How To Become an Herbalist

This is a question we get on almost a daily basis: I WANT TO LEARN THIS BUT WHERE DO I START?!

I'm going to let you in on all the secrets of our trade and education.

No, really, I am.

1. GRAB A BOOK!

Herbalism all starts with reading. A LOT of reading. I mean, how do we learn anything? By reading, trying, and repeating it until it's second nature!

Here are a few books Nat and I both love that you can start with!

"The Green Witch" - Whether witchery is your thing or not, this book is fantastic and very easy to understand. It's a great, lighthearted book, with a few basic herbs that help with some health and some spiritual aspects of your home and garden! The original Latin translation of the word 'witch' meant 'wise'. So in a way, don't we ALL want to be witches?!

Get the book: https://amzn.to/3LfREmb

NEXT UP

"100 Plants That Heal" - If you're more about "the medicine", then this book is a great place to start! Its full of stunning pictures and explanations of the most common medicinal plants use in Herbal Medicine! All of the herbs we prefer to use in our products can be found in this book!

Get the book: https://amzn.to/3JwD1ty

"Everyday Chinese Medicine": This is a personal favorite beginner book for me! If you've followed Rockee Redd for any length of time you know my personal OBSESSION with everything Eastern Medicine, especially the ancient practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM is the mindset we use for almost all of our formula creation! We take the properties of each herb we use and find a perfect match it to to balance each of our formulas. You can start to learn about that and get a VERY good foundation in holistic medicine from this book! I actually had the pleasure of reaching out to the author, Mindi, on Instagram. We have been talking for several weeks now and I am currently taking her 5 Elemental Medicine course! She's absolutely BRILLIANT and such a fantastic teacher! I couldn't put this book down.

Get the book: https://amzn.to/3ZHGhYK

 

2. MAKE SOME TEA!

If you want to learn about plants that you have to actually work with them! This means cooking with them (aka you spice cabinet), making tea with them, smelling them, and even growing them! In order to get everything you ever dreamed out of a plant then you actually need to have a relationship with it. This means you know how much water it needs, whether it does best in boggy areas or dry ones, whether the leaves will sting you, or if the roots are edible while the flower is poisonous! Luckily for you there are 100's of companies you have done most of this work for you! Start with some tea bag and then loose leaf tea. Learn to steep it properly. Learn whether you like to add lemon or honey to your tea. Learn what each tea does for your body and/or soul. I am at the point where I can smell a tea and tell you most of what's in it without looking! Here are a few tea brands that have the Rockee Redd Approved stamp!

TRADITIONAL MEDICINALS: Make sure you ONLY buy their USDA Organic marked boxes!

See which of their teas we link HERE!

 

MOUNTAIN ROSE HERBS - This company has the highest quality of herbs in the United States. They do, however, have slower shipping time but are worth the wait! Nat and I want to go to Washington this year to visit their headquarters!

Check out their loose leaf tea collection HERE!

 

3. MAKE YOUR OWN TINCTURE OR SALVE!

I looked high and low for top rated herbalism school, of which there are many! You don't actually have to go to school to become an Herbalist, you can be completely self taught, like Natalie! However, for me, I didn't want to take the time to figure it out all on my own. For me, it was worth paying the money to learn all I could as quickly as I could. I attended The Herbal Academy!

I chose them because, first, they're adorable! I adore their branding and the layout of how they teach! Second, because they were the most highly recommended academy I could find online! They have advanced courses (which I took) that are pretty pricey but they also have small introductory courses that are EXTREMELY affordable! Take their PERFUME CLASS for $64 or their BECOME A MINI HERBALIST course for FREE!