CULPEPER: Rebel, herbalist, astrologer and visionary.

 

"During the time I am amongst the living I shall never cease to do you good

in what way I may or can." ~ Nicholas Culpeper.

 

 

This my latest personal project - a feature-length animated biopic on the life and works of the 17th century herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper. I have no immediate deadline for completing the project but it will simply have to take as long as it needs to right now. Not a great deal is known about the life of Culpeper and so some of the incidents I will portray in the film are conjecture, albeit based upon know facts. They are also inspired by parallel experiences I have had in my own lifetime that I detail below. In the meantime, here are some images from Culpeper's life, work and world that I find particularly inspiring…

 

 

Motivation:

Culpeper's story is especially dear to my heart as several decades ago my mother was very seriously ill and not expected to live for much longer. She had been in and out of hospitals all her life and was about to undertake one last surgery, which we believed she was not strong enough to survive at the time. She looked like a bag of bones physically and could barely eat a spoon of mashed potato each day - if that! However at the very last minute she decided she would not have the surgery done and that she would go to see a herbalist instead. My father was against it initially but in the end he relented and agred to here wishes. Then she quite unexpectedly chose a herbalist by thumbing through the herbalists listed in the local Yellow Pages and instinctively picking the one she felt would be able to help. Looking at her sorry condition, we did not beleve anyone could make it worse than it was, so we made the appointment for her.

A few days later my mother met the herbalist in question, Samuel H. Weir. They spoke privately in his room for about an hour and a half on that fist visit, after which he called myself and my father into the room too. He told us that despite her terrible condition he could help her - although it would take 18-months to do so and she would have to follow his instructions precisely. He said that we needed to support the treatment, no matter how unsure we would be about it. The first instruction he gave my mother was to go home and flush all her drug medicines down the toilet. After that she should only take the herbs he would prescribe to her on a weekly basis. To cut a very long story short she did everything he instructed and although she did have some very hard times following his instructions at first these lessened as time when by till she eventually reached a point where she was able to eat anything she liked, within moderation. This occured precisely 18-months later, to the day, as he had predicted! My mother had even put on about 20lbs in all that time and shortly after that - for the first time in over twenty years - she went out and got herself a job at the age of 54!

The most amazing thing to my father and I was the remarkable emotional transformation that she had gone through, even on the first private meeting he had had with him. When arriving she was depressed, gray and entirely devoid of energy. But after she had spoken to him that first time she was smiling, excited and suddenly full of motivation to be well. She told us that she knew now that this man would heal her! where all the others had failed! As time went by I of course asked her what had happened to her in that room on the first visit. She explained to me that the first thing he asked her was the time, date and place of birth. He then consulted a book and began to scribble a few things down on a piece of paper. Then, just as she was about to tell him what was wrong with her, he stopped her and proceeded to tell her! Not only did he tell her what was wrong with her at the time but he also went back and related to her every illness she had ever had - and even every date they had occurred throughout her life! She said that soon she realized that this man knew more about her than she knew herself, as much of it she had forgotten until he mentioned it. On the strength of that evidence she decided she could totally trust him to treat her and her body safely - hence the big change in her state of mind afterwards when we saw her. I asked her how he did that. She told me that he used 'medical astrology' to indicate everything he told her about her life and the illnesses she had. Needless to say, I was extremely intrigued by this!

A few months later I also consulted Samuel H. Weir to ask him if he could help me with as sports injury I'd been suffering with. I was a very dedicated track and field athlete at the time and my activities had been stopped prematurely by a serious sciatic nerve condition. I'd been sent to various top experts in the field - and even had cortisone injections shot into my sciatic area - but nothing touched the condition and I remained in agony for several weeks. Samuel Weir consulted my own astrological birth chart and after analyzing it he immediately confirmed that he could help me. He went to the back of his shop and selected for me some herbs that conformed to the particular astrological indications in my chart he had seen. He said they would work perfectly well. I was very dubious as I had been through so much disappointment up until this moment in time but I did follow his instructions to the letter nevertheless. Within two weeks I was not only out of pain but I was also going through a full and rigorous training routine that I had not been able to do for a month or more prior to that! I naturally consulted him many times from that moment on - and sent many friends and colleagues to him who also benefited from his amazing approach.

I eventually got very close to the herbalist Samuel H. Weir and would sit with him in his room every Saturday afternoon for several years. He ws my mentor and teacher and I valued those times with hm very much. Indeed, if I could have been his apprentice I would have done so. But sadly he was unable to pay me to do that, so he freely gave me of his time and knowledge anyway. The most amazing thing to me was the fact that he never charged his patients any money for his consultations and would only sell his medicines at a very modest mark-up. I would often question him on this and his consistent reply was that "God has freely given me the gift of healing so how can I charge others - especially the poor who need me but have no money to pay me!" Neither did he court publicity. Indeed, it was a important that his more serious patients (he had a huge success rate for cancer patients that the hospitals had given up on!) should not tell anyone of their visits to him, for it was actually illegal for him to treat them, despite his successes. Consequently, he worked in virtual poverty and anonimity. For all these reasons I realized that this was a very special man indeed and that I was indeed very privileged to have known him and share the precious times we had together. Samuel H. Weir passed away many years ago now and I never cease to miss his companionship and his wisdom enormously. However, when I came across the life and work of Nicholas Culpeper I was suddenly impressed by the similarity of the two men and their methods. I therefore now feel dedicated to sharing the experiences I encountered with Samuel Weir through the story of Nicholas Culpeper in my film. For all I know they could well have been the same individual reincarnated, as their life patterns and attitudes to this profound way of healing were so similar. Even at their death they shared similarities - Culpeper died of the lung condition of tuberculosis and Samuel H. Weir died of emphysema!

 

Samuel H Weir mixing his herbal remedies.