Verbatim excerpts from the chapter “Lifting Spirits: Pleasure with Aphrodisiacs” from Naturally, The Herbalist’s Guide to Health and Transformation, by Rachelle Robinett, RH (AHG)—author, artist, naturalist
Herbal Alternatives to Alcohol: Pleasure, Plants, and the Reclaiming of Happy Hour
“Pleasure is not one of the spoils of capitalism. It is what our bodies, our human systems, are structured for; it is the aliveness and awakening, the gratitude and humility, the joy and celebration of being miraculous.” — Adrienne Maree Brown
From herbal alternatives to alcohol, stimulants for obvious reasons, intoxicating relaxants, mind-opening entheogens, plant-based social lubricants, even empathy-enhancing empathogens, and, of course, aphrodisiacs for potentiating desire, the use of plants for lifting spirits and shared experiences of imbibing has always been globally commonplace. Today, our fixes for fun have broadened from regional herbs—and all the ancestral rituals associated with their use—to the industry-driven and world’s most societally encouraged (and uncoincidentally addictive) caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and designer food-drugs. Dopamine-inducing screens make the cut too.
Despite some of the obvious problems with these substances, there’s reason to be optimistic. A surge of interest in herbal alternatives to alcohol from younger generations is driving demand for functional, natural ingredients in daily drinking habits. Culture is shifting, driven by more health-conscious shoppers, and the natural world contains more beneficial options than we may ever know.
Pleasure Seeking Is a Survival Mechanism
We organisms are the result of evolutionary competition where gene persistence and propagation are primary—and in the race of life, rewards serve to increase our evolutionary fitness. Pleasure systems motivate us toward what will ensure our survival—or, at least, they used to. While food and drink are obviously necessary for survival, they can also be deeply pleasurable; and especially in modern Western societies, they’re central to much of the overconsumption that can degrade our health.
With clients and in my teaching broadly, I always strove to guide people to find the pleasure in healthful consumption choices. The lifestyle changes that last will do so in large part because we enjoy them, or their rewards, or—ideally—both.
As we’ll see, reward, novelty, and pleasure are all central to how we design our own personal happiest hours. And there is a nearly endless degree of novelty in herbalism, should we choose to continue to explore or experiment with the thousands, and counting, of medicinal plants in the world.
Social Lubricants Without Self-Abandonment
In order to herbally concoct pleasure, it’s worth taking a moment to consider, specifically, what states are most enjoyable for us personally. For example, stimulation versus sedation, cognitive changes versus body-based shifts, and the contexts we most want to be affected in. After all, pleasure is a state, and creatures—humans and animals alike—are highly drawn to state changes. We are motivated by a need for a variety of experiences or, as it’s sometimes called, altered states of consciousness.
Throughout history, in the kingdoms of all living beings, we find herbs in the hands—and mouths and bloodstreams—of those pursuing that compelling state of change.
Mood-Elevating Herbs as Alcohol Alternatives
These herbs offer a natural alternative (or act as a complement) to pharmaceuticals, alcohol, or health-compromising substances, and deliver their benefits with few-to-no side effects—including being free of the risk of addiction. They also convey holistic benefits that support overall and long-term well-being.
For many people—and for anyone who chooses to adopt the regular use of these plants—consuming herbs for pleasure is a ritual, often shared in community, and imbued with additional significance from the social and the spiritual to the symbolic. Rituals serve as opportunities for personal reflection and growth, helping us align values with aspirations.
Albizia is an uncommon antidepressant (and nervine and anxiolytic) in that it works primarily by encouraging mood, rather than treating symptoms of depression. The flowers especially are renowned for providing a glittering, bliss-like experience of high happiness.
Aphrodisiacs as Social and Sensual Alternatives
Cognitively, aphrodisiac ingredients can lower inhibition, inspire amorousness, and act as social lubricants. They may make us feel warm and languorous, or giddy with anticipation. Their effects may be physical, or more of an innuendo—sensual, suggestive, and deeply embodied.
Today, we use damiana for reducing sexual inhibition, simultaneously lifting spirits and libido. Damiana works in part on our bodies’ endocannabinoid system and has been shown to invigorate sexual behavior, treat depression, and even relieve erectile dysfunction.
Cacao, too, has been wielded as an aphrodisiac since ancient times. Its ritual use for divine and celebratory affairs is age-old, originating with the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs, who revered cacao as a sacred substance symbolizing life and fertility. Cacao contains compounds that generally produce euphoria, enhanced sensory perception, pain relief, and mental softening.
Kava: A True Herbal Alternative to Alcohol
Kava has been pulverized and poured as a ceremonial traditional beverage, recreational social lubricant, and herbal medicine in South Pacific cultures for more than one thousand years. Europeans who traveled to Polynesia documented its use for relief from fatigue and anxiety—and to produce a “pleasant, cheerful, and sociable attitude.”
Kava is my favorite herbal alternative to alcohol. The root produces a state of calmness, relaxation, and well-being without clouding cognition; a warm hum that moves first through the muscles and then systemically. Despite its psychoactive effects, kava is not considered physically addictive and does not lead to dependency. Its active compounds bind to our subduing GABA receptors, increasing our capacity for chill.
Dependency, Desire, and Conscious Choice
Just as foods and medicines exist on a spectrum, so too do herbs and drugs. Most herbs are safe in therapeutic doses and generally nonaddictive. For the most part, herbs are excellent alternatives to addictive substances and, in expert hands, can even be used to titrate individuals off certain medications.
The process of seeking herbal alternatives to dependencies we’d like to be rid of can teach us how to understand our desires more intimately and accurately. Reflecting on what we think we want, and then making the effort to locate it through more fulfilling, healthier means, can reveal an entire catalog of alternative options.
Here I’m reminded of how Rollo May articulates it:
“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness.”
