The skill of knowing plants through the body is the foundation of traditional plant wisdom throughout the ages. Even knowing very little about specific plants, we are able to identify their medicinal characteristics by tasting, touching and smelling them.

Since plants communicate chemically, developing our taste perception allows us to deepen into direct communication with plants. This embodied plant wisdom is also a valuable survival tool: what would you do if you were sick and stranded in a Tibetan medicine garden with no internet? How would you choose which plants to use? We live in such a mentally-focused world that too often our desire to connect with plants and understand herbs leads us to accumulate more and more data about them, and think that this is all we need. But mental information is only one aspect of true knowledge. The human senses are a gateway to the biochemical blueprint of plants. By honing both our physical senses and our intuitive connection to plants we can round out our intellectual knowledge, and arrive at a place of real connection to our green friends.

This hands-on workshop will guide you through the different flavour categories of herbal medicine and support you to discover sensory and intuitive communication with plants.

-----------------------------------------------

Stephanie is a practicing herbalist in Melbourne who has been working with herbal medicine and traditional healing systems for 15 years. Her approach is informed by holistic principles of traditional western herbalism and Chinese herbalism, sacred plant medicine, and the anthropology of healing. Stephanie is passionate about our existing intuitive wisdom and ancient connection to plants. She supports people to deepen their relationship to their own bodies and the greater living world through herbal medicine, ritual, and deep ecology.

Written by