The Lost Language Of Plants: The Ecological Importance Of Plant Medications To Life On Earth, by Stephen Harrod Buhner

This is a book that should be so much better than it is. There is a lot of good that could be said about the importance of plant lore and herbalism and the book’s criticism of the reductionism of evolutionism and especially the pollutants and harm caused by the pharmacology of contemporary Western society, but this is combined with a lot of side agendas that keep the book from being as good as it should be. In particular, it is perhaps unsurprising that a major fault I find with this book is the way that the book glorifies heathen religion and lumps the Bible in with the reductionist Western tradition merely because Christianity calls for worshiping the creator rather than the creation. The author would have us pray to plants, instead of praying to God to appreciate the bountiful life he has provided on this earth. If this book was written without such a bias in favor of heathen religions and markedly against Christianity, it would be a far easier book to read. Besides this, the book also suffers somewhat in being difficult to read, in large part because the author breaks up his material with quotes from the book or from those the author views highly, and in part because the author’s style is rather rambling. As is often the case, this is a book that could have used judicious editing to sharpen it up and keep it more focused.

This book, in terms of its contents, is almost 300 pages. The book begins with a note to the reader and acknowledgements. This is followed by the author’s discussion of wild water and the harm that is done to water in the contemporary world (1). After this, the author talks about two wounds relating to the loss of knowledge and loss of connection between mankind and the rest of creation (2). After this there is a chapter that deals with the epistemological conflict between Western reductionist thinking and the sort of spiritual worldview that the author has (neither of which, it must be admitted, are all that appealing) (3). This is followed by the author bemoaning the loss of love and knowledge about life and creation in the contemporary world (4), even while people view themselves as being far more knowledgeable than their ancestors about everything. After this there is a chapter that discusses the environmental impacts of contemporary medicine and its effluents (5), as well as a discussion on the end of antibiotics that praises the creative power of bacteria (6). This is followed by a discussion on the chemical expertise of plants (7). Two chapters then follow along this same theme on plants as medicine (8) and herbology (9). The book then finally discusses, very briefly, the supposed lost language of plants (10) before closing with a discussion of various people whom the author thinks to be very knowledgeable about plants (11) and their supposed insights, before the book finishes with an epilogue, notes, bibliogprahy, resources, and index.

Whether or not you will get anything out of this book will depend on your tolerance for the book’s Gaia worship. If you, like me, have a low tolerance towards idolatry and the worship of “Mother Earth,” this book is a tedious example of neo-paganism at its most irritating and insufferable. If you are able or willing to glean the insights that the book provides which are genuinely worthwhile, there is some value to be found in this book. In particular, the book encourages people to become aware of creation around them, more sensitive to the worth of wildness as opposed to the monoculture that humanity tends to enforce on the environment around us, and more inclined to nurture feelings of love and appreciation for the plants and animals around us. This is all worthwhile to do, whatever one’s opinions about the author’s religious worldview. Those people who share the author’s worldview will no doubt find this book to be a very good one, and will wax rhapsodically about the author’s eloquence and poetry, as if he was channeling the very language of plants in his rambling and windy passages. As is often the case, what one takes out of this book will depend in large part on what one brings to the book.