A Beginner’s Guide to Herbalism and Magical Practice

This episode is for folks looking to get into working with plants - or deepen your relationship if you already are working with them. It is part of an ongoing series on getting started in spirituality.

This episode living with the world through herbalism, ancestry, and the lands we live on. Exploring how plants can reconnect us to both our roots and our present communities. Sarah and Andrew set the stage to build a deep connection to the natural world. Revisiting a podcast favourite animism — the understanding that all beings, including plants, are alive and spirited—and how this worldview reshapes herbal practice beyond simple “symptom and remedy” thinking.

Sarah shares her journey into herbalism through chronic illness, finding relief with common plantain, and discovering herbalism as both a clinical path and a spiritual, relational practice. They discuss herbal ancestors. Sharing thoughts on how family recipes, kitchen spices, and everyday food rituals can be doorways into remembering ancestral plant traditions.

The conversation also highlights the responsibilities of practicing herbalism on Indigenous land, emphasizing relational approaches, learning local histories and treaties, and supporting Indigenous-led stewardship.

For listeners wanting to begin or deepen their plant work—whether medicinal or magical—the episode offers practical guidance: start with the plants where you live, build long-term relationships over seasons, learning to listen to your body , and allowing plants to teach through direct experience.

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Rowan and Sage main site is her e

Seasonal Herb-craft program

Herbaria membership and library

Rowan and Sage learning/online courses page

Andrews as always is found here

Please share widely.

~ Andrew