3 Part Meetup Series
Assessing Energetics with a Traditional Greek Text with Nick Cavanaugh
Hot, cold, damp, and dry are concepts commonly applied by herbalists in the U.S. Often, details about these are sought in Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda.
The Greco-Arab medicine tradition offers another option. This tradition dates to ancient Babylon, Egypt and Greece, and was further developed in the Arab world and practiced across Europe until the 1700s. Today, it continues as Unani Medicine in Asia.
Studying this tradition offers U.S. herbalists benefits:
- Subtle and insightful applications of energetics
- Detailed classification of many herbs in common use today
- Simplicity in learning compared to other traditions
- For some, connection to an ancestral tradition that spans parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia
In this meetup group, we’ll look specifically at Galen’s Art of Physick, written by Greek physician Galen circa 200 AD. It’s a concise manual translated into English by 17th century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper with additions. This book details primary energetic signs related to the brain, heart, lungs, liver, stomach, and reproductive organs, and also offers detailed descriptions of the four temperaments (melancholic, sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic).
This book can be found for free online here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A69834.0001.001?view=toc
Nick is also re-writing portions of it to make it even more readable and accessible here: https://publish.obsidian.md/traditionalherbalism/%F0%9F%93%9C+Classic+herbalism+texts/Re-writing+of+Galen’s+Art+of+Physick
The meetup will include a short presentation and plenty of time to discuss the material and how it may fit in with what we’ve seen in our experience.