Herbalism & The Path of Unlearning

There are so many books available on herbalism filled with information on what plants can do for human beings. Some of the research is focused on nutrition, and some of it on phyto-chemicals and our human physiology. Occasionally, we might also find a text on herbal energetics, herbal astrology, or plant spirit medicine. We also have our standard gas station plant ID books for various regions. All of these have their place for us as modern students on the path of herbalism. After all, we are seeking to deepen our knowledge of our botanical Queendom so that we can act as ambassadors between human beings, our dear animals friends, and the natural world. I believe that at the heart of the journey, us herbalist types are “a healing response of nature,” as renowned Herbalist Terry Willard once said. We are seeking to reconnect, realign, restore, revive, re-establish, re-harmonize and to remember our place in the great mystery of it all. Some people come to herbalism seeking traditional medicines and wild foods for survival, or with a desire to represent an effective research-supported alternative to the mainstream allopathic medical model in a very modernized world. Others are driven by a longing of the soul, or an otherwise spiritual quest to understand and participate in something greater than our little egos can really fully conceptualize or understand. It reminds me of being about 8 years old and feeling called to forest trails that felt filled with a presence, mystery and majesty. Simple sticks became filled with mystical potential and stones seemed to hold stories, great purpose and possibility in them. I remember feeling like there was more to the world than I could see, measure or label, and that time itself would seem to disappear for hours. However, when time did reappear, I was often reminded of a whole other world I had to return to: a world of square calendars, grids of numbers, square desks and square books, in square rooms that I needed to return in order to become educated. As the years went on, I came to realize that our natural world has very few straight lines in it. I recognized that if I wanted to reconnect with nature, I needed to soften the edges of my educated modern mind. Nature is creative and it is creation. Creative minds involve the use of our left and right brains – logic and drive vs. intuition and reception or inner sight. The working of the right brain intelligence encompasses those ‘aha’ moments that seem to arrive out of some sort of space that leaves the rational mind in awe. When I leave the city lately, I can feel that space of potential opening up again, like my aura can expand and inhabit the earth as it was intended to. No little boxes, no newsfeed on the hour every hour, nothing between myself as the rest of creation. This is especially true if I can manage to carve out some time to go to the temple of a forest or a field, and leave the human world behind for a day or two, or possibly even an hour or two. Slowly, I can feel a loosening and a kind of forgetting of all that I was told I am, and about how nature and I are separate somehow. I forget about the idea of "man and nature" being two separate things at all. At times, I can even forget that I was taught that nature is simply a mechanical random unfolding of lucky mutations. Sometimes, I can even forget that I have been told that God, whatever that word might mean to each of us, is either irrational. “up there” or “out there” somewhere, but not right here in each leaf and flower, insect, bird, each cloud and ray of sunlight. It seems that what I need more than learning is unlearning and questioning what I once trusted as facts. It is one thing to leave the city grid behind, but how do we round the edges of the grid that has been established in our minds? Of course we know that there is a place for the grid, for squares, and for rational thought. However, I can't help but notice that since the birth of our "advanced” modern civilizations, we have become more like aliens upon our biosphere – a biosphere that we are literally made of. It is also hard to ignore the reality that every other creature and virtually the entire web of life has suffered greatly since we have faltered from the circle of life and respected our place in it. It is true that we modern folk are more comfortable and have more methods to stay alive but we are also likely the most psychologically distraught generations in history. One need only look to the astounding levels of psychiatric pharmaceutical medications being prescribed in our era to get a clearer picture. Suicides are way up and birth rates are way down. Street drugs are being made legal while medicinal plants are being outlawed. Our children's cereal is filled with known carcinogens while our governments want to ban burdock root and calendula lip balms. Our Hollywood visionaries are pumping out one dystopian post-apocalyptic film after another with dreadful prophecies that are gobbled up en masse. It seems to be portrayed in the media that in the future we will become trans-human, but as long as we have neuro-link and Wi-Fi we won't need a biosphere. I suppose this is the reason there is rarely a green plant to be seen in such films. I wonder what Hildegard of Bingen would say; the profound Christian nature mystic of nearly 1,000 years ago. She was a strong advocate of the "green power,” in other words, the incredible importance of the light that plants capture and deliver to humanity with divine providence. I have a feeling that she would tell us not to lose our faith and that we should immerse ourselves in the green power of nature, to gather in the temples of forest and field every chance that we get. She might say that we should keep the trails open for those to come and that we should wait out the storm together while we gather and plant seeds, and envision a future filled with beauty and harmony. Some say we need to see it to believe it, but most magicians know that you have to believe it to see it. In fact, any true magician knows that they are not really doing the magic at all, the magic happens when we collectively believe. When we are not distracted by endless narratives of division, we can instead focus on what we can do today to centre, ground, reconnect, reestablish and eventually rebuild a new earth. Nature has been patient with us, but nature has laws as well. Without plants there is no oxygen to breathe. Plants give us food, clothing, shelter and medicine. It is not for any government or corporation to tell us that we cannot be connected to the green power we were designed to be in direct relation with, regardless of how our connection interferes with corporate profit outcomes. That being said, we have two temples that we must stay close to: the one in the forest and the one between the temples of our forehead. We need direct outer connection, and direct inner connection. As we continue to embark on our journey in good faith and with expansive visions, let's find one or two spots that we can go to feel immersed in the green power. Let's put our bare little earthling feet on the ground and set our intentions to align with the sacredness of nature, and to live in good relation to all our relatives large and small. This is how we return to the temple and build it for those next generations to come.