Wisdom, Practice, and Heart Space: The Power of Herbalism with Kat Maier

Episode 32 Description

There is wisdom and power in plants, beyond what we often allow ourselves to see! Kat Maier knows this firsthand, and in today’s episode of the We Rise Podcast, she invites us all to dive deep into ourselves and the lessons of the plants. Learn about the power of herbalism, wide angle vision, dropping into the consciousness of the heart, and the transformational beauty of sitting in hard spaces. Kat’s heart and passion are palpable as she dives into the art of embodying and practicing the lessons of herbalism. Enjoy!

Kat Maier has been a practicing herbalist for over fifty years. She is the director of Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she offers a Three Year Clinical/Community Herbalist training program. Kat is also a founding member of the Botanica Mobile Clinic and president of the Board of United Plant Savers.

Download the show Notes

Episode 32 Show Notes

find this episode on youtube

Key takeaways

A lifetime of learning and practicing

Raised in a Catholic tradition, Kat Maier has always loved the mystery of magic, ritual, and the sacred. From a young age she knew she wanted to be a healer. In college, Kat double majored in chemistry and business, and then traveled to participate in the Peace Corps. It was there she had her first experience with herbal medicine.

Her passion was for plants, and she was also deeply interested in engaging in low income rural communities and underserved populations. This is what led her to become a Physician Assistant (PA). From chemistry to Peace Corps to PA school, all of these experiences were preparing Kat for what was next.

It was a dream that brought Kat to Charlottesville, Virginia. She knows now it was the woodlands and the Appalachian herbs that were calling her there. Studying herbalism for 50 years, Kat is still amazed by the endless lessons plants are teaching her and actively applies them. She sits with folks and communities, whether it’s at Botanica, their free mobile clinic, or in Richmond Virginia in working with Black Lives Matter.

Kat is constantly practicing often through what’s known as wide angle vision, a technique of dropping out of the sympathetic nervous system/ mind and dropping into the parasympathetic nervous system/ mind or heart space. It’s a powerful experience of grounding into your body and being fully present, and literally looking with a wide angle. This is often practiced with primitive skills.

Thirty years ago, Kat noted that we as a community were just beginning to acknowledge trauma, appropriation, and looking at social justice. In order to do this hard work and create deep profound change, we must continuously practice living out the lessons we are learning. For Kat, it is the plants that have the most wisdom to teach us.

Dropping into the consciousness of the heart

When you work with trauma or fear or wounding, there is a natural instinct to want to pull away from the hurt or leave the story. We want to fix things or make it go away. There is something incredible that happens if we can teach ourselves to stay in this space though.

By moving into the consciousness of the heart we can hold witness and honor true healing through those hard places.

So what does it mean to drop into this heart space, and why is it so important?

Kat describes dropping down into heart space as embodying.

It is through our hearts that we make assessments; it is the organ of perception. Practicing this process has allowed Kat to read the energetic landscape and hear from it, connecting with her deeper self and hearing the incredible stories of the landscape, informing her permaculture work.

We all have this omnipotent being within ourselves. When we are willing to sink into it, it will reveal to each of us a profound sense of perception!

Learning to have your own back

We as a culture struggle with sitting in grief and being present with the hard feelings. We want to run from them. 

Kat shares from her experience that the more strength she has in her heart and her ability to find herself, the more able she is to sit in those darker times longer. Incredibly, this has also enabled her to sit with others in their own grief and struggling.

Grieving is part of what it means to be human – a means of engaging with one another. It is a powerful way for us to connect as a community. This process of dropping and dropping and dropping until there’s nowhere else to go is uncomfortable, but when you lean into it, you experience that same pain transform into beauty.

As we develop trust in our capacity to go into those deep places, we also develop the ability to know that we hold ourselves. We have our own backs, and we will not abandon ourselves.

notable quotes from Kat

“I think it all is. And so finding peace in the fact that it all is and not delineating good or bad or trying to make something that it isn’t really understanding that there is a pattern, we’re all being patterned. And for me, that’s a dream.” 

“That other is community. That other is consciousness. That other is the majesty of our world, coming back to community, always.”

“I know a lot of people now are calling plants their allies, and I’ve come to the point in my life where they’re not my allies. Man, I could never do what they’re doing! They’re my teachers! And you know, I’m on my knees to the profound teachings that they hold.”

“I think you pick the place that turns you on, that you know, gives you joy, I do not want to get entrenched in a life of drudgery.”

“The more strength I have in my heart and in my ability to find myself. I now am able to sit in those darker times longer, and It also enables me to sit with those that are deeply struggling, with much much more comfort.”

“To grieve is to be human, and to engage.”

“Falling apart and collapsing, and really then seeing what’s regenerative, what comes from it. And it’s the collapse, that is that compost, that’s that nourishment, and it’s not holding back.”

“If there is a call or a pull, and it’s off the beaten path, but it’s very meaningful, and it’s just kind of overtaking your sensorium, and you’re reading about it, really, really trust that path has deep meaning for you.”

“I think what I’ve learned is to stay true to my mission, and to every once in a while step back and see has it changed? Or have I taken over? And am I directing this and making this my performance? Or is this where the plants want me?”

LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED

Learn more about Kat Maier and her new book, Energetic Herbalism.

You can also discover more about herbalism and Kat’s work at the Sacred Plant Traditions: A Center For Herbal Studies, Botanica Mobile Clinic, and United Plant Savers.

Additional Resources Mentioned:

• Wide Angle Vision
• Sarah Blondin: Storyteller, Author, and Meditation Guide
• Inflamed by Raj Patel and Rupa Marya
• When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chöndrön
• Susan Cain, author of Quiet and Bittersweet
• How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole Part 1 from Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole Part 2 from Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

The Yes! We Rise podcast features solutions-seekers, change-makers, and those creating a resilient future. We share stories and strategies to inspire action to build resilience and community transformation. To create change, people need to feel like they belong and that they are part of a growing movement. They need to know their voice matters and that they have the inspiration, agency and ability to transform their lives and their communities. They are the key to a resilient future.

From the Navajo Nation to the mountains of Appalachia, incredible work is being done by community members and leaders. Change is often sparked by inspiration: seeing what others have done, especially in similar situations and places. People see that when someone looks like them or lives in a place like theirs, and has created real, true and lasting change, change that will allow their granddaughters and grandsons to thrive — they begin to imagine what might be possible for them. No longer waiting for someone else to come and save them, they realize they are the ones they have been waiting for. But what creates that spark? What creates that inspiration? Learning through stories and examples, feeling a sense of agency and belonging, and getting fired up to kick ass creates that spark.

We Rise helps community leaders and members learn to forge a new path toward creating resilience and true transformation. One person at a time, one community at a time, one region at a time, the quilt of transformation can grow piece by piece until resilience becomes the norm instead of the exception. Together, we rise.