Overall we strive towards a threefold design for our formulas. The following is a brief commentary — clearly meant only as a beginning explanation with more in depth material in the specialty literature.
When a man of R. Steiner’s stature tells you that he had to research 33 years in order to firmly establish that the human constitution can be fundamentally divided into three systems of a nerves/senses organization, heart/lungs rhythmical organization, and the organization of the metabolism, and that these constitute the basis of our Thinking, Feeling and Willing, you know that this is no trivial matter.
When he then describes health as basically the harmony between these three principles, and disease as the polar opposite, and when he spends the later part of his life focused on illuminating the subtle interplays between the three principles, one knows that the duty arises to pursue this insight in order to really grasp what healing is all about.
Man’s threefoldedness is helped by the same “threefoldedness” that appears to be a law also in the rest of the entire natural world. In the mineral kingdom there are more “salty” substances that would correspond in their quality to the human nerve processes; some more “mercurial” substances like Mercury as such, yes, but also others like alcohols, all of which have rhythmical qualities; and finally more “sulfuric”, ethereal substances like fragrances, etc which correspond to the metabolic system. The plant world has its own threefoldedness in the root system, the leaves and the flower/fruit/seed organization.
At True Botanica most of our nutritional supplements and tinctures are based on these R. Steiner indications of using a variety of combinations of the three principles.
We either use:
- the three parts of one plant such as the roots, the leaves and the flowers; or
- three different plants; or
- minerals that are rhythmically processed such that the three principles are united as a whole.
The role of nutritional supplements should be not only to remove symptoms but to get to the deeper level of true health. We believe that practical observations have shown that we indeed obtain better effects with this kind of formulations.
Below are some examples of how one can generate nutritional supplements or herbal tinctures by following such a threefold design.
Our chicory tincture for example contains:
- The salts and minerals naturally occurring in the plant and extracted through a proprietary ashing process.
- The mother tincture of the herb – proprietary, extraction of the herb rhythmically exposed to the sun forces over several days, resulting in a very “living” mother tincture of this herb from which the final product is made.
- The potentized chicory tincture (the Pentas™ process).
Our Berberine Plus formula contains:
- The whole root of the barberry and the standardized barberry root extract berberine.
- The salts and minerals of the root itself.
- The potentized whole root of the barberry.
Our market success confirms this as a best in class product.
One can try to work with the threefold principles yet again differently. In our Back Relief formula, as an example, we combined the roots of the Devil’s Claw with the leaves of the wood betony and rosemary as well as finally with the third component, the bamboo and equisetum plants for their mineral silicate content.
One of our favorite combinations is the mixing of the frankincense, gold and myrrh. Interestingly the frankincense itself is a threefold substance, technically called an olio-gum-resin. It combines in itself the “metabolic” terpenes; the “rhythmical” carbohydrates that make up the gum; and lastly the volatile oils that give it the “sulfuric” aroma. By rhythmically mixing the frankincense (supports the Feeling processes) with myrrh (supports the Will processes) and gold (supports the Thinking processes) this becomes a very special formula both from a physical and spiritual point of view.