Dana O'Driscoll As herbalists, we are always growing, always learning, and always adding to our knowledge. This is as true for the person who picked up their first herbal book yesterday as it is for those of us who have been on the plant medicine path for decades. Those new to herbalism often wonder what the best approach is to learn herbalism, and as our Certificate programs describe, we learn a lot about a diverse range of areas, from medicine making and body systems to botany and energetics. But a foundation of any herbal practice is wisdom about plants. Knowing about plants: their actions, how they taste, how they grow, and their energetics, is a foundation in herbalism. You can know a great deal about the other areas listed, but without the basic knowledge of plants—none of the other areas of learning matter as much. In this article, we will explore how you can construct a comprehensive knowledge of plants using the 4I’s: Intellect, Instinct, Intuition, and Imagination.
How do I decide what to study first?
You can build herbal wisdom in many ways, and building it one herb at a time is a tried and true method. My suggestion is to first learn about the herbs first that can do the most good in your life and in the lives of your family. For many people, this includes herbs that can assist with the most common conditions that people experience: things that they encounter each day and things that perhaps they don’t want to turn to for pharmaceuticals. This is a common list, I’m also including a few herbs for each that might stimulate your own curiosity to learn more.
- Supporting a healthy gut and digestive tract: catnip (Nepeta cataria), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla or Chamaemelum nobile), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), ginger (Zingiber officinale), mint (Mentha spp.)
- Supporting the nervous system: cannabis (Cannabis sativa, indica), nettles (Urtica dioica), oat straw (Avena sativa), passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)
- Relieving sore and achy muscles: black birch (Betula lenta), goldenrod (Solidago spp.), willow (Salix spp.)
- Addressing wounds, cuts, bruises and bites: calendula (Calendula officinalis), chickweed (Stellaria media), comfrey (Symphytum officinale), plantain (Plantago major or Plantago lanceolata)
- Supporting the body’s elimination systems: burdock (Arctium lappa), cleavers (Galium aparine), yellow dock (Rumex crispus)
- Supporting a healthy immune system and recovering from cold/flu: boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), echinacea (Echinacea purpurea or Echinacea angustifolia), elder (berry, flower) (Sambucus nigra), oregano (Origanum vulgare)
Obviously no list can be exhaustive. But you can see how saying to yourself, “what could I use help with now?” can help you narrow down a list of herbs to start learning about. Lean into your own needs and the needs of your family, as that will help motivate you to get started! Pick one herb to start, and let’s move forward with how the four I’s can assist you in your learning process.
The Four I’s
These four I’s are taught within my herbal lineage of Traditional Western Herbalism—Matthew Wood has one set of three, and Jim McDonald has a slightly different set of three, but I combine their two lists and get four in total!
- Intellect: This is both book knowledge and drawing upon resources (teachers, books, classes) to learn and grow your knowledge.
- Instinct: Herbalism pre-dates human history, dating back at least 60,000 years. We have a great amount of plant wisdom in our DNA. Trust your instincts when it comes to plants!
- Intuition: Intuition asks us to tune in closely with our bodies: our sense of taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. Often, when we encounter or ingest plants, we have many subtle clues that can help us understand if a plant will be good medicine for us.
- Imagination: This is where our curious mind comes from: both in terms of asking good questions and cultivating curiosity (I wonder what a brew would taste like cold infused vs. hot infused?) but also creative experimenting with plant and plant preparations.
Intellect: Learning about Herbs through Books, Classes, and Human Knowledge
Often times, a useful way to start to learn about herbs is learn about the existing knowledge around herbs. Knowledge about herbs comes from many places: from traditional uses observed by herbalists and passed down for thousands of years. This is the herbal wisdom that many of us tap into and draw upon when we are reading herbal books or learning from our teachers. In some cases, you can also explore scientific research on a specific herb or mushroom (available for some popular herbs and many mushrooms, but not all). You can also take classes or learn from herbal teachers—herbalists like to teach with a combination of traditional knowledge, scientific knowledge, and storytelling.
Things you might want to learn about your herb include:
- What is the name and Latin name of the herb?
- Where does the herb typically grow, when is it in season, and what does it look like?
- What parts of the herb should be turned into medicine, and what kind of preparations work best?
- What are the actions of the herb? (* see my note below). That is, how does the herb affect the human body? Does the herb have a special affinity with any specific body parts or conditions?
- Are there any contraindications for this herb? Some herbs may interfere with pharmaceutical medication or may need to be avoided during pregnancy.
- How strong is this herb and what are the typical doses that people use?
*This is one area that can be overwhelming, but stay tuned if you are new to Traditional Western herbalism, as this system offers a tiered approach. As you learn more, you can break these into actions with increasing specificity. The point here is–how do these herbs taste? How do they interact with the body>
Some sources of information are better than others, especially in the age of AI. I suggest using books, classes, and teachers to seek herbal wisdom, or explore websites of reputable herbalists or herb schools. Purchase and have in your herbal libraries a few Materia medica books (these are books that lists herbal uses, such as Matthew Wood’s Earthwise Herbal Vol 1 & 2 or Michael Tierra’s Way of Herbs). You can also access Grieve’s Herbal (materia medica) free online here; while this is an older source it is quite good: https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html). In addition, I recommend two medicine-making books that also cover herbs and dosage: Green’s Medicine Makers Handbook and Cec’’s Making Plant Medicine. These are invaluable to you as someone who is learning herbalism.
However, I have a word of caution about finding herbal information online. Avoid search engine searches, AI-generated results, or mainstream health or hospital websites (which are usually the top 20 or so results). Why? Most AI-generated search results and the first page or two of search terms lead to hospital websites or big sites like WebMD, and those sites do not employ herbalists to write, they offer very shallow information, and they do not approach herbs from a holistic and herbal perspective. At best, they drastically oversimplify what herbs do and how they work. At worst, they leave out critically important information. Getting the wrong information or getting very simplistic information can actually be detrimental to your long-term learning. Herbalism and herbal actions are all about nuance, and most searches and big websites don’t convey any of the nuance.
Once you have your sources and are starting to work through the questions above, try to base your understanding of the herb off of a few sources and compare how they discuss the herb. Recognize that different sources may be working from a different foundation (e.g. I am a traditional western herbalist, but someone else may be practicing Ayurveda, and those are different thinking systems).
Instinct: Recognizing the Herbal Human Legacy and Connecting with Herbs
While learning with your intellect takes time, it is only one aspect of how to learn about herbs. In Western society, we often privilege only intellectual ways of knowing, and this lack deeply affects our ability to not only have “book knowledge” but also lived experience. By leaning into our human instincts and our own intuition, we can build more holistic and comprehensive ways of learning about herbs. Our own experiences and bodies are critically important to knowing herbs.
When I talk about instinct, I really think about the relationship between our bodies and herbs on a subconscious level. We know that humans have been using herbs for at least 60,000 years, and we have ample evidence from everything from cave walls to frozen human remains from earlier points in history that herbs were used and carried regularly by humans (and even our pre-human ancestors). We also have this evidence integrated into our very DNA, for example, the endo-cannabinoid system is a complex network of enzymes, receptors, and neurotransmitters throughout our bodies that bind to cannabinoids, which regulate a wide range of bodily functions including sleep, mood, immune function, bone health, cardiovascular function, pain and pain perception, appetite, metabolism, memory, emotional processing, and more! Cannabanoids are produced by many plants, most notably Cannabis spp., but also Cacao, Echinacea, Kava Kava, and even Hops. In other words, our bodies literally evolved with these potent plants and need them for well-functioning.
This means that your body contains a wealth of knowledge, knowledge that you can tap into, if you just trust yourself and listen. Part of being an herbalist is recognizing that our bodies have a tremendous ability to signal to us what we need.
A simple activity to do is to walk through a forest, herb garden, or even someone’s apothecary and interact with the healing plants there. Which ones are you instinctively drawn to? Which ones feel “right” to you to interact with? Take time to learn about these and who you are drawn to.
Intuition: Embracing Our Bodies and Body-Based Knowing
Once we start recognizing that part of learning about herbs is the move to integrate our minds into our bodies, we can use our bodies to “tune into” the herbs and use our bodies as sites to learn more. My very first herbalism class with Jim McDonald opened me up to this practice. Jim started by having us all drink a small cup of tea and simply observe how the tea affected us over about a 20 minute period. As a group, we watched people warm up, get up to pee, and simply observed the effect of the herbs on our bodies. This is a powerful practice, and one you can do to substantially deepen your relationship with an herb. I use this a lot in my own teaching—and part of what it does is have us realize that as herbalists, part of what we have to learn to do is to trust our own bodies and our own intuition, recognizing that we know our bodies best and can learn about herbs through direct experience.
You will want to have an herbal preparation typical to the herb in question: a tea, tincture, salve, even an herbal steam, infused vinegar, and so on. Take the herb in a common way.
Get comfortable and start with a check in with your body:
- How does your body feel right now? Note how each part of your body feels from your head to your toes. Note any places of tension or pain.
- How does your mind feel right now? Note if you feel alert, groggy, unsettled, or anything else.
- How does your heart and emotions feel right now? Do you feel happy, sad, heavy, weary, or joyful?
- How does your spirit feel right now? DO you feel that you are fulfilling your purpose? Do you feel spiritually aligned and connected to the divine (however you conceive of it)?
You can jot notes down for each of these things.
Now, consume your herbal preparation: the tincture, the tea, eat some leaves fresh, etc. Take a few moments to simply be with that herb and feel how that herb works on your body. Wait 5-10 min as you sit with the herb, and then do the check-in again. What has changed? Different herbs work on different parts of ourselves. Often, this is also where we can begin to ascertain an herbs actions on the body, mind, and spirit.
In terms of foundational actions: How the herb tastes and feels as you interact with it helps determine the foundational action of the herb. In Traditional Western Herbalism, we recognize the following six foundational actions: Bitter, Astringent, Demulcent, Stimulant, Relaxant, and Aromatic. Use your senses to really feel out the energetics of this herb.
In terms of primary actions: You can often also feel noticeable effects on your body, even in the short term, when you consume an herb. Maybe your stomach and gut relax and calm after you drink the tea, but soon you realize you have to pee! That suggests a possible carminative action combined with a diuretic action, for example. You don’t need all the terms yet if you are new: the herbal actions are based on the effects on the body. Not all effects are easily noticeable in this way as some have longer-term effects. But as you start to take your herb, you might start to notice more effects longer term (and keep notes as you are learning).
What does this kind of practice do? Tuning into your body and using your intuition to really lean into this practice can help you develop experiences that add to the intellectual knowledge you have. It helps you re-integrate your mind and your body into a deeper knowing, and allows you to recognize the power of your body and senses in being a good herbalist.
Imagination
Our final category is imagination! Herbalists throughout time have learned new uses of plants and learned new healing plants and mushrooms through their own curiosity, applying their intellect, instinct, and intuition to explore plants, solve problems, and heal. Just like everything else in Western society, we are culturally disempowered to relegate our knowledge and actions to “experts.” But in the case of herbalism, it is vital that we take control of our own learning and learn how to learn, how to ask good questions, and be open to experimentation. This is, in part, because many herbal traditions have been lost, and we are in the process of rebuilding them, especially in North America.
As an example of experimentation using my imagination, last year we had a bumper crop of Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) which, I knew traditionally had been used for compresses and pain, but I had never used it in a topical, nor did I know anyone else who had. I read about topical use in an old book, and decided to try it out. I combined crushed berries (which smell amazing) over low heat with black birch (budding twigs), goldenrod (leaf), and some kava kava. The results were fantastic—the Spicebush added a subtle warming sensation and a beautiful color and smell, and balanced nicely with the other herbs. I never would have known this if I hadn’t tried it out!
Learning about herbs is all about curiosity and imagination. You’ll never know unless you try. What you can see from my example is that I combined the other I’s to formulate a good question that could be explored through my own curiosity.
