The Plant Spirit Podcast with Sara Artemisia

Deepening Connection with the Natural World with Yarrow Willard

• Sara Artemisia / Yarrow Willard • Episode 47

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#47 - Join us for a wonderful conversation with Clinical Master Herbalist Yarrow Willard (aka Herbal Jedi) on building relations with the natural world and bridging the connection between our internal and external environments.

In this episode, Yarrow shares deep herbal wisdom on how plants and wild spaces support the experience of grounding and realignment. He offers profound insight into how plants speak in a pattern language and the value of staying connected to a sense of childlike wonder on the plant path.

Yarrow also shares about his experience with some amazing medicinal plant teachers including Devil’s Club, Self Heal, Dandelion, Burdock, Blackberry, Hawthorn, and Plantain, and how they help with building resilience and reconnection from the inside out.

Yarrow Willard (aka Herbal Jedi) is a second generation Clinical/Master Herbalist who has spent his lifetime exploring the art and science of Plant Medicine and holistic health. As an educator, philosopher and medicine maker, he delivers rich and original content, focused on reclaiming health and deepening connection with the natural world. Yarrow's social channels and extensive collection of YouTube videos are packed with valuable knowledge and a healthy dose of inspiration.

Professionally, Yarrow is an international speaker and YouTuber by the name of The Herbal Jedi. He is Co-founder/Formulator at Harmonic Arts, Director of the Wild Rose College of Herbal Medicine, and Co-creator of the Canadian Herb Conferences.

You can find Yarrow at: https://harmonicarts.ca/, https://herbconference.com/, https://herbconference.com/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herbal_jedi/, https://www.instagram.com/harmonic_arts/, https://www.instagram.com/canadian_herb_conference/
On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Herbaljedi/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Herbal_Jedi

For more info visit Sara's website at: https://www.multidimensionalnature.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensional.nature/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraartemisia.ms/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plantspiritherbalism
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saraartemisia
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@multidimensional.nature
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/multidimensionalnature/

Learn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/

Sara Artemisia:

Welcome to the Plant Spirit Podcast on connecting with plant consciousness, and the healing wisdom of Nature. If you'd like to learn more on how to communicate directly with plants, visit www.learnplantlanguage.com, to register for the free workshop. That's www.learnplantlanguage.com. I'm your host Sara Artemisia and I'm deeply honored to introduce our next guest to the show today. Yarrow Willard (aka Herbal Jedi) is a second generation Clinical and Master Herbalist who has spent his lifetime exploring the art and science of Plant Medicine, and holistic health. He's the Co-founder and Formulator at Harmonic Arts, Director of the Wild Rose College of Herbal Medicine, and Co-creator of the Canadian Herb Conferences. He's also an international speaker and YouTuber by the name of Herbal Jedi, where he has an extensive collection of YouTube videos packed with valuable knowledge and a healthy dose of inspiration. As an educator, philosopher, and medicine maker, Yarrow delivers rich and original content focused on reclaiming health and deepening connection with the natural world. So Yarrow, thank you so much for being here. It's such an honor to have you with us today.

Yarrow Willard:

Oh, the honors all mine. Just really amazing to connect with you.

Sara Artemisia:

Aww, thank you. You know, one of the things I really just love so much about your work is your connection with the natural world. And so I'd love to just start there if you're open to it. And we'd love to hear what is your favorite way to get to know a plant or build relations with your ecosystem?

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, well, I guess it depends on the ecosystem, right? Because the longer you spend in an ecosystem, the more relations you build. So maybe I'll take like going to a new ecosystem, as a as a challenge there. So one of my favorite things to do, because I don't travel a ton these days, just based on the way the world's gone, but which I love, by the way, but you know, if I land on a new airport, very first thing I like to do is find the closest plant usually it ends up being in like the smoker area or whatever, because they have to they're trying to like clean the pollution and look to its edges and tune in with its edges, what season, what feels like it's in its prime in this moment. And if there is a plant that feels like it's in its prime in this moment, I will say "hello". And the way that I have come to understand the plant, say hello, is through chemistry connection. So we have a little kiss, I used to take a little nibble and just say hello that way. So I feel like my saliva helps me to engage with where the plants at at a much deeper level. So you might be this weird plant growing in not such a healthy environment. But usually, that's how I will get to know a new ecosystem. And I almost every time I go to travel somewhere, I'll try to not book anything for the first few hours if I can, if not like half a day at a minimum. And I'll usually look for like where's the natural world thriving in this ecosystem. And this is the beauty of Google, I can look at the map and topographically find myself a beautiful little spot where there's probably some diversity, maybe a river valley, maybe a stream bed, maybe some water and get connected with the blue space and the green space at the same time. And so that's my favorite thing to do often, when I go to new ecosystems is to just find those places where diversity is thriving again, and where there's like all this celebration happening in the world of plants. And that's where obviously that's like the plant party, I'll go party with the plants for a good hour to try to ground into this location. Try to at least in my own way, tune into what type of energy has been connected with plants here before is there an intact wisdom tradition that is still thriving in this environment? And if there is or isn't credit tuned into how people may have had relations with plants here. And then I really love to find a high spot if I can in a new ecosystem to look over the ecosystem and have that kind of vantage point and perspective. So yeah, I'll tend to do a little rambling around walkabout. Anyway. And that's if I can my favorite way to tune into new ecosystems and ecosystems I already know. It's all seasonal. It's all seasonal attunement, right? That's where we just kind of reconnect with our friends, these families plants, and always have a little choice celebration with each one as they come into flower or, you know, it's just I remember last time we were connected. So yeah, that's how I often see it. And I'll maybe finish that off with nibbling. And then also touching and just engaging in all my senses. If there's like, touching against my skin, usually my fingers first but maybe my face, sometimes I will leave a hair for a plant so it can get to know me, this might be weird, but sometimes I'll actually like I don't use a nail clippers. My thumbnails have grown to be adaptively strong to click all of my other nails. And so I'll leave a little nail clipping with a plant sometimes, yeah, just different ways that a plant might get to know me as well as I'm getting to know it in that way.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah, I love that that connection of, of the relationship is so, so important. And I love that you go to where the plant party is.

Yarrow Willard:

There's always, I mean, even in the dead of winter, like I just, I will still go down to the river valley and just kind of tune into where the plants are with snow, I'll still try to like look to what trees I can see and what broken down bits of plants are still around to tune into that ecosystem.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. And we were talking a little bit earlier about this value of of bridging and connecting the internal external environments. Could you share a bit about that? Like, why is that important to really connect with the internal environment and the external environment and find a bridge between the two?

Yarrow Willard:

Well, I mean, even from where I started, this was really intuitive to me that my internal environment needs to be in alignment with in order for me to be externally available and grounded and connected. But you know, as I kind of dug into the science, and as it's grown in the world of knowledge, human knowledge anyway, we're understanding more and more that we are an ecosystem. We may be in an ecosystem, we actually are this ecosystem in our symbiotic environment inside of us, is really our true health. That's really our true immune system. It's really a lot more who we are, there's far more intelligence living on and in us, that is us by cell count and by genetic diversity, that it's really hard to envision for myself anymore that I'm actually Yarrow Willard, I'm actually this ecosystem, putting on the suit of Yarrow Willard way. So how do my little guys inside of me align with my external world. And this is one of the reasons why I just got so into wild food. And it's just because the wild food is teaching my inner world, how to show up in that wild environment. And it just makes so much sense to me, it's very simple. And it's like, wow, you know, if I want to learn, hence, the nibbling on the plant at the airport. Like, I want to learn how to show up in this environment, the fast track is to tune in, let my little guys inside of me be part of that exchanging experience. Now, I'm not saying eat a bunch of poisonous weird plants. That's by no mean what I'm saying, the nibbler is designed as more of an organoleptic tool. And those of you in the know understand, homeopathic and etheric dosing is all about small micro connection, which allows us to become far more acute in our sensory perception. Therefore, more astute, so, so I tend to consider that, more like a nibble, just so my internal environment, when it's off, I know it's everyone knows around me, like the whole world knows, and I can't connect in properly. So it's become really important to me to explore the not just the genetic diversity inside of me, but to build resilience from the inside out. And fundamental, like holistic modeling of any kind of plant path is really about that, right? We don't work on the skin, we work in the body and the skin shines. So it goes along with traditional wisdom from everywhere around the planet, so makes sense to me.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah. And that the very plants are doing this as well. They're blooming from the inside out. And so I love that they mirror this experience of how can we do this in the human way, we can look to the plants that can show us how to do this. And kind of connected with that. I'm curious how are some of the ways that you found can be so supportive for coming back into a state of alignment? We obviously live in a time planetarily where there's a lot of disordered dysfunction. There are a lot of mirrors of fragmentation that we're continuously surrounded by in society. And there are certain ways that we can come back into states of alignment states of wholeness. Certainly the plants can help with this. I'm curious if there any specific plant teachers, human teachers or just navigational tools that work really well for you?

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, well, I'll start with plants and then people and obviously plant medicine is people's medicine and some of the people who have tread this path before us are inspiring to me. And so I, but you know, when it comes to my own internal alignment coming off, I usually look to the plants first versus people I'm not looking for sage wisdom on the internet or from even my quote unquote, teachers, my herbal teachers I'm looking from the plants are just really grounding in alignment, because I fundamentally understand or I believe anyway, that all real like knowing comes from inside, not outside. And so in order for me to be reconnected to that already part of me that knows the path forward, I need to tune back in and the plants do a really good job of that. So one of my favorites, and we were talking about this before is actually Devil's Club. It's a plant that is here on the West Coast, it's in Araliaceae, which is the Spikenard, Sarsaparilla, ginseng family, and I just I love this plant because it just shows up with this really spiky gnarly outer part and inside has beautiful fragrant flesh that is unique, and I've never smelled anything like it. So just scratching a little bit of that park has this perfume that comes over me anyway to some people that might not like the smell of it. But to me, it's like just this intoxicating spirit conduit. So I've, I've done that enough in my life, tuned into it, nibbled it, connected with it, hung out with it. And something that I would really invite for people with plants that they want to connect to it. Don't just connect with plants, when they're in their prime, in their harvest harvesting season, go back, spend time with them in off seasons in cold seasons in rainy weather and all these other adverse environments, not just the prime of their life. That's how we really get to know somebody in general, not just in that, but so so I would Devil's Club and I have spent a lot of time together in that way. So now when I feel ungrounded one, this is a plant that also stabilizes blood sugars. And often I it might be a ungrounded to me blood sugar imbalances very synonymous with ungrounded. Because it's like this wave of up and down the kind of roller coaster, I think of Devil's Club and I hold it in my heart and it really takes my high oscillation of wave and rebalances it to slow down a little bit. And the way this plant works to me it it weaves in and out of the stream beds and it just has this beautiful dance with its, it's like wetland environment. And it's a plant that holds the base of a mountain. And the way it holds the base of a mountain is almost like, if you want to climb to the top of the mountain, if you want to go to the head of God or spirit or whatever you want to call it. You need to be initiated through the Devil's Club to get through these spikes. And these spikes when you get them in your fingers. they fester. Like they're not just like a spike, they have a little toxin in them that festers. And I remember one time I was so excited about that plant and I, I was like, Oh, this is amazing, this beautiful Devil's Club patch. And I raced in hastily and I tried to pick one, which I shouldn't have, because it knocked me right in the third eye with a spike. And I was like, Whoa, and I just like reel back and I was like what are you doing? Like you are so out of your body right now. And this thing knows it. And it was really funny because it's like that kind of wound like I can't pretend it's not there because it's literally on my face. And it's got this little toxin in it so it's gonna fester. I'll say eye opening. So yeah, I've had a few tumbles and rumbles with it and spent some time with it. And through that kind of developed a little song with it heard from other traditions, singing with plants or singing a plant song, which might be different for every person really helps you tune into it. So now sometimes I could just sort of hum that song to myself or harnessed that kind of feeling that I've had from my experience. And it's right there with me. It doesn't matter if I'm anywhere in the world that was always with me in every moment if I want it, if I call it in and so this is just so profound to me that I can have an ally like it's got me like it's got me covered. It's got my back at any moment if, if I need it, and so because it's also the spiky protective plant it's allowed me to be more vulnerable because I know I can withdraw into the Devil's Club spikes if I need to which is to me a really great teacher and power plant for me and then there's plenty others right there's so many others I'll only share one story of one plant for now because many of my other favorite allies I just love Burdock and I just love it. I, there's so much that I get maybe it's the spiky stuff. I'm really big fan of Blackberry, and we got real good times, me and Blackberry, but sometimes I get a little bit I'm not as nice to BlackBerry is as It could be. But yeah, anyway. But all these kind of spiky, protective plants, I just really resonate with them. And, to me, hard edges mean soft centers. And I just love that connection. So yeah. And then when it comes to people, something I would touch on that, to me is really profound in this current moment we're in right now is that, I was spoke to this earlier is that we have a generation before us, I'll call them the hippies. And that kind of alternative minded new way of showing up that was really deeply trying to explore this stuff from this kind of Western mindset still, right? If you go back to most traditions, they have this intact wisdom tradition, and they have elders, and, and so right now I consider this generation of hippies, who followed the golden thread of the plant path, and learned all of these different ways as a really awesome guide for us at this modern age. And me and my mid life here, I now have this this really beautiful guy that's been with me, my whole plant journey of these teachers who have written books who have done herb walks, who have made herbal products who have done a lot of this great work. And so many of them I've gotten the chance to tune in with in the American herbal world anyway, and in the Canadian herbal world. And I just have such an appreciation for that generation for treading forward through the unknown path. And what it's given me anyway, is an opportunity to have guides and elders, so that I can reflect that back down to the youth. It's like this really beautiful dance of a generational thing between these elders, to the current modern day teachers and activators, which is in their 30s, to the younger 18-20 year old herbal sprouts that want to claim the patent plant path and connect with it in a deeper way for their their own self awareness and growth. And so, yeah, it's a really beautiful dance. I feel like we're in a really prime time for that. Then, of course, of course, of course, we also have this beautiful generation of young, budding brilliant beings that are coming into the world that are already, they come from a place, it's totally connected. The I'm talking about the like, one to five year olds are that like, I guess it's the pre-seventh, before seventh, we're still part of mother, or family. And so we're really still connected in a really deep way to the world itself. And so they have a lot to teach us. So I just feel really blessed to be in a place where I got a lot of people, teachers, there's some to note, of course, I really loved Stephen Buhner's work. He's an amazing one. I spent some time with David Winston, and I just love his way of tuning into plants. There's a lot of them around here. We've got a friend of mine, Robert Rogers, who's a real Mushroom guy, and I just love his way of connecting the medicine and my father, Dr. Terry Willard was just a great purple teacher who spent a lot of time in TV camp learning traditional ways as well. So those are some but there's just so many more, I will say that I feel really lucky to have even just the American Herbalist's Guild is full of all these great old hilarious hippies. But I've gotten some time to go on her walks with at times. I'm grateful for that. Like I did get a chance to spend a little bit time with Michael Moore and the way he connects with plants and that was cool. Ryan Drum is an amazing teacher listen to sad one's are there. Yeah, it's just, there's so many of them. Like it's really neat to have this great group of elders around that are kind of holding the path and a few of them I was talking to as at a conference last this year and talking to Roy Upton, he's part of the American Herbalist Guild and he's done a lot for pharmacology and identification and quality assurance around like people getting good Plant Medicine, not adulterated products. Any we were at the Herbal Guild's thing and he's, he came up to me and it was all stoic, and he's like, you have to carry the message forward. Like really serious for a second after being really jovial. And I was like, Whoa, that was like a lightning bolt. Okay, okay, I'm, I'm gonna carry the message for work. But it was just, I feel that for that generation now that are in their 60s and 70s. And they're really excited to see all these younger folks tuning deeply and growing this message and more profound way.

Sara Artemisia:

Incredible. Well, I have to say, I guess I'm not too surprised by the lightning bolt message given your experience with Devil's Club.

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, things come in bolt. The Muse comes in lightning form for me sometimes.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that. I love that. So good. You know, that actually reminds me with, in your experience with plants. When we're feeling a call, for example, we may come into a time where we're feeling ungrounded or maybe to internally soggy or something like that? How in your experience does working with plants help us to balance the elements within ourselves when we're feeling like maybe we're low in an element or just need some, some more fire some more inspiration or some grounding internally?

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, well, there's a difference between like, over maxed out and depleted to me. And those are two different sides. It's like that yin and yang to like, imbalance, right? So when it's a depleted state, or I'm feeling in a depleted state, I just need to do some forest bathing, just this, like, slow down and be slow, like not to try and rev up or get, get excited to really be slow, and to wander. And to me, that means I need to get off a path. If I'm on a path, I'm in the wrong place, I need to just get into some kind of wild ecosystem that can hold me for a minute and can hold me in a place where I'm not well, and I'm not feeling good. And I don't want someone one of the biggest pet peeves I have is when a human says it'll be okay. It'll be fine. It's like, no, that's not where I'm at. That's not it's not, that doesn't help. But the plants don't do that. They hold us and they're like, yeah, yeah, you know, they really hold or, for me anyway, they hold me in, in my challenged depleted states. And they remind me in a way, that it's just part of the journey, and it's okay to be in those places. And that, I think rooting in, they are I mean, obviously, they're all rooted in. And maybe it's my own mind here. But I, when I think of roots, I think of this interwoven, mycelial net, that holds them all. And it really gives me a little more appreciation for my own stuff. I'm feeling down, I'm feeling drained. And I realized that I'm actually tapping into a ethos of that emotion at this moment. And that I'm not the only one experiencing this emotion. And I can appreciate this challenge. And know that there are many others that have explored this challenge too, and, and are moving in this way through this. And so just to hold me in that way. And it helps in an ecosystem like that, that there's all kinds of essential oils in the air and terpenes. And they have this really nice way of making things a little easier to be around. And, yeah, and then I would say I have this thing around, like what's called what I call right angle reality, which is just the, the buildings and windows and screens and stuff like that. And, you know, a lot of us spend a lot of time online or we spend a lot of time on our phones, or we're in cities, and there's a lot of right angles around us. And by getting out into Nature, the geometry shifts to all of these kind of more fractal shapes that are tuned in and aligned with our own DNA with our micro organisms with our blood with our heart with our, our Kundalini, whatever it is, they're tuned in with that same vibrational frequency. And typically, in my case, I'm oscillating too high. So when the opposite of that slow down and depressed, I'm overwhelmed and anxious, and I'm feeling like I'm picking up too much. And I've got too much on the go, or I've made too many commitments or, or I'm not sure how things are flowing right now. And I want to get re grounded. And so I find that, that environment, it's moving at a slow signwave like, it's just got this really gentle wave that reminds me to retune to that wave. So I find when I'm stressed, it's even more impactful, because it's like, slowing me right down and grounding me in. Typically, I like to get my feet wet. If I can, I like to walk around in bare feet as much as possible on the ground. And I've definitely suffered from some, some bad foot injuries in the forest. But I've learned the beauty of any pain is it gives you presents become aware, create something new, you know, it's like pain is presence, awareness, Insight new and so as soon as I hurt myself, I'm reminded to become more aware and build some insight and create new patterns. So I really love the forest for that. I mean, I've chosen this, like I came from a part of the world that was fairly barren. And it was in like the prairies. And it's nothing wrong with that. But I spent my lifetime coming closer to forests and I now live very close to the forest, you know, with a big old growth forest on one side of the beautiful Marsh headwaters for salmon on the other side, and I just appreciate it every day. So yeah, at least I have the saying and I'm just going to share right now. If you don't know have 15 minutes to get outside and connect with plants every day, you need a whole hour. So if you don't have that 15 minutes to do that grounding practice, you're desperately in need of an hour. So just to remind you to do your 15 minutes or you have homework even more, I'll leave it there for a second.

Sara Artemisia:

So great, yeah it reminds me of that saying are going to teaching around. If you don't have time to meditate, now's the time to do it. Like you, you should do it right now. There's no time. Other things. So So similar with Nature, I love how you were sharing that, that aspect of how the plants hold us how, you know, they really show us that it's okay to be in that in these places that wherever we're at, it's okay, it doesn't need to shift. It's just this incredible acceptance of the moment of whatever's happening in the moment. And this feels really connected to me to what you were sharing earlier about the value of connecting with the plants in all parts of the cycle, like not just their most showy stages, but also the really quiet stages, you know, like going to seed or maybe in the middle of winter. Also what you were sharing about the right angle reality? I haven't heard that exact phrasing before. I totally agree with that. And it's just so fascinating to me how it's so interesting, the time that we're in right now, how there are the technology, the technology of computers, it's a binary consciousness. And then when we move into the technology of Nature, we're moving into a fractal of sacred geometry, consciousness and just how, in my experience, how much more layered that is so grateful for the the technology of computers to allow us to connect different countries around the world simultaneously. It's amazing. And also, there is so much depth and wisdom in the consciousness and technology of Nature that is happening in this fractal kind of way that is just so incredibly beautiful, and how that's so aligned with our own bodies, that our own bodies, the own cells of our own bodies are functioning in that way. also love how you're showing how you'd like to get your feet wet awake Devil's Club, not surprising is this one.

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, bare feet to run around Devil's Club patch. But yeah, though, water is a big part of, I'm learning more and more how precious it is to find blue space, not just green space. And I'm really like, kind of, we're calling it blue space, especially as things heat up. And that blue space is really important to in the plant world and stream beds and creeks and river ways, and flowing blue space. Because also, even to me more like lakes and swamps and marshes are amazing. But that flowing blue space has something it does something for me anyway, where it allows me to like flow through my I call them fun, comfortable feelings, the ones that are like, challenging me and biting into me and won't let me go. Being around flow and movement. And maybe that's something else about the natural world. It's so great as it's always in flow, there's always movement, there's no stagnation. And if there is some other part of the natural world says, Oh, that's perfect. I just needed that little break so that I could grow in abundance again. So yeah, I just can't say enough about how being in these places helps us or me anyway, appreciate the flow in my life and the natural cycles and the abs, and there are low times there are high times and, and to just be okay with those not to wish for more high times or try to avoid low times to acknowledge that they're both really important. That's what makes us more complete. And that's where we learn our most valuable stuff. And some of those sort of swings.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah, to connect with all aspects of the cycle, how important that is, and how Nature shows us that that is an innate part of being alive, that it's so important to do this.

Yarrow Willard:

Doesn't avoid the hard stop, it bites into it. Yeah.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah. Love that. And also how you were sharing earlier about the experience of forest bathing, the value of really slowing down and wandering, and also love hearing a bit about your experience of how you found yourself moving closer and into and deeper into the forest. And I was curious if you could tell us a bit about in your experience, the value of connecting with the plants and the ecosystems that grow right around us?

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, well, like, I'm assuming here that there are many people listening to this that are in a city and that it's not always easy to like, you haven't had the opportunity to be able to just like move to the forest and like be one with Nature. You know, that's not a that's not all of us have that opportunity. And so the ones that grow near us are always the ones that are, they're the ones that call to us the most in my mind. And I've been using this term the people plants and they're the ones that grow in all the disturbed soils and the weedy ditches and all the places where we have, I guess caused inflammation in the world. We like inflamed the tissues of planet Earth. And these ones are always, really great healers are some of the best healing plants around. Now, we obviously want to watch out for dog poo and toxins in our environment. And so be careful. But I will just give you one really thing to like, don't be too careful because if you have a good intact ecosystem inside of you, it can handle so much more than you give credit for. So just like build that good antique tech ecosystem, and you can handle a little bit of pollution in your body. And that's, you know, maybe food for another thought. But with these plants that are close by, they're around us all the time. And so I'm a huge fan of also, because if they're in these disturbed soils, they are growing in abundance usually. And so they're really the ones that we have an opportunity to, to actually start to harvest and make medicine live and connect with in that way. And to me, that's a fundamental part of connecting with plants is not just forest bathing and tuning into the forest, but actually crafting and adding our own spirit Chi or our own energy to that experience at a deeper level. So even just making Dandelion root coffee, how connected you'll become to Dandelions after that by picking a few understanding how their roots work, how to clean them properly, how to roast them, so they don't burn, how to chop them and process them properly. So, to me, that's a big part of this plant path. And yet, it's really hard to do for a lot of people because of the lack of green spaces that are not covered in fences. So some of these people, plants give us that opportunity to actually embody this plant path from a maker crafter Alchemist perspective. And so I'm a big fan of those kinds of plants. Like I said, I love Burdock. I love it because of that it grows in all these places around here. I love Dandelion, for that. It grows in all these places. And then if I take it out of the book, I want to craft medicine phase, which I feel like is really important for any budding herbalist or anybody who wants to tune with plants is to actually start to craft something that when I look to the ecosystem around me, there's typically 10 to 15 prominent plants that will show out in any ecosystem, they're like, wow, like for here where I live, it's like nettle show out, or I was mentioning to you earlier, the Salmonberries are showing out, right now, and those plants, we can either start to work with them again, inside of our bodies or, or as medicine, or just really get to know that they're always around us. And they're always there for us through our time. So if we walk the same trails, or we go in a forest, say, even a city park and you walk that one trail on the edge that's kind of in the forest, that's not in the green lawn space, that's kind of a little more connected. All those trees and all those bushes, the than all of those weeds around, you are getting to know you in every moment. And the more time you spend with them, the more they get to know you and the more you get to know them. And as we see them through the seasons, we build those relationships. And so it's not hard, I think a lot of people think of speaking to plants as maybe this difficult thing. And it's really not, it's just that we have to get out of their head that they don't speak English, okay, I'll repeat that they don't speak English. But they do speak in a rhythmic pattern way a cycle that said sine wave, but there is this flow to the cycle of them and, and that happens through naturally connecting over time. So I really would invite that instead of looking to the exotics, that have all these healing powers from other ecosystems that we start to really want the ones close by, and just really start to build those relationships at a fundamental level from from the ground up right around us. And this is one thing that I like, I'm not a huge, I have a dog and I love him. I'm not a huge fan of like the dog culture. But one thing I do love about it is that it really gets people into the natural world because they're walking their dogs. And so if you have a dog, it actually brings you so much closer to Nature, just having that need to connect out and get your dog out. And so the practice would be to find really unique plants along the way that you can start to build your relationship with along with that. And so, yeah, that's, that's something that I've found. It's allowed me to find more cool mushrooms and more unique places, because my dog needs to get out and they can think and handle all kinds of bushwhacking that is even hard for me to do. So. We ended up in some pretty gnarly bush sometimes. And it's just even within a few kilometers from where I live, then every season is different. So there's always an adventure. So to me, that's something that the childlike part of myself really enjoys the adventure of connecting with plants and so getting off trails is a big part of that for me. But moving slowly, there's something called fox walking that I would invite you to do. And that is to step starting with your toe, and then roll back to your heel, instead of stepping with your heel, and then plunking down your toe, start with your toe, because and this is how many traditional cultures with walk. And it's because your toe is, it has of it's a better sense organ of being able to understand what you're getting into, then your heel is and so something that I've thought to be really profound in my own awareness of plants and people and is that there's these things I call turnaround points. And they're like, as your fingers, your meridian channels bend around your body, from the outside of your hand into the inside of your hand, or bend around the tip of your toe, that point where it bends and where the angle of the energy moves around is where you are the most acute in your ability to feel in touch and connect. So those turnaround points are our best sense organs. So the tips of our toes, the tips of our fingers, the tips of our tongues, those are where we can have more direct contact. It's part of the reason why meridian channels when they read pulse and tongue when they do obviously tongue as the tongue. But when they read pulse, they don't do the upper arm, they do it right by the hand, because it's more in flow with the unique signature of the person. So yeah, start with your toes. Moving, walk slow and tune in to the world around you. And you'll be in for a big surprise. And I'm sure many of you listening already do this stuff. So maybe it's just a reminder that we're in this plant path together.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that and just your emphasis on the childlike wonder really having direct contact, just how incredibly valuable this is. I'm curious, what are you most excited about in the natural world right now?

Yarrow Willard:

Well, everybody's blooming or they already some of them have already passed bloom. So I love flowers because they're just, they're like this, the sexy part of plants. So I'm really like right now we have well, the sound berries have just been flowering. I see all of a lot of a lot of plants are actually almost past their flower point now, but when I see the ones that are late bloomers, I'm really excited about about the late bloomers that way. Right now I'm let's see, what have I been tuning into the Herb of Robert, or I call them stinky Bob. It's a Geranium. And it's got these beautiful little pink flowers. But stinky Bob is stinky kind of has this like funny smell. I like it, but a lot of people don't. And yeah, I really liked that plant right now. It's like a low ground cover. And it has these really fairy leaves. And they're just so dainty, and they just feel really soft. When you lay on it it obviously aromatized as you with stinky Bob aroma. But yeah, I've been liking that one a lot lately. That one's feeling pretty cool to me these days. And right now actually, the self heal is just coming up. And we have all this Self-heal around here. And I, I love that purple contrast that it has in this like honeycomb like flower structure. And it just feels like all these little nooks you could crawl into and sleep. So, so yeah, that's maybe how I like to think of it too. Sometimes I like to pretend that I was a little fairy. And I'm like sleeping inside of a flower. Or maybe part of me is that little fairy sleeping in a flower. But, but yeah, there's again, that childlike wonder, the Imaginal Realm and that's something that Stephen Buhner really shared a lot about and brought to the world is this concept of the metaphysical background of the universe and the Imaginal Realm and tuning into that. And I really took that lesson and spent a lot of time exploring this Imaginal Realm and understanding that wow, this can be true as well. I am this little fairy sleeping inside of Self-heal flower as much as I'm this, this big, clunky human trying to figure out how to make sense of the world.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that you just brought that up first of all Self-heal. Oh my goodness. I love that plant.

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, it has that like just that purple, beaming energy to it.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. So great. You know, I'm curious to hear too. How would you say that the plants really support you in your life's work?

Yarrow Willard:

Well, I mentioned truly every thing I do is around Plant Medicine. I mean, I I run a Herbal College, I make herbal products. I do a herb conference. I make herbal you choose so, So in essence, what's ironic is that I didn't dream for abundance from the form of having security in the world of not needing financially be like, Oh my gosh, where's my next dollar come from but the plants actually did that for me ironically, so that I could be available to be able to do work with them at another level. So that's one piece for me that they've actually their message is so powerful that the way I've been able to connect with that has created a lot of abundance in my life. But really, when I spoke to about the Devil's Club and about when I'm feeling anxious or off guard or need a little bit of support, there's always a plant ally there for me, you know, I like to think that Hawthorn helps to sew up a broken heart. And so when I am feeling a little brokenhearted, I, I just hold Hawthorn in my ethos, and I think of those thorns just like sewing up my shattered heart. And that that has a real powerful feeling for me. Just because I've spent some time with those plants, we borrow a bunch of Hawthorn hair and I connected with the flowers and just love again, it's another spiky one. Yeah, so so there's plenty even Plantain like that one, when it's when I'm hanging out with it. It's just always this reminder of the ability to handle adverse situations. And to really stick it through the mud and through the on these paths. And just be tough, like Plantain is so tough, you can step on it, you can can lawn, mow it, it's just like, no problem. No problem. I'm here for you in these compact soils. There's, there's I could go on and on because there's a lot of them that have some kind of, they've taught me something just by the way they show up. Dandelion, like I had mentioned, one of the things that it shows up in is it pierces through the stagnant grass and I just love how air rating the soil and I think it air rates the liver and air rates the kidneys as part of its like medicine inside. But this air rating stagnation is a reminder that Dandelion always gives me that I had I it moves stuff was many, many have taught me a lot just about how to like, be a more whole being the plants. One thing that plants taught me that I thought was really profound was it's not about self improvement, Yarrow. It's not about self improvement. It's about becoming whole. And I was like, oh, yeah, right. For a while there. I was on this kick of like, accolades and improvement and biohacking and like, how do I optimize this transformer? No, no, no, you're going down the wrong path here. It's how do you reengage with the wholeness of your being and at a fundamental level that was just like, Ah ha, it's a big difference between improvement and reconnection?

Sara Artemisia:

That is so huge. Yeah, that's so huge. It's not a linear path. It's like you said, it's about re engaging to the wholeness of being the wholeness of life, how the plants can really support us in that. Yeah, so great. I also just love plantains, so humble, so powerful.

Yarrow Willard:

And what most people don't remember or know is that Psyllium husk and that is straight up from Plantain and I so I like to eat those little Plantain tops. I just love. I love how it works with bug bites and stuff. And I just think it's just so it's so great. It's such a great plant. I just, it's awesome.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. Well, thank you so much for your lifelong work in connection with the plants. And please do tell us how can people find out more about you and your work?

Yarrow Willard:

Yeah, well, for a long time there I was pretty available online in all kinds of platforms, all of them, you know, as they all sprouted up and this new kind of inter webs of woven human technology came to birth. Yeah, so you can find me on any of those channels. Yarrow is not a very common name. So even if you just Google Yarrow, you might find me although you might find this other beautiful plant with a big Achillea millefolium shields. It's a good one too, good warrior. I am female herb plant. I just but yeah, Yarrow, Yarrow, Willard. I've got my own website: harmonicarts.ca or.com is our company that makes all kinds of herbal teas and tinctures and elixirs and all these fun crafty herbal medicines. wildrosecollege.com is our online herbal college where I teach courses on wild foraging on medicine making, on herbal pharmacy, on medicinal mushrooms. And we do a full practical and master level diploma program. We've got about 20+ teachers four your program, if you're interested in really going deep with Plant Medicine, it's all video and audio and PDF. And it's a good course. My father started that in 1975. So we've been growing that for a long time. And so we have a really deep level of knowledge there. And then yeah, I think you could find me as the Herbal Jedi on any of those channels to YouTube is where I've done the most video exploration of this stuff. But yeah, I'm around. And what I would invite you though, instead of finding me is maybe if you find me somewhere, you then stop, touch some grass, connect with plants and find yourself at a deeper level and that would make me happy. Plant Medicine is all people's medicine and I just am honored to be part of that path.

Sara Artemisia:

Amazing. Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Yarrow. Just so wonderful to connect and such an honor to have you here. So thank you.

Yarrow Willard:

Well, thank you for having me and loved our pre chat too, you were an amazing herbal being and just love that you're doing this work. So really big appreciation to you. And yeah, I'm going to tune into more of your work and just excited that you're on this path, as well.

Sara Artemisia:

Well, thank you. And thanks so much for listening and joining us today on the Plant Spirit Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and please follow to subscribe, leave a review and look forward to seeing you on the next episode.