Wellspring Homeopathy
Email: c.r.goodrick-clarke@exeter.ac.uk
9th February 2010
Alchemy
I am an Honorary Fellow of Exeter University where I teach modules on the Esoteric Body, and on the History of Alchemy in the new MA Programme for Western Esotericism. This is the first degree of its kind at a UK university. You can see details at the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism.
I am interested in practical alchemy, as well as its history. Alchemical medicines, called Spagyrics, are herbal medicines which have been prepared according to Paracelsian alchemical methods. They are very gentle but powerfully restorative and can help to rapidly rebuild your health and vitality in times of severe stress, illness or burn-out. I shall be presenting a paper on this topic at the Herbal Medicine conference at Lampeter in August 2009.
Forthcoming events:
August 25th to 29th 2009
University of Wales, Lampeter
This three-day conference will explore various aspects of Western Herbal Medicine from Ancient times, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to modern comparisons with Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine. The main focus will be upon the Western tradition of constitutional and energetic medicine. This often-neglected, but rich and vital tradition will be explored from a wide variety of angles. In addition to scholarly presentations by experts in the field, there will be workshops, exhibitions, and an optional trip to the National Botanic Garden of Wales. There will also be plenty of social and networking opportunities, as well as a closing Twmpath, or Ceilidh. The event is largely aimed at medical herbalists, but practitioners and academics from other disciplines would also be very welcome.
This joint event has been developed by the Body Programme of the University of Wales, Lampeter, in conjunction with the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH). The University, with its long-established reputation for research in these areas, is now committed to developing academically-informed, humanities-based CPD events for a range of CAM practitioners in careful liaison with professional bodies such as NIHM. Body Programme also supports post-graduate work up to doctoral level (PhD). Its flourishing Master’s programme, The Body: Eastern and Western Perspectives, features related modules such as: Ancient Medicine, The Subtle Body, The Holistic Approach to Healing, The Western Esoteric Tradition, Medical Astrology, Ayurveda, and The Understanding of the Body in Traditional Chinese Medicine (see: www.lamp.ac.uk/body).
The fee for the whole event, including full-board for four nights, is just £240; excellent value, we hope you'll agree. The University offers good-quality en-suite accommodation, as well as a restaurant and a café. It is the smallest University college in Europe, with a small and friendly campus in the heart of the rural market-town of Lampeter. The town itself is set in the beautiful countryside of West Wales, only fifteen minutes from either the coast or the depths of the hills.
Provisional Programme Outline
The final timetable, with further details of our speakers and events, will be available on the NIMH website nearer the time (www.nimh.org.uk).
Tuesday 25th August From 4pm - arrivals, registration and afternoon tea.
7pm Dinner and Reception
Wednesday 26th August
Breakfast
Ancient Cosmology and Medical Astrology given by Dr Nick Campion (Sophia Centre, Lampeter University), and Jane Ridder-Patrick (Lampeter University & NIMH)
Herbs and Hippocrates by Dr David Noy (Department of Classics, Lampeter)
Range of workshops including Botanical Latin and Ancient Egyptian Herbalism.
The Galenic Temperaments in the Writings of Nicholas Culpeper by Graeme Tobyn (Author of Culpeper's Medicine)
Thursday 27th August
Paracelsus and the Western Herbal Tradition by Clare Goodrick-Clarke (Centre for Esotericism, University of Exeter)
Optional trip to National Botanic Garden of Wales including lunch and guided tour, taking in the the Apothecaries Garden, the Mediterranean Glass-house, and the Apothecaries Gallery. ? Herbalism in Medieval Wales given by Dr Morfydd Owen (Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth) and introduced by the President of the University, Dr Brinley Jones. This will include material on the famous local tradition of the Physicians of Myddfai.
Friday 28th August
Herbalism in the Ayurvedic Tradition, Anne McIntyre
A Comparision of the Principles and Practices of Chinese & Western Medical Herbalism, Michael McIntyre (FNIMH MBAcC FRCHM).
Panel Discussion on Comparative Herbalism
Twmpath (Ceilidh) featuring local Welsh musicians
Saturday 29th August
Open Day from 10.30 till 4pm featuring stalls, exhibitions, presentations, and workshops
Exhibitions and bookstalls will be on display throughout the week. This will include an exhibition of ancient herbals, dating back as far as the fifteenth century, from the University’s collections.
CPD CONFERENCE BOOKING FORM
WESTERN HERBAL MEDICINE: ANCIENT HERITAGE & MODERN PRACTICE
25th AUGUST to 29th AUGUST 2009
Past events
European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism 2nd International Conference 2-4 July 2009: Capitals of European Esotericism and Transcultural Dialogue
In my talk I discussed the investiture of the Wessex landscape with esoteric value in relation to Antoine Faivre’s categories of esotericism (symbolic and real correspondences, living nature, intermediaries, transmutative experience and initiation). In this area of England, the imagination has been free to envision the invisible realm as a living part of natural order, to propose a deeper reality unfolded through landscape, and to discover connections between celestial and terrestrial forces that appear to be corroborated by the circumstantial evidence of the landscape itself. Artistic and literary works display an intimate connection and even a reciprocal relationship between imagination and the genius loci. The landscape stimulates the imagination which in turn embroiders the landscape with an esoteric mythos.
The Scientific and Medical Network conference, The Body and Beyond: Cross-Cultural Understandings of Subtle EnergyBath Spa University, August 22-24th 2008.
My talk, "The Vital Force, Dynamis and Susceptibility" proposed that the body is not a machine, but a form endowed with a spirit-like Vital Force, a dynamis that enlivens all its parts, and a questing susceptibility that attracts what is needed not only for the body itself, but also for the soul.
The Scientific & Medical Network
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