Medicine Wheel of Plant Uses - Part 2

The Medicine Wheel of Plant Uses begins in the East, place of the rising sun, place of dawning and beginnings, place of birth. The element of the East is air: it is the first breath, inspiration, laughter, singing, flight. The plants of the East taste sweet and bland. They are rich in sugars and starches, the two forms of carbohydrate.

The archetypal plants of the east are the cereal grasses. They were the first plants to be cultivated, and they continue to be the mainstay food of all the world's peoples. Grain is the real currency of the world, not gold. In ancient Greece, at the temple of Demeter in Eleusis, mystery school initiates, when they were judged ready to understand the holy of holies, were shown the shibboleth: "an ear of corn reaped in silence." The resurrection of Christ is said to be patterned after the mystery of the grain, which rises three days after it is sown (buried). Likewise, Inanna is buried in the underworld for three days before she returns.

I define the plants of the east as: Plants that, by themselves, sustain life when eaten daily in any amount. The only plants that fit this definition are the seeds of certain grasses. Grain alone, unlike all other foods, and without assistance, is enough to sustain us. Though we wish not to live by "bread alone," much of the world does get along eating nothing but a bowl of rice or millet a day. Grain supplies sweet, bland carbohydrates, some needed proteins (though incomplete), some vitamins, and some minerals, and some plant hormones (lignans, which are powerfully anti-cancer).

Sugar cane is a grass. Though we do not use the seeds of it, it is a plant of the East so long as we consume the entire plant (minus the fiber which we cannot use). Succanet is the evaporated juice of whole organically grown sugar cane. I use it instead of maple syrup (relatively cheap here in the Catskill mountains), honey, or malt (which is made from grain) in recipes where I need a granulated sugar and where I'll enjoy the molasses-rich taste.

The goddesses of the East are the goddesses of Nourishment. Their many faces are the faces of the Corn Mother in her many guises. In Rome she was Ceres, from whom we draw the word "cereal." Her feast day, Cerealia, in the middle of June, is still celebrated in parts of the British Isles. In Greece she was Demeter, the Barley Mother. In Mexico, she is known as Chicomecoatl, she of the seven serpents, guardian of childbirth and corn. In Peru, she is Pachamama. Among the Pueblo people, Ut Set, Spiderwoman, gave the people corn - explaining it was the milk of her breasts - and eagle feathers so they might travel safely . To the Algonquin-speaking peoples she is simply: Grandmother. And she is in charge of all food on earth.

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