To become a great herbalist, there are foundational principles and practices we have to understand and ultimately master. These posts focus on core holistic principles of herbalism, vitalism, and herbal traditions of the world.
Jupiter. The king of the Planets. Here I outline some of the general characteristics of Jupiter and a few botanical correspondences and how to think those through.
Herbal medicine is and has always been, the people’s medicine. Just as there’s significant variation in the people and cultures that fill our world, there’s
There’s one critical key to truly understanding healing & herbalism that has nothing to do with what you’ll read in a book. This foundational element will deepen your connection to herbs and your understanding of how they work, which overall will make you a better herbalist (which is what you want, right?!)
The mineral salts are one of the most unique aspects of the spagyric process and the primary layer of the plant that are not included in most herbal products out there. We had some amazing salts crystallize recently in the Organic Unity lab of one of my favorite Ayurvedic plants Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica). Check out those crystals!!
As an herbalist, you love working with plants on many levels. You might be a wildcrafter, or a gardener. You might just love making herbal medicine. You probably help your friends, family, clients and community with their health through herbs. And chances are, you actually do all of the above, right?
In this video I elaborate on the essential oil distillation process in the spagyric method. This example here is a little different from standard, as we were doing both a hydrodistillation and steam distillation at the same time (we had a lot of plant material!).
When we’re thinking about herbal medicine making, some of the topics that generally come up amongst herbalists are linear in their approach to how we prepare herbal medicine. What part of the plant do we use? Should it be fresh or should it be dried? What percentage alcohol should we use? Is it better as an infusion or a decoction? What are the chemicals in the plant, and how do we best extract them?
Last week I had the honor of being interviewed by functional nutritionist and Akashic Soul Record reader, Venessa Rodriguez, for her Feed Your Wild podcast
As herbalists, we tend to rely pretty heavily on alcohol as one of our main ways for extracting and preserving the medicinal properties of plants. Herbal tinctures are one of the most commonly used forms of herbal medicine by herbalists.
One of the most powerful things about alchemy is that it allows us to draw on energetics. We can look at the planets and plants
When we talk about herbalism and alchemy, it can often seem like we talk only about the past. We know herbalism and alchemy have been
Stepping into some of the warmest and longest days of the year here in the northern hemisphere, we’re arriving now at the Summer Solstice which