In this week’s podcast, Sajah speaks with Jesse Wolfe Hardin, an herbalist and environmental renaissance man. The author of over 25 books, Jesse Wolf has taught anima life practices for decades and was the first to coin the term rewilding. Jesse is the co-founder of the International Good Medicine Confluence Gathering, the digital magazine for herbalist healers and folklorists, Plant Healer Quarterly, and the co-creator of the Revealing Hedge Guild Oracle Guide. Today’s conversation takes place with Jesse in a remote river canyon, deeply nestled in the wild lands of New Mexico.  In this ..read more

Phytochemistry is a fascinating study, but it can be incredibly complicated and confusing at times. Understandably, there are many herbalists who’d prefer to avoid learning it all together. The big question is: Do you really need to know phytochemistry to be a great herbalist? There are many paths you can take as an herbalist. You can meet with clients, make herbal medicine, wildcraft, and so much more. As you’ll see, phytochemistry plays a different role in each of these paths.  In today’s blog post, you’ll discover: What phytochemistry is using simple terms The traditional vs biochem ..read more

Margi Flint is a practicing herbalist, registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild, and herbal mentor from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Margi’s wisdom spans over 20 years of labor coaching certification, polarity therapy, and Reiki, alongside 40-plus years of clinical herbal practice. She teaches at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, British Columbia, and has lectured at numerous prestigious herb schools, including Tufts Medical and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, as well as Boston University. She is also the author of one of my favorite and, in my opinion, one of the most useful h ..read more

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are natural compounds found in certain herbs. Despite their long history of safe use in herbal traditions, they are often misunderstood and feared, discouraging people from working with these potent medicinal herbs. By learning more about these compounds and how to safely use herbs containing them, you can confidently incorporate them into your herbal practice.  In today’s blog post, you’ll discover:  What pyrrolizidine alkaloids are and why they’re named this The two types of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, distinguishing between toxic and non-toxic ones Notable ..read more

Is all herbal research trustworthy? If you’ve ever Googled an herb to learn more and saw lots of research papers about it, can you trust them? Herbal research is tricky since there are a lot of things that can go wrong and right with them that make the results tricky to decipher.  Even though understanding herbal research isn’t 100% necessary as a clinical herbalist, it can introduce novel uses of plants, and of course, knowing the chemistry of an herbal makes you a much better medicine maker. With a few pointers, you can learn how to tell if the scientific research you read online is t ..read more

Do you need to know botany to be a great herbalist? Since learning botany is like learning a new language, it’s a fair question. After all, if you won’t use it, is it worth becoming fluent in it? Being an herbalist means a lot of things: Working with people, plants, and being the bridge between the two. Although it might seem like studying botany is an important part of this process, the answer to this question might surprise you.  In today’s blog post, you’ll discover: The three layers of botany and how you can use them in your work with herbs  When learning botany is helpful as ..read more

Sweet and grounding, Burdock is an Earthy plant with its wide leaves, deep taproots, and ability to both nourish weakness and cleanse excesses from the body. Just as it loves to grow near waste grounds, Burdock clears metabolic waste products and toxins from the fluids in your body to keep your skin glowing and healthy. Since the health of the skin is merely a reflection of the health of your liver, blood, lymph, and digestion, focusing on topical solutions alone won’t get you very far. By working on each of these organs on a deep level, you can find long-term relief for chronic skin conditi ..read more

Medical astrology is one of the most misunderstood assessment tools available in herbalism, with many flat out rejecting its usefulness or efficacy because of preconceived notions of astrology in general.  Despite its spiritual or “woo-woo” implications, astrology has practical therapeutic applications. By learning how to use this tool correctly, you can pinpoint an imbalanced organ system, tissue state, or constitutional pattern and develop greater accuracy in your herbalism practice.  In today’s blog post, I talk about: Medical astrology’s historical roots in medicine The line ..read more

The term “holistic” is buzzing in the holistic healthcare system today, but what does this word really mean? A holistic practitioner, according to the Evolutionary Herbalism model, is someone who unites the physical, energetic and spiritual properties of a plant with these aspects of a person to facilitate deep, transformational healing.  Medical astrology is one of the most potent tools you can use to develop a refined, precise, and effective system of holistic herbal medicine that addresses the whole person.  In today’s blog post, you’ll learn: Why practicing holistic herbalism ..read more

Scott Kloos is an herbalist, wildcrafter, and medicine maker. He founded and acts as the managing director of the School of Forest Medicine and owns Cascadia Folk Medicine, which supplies high-quality, small-batch herbal extracts from the native plants of the Pacific Northwest region. He also co-founded the Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and authored the book Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness.  I always think of Scott as a fellow plant brother and someone I really see eye-to-eye with. For ..read more