Message from the Spirit of Nature

By Jean-Francois Sobiecki

Medicinal plants have always been an important part of my journey in life, from my early interest in wanting to be a herbalist, that was an inherited gift from my ancestral relatives, through to an alchemical shift in my life with taking Ayahuasca medicine, then a long apprenticeship process of studying and using African traditional medicine with an African traditional diviner healer.

While on my journey I have recognized that modern man is quickly becoming disconnected from nature and healing plants through computer technology and consumer culture.

Having wanted to watch the now famous Anime movie Princess Mononoke for many years, I delayed it until the other day I finally watched this masterpiece in its genre. In many ways to me it is deeper and in my opinion more pertinent to our lives than the movie Avatar, but shares the common theme of the industrialization humankind has adopted and its conflict with the organic natural world of Nature, and for me, how our modern artificially product based living is causing a separation from nature and its healing essence.

This inspired the following poem and insights.

A Message From The Spirit of Nature

We Live in a World inhabited by Creatures; the Spirit of Animals, Plants,

Minerals, Insects, Nature.

We are not the end all and be all, as we sometimes like to imagine!

If we had to perish as a species, Nature would still Live on.

Who then is superior?

She has seen many extinctions,

and She exists and continues through her Intelligence.

We have tried to conquer her many times, but she is part of us, so we are ultimately

Defeating ourselves, Isolating ourselves into a corner.

The Ego, in its Fear and Greed State, only knows itself, and

Divorces itself from creation, from God and the Holy Garden

Of which we are part.

In my opinion, Nature is neither benevolent or malevolent, it like everything else, it wants to eat something to survive, but all living creatures do this. If we had to accept and respect that all things want to live and be, we may develop a better relationship with Nature and try to not control and enslave her as much as we do. The paradox is while Nature wants to eat us, it also feeds us! The Great Mystery of Being and Interconnectedness!

Sometimes we may ask; what do we need nature for?

Do we forget that it is plants that feed us and that produces the meat that some of us eat?

Plants give us Life! Yet we have now manufactured foods that are so far away from their natural form that we forget that it is Nature that is feeding us to start with! Many people do not recognize the plants from which common foods are made, for example; Chocolate from the Chocolate tree: Theobroma cacao, poplar teas like Rooibos etc.

I would say, this manufacture of processed food is a form of control, because only a few hundred years ago we were eating directly from Nature, then greedy and clever man decided to control our food supply, put it in shiny wrapping and sell it to us, and to replace our gardens with lawns.

What are we afraid of, that makes us control Nature in so many ways?

Perhaps it is Control we want, and the fear of Not Being in Control?

But this is like saying; I will control water and it will be my slave, but we are part water..

I am also wondering if there is a relationship between gender based violence against women in modern day society and a deep symbolic hate of Nature, for Women and Nature are both the pro-creators- the bearers of life, and look how we have framed her-its her outward sexual appeal that is most often sold in Hollywood. We have effectively objectified women through the patriarchal dominator culture we live in at the moment.

By deeply Re-Respecting Nature Again, for being our Mother, who literally feeds us, could fundamentally change how we see the feminine both outside of ourselves and inside of ourselves- for both the Male and Female element exists in us together!

Nature is our Mother, and we should be careful of how we treat her, because she holds the Principle of Creativity; the Prakruti (Great Nature) in Ayurvedic philosophy. How can we Divorce her when she is part of Ourselves? This is foolishness indeed.

Thank you Nature for your nourishment and inherent intelligence.

Jean-Francois Sobiecki B.Sc.Hons. EthnoBot. (UJ)., Dipl Clin Nutr. (Aus) is a pioneering South African ethnobotanist (medicinal plant researcher), a qualified nutritionist and herbalist healer.

Jean-Francois has conducted many years of research on South African and Global psychoactive and other medicinal plant use and has produced a number of academic publications on his research that he has been invited to present at world class conferences.

Jean-Francois runs a private holistic natural medicine practice in Johannesburg and offers online Herbal and Shamanic Plant Courses as well as one on one consultations on self development and personal alchemy.

Practice: http://phytoalchemy.co.za/faq/

phytoalchemist@gmail.com, +27 063 537 5413.

Research:https://www.khanyisagarden.co.za/

More from Jean-Francois:

Ubulawu: There is More to Shamanic Healing Than Psychedelic Visions

The Distortion of our Sacred Plant Medicines – and our Reconnection to their Healing Power!

Finding Your Purpose with ‘Ethnobotanist Healer’ Jean-Francois Sobiecki.