Join us as we kick up our heels, fire up the still, and raise funds for the Herbalista Free Clinic.✨🌿✨ November 9th at the Chosewood Ballroom in ATL✨🌿✨ Stay tuned for all the details! ✨🌿✨
Join the Herbalista Crew! NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS!
We have an opening for a new apprentice starting September 4th! The application deadline is July 15th!
You will be trained on a variety of skills, from medicine making and dispensary maintenance to clinical concerns. We are a small operation facilitating a number of projects. By joining our crew you will learn the nuts ‘n bolts of how we keep these healthcare initiatives rolling. As a significant portion of this apprenticeship revolves around our free clinic projects, we are looking to share this opportunity with applicants who hold a similar philosophy and wish to help us serve the Atlanta community.
The apprenticeship requires a one year commitment. Learn more about our apprenticeship at the Herbalista Website.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
Dedicating yourself to free community herbal healthcare is not an easy task! Basically, it’s not always a rose-scented-cauldron-stirring kinda situation.
The hours we spend in actual clinic are minor in comparison to all of the behind the scenes work we must do to keep a project like this going! There is bottle washing. There is schlepping. There is paperwork. There is medicine making. There is kit and dispensary maintenance. There is organizing… and reorganizing. There is scheduling. There is fundraising… and did I mention the schlepping?
We are the underbelly of healthcare and we take on what others won’t or can’t. We make the best of often shitty situations. We navigate difficult realities and bear witness to injustice at all levels of society. We do a lot with a little and a little with next to nothing. We make a difference… sometimes. We are cultivating community day by day, planting seeds and pulling weeds (which we then turn into medicine, of course.)
We self-reflect. We acknowledge our privilege and our trauma. We acknowledge those things in the world. We meet people where they are at. We hold safe space. We do our best and we make mistakes. We learn and we give it another shot. We are works in progress.
Community herbalism inspires creativity and promotes agility. It is empowering and humbling. It illuminates your mind, nurtures your capacity for love, but can also break your heart. For me the important thing is that we are in this together. We have each other and we have the plants.
We are lucky to be community herbalists indeed!
Thank you for your interest in our work and helping us build community through herbalism!
~ Herbalista Lorna
The world is full of medicine.
But given the state of things, you might not believe me. I mean, if the medicine is everywhere, why are we all so sick? This is exactly the sort of disconnect that made my tummy hurt as a child and sent my teenage rage spinning out.
Well, I’m sure I don’t have the answer. That would require the world to make sense, for it to be just and predictable. Well it’s not and it doesn’t and we might have a better chance of survival if more folks would just admit that.
But leaving the chaos that is the human experience aside for the moment, what I think I can say is that no matter the ills, or the grief, or the terror, we can find a medicine that helps us on our journey.
Because our medicine chest is greater than a pill bottle. It is filled with wise weeds and with nourishing people, it holds the stars and the blue heron.
It’s a medicine of place. And it’s strong.
Herbally yours,
Lorna
Spring is popping!
Check out what’s happening in this month’s newsletter!
✨✨✨ Hot off the presses!! ✨✨✨
The Dublin Herb Bike Service Manual is now available online as a FREE pdf download! Go to Resources/ Handouts + Links to find the newest addition to our collection of Service Manuals.
Our newest manual detailing our work on the Dublin Herb Bike in Ireland. This mini-mobile clinic provides herbal care + comfort on the streets of central Dublin. This manual includes basic logistics, including forms, packing lists, and other considerations. Like all of our manuals, it is a work in progress and will be updated as we grow!
Join the Herbalista Crew! NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS! (Link at bottom of post)
We have an opening for a new apprentice starting August 1st!
You will be trained on a variety of skills, from medicine making and dispensary maintenance to clinical concerns. We are a small operation facilitating a number of projects. By joining our crew you will learn the nuts ‘n bolts of how we keep these healthcare initiatives rolling. As a significant portion of this apprenticeship revolves around our free clinic projects, we are looking to share this opportunity with applicants who hold a similar philosophy and wish to help us serve the Atlanta community.
The apprenticeship requires a one year commitment.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
Dedicating yourself to free community herbal healthcare is not an easy task! Basically, it’s not always a rose-scented-cauldron-stirring kinda situation.
The hours we spend in actual clinic are minor in comparison to all of the behind the scenes work we must do to keep a project like this going! There is bottle washing. There is schlepping. There is paperwork. There is medicine making. There is kit and dispensary maintenance. There is organizing… and reorganizing. There is scheduling. There is fundraising… and did I mention the schlepping?
We are the underbelly of healthcare and we take on what others won’t or can’t. We make the best of often shitty situations. We navigate difficult realities and bear witness to injustice at all levels of society. We do a lot with a little and a little with next to nothing. We make a difference… sometimes. We are cultivating community day by day, planting seeds and pulling weeds (which we then turn into medicine, of course.)
We self-reflect. We acknowledge our privilege and our trauma. We acknowledge those things in the world. We meet people where they are at. We hold safe space. We do our best and we make mistakes. We learn and we give it another shot. We are works in progress.
Community herbalism inspires creativity and promotes agility. It is empowering and humbling. It illuminates your mind, nurtures your capacity for love, but can also break your heart. For me the important thing is that we are in this together. We have each other and we have the plants.
We are lucky to be community herbalists indeed!
Thank you for your interest in our work and helping us build community through herbalism!
~ Herbalista Lorna
It has been 50 years since the Poor People’s Campaign. Reading these historic demands we might realize that after 5 decades we could simply copy, paste, and resubmit them to the government. Our demands haven’t changed in these 50 years because the situation hasn’t– we still live in a country of great health disparity.
Herbalista believes health care is a human right. And since our government has failed to secure that right for the people, we will begin the work ourselves, serving the people, the land, and creating the world we seek.
Health Demand #3
(Poor People’s Campaign Statement of Demands for Rights of the Poor presented to the US Government, 1968)
“We demand that action be taken to assure that poor people have access to presently existing health services—either through sending medical teams or mobile health units into rural and urban areas…”
Full Statement of Health Demands
https://drive.google.com/…/12xLzorjQUfW1GVdtpmtVbwfWPK…/view
Health Care is a Human Right
https://herbalista.org/resources/links/#healthrights
The photo above was taken at a protest at the Georgia State Capital when the people demanded our state not strike down the Medicaid Expansion of Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act.) It shows the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church where MLK used to preach. The quote he holds was made by Dr. King when addressing the 2nd Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1966.
Dearest Community,
Your generosity, belief, and dedication pulled us across the finish line! 
✨✨
Thank you so much for supporting the Healing Wheels Fundraiser and the Herbalista Free Clinic. We surpassed our goal, raising close to $19,000 including off-line donations!
We are both thrilled and humbled by the opportunity to continue serving the people, the plants, and the planet. And we look forward to doing it together!
💚 The Herbalista Crew
A couple final details…
Your Name on the Herb Bus!
We will be engraving the names of all our donors onto the hubcaps of the Herb Bus! Please click here to send the details of exactly how you would like your name to appear. [i.e. Earth Mama Remedies, Anna Banana, Anonymous…]
If we do not hear back from you by April 2nd, we will simply print the name as it appears on the list of supporters on the Healing Wheels Campaign Page.A big shout-out to Mass Collective for helping us realize this special project!
Herbalista Toolkit Access!
If you made a donation of $50 or more we are giving you access to the Toolkit for one year! We will use the email associated with your donation, unless you let us know you would like to use a different email for your log-in. Please let us know by April 2nd.
This online Toolkit is filled with a multitude of resources including customizable templates for both clinic and apothecary; how-to videos; the recipes we find most effective on the Herb Bus; and much more!
We hope you find all the tools you need to create herbal change in your community!
Tax Deductible Donations!
Your donations to the Healing Wheels Campaign are tax deductible thanks to our fiscal sponsors MPower Now!
If you donated via the Chuffed Online Campaign Website you should have automatically received your tax letter via email. Please let us know if you did not receive this and need us to resend it!
If you sent a check or cash you will be receiving your tax letter via snail mail in the next couple of weeks.
Herbalista believes healthcare is a human right. We provide free, mobile herb clinics in Atlanta and around the world. With your help, we can continue to put herbal medicine in the hands of the people!
Our goal for this campaign is $15K, which is the average cost for one year’s programming. Our free clinics serve hundreds each year and with your support we can keep the wheels turning on this important community resource.
We are thrilled to be able to offer a few extra incentives to help us meet our goal, including:
* Matching donations up to $2,000 raised in the first week by the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine
* Early Bird Perks— such as online herbal courses graciously donated by the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine and Herbalista Community Project Consultations.
* For all our donors – your name engraved on the hubcaps for the Bus, so no matter where we go, we will be carried by the love and support of our community!
In the United States and in much of the world, quality healthcare is difficult to access. Together we can build a more inclusive model of care, one that acknowledges each person’s unique experience and affirms their humanity.
Herbalista uses mobile medicine as an affordable and practical way to reach and care for underserved communities, and have served thousands since their first clinic, a mere 5 years ago! Please consider a donation or a share with your friends to help spread the word and keep the wheels turning on this important resource!
Much appreciation to the communities who welcome us into their folds, love to the friends and family who share our journey, and gratitude to the mighty crew who holds it down in the ATL and now DUB to make it all possible.
And the crew I speak of is larger than Herbalista. It is larger than the Big House or the Open Door Community or the Apollo House. Our crew rolls deep. We may not always know each other, but we are headed in the same direction. We may not have realized we had each other’s backs, but we defend the same rights and stand by the same ideals.
A big shout-out to the urban agrarians; the homesteaders and humanitarians; the craftsmen and caretakers; the teachers and radicals; the permaculturalists and pacifists; the wellness warriors and earth champions.
Thank you friends of the field, the forest, the street, and the subway.
May we continue to rally together, for health and community!
Providing Herbal Support for J-20 Defendants
Though the first 6 defendants were cleared of all charges on December 21st, there are still many more cases coming up in the New Year. The Hawthorn Community Herb Collective is collecting herbal medicine and supplements for the defendants and their support teams. Please see below for a list of current requests and mailing information.
Herbalista chose to send our support in the form of aromatic inhalers, aka sniffers. We have found sniffers to be an extremely effective way to provide emotional support. They are easy to carry, convenient to use, and extremely affordable and easy to make. You can order the blank inhalers from most any essential oil supplier these days.
We chose to send 3 different sets of sniffers:
Lavender Sniffers (Lavender essential oil) – grounding, promotes calm composure, soothes anxiety, allows for full expression, also helpful for headaches and insomnia
Olbas Sniffers (Blend of Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Cajuput, Wintergreen, Juniper, and Clove) – clearing, energizing, uplifting, also helpful for headaches and sinus congestion
Solidarity Sniffers (Blend of Jasmine, Clary Sage, Benzoin, Lemon, Rose, and Patchouli) – soothing, stabilizing, nourishing, revitalizing, earthing, trust and solidarity
To make a sniffer, you simply place a cotton wick inside the tube, place 9 drops of essential oil inside, and snap closed. Here’s a link to another post on sniffers if you want a bit more information.
Sniffers are useful tools when dealing with a range of feelings from grief to anxiety to addiction. One of my favorite books that we often refer to when putting together our aromatic remedies is Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit by Gabriel Mojay, a wonderful acupuncturist, aromatherapist, and teacher who travels over the pond from England to visit us here in Atlanta from time to time.
J-20 Herbal Support
[Reposted from Janet Kent via Facebook]
“On January 20, 2017, thousands of people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest the inauguration of a racist, sexist lout. Of this number, 200 were corralled into an enclosed area and arrested. These 200 include people from all walks of life: teachers, photographers, journalists, medics. They now face felony charges for attending a protest and face up to 80 years in prison.
The first group of defendants are currently going to trial. The prosecution has already admitted that they have no evidence that these individuals committed any crime. They hope to secure convictions for anyone present at the protest, regardless of evidence of wrong doing.
Now remember that the current head of the “Department of Justice” is one Jeff Sessions. The man who sought criminal convictions for civil rights activists. Who was denied a judgeship due to his history of racist comments. This man and his department are attempting to set a precedent to criminalize dissent. This is an important move towards authoritarian control. Pay attention. Go to http://defendj20resistance.org/ for updates and to lend support.
For herbalists and medicine makers, there is more you can do. The Hawthorn Community Herb Collective is collecting herbal medicine and supplements for the defendents and their support teams. As you can imagine, the defendents are extremely stressed , sleep deprived and traumatized. If you are interested in donating supplies, message me and I’ll send you a list of needs.” – Janet Kent, November 22, 2017
Current Herbal Requests
[email medicinecountyherbs@gmail.com with questions]
Relaxing Nervines: either tincture and/or tea
Sleep support: tincture and/or tea
Bulk aromatic herbs for sachets: rose, mint, chamomile, Lavender, lemon verbena, etc.
Calming adaptogens. Tea or tincture.
Herbs for focus, clarity. Tea or tincture.
Flower essences for protection, grounding, fear.
Please label whatever you send!
Ship to:
Terra Sylva School
115 Blannahassett Island
Room #209
Marshall, NC 28753
The prosecution of these protesters has far reaching implications. These prosecutions are unconstitutional and we are encouraged that the first 6 protesters were found not guilty. We stand in solidarity with the the J-20 Defendants and our right to assemble and to voice dissent!
~The Herbalista Crew
Dear Friends and Lovers of Life,
After the intense struggles of 2017 and now facing what surely is a long road ahead, we must take the time to protect and sustain our core. I, for one, am worn the f**k out. While it’s been hard bearing witness to structural bigotry, it’s been even harder watching the left eat itself. I’m starting to think this liberal cannibalism is a symptom of deep exhaustion, that our wells have run dry. And I’m ready to refill.
But don’t worry, I’m not going to give you the whole “self-care for the activist” spiel, demanding you take more passionflower and load up on adaptogens. But rather, I would offer that instead of doing more, we might do less, and take our cue from winter’s rest.
May we revive ourselves with simple solitude, find contentment in the quiet, and cultivate some good old fashioned inner peace so we can share it with others.
Herbally yours,
~ Lorna
WINTER SOLACE
Please wait–
lay down your sword, your pen,
your tongue, your hate.
This has been a brutal year,
savage fought and etched by fear.
Let the rush of day, slow and creep,
and the low hung light,
bring you sanctioned sleep.
In this hush taste the marrow red,
a molten life, despite winter dread.
This sacred source, just yours alone
found in the still and the break
of your salty bones.
For the rest of this month’s newsletter, please follow this link:
http://mailchi.mp/81adecc48307/winter-solace