8 Great Reasons to Study Herbalism

The choice to study Herbalism can be as simple or as deep as you want it to be. These factors are dependent upon whether or not you are just interested, seeking a career change, improving your quality of life, and more.

There are essentially eight reasons to study Herbalism, but they all have two continuous threads: having a quality of life and a understanding and connection to the natural world. So let’s begin there.

Quality of life really has two aspects and two approaches; namely, the improvement of one’s overall health (including recovering from an illness), or practicing preventative measures to falling prey to a myriad of health problems. The two approaches to reaching your goals in this area are through personal knowledge or Herbalism and holistic health alternatives.

But in order to ensure the quality of life, some level of study must take place. The importance of knowledge far outweighs one’s just “winging it.” There are significant foundations here that need to be learned and applied in order to do it right.

In the “it takes a village” department, one great motivation is that of supporting the community, including the health of our families and friends. The insights presented by a Herbalism knowledge expansion plan can be very helpful for the overall health of the village.

While these top two reasons, quality of life and supporting community can be great motivators, it sure is true that just personal interest and curiosity are perfectly valid reasons to approach herbalism study. Even if it only satisfies curiosity and produces the ability to forage for herbs and produce personal care products like tinctures and salves, these are great things. Who knows where this initial inquisitiveness may take you?

You will likely accrue benefits from the first three approaches as discussed above, but while this journey is going on, we are seeing more and more people recognizing the importance of our number four, that being interaction with the natural world. Being “one with nature” will show you the value of the plants around you–even the weeds! Nature gets you out into the fresh air and into the joy of living, as well as provides opportunities to exercise the very beneficial knowledge of the Herbalist.

Take, for example, those plants known as weeds. What is a weed? Actually, it is in the eye of the beholder, so to say. Weeds can be useful plants in certain settings while nuisances in others. Weeds can be invasive species or may have originated right where they show up. New things are being discovered about the usefulness of weeds every day.

As if our first four reasons were not enough, we are only halfway.   How about Magic?!

Simply put, there is a certain amount of magic in the practice of a Herbalist. If your focus is on magic (and it takes on many forms), you can start with learning some easy healing types, techniques, and formulations. And most importantly, more often than not, they work! In the world of magic Herbalism, you can work with or even make your own scented oils, perfumes, incense, and fluid condensers while discovering so much more!

As a sneak preview into the world of Herbalism education, just what is a “fluid condenser”? In the European traditions of magic, it is typically liquid and made by dissolving small amounts of gold into water. The substance is designed to store etheric energy. So what is etheric energy, you ask? For that, you will have to stay tuned.

You can readily see that Herbalism is a vast and far-reaching body of knowledge from various components, one building upon another.

Throughout 50,000 years of discovery through skeletal remains all over the world, we know a lot about ancient and modern traditions and their histories. Today, we often hear people decrying any loss of ancient teachings and history as the loss manifests itself in our modern world.   Sometimes, it is a language that no one has bothered to teach in order to preserve it is gone forever.

Another example might be the forever extinction of something in nature, such as plants and animals. So if it is important to you that the Earth be preserved, a career change resulting from the study of Herbalism may be for you.

This brings us to you may just want a career change regardless of Herbalism or a fresh start. How wonderful is it when we can make a living at something we truly love? The good that can be done in the world by joining ancient traditions and medicine acting as a means to keeping this all alive is a great calling in an ever-growing field(s).

The following is a list of areas that could bring you to your dream job with the education and supplementation of our Herbal programs.

1. Clinical Herbalism, wherein you work with clients one-on-one
2. Growing herbs
3. Selling herbal products/Medicine Making
4. Teaching
5. Public speaking and other advocacy
6. Blogging, freelancing, and other writing
7. Consulting &/or Formulating
8. Herb shop owner or consultant
9. Natural and/or mind-body medicine clinician
10. Herb pharmacist
11. Agriculturist
12. Massage Therapist
13. Nutritionist
14. Acupuncturist
15. Nursing (all areas)
16. Osteopathist (DO)
17. Physical therapist
18. Wholistic skin specialist
19. Reflexologist
20. Kinesiologist
21. Chiropractor
22. Biologist
23. Environmental scientist
24. Botanist/Ethnobotanist
25. Exercise scientist
26. Dietician
27. Caregiver
28. Life Coach
29. Social Worker
30. Mental Health Specialist
31. Chef
32. Yoga Instructor
33. Reiki Master

So we can say that you can help the quality of life in your household,  support your community, you have a personal interest, including in magic, and by employing what you know you are having interaction with the natural world.

But to take it all to the next level, including the possibility of making a career change, takes education.

So where is this all heading? We are delighted to share some excellent news. The fields related to alternative medicine and holistic healing are growing rapidly. As you probably know, people are moving farther away from westernized and mainstream medicine. Therefore, alternative and holistic health practices are experiencing a resurgence.

You really cannot go wrong in furthering your education with the study of Herbalism.