I A L O U

The word "ialou" in hieroglyphs (or Medu Neter) can be translated as the word "paradise".

The "fields of ialou" refer to the place where the Maâtiou (the beatified ancestors) are living. It is the universal fluid in which the parcel merged with the whole. The word "paradise" is also refering to a place where the souls of the righteous are living.

But in our modern language, this word also means an ideal or idyllic place to spend quality time like for example the beach or a tropical environment with a flamboyant vegetation.

According to scholar Edgar Ridley and kemetic scholar Mfundishi Jhutyms we have to make the difference between the symbolic thought and the symptomatic thought like our Ancestors did. Symptomatic thought is a concrete fact based upon science and deep experience while symbolic thought has no tangible proof, it is based on believes and stays on the surface.

The vast majority of people are referring only to the beauty of Nature when they hear the word "paradise" meanwhile it's only the symbolic part. With African spirituality we learn more about the symptomatic part of this paradise (which is the science behind the plant domain of the Neter). It means that Nature is not only beautiful, but it has also a lot of virtues linked to science, that we must study.

Aromatic and medicinal plants always have two aspects :

• -Symptomatic and symbolic
• -Mystical and domestic
• -They heal the body and the spirit 

Through this collection the word "ialou" means the spiritual and medicinal part of our paradise which is Nature.