The Magic of Herbal Actions & Energetics
If you’ve been around traditional herbalism for some time, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of actions & energetics. These concepts are languages that help us understand a deeper level of how the plants are and how they work- especially when applied to herbal medicine. For example, you could easily look up in any herb book ‘herbs good for the lungs’. Maybe Mullein would be on that list. If we stopped here, all you would know is that Mullein is an herb with some established connection to the lungs. You might even be dealing with a specific lung condition, let’s say a hacking, wet cough that produces a great deal of clear, thin mucous. So, you see Mullein in the book as being good for your lungs, and you take tat herb to treat your current condition. Here’s where the problem begins. Yes, Mullein has a deep affinity for the lungs and is one of our most celebrated respiratory allies- but the way in which Mullein acts on the lungs is totally overlooked in most all pop and contemporary herbal models. Mullein cools, dampens, calms, and flushes. So, if you have a damp, hacking cough with clear cold presentation, Mullein will go deep into those respiratory tissues and can actually aggravate the condition or drive it deeper into the lungs causing it to heal more slowly and be more problematic while acute.
The actions of Mullein, then, are respiratory tonic and demulcent and antispasmodic and expectorant. All of these actions are in affinity with the lungs and all of them are done with the energetics of cool and damp.
The nuances of exploring herbalism through the lens of our ancient action and energetic languages are many and require years of dedicated study, exploration, contemplation, and personal experience. But, when we apply ourselves to this work, our connection to the plants deepens and the efficacy of our remedies increases countless times over.
So, what about herb magic? That’s what I actually want to write about here.
Like so many contemporary books on herbal medicine which reduce herbs to what they’re good for with no acknowledgement or understanding of who they are and how they hold space in the world, we see the same in books on herbal magic. In fact, there are very few books of literally dozens I’ve skimmed over the years that do anything more than list a topic like protection and a selection of single herbs under it which could be used for this goal- no context, no lore, no ancestral wisdom, no personality, no connection.
In other words, we reduce herbs to what they can do, what they’re good for, and how they can serve humans in herbal medicine as much as we do in herbal magic- and both of these perspectives are both incorrect and problematic on so, so many levels. They are counter to all our shared ancestral plant spirit traditions, they center the human narrative without consideration of our plant kin, and they are a 50/50 gamble on efficacy at very best.
Luckily, there are some incredible materia medica that cover the deeper actions and energetics of herbs, mostly from established traditions of herbal practice- but there is still a massive lack in the world of herb magic. So, how can we go deeper into the wild ways of our plant allies when considering their virtues in magical operations?
We can allow for the language of elements, actions, and energetics to spill over into the world of magic. We are the ones who have limited herbal medicine to the physical body- this is a new concept is is not attested or supported by our ancient plant path ways. By understanding how an herb moves through, informs, transforms, and acts on physical tissues, we can engage our poetic-energetic perception to explore how they might act on life path issues where magic is usually applied: protection, purification, abundance, love, wisdom, and so on.
Ultimately, the ancient energetic languages are there to help us connect to the person of plants. These are invitations to let plants be who they are and to engage with them through personal dedication so that the ways between us will be open and clear. When we understand these languages in their full power, rather than in falsely compartmentalized expressions, we can know the plants as they are and in the fullness of what’s possible in herbal medicine, herb magic, green sorcery, and personal growth on the plant path.
If this type of nerdy material gets you excited, I’m pleased to invite you to an upcoming online workshop where I’ll be sharing this concept and it's applications with you in detail. This class is live online and you’ll also be able to watch on-demand replays if you can’t make it on the date. I’ll be sharing a great deal of approachable and practical information on this- material I haven’t shared openly before. I hope you can join!
