The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy

All of life is born from water: from the mythological primordial ocean to the evolutionary-biology view that life originated in the waters, to the cosmological perspective of God separating the waters from heaven and Earth. All mammals grow within the womb's embryonic fluids, and as birth begins, the water breaks and touches the Earth. Life is utterly dependent on water, but how do we work with the Water element in herbalism?

In this post, we're exploring the Water element in herbal medicine and how it manifests in people and plants.

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Here's wh...

Most herbal books teach you about herbs, but very few teach you how to become a skilled practitioner. Sajah Popham from the School of Evolutionary Herbalism reviews one of the most comprehensive resources he has found for client assessment, intake skills, and the business of clinical herbal practice.

Here's what you'll learn:

What makes The Practicing Herbalist different from other herbal books

How Margi Flint approaches client assessment, intake interviews, and case-taking

Key diagnostic methods, including tongue, pulse, facial, nail, and constitutional assessment

Why energetic models such as the...

Sajah Popham from The School of Evolutionary Herbalism explains why herbal remedies sometimes fail. The issue is rarely the herbs themselves. Instead, it's the intake process that misses critical details about the person and their tissue state. Through the lens of vitalist herbalism, Sajah breaks down what you need to do to refocus your intake sessions, so you can nail the remedy for your client every time.

Here's what you'll learn:

Why choosing the wrong herb can worsen symptoms

Why "good for" herbal thinking often leads to poor remedy selection

Most herbal dosing strategies fail during acute infections, not because the herbs are wrong, but because the dosage, frequency, and timing are wrong. In this video, Sajah Popham from the School of Evolutionary Herbalism walks you through the four biggest mistakes herbalists make when treating infections, and how to create protocols that lead to better outcomes.

Here's what you'll learn:

Why herbal dosing for acute infections is different from chronic care

The four most common mistakes people make when taking herbs during illness

Why low-dose strategies often fail in the treatment...

Do you need to know botany to be a great herbalist? Since learning botany is like learning a new language, it's a fair question. After all, if you won't use it, is it worth becoming fluent in it?

Being an herbalist means a lot of things: Working with people, plants, and being the bridge between the two. Although it might seem like studying botany is an important part of this process, the answer to this question might surprise you.

In today's episode, you'll discover:

The three layers of botany...

Let's be honest, fevers suck, and they make you feel miserable. But should we make the fever go away so we can feel better? Actually, no, that would be a mistake. Fever is an intelligent response of the body that should be supported rather than suppressed. It plays a very important role in healing the body, and this has shaped the perspectives and practices of traditional herbalists since humans first began using plants as medicine.

In this post, we'll discuss the purpose of fevers, how to treat them, and I'll delve into my top five diaphoretic herbs...

Sometimes big medicine comes in the form of a small plant. Cleavers is one of those plants; humble and unassuming, yet a potent and highly useful remedy. It is like a water purifier for your body. The benefits of Cleavers are numerous: it cleanses the lymphatics, flushes the kidneys, and offers pain relief for urinary tract infections.

Cleavers teaches us that it is not always best to use the strongest remedies. Sometimes, it's the gentle ones that possess a subtle yet profound ability to restore balance and promote true healing from within.

In today's plant...

Explore health and disease, not as fixed states but as a dynamic spectrum.

Learn how herbal medicine can uniquely support people at every stage of this journey by matching the strength of the remedy to the severity of the imbalance, rather than waiting for diagnosable disease to set in.

Here's what you'll learn:

Why health and disease are better understood as a continuum, rather than a binary

The concept of "homeodynamis" and why balance is always in motion

7 key stages of health: the enlightened state, peak health...

Phytochemistry is a fascinating study, but it can be incredibly complicated and confusing at times. Understandably, there are many herbalists who'd prefer to avoid learning it all together. The big question is: Do you really need to know phytochemistry to be a great herbalist?

There are many paths you can take as an herbalist. You can meet with clients, make herbal medicine, wildcraft, and so much more. As you'll see, phytochemistry plays a different role in each of these paths.

In today's episdode, you'll discover:

What phytochemistry is using...

What really goes into the herbal products we rely on every day?

In this conversation, Sajah sits down with anthropologist, author, and founder of the Sustainable Herbs Initiative, Ann Armbrecht, to explore the hidden journey of herbs — from field to finished product — and the complex web of relationships, ethics, and decisions that shape their quality.

Sajah and Ann discuss the gap between traditional herbal values and modern industry realities, and what it means to practice integrity in herbal medicine today.

This is an invitation to look more deeply — to "see double" — and to connect...

Welcome to Part 2 of the Allergy Strategy. In this episode, we'll explore the two key approaches to working with allergies and intolerances: prevention and acute care.

Whether it's you, your loved ones, or your clients dealing with seasonal allergies, you'll find plenty of tools here to support the process—and many of these strategies can also be applied to other types of allergies.

If you haven't had a chance to read Part One yet, I recommend starting there: https://tinyurl.com/tuw2358m as it covers the foundational concepts we'll be bu...

Spring has officially sprung.

The birds are chirping, the plants are waking up, and the earth is on the move again. It's a beautiful time of year—and here in the Pacific Northwest, we welcome the lifting of the cold, the retreat of the rain, and the chance to head back outside to enjoy nature's splendor and get our gardens growing.

But spring's return comes at a high cost for many due to seasonal allergies.

If you're one of the millions of people who suffer from seasonal al...

We are now into Aries season — our first sign of the yearly zodiac. In honor of the astrological new year, we're kicking off a quarterly Element series here on the Plant Path, which we'll do at the equinoxes — in Aries and Libra, and at the solstices — in the signs of Cancer and Capricorn.

Today, in honor of Aries and the recent equinox, we'll discuss the first Element: Fire, the spark of life, which governs vitality, transformation, and the movement of energy through people and plants. We'll explore how Fire expresses itself through humans and through plants, offering a deep...

Have you ever felt overwhelmed trying to learn herbal medicine and astrology?

This is one of the biggest challenges I hear from people studying herbalism on its own… throw astrology on top of it, and it just seems like too much. They say, "I was already overwhelmed trying to learn how to become a great herbalist. And now, to practice this way, I have to learn the massive system of astrology too. I'm busy with my day job, family, home, and garden, and it's too much."

But it doesn't have to be...

In this episode, Sajah talks about how to assess a person's constitution through the natal chart and why this matters for effective holistic herbalism. You'll learn how the rising sign, planetary placements, and the 1st to 6th house relationship reveal underlying patterns that determine health, imbalance, and therapeutic strategy.

Here's what you'll learn:

What "constitution" means in holistic medicine — and why it's foundational

Why treating symptoms without constitutional assessment often fails

The difference between prakruti (core constitution) and vikruti (current imbalance) in Ayurveda, and how they relate to the natal chart

Join the FREE Astro-Herbalism Mini-Course that's happening right now: https://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com/astro-herbalism-mini-course/

In medical astrology, the Sun represents the gravitational center of the psyche and of the body. Just as the planets orbit the Sun, so too does our physiology organize itself around a central core of vitality, expressed through the heart, the circulation of blood, and the distribution of warmth throughout our organism.

When the solar principle is strong, we see resilience, clarity, steady immunity, and a sense of inner coherence. When it is weak, patterns of fatigue, coldness, poor circulation, and...

Most traditions of herbal medicine across the world use the fundamental principle of antipathetic medicine in their approach to therapeutics. But in the practice of alchemical medicine—based on Paracelsianism— and in astro-herbalism, another approach is commonly used: sympathetic medicine. In this episode, we'll explore some of the principles of sympathetic medicine, how it differs from the antipathetic approach, and how we can work with it to deepen our understanding of plant to planet correspondences.

Here's an overview of what you'll learn:

The key differences between sympathetic and antipathetic medicine

How to t...

If you've ever wondered how astrology can interface with medicine, and whether it really works, you're in for a treat!

I am delighted to share my interview with Judith Hill, who has been my teacher and mentor for over 15 years. Since we first met, she has profoundly influenced me as an herbalist, practitioner, and individual. Her guidance has been instrumental in helping me comprehend the profound impact of the celestial realm on us as humans, constantly inspiring my practice of integrating clinical herbalism and medical astrology.

Judith is the founder of...

In honor of Valentine's Day, celebrated as a day of love and friendship, we're focusing on Venus. Venus is the planet associated with archetypes of love, beauty, and relationships. Valentine's Day is often seen as being for lovers, but let's broaden the Venus archetype to include reflecting on the beauty in your life and the love you have for everyone in it. In this episode, we explore Venus in excess and deficiency through the lens of medical astrology and herbalism, examining how this archetype shapes the kidneys, reproductive system, circulation, relationships, and the deeper work of balance and self-understanding.

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Have you ever wondered how science views medical astrology or whether it has been proven "true?" Should we consider astrology a valid tool for understanding health, or is it just pseudoscience?

Astrological medicine is a central part of our approach to herbal medicine here at The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, so it's a topic we discuss regularly. Today, we're breaking down medical astrology's relationship to scientific and pragmatic truth and proof, and what really matters.

Here's what you'll find in this episode:

The goal of the tools we use—wh...

Building a trustworthy herbal library is essential for serious herbal study, yet many modern herb books lack clinical depth or are even AI-generated. In this post, you'll learn how to discern high-quality materia medica and explore five of the most reliable, clinically useful references — from historical Eclectic texts to modern, pattern-based systems that continue to inform real-world herbal practice.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why a strong herbal library is critical for safe, effective clinical practice

How to spot low-quality or unreliable herb books

What defines a clinically useful materia medica

Most herbalists begin with books, teachers, and tradition, but genuine clinical mastery comes from organizing what you know into something you can actually use.

In this episode, we will look at why the clinical herbal monograph is the most powerful tool for studying medicinal plants and how to build one that supports real-world practice rather than just theory.

What defines a clinical herbal monograph

The essential elements every useful monograph should include

How to think in terms of patterns, rather than "good for" lists

Which...

When we talk about "anti" herbs — antibacterial, antiviral, antimicrobial — it's easy to imagine plants acting like tiny soldiers fighting pathogens. But in this post, we're exploring a classic herbal triplet from the British Herbal Pharmacopeia that reveals something more profound: that herbs rarely just "kill the bug." Instead, they strengthen, mobilize, and clear heat and infection.

Here's what you'll learn in this episode:

Why this classic antiseptic triplet is traditionally indicated for infections

How Garlic, Wild Indigo, and Echinacea each act on the blood, lymph, mucosa, and immune system

The difference betw...

Look at just about any materia medica, and you will see the word "anti" in front of many an herbal action. These are subtypes of the antimicrobial action, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, antiviral, antiparasitic, antiamoebic, and antimalarial.

When you see these words, it is easy to assume that the herbs they describe are like natural pharmaceuticals designed to "kill" pathogens. However, that framework can mislead you and sometimes lead to poor clinical choices.

In this article, we'll rethink the entire premise of "anti-herbs" and explore how they really work.

Happy New Year. I hope this finds you well and emerging from a wonderful holiday season. Welcome to 2026, I can't believe we're here!

I really appreciate you taking time out of your life to engage with everything I share here. Whether you're new to my work or you've been with me since the beginning, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of the Evolutionary Herbalism community.

Here's what you'll find in this episode:

What we do at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism

Our...

There's something about winter that makes us want to bundle up and get warm. And while many of us do this with sweaters, a beanie, and thick wool socks, there's another critical way we stay warm: Through the herbs and food we eat.

In many herbal traditions, plants are often split into warming or cooling. A cooling herb might be great in summer, but it can leave you feeling off-balance during the cold winter months. That's why it's important to turn to warming herbs and spices that heat us up from the inside out. By doing this...

Adaptogenic herbs are everywhere these days, offering promises of being the ultimate cure for fatigue and the secret to boundless energy. But here's the truth: adaptogens are one of the most misunderstood and misused herbal remedies out there these days.

When used incorrectly, they can backfire, potentially worsening fatigue instead of helping it. Many people fall into the trap of misusing these herbs, chasing quick fixes without addressing the underlying causes of their exhaustion. To truly address fatigue, you need to dig deeper to understand what's draining you, how adaptogens work, and where they fit...

Evergreen trees are revered around the world for their medicinal properties, rich folklore, and uplifting symbolism. Although you might be familiar with these trees from your walks through the forest or the holiday seasons, this year you can take your knowledge to the next level by learning how to use them medicinally at home and for your loved ones.

In today's episode, you'll learn:

Have you ever felt anxious about giving herbs to someone who's already taking medications? Many herbalists feel hesitant to help people taking prescribed drugs because of concerns about herb-drug interactions. But how much do we really need to worry about this?

Herbs can impact how drugs are absorbed and metabolized, which can actually be helpful at times, but very risky at other times. By understanding how herbs and drugs interact, you can feel confident in providing your clients with the care they need, even if they're taking medications.

In today's blog...

When you hear Echinacea, chances are you think of its immune-boosting properties. But did you know that this popular use is relatively new? Traditionally, Echinacea was used for entirely different reasons.

By rediscovering its original applications, we can break free from the idea that Echinacea is just a "cough, cold and flu" herb and appreciate the many ways it supports the body holistically.

In today's episode, you'll learn:

What makes Echinacea's flavor so unique and why it creates that signature tingling sensation

The best time to use...

Making herbal medicine — the alchemy of transforming living medicinal plants into healing remedies — is one of the most empowering parts of the plant path. In this post, I'll share my thoughts on The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook by James Green, a classic and comprehensive guide to the art and craft of herbal pharmacy. Whether you're new to medicine-making or refining your technique, this book offers a solid foundation and plenty of inspiration.

Here's what you'll learn in this review:

Why The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook is an essential foundation for every herbalist

Some essentials of prep...

Is all herbal research trustworthy? If you've ever Googled an herb to learn more and saw lots of research papers about it, can you trust them? Herbal research is tricky since there are a lot of things that can go wrong and right with them that make the results tricky to decipher.

Even though understanding herbal research isn't 100% necessary as a clinical herbalist, it can introduce novel uses of plants, and of course, knowing the chemistry of an herbal makes you a much better medicine maker. With a few pointers, you can learn how to...

Elecampane has become one of my personal favorite respiratory remedies over the years, not just for its medicinal benefits for many of the common respiratory woes people face today, but as a choice restorative agent. Whether you make it into a tincture or enjoy the syrup, Elecampane is a remedy every herbalist should know.

In today's episode, you'll learn:

Hyssop is an ancient herb with biblical references and spiritual indications. This herb is also an important part of the Western Materia Medica. This combination of information from ancient sources and the modern scientific model lends a unique perspective on this plant and how you can use it in your herbalism practice.

In today's episode, you'll learn:

Sweet and grounding, Burdock is an Earthy plant with its wide leaves, deep taproots, and ability to both nourish weakness and cleanse excesses from the body. Just as it loves to grow near waste grounds, Burdock clears metabolic waste products and toxins from the fluids in your body to keep your skin glowing and healthy.

Since the health of the skin is merely a reflection of the health of your liver, blood, lymph, and digestion, focusing on topical solutions alone won't get you very far. By working on each of these organs on a deep...

Agrimony is the herb of paradox. On the one hand, it's described as a relaxant,and on the other hand, as an astringent. How does it contract and relax a tissue at the same time?! What do you do when you find conflicting information surrounding the herb you're studying?

Although these two aspects of Agrimony may seem contradictory at first, there's a way that you can study the herb that connects them to form a larger whole. By learning how to study herbs in this way, you gain the skillset to understand complex plants on...

Learn more and enroll in The Vitalist Herbalist Practitioner Program: https://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com/vitalist-herbalism-mini-course/program-details/?gw=live

Enrollment closes tomorrow, October 3rd at 12am PT.

Nutritive tonics hold a unique place in herbal therapeutics, situated at the intersection of food and medicine. They're not meant for acute conditions so much as for the long game: daily nourishment that prevents many issues and helps you maintain vitality and resilience over time.

In our modern world, where soil depletion and industrial farming practices have left even the best diets lacking essential nutrients...

Diving into the world of herbal medicine and the traditions that have carried it for a long time oftentimes introduces us to new concepts, principles, practices, and ways of seeing the world around us that aren't often taught to us in our modern world. And sometimes there's something there that changes your life forever.

For me, the principles of vitalism were one of the biggest revolutionary moments in my life, not only as an herbalist, but as a human being. While I'll share a bit more about the five ways vitalism transformed my life, they're also the...

I want to talk about a mysterious, often nebulous word that pervades the halls of herbal medicine … "tonic." What does "tonic" mean anyway? This is a question that has come up for me over and over throughout my years of studying herbal medicine. I took some time to think it through and make sense of the many possible meanings for myself, and I want to share my findings with you.

Here's what you'll learn in this post:

Why "tonic" is one of the most misunderstood words in herbalism

The four key cl...

What do you do when you have a sinus infection? It's painful, it's tough to breathe, and frankly, it can feel a little scary. Many people would quickly ask for an antibiotic for this situation. This isn't wrong, but it is possible to treat sinusitis herbally in many cases.

As I discussed in a previous episdoe, I had a sinus infection that wasn't responding to systemic herbal treatment. I opted to use nasal irrigation with a neti pot, but instead of using the typical saline solution, I added specific herbs. I experienced a swift turnaround...