The Plants Are Calling Me Home: Returning to the Practice of Herbal Meditation

The Sweat Lodge

One of the very cool aspects of being involved with herbalism is that there are so many avenues to take. Just when you think you’ve ‘mastered’ the art of one understanding, you realize there are three more ways to understand them that you never knew existed. And sometimes we may have started on the plant path with one goal in mind, only to find a decade or more later that we need to circle back and revisit that goal. 

To work with herbs is a journey. You can choose your own adventure, as it were. I began my own journey as a total newbie to all things herbs when I started taking classes at MUIH back in 2012. My path began with a general understanding of plants in herb school, which later evolved into my calling as a clinician. From there I felt the need to learn more about the esoteric approach-  listening to plant spirit and folk use-  before another shift occurred, and I began to learn to read the body using visual cues so that I could apply the right herbs. At this point, I feel pulled toward gaining more wisdom from communing with the plants, and learning from them in a quiet, introspective way. And Pam Montgomery keeps coming up. 

Working with plants in this way is not entirely new to me; one of the first ways I was introduced to herbalism at MUIH was via simples- taking just one at a time and seeing how it resonated within my body and mind. It’s been a while since I’ve applied this approach, though I keep meaning to do it again. It’s a great way to get to know your herbs. Sajah Popham recommends doing this with one herb a month, which is probably the best way to really understand a plant by itself prior to formulating it with other herbs. I often tell my students that it’s similar to cooking: you should really know how one ingredient tastes before adding it to your recipe. 

So as I approach a new transition in life (one of a few, if I’m being honest), which is essentially wrapping up some of my roles as a mother, I’ve been contemplating what I will do with this new time to myself. Two of my three children are already grown and out of the house, with my baby about to graduate high school this time next year. I’ve decided that will be a good time to get back to the basics of my herbal experience. I’m going to spend time getting to know me, maybe for the first time ever, with an emphasis on my herbal allies. Starting over. Deep diving into the simples. Spending time with each plant. 

Herbal meditation.

This came to me through a recent experience at a sweat lodge ceremony. Over the past few months I’ve been struggling with overwhelming and frequent anxiety attacks like I had never experienced before, though these are not new to me. I have a feeling a lot of this is related to perimenopause. Regardless, I have been working on understanding myself better, realizing fear was at the core of my panic, and utilized the sweat lodge to let it go. 

I love a sweat lodge, but I will admit that the pitch black is hard for me to handle at first. Every time, I begin with a little panic due to feeling claustrophobic. Knowing my anxiety was already super amped up, I was worried that this time would be even worse. I planned ahead and remembered to bring some plant allies with me. If you’re curious about who came with me, I brought tinctures of Mimosa, Pulsatilla (of course!), and Ghost Pipe. Ghost Pipe came to me last year (you can read about that here), and a new friend offered me some that she had harvested and made. There are many reasons why I was hesitant to try it, most of which are due to the reverence I have for this sacred medicine. Prior to the sweat I had tried a drop to see how it felt in my body, to make sure it wasn’t the wrong herb for me. This time I was going to actually rely on him to get me through this. 

And like magic, I was actually fine. 

There were a number of things that transpired in that ceremony which would normally have spiked my anxiety on normal days, let alone ones where my nervous system was already firing at high speed. And yet, I felt grounded and held in a safe cocoon-like energy around me. 

Coming out of the ceremony I realized how much focus I had been placing over the years on phytochemicals, data, and rationale, and how much more I needed to sit and spend time with the plants. To work with them individually in ceremony. I’m not talking Ayahuasca- I’m talking Chamomile. Holy Basil. Communing with them within my body while practicing meditation. I felt a strong sign from the plants that this is what I need to do. And then I remembered, again, the beautiful way that Pam Montgomery shares her stories about her own relationships with the plants. This is what I need. 

Summer is not the time for me to get introspective. It’s the chaotic season of my year. So I’m spending the time now, in between farmers markets, teaching, pulling weeds and harvesting herbs, to make a list of the plants that I want to work with more closely, and those that I know have been allies of mine from the past. Old friends like Pulsatilla and Passionflower and St. John’s Wort. New friends like Wood Betony and Ghost Pipe. Ones that have been on my list for a long time, like Jamaican Dogwood and Shatavari. There are a lot of herbs out there, and it will take time for me to dive into even a fraction of them. Getting to know them in this way will not only benefit me- it will also benefit my clients. 

I look forward to sharing some of my insights with you while I embark on yet another herbal journey of self discovery through working with the plants, and hopefully adding another herbal elder to my circle of growth.