07/04/2023
I recently went on a phenomenological plant medicine walk. Phenomenology is the philosophy of experience, or the value of direct experience. Goethe, a German philosopher, scientist, playwright, poet and novelist of the 19th century, had some special ideas about botany, medicine and the nature and value of direct experience or phenomenology.
I digress. I went on a plant walk in which cell phones were not allowed. That is a great thing! We all left them in our cars. The plant guy leading us on a walk has never had a cell phone. I think this is a radical act of human being ness. I’m not quite there. The first part of the walk was to see the world through the eyes of a baby. To experience without labeling or knowing anything we looked at. To see, to wonder, to awe as verb. as if we were gigantic babies and the world was unfolding before our eyes anew. One of the things he wanted us to pay more attention to, were the archetypal shapes straight and curve (of which everything is comprised!) and just notice straightness and curve ness. To experience it. With wonder.
The next phase of the walk, we played follow the leader, no more like babies, but now, as children, still experiencing without words, but experiencing the plants that the leader brought us to. He led us in silence, but gesturing and mime-ing. One plant, he motioned to take the flowers and to suck them. Another, we touched the leaf to our lips, our cheeks, noticing it’s softness and then eating. Others, snip a bit and eat. Others, simply smell, and he even led us to an ant hole, to just smell the ants and watch them.
The next phase was to tell the story of what we had just experienced, in vivid detail, in backwards order. Taking turns. Remembering the day backwards is a practice that can strengthen memory and perception, as well as to experience the past and future in heightened and deeper ways.
Then we returned to the plants we’d experienced one by one, on the way back down the trail, retracing our steps and now experiencing the more intellectual understanding of each plant in relation to sun, moon, stars, ecosystem, animals and humans.
This kind of plant walk was deeply nourishing to me and also, deeply brought me to my senses and gave me a direct experience of the plants.
I was already familiar with the plants we met, having encountered them and experienced some of their medicinal components as well as having studied them in books. Yet this style of learning—from babe to child to young adult in relation to awe and wonder and experience and intellectual inquiry and then the task of recounting the experience in backwards order
Was so simple yet
Deeply nourishing at the same time.
I had a full body full circle of knowing.
I try to do this memory strengthening at least a little bit every night (it’s a common practice among Waldorf teachers). It’s a forgotten art amongst the rest of us. And it is good medicine.
Sensing the world in wonder is good medicine.
Taking in the whole, not the parts
is good medicine.
learning in gradual, full body, experiential
and phenomenological experiences
is good medicine.
Keeping the phone in the car
from time to time
is good medicine. Listening to the body
and looking at the plants fully,
with eyes open
is the best way to understand
And get to know the plant.
When we encounter a person or an animal, we use our full body senses to hear see sense experience one another. Plants want us to fully look at them and see them and wonder about their gestures too.
We have so much to learn from one another.
This kind of experiencing is akin to true becoming ness.
I highly recommend it.
Words: The Wild Matryoshka 🪆
Art Celia Jacobs
P.S. His name is Keith Hess
He lives in Viroqua, WI
And can be found with his offerings
Hand written on paper and in person.
He has hundreds of biodynamic tinctures
Single and combination formulas
He is the director of the spring of life institute
