Inner Teacher

Valerian is a forerunner of Valium. It’s the original, created by Mother Nature and manufactured in her laboratory. Because its constituents spring from the natural world, it is in a sense, native to the body; the plant and the human are related on an organic level.

In recent years I have been growing Valerian and making a concoction from its root. A half an eyedropper of the tincture produces a subtle relaxation that will lead any insomniac into a gentle sleep. There are no side effects. I thank my Inner Teacher for leading me to this knowledge and healing.

I am not a scientist or a chemist. My knowledge of herbs is difficult to express, because it exists on an intuitive level, a level beyond mere words. I perceive the magical, the mystical value of plant medicine, rather than the technical and commercial. I deeply understand the relationship of physicality with the spiritual.

This intuitive communication is primitive and has largely been lost. The great teachers of this message have been silenced, their traditions murdered, their significance ridiculed. Why, you may ask. Think about it. Who or what can control a population that knows how to heal itself? The key to control is suppressing independence and instead promoting dependence.

When I get sick I have only to allow a plant to teach me health. Plants grown and handled by others, no matter how organically or carefully, can never render medicine specific to my DNA structure. Ingrained in my little plot of land are the intimate details of my physical and spiritual being.

I can pick a wild herb down by the creek a mile or two away and it still knows me. After all, it drew me to it for a reason. The purpose of plants is to benefit animals and vice versa. Some plants need to be trimmed for their own survival. Seeds need to be scattered. It’s a fantastic cycle of life and death and each of us is related. If humans cannot connect with this, if they cannot sense their place in the grand scheme of things, not only are their bodies sick, but even their spiritual development is stunted.

Our natural world has been sorely abused. I admit I have contributed to this. I still do in many ways. But as I learn, I get better. I am still becoming. I mourn the fact that I had no human teacher to show me the way; I may have come to this place of understanding early on instead of in my sixties. However, I am grateful to the Inner Teacher, which we all possess but rarely hear. I am listening now.