February 2020.
Isn’t it brilliant that the first herbs of Spring cover all our immediate needs? This picture contains Cowslip, a herb of Venus excellent for the chesty coughs prevalent this time of year, Nettle to give heat and support the liver and kidneys to get over winter’s sluggishness, and Cleavers to get the circulation of the lymphatic system moving and help to ward off colds and fevers.
We are in the season of the Phlegmatic humour, and the element water, and some of you reading this will have experienced water in all its dangerous abundance-the floods in Wales and Shropshire, and equally the terrible consequences of its lack-in Australia and other area ravaged by fires.
Water is life but as we continue to abuse the planet, mother nature is showing how bad things can go wrong if we don’t respect her.
Water absorbs and is impressionistic. Masuro Emoto photographed water which had been subject to loving thoughts, angry thoughts, calming music, discordant music and photographed it under a powerful microscope. the distortion sown when angry fearful and hateful emotions were expressed was incredible. see here for more info
Similarly, water is a carrier of messages and prayers. Pat McCabe a Navajo Lakota activist, says send all your prayers through water, to reach far off lands which need our healing, stand in water and listen to the messages from far away people. You can watch her here
The phlegmatic humour is cold and wet and rules the Water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
In our heady, airy culture water-feelings-kindness and sensitivity are not valued, but without these people’s compassion and dedication to service, their creativity and spiritual searching, the world would be a hard place.
Phlegmaticis feel sometimes too much and they need solitude, peace and stillness around them. Some may self-medicate with alcohol, drugs, food and binge tv watching hoping to blot out sensory overload. While time spent in water-warm baths, the sea, standing in the rain, meditation, dance, and spiritual endeavours will healthily ground and re-balance them.
Negatively, Phlegmatics can be over indulgent, lazy and emotionally manipulative, especially to Fire and Earth people.
By no means passive, they all exhibit a strong humanitarian desire to save those less fortunate than themselves. Notable Phlegmatics include the Dalai Lama whose says his religion is kindness, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote On Death and Dying and spearheaded the compassionate campaign to give the dying a voice, Albert Einstein brilliant scientist and musician who campaigned to get fellow Jewish scientists out of German under the Nazis. On intelligence he wrote,
‘I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution’
All Phlegmatics have a tendency to want to hide away, sleep too much and take life slowly and gently. But for good health, they need physical exercise, a simple diet with gently warming foods like ginger, avoiding dairy, refined sugar, and carbohydrates. They are more susceptible to alcohol and drugs and should bear this in mind when taking any remedies, both allopathic and complementary. (see Western Traditional Herbal Medicine for more details)
Ideal remedies for Phlegmatics are ones which soothe the emotions like Rose, Violet and Elderflower, as the psychosomatic component of any ailment is always very strong with them.
Elisabeth Brooke 