Pharmakon: The Land is Medicine
Glass vials, paper clay, powdered foraged plants (Oak leaves, young River Birch, Pond Lily rhizome, Cattail rhizome, Broomsedge grass, Chickweed)
Dimensions variable
2024

 

Pharma, meaning land, makon, meaning magic. Pharmakon = Magic of the land. The real “pharmacists” are the herbalists, the land workers that know the "magic of the land”. 
 

This piece was made during an amazing 6wk residency at Kent Cultural Alliance while working with Kent County 4H on the theme of LAND. This particular work borrows the imagery of the Staff of Asclepius, the Greek symbol for healing & medicine which is a single coiling snake around a hazel branch (Corylus avellana). Asclepius was the Greek God of healing & his patron image has been the designated medicinal symbol the world over for hundreds of years. In Pharmakon I have fashioned these snakes from a pure white paper clay and coiled them around laboratory veils filled with medicinal plant material which I harvest, dried and then powdered. Each of these medicinal herbs was collected from no more than a half mile radius of the residency. The practice of observing the land slowly and carefully harvesting, drying and consuming these herbs as medicine is an essential aspect of being one with your surrounding. We often over look these practices as unsafe due to the very real threat of toxic industrial residues but also because of the lack of cultural expectance and understanding of plant medicine. Set in contrast to the Caduceus (symbol of Hermes) which is also used to connote medicine (in the U.S.) but is better understood to symbolize commerce & communication. How fitting that modern medicine prioritizes dividends & economic gain than helping people live vital healthy lives?
Working with these symbols I’m interested in the dualistic cultural perspectives of antidote vs poison, the concept of “quackery” vs indigenous wisdom & the dangers of corporate greed upon our health & the health of this planet.
Follow @ecliptaherbal to see more of my own personal land stewarding.