Acceptance Manifesto, of the Complex Natural Whole

“Progressively, men undermined this fundament of life in their attempt to usurp women’s power to create life through what von Werlholf labels “the patriarchal alchemy”. While in its original connotation alchemy referred to a mode of knowledge based on observation of the natural rhythm of life, for the patriarchs it became a practice of destruction, the fragmenting of the elements of matter to eventually produce, out of the isolated elements, what was considered most valuable, such as gold or the philosopher’s stone. Destruction progressively became the program to be advanced, contradictorily in the name of creating life; eventually, with modernity and the dominance of the machine, the pfrogram transmuted into the search for endless progress and the promise of a ceaselessly better world.”

-Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse

I just wanted to write about a realization I had about my project on urine therapy last year…

When I first started the project, I attempted to isolate the urea from the urine so I could make longer lasting skincare products out of it. Later on, I realized how naive this was of me to do.

Western medicine seems to be so obsessed with finding that one beneficial compound in a thing, isolating it and turning it into a pill, for example. But now we know what other cultures have known for millenia: that an isolated part is never as effective as the complex natural whole. Natural health and wellness is about embracing the complexity of nature and the interaction of the whole.

So, without further ado, on health, wellness & natural medicine: a manifesto.