Full Circle is not your typical herbalism book. Instead of recipes for plant medicine you will read about the history of how health, herbs, religion and magic have been intertwined for thousands of years. The author, Laura Veazey, paints a well thought out picture of how different cultures around the world viewed a person’s overall health in such a similar way. Laura includes an abundance of research, from multiple sources, to share this wealth of information in one book.
I particularly liked this book because I have always been intrigued by history and how our ancestors lived their day to day lives. Whenever I am learning about a topic such as religion, or plant medicine, I find myself reaching as far back in history as I can to find the oldest information available. It is fascinating to see how the topics have evolved over the centuries. Sadly, what you typically find when researching the history of herbalists, and of the practices of religion is fear. Fear of the unknown, causing people to ban traditions that were once common in communities and commit murder to silence those who possessed the knowledge.
Herbs were once heavily used in religious practices and healers were once viewed as respected prominent figures in royal households. Many of the well known religious holidays we celebrate today were originally pagan holidays that simply celebrated the seasons, harvests and deities of that time. It is disheartening to read the history and learn of how the advancement of religion and fear has caused so much of society to forget the powerful plant medicine that our ancestors understood so well.
Laura’s book also includes several examples of the medicine wheel used by different Native American tribes and the celtic cross that has similar representation for its four segments of the symbol. Each cultural labels their symbol with 4 health aspects in mind, emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual. They believe that in order to reach optimal health all parts of the medicine wheel must be balanced.
This book gave a beautiful overview of the history of how health was viewed in different cultures. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the history of plant medicine and how it was utilized in different religious practices.