🌼Herbal Wisdom: Plant Spirits and Healing Paths with Robin Rose Bennett

Tune into this transformative chat with Robin Rose Bennett, a brilliant herbalist and storyteller, steeped in Wise Woman wisdom. We celebrated the spring equinox, a time for renewal, and dove straight into how we connect with plants for deep healing.
 
Robin's journey into herbalism, guided by nature's wisdom and spiritual mentors, really hit home for me. She stressed the importance of nourishing connections with nature, especially asking plants for permission before harvesting. 

Her insights on healing herbs like Hawthorne and Oatstraw opened up new paths for both physical and spiritual healing. It was more than a talk; it was a reminder of the intertwining of nature, personal growth, and activism in our continuous journey of self-discovery. 

00:37 Introducing Robin Rose Bennett

01:51 Spring Equinox & Robin’s Personal Haikus

03:45 The Healing Power of Herbalism 

07:22 The Green Witch of New York

23:37 Self-Care and Community

27:18

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Transcript

 Hello and welcome to another episode of The Herbalist's Path. I am really excited today about my guest Robin Rose Bennett. I think she has a I know! She has so many incredible gifts and wisdom and insight to offer all of us, and I am beyond thrilled to have this conversation with Robin.

She is an incredible storyteller, she's a writer, and she is an herbalist, an educator who teaches in the Wise Woman Healing Ways. And I feel like my path crossing personally with Robin for this episode today is such an incredible blessing. It's spring equinox today and I am absolutely thrilled to have you here today, Robin, and I know that my listeners are going to be as well.

So, welcome to the Herbalist's Path, a path you've been on for decades.  Indeed, Thank you. It's so lovely to meet you.  you know, and here backstage hearing a little about your work. Yeah.  Yeah. It's an absolute honor to have you here today. 

Spring Equinox Reflections and the Power of Haikus

And just before we hit record for this episode, I'm going to, we're going to start this off a little bit differently than we do with most of my episodes, but you were talking about your journal and it is Spring Equinox, and you were talking about some special things you've been writing in there.

Let's open up this show with that.  All right. So, during COVID, I began writing haikus,  like every day. And today I spontaneously wrote a haiku, as you mentioned, it is, as we're recording, it is spring equinox today. And, so I wrote a haiku called Awakening.  Wake your desires. Do not fear them.  Let joy and pleasure open new doors. 

Mmm, I love this. 

Embracing Wisdom Across Generations

And you, like, you speak Robin, and my whole body and soul are like, I need this woman in my life. I need more of her. And all of your wisdom that you have to share, you're like the generation above me, right? And  I'm in the middle way, you know, there's still people that are looking at me like, Oh, you're the wise one.

And I'm like, Oh gosh, I'm in that transition. And it's really fun to be able to share the gifts that I know. And it's also really fantastic to have people like you sharing the gifts that we all need and all in the right time. I think it's incredibly beautiful. And we're all wise enough to know that what we don't know will always outweigh what we do know.

And that is part of the. Joy, that's part of the mystery, that opening of the new door is, you know, when you think that. You know it all, then you're lost.  Yeah, absolutely. 

The Healing Journey Through Herbalism

I think that's one of the most beautiful things for me that made me fall in love with herbalism. And I, you know, if you would have asked me 20 25 years ago when I started dabbling in this stuff that this would be my entire world and really all that I ever talk about, I would have been like, yeah, right, no way, I'm just going to talk about playing outside all of the time, but that's so much of the connection, and that's the beauty of the world of herbal medicine, and always learning, and just, you're an incredible author, you're an incredible storyteller, and since you just shared that haiku, and it made a lot of me and my body just filled with joy, I want to talk just quickly about one excerpt or one little piece inside of A Green Witch's Pocketbook of Herbalism and I just picked it up right before we went live and this particular one, out of many, we may read more later in our episode, but this particular one is exactly what I wanted to hear right now.

So if you're okay with it, I'm going to read it to everybody.  I like to just open it and ask for a message and see what's there and my favorite, compliment someone gave me was, they're always,  what did you say? eerily accurate.  Yeah, absolutely. As I flip through it, I'm like, what a gift, this pocket book.

What did you, thank you. What did you open to? I'm so interested. Oh, this one is so perfect for me. And you may understand why with our pre conversation of me catching COVID before my summit.  Life is meant to include the bitter as well as the sweet. Just as bitter plants aid our physical digestion and emotional well being, this flavor of experience is necessary to becoming a whole human being.

When we assimilate our bitter experiences, taking in any nourishment they offer, such as increasing our capacity for empathy, we grow. As we learn to let go and eliminate anything left behind that is not useful, such as resentment, we evolve.  And I, you know, I read several others in there and they all do resonate absolutely, but that one was my first one I read and I was like,  for today, hello, you know, it was really lovely.

So, and it is, you know, we have this,  mistaken notion, right? That it's all supposed to be sweet. And then we're just like anywhere from anxious to devastated. When  everything is not sweet. Right? So the bitter as well as the sweet. I know when I get that one, it's always like, Oh, right. Oh, yeah.  Do you,  will this be audio only or will you also have a visual version of what we're doing?

We currently are recording visual. I have not published on YouTube for a while, but one of my goals this year is to get my YouTube back up and we'll be going through these. I only asked to know whether to hold up, you know, the book, but it's a Green Witch's Pocketbook of Wisdom, Big Little Life Tips. And just to say, this is my newest baby.

this book was born on, Halloween or Samhain, right? October 31 came out into the world. So thanks for letting me know that it's speaking to you. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's really lovely and really timely for me. So I appreciate you. Thank you.  

The Magic of Herbal Medicine and the Wise Woman Tradition

I'm really curious, Robin,  It's, fascinating to connect with you and I'm curious how you began on this herbalist path.

Like I said, you have several years ahead of me on this journey and it's always so beautiful to hear where it started for you. As far as where it started in any other lifetimes, I, you know, I can't quite speak to that but clearly it has been in other lifetimes.  in this lifetime, in this particular incarnation,  I was deeply involved with,  two spiritual teachers,  for at least a decade, before I got turned on to the magic that we call herbalism, herbal medicine. 

and essentially, so it's a two part answer. One is that I was looking for a way to take these beautiful, life altering spiritual teachings that I was so fortunate to meet these people, which I met through my parents, actually, another wonderful gift,  and ground them, bring them into, like, out of the head and into the body and into day to day reality because at that point, spirituality, and here I was, like, in my late teens, so it was a long time back.

And,  but it was spirituality to me was something more separate. It was transcendent. It was, you know, highs of like feeling connected to everything. It wasn't like,  so ultimately I began to look for a way to take these beautiful concepts and bringing them into  day to day to day reality, because I realized I was getting a little like kind of pedantic.

with my ideas and my concepts and, you know, and I didn't like that direction.  and then additionally, I was looking for answers to health challenges that were not available through any means that I found in conventional medicine. So I kind of, these two things came together really beautifully,  in that way. 

right? So it was a way that, you know, I was introduced to the wise woman tradition, which was, is a spiritual approach to herbal medicine and healing in general,  and  ultimately the herbs have brought me a level of joy that I hadn't experienced before, certainly not on a sustainable, regular basis. And that's the exquisite side effect of connecting with the plants at the levels that we do, right?

Connecting with nature as our teacher, as, you know, opening to remember the sentience  of all beings. And, you know, somebody asked me today, what is something you believe in that,  most people don't?  And I thought, well, that's an interesting question. And the first thing I thought of was, well, everything in nature is alive. 

You know,  I think it's growing, the remembering,  but it's definitely not something that everyone, you know, believes, though I think more and more, and you probably see this in your world as well, more and more people are longing  to reconnect with that truth, with that reality. And one of my favorite, wisdoms in the little pocketbook is, you know, there's nothing more magical than reality. 

Yeah, I love that. I think you are so spot on that so many more people are  desiring this connection to nature, right? And it was my deep love and passion for nature that brought me into the world of herbal medicine or the, you know, the plants clearly. Called me and we're like, hi!  Actually, out on the west coast, when I first got introduced to herbs as medicine, that was the answering the health challenges part, and then I was living in New York City when I began as an herbalist, both as a student and as a teacher.

My first ten years I lived in Manhattan.  So, at one time I got written up in New York Magazine as the Green Witch of New York, the leading Green Witch of New York, and, you know, it's funny because I've been out of New York City now for way long, and people still say that. So it's kind of, it's kind of adorable. 

But yeah, so you can, you know, you can, the point being, too, is that, You don't have to be in some, it's lovely to be in some beautiful place, whatever beauty is for you, the ocean, the desert, the mountains, the forest, right? But you don't have to be. You can be anywhere. And we are in relationship with these plants, even, you know, physiologically, right?

As into our breath, we wouldn't be breathing without them. And we're the only ones who've forgotten.  Yeah, they certainly haven't forgotten. No, the trees, no, we humans, and we're so lonely because of it.  I do think, and I have seen, that really is at the,  that is at the essence of all of our  challenges, all of our physical and spiritual, mental, emotional as well, really.

But a lot of our illness, I think, does come from that, from really this  very real sense of not belonging anymore, and the loneliness that brings, the sense of isolation, alienation. We're not meant  to thrive like that. We can't thrive like that. And then we ask the impossible of each other, you know, of the people we're in relationship.

We want them to feel all of that. And nobody can feel that,  you know, I don't know that I've ever put it that way in a conversation like this, but right. Isn't it true? Like we can't,  You know, you can't get from a person what you'll get from the mountain. Yeah,  it is true.  We need all of it, and we deserve all of it.

Right. And it's about reciprocity, you know, reciprocal blessings that, you know, the way you practice, and even though I haven't worked with you, or we're  just meeting, but I can tell, right, we work in a way where we are  doing our path in a way that also benefits the earth. It's not a one way street where we're just going and going, okay, dandelion, what can you do for me?

In fact, like one of my least favorite questions of all time is when people say, what's that plant good for? And I let them get away with it usually once, and then I warn them. I say, you know, if you ask me that, I'm going to turn to you and look at you with a steely gaze and say, what are you good for?  I love that. 

Tongue in cheek as well, but it really is, right? It's like that rude. It's that rude.  What's he good for? So we can find our language matters, right? And of course, I'm a writer. So, you know, I love words almost as much as I love silence. And, you know, but the words we use frame how we see the world.

So, you know, teaching. And I'm not standing on any pedestal. I was brought in the same, brought up in the same way, you know, in the same, objectifying, fragmenting, materialistic culture that  I'm talking to. Practically everyone was brought up in. So it's a process of unlearning and, you know, re perceiving.

But the thing is, it's so natural. It's so innate for us. that the door to get back into that,  groove, that, that way of being is really not as hard to access as people think it will be.  Yeah, there is, I mean, so many golden nuggets that you just spoke about right there and so many things I wanted to speak on and it's great to hear you speak on it.

Reconnecting with Nature in the Urban Jungle

I think, first, touching on the fact that like when you first started becoming the green witch, the leading green witch in, Manhattan of all places. Like it does not get much more city than Manhattan,  right? So,  I love New York City and, you know, I live in the mountains and I love that nature connection, but I think oftentimes one of the things that some people get in a bit of fear of, because there are so many of us living in cities, that they can't have that nature connection because they are in a city.

But I think you just proved that's untrue. Yes, I used to say people walking through Central Park were like, I was letting them walk through my salad bowl. I love that.  That's great. I love that. And I imagine you took people on quite a few plant walks, teaching them of the great food and medicine there. 

many plant walks. Yes.  And I'm actually contemplating doing one  really soon now because I stopped teaching in New York. I never stopped teaching in New York. but then with COVID, I did stop teaching in New York and it was very odd because it was the first time in such a long time and I've just been getting the vibe so strongly like this call, it's time to do a live class in New York, so I might start with a plant walk, you know, that would be  lovely.

I was just in Central Park for the first time in a while last week. It was beautiful.  That sounds fantastic. I've felt the same way recently. Like I started teaching in person and now I do so much teaching online and I'm like, but wait, you're out there, you're nature and you're out there for me.

And  I think part of why I. I stopped doing that other than COVID and other life circumstances, but for me,  and this is something you kind of spoke on and a lesson for me to learn on when you were speaking about it, but  my time in nature for me is my sacred time.  And so I want to be alone.  but there's so much beauty and energy that comes back to me when I do share what I know. 

know about the plants and what I know about the land with other people that is incredibly intoxicating for me. and I know that. So maybe that's what I need to do as well is just, Hey, I'm doing a plant walk. Yeah. I mean, you give to yourself, you know, the old put your oxygen mask on first, right. it's a both end, you know, the, ever, all of these dichotomies are false, right.

It's gotta be  this or that, And that was actually that philosophically. That was one of the most attractive things to me when I was introduced to what Susan Weed called the wise woman tradition.  It was the both and philosophy. And I was like, that, you know, gets more at the heart of truth as I see it.

I love that. 

The Wise Woman Tradition Explained

So do me a favor and the listeners a favor and just speak a little bit about what you actually mean when you're talking about the wise woman tradition.  Yeah, so it,  well, I think it really is different, you know, whoever it's coming through.  and some of the basic, most essential tenets of it as, as I see it. 

right, is  you know, the fancy ways to say it would be vitalism and bioregionalism, right, because the tenant is use what's growing outside your door,  right, everything you need will come close around you because the plants are generous,  right, which I have certainly found in these 30 plus years to be absolutely true.

It's  the Wise Woman Path is looking at healing through nourishment  and trusting the body is oriented to heal  and so we're not using herbs as a substitute for a pharmaceutical or a vitamin supplement or you know what have you but  more as okay what systems in the body need support, which ones are overactive, maybe it's you know an autoimmune, maybe it's overactive and we need something to calm the immune system. 

What systems are weakened, like the wildfires have caused so many of us in the West, in the East after this summer with the Canadian wildfires, we suddenly had a notion of what you can do. in many of you in the West have been dealing with for so many years, you know, I thought I understood, but then when I was experiencing it for myself and my sky was blackened and orange, I knew that I hadn't really had a clue. 

So, you know, so our respiratory systems are in great need of nourishment. So the, so healing through nourishment, what do we add in so that the body can release whatever isn't serving it.  The Wise Woman Path is one, again, I said of, and vitalism means, in case that's not clear to people, right, is it's trusting the innate life force, right,  in the body.

Well, I would say in the body, mind, heart, soul. I think we can only talk about them separately just to talk about them, but they always are dancing together,  always, so we can.  I'm sorry, let me stay on the track of your question.  anything else? I'm sure there's a few other essential things I'm forgetting, but  it, definitely has to do with this relationship of gratitude with the plants, with asking and receiving, giving thanks for, not just taking. 

so those are some of the tenets of the Wise Woman approach.  and really it is about deepening relationships with the  healers, teachers, elders,  and it's magic. Oh yeah, don't let me forget the green witchery aspect, right, is the magical  element of life, of the creative force, of how juicy and joyful.

So there, I'll stop there.  I love all of that. And of course, it's something that you could be talking about for so long. 

The Importance of Connection and Asking for Help

And one thing I've heard a few times in this conversation that is so worthy of bringing up, and the root of it comes from, you know, your least favorite question, what does that plant do for me?

And the connection piece, and how so many of us are truly longing for that connection. Like I'm seeing it all over social media these days with just everybody like we need to do something. And of course we're right. We do need to do something. And the unfortunate thing, or perhaps it's the reality that we have all been trained to say, what can that do for me?

What does that pill do for me? What does that thing on the shelf do for me? What's it good for?  me. How can this serve me? Oh wait, we might want to consider asking that plant if it wants to be gathered, you know, and  yeah. And then at the same time, here we are back at the both and, it is true that it is essential that we nourish and care for ourselves. 

that we,  that we tend, and that doesn't always have to mean doing everything yourself either, right? It's very, I consider learning to ask for help to be a vital life skill, and I get, so here's, something I feel strongly about. I, get  little Sagittarian impatience rises in me when I hear healers over and over again say,  Oh, I'm not good at asking for help.

Oh, I'm not good at asking for help because I think it is become like a badge of honor in a weird way. And it's not honorable not to be able to ask help. It's foolish. And it also, if I don't know how to ask for help, how can I ask someone to trust me and feel safe enough to ask me for help?  It's my job to learn to get good at asking for help.

But back to finishing up with what you were,  addressing the me thing.  the other piece is that whatever you do for yourself,  that's truly good, benefits everyone.  It ripples out. It ripples out to your family. You know, it's like a mother, right? If she takes no time for herself. What does her family get?

They get her tension, her, you know, flying off the handle because, you know, because she needs a break. Yeah. So it benefits in very tangible ways. It benefits family. It ends up benefiting community. It ends up benefiting the larger culture and I believe the universe and beyond.  but it's how we do it. How do we, you know, practice self care in that  me way.

Or do we practice it, you know, with love and kindness? And you know, that's to me, essential. Yeah.  Because, you know,  people do a lot of, as my first teacher, June, used to say shitting on themselves.  Yes. They don't shit on me and I won't shit on you.  and I love that  because we're all kind of pretty much expert at shitting on ourselves and it never works.

It doesn't help. It doesn't help anything. Right. Yeah. You know. We all know this.  you push. And the more you like try not to do something or not do something, the more you want to do it, or the more you compulsively do it. Right. So it's like, you have to,  I have found that acceptance,  patience, kindness, these things are what breed the kind of transformation,  that we want, and that is natural. 

Yeah. Right. Yeah. If I was smoking.  and I was down on myself, which, you know, I have, this is a, you know, a story from my own experience, right? 

Embracing Self-Acceptance and Overcoming Addictions

The more that I  judge myself, you know, try to discipline and force, the less it worked. And when I finally came to the place of, you know what, this is what I do right now, let me try to just accept myself, let's see the sacred and the act, so on and so forth, and not everybody felt that way.

I had students who were very upset with me when I was, you know, still teaching and still smoking cigarettes. And I'm like, well, this is the whole package, you know,  I could lie and say, I'm not doing it, but I'm not going to do that. And then, you know, and then it helped it to fall away. Right. And it can be something tangible like that. 

The Power of Herbs in Healing and Self-Care

Herbs, of course, can be really helpful with habits, addictions,  you know, whether they're sugar or tobacco or alcohol or, you know, or work, you know, Herbs help with all of our addictions,  but again, there's that, in my perspective, that's key of a wise woman approach, which is an approach of kindness, really, is what can I add in  that will help me release something that I want to release, but I'm having trouble, you know, letting go of, rather than putting all the focus on get rid of it, get rid of it, because then it sticks to you like glue. 

yeah, so much wisdom in there and so much I'm like, oh yeah, I can think of all of these times in my life where I can completely relate to that and funny that you brought up the shoulding. I used to do wilderness therapy with at risk high school kids and it was one of my favorite things and  we always emphasize the don't should on yourself kind of thing because it creates this  guilt, you know, or shame around things in life, which if there's anything to prevent you from getting to your goals and dreams of life,  those two feelings can really help prevent. 

Yeah,  self judgment.  Yeah,  it is a bear. It really is a bear and there's so much to. We'll find a better metaphor. Yeah.  I agree. All right.  it's a nail in your tire. 

Everything and it sucks the life force.  Yeah. 

Navigating Life's Challenges with Joy and Nature

That's the other thing is what can we do like in this time we're in, right? Our healing isn't in a vacuum, right? It's we're in a time of  such intensity and, I believe it is an evolutionary time.  It's easy to fall into,  you know, some pretty dark, places and think that there's no hope and despair because if you are paying attention, there's a lot of rough things going on.

Right? So,  so  one of the reasons why  I know that joy is medicine and the herbs, both taking them and connecting with them, does evoke joy, is joy helps you to have courage,  right? And also your perspective, right? Because I see it as evolutionary. It gives me a larger, matrix to look at the destruction that's going on, the deathing that's going on, it's all real,  and it's all real, but I also see  taking space for,  for birthing, and midwife,  the world we all know is possible, and that we want to see rise, and that hopefully, more and more, we're each living in our own, you know, in our own ways, in our, whatever's our sphere, like in our immediate,  immunity. 

it's such a juicy time.  And, again, I think that to  counter this kind of despair and hopelessness is just so vital and I don't see anything other than nature that is big enough to do this.  Yeah,  nature is, it is big enough to do this. It's really magnificent. I know when I'm feeling in those down spaces and, you know, maybe spending too much time focusing  and this is a fine balance too, right?

Because we do have to be aware. of what's going on.  Absolutely. But we also can't let it deter us from the good that we're here to do in this world.  And it's very hard with technology today and social media and everything being in our faces constantly.  Right, right,  too much, in our faces, not enough quiet, not enough listening.

And so we have to claim that for ourselves, right? And it is that, again, that dance as well of. You know, where does your activism go? Right? 

Harnessing Herbal Allies for Health and Activism

And then, so here's the thing, if you bring it back to our herbal allies, our herbal friends, our herbal, you know, healers, right, is  they can give us the juice  and the health and the vitality  to do what is our chosen piece of the solution, you know, to do what's ours to do, right?

out in the,  you know, out in the world, whatever that may be, because if you try to do everything, you inevitably fall short. Nobody can, and I, that's why we have all of us,  you know,  and we, if we think I, I can't possibly do enough, then you're trying to do too much,  but if you just focus externally on the activism, then you burn out,  right?

And so, you know, sometimes  I like to, support people who are really frontline people, where that's their path. I'd love to see them, you know, supported by plant medicines. 

Deep Dive into Specific Healing Plants

You know,  I don't think, I'm not sure we've mentioned like one specific plant yet, so let's  Yeah, I was about to get to that, like, okay, we can talk on this beautiful, like this beautiful topic.

for the rest of our lives, honestly. but yeah, I'd love to hear about those plants. Right. And, but it depends, you know, the, that's another piece of this tradition is we don't treat conditions. we support people. So it's like your anxiety might be different than someone else's. You might need rooting, you might need burdock, right?

So I,  in the Gift of Healing Herbs, I wrote that burdock  is a plant. that helps you go from being a warrior to a warrior.  Oh, I love that.  I do too, except for that my thinking has evolved on this now,  into, I don't want to raise warriors. I want to raise guardians.  Like, yeah, like to see all military metaphors, dissolve into nothing. 

you know, in, into the great void.  and corn as other ways of saying things, right? But burdock is one that when you worry all the time, or a lot of the time,  that, that kind of,  grounding that burdock root offers is a beautiful gift.  this is now I'm talking about the spiritual medicine of the plant, but it's also the physical medicine because it helps the liver, it helps the kidneys, right? 

and anything that you and I can say about herbs in a short podcast is going to just be a tiny piece of the puzzle. But like right now I'm drinking,  one of my  favorite, plant medicines of all, which is Hawthorne. Hawthorne  berry infusion. I let it steep for like 48 hours.  and it is delicious.

You don't have to let it steep for 48, but I did. And I like to let it steep at least for 12, though. I do about one cup of dried Hawthorne berries to a half gallon  of boiled water. Pour the boiled water over and let it sit at least overnight. At least overnight or all day. And so good for the heart. on every level, right?

To give courage, right? Cour, the heart, French, cour, courage,  circulation,  and it uplifts the spirit. Like we really have to, if I,  if there was only, there is not, but if there was only one system that we could nourish these days, the one we would have to do would be the nervous system  because our nervous systems are so  Overloaded and dysregulated and,  and  that system influences every other part of the body.

It influences our immune, our digestion, our urinary, our skin, our, you know, you name it. The nervous system has an interface with it, right? So I love the nervous system. I think it's just magnificent. I love oat straw.  Oat straw infusions are beautiful medicines.  tincture, I love  mother wart.  Leonard Cardiaca. I'm sure there's other leones that also are medicinal, but that's the one that grows here. I'm a huge fan, also of Hypericum  And the Hypericum St. John's Wart Jones wart that I use is actually a different species.  that just volunteered  and it's beautiful and let me see if I can remember the botanical latin for it.

It's Amber Androstamum. I have a couple of videos showing it and describing it on my YouTube channel.  all my social stuff is just under my name, Robin Rose Bennett,  but this is a, this plant is kind of amazing. I wonder if you have it in Oregon, Mel. If you just rub the leaves, your fingers turn all red.

Ooh. What I heard from this plant in meditation was,  I am here to bring light to all the other plants, even including  Hypericum perforatum, the most well known, St. Joan's Wort, St. John's Wort, whatever you want to call it. I do St. J's, that's  my name,  St. J, like I don't want to talk about it, so  the plants don't care, right?

They really don't care, as far as I can tell, they don't care, but we do, so St. J's.  That's a beautiful plant. Yes, it has cautions, but every plant does, and often they're overstated, but we're not going to get into that.  Yeah, so the roots, like for some people, roots are really important. I mean, I guess for all of us at some points, right?

But burdock, dandelion,  yellow duck, if you need a really bitter root, it's beautiful. I don't know, do you have any questions or I'll just stop and let you, I'll take a breath. 

Celebrating the Return of Spring and Plant Friends

I'm just loving listening because you're talking about so many of my favorite plant friends and I'm just like oh I have you right here and I have you right here and my motherwort's just beginning to show her leaves again and I'm just, you know, being the first day of spring today I'm so delighted for those plant friends to return and as you're  I had, I ate, like a, maybe a half inch tall,  three violet leaves the other day, and I was like,  spring's here.

They were so juicy and so, moistening, right? So if you run hot and dry, violet is a great plant to get to know.  and the plants show us who they are, even if we don't have a teacher or a book, like, by the fact that, say, for example, violet will grow, right, in a cool, moist, shady location, or grow the most happily, I should say. 

but yeah, we had a sudden spring. and then it turned freezing again like overnight so all the little plants that came up are cowering outside and  it's just immediately went back and yeah it is what it is it's northeast of the U. S. this is not abnormal at all.  yeah we are on our last day of almost a week of gorgeous 65 70 degrees sunshine here in Oregon  and  I'm  Yeah, I mean, it's been lovely, but tomorrow the rains come back and the cold weather and the snow just up the road for me and I'm like, but I love this sunshine. 

but also, you know, back to those forest fires, I'm grateful for the waters that will be here as well.  balance. I was just had the good fortune to be in the Pyrenees in the south of France last month and spring was much more, apparent there. And it was just so exciting to be just walking down the little, the road in this wee little rural town of 70 people.

and eating chickweed, and I love chickweed, and gathering nettles to cook, and dandelion, and yeah, everything was up, so including those beautiful mountains.  Yeah,  sounds amazing.  It's one thing that I'm fortunate with. I have many friends that live in Portland, which is about an hour drive to the west of where I am.

And when springtime comes around, I'm always paying attention to their social media because they're like, my nettles are here, my nettles are here. And it gives me that like, all right, I got about two weeks and the nettles are going to pop up in my neck of the woods.  so it's really, I went to the Portland plant gathering some years ago.

I keynoted. And, what a beautiful place and what great people. I loved it. I loved coming out there.  Maybe I'll get out there again sometime in the not too distant future. Yeah, it's a special place. Absolutely.  lots of beauty, that's for sure. And, amazing people, you know, the evolution and revolution mindset is very strong out here in Oregon.

So.  Can't get past that. Well Robin, you are so wonderful to listen to and learn from and  gosh I could talk with you for days and days and maybe I will be fortunate enough to get to do that sometime. 

Upcoming Courses and Engagements with Robin Rose Bennett

But I also know that you have a really special program that is about to come out and probably available to people right as this episode.

goes live. So I'm hoping that you can tell us a little bit about what you've got going on.  Okay, thank you. Yes, I'm doing a course, a seven week course through the SHIFT network and it starts on Spring Equinox and goes through Beltane. and it's called the Green Witch Way of Herbal Medicine. And it's going to be very informative as well as experiential, because I do love to make that, you know, through the magic of the Zoom portal, we can still, be hands on,  with the kind of things that I have people do in the classes.

So in that course, it will be, you know, kind of a mixture of what is the Green Witch Way? What is the Wise Woman Way? How do we work it? And then  about, you know, kind of this other great love I have is working with the elements and the, you know, what I call the medicine wheel of magic.  and  what does it do for us when we embed ourselves into the cycles of nature more consciously?

So we'll be starting with a ritual of awakening.  in the spring, and then we'll be completing with the Beltane,  Earth's Flowering and what does this have to do with how wed our sensuality and sexuality with our spirituality, bringing it, you know, making ourselves ever more whole. And then in between we'll be, learning from the plants.

It's, you know, certain plants each night and we'll go from the roots to the leaves to the flowers. We'll have a night on trees. and a night on really herbal vocabulary, herbal preparations, what are my favorite ways, the umbrella kind of thing of what's the favorite ways to use the plants. So it's a, it was a wonderful experience last time.

This is a completely different course. I'm really looking forward to that. And if you who are listening would like to join and it's already started, you absolutely can still join us.  because every session is recorded. And you can catch up.  So I'd love to have you there. And then I have,  I'm going to be teaching at quite a few conferences this year.

And so the nice thing about that is then, you know, people can come to my classes, but in an environment where they get to learn from other teachers. as well, and have the beauty of, you know, herb people, community, so much fun. Yes. And really is sort of an expression of  the world we are looking to grow in the largest sense in a microcosm.

Right. And,  but yeah, so I'll be kind of all over. I'll be in Alabama. I'll be in North Carolina. I'll be in, in Western and Eastern North Carolina. I'll be in,  upstate New York, New Hampshire. So I'm around a lot. So I guess the best thing. If I should I give my contact? Please do. Yes. The very best thing is to sign up for my newsletter because that way, you know, if I have discounts to offer and stuff, but you get that, but also just so you know.

You who are listening, who I'm so grateful you're here listening, is that I don't inundate you with mailings for one thing. And I do my level best to have like real juicy content in my, offerings. It's not just like, come to this, buy that, yadda, yadda, so sign up for the newsletter.

You'll be glad you did. At least that's what people tell me. And,  And yeah, my website is  RobinRoseBennett. com, and my, I have a second website, which is RobinRoseBennettBooks. com.  and I have, Mel, you don't even know this, but in addition to,  my older books, The Gift of Healing Herbs, I shouldn't say older, I should say timeless, The Gift of Healing Herbs, Beaumich Guidebook to Conscious Living, and my newest book, which you brought in, right?

The Pocketbook of Wisdom. I have a brand new children's book that's going to, it's right now, it is available for pre sale and it comes out June 11th and I'm super excited about it because it is so  beautiful, like the artist who illustrated it, it's just,  I love it, so I think people are gonna check it out.

Be happy to see this book. That sounds amazing. I know my audience will love it too. Yay. Lots of mamas listening. Lots of mamas. I had that feeling, right? Because of your focus. So yeah, so I had to mention that it's officially geared, but this is marketing speak, right? It's officially geared to like eight to 13 year olds, but  I know, Teens and adults are going to want it too, because I don't know about you, but I love kids books.

Yeah, me too. I'm still a kid, even though my 10 year old, who will love this book,  tells me that I'm not a kid.  I'm like, no, I am. No, mom, you're an adult. no.  I am a kid forever. Yeah, well, we're all, we contain it all, right? Maiden mother and grown, at all ages, right? And I'm sure she's got a bit of grandma in her too, right?

Cause she's, she sure does. She has that kind of wisdom and,  yeah, we're all whole and complex and multi dimensional. And again, the thing is with healing is you can come in from any angle and start to influence the other. 

The Continuous Journey of Healing and Self-Discovery

So you can come in through the mind. you know, approaching your thinking,  or work with healing certain emotional patterns, and that's gonna start to translate in your body, or you come through the body and like, well, I keep getting these migraines, so what do I do?

And that's gonna lead you to the emotional, mental, spiritual,  parts of yourself, if you allow it. And that's where the real,  you know, sustainable healing happens, right? Not just, all right, let me take care of,  this symptom.  it's, we can do so much better than that. And,  and it's so rewarding, right?

It's so rewarding because  you know, as you heal yourself, I mean,  you become ever freer  and freer to be more authentically who you are and to share what happens automatically. And this, I have absolutely. No question around, as you become who you came here to be yourself.  What to do, how to share your gifts, just follows. 

Yeah, I love that. So much truth in that, and the fact that it is an ever going process is my understanding.  There's no there. There's no place you get to when you're done. Or how boring would that be?  Yeah, and you know, to you perfectionists out there, I always say, no, be careful what you wish for, because if you were to become perfect  Nobody'd want to hang out with you.

You'd have no friends whatsoever. Yeah, I think you're so right. As if we could become perfect, but we seem to, you know, this striving for that is just so ridiculous.  That is a spirit killer. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, so yeah, just, you know, let go of that. Just let go of that. What can help you with that? I would say one of the great plants that can help you with that is pine medicine. 

pine infusion, pine honey, pine vinegar, hanging out with pine trees, hang out with pine, pine will help you with that.  I love this so much, Robin. Thank you so much for showering us with your wisdom. I feel like I just want to come through the screen and hug you and say, can we just hang out and learn and play and listen to the plants all day?

I offer you a hug back and you who are listening will just have a big group hug. I love it. I love it. So everybody listening, be sure to head to Robin Rose Bennett's,  not podcast, but YouTube channel,  her website, check out the new course she has coming out The Green Witch Path of Herbal Medicine on the Shift Network. 

I'm sure that you're Robin Rose Bennett on the social media channels as well, right? Absolutely.  and soak up all of the wisdom this beautiful woman has to share. I'm so grateful that you took the time to chat with me today. Thank you for having me on, and thank you for all that you do, all that you are as well.

Appreciate you.  Have a beautiful day.  Green blessings to you. They're everywhere.  Yes. Happy spring. Happy spring.