Humoral Medicine Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is humoral medicine?
Ancient Western healing approach - that takes as its starting point that we are part of balanced nature. “Are you in good humour?” “Time to chill out,” - we still hear these ideas today.
The idea was that if you had an imbalance in any of the below ‘humours’ you needed to try to rebalance them - eg clear any excess. It is ancestral (before records were written) and mystic (something that spans across the known with the felt) which transcends the literal.
What is the healing process in the humoral tradition?
Healing reflected the nature of the cosmos.
First there was the awareness and acceptance we are connected by ‘Ether’, the breath of life.
Next there is a need to go through a process of cleansing to clear the excess of humors from the body - this may involve visiting a temple.
Then there is preperation to allow the body to become well again; and finally the healing experience itself to allow regeneration.
Healing as a personal journey…
This is useful as to give yourself time to heal is important - mindful healing is something we can support clients through
What the Galenic elements?
There are four primary qualities of Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry.
- Air - is Warm/Hot, Moist. You will get condensation if you breathe onto glass.
- Secondary qualities: Light, thin, mobile, expansive, floats out and up. Expands.
- Spring, youth, Digestive/ dispersive activity
- Fire - Hot, Dry. Its main quality is to stimulate, activate, focusing and directing.
- Secondary qualities: bright, illuminating, rarefying, giving absolute lightness..
- Summer, Adulthood, Apprehensive activity.
- Earth- Cold, Dry. Contracting, drying - retains and holds things
Secondary qualities: dense, heavy hard, immobile, gives stability, form, continuity. Autumn, Middle age, Retentive activity. - Water- Cold, Moist. Its nature is to flow, to clear, to expel.
Secondary qualities: Soft, adaptable, connects and compounds, clears, flows. - Winter, Old age, Expulsive activity.
What plants are associated with Water?
- The Birch tree -the first tree in the Ogham alphabet
- Associated with Venus and water, Winter
- Venus is associated with the wet systems eg respiratory, gut, brain, joints, urinary
- Offers a cold/ cooling effect
What plants are associated with Air?
- Dandelion
- Associated with Jupiter and Spring
- Associated with Liver as can offer cleansing heat. Active, increase bile and so on, gets things moving
- Offers warming, moistening
What plants are associated with Fire?
- Angelica
- Ruled by the Sun/ Summer
- Hot and dry
- Helps with digestion, clears phlegm and melancholy
What plants are associated with Earth?
- Comfrey
- Associated with what gives the body its solidity eg bones, and strengthening tissue
- Cooling and drying, stops bleeding and healing
- Associated with Saturn
What plants are associated with Ether?
- Fennel
- Strengthens the mind and sight
- Warming, helps with brain
- Associated with Mercury
What are the seven Natural things?
- The four Elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Air
- The four Humours - which are combinations of the above
- Temperaments - people also have a Temperaments which align with the elements or humours - a person will likely have a dominant humour and this is where they may first lose their balance
- The Parts (Anatomy) - different parts of the body may align with certain elements, humours and temperaments
- Administering virtues - these include the apprehensive (‘taking hold of’ - linked to fire), expulsive (water), digestive (air), retentive (earth).
- The procreative (testes/ womb) and conservative (liver) spirits:
- The Animal Spirit - Ether is the cosmic glue that holds everything together - resides in the head, is made up of apprehension. judgement and memory
- The Vital Spirit - made of two elements, heat and cold, and resides in the heart.
These work with the Unnatural things to influence the mind and body.
What are the Unnatural things?
- Air
- Diet
- Exercise and restfulness
- Sleep and wakefulness
- Evacuations and retentions
- Perturbations of the mind and emotions
