Artemis Herbs Goes to School

As a student in the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine’s intensive program, I am required to write one herbal monograph per week, totaling 40 over the course of the program.  A small, functional materia medica that I will (hopefully) know intimately well.

A monograph is a detailed written study of a single specialized subject or an aspect of it. Basically, we pick an herb, spend a week tasting various preparations, exploring how it feels in our bodies, spend time with the plant if it grows nearby, research it’s growing habits, medicinal uses, energetics, history, really everything about it. Thomas has a great library including old Eclectic books, a huge online library of old and contemporary books, and we use current research and studies when they are available.  Then we type it up.  

As a writer and herb nerd, this assignment resonates with my learning style and sense of self.  Move over cayenne, monograph writing is the new catalyst in my study formula.

A huge part of being a student is about triaging the synthesis of knowledge.  If I only have two hours, will I study liver pathophysiology, type up my notes from last week, or catch up on plant family characteristics from week 6?

Everything is important.  No one topic deserves to get benched, but with almost 20 hours of class time, 14 hours of work trade, and 5-10 hours bookkeeping for Columbines (most weeks) on top of extra reading, videos, and medicine making, something is getting pushed to the back of the line with the broken thumbs and vague coughs.

Monograph writing is a brilliant assignment, not just because it’s fun or intimately teaches us more about the herbs we will be working with in the clinic (It does).  It’s brilliant because I think spending 5-7 hours a week thinking about one herb would easily get triaged out in the face memorizing a slew of vitamin deficiency signs and symptoms, red flag assessment, etc. for the midterm. 

Hello all,

I was excitedly planning to write a weekly post about my experiences here at the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine, but class load, along with work, a trip to Colorado, and settling in have kept me very busy. The goal of this blog is to share personal information about studying at an herb school, integrating my previous knowledge with the new skills I’m learning, and discussing my ideas about herbalism as they develop.

To sum up the past 5 weeks: Wow

North Carolina is beautiful, lush green sticky southern ‘things growing on other things’ beautiful.  It’s humbling to enter a new ecosystem as a stranger. Before I moved here, I had never even driven through the state.  I meet at least one new plant a day. And see many plants I’ve used clinically but never seen in person. Sassafras. Tulip Poplar. Black Cohosh. Solomon’s Seal. Wine Berry. 

The first couple of weeks we spent studying clinical nutrition.  We had an amazing weekend medicine making workshop, and last week we learned traditional western energetics from Thomas Easley, Matthew Wood, and jim mcdonald. I missed half due to my best friend’s amazing wedding and I can’t wait to catch up and share my thoughts with you all.

The other students are amazing and our little community seems to be thriving with very little conflict. More on new herb friends later.

Other things. We went roller skating. The little sparkler blossoms of Mimosa are blooming. Rain. Thunder. Lightning bugs. Solstice fire and digestive upset story icebreakers, complements of jim :) Frog symphonies. Learning personal space from poison ivy. SO. MUCH. STUDYING.