Omaroti Well of Indigenous Wisdom

ELDER TEACHER Paul Bergner is Director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism. He has published the Medical Herbalism Journal since 1989, and has mentored students in teaching clinics for medical herbalism and clinical nutrition, training more than 400 clinical herbalists since 1996. He has taught nutrition at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of academic study. He has authored seven books on topics of medical herbalism, Chinese medicine, ethnobotany and folk medicine, nutrition, and naturopathic medicine. Paul is also an accomplished naturalist, tracker, and explorer of the deep ecology of the plant world. He teaches classes and guides wilderness retreats in nature awareness and Visioning. He feels most truly at home off trail in the wilderness with his family taking lessons from the wild places. Topics The Spiritual Heart in traditional medicine A Spiritual Heart is described in all traditional medical systems, it is the center of awareness and consciousness. It is multidimensional, it has both generosity and love as well as a boundary and self-protection, and when centered and balanced has access to a deep well of universal wisdom. An Eleventh Century Arabic treatise on heart disease makes no mention of heart attacks, heart failure, or even heart palpitations, but describes the chief symptoms of heart disease as “rancor and the desire for revenge.” It is the center of our psychology. Disturbance of the spiritual heart through trauma is a chief symptom of many individuals in the modern world, and is often the cause of inappropriate prescriptions for psychotropic drugs. Relying on both tradition and direct experimentation, and identifying traditional and Western herbs that affect this center of awareness and consciousness has been a subject of study and experimentation at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism since the late 1990s. The presentation will include a description of the properties of the Spiritual Heart in older traditions and in modern life, along with materia medica and formulation with Western herbs to promote heart centering, heart protection, and access to heart wisdom. In many cases, if the spiritual heart is in order, other imbalances may resolve on their own. (This is normally a hands-on class with tasting of the remedies. For distance/zoom students at our California school, we send out the remedies in advance. It is not absolutely necessary, but adds value. If the student had at least one of the herbs, such as Crataegus, Motherwort, Rose, it would help) How to sit with a Plant We will practice awareness exercises in order to enhance the ability to see a plant on its own terms. We will identify inner obstacles to clear seeing and connection, especially identification of the “Conquistador Mind” which wants only to grasp and take and use things. We will learn practical skills for centering and awareness to set aside the grasping self and the agenda. We will learn to see the plant in its ecology. Finally we will learn "mind's eye drawing" to learn to memorize a plant's features and form a deep and permanent connection with its spirit in the Dream Mind. For the healer, this same skill set prepares one to sit in the same openness and awareness with the patient. Psycho spiritual Clinical Skills for the Healer Knowledge of Self, and navigating ones own psychological complexity is as important a clinical skill as materia medica, therapeutics, or interview skills. These skills are essential and can determine the success or failure of one's work as a healer. In our clinical round table community at the NAIMH in 1998, a woman had a sacred dream: the herbalists were seen in kayaks, in a circle, with tips touching, in a sheltered bay by the ocean, safe from large waves. Beneath them was a circle of nurse sharks, who had come from the seven oceans. If you have ever floated in a kayak, you know that the process is a matter of constant re-balancing. You can never rest. This powerful dream helped to shape our clinical training in the following 25 years. We will describe the kinds of polarities which require constant balance on the part of the healer. Such polarities as the balance between supporting the patient's intentions, vs telling the truth. Being compassionate vs having good boundaries. Recognizing the patient has lost her balance vs recognizing them as an adult. Responsibility to give your best, vs not your responsibility for the patient to get better. Not giving what you don't have vs not taking what is not yours.