The Bright Season: Tarot for Connection & Purpose

As Midsummer passes, I grow impatient and split between trying to be grounded and centered in the moment and wanting to get through next grand effort of summer as swiftly as possible.¹

I've lived many kinds of summers - from the short and mild to humid to desert dry - and, while I do fine in the heat, I crave the shadow and shade that autumn and winter bring. Living in one of the sunniest places on earth, and sometimes going weeks without seeing a cloud, can send me into a state of overexposure. It's tempting during these intensely bright days to let my mind race into the latter half of the year, restlessly counting down until I feel like I can relax again. Of course, all of this is impacted by the corresponding season of fire and smoke mingled with the fear of powerlessness against entrenched systems exploited by untethered people.

And yet, the golden days leading up to Lughnasadh are also some of my favorite of the year. I've loved the days surrounding the First Harvest since I was a child - it felt empowering to have this easy to overlook sacred day sitting not-quite-in-the-middle but not-quite-at-the-end of summer that celebrates the labor and efforts of the year. In an effort to settle into these long summer days, I've tried to draw this feeling of golden celebration out, extending it towards Midsummer and beyond to Harvest Home, seeking out the pleasure of this time of year instead of running from the discomfort it can bring. Because, I would like to have many, many more of these bright seasons and so I'm learning how to connect with the energy of these hot months rather than trying to hop-skip over them.  

I think I love Lughnasadh so much because it gives these hot days purpose and connects me back to the wheel of the year (instead of feeling like I'm engaging with the impossible task of hiding from this season). One of the ways to celebrate Lughnasadh is to look back at the year(s) behind us and marvel at what we've accomplished and how our communities have been made stronger through our collective efforts. Pulling on the thread of golden light that stretches through from the end of June and through July, I've found it to be the same thread that I find such joy in noticing during the dark half of the year. This golden thread needs these bright days and, even though I might be squinting through them trying to keep hold of my vision for what lies ahead, it's ok to take delight in the glow, even if it disorients me for a moment.

While I'm not seeking to find endless ease in every season, I think these moments of discontent can be illuminating, pointing us towards what it is we're seeking without missing out with the magick of the year that has already found us. In the bright season, where things can feel unsheltered and too big to comprehend, we can still learn how to pull some of that into our bones, glowing throughout our life so that we might trust in our path even when we can't wait to get around the bend.

While my bright season appears between Midsummer and Lughnasadh, your bright season might appear at another time of the year. I encourage you find your own season of brightness and I hope the following tarot spread helps you to follow the golden light of connection and purpose throughout all parts of your year. 

Tarot for Connection & Purpose

The following tarot spread helps to illuminate the path of your current purpose, shining light on what has come before and peaking into what might be ahead, while drawing our attention to where we're at currently and the connections that are seeking us out. This spread is best for times when we're feeling a bit muddled on our path and who we are on it with, where everything feels big and urgent, and we need help centering what it is we currently have the capacity and calling for.

 ✨ Card 1 & 2. The Path Behind

These cards take a look at the path of purpose that you've been moving along and that has brought you to this current season of your life. If you're in the midst of reevaluating your calling and purpose in life and/or your approach to living with purpose these cards may highlight previous patterns and/or relationships and communities that you are moving away from. Or these cards can be a celebratory affirmation of what you've done before. Or some combination thereof! 

 ✨ Card 3 & 4. The Path Ahead

These cards look ahead on your path of purpose, taking a peak at what might be around the corner. Sometimes they can point out obstacles, other times they are cards that show significant events or experiences coming your way. Often they show us something we are desiring (challenging cards can point out a desire for healing in these parts of our life). 

 ✨ Card 5. Connections to Strengthen & Seek Out

This card points out connections - whether individual or community relationships - to either strengthen or seek out (or let yourself to be found). 

 ✨ Card 6. The Thread of Light

This card that helps you connect what has come before to what may come to be by helping us to ground in the golden eternal moment. This card can highlight where you are right now energetically and how it connects you to your purpose and community.

🌻

Are you a child of summer’s heat or a creature of the dark year’s shade?

While you can peruse through my complete archive of tarot spreads, you can also find the rest of my in-between the seasons tarot series below:

• The Soft Season: Tarot for Clarity & Inspiration

• The Blossoming Season: Tarot for Big Feelings

May you find the golden thread of inspiration throughout your year, ever guiding you on your path.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

📚

Footnotes

1. As the longest day of the year passes, do I whisper "lo and behold, the darkness is returning" to my partner with a gleeful look in my eye? Yes, I very much do.

The Blessing of Softness: Marshmallow (Althea officinalis) Plant Profile

Marshmallow is a common enough herb that its likely to have shown up in your western herbalism studies at some point.

But I didn’t pay the plant too much attention until a few years into my practice when I started to hear stories about how it worked in the body in ways that didn’t make sense based on its biochemistry or how it had a funny way of making people reconnect with childhood memories (but only sometimes). It was the sort of oddness that perked my interest and I began to follow the moonlit path of the sort of herbalism that is talked about between practitioners, but isn’t always written down in books (and I have a fondness for strange herbs like these).

Marshmallow is a lovely plant ally, one whose use dates back to the world of ancient Egypt (but probably older still), and is both blessedly common in its abundance in the wild, appearing mundane in its uses, but also having a way of softening the hardness of our preconceived notions, when we find ourselves face-to-face with the soft vulnerability that we all carry but don’t always know how to care for and be cared by.

So journey with me through very old stories about Marshmallow alongside the new and learn about the healing path of this lunar plant.

Cbaile19, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Marshmallow
(Althea officinalis)

Common Common + Folk Names : Malva, mallow, common mallow, cheese wheel, hock herb, sweet weed, mortification plant, hock herb, wymote, altea, malvaisco, malws bendigaid

Tarot Cards : The Empress, The Moon, Queen of Cups (learn more about the connections between the tarot and herbs)

Element : Water

Zodiac Signs : Aries (Remedy), Taurus (Guardian & Remedy), Cancer (Guardian & Remedy) Leo (Remedy), Virgo (Guardian & Remedy), Libra (Guardian & Remedy)

Planets : Venus, Moon

Moon Phase : Full to Waning Quarter Moon

Parts used : Root, leaf

Habitat : Native to Africa, Asia, and Europe but naturalized throughout North America. 

Growing Conditions : Partial sun to full shade in cool, damp, and nutrient-rich soil.

Collection : Harvest the second or third year roots in the autumn; collect leaves throughout spring and summer. 

Flavor : Sweet, bitter

Temperature : Cool

Moisture : Moist

Tissue State : Hot, Dry

Constituents : Beta-carotene, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, mucilage, polysaccharides, flavonoids, betaine, sterols, asparagine, tannins, coumarin, phenolic acid, lecithin, pectin, malic acid.

Actions : Alterative, antacid, analgesic, antihistamine, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, antitussive, aphrodisiac, bronchodilator, demulcent, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, galactagogue, hemostatic, immune tonic (immunostimulant), laxative, lung tonic, nutritive, rejuvenative, vulnerary. 

Main Uses : I remember the first time that I tried a cup of fresh Marshmallow root tea. I did not like it. The texture was a bit too slick and slimy, even though the taste was a pleasant enough neutral sweetness. I would later learn that the slimy texture that I was experiencing was Marshmallows' famously mucilaginous characteristics. Even better, I learned that there were many ways to prepare and enjoy Marshmallow and, over the years of working with this slimy ally, I've become increasingly grateful for its distinctly emollient nature. 

Marshmallow is demulcent herb (i.e. a plant high in polysaccharides that produce a mucilage that is soothing to internal and external tissues) that has been in use for thousands of years in traditional western herbalism and beyond, stretching back in recorded history to at least ancient Egypt. Dioscorides wrote down the medicinal uses of Marshmallow in the first century and it has been recorded in traditional western herbalism materia medicas ever since. The Latin binomial of Althea is derived from the Greek words  "althos" or medicine and "althaiein" or to heal, which tells you how prized Marshmallow has been as a medicine from its earliest uses through the centuries to be given the clear title of "medicine that heals."¹ 

Victor M. Vicente Selvas, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

As a mucilaginous herb, Marshmallow can help reduce inflammation throughout the body by soothing and moistening tissue. Signs of sharpness, build-up, and dryness all indicate that Marshmallow might be a good plant to work with. Sharp and hacking coughs in both adults and children, can be softened by Marshmallow especially when combined with herbs like Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina). Marshmallow aids the digestive system, by reducing acidity, lining the inflamed stomach with a layer of mucilage, and helping to improve digestion. The root can be used to cool and regulate an overheated digestive system that has led to symptoms like diarrhea and poor absorption of nutrients. Demonstrating its amphoteric qualities, however, Marshmallow also helps with cases of constipation, helping to soften stools and soothe irritated intestines. Consider Marshmallow for all kinds of painful digestive conditions including Crohn's disease, gastritis, ulcers, diverticulitis, and irritable bowel syndrome. For these types of painful digestive conditions, a mix of powdered Marshmallow root and cool water is recommended before eating (roughly two to three teaspoons of the powdered root to enough water to make a thick paste).

In addition to being a mucilaginous herb, different sources will classify Marshmallow as an immunostimulant or an immunomodulator. In my experience, I find that Marshmallow acts more as an immunomodulator and herbalist Brigitte Mars notes that Marshmallow can either stimulate white blood cell production or reduce an overactive immune system depending on the needs of the body.² I like adding Marshmallow to cold and flu blends when a dry, hacking cough is present, as it'll not only support a healthy immune response, but moisten respiratory airways. It is a good herb for recovery after an illness, too.

Twelfth century herbalist Hildegard von Bingen describes it as a remedy for "melancholy brought forth by various fevers [that] makes a person's brain ail" and recommends mixing Marshmallow with Sage (Salvia officinalis) and olive oil, applying this blend to the head, wrapping the head in cloth, and applying a fresh wrap everyday for three days. While not a protocol recommended these days (though I imagine that it would help a great deal with scalp and hair health), I'm always interested in the ways that herbalists like Hildegard were trying to address the intersections of mental and physical health. Marshmallow is wonderful for sore throats, by both cooling and coating the lining of the throat but also acting as an analgesic. Naturopathic doctor J.J. Pursell recommends Marshmallow to all of her singer clients because of its throat nourishing qualities.³ Finally, Marshmallow is a helpful aid in reducing symptoms of allergies especially allergic rhinitis.

Pliny writes about the use of Marshmallow by midwives to ease pain and help to speed up labor.⁴ While this seems to have fallen out of modern use, mucilaginous herbs and plants like Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) are still recommended in some midwifery communities (especially in the southern US) to aid with labor. Postpartum, Marshmallow is still used as a galactagogue to support nursing and prevent and alleviate clogged ducts and inflamed breast tissue. The root can be used internally and externally with herbs like Poke Root (Phytolacca americana) to alleviate mastitis. The herb is also an excellent addition to sitz baths. Use Marshmallow to support urinary health, break-up stones, and for urinary tract infections.

Externally, Marshmallow's mucilaginous qualities make it a great emollient ally for all types of skin conditions including rashes, wounds, bruises, cuts, scrapes, and general aches and pains. The leaf can be used externally as a quick poultice for insect stings as well as thorns and splinters. Use the leaf and root as a poultice for sore nipples and mastitis. Use in aftercare for sun exposure and burns (combine with other herbs like Rosa spp.). A good ally for rinsing, bathing, and washing during allergy season to help remove and protect the body from allergens. And even though modern Marshmallow candies do not contain any Marshmallow plant in them, you can still find plenty of recipes to make your own herbal treat.

Finally, I want to take a moment to share a story from seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, who recorded in his famous Herbal how a decoction of Marshmallow root saved his son's life when his boy was taken with dysentery (or "bloody flux" as it was called at the time): 

“You may remember that not long since there was a raging disease called the bloody-flux; the college of physicians not knowing what to make of it, called it the inside plague, for their wits were at Ne plus ultra about it: My son was taken with the same disease, and the excoriation of his bowels was exceeding great; myself being in the country, was sent for up, the only thing I gave him, was Mallows bruised and boiled both in milk and drink, in two days (the blessing of God being upon it) it cured him. And I here, to shew my thankfulness to God, in communicating it to his creatures, leave it to posterity.”⁵

I am reminded, not infrequently, when writing these plant profiles and reading through generations of materia medicas of how these are not just a recording of plants but of people, that they are works of love and life. Here we have an outpouring of gratitude by Culpeper that his son's life was spared this time through the gifts of plant medicine and he shows his thankfulness by sharing this knowledge in hopes that others will be saved. It speaks not only of Culpeper's nature (he was a radical community herbalist committed to making safe and effective medicine available to all) but of the community treasure that is the tradition of materia medicas, well-worn herbals, and spoken plant stories - one person hoping to spare the suffering of another and another and so on through the generations. It is also a story to share about Marshmallow themselves when teaching others about the plant's healing qualities: "Here, friends, is a plant that saved the life of a child, let me tell you what I know of their healing ways."⁶

image via botanical.com

Magickal Uses : Use Marshmallow in magickal workings to clear out oppressive and heavy energy from people and places. Scott Cunningham writes that Marshmallow is used to attract love, including calling back love to you from a partner who has left, but I could see this adapted for rituals to call back loved ones especially when issues of mental health are involved. The herb has also been used in rites of fertility, and especially protecting against impotency, as well as general protection. Add to charms and amulets to help soften up a situation, using the plant's Venusian gifts to help bring ease to otherwise challenging circumstances. Use in lunar rites of all varieties. 

The Marshmallow Personality : Marshmallow folk are those that are chronically hard on themselves, hard in their relationships, and have experienced hardness throughout their life. Often, but not always, Marshmallow folks had to grow up real quick - the softness of childhood was not afforded them. Other times, a shocking traumatic event has created a hardened outer shell that they are struggling to break free from (and might not even be aware that they are trapped beneath it). Energetically, Marshmallow folk can sit quite high and tight in their bodies - shoulder and neck pain, tension headaches, and general body stiffness are common, along with painful digestive issues. "Soft" is not a word in Marshmallow folk's vocabulary except as an insult or a very dangerous concept that'll leave them vulnerable. So getting to a place of working with Marshmallow as a plant ally can be a long journey, but once they arrive in the relationship, a healing softness and ease of life can occur for them. Marshmallow helps these folks to assess where their hardness comes from and why they are so committed to maintaining it. Through working with Marshmallow, these folks can begin to stretch out of their high-walled compound of hardness into the surrounding gardens, cool waters, and rolling hills that a soft life allows for. 

Contraindications : Generally considered safe.

Drug interactions : Over an extended period of time, Marshmallow may reduce absorption of other prescription drugs and supplements because of how the herb coats the lining of the  stomach. Stagger when you take Marshmallow a few hours apart than when you take other medication.

Dosage : Standard dosage.

🌿

I hope you enjoyed this exploration of Marshmallow’s healing and magickal gifts. You can find many more plant profiles in my archive and my complete collection of plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library.

Nicholas Culpeper’s herbal is also widely available for free - I enjoy the one found here. My favorite print edition of Culpeper’s Herbal is Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Compendium of Herbs and Their Uses, Annotated for Modern Herbalists, Healers, and Witches edited by J.J. Pursell.

For those wondering what a lunar herb is and why it is I seem to write about so many lunar plant allies, come this way.

Whether you’re a practitioner, an herbal student, or magickal practitioner interesting in plants, may the herbal path be one that draws you closer to the tender heart of our shared humanity.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

📚

Footnotes

1 Graeme Tobyn, Alison Dunham, Margaret Whitelegg, The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2011), 67.

2. Brigitte Mars, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine (Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, 2007), 196.

3. Nicholas Culpeper, and J. J. Pursell, Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Compendium of Herbs and Their Uses, Annotated for Modern Herbalists, Healers, and Witches (Portland, OR: Microcosm Publishing, 2022), 177.

4. Tobyn, et al., 69.

5. Culpeper, et al., 177.

6. While I wanted to include this part of Marshmallow’s story, I also want to emphasize that the point is about the humanity (and joy and heartbreak) found in the pages of materia medicas not that Marshmallow is a miraculous “cure” of childhood diseases. Only one of Culpeper’s children made it to adulthood, but his gratefulness to Marshmallow remains a beautiful love letter and a reminder of how precarious life can be and how beautiful it is that we get to practice herbal medicine alongside modern medicine. And we honor Culpeper’s legacy by striving to make medicine free and accessible to all.

7. Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2001), 167.

How to Use Tarot as an Herbalist

When I was still just a kid a rather perceptive aunt of mine gave me two books on herbalism (one on herbs in the garden, another on making herbal skin care remedies) and one book on tarot for my birthday. Since then, tarot and the workings of herbalism both medicinal and magickal have been inexorably linked, serving as the weft and weave of so much of my work. 

Tarot is a storytelling tool - whether telling stories of the future, the distant past, the infinite present or stories that help us to understand whatever feelings we're slogging through. Sometimes tarot tells stories about relationships or points us in the direction of something to explore more of, like a helpful, living map. My earliest experiences of reading tarot for others were grounded in the sense of a language being unlocked and a fluency of connection being tapped into - it felt like a way to connect with my peers that I often struggled to do (a powerful spell at any time in our life, but especially those in those tender and trying middle school years). 

Alongside my explorations of tarot, I was learning about the magickal world of plants, pouring through Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs as my guide to what I felt when amongst my green kin, but had only started finding words for. In the wooden box that I stored my tarot deck was a small chunk of amber resin given to me by a friendly hairdresser when she heard I had started reading cards, it’s rich plant-scent infusing the cards. My altar was full of dried plants much like the images of the cards themselves, rich with flower-abundant gardens and woodland spaces. If I was working with tarot I was working with plants and vice versa.

I’ve been using tarot since my herbal student days and continue to use it in my practice as a community herbalist. While tarot is never a diagnostic tool, it is a great tool for simple ritual, inclusive storytelling, and strengthening connection to our plant allies - skills that all kinds of herbalists and healing practitioners can benefit from. 

Whether as a practitioner working with folks in their vulnerable moments of healing need or as students excited to be learning more about plants and magick, it's important that we have a number of places that we can return to, whether physically, emotionally, spiritually, that offer us space to process our experiences with students and clients, take care of our own needs so they don't muddy the waters of connection, and as a place to reflect on is going on around and within us. Some of these places are with other practitioners or with friends and family, but one of these places is at my altar with my tarot cards (or wherever my tarot deck and I happen to be).

So with that in mind, let's explore the ways that you might incoporate tarot into your practice as an herbalist. Whether you're brand new to using tarot (or oracle cards) or are a season tarot reader who doesn't know how to combine your tarot and herbal practices, the following guide offers a number of simple ways to find a connection between the book of healing that the tarot can be and our herbal path. 

Deck Shown: The Gentle Tarot by mari in the sky

Casting Cards: Simple rituals & energetic check-ins

Rituals help to mark transitions through time and space, giving meaning to the rhythm of our days, months, seasons, and decades. I find rituals and all the ways they help us care for our complexity are an important aspect of creating an herbal practice that is not only helpful to those you work with, but cares for the longevity of you, the herbalist. Simple daily (or nightly) rituals help to untangle energetic knots, release stress, find humor and joy, and connect us to the very old ways of being human in this world while growing and dreaming ourselves into something new.

Thankfully, rituals do not rely on belief - they are a form of practice no different than a daily walk or making a cup of tea in the morning before starting work. Of course, rituals can be infused with belief or spiritual meaning, but that's a preference, not a requirement. It's important as practitioners to mark the time between working as an herbalist with a client or student and holding a certain level of professional conduct and expansive compassion versus when we are not working and can be messy, silly gooses (or ungovernable raccoons or semi-feral stone hags). To maintain these healthy boundaries we need to have regular ways of checking in with our energy which is one of the ways that tarot can be so useful for herbalists.

In Practice

My simple daily ritual before work looks something like this:

I light a candle, speak a few simple devotions, practice a few minutes of breathwork, and then pull a card or two to help me connect with my inner landscape. Sometimes the card points my attention towards a certain practice - on one particularly busy day a card's message reminded me to stay connected to my self-awareness practice more so than usual so I wouldn't get lost in worry about what needed doing that day. Other times a card might offer a different perspective on an issue that I've been feeling anxious about, helping to settle that energy so that I can focus on the workday ahead, while giving me something to return to and reflect on later in the evening to see how that anxious energy may have transformed. Sometimes the card acts like an inside joke, helping me to laugh and loosen up.

These daily practices are not about constant, incredible spiritual breakthroughs, but about signaling to ourselves that we are moving from one part of our day and responsibilities to another part while gently stirring awake our skills of observation and kinship.

While pulling a single card before you begin your work for the day is a great practice, if you're looking for a slightly more complex but still simple spread for your daily pull here is my favorite daily tarot practice.

For further inspiration, here are a variety of questions or prompts for you to consider for a daily draw: 

A message from the plant spirits and/or specific plant ally.

A message from my ancestors.

How is {current season} showing up in my inner landscape?

What needs releasing? Where do I need to loosen up?

What needs strengthening?

What needs reconsidering?

Where do I need to pay more attention to?

What needs slowing down?

Deck Shown: Tarot by Caro by Caro Clarke

Telling Stories: Helping clients identify what they're feeling

Some clients who show up in consultation are adept at describing their inner landscape, from physical symptoms to emotional dysregulation. For others, being asked what they are feeling - and then being listened to for more than 15 minutes - is a totally new experience within a healing setting.

For most of us, learning how to talk about the experiences of our bodies (and I mean bodies in their most expansive form from the physical to the emotional to the mental and beyond) was not an education provided early in life and something that must be learned later on. Instead of relying solely on my client's sensory lexicon I make sure that I have resources like emotion and physical symptom word lists to help them tell me their story, including tools like the tarot. I might not use any of these tools, but even having them as an option signals to those we work with that they don’t have to have everything figured out and collaboration is a key part of their care. Fortunately, herbalism across culture possesses a sensory rich language to draw upon when helping folks find the words for their stories.

As a traditional western herbalist, I primarily work with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water along with spirit not only as a way of organizing information about the physiological actions of herbs and the effects of illness and disease (alongside modern medical terminology) but also as a way of relaying information to and offering language for clients to use to understand their experiences in a way that honors their complexity. Tarot follows along the same elemental system and the visual language of tarot with its rich elemental landscape provides all sorts of useful ways of describing energy and experience. The language of tarot can help us speak with our clients, describe herbal actions, and make the process of working with herbs less mechanized and sterile and more earth-centered and inclusive.

In Practice

I have a tarot deck that I have sorted just for consultations. I'll separate and set aside the Major Arcana and then sort the Minor Arcana by suit. If a client is having a hard time describing what sort of stress they are feeling and they are interested in working with the tarot, I might hand them the stack of Swords cards. I'll have them look through them, setting out one or more of the cards that they resonate with. We'll talk about the card together, not its meaning in a divinatory sense, but what the images are bringing up for the client.

In general, I think of the suits of tarot corresponding to broad body systems as:

• Pentacles: Sleep cycles and cognitive function

• Swords: Stress and mental health

• Cups: Emotional health and community connection (social bonds, relationships, etc)

• Wands: Inherent energy and overall vitality

Here’s a sample scenario: Let's say that Verbena is a client looking for help with stress. She's been stressed for months and it's making it hard to sleep and focus during the day. When you ask Verbena what the stress feels like in her body, she struggles to describe anything. You ask them to look through the stack of Swords cards and they pull out the Three of Swords, explaining that the stress feels like it is sitting on her chest and she even remembers another symptom that she forgot to mention earlier - heart palpitations. Working with Verbena's description and the rest of the details from the appointment, you recommend Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) as part of the herbal blend you'll be making for her. The tarot helped to open up the storytelling part of the consultation, alleviating the pressure on Verbena of having to figure how to describe the stress she was having all on her own, and giving you as an herbalist extra insight into Verbena's sensory experience. You’re even able to tie the story of Motherwort’s gentle heart-strengthening energy to the images from the Three of Swords that Verbena resonated with, helping to facilitate a deeper connection between Verbena and the herb, Motherwort.

Sometimes I might pull out the stack of Major Arcana cards an ask a client to choose a card that represents what they want to feel, helping to create a visual language to describe the path they hope to walk along with the plant allies we’ll be working with.

Do I pull out tarot cards with everyone? No, but since folks are drawn to my practice because I do incorporate tarot into my work it's not unusual. I don't give readings of a divinatory nature during a consultation, but I love the playfulness that it can bring into a space, and see it as a tool for accessing language and connection. For my clients who have a tarot practice and want to use tarot as part of their healing work, tarot is your great tool and I have a number of simple practices I recommend to folks.

If you're interested in using tarot in this way, I encourage you to take out your deck, sort it like I’ve suggested, and start playing with it to help you identify your own feelings and experiences. Say you want to make yourself a tea to help you destress after a long day, but before you start pulling out herbs, pull out your cards and find the images that best reflect how you're feeling, naming aloud what images speak to your experiences. Can you connect the language you might use in consultations to the images you see in cards (such as talking of tension when looking at the Nine of Swords or overwhelm that leads to hypoactivity when looking at the Ten of Swords)? The more you practice, the more you'll be able to bring these story skills into your consultations.

An important note: Feelings do come up in consultations and classrooms (as they should) and it's important as herbalists to know how to listen, reflect, and provide resources while remembering that as an herbalist unless you're a therapist, you're not a therapist. It's good to know your own boundaries, what plant remedies can and cannot do, and have a list of recommended resources to be able to pass along to folks. Stress, burnout, and anxiety, for example, are common reasons that someone might seek out an herbalist, and while plants are excellent as addressing these sort of complaints, there are also times when we need to use our skills of observation to notice when what the client thinks is general anxiety might be something more complex (such as undiagnosed OCD or ADHD) and suggest resources beyond an herbal consultation. 

Deck Shown: The Herbcrafter’s Tarot by Latisha Gurthrie

Finding Guidance: Using tarot to connect with plant allies

Like many herbalists, plants are not only sources of medicinal gifts, but are living beings who act as guides and teachers. Tarot, as a tool of storytelling, discernment, and communication, can help strengthen our connections with our plant allies. I love pulling cards as one of the ways of getting to know new plants in my practice or deepening my connection with familiar plant friends.

Tarot is also useful in helping us access muscles of intuition that we may not have used a lot in our training as herbalists. While some of us may have experienced plants-as-kin practices as students, others may have had strictly clinical approaches where opportunities for relationship-building with our plant allies was limited. Tarot can be an excellent communication bridge, helping us drink from the well of wisdom from plants themselves.

In Practice

While I wrote a tarot spread for connecting with plant allies over a decade ago, there are plenty of ways of working with tarot to connect with new or familiar plant allies:

• As you think of a plant ally you are getting to know, look through your tarot deck pulling out cards that feel like or remind you of this plant ally. Try to work with your feeling body more than your thinking body, trying not to get caught up in what you think is the "right" or "logical" choice. Once you've chosen your cards, lay them out in a line in front of you and read them like a story that your plant ally is telling you.

• Spend a full lunar cycle pulling a card every day while connecting with your plant ally. You might choose to use a remedy made up of your plant ally before pulling a card (i.e. taking a few drops of Rosa damascena tincture if you're working with Rose as a plant ally) or simply invite them into your space energetically. 

• Working with the astrological correspondences of your plant ally, pull out the tarot cards that have the same correspondences. Rose is associated with Venus, so you might pull out the Empress and/or the Lovers cards and read those as a way to understand some of Rose's energetic qualities. You can find more astrological correspondences for tarot in The Tarot Apothecary.

You can also cast any kind of tarot spread while calling on the energy of your plant ally to help guide you. And you don't have to believe that you are literally being guided by a plant but use it as an energetic metaphor to open up the parts of you that need help receiving insight and guidance, such as working with Linden (Tilia x europaea) to open up your heart to hope. Working with tarot in your herbalism practice is an invitation to play, to loosen up what you think is possible, and find new ways of getting inspired in your work. If you're looking for more tarot inspiration, check out my archive of tarot spreads.

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Do you already use tarot in your practice as an herbalist? I feel like it is more common than ever for tarot to show up in healing, herbal, and therapeutic spaces. It’s pretty incredible how a centuries old stack of cards continues to shift and change with the times - I can’t wait to see what tarot culture looks like in the decades ahead.

While you can use any tarot deck that you want, I’ve also written about my favorite decks for herbalists if you’re looking for some inspiration (or, like me, never tire of reading about tarot). If you’re wanting a deeper dive into the world of tarot and herbalism, I invite you to join me in The Tarot Apothecary where I guide folks through reading the tarot like a book of healing.

Wherever your path as an herbalist takes you, I hope that the stories between people and plants flows freely, and that you always have the language needed to know your own.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

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Tarot Decks Shown
The Gentle Tarot by mari in the sky
Tarot by Caro by Caro Clarke
The Herbcrafter’s Tarot by Latisha Guthrie

Earth-Centered Practices for Aspiring Herbalists

We need more herbalists in the world.

More scruffy punk kids who aspire to work all day with Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and the broken-hearted, more bespeckled biology nerds who want to make complex concoctions to help their friends and family feel better, and more drag kings who are running mini clinics between performances in the backrooms of queer clubs. More farm boys with a love for the wild weedy edges of the land, carrying around plant ID guides, more elders who've decided to return to the ways of their elders after a life lived tangled up in corporate chutes and ladders, and more tenderhearted types ready to open up community tea-rooms to help others get to know their own profound softness.

My own path started when I was called to be an herbalist before I knew that was something you could be, but thank goodness for all those hours spent up in trees and hiding in-between urban hedgerows because when a friend handed me a copy of a practicing herbalist's catalogue, I could recognize it for the invitation that it was. The older I've gotten the more I recognize (and love and adore and am grateful for) the fact that it is the land that calls us, through the song of our beloved plant allies, to the path of the herbalist. And so whoever you might be and wherever you might come from, I believe we should keep the earth centered in our herbal practices as a common heart of our varied traditions as we grow and learn and serve as plant folk. 

The social world is overly busy, our relationships complex, and the challenges we face as a collective are immense. And yet, the calling to the path of the herbalist continues shifting and changing with the needs of our times. If you are one of those plant people, I hope to offer you some grounding, centering, and empowering inspiration for creating a practice that is earth-centered, sustainable, and enduring. During a time of collective grief and disconnection where burnout feels more common than ever, I believe that an earth-centered practice is what can help us cultivate hope, (re)connection with the land and each other, and finding our longevity as herbalists and plant folk wherever our path might take us. 

Whatever ways you have come to herbalism to be earth-centerd in your practice isn’t always a default but it is always a choice. The path of the herbalist is varied, with some learning communities valuing the folkloric, Indigenous, and magickal roots of herbalism alongside modern medical understanding of plants, and other trainings focusing primarily on clinical settings, medical language, and little time spent in communion with plants. Many of us studying western herbalism (whether traditional, modern or a combination) will have found ourselves in a mix of settings, especially if your training has taken place in a country where herbalism is unregulated. Regardless of your path of study, I hope that you'll find the following list - from a Pagan and herbalist who teaches and practices from an earth-centered perspective - full of useful things to ponder and wander with as you develop as an herbalist. 

image via @fumirin

While I'm writing this for all aspiring herbalists who are interested in creating an earth-centered practice (and even those with years of practice under their belt looking to shift or renew perspectives), my heart especially goes out to those kids who, like me, felt stuck in-between and in a state of perpetual un-belonging but always found a sense of kinship in the quiet moments with plants and trees where boundaries that keep us apart seem to fade. To those young herbalists who worry that they're too urban, who can't walk through a wood and identify dozens of plants with ease (and who may very well be afraid of walking about in rural places), and haven't quite found their herbal kin, you’re needed as much as the sixth generation herbalist who grew up knowing the names of plants before the names of their aunts. Focusing on creating an earth-centered practice that honors that all of us are of the land and that by being of the land there is no other I hope to invite you into the beautiful wisdom that each of us have always belonged. An earth-centered practice helps us understand our points of interconnectedness with the plants, the people and creatures we serve, and the changing wisdom of our inner landscape.

Slowly but surely what may currently feel like something that sets us apart can be transformed into the sacred knot that binds us together and your unique strengths as an herbalist. 

So, with all that said, let’s explore some of the ways that you can begin to create an earth-centered practice as an herbalist.

image via @tototosia

By Wind, by River, by Flame, by Stone: Understanding Your Herbalist Energy

How we express our energy as an herbalist matters not only in the way that we work with our clients but in how we connect to the land. 

I was in high school when I was radicalized by two prepositions and a noun, forever changing the way I understood the dynamics of energy. Sitting in the back of a class that I wasn't paying particularly good attention to, I was reading a twenty year old book called Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics by Starhawk. I'd picked it up from the used book shelf of my local metaphysical shop and found myself immersed in the world of political organizing and magickal activism in a way that spoke to my Pagan heart.

In Dreaming the Dark Starhawk explores power dynamics within groups, between individuals, and by corporate entities and state systems. She wrote of the difference between power-over, where people, governments, and organizations dominate the energy of others and adhere to a patriarchal worldview, versus power-with where folks worked together as equals while acknowledging differing access to cultural, social, political, and personal power. The concept of power-over versus power-with felt clarifying and exhilarating - it rang like a magickal spell throughout my being and became a tool of discernment I would continue use throughout my studies and training in activism and organizing over the next few years. Alongside power-over versus power-with there is power-under which describes the way that traumatized and oppressed people can undermine one another through undermining personal and collective efforts of liberation. I would add on power-through to describe the ways that collective strength and wisdom flows through generations (such as cultural and spiritual inheritances) as well as between human and non-human kin, allowing space for the intangible tides of change that we can’t always spot or name.²

These dynamics of power are present everywhere including in all the places we practice as herbalists. As aspiring and practicing herbalist it's important to investigate why we feel called to the work of sitting with folks in their vulnerability and why it is we think we should be there. In other words, what are the systems of power we are working with and how does that shape our energy as an herbalist. Do we think that we hold exclusive knowledge on how to heal someone? Or do we believe we "good enough" or "clean enough" or someone special enough to be an herbalist? Are we trying to make collective wisdom about medicinal plants exclusive? Are we trying to prove something or be approved of by our peers by becoming an herbalist? Where do we seek feedback and affirmation from? How are we trying to get those we sit with to conform to our expectations? Where are we most expansive in our ability to listen and be changed? How does our intersections of oppression and privilege shape how we practice as an herbalist?

As I continue to explore the way that I express, seek out, share, and receive power in my life, I turn to elemental language grounded in traditions of my herbal ancestors to help me honor my inherent instincts while learning how to adapt, grow, and change. Herbalism developed before sophisticated diagnostic tools were available and practitioners had to rely on physical observation and client testimonies to understand what was going on in a person's body. From these observations, elemental language developed to describe and understand the physiological state of bodies, the healing qualities of herbs, and the actions and symptoms of illnesses. These energetic systems and elemental language are still used today by many modern herbalists from a variety of traditions. As a traditional western herbalist, I primarily work with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water along with spirit (sometimes described as pneuma) as an accessible form of storytelling, a way of relaying information to clients, and offering language for clients to use to understand their experiences in a way that honors their complexity. 

image via @alksndra

So what does this all look like in practice?

Let's pretend that Angelica is an herbal student who has fiery and fast energy, always excited to work at her school's busy community clinic, ready to connect with clients and solve problems swiftly. She's learning to recognize the strengths and shortcomings of her inherent energetic instincts including her impatience when answers don't come quickly or when stories take a long time to tell, and frustration when clients aren't keeping up with the pace she expects of them. Angelica is often prone to burning her energetic candle at both ends, but feels anxious about approaching her studies (and life) at a slower pace. Taking an elemental approach, Angelica begins to recognize that she needs to draw on more grounding earth energy (such as adjusting her pace with clients instead of expecting them to keep up) and even some steadying air energy so that she learns to draw on her evidence-based studies alongside her intuitive connections. Finally, she's working with a favorite teacher to develop post-clinic and classroom practices that are soft and watery in nature, that don't feel too slow for her wondrous fiery self, but also help her to cool off and settle so she feels more refreshed the next day.

Angelica’s story is a short and succinct summary of what can be a long and circuitous path to understanding our inherent energetic constitution and the remediation practices we can call into our life to keep ourselves steady and inspired in our work as herbalists. As we explore our energetic landscape we’re likely to encounter forgotten homelands, borderlands and boundaries, fragile dreams and familial obligations, and the inheritance of social and cultural expectation. Hopefully, in our explorations of our energy we’ll encounter the thrum of wild earth wisdom and hum of collective resonance that draws us back home to our bodies and the communities that we thrive in.

We can use the language of the land to guide us, learning how to ground like mountains, flow like rivers, change like the wind, find renewal through sun and flame. Centering the land in our practice not only as the source of our healing remedies but our collective wisdom as a species, helps us to keep grounded in the present moment, connect with the enduring legacy of intergenerational connection (beyond the latest digital distraction or social phase), and find ourselves part of the dream of a land that thrives with the stories we strived to live. 

Sacred Inquiry for Understanding Your Energy

How would I describe my energy using elemental language? 

What are my elemental strengths? What are my elemental shortcomings?

What clients do I think will be attracted to my practice as an herbalist?

How would I describe my ideal client? What do I expect of my clients? What does that say about my approach as an herbalist?

What boundaries do I have as an herbalist (these boundaries can be social, emotional, physical, financial, and so on)? 

What do I want my energy to feel like for my clients? What is the energetic landscape I am creating in my consultation space and/or with my offerings?

image via @lauraadaiphoto

The Year's Turning: Finding Your Seasonal Rhythms

Seasons of the year, seasons of life, generational seasons, seasons of practice and becoming, every one mingled with memory and expectation, trials and challenges, heartbreak and renewal.

As herbalists we are constantly traveling through the seasons of the lives of those who come to us for aid: walking with someone through a winter of their sorrow, helping little ones in the spring of their new life, sitting for a while in the limitations of a person's autumn as they recover from illness, and showing up for endless summer celebrations of guiding someone along the path of vitality. 

To keep a sense of where we are in our own life and practice, to experience the shelter of earth's healing guidance, we need to have a steady sense the seasons within our own inner landscape and the land that we live with. There's also the practical need for our seasonality as herbalists - we need to know when herbs are ready to harvest, when certain illnesses are more likely to arise at one point of the year, and adjusting our recommendations for folks based on the weather and what the weather brings.³

Finding out inner turning and changing in the land (and the land finding its changes within us) is one of the ways that we can remember that our practice is only possible because of the land, the plants who have offered their gifts to us, and the people who have listened long enough to find and form the words needed to tell the healing stories we pass around like so many cups of tea.  And as a Pagan I believe in the importance of seasonal celebrations to anchor us in kinship to the land and one another.

image via @midwestiscool

Finding the seasonal rhythm of your practice can look like reviving cultural traditions of your childhood that have fallen to the wayside in your adulthood but that still speak to you. Or making a commitment to show up for the seasonal festivals that resonate with your practice. But it can also just be a commitment to observing the land for a full turning of the year as you continue your herbal studies and start your practice as an herbalist.

When I moved to the place I'm living now I kept a simple garden journal where I wrote down when the Orange tree blossomed, when the Redwood tree grew new buds, when the grass became golden, and so on, creating a super local calendar of micro seasons to build upon. I now know that when the Cleavers (Aparine galium) start to go to seed that the first hot days of the year are close and that there will be a second blooming of the Calendula (Calendula officinalis) as the veil begins to thin at Samhain, reminding me to keep some of the summer's light in my winter remedies. I also have observed my inner seasons long enough to know that there are points of the year that I find hard and when I need to make lots of space for quiet downtime, and other points of the year where I'm ready to be out and about. I adjust my work as an herbalist to reflect these inner and outer seasons, to help me show up better to my practice.

I want to emphasize that this seasonal practice takes time to develop - it can't be rushed or achieved within a few hours. A seasonal practice needs to be lived over the years because it's a slow and profound sort of magick that unfolds at its own time and pace. And it's absolutely worth it. If we are to sit with the land of others, those who come to visit us and tell us what healing they are seeking to make their inner landscape thrive, we need to be able to recognize the rhythms of the land around and within us. Not only is the land around us one of the greatest teachers we have as herbalists (And the land is always with you! You're reading this while being held by the land!), but having a relationship with our inner landscape helps us be more compassionate about our shortfallings and gifts, helping us to avoid the pitfalls of burnout, of overstepping the limitations of our abilities, and knowing when our land is speaking too loudly for us to be able to effectively listen to the land of others. 

Sacred Inquiry for Seasonal Rhythms

What are ways that I celebrate the changing seasons of the year? How do I want to celebrate the changing year?

What are hard times of the year for me? What are my favorite times of year?

What does spring look like within me? Summer? Autumn? Winter?

How do I currently or want to work with my inner landscape on a regular basis?

image via @anniespratt

Webs of Kinship: Honoring the Land 

While I love that herbalism can take many varied forms, for me, the practice remains a land-honoring path. In my practice, to speak of the land is to speak of bodies both vast and communal - bodies of earth, bodies of water, bodies of sky, bodies of community - alongside the small and individual bodies of land that form each of us. If I am going to work with someone, whether to help them relieve a lingering cough, rebuild their immunity or restore their sleep cycle, I must begin by honoring the body of land that produced the remedies we'll be using and from which all of us emerge from, the land-body and inner landscape of the person I am serving, and the way that the boundaries and pathways exist between the our lands as practitioner and client.   

There are practical ways I honor the land in my work, from sustainable practices in the garden to supporting climate justice initiatives and rematriation, honoring the spirits of the land as part of my Pagan worldview. There are also all the ways that I bring in land-honoring practices within consultations and classrooms from using elemental language to honoring ancestors of land and place as part of my time together with clients and students. If I were still selling physical remedies I would be considering all of the ways I could be producing in a sustainable and zero waste fashion. But whatever I'm choosing to do in my practice, I try to choose from a place that is as land-honoring and earth-centered as I can feasibly achieve as an individual, letting go of expectations of perfectionism (a wholly un-grounded approach to anything) and seeking out joyful alternatives wherever I can.

As herbalists with busy lives and practices, it can be easy to become unmoored from the ways of being that help us feel centered and able to do the work that we are called to do. Creating an earth-centered focus as a student will serve you in the long run as a practitioner, helping you to travel the highs and lows of being an herbalist with greater ease with the land as a grounding foundation for your work.

Sacred Inquiry for Exploring Land-Honoring Practices

What am I in service to?

What are ways that I honor the plants in my practice?

What are ways that I currently honor the land in my practice?

What are ways that I want to honor the land in my practice? What are land-honoring practices that I feel inspired by?

How to I honor my non-human kin in my practice?

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As a land-honoring, earth-centering practice, herbalism is a practice of kinship and reciprocity that calls us into a place of belonging. Modalities like herbalism, when practiced with care and alongside other inclusive healing services, can be places where our inherent complexity is honored all while bringing much needed enchantment back into our lives to help call ourselves back home to our selves, our community, and the land.

For those looking for additional resuorces,if you're looking for inspiration for seasonal practice from a Pagan perspective, I've written a whole series on the wheel of the year. You might also like my "might-do lists" for each of the Sabbats and lunar phases. I also have a few resources for students and aspiring herbalists including a guide to starting your own herbal study group, a might-do list for your studies, and even a tarot spread made for students. If you’re looking for a deeper exploration into the gifts you carry as an herbalist and how to know and name them, come visit The Lunar Apothecary.

I also wrote a book about the land, seasonal herbalism, and how we might honor our the land within, around, and between us as a practice of belonging.

I hope that you found something useful in this exploration of earth-centered practices and that you’re feeling inspired to ground your practice in ways that’ll help you thrive as an herbalist. Because we need you and all of our plant-hearted kin!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

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Footnotes

1. The booklet was Traditional Uses of Herbal Formulations: An Herbalist's Guide for Natural Home Health Care by Deb Soule of Avena Botanicals. It was a free, pink, and smelled of Roses and full of incredible remedies alongside herbal advice - you can now access the digital version for free. These sort of generous free resources by herbal elders like Soule shaped my early understanding of how an herbalist should be a resource of knowledge and work to preserve and add to the free and open living library of our herbal traditions.

2. The earliest that I know of power-under being defined is in the 2003 book Power-Under: Trauma and Nonviolent Social Change by activist Steven Wineman.

3. For example, a hot and dry autumn is more likely to aggravate certain conditions more than a cool and damp autumn. With the growing unpredictability of the seasons, learning how to adapt to seasonal changes that can be vastly different year on year is an important skill to grow as an herbalist.

Herbs for Highly Sensitive People: Weekly Herbal Practices for Wellbeing

Having already explored the daily practices that can help those of us with heightened sensitivity thrive, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite weekly practices. These are practices that might be too much to practice everyday, but are great once a week or a few times a month. An important practice to cultivate as highly sensitive people are ways of tending to our sensory needs little by little instead of finding ourselves fighting against burnout and having to use up even more of our resources to get ourselves upright again. 

I see these weekly practices like sensory weekends - they should be something to look forward to and a purposeful break from more challenging sensory experiences we might have to manage on day-to-day basis. While I'll be sharing specific practices that I and my highly sensitive clients and students find useful, I hope you'll hopefully be inspired by the key concept of the practice to develop ones that are a best fit for you if you need something a little different.

image via @limone

Through the Herbs for Highly Sensitive People series we'll be exploring ways of creating these little zones of peace throughout our days, weeks, and months, making space for us to reconnect with our sensitivity in ways that feel empowering. Herbalism is a sensory rich healing tradition, full of sights, scents, tastes, and sensations, that draws us back into the collective wisdom pooled in our body and pulled up by our plant allies. Working with plants is one way that we, as sensitive folks, can honor the sensitive ways of our body by strengthening a resilience that reconnects while alleviating the symptoms of overstimulation. 

When I write of the body, I am referring to the body in its most expansive form including the physical, emotional, mental, and mythological body. I'm not trying to describe the emotional body as a separate part from the physical body, but rather that our bodies have emotional experiences intertwined with physical experiences intertwined with mental and mythological  experiences. Part of the practice of highly sensitive people is to explore through our bodies what we have been asked or forced to separate rather than create a healthy boundary. Being called "too sensitive" over and over again, for example, asks us to separate from our very real lived experience instead of creating healthy boundaries that help us feel less overwhelmed by our depth of feeling.

And for those who might balk at the term "highly sensitive" but find yourself reflected in a lot of the descriptions of high sensitivity - I feel you on that - and you might want to check out my first post in this series exploring some of the limitations of the "highly sensitive" moniker and how folks like Chris D. Hooten have proposed more culturally expansive and inclusive terms like highly responsive to your environment or HREs. I really like the term HRE and I highly encourage you to give Hooten's article a read.

I hope that these simple practices will fit in alongside any mental health services, community support groups, and the general network of good company in your friends and family. Plant medicine thrives as a stress-reducing, nervous system reparative, and preventative modality while helping us to return to a more earth-centered and affirming way of being in the world - a great path for any highly sensitive person to be on.

Weekly Herbal Practices for Highly Sensitive People

image via @hdhuong233

Sit With Plants

My dream for everyone is to be able to safely and easily find time to be outside with plants on a daily basis. But it can be challenging, especially for folks who live in an urban environment, to be able to sit amongst local flora including trees without attracting unwanted attention or in a place that feels peaceful enough to settle or accessible enough to even get to.

Even if you have easy access to being with plants on a daily basis, I encourage you to set aside time once a week to just be with your plant kin. Not gardening or making remedies or doing a ritual or divination or any thing other kind of doing, but showing up, slowing down, and being with your plant kin. Let yourself get caught up in beyond-human life for a bit.

We are asked to extend our consciousness into spaces that narrow and limit our expansive nature - whether driving through hectic traffic, staring at screens all day, stuck in buildings that cut us off from fresh air and light - so it's important to intentionally stretch our consciousness into spaces that allow for softness, ease, and openness. For highly sensitive or responsive people, we need more sensory breaks often through sensory cocooning where we purposely seek out sensory environments and experiences that are restorative to our overworked nervous systems. Plants are great consciousness-expanders, helping us to climb out of sensory pits of overwhelm and into spaces that feel more inviting, inspiring, comforting, and centering.

Practice Recommendations

Sitting with plants is a simple practice. Let’s say you find a beautiful Calendula (Calendula officinalis) to sit with. Let yourself softly gaze at their form and color - all of their variations of yellow, oranges, and greens. You're not looking for anything but letting yourself perceive the plant (and letting the plant perceive you back). You might want to touch leaves and petals, or not. If the plant is safe to pick a leaf or flower and ingest you might choose to do that, or not. If you feel that feeling of needing to do something or achieve something (such as believing that you must connect with the plant spirit in some profoundly meaningful way), let those thoughts pass through you like clouds across the sky. As you sit with your plant friend, allow yourself to sit with the sky and earth around, beneath, and within you. 

Let yourself notice the sky. Notice the earth. Notice colors, textures, sights, scents, and sounds. But noticing all these things with as little attachment as possible.

When done it can be nice to offer the plant a bit of water, a song or other biodegradable and environmentally appropriate offering. But it's also ok to say thank you in your heart and depart, not letting yourself get too attached to the process of "right" or "proper" offering either.  

Bonus Practice: Check In With Your Inner Landscape

As we sit with the world around us, we can also learn how to sit with the world within us - our very own inner landscape. Knowing our inner landscape is how we learn to advocate for ourselves, deviate from an unhelpful path, and create more peace in our life. It can be interesting to just notice what our inner landscape looks like (especially if this is your first time attempting such a practice), but there is also a lot of useful information that can be gleaned for observing the land within us and naming what we see.

For example, one person might observe a dullness to their inner landscape, which might mean that it's time to seek out those intensely immersive sensory experiences (going out dancing or to the movies) with their friends to help bring back that energetic spark. For others a dullness might mean still getting together with friends over the weekend, but suggesting heading out for a picnic in a quiet park instead of a noisy brunch spot, so they can feel rejuvenated without feeling further dulled by overextending themselves. 

Consciousness-expanding Plant Allies

While I think working with local plants and flower essences can be most helpful and interesting when sitting with your local floral, there are plenty of consciousness-expanding plants from the traditional western herbalism materia medica that are great to work with at most any time and any place. I've listed a few below and they can be great to take (as tinctures, teas, or your favorite type of remedy or topically as body oils or aura sprays).

🌿 Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis): If you're look for a plant ally to work with in your sitting with plants practice, I recommend starting with Lemon Balm. Lemon Balm is the plant I turn to for a sensory reset to help folks reconnect to the world around them after a period of overwhelm. A great nervous system tonic (see my first post in this series for more nervous system tonic recommendations), Lemon Balm carries bee magick and has a beautiful way of helping us find resonance with the collective buzz of the world. 

🌿 Rose (Rosa damascena): When in doubt or overwhelmed with all of the options for what type of herb to start working and seeking a connection with, choosing an ancestral plant like Rose can be a good place to start. Rose is an ancient plant, having watched our species evolve on the planet and it's an excellent nervous system soothing, heart opening, and consciousness-expanding plant ally to connect with.

🌿 Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris): Mugwort is a dreamy plant, helping to bring about a calm yet expansive state of being. I find that a little goes a long way and if you find that Mugwort works too strongly on your sensitive system, the flower essence is a great alternative. If you are able to work with a local variety of Mugwort, even better!

image via @lulisosabe

Honor Your Body

Our body is a temple of sensation, of intuition, and beats the marks of our genetic inheritance alongside our lived experiences. Just as we feed our internal body through eating, our external body needs nourishment too - not for beauty standards or out of fear of aging - but in the way that after a long week of sensory input it can be helpful to spend just a little bit of extra time helping our body feel grounded and centered. It is especially important to honor our body after a week of less than desirable sensory experiences, letting ourselves relax into the type of sensory input that we enjoy, signalling to our nervous system that it's ok to take a break and reset.

Topical treatments are abundant in herbalism, from oils to salves, baths teas to shower rinses, face masks and more. I have given simple instructions for some of my favorites below, but take this list as inspiration to find the type of topical technique that works best for you. I would emphasize focusing on simple and short practices - we are not looking to do marathon "wellness" routines featuring a dozen products, but something that is easy to do while being interesting enough to look forward to.

Recommended Practice

What topical remedy you choose to work with, with all its accompanying scents and sensations, is going to be a personal choice, but I've listed a few of my favorite topical treatments for the highly sensitive / highly responsive. 

✨ Herbal Baths or Shower Teas: Being able to soak in a bath infused with herbal tea or include a shower tea in your routine (i.e. a tea that you can pour over yourself and massage into your skin during a shower) are fantastic choices to a weekly sensory reset practice. You can also do foot or hand baths infused with herbs of your choosing (see the suggestions below) if a full bath feels like too much or is too not easy to pull off. 

✨ Oil Massage: There is something so soothing about using gently warmed herbal oil to massage into the body after a shower or bath. In general, massages can help to rebalance nervous systems and regulate our internal sensory environment. Adding an herbal oil, either made with one or more of the herbs suggested below, or working with a practitioner to develop an oil best for your constitution and skin needs, brings an extra layer of comfort and alleviation symptoms of stress. While a full body oil massage is great, you can also just focus on one part of the body (such as the hands or feet) and still experience a lot of benefits from the practice.

✨ Face Masks: A face mask of clay and powdered herbs mixed with oil, water, and/or honey is simpler than a full body oil massage but still chock-full of sensory benefits. It requires very little in terms of actual physical herbs and clay (about a tablespoon total of powdered herbs and clay is usually more than enough) and I like using a wide fan brush to "paint" the mask on. You can also use a hydrosol or floral water in place of water for even more herbal benefits. Starting with a facial massage before applying the mask can help to stimulate the vagus nerve and bring about a state of relaxation throughout the body.

✨ Aura Baths: For my magickally minded folks or my sensitive folks who have a strong relationship to scent, aura baths can be a fun practice to incorporate into your routine. One version of an aura bath is using your incense of choice (including simple blends of loose herbs) that you can use the smoke of to "bathe" your aura in. Since burning sacred plants is a universal human practice, there are so many opportunities to incorporate ancestral herbs and traditions into an incense practice. The other smokeless option is to mix flower essences and/or essential oils into a spray bottle and use the spray to "bathe" your aura. Using scents is a powerful way of letting our nervous system know that it can settle and center.

Topical Plant Allies for Honoring Your Body

🌿 Rose (Rosa spp.): Calming, anti-inflammatory, heart-opening Rose is a beautiful plant ally to work with for all sorts of topical treatments. It's a great ally to work with when you are prone to irritability, anger, and states of overheating and excitation.  I particularly love Rose water or including powdered Rose petals in a face mask. The flower and/or essence can be easily added to baths, too, and the flower essence is a lovely addition to aura sprays. 

🌿 Calendula (Calendula officinalis): Another great plant ally of the skin, Calendula is included in a lot of healing salves because it is useful for so many kinds of topical conditions. What I particularly love about Calendula as an oil or addition to an herbal bath is the way that it helps to soothe our bodies after prolonged exposure to the elements as well as environmental pollutants. It's a lovely, energy brightening ally to work with.

🌿 Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus): If your heightened sensitivity causes pain in your body, Rosemary is a gentle analgesic herb that you to incorporate into your herbal practice. Rosemary oil is particularly lovely for massage, but the herb can also be used in bath and shower teas. I also find it to be a particularly grounding scent to incorporate as an essential oil into an aura spray.

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I hope you found these simple weekly suggestions to take care of yourself useful, and that you're feeling inspired to imagine all the ways that working with plants regularly can cultivate an inner gentleness that is profoundly centering and strengthening.

For those of you looking for a more in-depth approach to herbalism and high sensitivity or if you work with a highly sensitive client base (including family members), I invite you to join me in Solace: Herbs & Essences for Highly Sensitive People.

Be sure to check out the first post in the series, Herbs for Highly Sensitive People: Daily Herbal Practices for Wellbeing, for more suggestions. In the meantime, may it feel increasingly easy for you to honor the ways that you are finely-tuned to experience the world with the beauty of depth and expansiveness.

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