What is Spiritual Herbalism?
I have over 8 years of formal, clinical herbal education including supervised clinical work and botany- and while I lean on the scientific explorations of herbal medicine so much in my work, I am the most proud and the most connected to the way in which the plants as arcane spirits show up in the way I do things. Clinical herbalist, occult botanist, folk herbalist… call me what you will- Spiritual Herbalist will always feel like home.
So, what is a spiritual herbalist?
In its simplest definition (as far as I go, anyway), a spiritual herbalist is someone who practices their herbal medicine from a base of animism- they acknowledge and honor the inherent spirit and personhood of plants. So we work with plants as people- not human people, and maybe not even very similar to the kinds of people we usually call people, but people nonetheless- sovereign beings complete with awareness, senses, wisdom, and presence in the world. But this is just the beginning.
A spiritual herbalist is one who acknowledges all of these things, works hard to have personal experience of them, and then dedicates themselves to engaging with these spirits to learn their ways. Spiritual herbalists are sorcerous folk who forge deep relationships across the hedge with plant kin- to traverse this hedge and bring back the wisdom, magic, and medicine of the plants in service of harmony.
The spiritual practice of herbalism, then, is not memorizing lists of what an herb is ‘good for’ or how an herb can be ‘used’ to heal the superior human being. Rather, it is a service-oriented path that centers sacred reciprocity as the primary ethos and praxis. It is the work of learning to commune with beings so radically different than humans; and to learn their ways directly from them. It is an alignment to the herbwise ancestors, those who came before who also did this work, and the various helping and protecting spirits of the green realm.
Spiritual herbalism is a medicine which addresses all levels of being, all aspects of life, all goals, all roots. It is not limited to the physcal body- although our entry into healing often begins there. It is a full and radical embracing and acceptance of the whole person as part of nature- all things meaningful and omen.
Herbalism practiced through the lens of spirit is a woven cord of both magic and medicine- so tightly knit one cannot tell the difference between the two, as it has always been. It is a practice, a journey, a path, and a process- one that I cherish at the very core of my being.
I have written two books on these topics- both published by Aeon Books in London. If this material piques your interest, please pick up a copy and see where they take you!
Spiritual Herbalism - The Magic and Medicine of the Plants (written in 2018, released in 2020)
The Green Arte - The Craft of the Herbwise (written in 2020, released in 2022)
