I have been working with plant medicine for over thirty years and the question I get most is where do you even start. And my answer is always the same. You start by understanding that not all plants work the same way and not all plants are trying to do the same thing. Once you get that, everything clicks.
So let me break it down for you.
Roots
Roots are the oldest medicine on the plant. They have been in the ground for years in some cases, slowly accumulating everything the plant needs to survive. That is why they hold the memory. When you work with a root you are working with something that has been building its medicine in the dark, underground, away from everything, for a long time. That patience is in the medicine.
Roots work deep. They go into your body and they go to work on the foundational stuff. Your nervous system. Your adrenals. Your gut. The things that hold everything else up. Roots like valerian calm the nervous system at a root level, not just on the surface. Burdock root pulls toxins from the blood. Dandelion root supports your liver which is where you process everything you have been holding onto. Roots are not fast medicine. They are true medicine. You take them consistently and over time you feel the difference in your foundation.
If your nervous system is shot, if you are exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix, if you feel like something is off at a deep level, roots are where you start.
Herbs
Herbs are the living breath of the plant, the part that is actively doing the work of transformation right now. They pull light from the sun and turn it into something your body can use. That is not just biology, that is alchemy happening in real time.
Herbs work in the middle world. They are the everyday medicine, the thing you reach for to shift your state, support your mood, move something that is stuck. Rosemary increases circulation and sharpens your focus. Tulsi brings your nervous system back to center when anxiety is creeping in. Mugwort opens the dream channel. Herbs are responsive. You feel them relatively quickly and they meet you where you are.
This is also why herbs are the practitioner’s medicine. When I am making a ritual oil or building a formula for a client I am always thinking about which herbs are going to do the active work, what needs to move, what needs to be activated, what state needs to shift. Herbs are your workhorses.
Flowers
Flowers are the highest vibration of the plant. Everything the plant has been building, through the root, through the stalk and the leaf, it all arrives at the flower. The flower is the plant’s full expression. Its purpose made visible.
And flowers work at that level in the body too. They work on the emotional and energetic layers. Rose calms grief and opens the heart. Lavender moves anxiety out of the body through the nervous system. Blue lotus, which I work with a lot, opens spiritual perception and deepens your connection to your own inner knowing. Flowers do not work on your liver. They work on your heart. On your energy field. On what you are carrying that does not have a name yet.
There is also something important about the fact that flowers do not last. They bloom and they go. That impermanence is part of the medicine. Flowers teach you to receive beauty without trying to hold onto it. That is a healing in itself.
Why You Need All Three
Here is the thing. If you are only working with one category you are only getting part of the medicine. Roots without flowers will ground you but you might stay heavy. Flowers without roots will lift you but you might float right off. Herbs without either and you are just managing symptoms without addressing what is underneath or what is possible.
When you work with all three together you are working the full vertical axis. Below, middle, above. Body, action, spirit. That is complete medicine. That is what I have built my entire practice around and it is why every oil I make, every formula I build, every ritual I design draws from all three.
Your body knows the difference. Give it the whole thing.
With love and roots,
Donna
