Matthew Wood once said that to be a Master Herbalist, you need to know 30 plants with great depth.

Only 30 plants?!?

Well, I have over 50 in my apothecary, but the truth is I don’t have real living relationships with very many of them. I probably can claim relationship status with about 15.

The rest of them are more like most of my facebook friends: I know a bit about them, I’ve read about them, but I haven’t felt them, dreamt them, journeyed with them. You know those friends you’ve traveled with, lived with, loved with? That’s a relationship of depth. It takes time, but their essence lives within you forever, even if you don’t see them for years.

My personal herbal goal is to build relationships of depth and understanding with 30 plants.

The thing is, the way I think about those 15 plants now is totally different. It isn’t just thinking any more. I feel them, I dream them, I love them.

I often just know when someone walks into my clinic and they need one of those plants. I can feel it.

And I swear to you – esoteric though this may be – the plants I’ve truly journeyed with now work better for me as a healer. For me personally, but also for my clients. It reminds me of stories of healers and shamans around the world who get to know a plant so well that they learn that plant’s song. Simply singing the song is enough to invoke their healing properties.

I now create relationships with medicine plants through embodied listening: taking a plant daily for a while, journaling, noticing, feeling, dreaming into the medicine of that plant. Where possible, sitting with the living plant and tasting, watching, harvesting and making.

It takes time, and it will probably take me another 5 years to get to those 30 plants. But it’s worth it.

Somewhere along the way I realised I learn best in groups, but plant listening groups like this don’t exist. This is how I accidentally became a teacher of relational plant medicine. I needed my students to hold the collective field of intention and accountability.

Over the next few years, I’ll be continuing to journey with a small group of incredible plant walkers as we work with one plant per month, honouring slowness, honouring embodiment, honouring the plants themselves as the wisdom keepers.

And once we get to 30 plants together?

I’m going to challenge myself to only practice with those 30 plants for 2 years.

I’ll be able to let Matthew Wood know if I think he’s right – that 30 plants is all you need.