#bioregional herbalism

[eldritchboop]

This full moon is making me so sad. Locally, it’s known as the Saturation Moon. It’s when the soil is supposed to be dark with water after two months of rain.

We’ve gotten half an inch since October and none on the horizon.

I should have listened harder to the Elderberries. They told me it was going to be a bad year.

[trilliumcenter]

What is Herbalism?

For me, herbalism is everything. It affects everything I do. The way I walk in the world; the way I relate to people. I can be walking streets in an inner city, and I’ll be identifying the weeds growing out of the cracks in the pavement. Weeding the garden is complicated. A weed is an unwanted plant. Well, there are so few unwanted plants in my mind, how do I choose what goes into the kitchen or…

[elminx]

Since I have seen a lot of posts about correspondences in witchcraft going around again, I wanted to stop for a minute and talk about how correspondences work and why you might want to make sure that you understand the correspondences you are using in your own craft.

This is likely an oversimplification, but I think that we can break down correspondences into three main categories:

Cultural Correspondences - these are often heavily steeped in the mythology and folklore of a particular region. They are often but not always correspondences of items found in that region. This is where correspondences become the most varied because, despite what you may have read in Those Bad Witchcraft Books, culture is not universal. A great example of this is that most Western cultures associate the color black with Death and Mourning but a lot of non-Western cultures have the same association with the color white. It stands to reason that this type of correspondence will work the best for you if you are sticking as close to the correspondences of the bioregion that you grew up in as possible (1) and that they will be most effective when used magically on somebody else from that bioregion (2).

Material Correspondences - these correspondences are based on the physical properties of the item in question. Some plants are edible, some medicinal, and some poisonous. Things with thorns can hurt you when you touch them. Quartz has high levels of electric conductivity. The idea here is that if Rosemary repels insects, it can be used in a banishment spell to repel that unwanted "insect" from your life. These are, in my opinion, the immutable correspondences - the item you are using will ALWAYS carry its physical characteristics with it into your magic. Spicy peppers will always be Hot and Burning, so-called "Weeds" will always grow tenaciously, and Sugar will always be Sweet. It is worth keeping in mind here that when using plants, the part of the plant may affect whether it carries that correspondence. Sometimes only one part of the plant carries a particular property - consider the difference between the sweet scent of rose petals that we use in love spells versus the sharp thorn that would be better used for protection. 3. Sympathetic Correspondences - The base concept behind sympathy is that two things that are alike in some way share a connection with one another that can be harnessed magically. The more alike that two things are, the deeper the connection. There are many ways that this is used in magic. A lot of herbal correspondences involve sympathy through the Doctrine of Signatures. This is the thought process that anything shaped like an ear can be used to affect ears/hearing magically. The Doctrine of Signatures gets rolled in a little bit with Cultural Correspondences as it is heavily rooted in Western herbalism, but it deserves a mention on its own. Another way that sympathetic magic makes its way into correspondences is the idea that an object from a particular place carries some of the energy of that place which can be harvested for magical intent. You see this in the use of bank dirt in money spells or cemetery dirt in baneful magic. This is also where Holy water, moon water, and stormwater come into play - here we are assuming that something that has been done to the water (being blessed by a priest, charged in the moon, or collected during a storm) carries an inherent energy that can be then transferred to your spell. Depending on your viewpoint, you may or may not agree with the concepts of sympathetic magic.

And that's the whole point of this. Witchcraft, as a whole, isn't the sort of path where you are supposed to proceed based entirely on blind faith. If you're flipping to a certain page in Scott Cunningham's infamous Green Book and finding the first money herb you come across to use in a spell, you are probably doing yourself a disservice. I suggest that you look closer. Not only will the physical correspondence change how your spell manifests (I've written about this before) but you may find that you don't even BELIEVE or AGREE with that correspondence at all. And maybe that's not important to you (but if that's true, why are you even reading this?). But I suggest that it should be. That understanding of a correspondence deepens your connection with the energy of the item you are looking to use. Moreover, exploring it further may give you all sorts of juicy ideas for spellwork to augment that energy.

Do you like my work? You can support me by tipping me on Kofi or purchasing an astrology report written just for you.

[pekoposting]

blorbo ask game with pekoyama

if you guys won't post peko content then i Will

(link to original here)

What is your blorbo’s:

1. Favourite season?

Spring, because she likes all the new flowers and baby animals. But it's not a particularly strong preference.

2. Favourite food?

Not sure really, but likely something rather simple and Japanese, and probably savoury. Probably any good, hearty meal that helps her get her strength up.

3. Favourite plant or herb?

Probably something you can put in hot water to make herbal tea. Like mint or something.

4. Favourite person/being?

...Do I have to say it?

5. Favourite place?

I don't think she'd consider herself having a home, but the dojo is very much associated with the Thing She's Good At and she likely spends a lot of time there (plus I do agree with takes that it's the main place she's able to vent her emotions, through combat training).

6. Favourite animal?

Anything fluffy. Beyond that, she cannot pick favourites. If she does, it's purely based on Fluff Quantity

7. Favourite drink?

Black tea.

8. Favourite hobby/activity?

Studying The Blade.

9. Do they like to read? If so, favourite genre?

Yes. Musings on the blade, or picturebooks of animals. Very little inbetween.

10. Do they like to dance?

I know some people like to think she's really good at it, but personally I don't. It's not something she does often, and so I don't think she'd be into it much. (Plus I can't have her be good at everything lol)

11. What is their favourite room in the house?

I think if you asked her this question she would get confused by it. Practical ass.

The dojo, if you interpret the Kuzuryuu compound (/ manor / main house / whatever) as having one within their walls.

12. Favourite place to travel to?

I don't think she ever travelled recreationally, unless it was for clan business or the Kuzuryuu's travelling and her being brought along (especially going abroad). But I think she does have a soft spot for the beach.

13. Who is their best friend?

Probably the same person as her "childhood friend". Especially when the two of them start to develop, sort out their feelings and come to terms with their feelings for each other. (Especially since I think there'd have to be at least weeks of time for them to develop before they can get in a romantic relationship)

14. Favourite bioregion?

??? When I looked this up the maps of it just had one bioregion for Japan called 'Japanese islands' so that I guess??

15. Choose one for them: wine, beer, cider, hard liquor, or none?

Wine. But only if it's non-alcoholic (when she's a minor, at least). I like to think that the fact that she and Kuzuryuu both have non-alcoholic wine as likes (and are the only people to do so) implies they drank it together.

[northeastbaltimore]

Alyssa (@ecliptaherbal she/her) 🌿 is going to show you around her @northeastbaltimore this weekend. Follow along! 🐾 “I’m an interdisciplinary artist, earth activist, educator & clinical herbalist cultivating a 0.7 acre herb sanctuary here in Northeast Baltimore, MD. I’m the creator of Eclipta Herbal (@ecliptaherbal) which offers a path of empowerment toward holistic healthcare through the guidance of one-on-one herbal & dietary consultations, in depth plant medicine classes & interactive educational products. I’m passionate about bioregional reintegration & place-based identity with the land that builds mutualistic relationships with non-human life in a post-binary culture. My clinical practice is centered around women’s health & continuing the vibrancy of the peoples medicine that utilizes nutritional therapeutics & the contemporary practices of Chinese & Eclectic herbal medical traditions. Please get in touch! I love hearing from my neighbors!” ✨There’s magic here ✨⠀ ⠀ ⠀ xoxo⠀ #lifeissweetinthenortheast #northeastbaltimore #mybmore #mybaltimore #baltimore #iheartcitylife #visitbaltimore #thebmorecreatives #baltimorecity #baltimoremd #bmorelocal #igbaltimore #charmcity #maryland #mdinfocus #bmoresecretspots #igbmore #explorebaltimore #bmorelove #discovercharmcity #walkwithlocals #ilovebaltimore #visitmaryland #bmorelife #bmorecity #bmoreadventurous #bmoredaily #baltimorelove

[coyote-fawn]

A lot of us in more advanced witchcraft communities are having these conversations!! It’s utter shit that the newbies have all this crap to sift through, of course, but if you know where to look and who to ask, you can find folks adapting their practice for where they live and learning some basic botany and chemistry to inform their practice. (Keyword for your search: bioregional animism)

The Poison Path Herbal is a book I recently read about nightshades and other sacred, toxic herbs. It goes into the ways alkaloids act upon the body, working with the spirits of those plants safely, and the histories of each in folklore—and very much does not take any of that stuff lightly.

It’s disheartening that our community doesn’t have a form of peer review prior to publishing.

there are SO many witchcraft books in the barnes and noble's. Including lots of herb and plant books. And I feel that it's in everyone's best interest to inform that "witchy" herbalism is just, like, a wad of Eurocentric plant symbolism, Eurocentric medicinal plant stuff and random bullshit mixed together, and you don't have to buy something marketed as "witchcraft" to learn all the stuff with greater accuracy

Especially if you're not in Europe, it doesn't make sense to learn about plants that either don't grow in your area or have a totally different role in the ecosystem in your area. Plant symbolism and "meaning" generally is connected to a real quality about the plant. It becomes nonsense if you remove it from the specific ecological context

Also, i find it really funny how a lot of "herbalism" stuff on like pinterest is just about mostly common kitchen herbs and spices and doesn't discuss very many actual commonly used medicinal plants throughout history...because those can kill you or give you the worst most traumatizing trip of your life

[fernandfungi]

The edible and medicinal mushroom goodies coming soon to our online shop. We love our mushroom medicine! Been busy processing and packaging new products. Finished a photo shoot today am am now attempting to get all the goods in the shop and a newsletter sent out. No rest for wicked, even when you have small children!

[aerislunam]

Vintage book covers

[barberwitch]

Witch Tip Wednesday 3.6.19

Making an Herbal Grimiore

So rather than waiting to post once it’s done, I figured I’d give you guys the process I’m working on currently! You may have seen my portable plant press I posted about yesterday, well it’s part of a larger project I’m working on and one you can do too.

Especially with winter creeping away, and the spring equinox getting ready to occur, there are many plants, weeds and wild things growing that you can take advantage of, not just for your day to day Witching, but making a tangible, expansive, and personalized tool that will be just...fucking awesome, and an heirloom if done right.

The easiest way to make this is with an expandable/post bound scrap book, or if you’re adventurous, making the book yourself. I’m doing the scrap book version because easily adding and removing pages, organizing etc is going to be easier. They also tend to look a little cleaner than a binder imo.

Here’s the concept: A book that has identifiers, pictures, correspondences, spells, and plant material. A book that, if that’s the only thing you could grab for some rushed spellwork, you would be able to complete it.

Collect plants that you have around you, especially those that you may already use in your craft.

Find out their name with some fancy googling, reverse image searches, local plant and foraging guides etc.

You can visit this site, click on the search magnifying glass on the photo stream , and type in the name. It will pull up antique botanical prints. You can then print these out and save yourself the frustration of not being able to draw like an 1800’s naturalist.

Pick the one you want/what’s most accurate, and print it out!

Now comes your descision about how you want things formatted. Depending on how much information you have, or if you want to leave room to add and keep everything contained, you can tape the pages together to form fold outs.

So I used 3 sheets of paper. Enough room to hand write notes, additional spells, meditations, growing instructions etc. also tissue paper envelopes take up very little space and are cheap to make. In each entry, you can write the info of when it was harvested, how, moon phase etc.

As you go, you can hand write an index and table of contents. Make it alphabetical, organize it by when you can harvest them on a seasonal basis! Do common, secret or scientific name in the index, write what spells you can do with them. This is an easy way to create a useful, personalized grimiore with the stuff you use.

Additionally, you can really trick it out by using a font made of your handwriting! Unfortunately I was rushed and wasn’t able to do it for this example, but I may do it in the future!

I’ll probably post other examples as I go, I’ll use the tag #herbal grimiore

🦋Cheers, Barberwitch

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Original content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commins Attributution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license

[sola-invinctus]

You know, learning to work with the plants in your area can be really hard or even frustrating at first. Cause there’s this whole mindset you gotta get over in learning of “Where’s all the mandrake and elder trees?” Sometimes, you don’t have those witching plants you always see but you still have plenty you don’t know of. And in the end, when you finally know how to really approach your area, it’s so satisfying.

[profetizamos]

Holy Spirit of Herbs by Olga Volchkova, 2015

[itztagninut]

winter magical herbalism project yaupon + calendula

This is the last blog post in the project, so forgive me for being a little self-indulgent.

Interested in following along with the project? Check out my tag!

Yaupon holly is another plant that caught my attention, that introduced itself to me, rather than the other way around. I live in its native range and it is widely used in landscaping. That’s actually how we first met.

My coworker and I were planning a small landscaping project, essentially just to plant a dozen or so trees on the property we worked at. While researching trees and pricing at a local nursery, I felt that familiar tap on the proverbial shoulder. When I whipped my head around, there were half a dozen yaupons in a neat row, tucked off to the side where I hadn't noticed them. They were on sale and, after talking more with the nursery staff, more suited to the location we wanted to put them than the Japanese maples we were originally looking at. After planting them at the property, sure enough, over the next months, Yaupon began showing up in my dreams. At the beginning, it was just the tree, but eventually a more complex consciousness emerged.

[I, vomitoria “yaupon holly”]

Yaupons are surrounded by local fakelore. They're also one of the indigenous plants that are being recolonized and capitalized upon by the health foods industry, which serves only to line the pockets of the (majority white) settlers who occupy this land. I am also a white settler occupy this land, displacing the Numunuu (Comanche) and Tickanwatic (Tonkawa) nations, and for that reason it's important that I proceed respectfully. When working with the native plants, I seek to develop personal relationships with the daimon of each plant, while being conscious of local folklore (where it exists) and associations with its relatives within my own culture. I do not approach native plants whose spirits do not first approach me. I may cultivate them in the ground and enjoy their flowers and foliage, but I avoid using them in my spiritual practice unless I have received some kind of sign, dream, or other indication of their interest in me.

I am not a member of any indigenous nation, and I have been unable to find any reputable sources documenting indigenous thoughts on spiritual uses any of these plants (in my project, that would be Ashe Juniper, Live Oak, and Yaupon). Without proper cultural background, I don't know how I could even begin to approach indigenous wisdom on these plants in a respectful manner. Instead of trying to take knowledge that's not mine to have, I have chosen to rely more heavily on my own experiences.

Those considerations are at the forefront of my mind when interacting with native plants but this is a loose collection of thoughts that have bubbled to the surface during this project. I don't feel I have enough authority to even bring this up but these topics are never discussed with any kind of nuance in spiritual/pagan/new age communities. I felt like I need to say something before I finished this project.

[Orange c. officinalis by Betty Cai]

For this last week, I'm dealing with two herbs that came into my life around the same time. Calendula is another plant that introduced itself to me. The summer before I met Yaupon, another of my coworkers began cultivating calendula in raised beds on the property. She was an older woman, a respected master gardener in town. She met me when I was a young queer fighting homelessness and, as we got to know each other better over the years, she taught me a great deal about growing all manner of strange living things, about growing up as a strange living thing, much of it over those raised beds exploding with sunny calendula.

That fall, as the calendula began relaxing itself back into the ground, it began showing up everywhere. I got gifts of calendula tea, calendula balms and salves. Even though most calendula in town had slowed its flowering considerably, bouquets of fresh calendula kept finding themselves into my hands.

Calendula helped me open up to my coworker and nurture a mentoring relationship with her, a relationship that fundamentally altered my self-perception and life plans. I was surrounded with calendula while I began dating the person who would eventually become my partner. Parties are more upbeat when there are calendula flowers on the kitchen table.

More than anything, it's a plant ally for your emotional and spiritual health.

[thebearwitchproject]

Find of the Day: 🌿 A Guide to Medicnal Plants of Appalachia 🌼

I found this pdf today while doing a bit of research on herbs and plants in my bioregion that have known medicinal uses.

Now don’t get as excited as I did when you look at this and think you hit the jackpot with a list of all the herbs to go find and what they do. This guide isn’t for that.

What this guide does do provide is a list of medicinal herbs that were being bought by the drug companies and drug stores in the 1960s and 1970s. The guide itself was “prepared to help collectors identify, collect and handle plant, plant parts and pollen”

Not only is it a user guide to beginning herb collection it breaks down what part of the plant has medicinal uses. Unfortunately the guide doesn’t list what the uses are. I’ll have to cross reference this with other sources

On its own the guide is a fascinating historical look at the development of pharmaceutical practices in Appalachia. I especially enjoyed the list of buyers for collected specimens.

It doesn’t take much of a jump to think that if these plants were being bought by drug stores obviously folks in the area also knew their uses and used them in their work.

So I intend to use this guide to build a base knowledge of plants in my bioregion whit known medicinal uses and even ones I could eventually grow in a garden or forage for.

I hope that other folks find this a useful post. I though it was a interesting find in a rather mundane location.

I’d like to hear from other folks on how you might use it or if it is all helpful.

[trilliumcenter]

NORTHWAYS

Northern Sky by Leah Wolfe. True sustainability is centered in place. The mark of a sustainable lifestyle is that nearly everything the people need comes from a relatively small area. To explore the place that I live with others, I created the Northways Herbalism program. One of the buzzwords in the herbal world is bioregionalism, which simply means organizing around an ecological…

[hagoftheholler]

What makes folk magic and witchcraft different?

I've mentioned in a few previous posts that I consider folk magic and witchcraft to be different. I'm sure this seems strange to some, because isn't all magic witchcraft? Well, not necessarily. Of course this depends on who you ask, but this is my perspective. You don't have to agree with me on any of this. All of this comes from my own experiences and observations.

Folk magic, as myself and many others define it, is a combination of bioregionalism, ancestral traditions, folklore, superstition and faith. Folk magic, the old ways, it is what it is... Whatever you choose to call it, it all comes down to three things: lifestyle, community and culture. That's how it was decades before modern technology, and that is still how it is for many.

Back before modern technology and medicine became so widespread, people had to rely on each other for help when needed. Whenever people got sick or wounded, they didn't have access to what we have now. Instead, they used whatever knowledge their elders picked up or asked their community if they had anything that could help. Some things they used were as simple as herbal remedies, other things were a little more based on superstitious beliefs. Regardless of which it was... if it worked, then it worked.

Families also took up superstitions to help them get by in life. These superstitions got passed around over time, from family to family and community to community. Whether it was to preserve their luck or make life a little bit easier, it became a natural part of life.

Folk magic isn't just a spiritual or religious thing. It's a way of life; something that integrates with what you do every day. It's passing on the knowledge you learn from your elders to future generations. It's sharing what's helped you with your community and giving them support when they need it. It is the culture you grew up with and continue to develop. Those who grew up with folk magic may have a better understanding of what I mean by all of this.

Of course, there are families who have family-specific practices that they don't openly share with just anybody. Those things are meant for family and those who happen to be close enough to family as it gets.

That all being said, witchcraft (in my opinion) is like a cousin of folk magic. Not exactly the same, but they share some similarities. Witchcraft is indeed magic, that much remains the same.

There are many ways to define witchcraft based on what path one takes. Some consider their path traditional witchcraft, green witchcraft, sea witchcraft... There are also those who choose not to define their craft with a title alone. Some also incorporate religious and spiritual aspects into their craft. Some choose to keep their craft and religion separate. Some people's craft is based on modern theories and beliefs. Some people's craft is based on historical knowledge preserved throughout the centuries.

When people talk about why they started practicing witchcraft, many have similar reasons. Sometimes it's an act of rebellion against religion or tradition. Sometimes it's a means to connect with a higher power or personal power. Sometimes it's because the individual had a spiritual awakening or crisis.

Regardless of why an individual starts practicing witchcraft or how they define their craft, it often comes down to three things: growth, power and self-preservation. It's used to help the individual grow, to give them a sense of control and to recognize their own power. Although there are some who willingly share their craft and how they do things, there are many who don't. Even those who share much of their craft have things they don't share with anybody. It can be community based, but ultimately it's treated as a deeply personal thing.

Some people do identify as folk witches and practice folk magic, and that's perfectly fine. It's alright to incorporate folk magic into your craft as a witch (just don't go removing folk practices from their original context). Personally, I don't consider myself a witch or what I do witchcraft. It's still magic regardless.

Thanks to @buggywiththefolkmagic for reading this before I posted to make sure it all made sense lol

[wildjuniperjones]

(I just read your intro and followed immediately. I too have an interest in D&D and fiction writing.)

But, per your comment, this ask is about Plants and Magic. You mentioned that you had some suggestions about Herbalism and/or other reference materials after my ask on a-witch-named-crow's blog, and I would love to hear them.

I recently turned a rather critical eye to the sources that I originally learned magic from, namely books and my mother, who was very into Native American Shamanic things. I believe we have some ancestry and family history, but we are not culturally involved or members of a tribe. I decided it really wasn't right for me to continue many of the beliefs and practices I had learned because what I knew was likely from closed practices, and frankly I had no right to them.

But I felt that kind of left me in a bit of a lurch where learning more about plants was concerned. I studied Botany in college, and even back then I knew it was only part of the story, really. I love using what I grow for tea and food, and I am totally getting into foraging, so -crow's suggestions there are on point. What -crow said about working with the spirits of plants seems kind of the way I want to go. I am a Service Member, so I cannot take their latter suggestions. (constantly subject to the possibility of urinalysis when you are the property of the government).

I would love to know what you have to add!

So, most of my training is in medicinal herbalism, as a lot of the correspondences you'll find in older texts are actually code to describe the medicinal functions of certain herbs (like St. John's Wort being associated with Leo and the Sun, referring to its heating properties when applied topically (it causes sun sensitivity) and the joy that returns from taking it internally). But if you mostly want to get into herbs for your own purposes, I have some books to recommend.

First up, get a Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants & Herbs for your bioregion. I have one for the western US, but there are others. It will make all the rest a helluva lot easier if you're going to wildcraft (forage) your herbs.

Next, get a copy of The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook by James Green. It is THE book for creating your own tinctures, salves, etc. I never had success with making salves (they would mold) until I followed his instructions.

These two are required reading, from my perspective. But hey, you might want to know more about plants that are readily available in your local grocery, perhaps! For that, check out:

Kitchen Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal, Matthew Seal Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Ronald F. Schmid

But I take conventional medication, how do I know what will interact? For that, check out Delmar's Integrative Herb Guide for Nurses by Martha Libster. Mine isn't the most up-to-date, but you might be able to find useful info in there nonetheless, especially if you do your homework and know what category of medicine any newer medication falls into.

Part of my training was with the East West School of Planetary Herbology, which included Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnostic techniques that I still use, like tongue diagnosis and pulse diagnosis. Understanding the theory and structure around TCM opens up a lot more resources, and the best book I've found for that purpose is The Web That Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuk.

A history and theory-based look at Western herbalism that really changed the way I viewed herbal medicine is The Herbal Lore of Wise Women & Wortcunners by Wolf D. Storl, which I highly recommend. I was having a hard time reading anything when I got it, but plowed right through anyway.

Lessee, honorable mentions go to Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West by Michael Moore (I believe there are a few other bioregions in that series), 300 Herbs by Matthew Alfs (especially useful if you already understand TCM and Ayurvedic theory), and my absolute favorite (which is sadly out of print) the two-volume set of The Energetics of Western Herbs by Peter Holmes. Just the most comprehensive guide to European and American herbs out there, explained very clearly, using both Western and TCM theories. There's a companion two-volume set by the same author called Jade Remedies that covers Chinese herbs exclusively, but is also out of print.

Most of these can be found on free sites like libgen or Z-lib, except for the last two, which as I said are out of print. These are just the books I kept, you understand. This is a tiny fraction of my original library, the ones that I considered too essential or rare to sell.

On the more spiritual side of plants, I'd recommend The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Buhner. And if you're looking to grow herbs, especially woody herbs, I cannot recommend The Medicinal Forest Garden Handbook by Anne Stobart enough! Permaculture + herbalism? Yes please!

I wrote a few blog articles on the subject looooong ago, when I was trying to make a go of being a professional herbalist but I didn't yet have the confidence to see people. I didn't want to promise success when I was still so uncertain about my abilities. So I decided to catalogue every western herb I could and cross-reference their entries with the books I had at the time (which conveniently is also a listing of all the books I used to have, more or less).

This is the glossary, and this is the cross-referenced list, while this folder contains the few articles I completed. There's also this spreadsheet, which has links to the PubMed entries for each herb (if available) and the wikipedia entry for each herb (if available). It was a huge, obsessive undertaking at the time, and I'm still tempted by the organizational possibilities... The original plan was to have a blog/book that condensed dozens of books worth of information, including conventional science and traditional wisdom, with growing patterns/techniques, preparation methods, etc., etc.

I hope this helps and wasn't too overwhelming! I honestly held back a lot (I could talk about the East West program, for instance), so let me know if you want to hear more about any particular topic!

Best of luck, and happy herb hunting!

PS: If you do want to go mushroom hunting, the best book ever for the purpose is All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora. Seriously, such a gem.

PPS: If you're a service member, you may want to do a bit of research on herbs that mimic the presence of illicit substances on drug tests. California poppy is a great choice for headaches, but if you're getting urine tests, it will show up as an opiate, despite being a mostly unrelated species.