Developing Your Herbal Competence and Confidence
Today I want to talk about some critical turning points that all of us face when we’re walking the plant path: developing competence and confidence as an herbalist. If there’s one thing that I’ve realized over the last 10+ years of being an herbalist myself, as well as interacting with a lot of beginner, intermediate,…
The Herbal Equation: Plants AND People
I know how it goes when you first start studying herbalism, you get SO excited about learning about all of these beautiful amazing plants. I mean after all, isn’t that what usually gets us into herbal medicine to begin with, an absolute love for plants? But they are just one half of the “herbal equation.”…
The Human Body: Machine or Ecosystem?
Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about this concept of vitalism and how vitalism is one of the more traditional models and approaches to not just practicing herbal medicine but a way that we see life, of being able to see that the natural world is intelligent, that it has consciousness, that it has purpose…
The Plants of Yuletide: History & Lore of Evergreens
Throughout the world, there are so many wonderful traditions celebrated this time of year that involve plants, but especially evergreens! Do you ever wonder where these origins came from and think about why we do some of these things like bring a tree into our home to decorate it? Well this is something we were…
The Lightbringers: Herbs for Brightening Dark Winter Days
December 21st will mark the shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere, a time where we celebrate the winter solstice. The etymology of the word means sol (“sun”) and sistere (“to stand still”), and is a reflection of a turning point the sun is now making in the southernmost part of the…
Gifts for Herbalists
With the holidays coming up, many herbalists are compiling lists of gifts for themselves and for their friends and families. Maybe you want to give herbally oriented gift to someone who likes herbal medicine, or maybe you’re just getting started on your path as an herbalist and want to share some gift ideas with a…
Masking Herbal Tastes
In this post I want to share a little bit about some of the dynamics around the taste of herbs. In traditional systems of medicine, the way an herb tastes, whether it’s bitter or pungent or astringent or sour or sweet, is a really strong indication of the medicinal properties of a plant. From a…
How Herbalists Can Change With The Times
I want to talk about the state of the world right now how everything seems to be turning upside down. Everything is changing very rapidly in terms of the picture of human health and what’s going on culturally and what’s going on in nature. So how do we as herbalists change along with that? What…
Raising the Next Generation of Water Protectors
In this modern world, many of us have forgotten how interconnected everything is. We stare at our cell phones. We get lost in the skylines and sidewalks of big cities, forgetting our connection to the natural world. And because we have lost this sense of connection, our children are coming into a world of climate…
Alchemy and Herbalism Part IV- Illness as Initiation
Welcome to the fourth and final part of our Alchemy and Herbalism series! Hopefully, you’ve been able to watch the last three episodes that we’ve published over the last few weeks. My intention here is to share some teachings here about the tradition of Alchemy and the profound influence that it can have on your…
