In conversation with Carolyn Barron
Master Herbalist, Acupuncturist and Physician of Eastern Medicine Carolyn Barron has been a wise guiding light in our lives for a few years now. Drawing from the diverse forms of herbalism she practices, she has crafted our adaptogenic potion line. When developing the recipes she kept thinking about the concept of alchemy as ‘conscious evolution’ - the idea that we make a choice to live intentionally, an than through consistency and ritualized effort we gently nudge our being into new states of wholeness.
Carolyn, tell us about Botanarchy and the vision/ethos behind it.
One of my favorite writers says that the alchemical art is about assisting nature in the perfection of her creations, and in that spirit, Botanarchy is about reacquainting each of us with the innate perfection of our native state, the self not corrupted by culture. Botanarchy as a concept hearkens to the idea that medicine can be both a form of resistance and a reclamation of our original, authentic nature. My practice offers a vision of healthcare that is built on humanism, integrity, and respect for the flow of the natural world.
Botanarchy's mission statement is 'Botanical Medicine For Body Autonomy’, because I believe that eastern medicine enhances the body's innate capability to heal itself, empowering the patient as the healer and nature as the teacher. My practice is oriented towards freeing us from a reliance upon medicines and institutions that are exploitive of natural resources and the body en masse. The rich, expansive palate of nature, Taoism, and traditional eastern medicine provide a path that engenders a true state of body autonomy, awakening us to the rhythms and cycles of our bodies and liberating us from a dependence on healthcare practices that undermine its intelligence and flow.
What do you love most about your work?
As an herbalist and Physician of Eastern Medicine, I get to function as a planetary enzyme that dissolves patterns of disease, dysfunction, and discord, returning my community to a more natural, instinctive, embodied way of life. I love that these sacred earth medicines restore balance to the individual AND the ecosystem, putting us back into right relationship with the qi of our bodies and the qi of the land. Eastern Medicine is a science that removes obstacles and blockages, which allows us to make contact with our ‘wild' selves, and our native state of self-contemplation, boundless flow, and embeddedness in nature.
“I prefer to call adaptogens ‘Plants of the Middle Path’. Adaptogens are like the Taoist sages of yore who walked the middle way with fluidity and poise, never veering to extremes or succumbing to the seduction of excess.”
On Chinese medicine and herbal magic…
Eastern medicine and herbalism are wisdom traditions that gently nudge us back into a state of receptive harmony by treating our bodies as unique ecosystems, influenced by the forces of nature and an embodiment of her cycles and patterns. The stirring of wind, the rushing of water, the condensation of clouds… each of these processes has its imprint in the body. The Taoist sages who gathered the wisdom from which Eastern medicine sprang were the original scientists, keenly observing the cycles of creation and transformation, and watching how these same cycles play out in the world around us and the world within us.
When we feel unwell, there are forces that impede or vitality and manifest as illness, forces that the whole ecosystem contends with: hot//cold, empty//full, dry//damp, stagnant//flowing. The *magic part* of this medicine is that when we treat by the guiding principle of unification with these forces, the end result is a complete transformation of body, mind, and spirit.
I prefer to call adaptogens ‘Plants of the Middle Path’. Adaptogens are like the Taoist sages of yore who walked the middle way with fluidity and poise, never veering to extremes or succumbing to the seduction of excess.
How do you define adaptogens and how do they work?
The standard definition of an adaptogen is an herb that helps the body adapt to stress, but I prefer to call adaptogens ‘Plants of the Middle Path’. Adaptogens are like the Taoist sages of yore who walked the middle way with fluidity and poise, never veering to extremes or succumbing to the seduction of excess. Equilibrium and grace are undervalued in our culture, but they are the keys to conserving qi for a long and rambling life. With an equanimous intelligence, adaptogens work on behalf of the neuroendocrine-immune system to allow us to bend with the winds of change, however turbulent they may be. In regulating cortisol and mitigating the noxious effects of stress on the body, adaptogens have far reaching healing capacities, which is why they can treat such a vast array of disharmonies in the body, from low libido, weakened immunity, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and poor focus, to anxiety, premature aging, depression, and awakened consciousness.
Whereas the practice of eastern herbalism rests upon treating each body as a unique emanation of the cosmos with its own specific needs, adaptogenic herbs are everyday magic from the Yang Shen tradition of ‘nourishing life,’ and can be taken daily by nearly any constitution for health preservation and life cultivation.
What’s the therapeutic intention, feeling and taste behind the five formulas of the Adaptogenic Potion Line?
Synthesizing the mystical & medicinal, these five formulas harness the power of plant medicine to amplify our daily rituals and root them in the sacred wisdom of the earth.
Working with the energy of archetypes – The Luminous, The Immortal, The Mountain Monk, The Muse, The Alchemist – each herbal formula helps us embody a quality of wholeness and health, supporting and enhancing the phases of transformation and creation for a life more vibrant and awakened.
Herbs have unique personalities and archetypal energies (and some have gregarious tempers that need to be pacified by the presence of more genteel folk), and their magnificence is magnified in the company of others with complimentary energies. This concept is called Dui Yao, the art of combining medicinals. Crafting a formula is elegant and nuanced, but not entirely unlike planning the guest list for a dinner party, seating the garrulous venture capitalist next to the contemplative botanist who grows the best strain of biodynamic cannabis in town, knowing each will magnify each other’s potential.
As someone who has spent the last 14 years in a clinical setting holding space for a diverse array of bodies, I have learned that despite the unique ways our stress erupts we are all collectively suffering from a severance to source, and regardless of how burnt out we may feel, we all house a magnificent reservoir of energetic qi that is our birthright. These formulas at their core help to recover the aspects of self often buried by stress and trauma, enhancing the body's innate capability to heal itself, gently nudging our psyches + soma toward homeostasis.
What’s your favorite herb/ herbal blend for overall well-being, for stress and feeling overwhelmed?
The Immortal is basically my patron saint in herbal form, containing the might + moxie of my most cherished allies that feels like an old friend and wizened teacher.
I have been mixing some variation of this magical brew into into chocolates, tinctures, lattes, and snacks for over a decade, as the earthy mojo of the mushrooms mixed with cacao enlivens nearly everything it graces. Before my first patient of the day, I will warm up a cup of oat milk on the stove, and add a heaping teaspoon of The Immortal, a dash of leftover coffee from the morning, a dash of maple syrup, and a quarter teaspoon shilajit. There is something about this formula in particular that awakens what we in Chinese medicine call the shen spirit, the cosmic light of the universe that brings inspiration, awareness, and compassion to everything we grace.
On Medicinal mushrooms and tonic herbalism…
How mushrooms behave in our ecosystem is essentially an equation for how to overcome suffering en masse: They transform what is old and toxic into rich soil from which new life can spring. Mushrooms are envoys of the sacred maxim of alchemy, Solve et Coagula, dissolve and coagulate. Through this work of breakdown and synthesis, they are Cosmic Regulators, recycling, transmuting, reforming, regulating a planet and soul out of balance. In addition to ingesting them daily as a practice for nourishing life, I like to think of them as alchemical allies in the work of moving through states of discomfort into places of expanded consciousness, for they help us soften rigid beliefs and emotional constraint.
Paul Stamets, muse of modern mycology, is fond of saying that prior to the pharmaceutical age, humans who could use plants and fungi as medicines were able to survive the diseases that plagued our world and in turn, reproduce and thrive. The very same chemicals that fungi produce to flourish in the wild are also active in humans, and the compounds that fungi evolved to survive their own predators return the favor unto us when we ingest them medicinally. They boost the immune system, fight viral infections, prevent the multiplication of cancer cells (and in some cases, even encourage the death of cancer cells!) and treat a long list of illnesses from heart disease to dementia. The use of medicinal mushrooms in this capacity is well-documented in medical literature ranging from the work of taoist alchemist and proto-pharmacologist Tao Hongjing in his 5th century work Bencao Jing Jizhu (spoiler alert, he loved Reishi and may have been the one who first deemed it the Mushroom of Immortality) to current research hailing from the most imminent medical research facilities worldwide.
The secret to longevity rests in honesty and strong principles. It conserves qi to only do what feels right, authentic, aligned. I keep things fluid, protean, changing. I observe silence in the mornings, and I write for a few hours each day as a devotional practice.
What are your personal self-care practices?
Integrity is a profound self-care practice that has huge reverberations for me. We tend to overburden ourselves with self-care *things* and *practices*, but the ancients knew that the secret to longevity rests in honesty and strong principles. It conserves qi to only do what feels right, authentic, aligned. I keep things fluid, protean, changing. I observe silence in the mornings, and I write for a few hours each day as a devotional practice. I change my herbs seasonally and get in bed early. I say *no* a lot, with grace and reverence. I take secret days off where I microdose plant medicine and revel in unstructured time. I am lucky to be ensconced in a community of incredible wise women, and I envelope myself in their care whenever I need tending. Without my cabal of brilliant acupuncturists, breathwork with Millana Snow, craniosacral therapy with Atma Livpriya, and the radical magic of my physiotherapist Clifton Matsuno , I doubt I would have the endurance and fluidity to do what I do on a daily basis.
Follow Carolyn here: @botanarchy / www.botanarchy.com
