Conscious Choice: Enhancing the Sage in All of Us

November 2002 | Herbs for Health

Enhancing the Sage in All of Us

by Meg McGowan

At a recent party, a friend of mine tossed off a comment that was flip, slightly sarcastic, and potentially very hurtful to another friend who was present, her son. He responded by saying, "Thank you; that explains a lot." His tone was sincere.

Was it painful for him to hear her remark? I imagine it was. But it may have been the sharp pain of truth that cuts quickly to the heart of a more malingering malaise — chaos, illusion, confusion. Accepted and examined, such pain can promote healing. At that party, I witnessed the first step of a transformation, a curse turned into a blessing.

Thanksgiving is the time when we traditionally count our blessings, generally a Rockwellian sort of exercise in which we reflect on how our plight might be worse, giving thanks that we have what others do not. Agriculturally, November is the perfect time for taking account. The abundance of the gathered harvest is coupled with a vast, apparently barren expanse of earth. We see fullness contrasted with emptiness, and we assume that is what is real. What we have appears obvious — and meager if compared to what we do not have. What is truer, however, is a vision of fullness we can see complemented by fullness we cannot yet see, for November’s earth is already pregnant with seeds, roots, and promises for the coming year.

If we believe in the first world view, the only practical response would be to horde and protect our resources. If we believe in the second, then we can come together to feast, to celebrate, and to give thanks for everything, for all aspects of our lives. By expressing gratitude for the totality of our lives we assume that all of our experiences have meaning. The struggle to imbue our lives with meaning is dissolved. It exists, though it cannot always be seen. We do not need to dig through the frozen earth to reassure ourselves that spring will bring forth new life. Life will be revealed in the months to come.

It is no longer necessary to scour the innermost recesses of our psyches on a witch hunt for the part of Self that disagrees, nor to rail against a Universe that we perceive to be acting as whimsically as our human parents — smiling and proud in one moment, wrathful and punitive in the next. We need not deny our pain, boredom, jealousy, anger, lethargy or depression when they are counted as blessings rather than curses. Like joy, each nudges us toward self awareness, toward the knowledge of the next right step. Through all-inclusive gratitude, our lives can be embraced rather than edited, presented to our consciousness in their entirety, that we may be entirely present in each moment.

Sage (Salvia officinalis) is the dominant herb of the Thanksgiving feast. From a culinary perspective, sage is complementary to poultry, but even a vegetarian meal is likely to retain this traditional flavor in some form. So we may ask, what else does sage bring to the table? It aids in digestion, making it a practical addition to a celebration that focuses on having more than enough food to sate the appetite, but is that all? At the end of November, sage is still silvery-green in the garden, marking the promises yet to be fulfilled. When we bring sage to our tables as part of our ritual of Thanksgiving, we bring its promise into our lives.

Medicinally, garden sage has been used to treat respiratory ailments such as asthma. Breathing is both actually and metaphorically the basic personal practice of embracing and releasing that is vital to life. Sage reminds us that we will not embrace what we perceive to be negative. What we do not embrace, we cannot release. Sage is clearing and cleansing, purifying to body, mind and spirit. While the herb itself can be safely ingested or applied topically, the essential oil should be treated with caution as it is extremely powerful. Sage essential oil is generally utilized via diffusion.

Anne McIntyre literally sums up the essence of sage as she describes its properties as a flower essence in Flower Power (Henry Holt, 1996), "Sage enhances the capacity for drawing wisdom from experience and is particularly recommended for people who find it hard to find purpose and meaning in life. They may feel resentful about events in their lives, seeing them as ill-fated or undeserved.... It is a remedy to use during changes and transitions, as it enhances the sage in all of us."

As the holiday draws to a close and our guests gather their coats to leave, the children often cry. Transitions can be difficult. They do not understand yet that the cycle of coming and going, togetherness and separateness, connection and disconnection is an illusion. We are trying to understand, so we say, "Thank you for coming."

DISCLAIMER: Choosing a holistic approach to medicine means choosing personal responsibility for your health care. Herbs for Health offers a doorway through which to enter the realm of herbal healing, an invitation to further investigation on the part of the reader. It is in no way intended as a substitute for advice from a health care practitioner.

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