14/02/2025
I been doing herbalism stuff for about 30 years, as a young person I spent my summers living in a tent in remote areas. I always had my herb books and even at 19 yrs old was making myself teas, sometimes medicinally relevant, from plants I wild harvested as well as supplementing my sometimes limited diet with what I could forage. In part it was a necessity, not always having a home, not always having income, but looking back I think I must also have been a slightly unusual young person in this era, feeling more at home alone in the bush with pockets full of plants than in groups of humans with whatever they enjoyed.
My herbalism practice has ebbed and flowed over the decades with a deep interest in metaphysical herbalism crystalizing in me around 2018 as I began to have dreams of plant medicine formulas infused with gemstone and my boundaries with the spirit world became permeable until I could hear the voices of the plants. The first "magic" potion I made was a big deal for me, a Love Potion, with the help of which I learned to love myself in ways that I had never been able to before.
And from there, in my healing journey, my love and respect for metaphysical plant healing deepened. In the following years, immersed in my own healing journey, I crafted potions for Protection, for Grief support, for Dreams, for Hope, Boundaries and more all of which supported me in my life and which I have bottled and sold to others, most of whom found the potions working as well for them as they do for me.
But... I'm not great at marketing, and what I craft isn't within the normal range of familiar products. They haven't sold well in stores because they take some explanation - tincture based from plants I harvest myself according to moon phase, infused with gemstones, crafted in ritual in communication with plant and animal spirts... it's a bit more than some can warp their heads around, and yet, those who do find their way to my market booths and take the time, almost invariably come back to me for other potions telling me of deep shifts they were able to made with help of these potions as "energetic nudges" in the direction of healing...
I love making them, but begin to tire of markets that don't earn much after my costs, the effort of getting stores to carry them who just don't have the capacity to explain every product to every curious customer and so... although I can't imagine ever not working with plant medicine, it's part of who I am, I think 2025 will be a deciding year for me regarding whether I continue to make the potions as a micro-business venture or pull back from markets to put my limited capitalism-aligned energy to places that might help me more.
This year I'll be leaning into those psychic and metaphysical markets and less into the witchy markets that I've been doing the last few years. If you're curious to sample, I'll be at the Campbell River Spirit Fair this weekend. I'll be at the Psychic and Spiritual Arts fair in Sidney in March, and a few other spots around the coast. I also do mail order.