Traditional Western Herbal Medicine by Elisabeth Brooke

Author:Elisabeth Brooke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AEON Books

Sympathy and antipathy

As discussed above, to treat with sympathy is to treat with nature, it is to find the cause of the illness and then to treat similia similibis (“like with like”). To treat by antipathy is to treat against nature, to fight the illness rather than build up the strength of the body. Allopathic medicine is a good example of treatment by antipathy. Antibiotics are used to kill the invading organism; the sympathetical approach would be to take remedies to build up the body's immune system, which would fight the pathogens, without injuring other organisms. Treating by sympathy is the bedrock of all natural therapeutics, nourishing the soil (the human organism) so the body can fight the disease as nature intended it to do. Of course, in acute medicine antibiotics can be life-saving, but over-use and resistant strains have weakened their effects, and side effects of long-term use are well-documented. In sympathetic treatment, the organs of elimination are supported: liver, kidneys, the lymphatic system, and the body takes care of its self. Within herbalism antipathetic treatment can be used (for example for pain-killing) until the patient is stabilised and wholistic treatment is initiated.

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1Astrological terms are explained on p. 149.

2Always bless and thank the plant before you pick it. The more sacred your harvesting practice, the more powerful your remedies. There is a prayer in A Woman's Book of Herbs (Brooke, 2018, p. 215) which can be used, or develop your own invocation or blessing.

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