CHAPTER 1
Animal Totemsandthe Medicine Wheel
Animal totems pervade many ancient myths and culturaltraditions and have been used for centuries to foster spiritualgrowth and guide people in their lives. Knowledge of animaltotems can enhance our understanding of the innermostaspects of human nature by revealing more of a person's innatecharacter. By borrowing from the wisdom of these ancientcultures, we may enrich the modern approach to life, one thathas all too often failed to recognise the inter-connectedness ofall things.
An excellent example of the use of totems is seen among someof the North American native tribes, where a child was taught ata very young age about the four great powers of the medicinewheel, which are inherent in each of us. These powers are eachappointed a place on the wheel at one of the four points of thecompass, north, south, east and west, accompanied by a specificset of gifts or characteristics, as well as a symbol represented inthe form of a medicine animal and a colour.
In the north we discover wisdom and logic, the colour of whichis white and whose medicine animal is that of the buffalo. It isin this aspect we learn how to receive with our minds.
In the south we learn about innocence and trust, the colourof which is green and whose medicine animal is the mouse.Here we are able to learn the subtle lesson of how to givefreely.
In the east we discover illumination and enlightenment, wherewe are able to see things clearly far and wide. Its colour isgold like the morning star, and has the eagle as its medicineanimal.
In the west we find the 'looks-within' place, representing thesometimes introspective and insightful nature of humanity. Itscolour is black and the bear is its medicine animal.
The story of the medicine wheel states that when we areborn, each of us will adopt a beginning place within thesefour directions, which in turn will give us our first perspectiveof life.
This perspective is destined to become our easiest and mostnatural way of experiencing the world. Once we have learntto appreciate this way, personal growth can then occur for usby seeking a greater understanding of each of the other threedirections. Only in this way can we become whole, and capableof making balanced decisions for our lives, not just relying onone, single perspective.
Many indigenous Australians also use animal totems. This givesthem a strong connection to their environment and, since theyare never allowed to harm or eat the flesh of their particularanimal totem, a deep respect for nature.
This message of respect for nature is something that AusIdentities™ is also seeking to encourage. We want to helpreconnect people, especially our young people, with the naturalworld of plants and animals, as well as demonstrating a historicalprecedence for the basic need to develop a strong sense ofidentity for ourselves.
Incorporating aspects of ancient knowledge and contemporaryresearch, we hope this book will give you a greater understandingof who you are and of your strengths and weaknesses.
We have also included tools to help you to take better take careof yourself. We have taken some concepts of self-awareness andgood health and applied them in a holistic way, with the aimof allowing you to address your deepest physical, mental andemotional needs and bring you back into balance again.
We hope this also allows you to bring out more of the best ofyourself so you can enjoy a greater sense of self-acceptance andmore success and fulfilment in your life.
CHAPTER 2
Story Medicine
Stories of indigenous animals and plants, the surrounding naturallandscape and the seasons were often interwoven with talesabout human nature and passed down generation to generationas part of the myths and legends of a particular culture.
These were quite literally "stories as medicine", explaining day-todaylife challenges and the qualities that needed to be developedif these were to be overcome. Other stories were about commoncharacter traits, and how these were similar to the qualities offamiliar animals and plants.
"Storytellers speak in the language of myth and metaphor. Theytell us a truth that is not literal, but symbolic. If we hear the storieswith only the outer ear, they can seem absurd and untrue, butwhen listened to with the inner ear, they convey a truth that canbe understood and absorbed on a deeply personal level. In thisway, stories help us connect with our inner world, to the naturalrhythms and cycles of the earth, and to the power of our intuitivewisdom."
... Anita Johnston. Eating in the Light of the Moon.
Native North American tribes used the power of storytelling tohighlight aspects of human nature. In the story of the medicinewheel, which Michael talks about in Chapter 1, we discover thatearly on, when we enter the wheel, we create our own personalmythology. Along with our life experiences, this leads us tocreate a story or a set of beliefs about who we are. Animals alsoappear on the wheel to highlight inherent qualities, and storiesare told about their great acts of bravery, compassion, daringand the like, in order to imbue a healthy mindset among youngpeople.
Archetypes, which essentially are universally understood symbols,terms, statements, or patterns of behaviour, are often used inmyths and storytelling across different cultures. The classicalmythology of ancient Rome that is embedded in western cultureand forms the basis of many of our society's archetypes, wasused by the eminent Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung to explain thewestern mindset. Put simply, archetypes are a way to betterunderstand people.
Being Australian, I have been also exposed throughout mywhole life to aboriginal dreaming stories and legends about ournative flora, fauna and natural landmarks, which have beengenerously shared with the "white fella". Though originally fromthe UK, Michael has been living here for many years and is nowa naturalised Australian so has also been exposed to some ofthis knowledge. There is something about this land, the animalsand plants (the first flowering plants in the world) that gets intoyour soul, even if you are white.
"Songlines, also called dreaming tracks by the aboriginal people,are paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) which mark theroute followed by the local creator-beings during the Dreaming.The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional songs,stories, dance and painting.
A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land byrepeating the words of the song which describe the location oflandmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena.
By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, aboriginalpeople could navigate vast distances, often travelling throughthe deserts of Australia's interior. The continent of Australiacontains an extensive system of songlines, some of which area few kilometres, whilst others traverse hundreds of kilometresthrough lands of many different peoples, who speak markedlydifferent languages and have different cultural traditions.
Languages are not a barrier because the melodic contour of thesong describes the nature of the land over which the song passes.Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on thissongline and observing the land.
Traditional Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred, and thesongs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive"."
While we would like to share more of these stories regarding thedreaming with you, it is considered disrespectful to aboriginalculture for white people to teach aboriginal culture or to tell theirtraditional stories. For that reason we have refrained from doingso. We leave relating dreaming stories to those whose storiesthey are to tell, the aboriginal people of our ancient land. Theyare beautiful stories full of wisdom, and we hope you seek themout from their custodians.
CHAPTER 3
The Four Temperaments
Four seasons make up a year
Four chambers reside in our hearts
Four lobes compartmentalise the human brain
Four human blood groups exist: A, B, O, and AB
Four basic elements are distinguished: earth, fire, water and air
Four basic states of matter are: solid, liquid, gas and plasma
Four is the number of points on a compass
Four is the number of gospels in the New Testament
Four is even made up of four letters
What do you think? One big coincidence?
Not on your life ...
The number 'Four' has always been strong in our universe.
Ancient Wisdom
In ancient times, knowledge about the Heavens, nature, theseasons, animals, plants, people and medicine was all held bythe holy men and women—the shamans, medicine men, wisewomen, priests, priestesses, druids and many others.
The planets and constellations were named after gods, goddessesand significant animal totems, all of which had meanings andcharacteristics attached to them. These traits were relayedthrough symbolism, myth and legend. Stories were used asmedicine every bit as much as plants were.
These keepers of the wisdom knew about the interconnectedness ofthe cosmos, the earth and all life. They believed that humans weresimply one part of a greater whole. They understood the benefitsof working with the invisible laws of nature within this biggerscheme of things, as opposed to being separate from or against it.
Life was challenging for our ancestors, in different ways to how it istoday. Clinical trials were unavailable to them so systems, especiallythose concerning health and medicine, were developed over longperiods of time, often as result of trial and error. If somethingdidn't work, they simply stopped using it. If they discoveredsomething that worked better, they used that instead.
Some renowned academics and healers of antiquity developedtheir own systems and made such an impact in the world ofhealing and philosophy during their lifetimes that hundreds,even thousands of years later, the professions of naturopathicmedicine, personality typing, and much of modern psychologyremain heavily influenced by them.
Hippocrates was one such person and the first proponent of thefour temperaments, a philosophy that still forms the foundationof personality typing today. Galen was a Roman philosopherwho expanded upon Hippocrates' theories; the names of hisfour personality types are still in use today. Paracelsus broughtthis paradigm into modern times by linking the temperamentsto the four elements.
Indigenous cultures the world over each had similar systems of four,with animal totems and/or compass directions assigned to eachtype to help explain characteristics and differences in behaviour.
In ancient times, there were no pharmaceutical medicines, drugstores or chemists. Herbs were, by and large, the traditionalmedicine used and their healing qualities have been passeddown in the oral tradition since the dawn of time. Doctors werein fact predominantly herbalists well into the Middle Ages.
The first apothecaries (originally herbal medicine compounders)appeared in the Arab world in the late 8th Century A.D. andrapidly spread throughout Europe from the 11th Centuryonwards, as herbal and healing knowledge that had been lostfor centuries was re-introduced. The very first pharmaceutical"drug" manufactured in the modern world was Aspirin (madefrom White Willow Bark) in 1898.
Some prominent names feature in the practice of both the fourtemperaments and herbal medicine.
Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century AD) was a doctor and surgeonwho travelled throughout Asia Minor with the Roman army.Roman armies took their own medical team with them, alongwith herbal medicines and seeds to grow more. They plantedas they went, teaching the locals how to use the herbs. Localherbalists exchanged their knowledge about the healing qualitiesof their own plants in return.
Dioscorides set out to write a book about as many medicinalplants as he could document. He wanted his Herbal to bepractical, accurate and comprehensive. The result was "De MateriaMedica", which included a drawing and description of each plant,its medicinal qualities, how to prepare it as a medicine, suggesteddosage, and a warning if it was potentially toxic or poisonous.
This information is the hallmark of any serious herbal book eventoday (the sort practitioners respect and use). My own herbalmedicine teacher, Dorothy Hall, devoted her 60 years of clinicalpractice to testing out whether the herbs within various classicalherbal text books (ancient and modern) performed as promised.Only if she had proven results in her own clinic would she teach thatinformation to her students. Dioscorides had her utmost respect.
Hippocrates (1st Century B.C.), considered the "Father of ModernMedicine" wrote the original Hippocratic Oath, still taken bywestern medical doctors until the 1970s. Searching for a meansof both understanding people on a deeper level and a possiblelink between personality, behaviour and disease, he was the firstto put forth the system of four temperaments, which remainedentrenched in western medicine until the late 1800s. His writingsremain in print today.
He named his four temperament types Cheerful, Calm,Enthusiastic and Sombre.
Galen (2nd Century A.D.) studied at the Hippocrates medicalschool in Alexandria, Egypt. He expanded upon Hippocrates'four temperaments, naming them after the four body fluids;blood (sanguine), phlegm (phlegmatic), yellow bile (choleric),and black bile (melancholic).
He postulated that each temperament was predisposed to certainbehaviours, and illnesses, due to an abundance of a particularfluid in the body. These were referred to as "the humours".
Court physician to successive emperors, he was such an influentialherbalist that for the next thousand years every reputable herbaltext included the words "Galen says ..." in the discussion of thehealing properties of most individual herbs.
He was also extensively plagiarised (without acknowledgement)in countless other herbal writings down through the centuries.
Hunayn bin Ishaw al-Ibadi (809-873) translated the works ofDioscorides, Hippocrates and Galen into Arabic, after which thegreat hospitals of the Arab world were founded and this systemof medicine used, producing many great physicians includingAvicenna.
Over time, others added information about hundreds of Arabicherbs, plus all those they had imported from Persia, India andThe Far East via their extensive trade routes. The result was aneven more extensive Herbal, in Arabic.
Avicenna (980-1037) learnt the best of Greek and Roman healing,along with the updated Arabic version of "De Materia Medica".He particularly resonated with the humoural system of Galenand wrote a lengthy text "Canon of Medicine". This becameas widely respected as the work of Hippocrates, Galen andDioscorides.
Constantine the African (died 1087) undertook the huge taskof translating the expanded Arabic texts back into Latin. Thesetranslations soon began to filter back into Europe via the mostprestigious medical school of its time, which was based in thevillage of Salerno, Southern Italy.
Though fragments of some of the manuscripts of Hippocrates,Dioscorides and Galen had survived in the UK, much of themedical knowledge from ancient Greece and Rome had been lost toEurope for centuries by this stage. Thus the new Latin translationsby Constantine were akin to discovering a lost treasure.
Hildegarde von Bingen, (1098-1179) was a visionary abbess,theologian and composer and a highly regarded healer of hertime. She wrote extensive works on medicine that remain inprint 800 years later. Her book "Physica" details the healingqualities of individual herbs and another, "Elements", explainsthe four humours. Her herbal medicine methods are still taughtand practised worldwide today.
Hildegarde was of the firm belief that emotional discord andnegative attitudes have an adverse effect on physical health, andthat these need to be brought back to a state of equilibrium fortrue physical healing to occur. She often collected dew fromflowers at dawn and gave this to her patients to help facilitateemotional healing.
Modern flower essences, made by replicating this ancient process,are considered to be potent natural mood medicines, and arefast gaining in popularity.
Paracelsus (1493-1541) was a widely travelled and much respectedmedical doctor, with extensive clinical experience, who also hada great respect for folk medicine and gypsy herbal cures.
Although he took the four humours into consideration whendiagnosing and prescribing, he did not blindly follow them as hethought the system was not infallible. This sort of thinking wasquite a radical break from tradition at the time. Instead, he reliedupon acutely honed patient observation skills and an extensiveknowledge of the healing qualities of individual herbs.
