| The "Doctrine of Signatures" has been an idea of herbalists for centuries, but it did not become part of the medical thinking until the middle of the seventeenth century. In simple terms, the "Doctrine of Signatures" is the idea that God has marked everything He created with a sign (signature). The sign was an indication of the purpose for the creation of the item. The "Doctrine of Signatures" was popularized in the early 1600s by the writings of Jakob Böhme (1575-1624), a master shoemaker in the small town of Görlitz, Germany. At the age of 25, Böhme had a profound mystical vision in which he saw the relationship between God and man. As a result of the vision, he wrote "Signatura Rerum; The Signature of all Things". His book espoused a spiritual philosophy; however it soon was adopted for its medical application. The Doctrine states that, by observation, one can determine from the color of the flowers or roots, the shape of the leaves, the place of growing, or other signatures, what the plant's purpose was in God's plan. A good example would be Hepatica acutiloba, a perennial wildflower that is common in the eastern U.S. Hepatica has a three-lobed leaf that supposedly bears a resemblance to the liver. Because of this, herbalist believed the plant to be effective in treating liver ailments. Even though the "Doctrine of Signatures" was a product of medieval alchemists and herbalists, a similar belief was held by Native Americans and Oriental cultures. Today you can still find a similar belief among old-timers in the Appalachian region. |
