Chinese Herbalism & Wortcunning

Many folks are often interested in how I reference traditional Chinese herbalism and TCM in my plant spirit work, monographs, and medicine crafting. So, I thought this week it would be fun to do a whole class on the four reasons why exploring herbal approaches outside your own tradition of practice as an incredibly respectful guest can add so much to your own relationship to the plants.

Chinese herbalism has a staggering history- both documented in sacred plant text and handed down from teacher to student from the deep annals of time. This tradition, like so many others, has had a great deal of time to be refined and honed in the fires of human drama, bringing a nuanced, complex, and immersive approach to the human person, disease, healing, herbal remedial work, and nature into the current moment. One thing that never ceases to impress me about our ancient herbal medicine traditions is that no matter how old they may be, they stay fiercely relevant at all times. The struggles of our ancestors were not so different from our own.

I was fortunate enough to study Chinese herbalism as part of my formal herbalist education and completed a clinical herbalist program in 2016 under the guidance of Michael Tierra and his group of exceptional TCM teachers. While Chinese herbalism isn’t the style I practice, it has informed and deepened my own work with the plants in some pretty incredible ways; 4 to be exact!

So, no matter what tradition of herbalism you practice or how your own cultural approach makes this work special, I encourage you to always be a student of the plants and of elder herbalists- it only nourished and edifies your own work and helps us all preserve this crucial path.

Here are four really good reasons to connect with the herbal medicine ways of other traditions in a respectful way as a guest anyone would love to have again…

1 - Energetics

While most contemporary western herbalists don’t practice a style of herbalism rooted in energetics (rooted, see what I did there you fans of Empedocles!), this is a crucial aspect of the work. When I first started studying herbal medicine in the late 1990s, the energetics in Western herbal traditions were either impossible to find clearly presented or requiring of very deep initiatory connections to really grasp. Yes, Grieve, Galen, Paracelsus, and Culpeper were all speaking in energetic terms; but like all the great mysteries of nature, one must have the eyes to see, which I certainly did not! So, my study of both Traditional Chinese Herbalism and Ayurveda really helped to open my eyes and my heart to the reality of plant personhood- the ways in which they show up as whole persons; more than just what they’re good for when it comes to the human narrative.

Without TCM and Ayurveda, I would have eventually figured things out, but it would have been much more difficult. Now days we’re lucky to have many exceptional herbal teachers unpacking the depths of energetics and the nature of this sacred language… take advantage of this wealth of information that’s out there, please! The young version of me would have given nearly anything to have all the information we now have available to us.

2 - Relationships rather than Mechanics

The philosophy of Taoist herbalism was my first real encounter with the idea that the body is a complex array of relationships rather than a mechanistic setup of individually functional organs and systems. In my medical anatomy training, I was brought to tears on more than one occasion over things like the complexity of the kidneys or how blood flows in the body… but nothing could prepare me for the poetic way TCM presents the human body. Organs and systems all rely on one another- one action precedes and informs the next, which in turn nourished the following. All systems are the result of relationships, and all functions are the result of those relationships in action. The heart cannot be seen as it is in allopathic medicine- as a mechanistic pump. Rather, it must be experienced as the heart of the person; an organizing and connecting principle that makes the big toe as relevant as the eyes.

Understanding the ways in which various organs, systems, and processes in the body act in relationship to one another makes us realize that we are just as part of nature as any other natural occurrence. We, too, are part of the web… and what we do to one system affects the wholeness of things; both internally and externally.

3- No Full-Stop

In many contemporary and pop forms of herbalism, the languages we use around the process of exploring person, assessing disease states, and mapping out a path back to harmony can be spoken of in ways that limit them completely to herbs. A pattern can be found that can only be addressed by talking about herbs. The reality is that the amount of herbs anyone takes is only a small influence in their everyday lives: we eat more, think more, feel more, move more, and sleep more than we take herbs. So, if we cannot find ways to apply the assessment to things like diet, movement, mindset, and rest, the herbs will really be fighting an uphill battle. Chinese medicine excels at allowing the language of assessment to bring light to all aspects of life where positive adjustments are needed.

4 - Meeting New Friends

My goal is always to practice as bio-regional a form of herbalism as I can. While I definitely bring in herbs grown on farms in other states, I love when I can keep things truly local. Where I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, we have a climate that is actually quite friendly to many herbs that have a special place in the Chinese materia medica. These plants have been brought in for landscaping mostly, but once they’re here, they thrive in our unique climate. One example of this is Lycium barbarum, also known as Goji. Local folklore says this plant was brought in by the Chinese folks working on the railroad lines that intersect Utah- and they’ve been here ever since. The Goji in my garden thrives with very little care and gives a bountiful yield of berries each September. Another plant that I absolutely adore is Albizia julibrissin, the Mimosa tree. This one came in through the landscaping trade and thrives wherever they’re planted. These are both plants that, without the rich materia medica of the Chinese tradition, I would have no way of knowing just how much history and connection they carry. Through sacred texts like the Shen Nong Pen T’sao I have been able to connect with Goji, Albizzia, Jiaogulan, Mint, Burdock, and many other herbs in new ways- and have been able to learn about plants that I may never meet in person but still cherish their stories.

If there’s a takeaway from this post, I hope it’s that there is no such thing as herbal mastery. We should always be eager students of the plants- in how they show up in the lore and healing ways of our own ancestors and also as the show up collectively for all children of the Earth. To always be willing to learn, to experience things from perspectives that are radically different than our own, and to see how other folks relate to plants will only work to refine how effective our own work is. Keep learning! And as you learn, I encourage you to support the native teachers of the traditions you’re exploring- their cultural, linguistic, religious, ancestral, and spiritual connections to the people and places that nourish their plant traditions will give a depth you simply cannot find in any other way- and they deserve to be supported in keeping their traditions vibrant.

Find a class on this topic below…