by Nikki Darrell
Plant medicine is a part of our natural authentic humanness. Research shows that we have genes in our bodies from plant origin and that as our bones form in the womb they follow the same growth pattern as plant cells. At the Plant Medicine School, we work to reclaim our herbal heritage, working with indigenous plant allies, harvested and grown sustainably.
We are passionate about helping people to reconnect and reclaim their connection with both their inner nature and the wider natural world to become a healthy part of the ecosystem again. We find that learning to listen to the plants opens up the ability to work with other aspects of nature. As we learn to hear the tree, we then become able to hear the voice of the forest or the field, the stream and enter into resonance and reciprocity with the land and those we share it with.
We believe in empowering people to work with the plants for the health of themselves, their family, community and ecosystem. We focus on working with the healing found in their locality, teaching how to make medicines that can be made at home, retrieving more sustainable methods of working with our green allies and stepping away from the commodification of plant medicine. We show people how to make infusions, decoctions tinctures, infused oils and vinegars, syrups, meads, poultices creams and salves, among other things; and how to use herbs in food to keep healthy.
By incorporating the best of science and old knowledge with common sense and integrity, we move away from scientism to a more holistic approach, one that is nature centred and that supports the best health (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) for ourselves, our land and fellow beings.
Plant medicine is not just the treatment of disease; by building healthy resilience and weaving this powerful food and medicine back into our lives, in the kitchen, the garden, into our homes and our culture we support health (our natural state and authentic resonance).
For thousands of years, people grew up learning the traditional healing arts from their mothers and grandmothers (or sometimes their fathers and grandfathers). They learned to listen to the place they lived in, the land they belonged to, to understand the cycles of the seasons, recognize the plants, to tend them, to prepare their medicine in the kitchen. This our birthright; to carry out our ecological function with the plants, insects and animals around us. Traditionally, this learning was shared by storytelling and by learning experientially. We find that this way of teaching and learning helps people to take the knowledge and skills inside, so that they become part of their story.
Plant medicine is simple, ordinary, sacred, and everyone can do it. It is also pure magic. Every plant in every hedgerow, field, forest, on every mountainside, in the bogs, by the shores, every plant wherever it grows shouts out to those who will open their ears and their hearts.
We are surrounded by many valuable medicine plants. Here are a few examples with brief introductions to their amazing healing properties):
- Elder treats viral infections, catarrh and fevers among other things
- Hawthorn strengthens the heart and circulation
- Rose supports the skin, the mood and heals damaged tissues
- Meadowsweet treats inflammation, arthritis and gut disturbances
- Valerian calms and relaxes the mind and the body
- Mint encourages clear thinking, calms the digestion and reduces fever
- Dandelion supports the liver, digestion and clears acid from the system
- Nettle for nearly everything but particularly good for cleaning and building the blood.
After eight years of running short courses on using herbs in the home and garden for food and medicine (something that used to be central to every household), The Veriditas Hibernica Community Herbal Apprenticeship was launched about a decade ago. It was driven by our vision to help people to remember their relationship with our plant kin, that humans are part of nature with a particular role to play in making our world beautiful and to restore the rich cultural heritage of this land as a place where people travelled to learn plant medicine and lore many centuries ago. Community plant medicine has existed ever since people joined plants in the world (the plants were here first). While recognising there is no traditional formal system of Irish herbal medicine, we believe that by belonging to this land and listening to the plants and beings of this place we come into harmony and remember the teachings of those who share with us now and those who have gone before.
The apprenticeship is two years long and the first year is about connecting with the plants, getting to know them, learning how to grow them, identify them and how to make food and medicine with them. The second year is based on the study of the human condition and therapeutic approaches to help us achieve good health and feel empowered to care for our community. As well as being a stand-alone course for those who wish to be community herbalists, the apprenticeship serves as a foundation course to the clinical training programme for those who wish to progress to become clinical herbal practitioners.
The gardens at our centre in Coachford, County Cork have evolved from a simple graveled area around the building, to neatly plant potager rows to what we practice now, wild gardening and listening to the land and the beings. Wild plants grow alongside some introduced cultivars and exotics, in the gardens we bring the wild ones to live beside us, or often they just show up and then we tend them. As we work with the land in Wexford, where we are developing a second centre, we practise the same approach of listening to the place, letting the wild ones that are already there show us what the place needs and working at a natural pace to establish wild gardens.
We have many more visions for the future, key to them all is to make this work ordinary. We aspire to see the change come about where people see this way of being as the common place, normal and natural way to live.
Nikki Darrell is a herbalist, aromatherapist and botanist who runs the Plant Medicine School in Ireland.
“…key to this all is to make this work ordinary.” Yes, yes, yes!