Deb Soule – The Feminine Way of Plant Medicine

Discover medicinal plants and tonic herbs most valued for women’s health — to heal and thrive during your specific cycle of life.

Do you have a favorite plant or tree whose leaves or fruit you anxiously await each year — to craft a tea, tonic, or tincture?

The enjoyment and healing derived from our relationship with the plant medicines we grow starts long before we apply or ingest them…

Herbs and other plant medicines offer us hope, beauty, and the opportunity to create an intimate relationship with the Earth — one based on mutual respect and care.

The daily use of herbal remedies empowers us to care for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

And our herbal wisdom connects us to herbalists and healers throughout the ages who have called upon the healing power of plants.

Your Intimate Relationship With Medicinal Plants

Connecting deeply with these living, growing “beings,” including the soil, offers you an opportunity to not only better know a plant’s healing qualities and growing requirements, it can nurture your mind, body, soul, and Mother Earth.

When you’re attuned to a plant’s essence or “spirit,” you’re awakened to how its energies and life cycles synergize with yours.

For example, when you place seeds in moist soil they undergo an awakening process, and when you add them to your teas, tinctures, and foods they offer you a similar awakening energy.

And using seeds as medicine and saving them from your garden, as well as growing and eating food that your ancestors ate connects you with your roots and the Earth — honoring both the plant’s life cycle and your own.

These simple acts can help you to heal the places inside you that have been wounded, and to celebrate and continue the lineage of both your people and plants.

When you pay attention to the beauty, scents, and expansive nature of flowers, you can find inspiration on physical and spiritual levels, as they move you from feeling separate and isolated to being present, awake, and embodied.

When we work with the soil to grow our healing plants, we can experience a deep spiritual grounding, and we have the opportunity to bring reciprocity into this relationship, through the use of organic, biodynamic gardening practices that are good for the Earth.

We can also offer blessings as we sow seeds and gather harvests to energetically share our positive intentions and gratitude for the plants that can heal us.

And we can look to the rhythms of the season and solar and lunar cycles to discover when it’s best to plant and harvest. Our ancestors have looked to the moon’s phases for centuries to raise vital crops.

Discovering a Plant’s Spirit Expands Your Knowledge of Herbalism

Herbs replenish and restore your body’s health and vitality by supporting its inherent metabolic processes of strengthening, toning, and rebuilding.

Leaves, flowers, seeds, roots, and berries offer you healing medicines to address different health issues, yet you can gain a better understanding of their healing powers — beyond the physical — when you look deeper, into a plant’s “spirit” or inherent essence.

For example, medicinal roots — the foundation of a plant — help to strengthen your inner core, cultivate confidence, and feel present and rooted.

Liver-supporting herbs, that also support adrenal function, are especially vital for women, because they help balance shifting hormones and mood swings and promote emotional resilience.

Flower essences nourish your self-esteem, dignity, inner harmony, and capacity to heal.

There are also specific flowers that support breast health, liver, lymph, nerves, and skin.

For women, these include herbal breast massage oil, herbs and dietary regimens for supporting vaginal health, and baths that can uplift the spirit and enhance inner peace.

Discover the Feminine Way of Plant Medicine With a Respected Expert

In The Feminine Way of Plant Medicine, herbalist, gardener, teacher, and author Deb Soule invites you to bring plants “to life,” not only by growing and creating natural medicines with them, but by looking beyond their physical qualities and into their spiritual essences.

She’ll also share the feminine approach to raising medicinals — through biodynamic gardening, looking to seasonal, solar, and lunar cycles for planting and harvesting wisdom, and offering blessings and intentions as you sow and gather your crops.

And she’ll share practical wisdom she’s cultivated over decades of growing and crafting plant medicines…

… including how to determine the vitality and therapeutic quality of herbs by how they’re grown, gathered, prepared, and stored, herbal dosage and safety considerations, and how to prepare and use herbal infusions, decoctions, tinctures, elixirs, foot baths, and spiritual healing baths from fresh and dried herbs.

She’ll also introduce herbal teas and tonics for menstruating years, menopause, and elderhood, including medicinal leaves for supporting your heart health, liver, digestion, memory, and meditation.

Deb Soule has over 30 years experience growing, preparing, and using medicinal herbs and her approach to herbalism is intimately tied to her view of the Earth as a living being.

In this 7-module journey into the feminine way of plant medicine, you’ll:

• Determine the quality of herbs — how they’re grown, gathered, prepared, and stored affects their vitality and therapeutic benefits
• Prepare and use herbal infusions, decoctions, tinctures, elixirs, foot baths, and spiritual healing baths from fresh and dried herbs
• Understand herbal dosages and safety considerations
• Cultivate a daily meditation practice that will help you deepen your relationship with plants and your connection with Mother Earth
• Discover herbs and lifestyle suggestions for enhancing memory, mental clarity, and inner harmony
• Examine roots that support detoxification, digestion, balance, and immunity
• Cover lifestyle and herbal support for low libido
• Study herbs for relaxing the nervous system and promoting sleep
• Be given a seed-planting prayer Identify specific berries and seeds that support heart health, nerves, liver, kidneys, immunity, and vaginal health
• Explore herbs for soothing agitation, anxiety, heart palpitations, insomnia, and grief
• Understand how to use seeds for healing intergenerational trauma
• Be given a meditation for meeting the spirit of a plant whose fruits or seeds are used for medicine

And much more…

Throughout the ages, women have called upon medicinal plants to nurture their relationship with the Earth, the cosmos, their spirituality, and their bodies. In The Feminine Way of Plant Medicine, Deb Soule will help you to deepen your relationship with these healing plants, yourself, your community, and the Earth.

And you’ll discover the feminine way of plant medicine as a spiritual path that nourishes body, mind, and soul, and the lives of the growing “beings” that aid in our healing, the land, and the Earth.

What You’ll Discover in The Feminine Way of Plant Medicine

In this 7-module transformational intensive, Deb Soule will guide you through the fundamental spiritual skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully practice the daily use of herbal remedies to empower you to care for yourself, your family, and your community.

Each contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to look beyond the physical qualities of plants and into their spiritual essences as well as to grow and create natural medicines with them.

Module 1: Remembering Our Roots as Herbalists & Healers

Herbal wisdom connects us to herbalists and healers throughout the ages who have called upon the healing power of plants.

And using herbal teas, tinctures, baths, and flower essences enhances our physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing beyond their prescribed uses when we look to their “spirits” — those qualities that make them nutritive to the soul, as well as the mind and body.

We can also start our healing and help heal the Earth with how we work in our gardens, offering blessings and other reciprocity practices — many used by our ancestors — to energetically connect with the land.

The daily use of herbal remedies empowers us to care for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

In this module, you’ll learn how to:

• Cultivate a daily meditation practice that will help you deepen your relationship with plants and your connection with Mother Earth
• Live in harmony with seasonal, solar, and lunar rhythms
• Create a reciprocity practice to use when gathering and preparing plant medicines
• Determine the quality of herbs — how they’re grown, gathered, prepared, and stored affects their vitality and therapeutic benefits
• Prepare and use herbal infusions, decoctions, tinctures, elixirs, foot baths, and spiritual healing baths from fresh and dried herbs
• Understand herbal dosages and safety considerations
• Work with flower essences for nourishing our self-esteem, dignity, inner harmony, and capacity to heal

Module 2: Herbal Teas & Tonics for Menstruating Years, Menopause & Elderhood

Herbs replenish and restore the health and vitality of the body by supporting the body’s inherent metabolic processes of strengthening, toning, and rebuilding. Herbs that support liver and adrenal function are especially vital for women as these herbs balance shifting hormones and mood swings and increase the emotional capacity to be less reactive and more resilient.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Nourishing herbal teas to regularly keep in your cupboard
• The role of the liver in hormone imbalances
• Herbs for supporting liver function
• Herbs for reducing stress and supporting adrenal function and vitality
• Herbs and lifestyle suggestions for enhancing memory, mental clarity, and inner harmony

Module 3: Medicinal Roots Digging Down Deep

Medicinal roots strengthen our inner core, help us cultivate confidence and feel present and rooted throughout life’s varied journeys. Infinite possibilities emerge from strong roots. Digging roots in the garden or ingesting root medicines grounds and reconnects us with the Earth. Root medicines, when taken over a period of time, offer long-lasting health benefits.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Diets and herbs for maintaining healthy bones and flexibility
• Roots that support detoxification, digestion, balance, and immunity
• Lifestyle and herbal support for low libido
• Meditation for meeting the spirit of a plant whose roots are used for medicine
• Energetic qualities of the earth elements
• Digging roots based on the Biodynamic planting calendar

Module 4: Medicinal Leaves Breathing in Vitality & Wholeness

The shapes, colors, textures, and fragrances of leaves have many stories to tell. The water contained within leaves and the early morning dew covering leaves are reminders of the magical and transformative power of water and herbs.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Specific leaves that support heart health, liver, digestion, memory, and meditation
• Herbs for relaxing the nervous system and promoting sleep
• A seed-planting prayer
• How to plant your own holy basil plants from seed
• A meditation for meeting the spirit of a plant whose leaves are used for medicine
• Energetic qualities of the water element

Module 5: Medicinal Flowers Enhancing Inner Beauty & Light

The beauty, aroma, and expansive nature of flowers inspires healing on physical and spiritual levels. They move us from feeling separate and isolated into being present, awake, and embodied. The subtle and vibrant colors of flowers can be easily incorporated into teas, massage oils, baths, and foods for nourishing and healing body and soul.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Specific flowers that support breast health, liver, lymph, nerves, and skin
• How to create your own herbal breast massage oil
• Diet and herbs for supporting healthy vaginal tissue
• Flower baths for uplifting the spirit and enhancing inner peace
• How to integrate flower essences into daily life
• A meditation for meeting the “spirit” of a plant whose flowers are used for medicine
• Energetic qualities of the air element

Module 6: Medicinal Berries & Seeds Carriers of Memory

When seeds are placed in moist soil they undergo an awakening process. Adding seeds into our teas, tinctures, and foods offers us a similar awakening. Using seeds as medicine, growing and eating food that our Ancestors ate, and saving our own garden seeds connects us with our roots and with the Earth, and helps us heal the places we have been wounded.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Specific berries and seeds that support heart health, nerves, liver, kidneys, immunity, and vaginal health
• Herbs for soothing agitation, anxiety, heart palpitations, insomnia, and grief
• Using seeds for healing intergenerational trauma
• A meditation for meeting the spirit of a plant whose fruits or seeds are used for medicine
• Energetic qualities of the fire element

Module 7: Creating Herbal Gardens for People & Pollinators

Let’s spark an herbal revolution by encouraging more people to incorporate medicinal herbs and flowers into their window boxes, gardens, hedgerows, and farms for nourishing both people and pollinators.

All of us depend on healthy food and herbs to thrive whether we are a gardener or someone who simply enjoys the beauty of nature. More than ever, holistic systems of agriculture, such as Biodynamics, play an important role in helping heal our ecosystems and in protecting our pollinators and seeds.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• A meditation for meeting the spirit of a place or garden
• Design elements for a healing garden
• Biodynamic gardening and farming
• Specific medicinal plants for people and pollinators
• How to think about creating healing gardens for public places, including school yards, hospitals, nursing and rehabilitation centers, community vegetable gardens, farms, and more

About Deb Soule

Deb Soule is an herbalist, gardener, teacher, and author of The Woman’s Handbook of Healing Herbs and How to Move Like a Gardener. Raised in a small town in western Maine, Deb Soule began organic gardening and studying the medicinal uses of herbs at age 16 alongside the internationally known medical herbalist Mary Bove. Deb Soule’s faith in the healing qualities of plants includes a desire to make organic herbs easily accessible to women and families living in rural areas.

As Deb Soule’s knowledge and faith in the efficacy of medicinal herbs grew, so did her desire to be of service to her community. In a small 8-by-10-foot room in her house, Deb Soule began preparing various herbal remedies. In the fall of 1985, with her first mail order catalog and a small selection of herbal extracts and teas, Deb Soule launched Avena Botanicals at the Common Ground Fair in Windsor, Maine.

Five years earlier, while enrolled as a student at College of the Atlantic, Deb Soule lived in Nepal close to three Tibetan monasteries. Deb Soule was deeply influenced by the Tibetan people’s commitment to ease physical symptoms and mental and emotional upsets through plants, prayer, and other spiritual practices.

Deb Soule’s passion for plants, gardens, and healing and her commitment to sharing herbal knowledge with others is central to her work. Deb Soule is frequently a guest lecturer at various conferences as well as an instructor for botany and horticulture students, garden clubs, and medical students. In 2005, People, Places & Plants magazine named Deb Soule as one of the 50 most influential gardeners in the Northeast.

Deb Soule’s life closely follows the yearly agricultural rhythm. From April through October, Deb Soule spends most days with her hands in the earth tending three acres of medicinal plants using organic and biodynamic practices. During the spring and summer months, Deb Soule teaches a variety of herb classes and offers bimonthly herb walks in Avena Botanicals’ herb gardens. Throughout the year, Deb Soule writes herb articles, develops herbal remedies, and consults with clients and health care providers.

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