But the more righteous of you, who stand upon the threshold of the change to the diviner state, shall among men be righteous kings, genuine philosophers, founders of states, and lawgivers, and real seers, and true herb-knowers, and prophets of the gods most excellent, skillful musicians, skilled astronomers, and augurs wise, consummate sacrificers–as many of you as are worthy of things fair and good  Kore Kosmou, Verse 23

It is estimated that the United States alone spends approximately $40 billion a year on what is called “alternative”, “holistic”, “complementary”, or “traditional” medicine. The preponderance of therapies described by these names quite often purport to have some sort of foundation in one of the traditional medical sciences—be that Western (Greek, Spagyric), Ayurvedic, Chinese (“TCM”—Traditional Chinese Medicine), or similar. Not to entirely disparage the efforts behind the numerous styles of “natural” health care on the “market”—some which do indeed provide immediate benefits for many chronic and acute maladies—yet, the mere replacement of drugs and modern treatment modalities with herbs, diet, and “alternative” modalities, is not precisely “traditional medicine”—they are simply a matter of playing on the same field, proceeding from the same (mostly allopathic and mechanistic) perspective, while suggesting less toxic and invasive procedures, aka more “natural”. Surely while there certainly isn’t anything wrong with any of that per se, it falls short of what constitutes the “path” of the “Scholar-Physician”, or “Demiourgos-Physician”.
On the contrary, traditional medicine consists of a spiritual askesis—something that in its entirety discloses meaning, proceeds from Unity, and points back to Unity (in the sense of what the Shi’a call “twill”)—while simultaneously providing man with practical solutions and resources through which to alleviate day to day hardships, or otherwise enhance life (this much could be said of all the traditional arts, crafts, and sciences). What today is known as “holistic” and “alternative” medicine (although as noted has certain practical efficacy) represents almost a parody of an authentic traditional medicine, having been mostly divorced from its innate premises. To heal and engender health in the traditional sciences, involves “realization”, that is, to make real on the ontological and phenomenological plane, the principles of the higher orders of reality, exemplified through the “master piece” of health as a function of body, spirit, and soul.

Foundations: A traditional “canon”

Underscoring the notion that a truly traditional medicine (which is a sacred science) rests upon a comprehensive worldview, we are obliged to take note of a “canon” within this science (equally valid with all the sciences). As with anything else within the traditional sciences, none who regards themselves as physician or practitioner of these sciences can disregard the study and contemplation of their texts.–not in the sense of a pedantic or “academic” endeavor to acquire a collection of “facts”, but as “contemplative reading”, so as to become situated in the realm of noetic “Ideas”, from which all practical applications have as their source. Thus far from having anything to do with the sale and purchase of “supplements”, traditional medicine is based on doctrines forming something of a scripture (in some instances certain traditional scriptures proper, or sacred writings, are in fact the basis of further exegesis), which contains a metaphysics, cosmogony, cosmology, and thereafter the principles which comprise a theory of body, etiology, diagnostics, and therapies.

None of this is to say that a traditional medicine ignores or omits contemporary knowledge and understanding of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, drug interactions, and disease etiologies—but that they are secondary, adjunct, and accessory to the fundamental principles of the given medical school, and when employed, are assessed within the context of that school’s broader worldview. The following is not a comprehensive list, but somewhat suggestive of certain of the most prominent examples of “scriptures” forming the “canons” of some of the better known traditional schools of medicine.

The Far-East:
1. The I jing (“Change Classic”).

2. Huang Di Nei Jing (“Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon”).

3. Su Wen (“Basic Questions”. First portion of the Huang Di).
4. Ling Shu (“Spiritual Pivot”. The second half of Huang Di, wherein acupuncture is introduced).
5. Shang Han Lun (“On Cold Damage”. An extremely synthetic text containing disease theory, progression, and treatment as seen through the lens of “Six Stage” theory).
6. Nan Jing (“Classic of Difficulties”. Refinement and development of topics begun in Huang Di).
7. Jin Gui Yao Lue (“Synopsis of the Golden Chamber”. A fundamental source of early traditional herbal prescriptions).

Greek/Unani Tibb
1. The extant Hippocratic corpus.
2. The Aristotelian corpus.
2. The extant Galenic corpus.
3. Ibn Sina, especially “Canon of Medicine”.
4. The developmental works of al-Rhazes, ibn-Nafis, al-Zahrawi.

“Unani” which is Arabic for “Greek” (Tibb meaning medicine), when especially worked not exclusively as “Greek”, but as an “Islamic medicine” (in many ways it was Islam that “rescued” and restored the Greek medical tradition), obviously takes the Qur’an and Hadith as super-scriptural foundation, wherefrom is derived a great deal of the Sufistic psychology, as well as food and herbal knowledge, among other modalities.

Eastern/Ayurvedic:
1. The Vedas, especially Rig Veda and Antharveda (The god Dhanvantari, analogous to Asclepius, is patron deity of medicine in Ayurveda, and said to have taught Ayurveda to man).
2 Charaka Samhita (“Compendium of Charaka”. The Ayurvedic “Bible” containing fundamental theory)
3. Sushruta Samhita (“Compendium of Sushruta”. Considered a surgical text, develops the theory of dosha, and discusses subtle/energetic anatomy).
5. Ashtanga Hridayam/Sangraha (further develops dosha theory).
4. Sharngadhara (discuses pharmacology).

Obviously we are leaving much aside. For instance, once beyond the core texts of the Western, Greek/Unani corpus, another entire chapter could be opened and considered with regard to the Alchemical-Spagyric corpus, reaching a high level of development with medieval medicine. Following the Spagyric, and Paracelsian developments, one could then see further continuity with the work of Samuel Hahnemann—a more thorough treatment of historical continuity can be found in Sir William Oslers “History of Medicine”.

The Contents of the Various “Canon”

The texts mentioned above therefore consolidate the theoretical and operative worldviews of the respective schools of medicine; even prior to a consideration of concrete teachings though, the texts outline subdivisions of what the medicine includes as, and means by, a “medical system”. According to Stephen Skinner, writing in the context of the Far- Eastern tradition, Traditional Chinese Medicine is composed of “8 rays…which include, acupuncture, food as medicine, herbal medicine, chi kung, meditation, moxibustion, astrology and feng shui (Guide to the Feng Shui Compass, 37)”.

The Greek/Unani tradition lists eight branches too, as: internal medicine, pediatrics, head and neck disorders, toxicology, “psychiatry”, rejuvenation therapy (including geriatrics), aphrodisiacs therapy (fertility, sexual disorders, conception)—and, often added to these (but really ought be thought of as modalities) are hydrotheraphy, regimen therapy, and dietetics.  Similarly, the Indian science of Ayurveda (“Science of Life”) consists of 8 branches (for all intents and purposes identical with Unani): internal medicine, pediatrics, “demonology” (psycho-emotional studies—“psychiatry”), head and neck disorders, surgery (which can include non-invasive techniques such as massage—each of these categories represents very broad things within which much can be included), toxicology, rejuvenation, aphrodisiac therapy. One might conclude based on the Unani and Ayurvedic branches, that things such as “astrology” and “feng shui” are not included, unlike the Chinese—however, within the branch of internal medicine, and “aphrodisiac therapy” for example, further subdivisions such as the study of individual “prakriti” and “purusha”,do include as etymological factors, astrology, environment, and heredity (among others). The same could be said of Unani’s respective branches–more so, of the seven Unani working principles, arwah (including “spirits”), quva (“energy”), and af’al (action and motion) would include likewise consider subtle spiritual influences.

Toward a Traditional Understanding of the Body

The Biblical expressions that man is made in God’s image, and that the body is a temple, are well known enough motifs, with almost universal corollaries; from an exoteric understanding, this usually signifies something that has become vague almost to the point of meaninglessness, to the effect that “life is sacred”, and that “the Holy Spirit inhabits each person”. From a more esoteric perspective, or at least the refinement of the traditional sciences, the body is an eikon, a real image in miniature of the total kosmos, equally possessing everything the kosmos contains, mirrored at some place within the body (via “correspondence”). The human body then might be studied as a map—an image of the soul, which is image of kosmos noetos, which is the “body” of the “Perfect man”, the “Primordial man”, analogous with the “First Intellect”.

As Harish Johari has pointed out concerning the role of the body in the Tantric schools, “Tantra is the study of the universal from the point of view of the individual”, which also helps explain sciences such as Vaastu Shastra, whose models are based on diagramic mandalas of the body of Purusha. Dr. Hiener Fruehauf in his essays and work concerning the “Chinese Medicine Holomap”, the Zodiac, and the Lunar Mansions, has shown how these cosmo-physical manadalas are equally present in Far-Eastern classics such as the “Ling Shu”, noted above (another similar “holomap”, from a Sufi perspective, is described in Ibn Arabi’s astrological treatise reproduced by Titus Burkhardt). The work of Schwaller de Lubicz in books such as “Temple of Man” and elsewhere, have painstakingly described the same underlying relationship between body and kosmos, as encoded within the Egyptian temple and hieroglyphic sciences. In the Merkabah and Kabbalistic schools, writings such as “Shir’ Qoma” and related texts, describing the anatomy and “measurements” of God are also in fact depictions of a “yantra” of the “Grand Man”. In Kabbalah, often closely aligned with the Western astro-medical branch of medicine itself, the body of archetypal Adam Kadmon is often represented as the zodiac, with the zodiacal belt, not as physical constellations solely, but as totality of what they designate as “symbolique” via their relationships and interactions with one another (for a summary, see for example William Ramesy’s “Astrology Restored”, “On the Names of the Signs”, and “On the Order of the Signs”).

Individual man in corporeal mode likewise contains within himself, the same entities, with each Zodiacal animal corresponding to something anatomical, diverse psycho-physiological processes, tissues, and fluids. Such models are the basis of clinical modalities such as acupuncture, chi kung, internal alchemy, massage therapy, hatha yoga (not the Americanized “exercises”, but postures intended to activate and deactivate subtle energy flow), the signs, grips, tokens, penalties, and postures found in initiatic rites, as well as knowledge of the “signatures” of substances (herbal, mineral, metallic, animal), and how such pharmaka ought be prescribed. As Algis Uzdaviny’s explains:

According to the late Neoplatonists, the gods are present immaterially in the material things, therefore ta sunthemata (the theurgic seats of power) are regarded as receptacles for the divine irradiations…since the body is an integral part of demiurgic work…the condition and quality of embodied matter indicate the soul’s internal condition. The human body as a fixed eidic statue or as an iconographically established sequence of dynamic hieroglyphic script (analogous to a series of Tantric mudras)…the different limbs of the initiate’s body are identified with different deities…an agalma…Sharira, one of Sanskrit words for ‘body’, derives from the verbal root shri (‘to rest upon’, ‘to support’). Hence the body serves as a framework (like the Greek peribolos) by means of which the All-Worker can experience the world…the agalma is regarded as a vessel and container for the divine powers that take up residence in it. The awakening of these powers is sometimes achieved by the practice of putting pharmaka (remedies, drugs, herbs, magical means of power, charms, enchantments, symbols) into hollow statues and thereby animating them. This act is conducted by the telestic ‘craftsman’ (demiourgos). The physician is also designated as demiourgos (Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity, 86, 124, 151)”.

Some Further Aspects of the Body as “Agalma”

Initiatory rites still often involve an identification of the body’s parts with “deities”, or if not gods per se, then otherwise rendered as spiritual influences/forces. As everything in tradition is connected hierarchically, these principles can likewise be seen reflected in medical correspondences between anatomical regions and planets, or in the systems of “points”—be they acupuncture, Ayurvedic marma, Unani lataif, or what is now becoming increasingly popularly known as “points chauds” (seen for instance in rites such as the Order of Memphis Misraim, and as Allen Greefeild has shown in his “360/90 Points Chauds Sytem”, are often identical with Far-Eastern acupuncture points). Acupuncture “points”, perhaps the best known of such points, in fact, is not the most ideal terminology to describe this science of the Far-Eastern tradition; rather, “ jing luo”, a phrase meaning something like a woof and weft is more often used—this is because the subtle anatomy employed in the selection of acupuncture “points” arises from a complex interaction of flowing “channels” and sub-channels throughout the body, connecting with each other, tissues, organs, and all psycho-physical components, like an intricately woven net. The locations where regions of this net are most accessible are the so-called “points” (nor ought this subtle anatomy be thought of Far-Eastern exclusively. The Ayurvedic school, instead of jing-luo works with “srotas”, “nadis”, “marmas”, and “chakras”—these srotas becoming at locations of concentration nadis, nadis emerging as marmas, lastly with the well known “chakras” themselves emerging (being a large type of marma), as developed in say the “Sushruta Samhita”.

These points moreover share an array of correspondences: elemental/humoral, times (hour, day, month, year—seasonal), astrological, with other organs, with fluids (qi, blood, phlegm, “akhlats”), emotions, colors, shapes, tastes, “spirits”, and more. As opposed to identification with deities, as seen in some traditions, the Far-Eastern points have names, serving not only and always as anatomical markers, but as specific references to forces of nature, “spirits”, planets, stars, and constellations. In the contemporary practice of Chinese medicine, a popularization following the “People’s Revolution”, the convention has been to view these names and theories as quaint vestiges of a superstitious populace, to excise them, and reduce the traditional science to yet another mechanistic bio-medicine (which indeed, is what has likewise been perpetuated in most Western instruction in these disciplines, along with most all manifestations of “traditional” medicine in the West, reducing all of them to the colloquially described “alternative” medicines). Despite that, the symbolique of the “points” becomes indispensable when approaching the inner medicine, the “neidan” or internal alchemy, which makes use of the same jing luo as in clinical medicine—and the activation of which, through the various “circulations” of energy activated by visualization, contemplation, movements, and breath, can be seen as analogous to the “deification” of the body parts found in other systems, such as the Egyptian, Hellenic, Mesopotamian, Phoenician, and Indian. The “demiourgos-physicians’” work is then a true “holistic medicine” of body-mind-soul, much like that of the Siddha and Tantric counterparts, of which Mark Dyczkowski mentions, that in conjunction with body work:

Kashmiri Saiva Krama elevated the worship of Kali to a level beyond outer worship. Ritual came to be understood as an inner process of realization through which the initiate discovered his essential identity with Kali who is the flow (krama) of consciousness through the polarities of subject, object, and means of knowledge in consonance with their means of arising and falling away in each act of perception (9)”.

Time, Space, and Pharmakon

Seldom if ever does one mention astrology in the same breath as medicine or health. Yet, as seen in the traditional “rays” of medical sciences, and as quipped by Hippocrates, no physician is ignorant of the study and application of astrology. Contrary to modern assumptions, astrology as exists in any of the traditions mentioned, does not involve the the calculation of “horoscopes” or reading of “fortunes”; rather, it is the study of time cycles (especially quantitative time), and the effects of these cycles upon the immediate environment, and the internal environment of a physical organism. A parallel science, Feng Shui examines space/direction (environment), in relation to time (cycles), and the results thereof upon the organisms (again developing a common ground between microcosm and macrocosm, undertaking to know one through the other, and being situated in such a way as to engender effect through application of this mutual harmony).

The factors taken into consideration and calculation with both of these “rays” (astrology and Feng Shui) can become quite extensive, detailed, and precise—beginning with hourly rhythms (circadian clock), planetary hours, or tattvic tides, as they pertain to the physical organs (circadian rhythms), then working toward daily, monthly, and annual cycles (which includes obviously enough, the effect of the seasons on health), all the way through lengthy cycles that extend through the duration of a lifetime. Information derived from such evaluations is used to assist in understanding an individual’s humoral constitution, the prevalence (abundance or deficiency) of affected/imbalanced humors (congenital, acquired, or seasonal), as well as planning treatments and regimens most accommodating to a particular phase of time (Hippocrates for example was adamant concerning methods of cooking, and types of exercise engaged in seasonally. In the more Taoist schools of acupuncture, as another instance, there are points recommended, and points contraindicated for puncturing based on time cycle).

Other methods extend the diagnostic use of astrology to the art of “decumbiture” or “iatromathematika”, in which charts are erected in synchronicity with the onset of a patient’s malady in an effort to further precise an understanding of the qualities of time at a specific moment impacting ones’ health.

Another third, and perhaps most interesting application of medico-astrology is in choice of remedies. In “The Pharmacology of Sacred Plants, Herbs, and Roots”, John Scarborough remarks:

Early Greek medicine and pharmacy combine theurgy (in its widest sense of supernatural or divine agencies in both diseases and their treatments) with the practical application of drugs…Theurgy remained fundamental throughout Greek history even after the accession of Christianity, and theurgy continued to exist side by side with other ‘medical intervention’ systems.

Among the diverse theurgical methods, the animation of cult statues, the agalma (of which one must never lose sight that the body is an agalma of kosmos), was of great importance in cultivating and accessing the presence and benefits of the gods; as opposed to “animating” a statue, the practitioner of astro-theurgic medicine produces images, and sympathetic talismans during specific windows of opportunity, in correspondence with precision celestial timing (“elections”) so as to “animate” the talisman, which then becomes an object of “pharmaka”. As fantastic as this might sound, in principle it is hardly any different from the Taoist indicated and contraindicated points governed by circadian rhythms and broader time cycles—only that the points and the body replace an external agalma (talisman), are directly “animated”. Within the scope of this pharmaka, the astrological forces not only exert “rulerships” employed in talisman manufacture, but they are at the heart of the system of “signatures”, one of the means in which natural substances obtain the classification of medicinal properties assigned to them (the subject of signatures is also something that moderns are prone to smile at—and for that matter, even moderns who immerse themselves in a “traditional medicine”. Yet, methods of verification exist through means known as “Spagyric analysis”, whereby substances are evaluated based upon things such as their extraction mediums, solubilities, ideal means distillation, and ratios of “fixed” to “volatile” principles—“mercury”, “sulfur”, and “salts”, quantitatively arriving at certain conclusions about signatures).

In fact, even traditional laboratory and pharmacy become “temples” in traditional medicine. As Dom Pernety, an 18th century physician and alchemist listed in his alchemical dictionary, the twelve major Alchemical and Spagyric processes (calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefacation, congelation, cibation, sublimation, fermentation, exaltation, multiplication, and projection) can be assigned Zodiacal rulerships; along with apparatuses such as the athanor (symbolizing primordial Light and Unity) and alembic (earth, the “waters”, and heaven)–the very production of physical medicines is therefore a replication of cosmogonic processes.

Of the traditional “8 rays” of medical science described by Stephen Skinner, six can be viewed as specifically relating to the study of man (acupuncture, chi kung, meditation, food-nutrition, herbal medicine, moxibustion), to Heaven is given astrology, and to Earth pertains feng shui (food and herbal medicine, in the sense of agriculture, could also be subsumed under Earth). Thus, as a whole then, the worldview and practice of traditional medicine studies, contemplates, and actively harmonizes each term of the “Great Triad”, curing and ensuring health, while taking the body (and pharmacy) as “departure point” for the realization of cosmological and metaphysical Truth.