Whether To Be a Professional or Not, Choosing Our Path – Part II

Whether To Be a Professional or Not Choosing Our Path – Part II  ————- Professionalism At Its Best, A Defense of Amateurism, Adepts, & Standards We Can Share In Common by Jesse Wolf Hardin  Reclaiming Amateurism  am•a•teur: noun: 1. a person who engages in a pursuit (esp. a sport) on an unpaid basis; 2. a person considered contemptibly inept at a particular activity. adjective: inept or unskillful. Hey dictionary, thanks for nothin’!  I personally happen to like thinking of myself as an overqualified amateur, from whom nothing can be expected but anything is possible… though I concede the word is considered nothing but a put down by most people these days.  “Amateurish” is used to mean “unskilled”, though I...

Becoming An Herbalist “Professional” or Not – Part 1

Whether To Become a Professional Herbalist or Not Choosing Our Path – Part I by Jesse Wolf Hardin excerpted from a longer article in the upcoming Winter issue of Plant Healer Magazine pro•fes•sion: 1. a paid occupation, esp. one that involves formal training and qualification. We each have an ultimate personal role to fulfill, one that by its very nature maximizes our abilities and imparts maximum meaning to our daily acts.  While it may look something like the roles we see others assuming, it will in certain ways be significantly different from what everyone else does, a position, purpose and way for which we alone are ideally suited.  We’ll need to choose again and again between options and paths as we progress in that fulfillment, basing each choice...

Plant Totems: Identifying Our Most Personal Herbal Ally by Jesse Wolf Hardin

The following is excerpted from a much longer piece featured in the current issue of Plant Healer Magazine, and that will be included in Wolf’s next book, “Finding Our Medicine”.  As far as I know it is the most extensive and inspirational work ever done on the seldom explored subject of personal, practical plant totems.  Thank you for reposting and sharing this! -Kiva Rose PLANT TOTEMS Identifying & Learning From Our Most Personal Plant Ally By Jesse Wolf Hardin The Ojibway word “totem” originally refers to a plant or animal symbol for a specific family or clan, not unlike the creature emblems on ancient European Coat of Arms.  Thus we talk about “totem poles” when referring to trees carved into vertically stacked animals, each signifying a...

Medicine of The People, By The People, For The People

Intro: The following is an article appearing in the Sept. issue of Northern Arizona’s much loved culture and entertainment paper “The Noise.”  Adroit author Sarah interviewed Wolf and myself for this lengthy article on folk herbalism, Wolf’s powerful new novel The Medicine Bear, and the 2012 Medicine of The People conference Sept. 13-16…. meant to inspire people of all ages and cultures, far beyond the hard core herbalist community.  Thank you Sarah!  And thank you friends… for reposting and sharing. –Kiva MEDICINE OF THE PEOPLE – BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE The International Herbal Resurgence Learns and Celebrates In Arizona by Sarah SuperNova “To Omen, they were not just wondrous sunshine-eating entities, without whom...

Plant Healer Magazine Interview with Sean Donahue

Plant Healer Interview: Sean Donahue In dialogue with Jesse Wolf Hardin Sean Donahue has been a devoted component of Plant Healer and the Medicine of The People/TWH conference since the very beginning, and will be bringing some compelling classes to the upcoming event in Arizona, Sept. 13th through 16th. Plant Healer Magazine: Welcome, it’s good to be including you here.While we are happy to feature interviews with the most famous of contemporary herbalists, it is also a special commitment of ours to showcase, support and further the work of both younger generations of herbalists and those still less widely known.  We applaud all who are making their mark in their own personal style, putting their heart into this work with scant income and very little...

We’re pleased to help announce the 2012 American Herbalist Guild Symposium, Synergy in Herbalism, held October 19-21 at the lovely Seven Springs Resort in Pennsylvania, open to non-members and members alike.  Excellent classes with a clinical focus offer something for advanced as well as beginning students of this craft. Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference has always been about the Medicine Of The People, offering a home for the edge dwellers of herbalism, independents and outliers, but no less so an intended home to the professional and the accredited.  We share with the AHG a dedication to the protection and furtherance of herbalism, and applaud the Guild’s emphasis on continuing to evolve and become ever more representational, attracting new people...