What is an Herbalist?

This question comes up a lot here around the shop, so I thought it’d make a great blog post! Learning more about what an herbalist does can bring you further into the power of plant medicine- and help you find the ways that the herbs will fit best in your own life.

Vocation
At its roots, herbalism is a vocation. It’s a calling that draws us human-folk into the wild green ways of magic and medicine. Just like being a mechanic means you know how to work on cars and do that as your contribution to your community, and being a cook means you know how to prepare food and work in a restaurant, being an herbalist means you know the ways of the plants and act as a bridge between the green world and the human world in service of community through botanical medicine. In most traditional streams of herbalism, an herbalist becomes an herbalist first by the ways the plants speak to them and the magic they’re able to craft with the help of the plants and secondly by their respective community placing them in the position of herbalist by acknowledging, supporting, and engaging with their work.

Calling
For most folks who are practicing herbalists, the path is not unlike a spiritual calling. The plants reach out from their mysterious and wild worlds and grab us by head, hand, and heart until we listen up. Those called to the plant path often have a natural affinity for the ways of the plant spirits, medicine crafting, and the art and intuition of energetic diagnostic tools, formulation, protocol writing, and exploring the roots and fruits of dis-harmony.

Learning
There are many ways someone might learn the aspects of herbalism that are learnable. Some folks attend school, some participate in apprenticeships, and some are part of cultures or traditions where learning herbs is part of their life ways. Some folks do a bit of all three or some other combination. The learnable part of herbalism usually focuses on anatomy and pathology (whether that be a more western model or a model from an indigenous or specific cultural approach), diagnostic tools, formulation, protocol writing, botany, growing and harvesting, medicine making, and the more practical aspects of serving a community with plant medicine. The unlearnable aspects of herbalism come from years of experience, mistakes, successes, inspiration, dreams, and initiations from the green world. Both, in harmony, make for a qualified and confident herbalist.

What Do Herbalists Do?
Some herbalists focus entirely on writing formulae and protocols. These folks may work for large corporations or supplement companies and help to create the products you end up seeing on market shelves. Other herbalists may focus on gardening or growing medicinal herbs with an understanding of how those herbs will work their way into medicine down the line. There are herbalists who focus on teaching or offering workshops in their communities or in schools, and some who focus their knowledge on writing books. Usually, however, the herbalist we think of is in direct service to a community of plant-loving folks who find value and efficacy in their work. These folks provide personal consultations, make custom medicine as needed by each individual they see, work with patterns of dis-harmony that emerge in their communities, and show up as an ally of healing and transformation for those they serve. These are the herbalists who staff herbal clinics, apothecaries, and herb shops. They wake up each day and nourish their connections to the plant spirits so that those connections can spill over into those they work with.

A qualified, competent, and confident herbalist can:

• Explore the patterns, presentations, expressions, and hidden roots of dis-harmony in their clients
• Formulate medicines on-the-fly based on herbs that speak directly to the issues and the unique individual who carries those issues
• Help craft approachable and accessible protocols that will help their clients reach wellness goals
• Constantly learn and re-learn while experimenting and exploring new applications of plant medicine as it applied to when, where, and how they live
• Understand the nuances between herbs with similar qualities to refine their formulations, avoid using plants that have become threatened, and meet the needs of specific individuals they work with
• Provide grounded, approachable, and accurate education to their communities about herbal medicine and working with the plants
• Apply the power of herbal medicine beyond just the physical or mental bodies
• Accurately work with identification and application of specific herbs to ensure safe and consensual medicine offerings
  
• Be inspired by the plants as they walk in communion with the green realm

With all that said, it’s important to keep a few things in mind...

First, there are countless indigenous and cultural styles of plant medicine that may or may not involve every part of the list above. These ancient and powerful traditions carry their own wisdom and force and create herbalists who are backed by the combined knowledge and experience of their herbalist ancestors.

Second, accessibility matters. I am personally a proponent of traditional mentor-apprentice styles of teaching for this reason. Not everyone can access or succeed in a clinical educational program setting. Learning plant medicine from someone who holds the secrets of the plants will always be the best way to learn in my opinion- and the path of least expense and bureaucracy.

Finally, a great herbalist bases their work on the power of relationship. They are in deep, intentional, and reciprocal relationship with the plants they work with in medicine and magic and with the green world as a whole. Much of their spiritual work may be directed at nourishing these special relationships so that they can learn directly from the plants themselves. An herbalist who is not in dynamic, sorcerous relationship with their plant allies isn’t able to learn from the plants.

So, my hope is that learning more about what herbalists do will inspire you to seek one out in your community, ask questions, and let them help you find your own plant medicine path. As always, I welcome you to my apothecary here in Salt Lake City anytime you’d like to learn which plants are a good fit for your journey. I have had the privilege of being voted Best Herbalist in Salt Lake City 5 years in row via the Best of Utah Awards and am always eager to put it to work in service of my community.