Growing Community: How to Start an Herbal Study Group

Meeting up in-person, getting together for a chat, and spending time learning in community are vital to our individual happiness and collective wellbeing as a species.

My own journey as an herbal student was a mix of in-person classes, online courses, and self-guided study, with a mix of great, middling, and frustrating learning experiences. I've also been teaching in-person for over two decades and online for over a decade - and I've had my mix of experiences as a teacher from plenty of beautiful gatherings and plenty of clunky mistakes (like trying to teach when you're totally burnt out!). As someone who happily spends a lot of time contributing to the online library of resources for herbalists, healing practitioners, and magickal folk, I am also more committed than ever to making sure that the knowledge of how to host good gatherings and facilitate in-person learning spaces that leave people feeling inspired gets passed on to the next generation. I learned what I learned from what was shared with me by my own elders (including things I won't be replicating), including formal community organizing trainings, and from all the in-person learning opportunities I've been able to attend and host over the years.

So I’ve put together a little guide for hosting your own herbal study group or similar gathering, based on my own experiences of hosting these types of events. While it’s not an exhaustive guide, it’s a good starting point and I hope it’ll be helpful to those of you wanting to start an herbal study group or similar event but not knowing where to start.

The landscape of what sort of classes folks are able to access has radically shifted with the dominance of online social spaces and if generations who experienced life and gatherings pre-social media internet are not intentional about passing on knowledge of how to be in physical space together, that social muscle risks atrophying. Fortunately, it's a relatively easy fix and I hope that the following guide helps inspire folks across generations to strengthening our social muscles together.¹ As herbalists, we need these in-person get-togethers because I believe that plants speak to us as much as they speak through us, and learning about healing practices is as much of a community affair as the act of healing is.

So how do you host an herbal study group? Who's qualified to do it? What sort of resources do you need? Let's explore all these questions and more, complete with a sample outline for your first herbal study meet-up, and help support and inspire your own herbal community gathering in your part of the world. 

Before You Gather

image via @pmpietsch

Get Clear On Your Goals

You don’t need to be a practicing herbalist or even a senior herbal student to host an herbal study group, but you should have some clear intentions and goals. They don't have to be fancy or complex, but it's good to know your intentions for hosting an herbal study group and to set a goal or two to help you keep focused. These intentions and goals will also help you avoid trying to do too much at once or have other opinions drag you into work and commitments you don't want to make. Essentially, your intentions and goals are the soil of the gathering, helping your project grow strong roots and bear good fruit.

Starting with our intentions we can begin to understand what our goals are. Here are some sample intentions:

• I want to meet other like-minded folks interested in herbalism

• I want to share my experiences as an herbalist in a casual, low-commitment way (as opposed to offering formal classes)

• I want to study plants beyond just reading about them in books or making recipes on my own

Building off of those intentions, you can make some goals:

• Making herbal friends and having a regular herbal study group meet-up.

• Finding other teachers / experienced students I can collaborate with for future events.

• Creating an herbal collective that works on mutual aid projects together.

Of course, goals and intentions can change, but I always think it is better to start with something than nothing. Another way of looking at intention-setting and goal-making is that they are one of the ways that we set boundaries, which are essential to any sort of community resource-sharing practices (like a super cool herbal study group). 

Some boundaries you might consider, include:

• I can commit a total of 2 hours to a study group meetup.

• I can't provide free materials to the meetup, but I'm happy to share links to resources that folks can gather themselves.

• My skills are reserving and setting up spaces, but I'll need other folks to help with online communications.

Embrace Reciprocity

In-person gatherings, like an herbal study group, remind us that there is enough knowledge, inspiration, and energy to share amongst all of us. Decades of transactional-focused social media has created feelings of scarcity from feeling like we're constantly missing out, don't have enough followers or stuff or likes or influence, and pushing us into increasingly limited information spaces with algorithms meant to keep us scrolling, not informed or connected. When we feel limited in our resources it can be easy to fall into the trap of viewing everything as transactional, including our relationships of all kinds. 

I encourage all of us to embrace a spirit of reciprocity when it comes to hosting events. While there needs to be healthy boundaries, which can adapt and change as we adapt and change, the spirit of learning in spaces like herbal study groups thrive when their purpose is grounded in an open offering of knowledge. Let the transactional machine of social media stay online and let your gathering be held in the spirit of interdependence and free-flowing exchange. In-person conversations are much more nuanced, complex, and interesting than online ones, and its important that we protect our social ability to be in experience with others instead of being stuck in a place of constantly seeking a transaction. Reciprocity is also less-stressful and more fun than a transactional worldview, so let yourself shift your perspective and feel it out for a but.

image via @heftiba

Find a Place to Get Together

A place for an herbal study group should offer shelter from the elements (like a shady spot in a public park or a well-ventilated indoor venue), a place to go to the bathroom (whether public or private facilities), and somewhere that is accessible enough for your needs. If your study group is happening with a group of friends, then hopefully you'll be able to meet in your homes, but if you're hosting an event with a mix of peers and unknown folk, that isn't always going to be an option. 

Most free space options are going to be outdoor, like public parks (which is a great option for plant-loving herb folk), but sometimes local libraries or community centers offer facilities to reserve for free. Librarians are incredible matchmakers for finding free resources in your community, so show them and your local libraries love, and work with them when you can.

Holding a meet-up at the same time as a community event, like a weekly farmer's market, can be a great way to call folks together, where there are lots of opportunities for community-building (and buying your week's grocery while listening to the grooviest local jazz quartet) in addition to your gathering. 

Low-cost options include local coffee and tea shops, where often the price of either officially or unofficially using their space with the rest of the public is making sure all attendees purchase an item off the menu. If you have a local apothecary or metaphysical shop, they can also be low-cost options if they have classroom space to use. 

Yoga studios and similar centers can sometimes offer off-hours low cost rental opportunities, and they might be more interested in keeping a rental cost low if you're already a member of their classes or will be offering the study-group for free or donation-based. Other spaces like food co-ops with classrooms, local bookstores, and similar businesses might be open to your group using their space.

If you know that a local herbal study group is trying to find a space but is struggling with being able to afford to rent a spot, and you have the financial means to help out, go for it! I try to do this when I'm able to because I was modeled this by communities I've been a part of where folks recognize that we all bring what we can: from folks who bring amazing jugs of tea to share and others who know how to guide everyone through a plant ally meditation and those who help out by pitching in financially. Collaboration in the spirit of reciprocity!

image via @sir_jarvis

Who's Invited

If you're inviting folks you know, you're all set! For those of you opening up your meeting to acquaintances and strangers, there might be a few things to consider. You can do an open invitation to your complete social network, focus on in-town advertising at community hangouts or rely on your friend-of-a-friend network for inviting folks.

If you're nervous about complete strangers showing up to your study group, you don't need to make it an event where strangers are allowed. Stick with your comfort level and remember that just because you want to host a gathering, doesn't mean you're obligated to open it up to anyone beyond the folks you already know.

If you don't mind it being open to the public, but also don't want to find yourself feeling like you're stuck in a room full of strangers, hold your gathering next to an already happening event (like a farmer's market or bustling coffee shop), where it's open to the public while being in a public space with some good social norms in place (farmer's markets and coffee shops tend to be mellow spaces which can bring a desired mellow energy to your own gathering). 

You can have pre-signups available - especially if there are space limitations - which can also act as an initial filtering process, where you can share more about the event and social expectations.

Let People Know What's Up

So you've found the spot you're going to meet-up, chosen the date and time, and now it's time to invite folks!

When you are advertising your event, whether in a public forum or in a group chat, let folks know all the basic details of when and where an event is happening, but also be sure to include all the details that make it easier for folks to show up.

Part of intersectional and inclusive practice is creating access through information-sharing including letting folks know:

• If the space is or is not accessible (if it is in a room on the second story without an elevator - let folks know!)

• What public transportation lines (if any) exist nearby

• What the parking situation for both car and bike is

• What signage for the event will be up to let folks know they are in the right place (super important for events in large outdoor spaces)

• How to navigate a space if the entrance is not obvious

• Community etiquette whether that's not wearing heavy scents, no filming or photos, etc.

• Age restrictions and/or childcare

The list can go on depending on your community, the space you're holding the study group in, and so on. If the event is free, but you're planning on passing the hat for donations (whether physically or digitally), let folks know. If you're wanting to share food in the space or no food is allowed, let folks know. It's not about making unnecessary rules, but giving folks a big-hearted invitation with all the details to make it easier for them to show up.

Once folks get there:

• Let them know where the nearest bathroom is

• If folks are filling out nametags, point that out

• If there is water and food, point that out

• Let folks know who is leading/organizing the class

• Show them where they can sit and get comfortable

Of course, these things are going to shift and change if it is just a gathering with folks you already know really well, but I think every gathering benefits from there being a feeling of being invited in through letting folks know what is what. When I am able to for my own classes and events I love to have someone who is specifically in charge of welcoming folks into the space and helping them get settled. These welcoming practices makes a difference, especially with the increase anxiety so many folks have about showing up for in-person gatherings.

image via @naopp

Troubleshooting

Unwanted Encounters

I'm not going to lie, the rate at which (mostly, though not entirely) younger generations have been indoctrinated into surveilling and filming everyone without consent for the financial benefit of insatiable advertising-driven algorithms is intense and has changed the way that I think about public gatherings. And, I've also been against filming classes since I started teaching them because I want people to know that their private learning experience is not going to be broadcast for public viewership (a choice that I experienced a lot of criticism and outright hostility for over the years, but I've never regretted making it and still practice it for all my gatherings).

If you know that your study group is going to get bothered at the local public park, then it might be time to consider an indoor location (like a private room in a library that can often be rented for free). Try to see if one of your community members, that you know and trust, will let you meet up in their living room or backyard.

But if meeting in public is the only option, invite everyone into being aware of their environment and looking out for one another (including at the end of the event, making sure everyone's got a safe enough way home). I find that this practice of shared awareness helps to keep unwanted intrusions to the event at bay, but of course, work with your co-organizers to figure out what else you might want to put in place for the security of the event. 

Off Topic & Overrun

Having experience attending meet-ups with skilled facilitators is the best way to learn these skills, but If you find that folks in the meet-up are taking up too much airtime, getting off topic or overrunning the flow of the event, pulling everyone back to the outline for the class (see below) and reminding folks of time restraints (especially if you have a limited rental time) can often ground and center errant energy.

It's completely appropriate to be kind and direct when folks are taking up too much air time or otherwise derailing class flow ("hey, friend, we're going to let other folks have a chance to share their thoughts and ask questions now"). The best way I know to protect against disruption at events where structure matters, is to be clear on the class outline from the start which helps to lessen the opportunities for folks to overrun a meeting with inappropriate oversharing or any variation of over-explaining from a place of entitlement. In addition to having an outline for a meet-up I suggest letting folks know when the time for questions and conversations is going to be (I usually arrange for this to happen at the end of a meetup) and even use formats like small group sessions when there is a large group meeting so that there is more opportunity for more folks to speak up and share. 

Maneuvering all these issues comes with practice and you're not always going to get it right, but continuing to be curious about what it is you can do to change and adjust your perceptions and skills along with the expectations and energy of a meetup will help you grow in your skills as a facilitator. These facilitation skills will also help you as an herbalist, whether or not you choose to practice as a professional, and in any sort of activism work, so they are worth developing. These skills can also help to remedy some of the anxiety you might feel about in-person meet-ups and interactions knowing that you have a toolbox full of ways to work through more challenging interactions.

No One Shows Up

That's ok! Friends, this has happened to me and while it can be disappointing in the moment, it's not a big deal in the long run. You might need to change times and/or location, but sometimes you're going to have a no-show meet-up. That's part of the risk of putting yourself out there and I think that's a pretty fine risk to take, because other days it'll pay off and you'll have a great gathering of folk. Of course, making sure that your intentions and boundaries about the event mean that you're not engaging in burdensome financial risk (such as renting out an expensive venue without guaranteed attendees) or so much effort on your part that you’re burnt out.

It's Time to Gather!

image via @dienyportinanni

Setting the Tone

I love a good tone-setting for an event. In addition to everything from the Let People Know What’s Up section, setting the tone includes the way that you start and end the class as well as some of the social expectations you might choose to set. I love starting classes with a simple meditation to help everyone ground into the space and an acknowledgement of the land and those gathered. Class endings are quicker, full of gratitude for everyone whose been there, and making sure to let folks know of upcoming events and remind them of resources mentioned during class they might want to check-out. 

Sometimes it can be helpful, especially with a more informal meetup with a bunch of folks who don't know each other, to let folks know that this herbal study group is a great place to learn about healing with plants, but it is not a space to be healed by plants, receive medical advice or expect class discussions to be some for of group therapy. Not only does this respect the emotional boundaries of everyone present and help to protect the structure of the class, but it's also true. An herbal study group is an herbal study group and nothing more than that - what a relief! 

My goal with gatherings and classes is to celebrate that folks have been able to show up (no small feat!), to share my enthusiasm for our plant allies, and hopefully create a space for inspiration to flow between everyone present. In-person meetups are so much fun, in part, because of the real time enthusiasm that’s exchanged about a common interest - so feel into that!

A Sample Herbal Study Group Outline

The following is a sample outline that you can adapt for your own herbal study group and that I hope will hopefully boost your confidence when thinking about hosting an in-person event. 

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It's the first meeting of The Plant Ally Club!

They are meeting on Saturday from 10 to 11:30 AM in a park outside a public library (complete with easy access to water and free bathroom facilities, nice!). The group facilitators, Rosa and Moss, know that there might be an extra half hour of conversation afterwards, but they're fine with that and even have a lunch place around the corner to head over to if folks want to continue talking.

The invitations to The Plant Ally Club were semi-open - they were shared amongst Rosa's and Moss' friend groups with encouragement to share with their friends. Moss has brought iced herbal tea to share with everyone (folks were encouraged to bring their own drinkware) and Rosa is going to be the main facilitator for the event.

The plant ally they'll all be learning about is Calendula (Calendula officinalis) and Rosa was able to bring fresh and dried Calendula plants to show everyone, as well some Calendula oil and tea to let folks sample.

10 AM: Welcoming In & Setting the Tone

Moss greets everyone and offers them tea. Then Rosa excitedly welcomes folks to the first meeting of The Plant Ally Club and lets everyone know the outline of the class.

10:05 AM: Creating Space Together

Moss leads everyone through a simple breathwork practice (three big deep breaths in and out), then everyone shares their name and favorite color as a simple (and slightly silly) way of settling into space together.

10:15 AM: Meeting Our Plant Ally

Now it's time for class. Rosa is a professional herbalist and does most of the talking - at future Plant Ally Club meetings, things are more informal and lots of folks jump in with their favorite facts and stories about the plant being learned about. At different points, Moss helps to pass around the Calendula plant and remedies that Rosa has brought so everyone gets to learn about Calendula on a sensory level, too.

At one point, a participant starts to interject and veer off topic wanting to talk in-depth about mushrooms, mycelium networks, and the 5D human microbiome - Rosa gently redirects by letting him and everyone know that they can approach him after class to learn more.

11:00 AM: Conversations & Questions

The group is small enough that questions are done altogether instead of small groups. It's clear that questions and conversations could continue on for much longer, but after a bit Moss starts to bring the conversation to a close as the end of their time together draws near.

11:25 AM: Grounding

Rosa leads everyone through a super short and sweet grounding exercise to help those gathered retain what they've learned and feel settled enough to continue on with their day.

11:30 AM: Opening Space

Moss lets folks know of future meetings of the Plant Ally Club and everyone takes a moment to write down the names or take pictures of some of the herbal resources people brought. And then the first meeting of The Plant Ally Club is done!

♡

There you have it! A sweet and easy outline for a sweet and easy gathering. In my imagined scenario, an experienced herbalist, Rosa, was present to help guide class, but you can easily use trusted references like your favorite materia medicas or plant profiles to help guide the study portion of the class. As you continue to meet, folks will show up with different resources and ideas, teas will be made, and abundance begets abundance in what is shared. 

🌿

I hope that you found this guide helpful and that you're feeling inspired to start your own in-person herbal study group. If you’re looking for more resources about charging for events (because renting space can be so expensive) but want to do it in a values-centered, access-creating way, I have some resources on the sliding scale for you.

I think we're do for a revival of in-person community culture and my dream is to look back decades from now and see all the ways some of these groups are still going, inspired resources like books and art and media were brought into being through others, and that there are a whole lot of great stories to share (like Moss' infamous bitter roots tea and all the behind the scenes stories of the portraits of young herbalists Barbara took all those years ago). 

Remember, that the people that created the herbal and cultural resources we love and rely on today are just people like you and me. So let yourself create and collaborate and gather with your kin - I hope to see you out there!

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

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Footnotes

1 Also, some folks reading this guide from countries where third spaces are abundant, community centers still exist, human rights like access to health care and free education exist, might find this list quaint. And it is. Hopefully, though, the more we get together the more those of us who don’t have easy access to these basic human dignities can better understand just how different and better life could be.

Spring's Herbal Magick: Making Traditional & Modern Folk Charms

The tying of knots, the hanging of bundles of herbs, the collecting of charms into some sort of jar are all old forms of traditional magick used by common folk for millennia - likely including some of your ancestors. 

Simple, accessible, and known by a variety of names, charms like witch's ladders, spell jars, and herbal bundles, remain popular forms of magick to this day because they are easy to create and fulfill that need to feel like you are doing something when making your magick. 

I'm fond of folk magick not only because it is the form of magick I feel most at home with but because it so often involves plants - of which I am quite fond of, too. Folk magick has its own language and rhythm, full of ideas like the doctrine of signatures (which supposes that what an object looks like - its signature - tells you what it is useful for), ancestral myths transformed into easily digestible fables, family folktales, and a belief that we have power in our interconnectedness to create change.

I want to spend some time drawing on these folk magick inspirations to explore a pathway of herbal magick flowing through the seasons of the year. We'll work with three common forms of physical folk magick each season, exploring the same arts of magick through the lens of the changing year, beginning with spring. With each charm I'll focus on one plant ally to incorporate into your magickal working, helping to inspire your magickal herbalism practice. Finally, what I love about these crafts of the Craft is the way they can be shaped and formed to reflect our personal styles and desires, creating ways of reflecting the beauty of our inner world to the world around us.

What is wonderful about most types of folks magick is that they have a foundational form (a bottle filled with stuff) that can be used for a variety of purposes (a bottle full of stuff to help us get our dream job). The folk magick items we'll be exploring can be used in a variety of ways, including as:

• Gifts and offerings

• Acts of devotion, creating an item for a particular deity or spirit of place

• Connections to ancestors by integrating cultural relevant plants and items

• Decorations for sabbats and esbats

• Containers for a specific sort of energy

So let's explore how we can create Witch's Ladders, Bundles, and Bottles as one of the ways to connect with the seasonal rhythms of the year and our beloved plant allies.

The Witch's Ladder

Traditionally made of woolen cord, rope, woven thread or hair and knotted with items like feathers, holed stones, sticks and bits of metal, witch's ladders are a beautiful form of magick that combine charm-making with knot magick and weaving spells. The witch's ladder has remained popular among modern practitioners, supported in part by the Priestess Doreen Valiente's Spell of the Cord, an inspired modern variation of older forms of spoken knot magick. Energetically, they can act like a net, gathering up energy to hold in place and to either be drawn upon (in the case of beneficial energy) or released elsewhere (in the case of baneful energy).

I think my own exposure to the witch's ladder was through the work of Scott Cunningham in one of his books on folk magick - it's remained one of my favorite forms of charm-making ever since.¹ Witch's ladders can be made with all sorts of things, so long as you are able to tie them with your cord. You can focus on fully biodegradable components (essential if you're making a ladder that is going to be hung and left outside to naturally fall apart) or small plastic figurines alongside wooden coins carved with sigils, crystals, and feathers. They are a wonderful way to create a visual reminder of your craft and intentions while the skill of co-current charm speaking and working. 

I love simple cords for my witch's ladders, but the re-vitalization of crafts like macrame has meant that the practice of making witch's ladders is as much an art form as it is a practical bit of magick. I think starting simple is best - frustration can be cumbersome to magickal ritual - but I recommend seeking out the ladder-making practice that will allow you to slip into as much of a flow state as possible as you make it. 

A Witch’s Ladder To Stir Up Energy

Spring is a season of growing energy and as magickal folk we can connect to the rising tide of possibility with a simple witch's ladder that helps to stir up and collect energy. Spring's ladder acts like a simple net to gather energy so that you can draw upon it for your spells and rituals. I think all witch's ladders benefit from bells, but I especially like bells on one for spring to connect with the noise of the season of increasing light and life. 

Dandelion Leaves (Taraxacum officinale) are the plant ally we'll be working with for spring because they not only resemble feathers traditionally used for a witch's ladder, but carry a strong energy of air and the gifts of movement, communication, and stirring up energy. Dandelion is a plant that is both expansive and grounding - a great combination for working with spring's mercurial nature. As part of your ladder-making ritual, you could name each leaf for the type of energy you want to bring into your life as you braid them into your ladder, such as energy for a certain project, energy to clear out stagnation, energy for love, energy for boundaries, and so on. When working with Dandelion as a magickal plant ally it helps to approach them with the energy of wishfulness, whispering to them what it is you desire as you craft your spell.

A Dandelion Charm

By root so deep
And wishes so sweet
By leaf and flower so bright
Gather up spring
Gather up dreams
As day outgrows the night

Other plants like sticky Cleavers (Galium aparine) and bright shining Calendula (Calendula officinalis) can be added, but consider what you have available, the plants that are growing around you (or one's saved up from last spring's harvest that need using), and enjoy the process of using what you have at hand. Flowering plants as well as flower shaped objects (including beads and paper flowers), orange and yellow colored stones or items, and bells are all great items to consider for your spring witch's ladder. 

Creating Your Ladder

To create a witch's ladder use cord, thread or yarn to braid or not your chosen objects into a long hanging cord. How long you make your witch's ladder is up to you, but I find that they work better when shorter when being hung outside and can be a bit longer when keeping it inside. I like to start by laying out all objects I'll be tying into my witch's ladder before me on my altar, blessing them with the four elements of fire (candle light), air (incense), water (water infused with flower essences or salt), and earth (sprinkling herbs over the items or laying the items on a stone surface). I like to use some variation of a cord charm when knotting my items, like Valiente's or the one written above, changing the language for my needs. 

Once all items are added, the witch's ladder can be hung up by an altar, window or door. For a spring witch's ladder I like to make ones that'll either hang just outside my door or beside a window, so that the ladder is able to dance in spring's winds.

The Witch's Bundle

The simplest of our three traditional folk magick charms, a witch's bundle is a collection of exclusively or mostly plants with other items (such as old skeleton keys, a nice stick, a hunk of rock) tied up together and hung up above a door (or bed or other auspicious place). I make bundles throughout the year and they double as offerings once they've dried and I can burn them as incense or toss them in a sabbat fire. Some of the oldest types of witch's bundles that I've come across were meant for protection, from protecting a house from lightning and fire to hanging above the crib of a newborn to protect them from malevolent energies (but please be wise about anything you put above or around a crib if you're interested in this folk practice). In general, bundles help to hold energy, sticking it to a specific place or intention. 

Nowadays witch's bundles are used for all sorts of magickal desires from drawing in good fortune to cleansing energy. I love the ways that these bundles of herbs and other charms help to dress up our homes and bring a bit of the outside in. I have magickal bundles hanging throughout my own space, but I also have practical ones of herbs that I use frequently and can draw from daily when making teas or burning as incense. Bundles can also be taken down from where they are hanging and used to "brush" and cleanse the energetic body in place of or alongside incense. 

Witch's bundles, like all of the magickal crafts listed here, can be endlessly personalized to match your need, your aesthetic preferences, and reflect your relationships. If you're studying a particular plant ally you might include them in your witch's bundle (if the herb has already been dried and processed, you can add some into a little pouch and tie it to your bundle). If you are working with a deity that is fond of one particular color, choose that color of cloth or string to tie up your bundle. If you're a cool goth witch, add the skulls and gothic crosses to your bundle of dried Rose (Rosa spp.). Let yourself enjoy the process of finding your creative magickal expression - it helps you understand better what it you're using magick for in the first place.

A Witch's Bundle for Balance

Spring is one of two seasons that carries the energy of the equinox, helping us to connect with the spirit of balance within and around us. As long nights retreat with the passing of winter and longer days arrive with the start of spring, making sure to invite in energy that helps us feel grounded, centered, and steady will help us to thrive during this season of expansiveness. For spring I like to create witch’s bundles that help me to stay connected to my sense of equilibrium so I can enjoy the increase of the season’s energy without feeling overwhelmed. 

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is one of my favorite herbs for finding balance between our inner world and the world around us. Lemon Balm is a beautiful nervous system tonic or nervine, a key type of plant to work with when you want to find and cultivate balance in your life. Energetically, Lemon Balm helps us to connect with the path of peace within us, understanding our relationship to the collective without becoming overwhelmed by the world. Lemon Balm is a guide through the web of life, helping us to feel secure in our needs and knowings. The herb is also traditionally used in spells to bring about love in all its forms and since finding balance in our lives is an act of love, it's a great plant ally to have around.

A Lemon Balm Charm

To and fro
Ebb and flow
Balance comes
Balance grows
Fro and to
Flow and ebb
Balance holds
Like a web

Other plants like Sage (Salvia spp.), Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus), and Lavender (Lavandula spp.) help us to grow the inner wisdom needed within us to find balance in our lives. Adding symbols of balance such as scales, circles or triskeles, blue and purple items such as stones and ribbons, as well as any visual reminders that help you to remember to pause and connect with your inner wisdom are great additions.

Creating Your Bundle

Bless all your objects as described in the above section "Creating Your Ladder." Once you've collected all of your items (such as a bunch of Lemon Balm), use a colored thread or ribbon of choice to tie up your bundle. I like to tie the top part and leave the rest loose, but you can tie up everything from top to bottom. The advantage of the latter technique is that you can tie larger objects inside the bundle, even hiding them from view if that's your preference. Once tied up, hang the bundle above an altar, door, or window. 

The Witch's Bottle

A fair amount of my professional life involves putting plants in bottles, storing them for when they're needed, handing out jars full of tea to friends and family, toting bottles full of tinctures and flower essences back and forth to classes. It's no surprise then that witch's bottles have a soft spot in my heart. Witch's bottles of old were often protective or vindictive in nature, containing all sorts of interesting ingredients from rusty nails to hair to urine. I remember reading about them as a kid and connecting with just how visceral witchcraft could be - how this art of connecting with the intangible relied so much on the deeply tangible body of the practitioner.

Traditionally, witch's bottles or jars were buried or hidden away from view in the back of cupboards, sometimes even between walls, beneath floors, or high up in the attics. They embody the magickal practice of doing the work and then letting it be, allowing the magick to continue to unfold in its own time. Sometimes jars are made for a short period of need (such as a honey jar for attracting a job) and then the contents are offered back to the earth, while others are more permanent and meant to be mostly forgotten. Other times, jars and their contents can be renewed on a regular basis (such as at the Full Moons or the sabbats). Energetically, witch's bottles tend to act like generators, helping to generate an outcome or a specific type of energy.

I know many a witch who made magickal bottles full of plants and stones in their younger witchling days, often reusing food jars and sealing them up with bits of wax or thread. It's practically a magickal rite of passage to come across an old witch's jar many years later - perhaps when moving or cleaning out a back corner of a closet - and to have completely forgotten its purpose (which I consider a good sign). Whether or not you prefer the "make it and forget it" method or like displaying your witch's bottles in a spot where you can appreciate them daily, they are a wonderful living relic of our magickal pasts carried with ease into our magickal futures.

A Witch's Bottle For Luck

Spring’s energy carries with it a wild quality of luck, where it feels like the wind might nudge you in the right direction at just the right moment for something magickal to occur. A witch’s bottle can help us keep a little luck generator going so that we can increase our possibility of an encounter with Lady Luck. A luck bottle should be full of luck-drawing and energizing components, whether cultural symbols or symbols that you find to be personally lucky. If small enough, the bottle can be carried on the person, but larger bottles can be tucked behind the altar or in a similarly hidden place so that it can do its work unhindered.

I love Lavender (Lavandula spp.) for luck magick. Carrying the energy of Mercury, brightly scented Lavender is a little luck magnet, not least of which because it strengthens our intuitive gifts, essential for moments of luck. The herb helps us to keep calm and focused while naming our needs with intention so that when luck does come our way, we are able to see it for what it is. Lavender is one of those magickal panacea herbs and helps with most any ritual or spell you might be performing, again helping us to cast a wide net for luck and possibility.

A Lavender Luck Charm

Luck is found
in this home
where I visit
where I roam
between the sky
the sea and me
through the land
luck flows free

Other herbs to consider for your luck-making are Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Basil (Ocimum spp.), and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris). Any and all lucky symbols that you connect with can be added to a jar, including lucky pennies that you found while out and about and all sorts of spring flowers. Green stones, ribbons, buttons, and charms as well as magnets all do well in a luck bottle.

Creating Your Bottle

Bless all your objects as described in the above section "Creating Your Ladder." Make sure you have a tight sealing bottle or jar so to prevent items from leaking out if you are using any fluids or from pests getting in. Add your herbs and charms in one-by-one, naming their purpose as you go, and then you can seal your jar with wax or tie it up with ribbon to seal in or bind up the magick. Once completed choose where your bottle is going to live, whether in the house, mode of transportation, place of school or work or buried (especially good for banishing magick, though make sure all items are biodegradable).

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For more magickal inspiration for your folk charms, how about creating charms for the three primary points in your birth chart, starting with your Sun sign? Or a might-do list for the Spring Equinox? I also explore more of spring's plant allies, healing paths, and magickal ways over here.

If you've found yourself wanting to learn more about traditional forms of folk magick, I highly recommend checking out museum archives like the Museum of Witchcraft. While The Museum of Witchcraft has a focus on British and European witchcraft, there is a growing library of online and printed resources of many of the magickal folk traditions out there.

I hope you find inspiration from tradition while trying new things and bringing in modern and future-dreaming sensibilities into the practice of the Old Craft. 

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

📚

Footnotes

1. Blessed be the living memory of big witch brother Scott for laying a solid foundation of folk magick for so many of my generation. Scott Cunningham wrote a number of great books based on his folk magick research and lived experience as a practitioner - Earth Power: Techniques of Natural Magic is a great place to start!

Herbs for Highly Sensitive People: Daily Herbal Practices for Wellbeing

After a few years of working on and off with clients in-between teaching and running my small remedy shop, I started to notice a pattern with the types of folks who were drawn to my practice and the ones that I felt most capable of serving. A lot of them were herbalists or in similar fields. Most of them were activists and organizers. There were folks who were neither, many who were both, but all had similar issues with burnout, some variation of emotional fatigue, and generally what you end up with when you make sure everyone else at the table is fed but you don't always remember to feed or be fed yourself.

At first I thought that this was just how herbalists and activists are, but I've met enough of both to know that not all had a deeper sensitivity to life when compared to their peers like so many of my clients and students. It was a pattern I saw in myself but didn't have a name for until a few years ago when a wise therapist I was working with suggested I look up what  a "highly sensitive person" was.

I balked. I wasn't sensitive and especially not highly sensitive. I was a force to be reckoned with, indefatigable, and I had long disproven the critics of my childhood who called me "too sensitive" by pushing myself beyond my limits again and again. I thought the idea of a highly sensitive person sounded like pseudoscience and even if it wasn't I was trying to overcome or at least tame my sensitivity, not embrace it. But I also trusted my therapist, read some books, and was relieved to realize that what I read was surely what everyone experienced, right? Right?

Not really. Of course, everyone has moments of intense sensitivity but some folks live in a heightened state of sensitivity to their environment as their everyday baseline.¹ As I began to explore my own high sensitivity, I started to slowly realize that the pattern I was spotting among those I served and many of my students was high sensitivity. While it took a few more years to unlearn lessons of false dichotomies of sensitivity versus toughness and begin to embrace the way I feel my way through life, eventually I learned to love sensitivity as a gift. Sensitivity has served well as an herbalist drawn to working with sensitive folk as well as helping everyone I serve reconnect to the rich wisdom of their sensory worlds.

Being highly sensitive can be overwhelming when we live in a multitude of noisy worlds whether you live in a car-centric noisy city to all of our increasingly unavoidable digital spaces. There is a stigma with sensitivity within cultures that rely on productivity as a sign of strength and worth, as sensitivity points out ways that many of the systems we set up serve few of us well, and modern definitions of high sensitivity don’t always take into account the intersectionality of identity and experience when helping someone navigate sensitivity.²

Honoring and connecting with our sensitivity allows us to explore the experience of "something doesn't feel right" which can lead to all sorts of transformative rabble-rousing within our lives and communities. Sensitivity is an essential part of changing culture, but as individuals within those culture-changing communities, we need to find ways of supporting our sensitive needs.

image via @anniespratt

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 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 has 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'm all about expanding on language to invite more folks to the table.

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. 

Daily Herbal Practices for Highly Sensitive People

image via @meguminachev

Drink Your Tea

The combination of hot water, healing plants, and a sturdy vessel to hold it in, makes herbal teas one of the loveliest healing practices to partake in daily. I love tea for its familiarity and ease of making as well as how it physically acts in the body - drinking warm water is one of the ways we can help calm our nervous system and adding in healing plants make the experience that much more useful. Teas are relatively inexpensive, easy to find pre-made, and if you grow your own little patch or windowsill of herbs, a great way to bring fresh herbs into your routine. Your daily tea can just be a tea that you love to drink and that feels good in your body and doesn't need to be specifically geared towards a healing need or full of nervines.

Making tea is also a simple way to participate in the process of creating remedies and being an empowered participant in answering your healing needs. Whether a pre-made blend, something you've put together or combining herbs each day as you need them, making tea helps us answer the question "What is it that my body needs?" with a practical curiosity. 

Practice Recommendations

Choose the same time each day to prepare and enjoy your herbal tea. A rhythm of calming practice is one of the ways that we invite our nervous system to settle. Of course, if it makes sense for you to have two or three tea-making times a day, go for it! A morning brew can help us create calm first thing in the morning, whereas tea at the end of the school or work day can help us ground and center after being out in the world (whether physically or mentally if you work or study from home), and evening tea helps prepare our body for rest.

Make your ability to access healing practices as easy as possible. For me, this means making a quart jar worth of herbal tea first thing in the morning that is ready for me whenever I need it for the rest of the day. You can also make a tea concentrate to keep in your fridge, adding it to hot water whenever you need it (a tea concentrate will keep for about 3 - 4 days in the fridge).

Needing extra emotional support or just want to add to the feeling of making magickal potions? Add a few drops of whatever flower essences (see below) you're working with. When you're dealing with overwhelm and dysregulation, trying to figure out what is happening, how to feel better, and the all the feelings that can accompany the process can feel serious, complicated, and daunting. Adding play and light-heartedness into our practices can not only help us experience moments of relief, but helps cultivate hope and the ability to spot pathways of possibility where they exist.

Tea Plant Allies for Highly Sensitive People

🌿 Milky Oat (Avena sativa): If I could only stock a handful of herbs in my apothecary, Milky Oat would be at the top of my list. Milky Oat is my favorite nervous system herb and as stress is an underlying factor for most of the illnesses and symptoms that I see in my practice, and gets in the way of folks being able to sit with and explore their experiences, it is a vital and beloved plant ally of mine. Milky Oat is a nervous system ​​trophorestorative making it an ideal plant ally to work with for most any nervous system needs.

🌿 Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis): An herb of joy, Lemon Balm is the ideal companion for those who are dealing with issues of energetic overextension. Indications for Lemon Balm include signs of brain fog connected to social burnout or bring on the precipice of social burnout (including social media driven fear of missing out), nervous anxiety and worry that results in insomnia and/or digestive issues (i.e. a nervous stomach).

🌿 Chamomile (Matricaria recutita): A gentle and calming nervine, a key indicator that Chamomile may be useful is digestive issues. A classic remedy for those sensitive folks with sensitive stomachs where they feel emotional upset in their gut.

🌿 Rose (Rosa damascena): Beautiful, amazing, unfolding Rose! Rose has gentle nervine qualities with the extra magick of thorn medicine. Rose is an ancient herbal ancestor and they’ve been a guide of healing wisdom through the ages - who better to turn to when life feels too big and overwhelming than to one who has seen it all and thrived? One of my favorite herbs for sensitive folks and empaths alike.

🌿 Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): Skullcap is great for folks with lots of anxiety, especially when experiencing a lot of hurried and worried thoughts that leads to disrupted sleep. Indications for Skullcap include nervousness, fear of overwhelm, overwork, difficulty resting or focusing because of constant mental chatter, insomnia, and general hyperactivity.

Standard dosage for tea is 1 heaping teaspoon of dried herb per 1 cup of water, steeped for 15 to 20 minutes. If you’re looking for tea blend recommendations, my Bliss Blend recipe is one that I recommend often to highly sensitive folks. You might also like one or more of my Tea for the Tired blends.

image via @ornellabinni

Play With Flower Essences

I love flower essences and their subtle healing ways. They seem to operate somewhere within the world of psychoneuroimmunology and are an interesting way of connecting to the emotional wisdom of the body to help with healing. They are very easy to make and I find them a wonderful way to get to know local flora through the essences that local practitioners will create (it is here that I encourage you to start up a flower essence exchange with your fellow plant folk friends).

There are plenty of ways to choose what flower essences to work with, but I like the traditional approach of reading statements of challenge (i.e. the difficult emotional state that you're currently in) and affirmation (i.e. the emotional state you want to be in) and observing the somatic responses of the body to those statements to discern the right flower essence. I have found again and again that highly sensitive folks thrive with this sort of feelings-based method of working with plants. And, sense flower essences are a form of vibrational remedy and contain no actual plant material within them, it's also a safe way to work with plants without having to know all of their physiological uses.

Practice Recommendations

While you can find my full guide to using flower essences over here, in general, you use flower essences by adding a few drops to your drinking water or tea each day. They can also be used directly under the tongue or massaged into the skin.

Flower essences are great to keep right by the door so that when you walk back in the house after being out and about you can take a few drops to help you settle back into your body. They can also be added to a spray bottle and used like an aura spray for the same results.

Flower Essences for Sensitive Folks

Below you'll find a list of some of my favorite flower essences with their corresponding emotional statements. I recommend reading them aloud and if you have a sensory response to one of them, you might consider working with it on a daily basis. 

🌿 Water Violet (Hottonia palustris)
Challenging Emotional State: I hide my sensitivity with extreme independence which creates a barrier between me and other people.
Affirmation: I use my sensitivity as a point of connection in my relationships.

🌿 Oak (Quecus robur)
Challenging Emotional State: I push myself even when exhausted.
Affirmation: I have healthy boundaries and know when to stop and rest.

🌿 Elm (Ulmus procera)
Challenging Emotional State: I consistently take on too much which leads to fatigue.
Affirmation: I know and respect my limits.

🌿 Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
Challenging Emotional State: Energy moves erratically throughout my body and I feel little control.
Affirmation: Energy moves through my body efficiently and effectively so I may use it wisely.

🌿 Larch (Larix decidua)
Challenging Emotional State: I lack confidence in my abilities.
Affirmation: I am confident in who I am and what I am capable of.

You can find my complete list of flower essences (and plant ally) recommendations for highly sensitive folks over here.

image via @pladdermf

Nourish Your Nervous System with Tonics

A tonic is a type of herbal remedy that is restorative to our vitality and can be taken over an extended period of time to reestablish harmonious function in the body. Whether a tea, tincture or other form of remedy, having a rotation of nervous system tonics that you can take on a daily basis will help develop agility in your response to stimuli and ability to access healthy emotional responses while protecting against stress. 

While a daily tea practice is as much about the process and experience of drinking tea as it is about working with herbs, a nervous system tonic is a focused approach to specific healing needs. A nervous system tonic might be something you use throughout the day as acute needs arise and/or simply use alongside other practices like a daily tea. A tonic might also feature herbs that don't make it into your tea practice because of their taste but you can still bring them into your rotation in tonic form.

I like to have a few prepared blends or simple (i.e. single herb tinctures) on hand that I can choose from day-to-day based on my needs. Various nervines bolster the health of different body systems which means, for example, that we can work with a plant like Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) when we're looking for mental clarity in addition to nervous system support or California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) if we need help relaxing deeply for sleep. 

Practice Recommendations

I think nervous system tonics shine as tinctures and glycerites, where they can be easily carried in a bag or pocket as you go about your day. Of course, they are excellent in tea or capsule form - I always have a few pre-made nervous system tea blends made up and ready to go so that I don't have to spend too much time or energy preparing a mix when I'm feeling out-of-sorts.

Add keywords to your labels, whether you've purchased or made your nervous system tonics, so that you can easily figure out which remedy is for which need. Adding "sleep aid" to your tincture bottle of California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) or "brain fog buster" to your Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) capsule container goes a long way in helping you figure out what herb is the best for your current needs. Welcome in playfulness and pleasing aesthetics (you can put stickers on your containers, have fun!) to help make the process of working with herbs that much more enchanting.

Nervous System Plant Allies for High Sensitivity

All of the plant allies recommended in the tea section as well as:

🌿 Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica): The brain-shaped leaves of Gotu Kola speak to its affinity for mental health and brain vitality. As a brain tonic (i.e. nootropic) it supports general cerebral health as well as alleviating conditions such as brain fog and mental fatigue. Indications include mental fatigue that can occur alongside sensitivity, hyperactivity, mental and emotional exhaustion, and recovering from illness.

🌿 Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca): Motherwort is like a hug in a tea cup and is an herb that shifts energy for the better faster than most other herbs I have encountered. A great ally for times of intense change where you feel like you've lost your energetic balance. The herb works on the sympathetic nervous system, bringing calm and soothing energy. Indications include heart palpitations due to stress, indigestion, nervousness, insomnia, depression, restlessness, and general anxiety. 

🌿 Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus): If you're dealing with issues of fatigue, but find caffeine too stimulating, a gentle adaptogen like Eleuthero might be a good plant to consider. The herb helps to regulate the endocrine system, including the adrenals, which in turn reduces fatigue and helps to protect against the damaging effects of stress. Indications include brain fog, fatigue, and sensitive folks who are affected by environmental pollutants, social noise, and the stress of living in busy urban areas.  

🌿 Linden (Tilia x europaea): Linden is a wonderful plant to work with where excess states of tension has led to feeling stuck and low. A good plant ally when it feels like you're struggling to settle back into oneself. Indications for Linden include difficulty sleeping, signs of excess heat like irritability, impatience, high blood pressure, heart palpitations caused by stress, and a general state of agitation.

Vervain (Verbena spp.): Vervain is a great ally for those sensitive folks who struggle with excess tension and a feeling (whether literal or metaphorical) that they can't even turn their head for another perspective because they have so much to hold together to just get through the day. Indications include stiff neck and shoulders, tension headaches, low moods, and general irritability.

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If you take away anything from this guide, I hope it is to begin a daily tea-drinking practice as a way to invite in the wisdom that all of us deserve to be cared for on a daily basis.

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.

And for those of you just coming to know the joyful possibilities that exist because of your high sensitivity, welcome! I hope that you find comfort and inspiration in knowing that you’re in good company and that there is a world full of plants and people here to help welcome you back home.

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

📚
Footnotes

1. High sensitivity is, of course, not limited to highly sensitive people, but is a common trait in many neurodiversities including autism and ADHD.

2. I highly recommend this essay by Neurodivergent, Intersex, and Gender-expansive writer Chris D. Hooten - I would have loved to have had an article like this to read when I was first learning about high sensitivity nearly a decade ago.

Finding Harmony: Licorice Plant Profile

Before I began my formal herbal studies, I thought that all herbal tea (i.e. the prepackaged stuff you could only find at specialty health food stores when I was a kid) had a distinct and similar herbal taste. That herbal taste was, in fact, Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), a herb whose flavor remains a popular choice for herbal teas since it can mask less pleasant bitter notes in everything from digestive blends to cold care brews.

While I wasn’t a huge fan of the Licorice taste as a kid, it’s now become a nostalgic flavor for me, remind me of my early days of trying to get to know plants as a yet-to-be herbalist. Even better, Licorice is become a reliable plant ally in my apothecary, it’s easy sweetness offering all kinds of healing gifts.

So, friends, let’s explore the lovely path of Licorice, it’s abilities to harmonize any herbal blend it is added to, and the many ways it uses its gift of sweetness to bring about healing.

image via daderot

Licorice
(Glycyrrhiza glabra)

Common + Folk Names : Liquorice, black sugar, grandfather herb, honeygrass, lacers, sweet root, sweetwood, orozuz, ragaliz, lycorys

Element : Water, Earth

Zodiac Signs : Carries the energy of Taurus, Gemini, and Virgo. A remedy for Capricorn.

Planets : Mercury, Venus, Jupiter

Moon Phase : All Moon Phases

Tarot Cards :  The Magician, the Hermit, Two Cards, the Suit of Cups, the Suit of Pentacles (learn more about the connections between the tarot and herbs)

Parts used : Roots

Habitat: Native in South and North America, Australia, and Eurasia. 

Growing conditions : Sun to partial shade with salty, alkaline soil and moderate watering.

Collection : Harvest the two year old roots in the fall.

Flavor : Sweet

Temperature : Neutral to cooling

Moisture : Moist

Tissue States : Dry/Atrophy primarily, but all tissues states generally

Constituents : B-complex vitamins, choline, phosphorous, potassium, glycosides, saponins, phytoestrogens, flavonoids, amines, essential oils.

Actions : Adrenal tonic, alterative, antacid, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antitumor, antitussive, antiviral, aperient, aphrodisiac, demulcent, emollient, expectorant, febrifuge, galactogogue, hepatoprotective, immunomodulator, nutritive, pectoral, phytoestrogenic, sedative, tonic.

Main Uses : Before I met Licorice as a medicinal plant, I knew them as an overpowering flavor of candy that mostly the older people in my life seemed to like. Later on it became a flavor that I associated with vaguely hippy types in the northeast who seemed to love prepackaged herbal teas with Licorice as a primary ingredient (and I loved that I was invited over for tea). When I began my herbal studies in earnest, Licorice was introduced to me as a harmonizing herb that could pull together all the other herbs in a blend into a powerful and effective remedy.

A predominant herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine for its harmonizing gifts and inherent sweetness, Licorice also shows up in Ayurvedic tradition prizes as a rasayana or restorative herb that improves overall mental and physical health Within traditional western herbalism, Licorice is considered an adaptogenic herb with resonance to the immune and digestive system. Licorice has been used within the traditional western herbalism materia medica with Hildegard von Bingen noting the herb is good not only for improving digestion and eyesight, but helps to calm and focus the mind.¹

image source

Licorice is a fantastic ally when dealing with adrenal fatigue and its accompanying symptoms. Look for signs of fatigue, craving for sweets with elevated blood sugar levels, and a poor immune response. As an immunomodulator Licorice has a wonderful way of adapting to the needs of our immune system, helping to stimulate an under-responsive immune system or calming an overactive immune response. As a lung tonic, Licorice helps create a productive cough and clear out the airways with specific indications for dry coughs, wheezing, laryngitis, and bronchitis. The sweetness of Licorice helps make more bitter lung herbs like Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) or Elecampane (Inula helenium) more palatable in a respiratory tea. Cough drops with actual Licorice in them are great for helping with hoarseness, cough, and wheezing and are an old form of traditional western herbal remedy.

Licorice helps with a variety of indigestion symptoms (especially when the digestion is dry - look for signs of constipation and dry stools), including gas and constipation, as well as chronic conditions such as IBS, leaky gut, and Crohn’s disease. Carry bags of Licorice tea with you when you travel to help keep your digestion regular. 

The herb is also a useful endocrine tonic, helping with cases of adrenal fatigue and general states of stagnation and lack of tone from muscular weakness to hypo- conditions like hypotension and hypoglycemia. When there seems to be overall weakness throughout multiple body systems, endocrine tonic herbs like Licorice might be helpful, as well as during times of hormonal change including menopause.

Licorice is antiviral and useful in cases of chronic viruses such as herpes and HIV as well as acute conditions like the ‘flu. Use Licorice to protect the liver from stress, viruses or damage by medication. As a restorative and adaptogenic herb, Licorice helps to bring us back into balance by building up our resiliency to stress, clearing out brain fog, and releasing tension brought on by an overactive mind. The flower essence of Licorice helps us to connect with the sweetness of life. Use with Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) flower essence to overcome the defensive habit to say that “everything’s fine” when it’s not.

Topically, Licorice can be used to create an eyewash for conjunctivitis. Use Licorice topically as a hair rinse for scalp health as well as to prevent hair loss. It makes a great mouthwash for gingivitis and canker sores. Add it to baths for rashes and itchy skin. 

image source

Magickal Uses : Licorice is an herb of love. Add it to charms and rituals meant to draw love to you and from within you. Create a wand from the stalk to use in rituals regarding love and fidelity. Chew on the root to bring about sweet words. Use in funerary rites to help the spirit of the dead pass swiftly and easily to the worlds beyond.

The Licorice Personality : Everyone at some point will lose the sense of sweetness in life which is why we’re lucky to have plant allies like Licorice around. It’s not a plant necessarily for deep depression (think about Sinapis arvensis instead) or the individual with the tortured smile (consider Agrimonia eupatoria), though it would be useful for both of those conditions. The primary gift of Licorice is sweetness and helping us feel like we are in harmony with life around us. For Licorice folk not only has sweetness felt hard to come by, but the feeling that they are part of life's sweetness has them starting to feel resentful or bitter. There can be a feeling of mild dissociation with life around them and their craving for sweetness might lead them to chasing or overindulging in superficial or short-lived sweetness in ways they don't like over something more sustainable. Licorice is a sweetness illuminator, helping folks to understand that the sweetness in life that is so multifaceted and so infused within and around them that even though our ability to feel connected to it might wax and wane, it is never fully gone. The gifts of Licorice folk, once they feel steady enough in their connection to life within and around them, is their ability to create sweet experiences and connections almost as if by magick.

Contraindications : Avoid during pregnancy and hypertension.

Drug interactions : Avoid with diuretics, laxatives, digoxin, anti-hypertensives, anti-coagulants, corticosteroids,, prednisolone, MAOIs, SSRIs. Use with caution with insulin and hypoglycemic medication.

Dosage : Standard dosage.

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If you enjoyed the Licorice plant profile and would like to explore more, be sure to check out my Plant Allies Archive. You can also find my complete collection of plant profiles from all of my courses in The Plant Ally Library.

Whether it is through the sweetness of Licorice or another plant ally that speaks to your heart, I hope you find the harmony you’re seeking through the magick of connecting with our green kin.

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

📚

Footnotes

1. Hildegard Von Bingen and Priscilla Throop, translator, Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions/Bear Publishing, 1998), 24.

2. 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), 171.

A Might-Do List for Herbal Students

Whether you're enrolled in an herbal school, working as an herbal apprentice or pursuing self-study, there are so many ways to be an herbal student on the path to becoming a practicing herbalist. 

The life of an herbal student can feel exciting - I'm answering my call to be an herbalist! I love plants and people!

It can also be overwhelming - Woah! There are so many plants and people!

And at times confusing - There are so many plants and people and creatures and philosophies and techniques, oh no!

There are endless educational options for aspiring students as well as more and more culturally-informed herbal texts for all kinds of plant-hearted people to find their home within the shared garden of green wisdom.¹ It's exciting and it's a lot!

While I don't have the time and resources to match every herbal student to their ideal learning program (though, this does sound like a dream job to me), with over 15 years of practice I can offer what it is I wish I started doing as an herbal student and the practices I encourage in my own learning community that helps students to thrive in their studies. 

So what follows is my might-do list for herbal students, full of suggestions that you might (or might-not) do as part of your studies. As with all my might-do lists, this is meant to be a low-pressure, full of inspiration sort of guide, that you can easily adapt to your unique needs as a student whether for herbalism or any of the meaning healing paths out there. Enjoy!

image via @todddiemer

Get Down Low

While there are many ways to practice herbalism, our ability to practice our craft and work with plants as allies is only possible through this place we call home: our beloved planet earth. I encourage everyone who wants to work with plants to practice an earth-centered form of herbalism aligned with sustainable, land-aware, and kinship-attuned practices. It all starts with having a relationship with the land you live with, seeking out plants as they grow in wild or cultivated spaces, and slowing down and getting low with our original teachers of herbalism, the plants themselves.

One of the easiest ways to begin centering your practice and studies with the land we all live with is to observe plant life around you. Start by noticing the plants growing up between sidewalk cracks as you walk to work or what might be growing in your local park. After observation, noticing colors, textures, and scents, can come identification and then, if the plant is medicinal, learning how to work with it in your practice. In-between the spaces of observation, identification, and practice is building a relationship with our plant neighbors, introducing yourself, and noticing what other creatures are also in kinship with this plant.

For many modern herbalists who work with a wide range of plants that we don’t all grow or harvest ourselves, it’s important to create connection between the plants we are able to be with in-person to remind us that we are in deep interdependence with the herbs that are in our backyards as well as sitting in jars on our apothecary shelves. An earth-centered practice is a sustainable practice that helps us create sacred relationships with those we serve and the land we live with.

Name Yourself & Honor the Land

I'm a real fan of naming rites and rituals, where we take up (and sometimes let go of) names given and created to shape who we are in the world. Sometimes these namings happen after a big transition and sometimes during or just before one, like in the time of being a student, before we've gone on to do something with our studies. I encourage you to take a moment and write down your name as an aspiring herbalist, listing out what brought you to this path, and where you hope to go with your studies. It's ok for this naming practice to be as serious or as silly as you like! Here are a few naming examples:

I am Zinnia of Sweet Mountain,
Child of the Backwoods, 
Brought up in Oak Groves,
Descendant of Scotland and Mexico, 
Carrying a fire for change in my heart,
With arms full of plants,
I walk the green path of wisdom

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I am Devon
Son of Marcus and John
Wild heart, star brow
Made of obsidian and quartz
Kitchen witch, game maker
Rescuer of strays
Plant friend, hex breaker
All of this and more
I am becoming

This naming practice can include naming your ancestors, your cultural and spiritual inheritances, gifts and skills you carry, and dreams of who you are becoming. No one ever has to see this poem or maybe it is something you do with your fellow herb students - the point is to spend some time naming yourself as a way to know who is pursuing this path of study and why you're doing it. It can be fun, at the formal end of your studies, to revisit this name poem and see if there is anything you would change about it or if it is great as is, perhaps with new meaning attached to what you'd written.

Following the naming of yourself, it can be powerful to write a personal acknowledgement of the land you live with, a love letter to the place that you are learning how to be an herbalist. You can read my land acknowledgement for inspiration, but your statement doesn’t need to be so formal and can reflect your relationship with the land, the forms and shapes that it takes (from rivers to mountains to oceans and valleys), and how it is that you are being present with the land instead of over it.

image via @tinymountain

Get To Know What an Herbalist Is

Considering that you want to be an herbalist, it might seem odd to spend time figuring out what an herbalist is if it is already something you know you want to be. But there are many ways to be an herbalist in the world and it can be helpful during your studies to explore all the many ways herbalists practice in the world. There are so many ways to practice as an herbalist including as a remedy-maker and manufacturer, clinician (whether at a community clinic or private practice), researcher, farmer and grower, teacher, apothecary owner, and all the ways that herbal work can be used alongside other modalities (like massage therapy, birthwork, etc.). 

Early on in my studies, I was drawn to making herbal remedies and that was what my first few years of practice focused on - making and selling remedies. I did this to the point where it was no longer sustainable for one person to do and I had to make a choice about whether I was going to transition my business to a more formal manufacturer or something else entirely. Having some familiarity with the many ways one could be an herbalist in the world meant that the transition was still challenging at times but it felt like I had options. I could now teach other people how to make the remedies that I was so passionate about making myself.

While you might start your herbal studies with one vision of your practice in your heart, it's important to keep exploring what it means to be an herbalist throughout your studies (and especially in the early years of your practice) so that you're able to pause and pivot, ebb and flow with the changes that'll happen in your life. It can also help you identify missing pieces of plant knowledge in your community by learning about all the ways herbalists can be in the world, and you might be led to fill those gaps once you're done with your studies (such as learning about the diverse ways a local apothecary can look like and developing your own to meet the needs of your neighborhood). Get inspired by others as you're developing your own vision!

Set One Small Goal

Having small and attainable study and practice goals, especially at the beginning of your students, will not only be a source of encouragement throughout your student days, but help you get through the more challenging aspects of your studies. No matter what form of learning you choose, there will be challenges from getting homework done, managing your other non-study responsibilities, and the huge amount of energy training as an herbalist asks of us. It can be tempting to write a long to-do list and write down all of your biggest dreams as a student and try to do it all. While making lists and dreaming big are important, I've often found that students (myself included) set themselves up to do far too much in way too little of time.

Instead, I encourage students (again, myself included), while having space to write down big dreams and set those aside, to focus on one small achievable goal at a time. It can be anything from, learning the growing conditions of Thyme (Thymus vulgaris). That's a small task, easily accomplished and one that leads on to other goals - perhaps you'll go to find a Thyme plant or seeds to purchase, learn about Thyme's medicinal uses, drink a cup of Thyme tea everyday for a week, and write your own Thyme plant profile. But you start small with the first step of learning how Thyme grows and then go from there. As a teacher I would much rather a student have worked slowly and steadily with one plant, getting to know them on a deep, relational level, than feel like they need to rush through learning about fifty plants in the same time period. Of course, different traditions of herbalism have different approaches, but I have found a lot of wisdom in working with a few plants deeply instead of trying to learn all the plants.

image via @zuleyhasarieyuboglu

Practice Simple Daily Care

If you want a long-lived and sustainable practice as an herbalist, and not find yourself burnt out early on in your work, adopting simple daily care routines can help cultivate such longevity. Taking your herbs on a daily basis, doing a five minute body scan to check in with how you're feeling, a breathwork or movement practice, a shared tea time with loved ones or whatever sort of care speaks to you, start practicing it now as a student. While I'm focused on daily care, you can of course add on weekly and monthly care practices from therapy sessions, bodywork, date nights, and more, but those small, simple daily care practices are essential for anyone in a service-based healing field.

As an herbalist you'll be recommending all sorts of daily protocols to your clients, why not begin practicing your own daily protocols now? Not only will it be helpful to your overall wellbeing, but you'll be able to spot the ways that your idealized recommendations may be too much or challenging to adhere to. These daily care routines can also help us learn about and experiment with herbal techniques that we find useful and can model to our clients and communities later on. 

Join (or Create) a Student Group

While some of you might have a student group built into your learning program, for anyone taking a more self-guided approach to herbal learning it can be harder to feel connected to community. Herbalism is not a solo endeavor, but a generations deep cultural inheritance, and our experience of the herbal community should be part of our student journey. Seeking out real-time community spaces, whether in-person or offline, can not only provide great spaces for practicing skills with fellow students, resource sharing, and the camaraderie that can only be formed through common pursuits. If there is not a student group that meets your needs that you can find, start one! It doesn't need to be anything more ambitious than having a regular meet-up time, maybe a topic of discussion, and some snacks.

image via @davidclode

Find In-Person Learning Experiences

My herbal education and now my practice has taken place both online and in-person - myself and my peers were the first generation in which this hybrid model was made available. While online learning spaces are a meaningful and legitimate way to become an herbalist (and especially ones that include a community component if you are just starting your studies), I believe strongly in the importance of in-person experiences as part of your training. Whether a clinic rotation, an herbal festival with lots of hands-on learning experiences, volunteering at a community garden or a weekend workshop, in-person experiences hold a special sort of energy that can't quite be replicated online. And I say this as someone who does a lot of teaching and learning online - you deserve to have at least one, and ideally multiple, in-person learning experiences as an herbal student. The energy of exchange, atmosphere, and opportunities for kinship that happen when gathered in-person are invaluable not only for herbal students,but all plant folks.

There are so many conferences, classes, workshops, community gardens, festivals, and gatherings of plant folk with a range of intersecting identities and specialties from mutual aid skillshares to culture-specific herbal camps to super casual study groups. While you should always do some research about the individuals and organizations behind a gathering and trust your gut if something feels off or ask a trusted friend or loved one to help you make an informed choice, there is a place of lovely folks out there who would love to have you join them on a plant-centered adventure.

Start Organizing Now

I'm actually making two suggestions here: the first is to organize the resources you're creating as a student and will continue to use and create as a practitioner and the second is to participate in organizing and activism work with your fellow plant folk. Both of these types of organizing support each other and let's start with organizing resources. There hasn't been a moment that I've regretted taking a moment to organize my notes, add all the information onto a label that needs to be there, or spending a few hours setting up a digital index that'll save me far more hours of work in the future.

The type of organization that you need as a student will be unique to you, but all keepers of knowledge meant to be passed on and shared with others need to practice some form of organization that allows for an easier transmission of wisdom. I include recitation practices for oral traditions, the inner organizing that occurs with meditative practices, and the organizing of social relationships and exchanges. If you're looking for more inspiration for organizing things like your materia medica, come this way.

The latter part of my suggestion is about organizing as an herbalist with other activists, plant folk, and community members. Whether it is participating in seed banks or community gardens, helping to organize a street clinic training, creating a student union or alumnae organization at your herbal school or any of the many, many ways you can help to create systems of kinship within your communities, do it! Not only will it provide countless opportunities to practice and develop your skills as an herbalist, but you'll be participating in the sort of community models that we all need to feel well and held and hopeful in our lives. If you come to any of this work with your own personal library of resources, organized and easy to distribute, even better.

image via @anniespratt

Follow the Desire Lines

A desire line is a path shaped by the footfall of people and creatures, unplanned and emerging with the need of those walking it. They often work as short cuts to get from one place to another quicker than by the formal established pathways, but they are also formed by creatures who follow a path that for whatever reason are drawn to walk it again and again. Even though herbalism is an ancient form of healing used by humans and other mammals, depending on where you are in the world, it acts more like an informal desire line rather than a formal path. Desire lines can be a source of irritation to city, campus, and park planners, but they can also go on to inspire creative answers to community needs. 

None of us have come to the path of herbalism without following the path of those herbalists who have gone before us. While some of us might be walking on a more formal, paved, and approved path supported by the society that surrounds us, many of us are walking along well-grooved desire lines, etched across neighborhoods by deep community needs and often by marginalized peoples. I know that my path of herbalism was only made possible by the countless generations of women and gender-nonconforming folk who saw how women's health was dismissed or made illegal over and over again and so decided to teach each other how to take care of themselves, find aligned medical practitioners, and demand social and legal change. Exploring the history of community health clinics and street medics, the struggles of herbalists before you in your cultural lineage or the history of herbalism in the lands you live with are all powerful ways of understanding how these desire lines that carry you have carried others.

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Whether or not you’re currently an herbal student, thinking about becoming one or a long-time practitioner starting out on a new path of study, I hope you found the might-do list helpful in imagining what it is you might (or might-not) want to do during your student days. If you’re looking for more student-focused inspiration you might like my seasonal apothecary series and my herbal student tarot spread for that extra bit of intuitive guidance.

May your student days be inspiring, your teachers kind, and your path bright with possibility!

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

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1. This links to my ever-growing curated collection of herbal texts and purchasing any of these books through my bookshop supports my work. You can also find many of these books at your local library or request that your favorite local bookstore orders them for you.