A webinar originally presented for the American Herbalist Guild
There is a thread that runs through all of healing — from the earliest plant-based remedies pressed into clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, to the compounding pharmacist of the 19th century, to the herbalist working today. Somewhere along the way, that thread got cut. This workshop is about tracing it back.
In this recorded deep-dive, I explore how pharmacy and herbalism grew from the same root system, and how political, economic, and philosophical shifts changed the landscape of healing in the Western world, particularly the Flexner Report of 1910 and the dominance of germ theory. We trace the story from ancient Egypt and the Ebers Papyrus, through Greek medicine, Unani-Tibb, European folk traditions, alchemy, and mysticism, into the development of homeopathy, flower essence therapy, anthroposophical medicine, and modern aromatherapy.
This is an inquiry, per the original meaning of the word “history” in Greek — into how we arrived here, what we lost, and what is worth reclaiming.
What we cover:
- Why studying medical history matters for modern practitioners
- Ancient healing traditions: Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Unani-Tibb
- The Ebers Papyrus and the first materia medicas
- Mysticism, alchemy, and the Doctrine of Signatures
- The history of perfume, aromatherapy, and scent as medicine
- Key figures: Culpeper, Goethe, William Harvey, Rudolf Steiner
- Homeopathy, nosodes, and flower essence therapy
- Terrain theory vs. germ theory, and why it still matters
- The Flexner Report: how capitalism restructured medicine
- The evolution of pharmacy and the compounding tradition
- Plant medicine and herbalism in the current landscape
- Mind, body, and spirit as a unified framework for health
- The history of vaccines and cannabis
- Takeaways for practice today
This workshop is for you if:
You are a healthcare professional, herbalist, health coach, or curious healer who wants to understand the fuller picture of how we got here — and feel more grounded in the traditions you are already drawing from.
We do not have to choose between evidence-based medicine and plant wisdom. We live in an AND world. This is the history that proves it.
If this way of looking at medicine resonates with you, I go much deeper into plant medicine, the body, and evidence-informed herbalism inside my Herbalism 101 program.
I also host live paid webinars that go deeper into specific topics like herbal tradition, phytochemistry and clinical approaches — you can find the current offerings linked below.