Deep Ecology in Herbalism: A Manifesto

By Stiki Niki texasherbalist@yahoo.com

I am not just an herbalist. I am an anarchist, an ecologist, a witch, an educator, a student, and a refugee's daughter. I am someone working on my own health, and facilitating others healing so I can help in some small way to create a world that’s a little easier to live in. The more I delve into the health field, the more people try to put me in a box. I could never fit in a box, my edges are uneven and at odd angles no label could ever fully package. I grew up in a world of punk rockers that gave a voice to my anger and activists who gave me direction. For fifteen years I have worked to better myself and my world. In all of the madness and struggles around me, the only thing that gives me true peace and joy is to walk deeply into a wild place, be it a dark lush forest or hot dusty desert, and sit and listen. With this realization, I am now less and less on the front lines in actions, radical cheerleading and yelling or running around with a gas mask as a medic. Instead, I am spending more and more time inside, behind closed doors, listening to one person at a time tell me about their pain and helping them look for ways to transform it. I am also spending more time away from people, and with plants, learning how to be a better listener.

It is a painful and scary world, and it is a beautiful and amazing world. I chose to take the struggle of holding the earth first in my life to the health field. It is a rocky path, full of confusion, as all paths can be. I feel that I am coming full circle now with my studies and practice and am now ready to apply it to my love and respect of the Earth.

The field of herbal medicine in the U.S. is kind of messy. There are no basic standards or licenses to have to be considered an herbalist. You either call yourself one or you don't, the same way you either call yourself a witch or you don't. I like this aspect a lot, as it fits nicely in my understanding and agreement of anarchist philosophy. In fact, I strongly disagree with any national accreditation or licensing, I like being an outlaw. The problem I have with the herbal medicine field is the same one I have in any aspect of anarchist structure. Accountability. How do we hold herbalists, or those using, picking, and buying herbs accountable? The question comes up again and again in various communities that don't want to involve laws, licensing, or police. Whether its sexual assault, or someone who always leaves a mess for others to deal with in a household, lack of accountability is a major set back in any community. It is essential that as western herbalism in the U.S. continues to flourish, we begin flushing out strategies that can help us manage ourselves but help retain diversity. One answer could be complete decentralization very small, local groups of herbalists and other holistic practitioners who band together, create their own agreements and structures.

Anyone can write a book on herbal medicine and end up with 1000's of people reading it and quoting it as the Word of God. Anyone can make up a few letters after their name, print up a certificate they got online after taking a week long correspondence class on herbs, call themselves a Master Herbalist and begin seeing clients. Anyone can collect and make medicine from plants, selling it as "professional formulations". This is a very empowering field, and a very dangerous one. I find myself often confused as to how to explain myself to people, especially coming from a part of the country that is pretty slow to catch on to new ideas. Personal responsiblity as an herbalist is essential. Community expectations and guidelines are necessary. People need to question those that give them advice, especially when it comes to health. It seems that many people take fixing their car more seriously than who advises them about their own bodies. When a clerk in health food store gives advice about a product, keep in mind they are working for a store that is most likely more interested in your money than your health. Question authority. If the person is authoritative they should be able to answer you eloquently and hopefully not be offended by the inquiry.

Ignorance, and misuse of herbs can lead to several things.

The herbs may simply not work. Maybe the plants are adulterated, old, you may take the wrong dosage for the wrong duration, or you may obtain the wrong plant or combination. They even may not work the way you thought they would because their energy is tainted from exploitation. Self-medication can be a treacherous place to be, especially if you lack medical training. This is a problem because it leads this trend of using herbal medicine towards becoming a lost fad, instead of a shift to using more natural substances in our lives.You may end up completely decimating plant populations because some pharmaceutical company decided to pay for research on, for example, Echinacea, and has "proven" it is the most effective herb for whatever it decides is important to "prove" at the time. This of course is happening and many of the "popular" herbs are in trouble in the wild due to "market" pressure. To put it simply, I would rather people take a Tylenol then White Willow Bark if they don't know the source of the bark.

You may end up with "herbalists" who have a bit of knowledge and act outside of their scope of knowledge, teaching things or representing themselves in ways that may do more harm than good. One of the most valuable phrases you can get from an herbalist is "I don't know". One of the most likely reasons for this is due to the fact medicine is the U.S., in whatever form has been commodified . It is no longer about sharing information with each other to help guide someone to homeostasis, it is about making a living and surviving. Monetary pressures and ego are a dangerous mix in the health field.

Herbal medicine is medicine. I don't care what the FDA has labeled it as. It is serious. It can heal and it can harm. It is not to be played around with. It is to be studied intensely, in whatever medical model you choose, and carefully and responsibly experimented with in a limited capacity. Use what you can sustainably for first aid situations and if it outside of your realm of experience and something more serious, go speak with a local herbalist you can trust. Don't use it if you don't need it.

I just took my 1,675th herb class, or at least it feels like that many. It was a reminder of how much I have to learn. My friend Filiberto taught it. He is from a small mountain village in Mexico. When his people collect flowers, they only collect the petals that have fallen on the ground. When they cut a plant, they first dig for black widow webs, collect caterpillar cocoons, or use beeswax to seal any cuts in the plant limb or root. He only collects plants seven days before a full moon. He makes medicine only on the full moon and buries it for a month. His use is based on survival and need. My question to everyone is what do you really need from the Earth? Many of us are battling all sorts of psychological illnesses, that then manifest physically. People are looking for a magic pill to fix them, whether its an herb or pharmaceutical. In Fili's peoples medical system, (which has a lot of similarities to Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine), psychological illnesses are associated with the element of Air. For other elements there are many plants, but for this one he says there is only one thing he knows of to do. He says that an illness like this comes from a lack of connection to the earth. Therefore, bury yourself for several hours inside the earth. I wonder if this is what we many times could do to avoid using things to fix ourselves. Just a few hours inside the Mother.....

It is for him and the oral knowledge he carries, passed down for centuries, that I write the following manifesto.

Due to overharvesting, habitat destruction and complete disrespect our green brothers and sisters are experiencing; a new faction of herbalists is rising to protect the remaining wild plant populations. Herbalists and other plant nerds are welcome to join us in this struggle using the following principles:

We will strive to use and educate on the use of substitutions to herbs the "market" has made popular and help shift the focus to the weedy plants in bioregions we call home.

When we garden, we will work with native and naturalized species that have little impact or are even beneficial to the land using organic gardening and biodynamic guidelines.

We will spend extensive time educating ourselves and others about the ecology of the land we inhabit and wildcrafting principles and ethics.

We will seek out and treasure and protect information from indigenous practitioners.

We will do whatever it takes to protect wild plant populations, even if it means losing our freedom.

Our focus is not to pick herbs and heal people, but to listen to the plants and let them guide us to facilitate their healing.

Using these principles we hope to transform the misuse and abuse of plants in herbal products to a more mutually beneficial relationship with the land.