Herbal Suggestions for Times Like These

Learning about Plant Medicine Makes Sense

I am, among other things, an herbalist.

Some of the “other things” that are relevant to all that I am about to say are that I am:

• simultaneously pro-magic and pro-science.

• committed to collective liberation, community resilience, and decolonialism.

• enraged and heartbroken at the widespread sadism, eugenicism, conservative Christian Zionism, systemic and strategic economic violence, white supremacy, facism, and ecodespair that are currently emboldened around the world.

• convinced that things are going to get a lot, lot worse for most people and ecosystems before they start getting better.

It is from that foundation that I would like to offer a direct and overt example of something folks can do to help improve their resilience as we face all that is coming:

• Make a list of every prescription, over-the-counter, topical healing, and first-aid product you use. If this feels overwhelming, start with the ones that are most vital for your life, health, and well-being.

• For every item listed, identify why you use it.

  • Whenever possible, describe the “action” of the product. For example: anti-inflammatory, blood pressure regulation, managing cholesterol levels, anti-anxiety, antihistamine, hormone level regulation and management, menstrual symptom relief and/or birth control, antinausea, fever reducer, antibiotic, antiviral, respiratory airway opening, etc. etc. etc.

• Seek out information for plants with herbal actions and properties that correspond to those offered by the medicines you use, with an emphasis on plants that grow in the area where you live. You can consult with an herbalist, or you can seek out this information independently. Some things to focus on are:

  • a thorough understanding of how to identify the plant, especially if you are going to be foraging for it.

  • an understanding of how to grow it (if you plan on establishing a population of it near where you live).

    • Side note: guerilla planting of edible and medicinal plants is praxis. Combine it with sharing wisdom with your community members about the gifts of these introduced plants, and watch the ripple effects begin.

  • knowledge of which part or parts of the plant are used: just because one part of a plant is edible or medicinal does mean that all parts of the plants are. In fact, there are even some plants that have some parts that are medicinal and/or edible and others that are not safe to use, so please: don’t overlook this step.

  • confirmation that the plant in question does not have any contraindications for why you—as an individual with your unique combination of needs, symptoms, allergies, disabilities, accessibility considerations, etc etc etc—should not use products containing it.

  • how to make a medicinal preparation of that plant that extracts the relevant component.

    • Some medicinal components are best extracted in some solvents, and extracted less well or not at all in others; examples of solvents that can be used by folks at home to extract the medicinal components of plants include water (aka tea), alcohol (aka tinctures), infused oils (not to be confused with essential oils), and vinegar.

    • For tinctures: know what percentage of alcohol is going to be most effective for extracting the medicinal components of that part of that plant.

    • Whether or not to add heat: sometimes the addition of heat will assist the extraction of a given plant’s medicine, and other times it will potentially harm or change the medicinal components.

    • How much plant material to add when making an herbal preparation. Many herbs that are both medicinal and also common culinary herbs can frequently be made with amounts measured with your heart (e.g.: basil, thyme, sage, lavendar, chamomile, nettles, dandelion, violet,…). Other herbs are ones for which you need to be much more intentional with dosage, and you really don’t want to fuck it up. If you are working with a low-dose medicinal, I recommend getting an accurate scale and following guidelines from a well-regarded herbal professional: natural does not mean weak.

    • How long to let the herbs hang out in the solvent before straining it.

      • Do note that there are many herbalists (myself included) who find value in letting many tinctures and infused oils steep for an entire moon cycle, even though it takes significantly less time than that to extract the medicinal components of almost all plant materials.

And here’s the thing: I am not one of those pseudoscience, science-denying herbalists who will pretend that these plant medicines will be identical to those that are available by prescription or over the counter.

There are people with diagnoses and disabilities for which these products provide relief, symptom management, or targeted impacts that are distinct from anything that herbalism offers, and any herbalist who tells you differently should not be trusted.

(And, in case it needs to be said: herbs are not a replacement for staying up-to-date on your vaccinations. I strongly recommend that everyone in the so-called United States get all the vaccines that are available to them that are not contraindicated for them asap, while we still can.)

(Herbs also aren’t a replacement for wearing an N95 or KN94.)

(Herbs also aren’t a replacement for safe food handling practices and washing your hands.)

(Okay: I’m done with the parentheticals now.)

With all of that said: it is undeniable that many, many, many people are going to find it increasingly hard to impossible to access medical care and prescription medications and to be able to afford many over-the-counter medications.

While herbal medicines are not identical analogues to the ones that many people rely on for health and well-being, they also offer many gifts that can help with symptom management, slowed progression of chronic conditions, and yes—at times, depending on the matter at hand—full healing.

(I also happen to believe that, in many situations, there are advantages that plant medicines can offer that exceed many lab-developed medications. One example that comes to mind is the difference between whole-plant preparations of cannabis versus isolates and butane extractions that remove the majority of the plant’s energy from the equation, extracting only the cannabinoids: I truly believe that the energies of greed and capitalism have a harmful impact on the quality of medicine that results from the process. But that is a whole other conversation.)

It is quite honestly undeniable that the so-called United States is currently an openly fascist and eugenicist regime.

This has very real implications that are going to have dire impacts on the bodies and lives of many of us who are working hard to build a better future.

I don’t claim that herbalism will save the world. But learning about a small handful of plants that offer medicines that support the needs of your body—and the bodies of your comrades and community members—could very well save a life.

Please note: I am always concerned about the possibility of unknowingly citing or recommending resources that have valuable information in regards to some aspects of healing or herbalism, but that also contain some of the fatmisia, healthism, ableism, eugenicism, and/or cissexism that is all too common within the so-called wellness and herbalism fields. The citation of a source is not an endorsement of all ideas within that source. Basically, I assume that all sources that aren’t explicitly focused on radical collective liberation, accessibility, and equity come with content warnings.

I in no way mean to imply in either my writing or any cited references and recommendations for additional learning that the areas of knowledge that are most familiar to me and those that I have studied most extensively are any more valid than those that are less familiar to me. White supremacy and the overculture shape all things, including the contours of the unknown.