The philosophy governing Sacred Medicine Sanctuary is rooted in the abiding traditions of the diverse cultures, climatic zones, ethnobotanical wisdom of our Planet, the Lady Gaia.

The name was given in a higher dimension of consciousness by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. It was a sublime moment in which the thoughtform dropped into my mind in response to a question I submitted telepathically to the Living Saint we affectionately call Ammachi. It was succeeded by a mysterious and awe inspiring series of events that I have come to associate with the teaching gifts of Ammachi.

The issue with which I was dealing was how to fulfill my commitment to my soul. There was no "agenda," just a petition for guidance. Immediately, there was a reverberation in my psyche and the words "Sacred Medicine" dropped into my awareness. "Sacred Medicine, what?" I asked, and the answer was "Sacred Medicine Sanctuary."

As with all processes, the awakening was multidimensional and endlessly expanding. The first awareness that was anchored in my mind was that those who are seriously ill are facing not just the life and death challenges we so glibly identify with disease but rather the questions that are not addressed by science and often not by religion either. Patients who are immersed in the darkness of disease often feel isolated by their sense that others do not understand and therefore cannot help.

Since I have focused so much of my energy on cancer, I had then, as now, an especial interest in what I have come to see as my own missionary efforts of bringing Light into darkness and transforming fear into faith. The metaphor that best suits this understanding is "refuge." This is a concept taught in Buddhism in which the first commitment to the spiritual path and the life of service that ensues is to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Centuries of erudition offer many insights into what precisely refuge is, but it might very well be to Buddhists what accepting Christ as one's personal savior is to Christians. The bottom line is that one commits oneself to the Ultimate Truth and seeks in every way possible to align one's life to the Truth as it is revealed . . . and to do within the community of kindred spirits.

Manifesting a divinely inspired thought is, like manifesting anything else, a process, but it carries with it the additional challenge of never compromising one's commitment nor faltering in one's efforts to fulfill the Goal.

I firmly believe we each have purposes and therefore also goals, but the challenge is to find these early enough in life that we can complete our missions. In the case of Sacred Medicine Sanctuary, there were two crucial parts of the whole: the medicine and the sanctuary.

The Medicine

Herbal medicine is utterly different from modern scientific medicine in ways that even I sometimes fail to appreciate to the extent needed.

• First of all, the plant kingdom forms the divine service of concentrating Light into its being. One might say that the essence of plants is Divine Light and the capacity of plants to perform photosynthesis is just one aspect of the plant nature. In reality, it is my belief that all Light is an emanation of the Mind of God and that it is qualified by Intent. This Intent is translated into Purpose but behind every Divine Purpose, there is also the Understanding that is required to carry out the Purpose.

In short, breaking a plant into its constituents and trying to understand its usefulness or lack thereof on the basis of some chemical components would be like trying to understand a great symphony by insisting that it consists of repetitions of various notes, all of which can be reduced to seven naturals and five sharps or flats. While the frequency vibration of C natural may explain its relationship to F and G, the inspiration working through the composer is not addressed by such analyses and no amount of alphabet letters could possibly produce the experience of real music.

Likewise, there is much more to plants and plant medicine than a few acids and alkaloids; there is the wisdom of the Creator working through the seeds, roots, stems, branches, bark, and flowers, all of which is more readily understood through intuition than laboratory analysis.

• Sacred Medicine is thus different from pharmaceutical medicine because the emphasis is on the inherent wisdom of the plant and the part of God that each plant has concentrated in its own being.

In the long run, I have no doubt but that we will discover that part of the success of homeopathy and essential oils derives from the emphasis on the essence rather than the quantification, which also includes massive overdosing with substance rather than the Light qualifying the substance.

This does not make me a homeopath, merely a philosopher speculating on a principle behind the medicine. This said, the other truly amazing lesson from homeopathy is the profound recognition of the body's instinctual way of wanting to heal itself. The emphasis is therefore placed on cooperation with a perceived natural healing response rather than annihilation of the disease.

This approach to healing resonates with my soul as well as my deep desire for peaceful approaches to problem solving.

• This brings me to my last point for now about medicine. Through many years, actually many lifetimes, of devotion to healing, I have come to realize that the torture felt in the somatic parts of our existence cannot be healed by matter, only by the loving compassion of Light, Light that transforms pain, suffering, and grief by imparting the essence of God which is Love.

There are energetic ways to heal in this manner, but plants offer this medicine willingly.

Part of the unfoldment of my Path has therefore been a passionate commitment to preserving plant life: protecting habitats, conserving seeds and land, rehabilitating ravaged lands, and sparing plants the agony of the poisons that are sprayed on them, that fall from the sky, and that are carried in the water. The madness must stop as must the attempts to control food and medicine through patents and bizarre technologies.

The plant kingdom is above all a part of Nature—and natural is the only way to preserve the age-old cooperation between God's Light and plants.

 

The Sanctuary

The second part of Sacred Medicine Sanctuary has an esoteric component and an exoteric one. The esoteric is that refuge in the medicine is really refuge in the Light that the plants have to surrender. It is the essence of the plants and the resonance with that essence that assists the alignment with what is holy and healthy. However, the exoteric component is that the plants themselves are made into formulas that ideally would be provided by like-minded practitioners and healers in settings that are conducive to wellness. The physical place for such healing does not yet exist except in the hearts and souls and places of work of those who share the commitment to the deeper healing that is both physical and transcendent.

 

The Logo

The logo of Sacred Medicine Sanctuary is an artistic rendering of the Tibetan patron deity of astrology and wisdom, Manjusri. It was developed from a pencil drawing by my long-time friend Sandra Leng Kashyap. The colors were added by computer. The sword held in Manjusri's right hand is for cutting through ignorance and the books in the left hand symbolize the wisdom given to those who can overcome ignorance. Manjusri is seated on a lotus inside a twelve-petal lotus that symbolizes the heart chakra and the realms of experience portrayed in the horoscope.

Products produced for Sacred Medicine Sanctuary are made in small laboratories operated by dedicated herbalists who understand the plants and the ways to process them. Whenever possible, certified organic plant materials are used; some plants are consciously wildcrafted, a few are grown biodynamically, some are organic but not certified, and occasionally availability necessitates the use of an imported plant that might have been subjected to processes not generally condoned by practicing herbalists. It is usually Chinese plants about which we have the most questions and concerns. The alcohol used in tinctures is organic grain alcohol and water is usually distilled spring water or well water.

 

Sacred Medicine Sanctuary is a congregation of Spiritual Healers and Earth Stewards, a non-profit corporate assembly. At present, the Sanctuary has twelve ordained ministers, living in eight different States. SHES has approximately 6000 ministers in 40 countries. For more information, visit the SHES website.