Sprouting & Springing

Unfurling life force

Sprouts are emerging from the rich darkness of soil, reaching skyward, drinking in the lengthening daylight hours.  Medicine is popping up on roadsides, through cracks in pavement, in the most unlikely of places...

I'm inspired to orient to ground and soil here, to start with some basic questions, which I have been hearing and receiving lately, and sometimes take for granted: what is herbal medicine?  Let's start there...

What is herbal medicine? 

It's so many things! Simply put, herbal medicine is utilizing plants as a medicinal approach to addressing patterns of imbalance and dis-ease, which may express physiologically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or in any combination. Herbal medicine is tried and true as a means of human healing and survival: ancient lineages of medicine such as Traditional Chines Medicine and Ayurveda have employed plants as medicine for thousands of years.  In western culture, it is more of a paradox - being both at the root of all healing traditions on the planet, and historically having been at odds with medical institutions and academia, at times demonized, and delegitimized, and now returning to the mainstream, often / unfortunately as oversimplified consumerist fads.  

What is an herbal consultation? 

It likely depends on who you ask!

In the process of birthing / launching / growing my herbal medicine practice, I have discovered a rootlet - a tether, an anchor, a tagline of sorts, to remind me what I'm doing: bridging humans with their nature.  Essentially, that's what I'm orienting to - facilitating the connection, re-connection, remembering, finding the way back to their nature - the innate beauty and essence of who they are, their own medicine; not only the nature that is the expression of their self and their life, but also their relationships with nature - the plants, the wild, the earth, the elements, and fortifying that relationship as a source of healing and guidance. So, this is the core intention of an herbal consultation. How and what that may look like can vary considerably from person to person.  

When I first began dipping my toes in the practitioner waters, my approach was largely focused on addressing the symptomatic pictures that people presented with herbs: this person with GERD (acid reflux), that person with back pain, so and so with irregular menstrual cycles, etc. And so herbs were chosen to match the symptomatic picture of the person, and in this way the whole thing is reduced down to what some may call an allopathic model: person = whatever their symptoms are, "treatment" = herbs to change / address symptoms.

I do want to be clear here - this is not necessarily a problem. I have done this, many other practitioners, herbalists or otherwise, have done / do this. Sometimes it's what is needed - in a first aid scenario for example, or in many other instances.  And, it is not the only approach. A more nuanced approach may yield deeper potential for enduring healing.

This more nuanced approach is what I currently find myself inspired by and practicing. That isn’t to say that I don’t consider the symptoms someone is experiencing. Symptoms are extremely relevant and I very much respect the challenges, pain, experiences, etc that people share with me. They are breadcrumbs to follow, and not the only breadcrumbs to follow: what is this person's dominant emotional state(s)? What is their story? What wounds and trauma have they experienced? What patterns do they notice in their family / ancestry? Where & with whom do they live? What do they eat? What is expressed in their affect / personality / demeanor (are they gregarious, shy, curt, quiet, vivacious, reserved)? What kind of relationships with plants do they already have? What may be most nourishing / supportive at a given time- food, tea, topicals, gardening, tending, foraging, medicine making? So many questions...

So, I am learning the value of slowing down, asking questions, being willing to “not know”, employing curiosity, deeply listening, practicing discernment, while working with people in a practitioner capacity. We often default to orienting ourselves to the symptom, the pattern of imbalance, the pain, the thing we want to go away, and that becomes the sole focus of the work. I say this with empathy and with the knowledge inside my own experience of just wanting something to change, stop, disappear, go away, shift, whatever it is. It’s deeply human, it’s not bad or wrong, and I can relate. And, my sense is there are also some mysterious cracks in the mix that may have potential to yield some mysterious medicine, jewels, perspectives, healing, when we are able breathe some space into them.

All this to say, as I find more and more depth in my well of knowledge, experience, intuition, and relationships with the plants, I am more and more inspired to slow down... to get curious and ask questions, to gather breadcrumbs and track storylines, to shift the approach from addressing symptoms to organizing around the whole being of a person - the unique ecosystem of their body, the ecosystems they are woven into, the parallels between the two; their lineage, origin stories, histories/herstories.  So, the symptomatic expressions in a given person might shift from the sole focus of a session to a spoke on the wheel, an anchor point on the spider web - of integral importance and also a part of the whole with many other inroads, components and complexities.  While we thought the main focus was whatever primary concern someone wrote on the intake form, we may find ourselves exploring other subterranean pathways that are actually drawing more attention, or harboring more aliveness.  

So, it unfolds unexpectedly, mysteriously, in a strange way that we don't quite understand but feel compelled to trust because it seems to come from an intelligence deeper than our human brains can grok.  So, we arrive again and again at the feet of the plants, appealing to their ancient and generous knowledge to help us be agents of healing in our own lives.   

Wherever you are, take just a moment - just a breath - to remember the beauty that is your Nature, and take it in.