucose management, headaches
energy — heating (hot), drying (dry)
Fenugreek
actions — anti-diabetic, anti-fungal, anti-ulcerative, antibacterial, anticoagulant, anticancer, antioxidant, aphrodisiac, hormone balancing, bitter, demulcent, emmenagogue, expectorant, galactagogue, hypoglycemic, tonic
uses — dry cough blend, constipation blend, stimulating breast milk flow and infant growth through milk, lowering blood sugar, cholesterol management, bulk laxative, and historically has been used in blends supporting many ailments like allergies, hay fever, muscle pain, and respiratory complaints.
energy — heating (hot), moistening (wet)
Let me know if you got new info out of this article and if you feel better understanding what herbal energies mean and how to read them better when you look at a monograph of an herb.
This is something you won’t get overnight, but you will get a better understanding of how to use them when you want to focus on specific symptoms. You will understand your own symptoms better and understand how herbalism works at a deeper level. Herbalists take on a lot of information in order to give you the best advice that they can give you.