LOL. I made this thread and then kinda forgot about it
SO... to answer my own questions -
To me, using natural consequences as a teaching method means to do my best to to teach my daughter to think about possibly consequences before she does something, to re-evaluate afterwards, and to ultimately decide whether or not something is worth the consequences of it. I believe that being able to think this way will in time equip her to make good decision, and also to decide whether or not something is the right thing to do, even in the absence of clear rules.
For me, it starts before my daughter does something - when she asks to do something, or I see she wants to and I can catch her, I speak to her, and explain the consequences of what she wants to do. Then I ask her to answer one question - do you think it will be worth it? Then, in most cases, she gets to make up her own mind.
When she has already done something, I sit her down again, and as her if she understands why the consequences she experienced happened. Depending on her answer, I may or may not continue to explain exactly how and why her actions lead to the consequences she experienced. Then, again, I ask her if she thinks it was worth it. I ask her this because I want her to think about the costs/benefits of her decisions.
(Yes, I dread the days she does something dangerous, gets hurt, and then tells me "yes, it was worth it". I can see she's a bit of a risk-taker, so that day will come, and when it does, I'll have to deal with it! :/)
I've been implementing this method for a while now (at least 2 years or so) and I can see that she's beginning to learn to think about consequences. Of course, it will take many years still before she really does it effectively, but I'm hoping that by consciously teaching her, she'll learn faster.
Interestingly, the more I implement this method, and the older my daughter gets, the more it becomes sufficient and the less need I have to either asserting absolute authority, or implementing some sort of artificial consequence.