"The life so short, the craft so long to learn, experience difficult to obtain, experiment dangerous, judgement hard." - The First Aphorism of Hippocrates

While the quote may seem daunting, I've found deep meaning, truth, and inspiration in this sentiment throughout my years as an herbalist. How grateful I am for my life path to be carrying on a lineage as ancient as human existence. To carry a torch that will continue beyond the fall of civilization, whenever that may be.

As a culture, we are deeply stuck in our heads. We have a strange desire to know and control everything, human and non-human alike. All the while, a tiny wise voice in our heads whispers for us to come off it, stop wasting our time trying to dominate and control and move with the flow of nature.

It is the vastness and depth of herbalism that inspires me. Coming from academia, I too was deeply stuck in my head, and I carried the naive desire to know everything (which leads inevitably to arrogance), because to know is to be free of the unknown and to be free of the unknown is to feel safe in a chaotic and hostile world. But it turns out, knowing everything is impossible, and safety does not equal aliveness, joy, and a flourishing experience of life here on earth.

So, after some heartbreaking failures and many pitfalls, I saw that this approach to life was no longer working, and I took the fool's leap into a craft and art that can never be pinned down, and can certainly never be fully explored in a lifetime (or more). Why? Because we (humans) are the progeny of the plants and fungi. They are our ancestors. They've been here a lot longer than us, and have had quite some time to sort things out. We are here to learn from them, and they have far more to teach than one can ever expect to learn in a single lifetime. To devote oneself to a craft so vast offers us a lesson in gratitude and humility, rooted in love: exactly what the humanity needs right now.

The vocation of herbalism can encompass dozens of academic fields, or none at all, if you wish to rely simply on your experience and actual relationship with the plants (as many cultures did before us). No one way of working with plants is superior to another, although there are some ways that veer into the realm of commodification and control that I, along with the plants, discourage. We utilize advances in science to support the intuitive side of herbalism and vice versa. If we find ourselves caught in a dogmatic notion of how plants 'work', we lose our holism and our curiosity.

Herbal Energetic Systems

While there are many approaches to working with herbs, one thing is common among all herbal traditions: the presence of an energetic system or framework.

Herbal energetic systems of all kinds, Ayurveda, TCM, Indigenous Medicine, European, Unani Tibb, are all attempts to make sense of the healing virtues of plants and apply them to support the health, resilience, and well being of people and ecosystems.

Energetic systems are grounded in the idea that energy forms into patterns, and by studying and becoming more aware of these patterns we can work with herbs in a healing capacity.

While all energetic systems are completely valid, the energetic system I learned and am most familiar with (which we will be emphasizing throughout this course) comes most recently from Matthew Wood and refined by one of my core teachers, Michigan herbalist, jim mcdonald.

The energetic systems elucidated by these two herbalists can be traced back to the Eclectics and Physiomedicalists, which relied on a European model combined with insights from North American Indigenous medicine which is often, regrettably, uncredited. The European side of this equation has its roots in Greek humoral medicine and alchemy from what we now know as the Middle East.

The difference between using 'this herb for that' versus noticing a physiological pattern within a person allows us to ask more nuanced questions, like: "what are the energetics of this pattern and which herb(s)–given their unique energetic personality–would best be suited to this particular energetic pattern and person?"

This approach offers the possibility of ascertaining the powers of herbs 'experientially' rather than by memorization or abstraction.

While these models are foundational in working with herbs, the foundations of health and wellness do not require the use of herbs, and often, using herbs may obscure root causes that could be addressed by focusing on one of these foundations.