Introduction

In 1985 I was exploring the professional healing fields. I came across the physician’s Hippocratic Oath, and it awakened an interest in an ancient Greek named Hippocrates (circa 430BC) the ‘father of Western medicine’. Works attributed to him spoke of disease as arising from an ‘imbalance in or disturbance of, the natural state of the body.’ The physician’s role was to help nature combat the disease. Hippocratic medicine spoke about the necessity of clean air, water, fresh local food, herbal medicines, hygienic clothes and shelter, maintaining a balance between rest and exertion, thoughts and emotions. This sounded like the basis for very good medicine indeed; a medical approach that encompassed mind, body and spirit. I went on to discover that Hippocrates was an Herbalist who practiced holistic medicine and that his professional descendents in Britain were called Medical Herbalists.

Background to Western Herbal therapy

Greek Medicine describes the Seven Natural Factors, which act as standards to measure health by. These are:
The Four Elements – what the body is made up of.
The Four Humours - the metabolic agents of the Four Elements, the proper balance and confluence of which constitutes health, and the imbalance of which constitutes disease.
The Four Temperaments - the qualitative yardsticks by which health and homeostasis, or deviation there from, are measured; the basis of constitutional medicine.
The Four Faculties - the basic functions of the organism, and the essential functions of Life.
The Vital Principles - the energies and essences that give life to the organism.
The Organs and Parts - the basic units or components of the body, and how they function.
The Forces, or Administering Virtues - the four principal vectors of all bodily functions.

When all the Seven Natural Factors are working together harmoniously, there is health. When any one of these Seven Natural Factors ceases to function, there is death. Greek Medicine is elementally, humourally and constitutionally based. It seeks a balance, or homeostasis, between opposite yet complementary forces of Nature.

Fire, air, earth and water: the Four Elements and Humours

In the classical Greek world, everything is made, in varying proportions, of the four elements. The elemental composition of a substance determines its nature, properties and behaviour.
The Four Elements embody the four basic states of matter:
Fire - igneous, incandescent or metamorphic state
Air - gaseous state
Water - liquid state
Earth - solid state
The Four Humours are the metabolic agents of the Four Elements in the human body. The right balance and purity of them is essential to maintaining health. They are responsible for the nutrition, growth and metabolism of the organism. They were thought to arise from four stages in the digestive process. All four of these humours, or vital fluids, are present in the bloodstream in varying quantities:
Blood, or the Sanguine humour, is the red, hemoglobin-rich portion.
Phlegm, or the Phlegmatic humour, is present as the clear plasma portion.
Yellow Bile, or the Choleric humour, is present as a slight residue or bilirubin, imparting a slight yellowish tint.
Black Bile, or the Melancholic humor, is present as a brown to gray sediment with platelets and clotting factors.

Humours’ effects on the mind

The Four Humours can pervade the organism as vapors, even affecting thoughts, and emotions or the psyche:
Blood promotes a feeling of joy, mirth, optimism, enthusiasm, affection and wellbeing.
Phlegm induces passivity, lethargy, subjectivity, devotion, emotionalism, sensitivity and sentimentality.
Yellow Bile provokes, excites and emboldens the passions.  Being inflammatory, irritating and caustic, it provokes anger, irritability, boldness, ambition, envy, jealousy and courage.
Black Bile makes one pensive, melancholy and withdrawn.  It encourages prudence, caution, realism, pragmatism and pessimism. 
The Four Humors tend to have negative effects on the mind and emotions only when they are excessive or aggravated. They can also strengthen positive aspects of character.

Theraputics

Hippocrates is a model for my practice of herbal medicine. He saw the healer as the servant and facilitator of Nature.  All medical treatment aimed at enabling the natural resistance of the organism to prevail over disease, and to bring about recovery.
Hippocrates’ treatments were pragmatic and flexible. He favoured a conservative and moderate approach over radical or extreme measures.  He emphasized the need to strengthen an individual’s ability to adapt to forces like pathogens that stress the organism’s ability to maintain a healthy dynamic balance.  For this, he might prescribe herbs, dietary changes, gymnastics, massage, hydrotherapy, sea bathing, dream interpretation and more. Hippocratic medicine treats the person and not just the pathology.

The Traditional Greek Medicine Wheel

I would like to summarise all that has gone before by offering you the Greek traditional medicine wheel as a model of correspondences that reflect the dynamic cyclical forces of life and nature from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
Each element of the wheel has certain inherent qualities, which give rise to its properties and actions.  Each element also corresponds to a certain humour, temperament and season of the year.  The basic correspondences are as follows:
Fire:  Hot and Dry.  The most active, energetic and volatile element, and the greatest emitter of energy.  Light, rising and penetrating.  Distilling, refining, extracting, digesting, metabolizing, transforming.  Yellow Bile.  The Choleric temperament.  Summer.
Air:  Hot and Wet.  The subtlest, most refined element.  Flowing and fluidic, filling every vacuum.  Exchange, movement and contact.  Ascending, lightening, rarefying.  Blood.  The Sanguine temperament.  Spring.
Earth:  Cold and Dry.  The heaviest, densest, most solid element.  Draws, retains, solidifies, coagulates, precipitates, sustains, supports, endures.  Black Bile.  The Melancholic temperament.  Autumn.
Water:  Cold and Wet.  The most passive, receptive element, and the greatest receiver and absorber of energy.  Flowing and fluidic.  Cools, moistens, lubricates, dissolves, cleanses, purifies, sinks downwards.  Fertilizes and germinates as the Source of all Life.  Phlegm.  The Phlegmatic temperament.  Winter.

The Times of Day

The waxing and waning light and heat in the 24-hour daily circadian cycle mimics the seasonal changes of the year; therefore, each quarter of the circadian cycle corresponds to a certain season of the year, with similar associations for humour and temperament.
Winter corresponds to Midnight of the circadian cycle.  Therefore, the six hour period surrounding midnight, from 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM, is Cold, Wet, and Phlegmatic in temperament.
Spring corresponds to Sunrise of the circadian cycle. The six-hour period surrounding sunrise, from 3:00 AM to 9:00 AM, is Warm, Moist and Sanguine in temperament.
Summer corresponds to Noon of the circadian cycle.  The six-hour period surrounding noon, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, is Hot, Dry and Choleric in temperament.
Autumn corresponds to Sunset of the circadian cycle. The six-hour period surrounding sunset, from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, is Cold, Dry, and Melancholic in temperament.

The Stages of Life
Poetic or metaphoric analogies may be drawn between the seasons of the year and the stages of life, which have corresponding affinities of humour and temperament.
Spring corresponds to Youth.  Youthful bodies are Warm and Moist, are full of good, exuberant blood, and are constantly growing.
Summer corresponds to Adulthood.  These are the peak, full throttle years of life's zenith, with lots of Choleric drive and ambition.
Autumn corresponds to Maturity, or Middle Age.  The light and heat of the sun have begun to wane, and so has the Life Force within us.  A Melancholy, a philosophical realisation of the transitory nature of life dawns.
Winter corresponds to Old Age, which is Cold, Wet, and Phlegmatic in temperament.  The light and heat of the sun are at their lowest ebb, and so is the Life Force in our bodies.  Finally, all light and life extinguish. Perhaps to be born anew in a cyclical fashion.

The Psychic Faculty: The Connecting Link between Soul and Body

The Psychic Faculty is so-called because it endows the body with consciousness, which enables it to be the physical vehicle for the indwelling soul, or psyche. In Greek mythology, Psyche was the deification of the human soul. The Greek word psyche literally means "spirit, breath, life or animating force". This Faculty enables the organism to receive incoming sensory impressions and stimuli, perceive and cognize them, think and reason, and respond in an intelligent manner in the interests of self preservation and furthering one's aims, objectives and mission in life.