If you’re like us at The Alchemist’s Kitchen, you’ve been discovering how rich and deep ancestral and indigenous knowledge about the plant kingdom can be, and how whole plant remedies, tinctures, and tonics can help you live a more meaningful life while achieving optimum health.
We want to share with you what we’ve been learning, including wisdom from the expert herbalists and botanical innovators in our orbit. Below you’ll find articles about topics at the intersection of plants, health and consciousness. Learn more about our overall approach to herbal wellness here.
If you have comments or questions for our bloggers and resident herbalists, we’d love to hear from you.
Intentions for Healing
Mindfulness practice is demonstrating to many people the power of intention. No, you can’t simply “think yourself” to perfect health — if that were true, as the Dalai Lama once said, he wouldn’t have arthritis in his knees — but your conscious intention does indeed play an active role in your overall wellness.
Plants can affect us in extraordinary ways, and when coupled with the right intention they can be the catalyst that boosts your immunity, enriches your dream life, calms your nerves, opens your heart, opens your third eye, or eases you into a good night’s sleep.
As you discover your plant allies, listen to your body and connect to your intuition. In time, you learn how to empower yourself and become an active participant in your own healing and transformation.
Know Your Plants and Fungi
Herbs are allies that support our self-transformation. They are our friends and helpers. Each has its own unique offerings, from its chemical makeup and neurological and physiological effects, to its traditional medicinal and spiritual usages throughout history.
As you learn more about individual plants and fungi and you come to respect them as healers and teachers, the more profound your engagement with them grows. Here are some good herbs to start with: yarrow, dandelion, He Shou Wu, reishi, and elderberry.
For our full list of plant profiles, click here.
Discover CBD (Cannabidiol)
CBD is a non-intoxicating component of the cannabis plant with enormous therapeutic potential. Although CBD doesn’t make people feel high like THC does, it is causing quite a buzz among scientists, health professionals, and medical marijuana patients, who are using CBD-rich products to treat a wide range of conditions – chronic pain, cancer, Crohn’s, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, PTSD, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, antibiotic-resistant infections, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and more.
You can learn the CBD basics here. To read about the current state of CBD research, we recommend this interview, and to discover why CBD is becoming popular for healing sick pets, check this out.
The Spiritual Side of Plants
At The Alchemist’s Kitchen, we honor plants as a doorway to the spiritual realm, and these posts are a great way to start exploring this territory. In this article, the renowned anthropologist and shamanic practitioner Alberto Villoldo describes the role that plant spirit medicine played in his own healing from life-threatening illness.
In this influential essay, the legendary herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner explains why plants should be considered as highly intelligent. Ashley Litecky Elenbaas discusses the revival of the ancient practice of the Doctrine of Signatures here. And witchy herbalist Robin Rose Bennett talks about what makes a witch green in this interview.
Plants for Conscious Living
Introducing plants to your daily routine can bring about long lasting transformation. Herbs can be worked with to purify and cleanse spaces of negative energy, to rejuvenate our bodies, and to complement our yoga and/or meditation practices. And, if your living situation allows for it, you can cultivate an ongoing relationship with them by keeping your own herbal garden. Working with plants can also guide us in having a healthier, more conscious relationship with nature.
If you’re looking for a way to start on this path, you might begin by trying a simple meditative ceremony with herbs for your personal empowerment. Or perhaps a tea ritual to support your shadow work. In this post you will learn about turning your lawn into a food forest. Or here you can discover the benefits of foraging and making wild plant medicine.
A Growing Herbal Community
The Alchemist’s Kitchen is more than a store — it’s the center of a lively community dedicated to the power of plants. At our downtown New York location, we offer a full calendar of events, including talks, workshops and gatherings.
We also have a team of resident herbalists available to answer your questions, either in-store or online. They are also available for private consultations.
We’re inspired by a new generation of botanical makers who lovingly craft the herbal remedies we offer. They are also experts seeped in traditional lore and knowledgeable about the science that demonstrates the efficacy of herbal medicine.
We regularly interview these makers, who we consider the future stars of botanical wellness. Check out Urban Moonshine’s Guido Mase sharing his enthusiasm for bitters, Adriana Ayales of Anima Mundi talking about using gotu kola for brain health, or Brown Bear Herbals’ Arati Ursus discussing the medicinal and state-changing powers of herbal cigarettes.
