Herbal Class Advice
I would like to take a moment to offer some thoughts I have to everyone about herbal classes and learning about herbalism.
Many of my friends recently signed up for the Gladstar course due to the price break Sage Mountain is offering on the course. As you begin studying herbalism, you will find that there is often conflicting advice being offered.
I had already been studying herbs for a number of years before I finally took the plunge and ordered the Gladstar course in 2004 so I suppose you could call that my first “formal” training. It was almost a very overwhelming and discouraging experience for me.
What you need to keep a handle on is that there is not just one way to do things and just because you might have learned things a different way, doesn’t mean that you are doing things the “wrong” way. It seems to me that many of you are quite knowledgeable. Don’t throw that knowledge out the window just because one expert might disagree with you. There are as many methods of herbalism as there are herbalists and all of them are useful and worthwhile.
Take for example formulation. Rosemary’s formulas are quite busy and you end up ordering a lot of herbs to take the course if you follow them to the letter. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the simplers who are very much into using one herb at a time. In the end, I settled on a middle of the road approach and use a “triad” method. Most of my blends have three main ingredients with some extras thrown in for flavor, at times. I was listening to the Village Herbalist classes and was actually encouraged to find that my instincts had led me to do something that other people are teaching. Heather uses what she calls a Celtic Triad method which is quite similar to what I do.
Also you don’t have to learn everything about every herb available. As I studied more I began to pare down the number of herbs in my apothecary. I started out trying to memorize a little bit about a lot of herbs, but now I focus on learning as much as I can about a smaller core group (mostly plants I can grow or wildcraft in my area). There is nothing wrong or embarrassing about saying, ” I don’t work with that herb much”, this is what I have tried that has worked.
The other thing I might offer is that you can never learn too much and that there are always new opportunities to gain knowledge. I am currently investigating the next class I will take and attending some conferences.
I can’t tell you how excited I am for the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference and I am also thinking of attending the MidAmerica Herbal Symposium . I am trying to talk the family into one of our Northwoods camping trips the weekend that Jim McDonald teaches his Foundational Herbcraft class for the North Country Herbalist Guild
Always remember though, that herbalism is instinctive. Don’t get so caught up in the “book” studies that you forget to listen to your own intuition and the plants.
Happy Learning!
January 6th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Just testing the site for you.