Bioregional Herbalism

Bioregional Herbalism

Bioregional Herbalism is a practice of collective care and self-actualization rooted in place. Drawing upon the principles outlined in this article (curiosity, observation, appreciation, identification, and responsibility), the Bioregional Herbalist works to strengthen their understanding of and responsibility towards both the human body and the body of earth.

Taking Responsibility for the Land

The Bioregional Herbalist apprentices themselves to the land they grow out of, entering into a sacred relationship with their landscape, learning who lived there before (human and non-human alike), and building deep relationship so the land can support those who come after.

"We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean 'waves,' the universe 'peoples.' Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe." - Alan Watts, from The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

The work of the Bioregional Herbalist can be very painful, since the land does not hide the scars left by civilization and the displacement of indigenous peoples. More often than not, the work is infused with wonder and joy, because despite the scars the dominant culture has inflicted, the land of our beautiful bioregion continues to give, asking only gratitude, stewardship, and a disposition toward reciprocity in return. When the Bioregional Herbalist travels into the woods, wildcrafting for medicinal preparations, or just visiting their nonhuman kin, they are coming home to themselves once again.

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise." - Aldo Leopold, Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold, p. 165

Taking Responsibility for the Body

Interestingly, as one deepens their awareness of the other-than-human landscape, it can often feel like there is more space to deepen their relationship with their own bodymind (thank you Dave Meesters and Janet Kent of Radical Vitalism for that phrase, which I encountered in this article). I have a hunch that this is the case because in developing a bioregional awareness, we are softening the socially constructed boundaries between the ecosystems we traverse daily and the bodies that carry us through them.

And herbalism provides such an excellent bridge between the land and the body! Here are a few examples:

• Observing the unique ecology of the body, the different body systems, the tissue states, and unique constitutions / temperaments.
• Deep appreciation for the complex interrelationships of organ systems within the body to sustain the organism that is us.
• Identification with the body (not just as a vessel or a 'skinbag' but the body as self at a very deep level).
  • This is challenging because even if we know our body is our body it's still hard for a lot of people to identify with it for myriad reasons, most often as a result of chronic pain or trauma.
• Responsibility towards tending to our body.
• And the herbs, the plants and mushrooms we work with as herbalists are the beings that bridge the gap between body and land:
  • So in working with herbs we ask what herbs grow abundantly in our region?
  • If they are native how do we harvest them respectfully and sustainably.
  • If they are invasive, how do we utilize their medicine in a way that removes them from ecosystems they are harming while not encouraging their spread and then transforming them into medicine.
• In the ecology of the landscapes that surround us we also are offered unique reflection of the ecology of the body.
• Surrounding Lake Michigan we have these amazing dune ecosystem that morph into sandy woodlands with plants like lupine and bearberry and juniper and cottonwood and sassafras and blueberry.
  • Sand dune ecology can provide potent metaphors for mineral movement and accumulation in the body. How tissues build integrity and hold moisture, etc.
  • Other landscapes may provide different metaphors, but regardless of where we live we see our bodily processes mirrored in the environment around us. Where many of the medicinal plants grow can also tell us about the tissues they address in the body.
    • As an example: Calamus (who grows in damp muddy water) for damp stagnant tissue states.

Barriers to Practicing Bioregional Herbalism

While I believe that bioregional herbalism is inherently accessible, given that you can walk outside your front door and start connecting with medicinal herbs, there are a few considerations that may make it difficult to practice bioregional herbalism.

Emphasizing book learning over relational and experiential learning.

We learn so much from going out and connecting with plants where they live. We learn so much when we deepen our kinship with the plant and fungal beings by coming back to them regularly to say hi. If we emphasize book-learning at the expense relational / experiential learning (i.e. going out and listening to the plants themselves), we are sacrificing the intuition that is loosened and made available when we allow our body to sync up with the cyclical flow of other-than-human nature.

Additionally, the books we read may not be speaking about the plants that grow outside our doorstep. The particular species of Angelica we are reading about may differ from the particular species that grows in our region. Yes, there is often overlap in medicinal qualities, but there are also instances where you wouldn't want to use different species of the same genus interchangeably.

Degradation of landscapes and loss of habitat

Many of us live in cities, and while we may be able to step outside our front door and experience plants like Dandelion, Cleavers, Chickweed, Burdock, Chicory, Ground Ivy, Catnip, and many more... we very likely would not want to make medicine from these herbs due to the possible presence of herbicides/pesticides (or dog pee), or the accumulation of heavy metals that are often present in urban soils into plant tissue. In this instance, It might be helpful to not think of this as a barrier, but rather an opening to learn more about appropriate places to harvest.

Similarly, even if we live outside of the city, our human-centered habitats that emphasize asphalt and steel tend to creep like a monstrous invasive species to eat up all the habitat it touches (to be clear, I do not believe that human beings are invasive species, but I do believe that capitalism as an economic system is a rapacious beast that will destroy everything in its path if we don't resist and work together to create a better system for future generations).

You may wonder where you can connect with and even harvest plants that can be used as medicine. Again, I would recommend not seeing this as a barrier, but rather a call-to-action to begin volunteering with local stewardship groups and join community organizations dedicated to conserving native habitats.

Practicing within an herbal tradition / framework that is not rooted in my current homeplace

It is very common for practitioners of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, or other global traditions to utilize herbs that do not grow bioregionally. In many of these traditions, there is a clear materia medica with tried and true formulations that often do not include herbs that grow nearby (that is, if you're reading this anywhere in the states).

That said, I don't believe that a bioregional mindset and approach inherently limits one to only use herbs that grow bioregionally. I believe the bioregional mindset and awareness is valuable in and of itself to rooting our practice in the place that we live so we can be of better service to our human community, both close and nearby. We are the landscape, we are the bioregion, and regardless of the proximity of the herbs we use to support our clients or our communities in healing, our gifts are informed and animated by the place that we live.

Now, depending on one's approach to their tradition of healing, they may wonder how local herbs may also fit into their core system of healing, while still honoring and respecting the traditional practices and methodologies of that system. This is a good question! And one I encourage you to not answer, but to live through.

For me the important thing about this is not to gatekeep who can practice bioregionally, but for bioregionalism to inspire questions about how one can root their self, services, and practices more deeply in the place they live.

Embodied Stillness as a Pathway Towards Exploring our Inner Wildnerness

The practice of embodied stillness (some people call this meditation) is a profoundly direct way of connecting to the inner and outer landscape. It is sitting, with deep attention and observation upon the inner wilderness of our body (which may just happen to find itself either deep in other-than-human nature, in the bowels of the great metropolis we know as Chicago, or somewhere in between – in any case, this inner wilderness is always accessible to us*).

There is a common western assumption about the practice of embodied stillness / meditation that by becoming enlightened through meditation, our experience of suffering will lessen and we will be this happy buddha floating a few feet above the ground all the time. But actually something far more wonderful and interesting happens:

"To the degree that you relax more into uncertainty and groundlessness, you find your heart opening. Your heart opens to the degree that you can allow difficult situations and step into them. Strangely enough, and I'm sorry to share this with you, you do start to see more and more suffering. In case you think this is a path that leads us someplace where we look like cherubs and have wings and no more pain, on this path, you begin to see that there is suffering in the world, and you see it more and more." - Pema Chödrön, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with your Mind, p. 173

I invoke the practice of meditation in our discussion of bioregional herbalism, because as I've grown as an herbalist and integrated meditation into my life, I've begun to see meditation as foundational in my bioregional approach to herbalism: (our) body is at the center of our phenomenological experience of the land we walk upon. To be able to cultivate presence, stillness, and relationship within the space of our body, we will see the horizons of our relationship with our bioregion expand as well, and will be better able to enter into ever deeper relationship with every plant or mushroom we encounter, while also acknowledging the ecological scars inflicted upon the land we walk, working to do whatever we can to repair the harm done.

If you haven't already, make sure to read:

• Bioregionalism
• Healing the Land and Oneself: A Reflection on Bioregional Herbalism