Empirically, over many thousands of years, the practice of Earth Medicine has proven to be at least as effective as any "medicine", including modern medicine - with its expensive drugs and surgeries. In my own practice I have found it to be amazingly effective, even in several cases of supposedly incurable ailments where lives and limbs were spared by this simple therapeutic approach.
A Simple, Ancient, Traditional Cherokee Medicine Lodge
A good example are the bentonite clays that are taken internally for protecting oneself from poison, radiation, wounds and bites of all kinds or for generally rebalancing one's health. Many modern Americans are unaware of this practice and seem mildly shocked at the idea. But clays are found in very common items in our modern drugstores like Tums and Rolaids brands antacids. Kaopectate, a very familiar brand name of anti-diarrheal medication, was until recently made from the very fine, white, kaolin clay and plant fibers called pectins - nice and simple. That combination of clay and fiber, as medicine, goes back to ancient China. The oldest written prescription ever found was for a patient, 5,000 years ago, who was suffering from what the Chinese, with poetic flair, called "Summer Diarrhea", which was in fact a deadly cholera. That basic Kaopectate formula has been handed down for 5,000 years from then to now.
White Kaolinite Layer Came From Ancient Volcano
There have been more than a dozen deaths in a few years! The old 'clay of the earth' and plant fiber based formula had no deaths in 5,000 years. So I would not use Kaopectate, it is no longer the safe simple solution to dysentery and cholera.
The good news is that you can still buy similar clay based detoxificants, as they are known, in the health food stores. Sonne's #7 is one such very good product. Great Plains Bentonite is another. Just remember to always avoid plastic bottles and always get hydrated bentonite in glass, which is the only way Sonne's sells it. Great Plains uses plastic but they also sell it in glass bottles. Insist on glass. While dry clay is inert, clay mud and clay water are highly reactive with metal and plastic. Avoid using plastic or metal containers and implements with wet clay.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not one bit simpler." ~Albert Einstein
Albert "Great Relative" Einstein visiting Hopi Brothers and Sisters.
The Hopi name for their adopted Brother was "Great Relative". Look at the proud smile on Dr. Einstein's face. Such Joy! He was so happy! He had found people who already knew and understood, better than he, the "theory of relativity" he was teaching to "modern" scientists.
A best selling author, Dr. Mindell is a Registered Pharmacist. He has a Ph.D. in nutrition and a Masters Degree in Health. In this excerpt he gives an honest description and a fair evaluation of indigenous healing knowledge. He certainly rates it superior.
Native American Herbs
When the early settlers arrived in the United States there were more than 2000 tribes of Native Americans. Each tribe had its own system of herbal medicine that was in many ways far superior to the European style of healthcare practiced by the pioneers.
In fact, the early settlers were startled to see Indians recovering from injuries that they considered to be fatal. Noted one observer, "I've seen many who have received four or five bullet or arrow wounds through the stomach and who are so perfectly cured of them that they do not suffer any inconvenience. Through the knowledge of simples [herbs] which they received from their fathers, they will cure hands, arms and feet that our best surgeons would not hesitate to cut."
The typical tribal medicine man was as well equipped as any modern pharmacy to treat a wide range of medical needs, ranging from the common cold to birth control. ~ Dr. Earl Mindell
Sarlo
A researcher, and debunker of supposed "Spiritual Masters and Gurus", named Sarlo, rates "gurus" for authenticity as a public service. Sarlo kept coming across Teachers like me who are not part of the whole New-Age-Eastern-Enlightenment-commercial-boom. He kept finding Earth Medicine Teachers working quietly in a traditional Native American way - by word of mouth, only, with no advertising, no promoting, nor charging of fees for our work. (This site is purely educational. I sell nothing. I charge nothing for my work. It is done in the Spirit of Gadugi - a traditional form of spiritual community service in the ancient culture of the Ani Yunwiya, "The Principal People", from whom I am proud to be descended)What he says about Our Sacred Earth Medicine....
Earth Medicine The teachers in this very interesting category do not talk much about enlightenment. And they have little in common with the organised traditional and especially hierarchical religions of the "dominant" cultures. Here the name of the game is truly direct experience. There is no one to mediate your experience and even the teacher will most often not claim authority but defer to nature or the creator. Natural energies are what is worked with, whether elemental, eg those of the sun, wind, directions; or totemic, ie those of specific animals, birds or plants.
Sacred Plant Medicines
Revered Teachers
Ancient Knowledge and Traditions
"The original religion" has been made more accessible, both physically and psychologically, by these teachers' having learned how to connect with seekers from the "dominant" cultures and by their adoption, when useful, of other methods to augment those of their own cultures. And their own cultures are many and varied, having in common only an intact connection to the earth and natural energies.
It has been pointed out that my former label for this page, Pagan, is somewhat Eurocentric, so i have used a broader term that is hopefully more inclusive and more accurate. I should like to include teachers in the aboriginal traditions of all the continents, though of course the requirement of a website will exclude many authentic teachers, perhaps more than in other categories. So forget lineages, mass movements, religious garb and go outside (in order to go inside). If any of these guys turns out to be the next Avatar or Messiah, please let me know . . .
It has been pointed out that my former label for this page, Pagan, is somewhat Eurocentric, so i have used a broader term that is hopefully more inclusive and more accurate. I should like to include teachers in the aboriginal traditions of all the continents, though of course the requirement of a website will exclude many authentic teachers, perhaps more than in other categories. So forget lineages, mass movements, religious garb and go outside (in order to go inside). If any of these guys turns out to be the next Avatar or Messiah, please let me know . . .
Sarlo's Guru Rating Service: http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/RatingsE.htm
Ghost Bear, Original Teacher of Earth Medicine....
.... and not just in my Clan's Tradition. As an example, below is a healing incantation from a far away Siberian tribe, the Chukchee, who have always invoked this same Bear in their healing ceremonies....
The Chukchee live on the Kamchatka Peninsula so they know the Polar Bear very well. They claim to know Ghost Bear from "the land of the first creation", by which they mean North America, the old world, the place from where their ancient ancestors migrated to Siberia. Our Ghost Bear, the Chukchee's "Great Bear of the first creation", also called the "Spirit Bear" is found in only one place in the whole world today, Canada's Great Bear Wilderness of coastal British Columbia.
There are other Asian tribes, in Siberia and Mongolia especially, who claim their ancient ancestors migrated out of North America. They still tell the tales today. Their collective ancestry, it may be said, followed the horse, the camel and the reindeer herds who also migrated out of North America long ago, way before any ice age. Evidence supporting these tales can be found all over the world.
where can I purchase some Louisiana red clay dirt in natural chunks form.
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