Of all the questions I get asked, the one I probably get the most is "what books should
I start with?" That's really a hard question. It's kind of like asking like "what are your
favorite songs." I really have a hard time choosing my favorite books. So depending
on who asks me I might pick out a couple that seem to fit what they're looking for,
but the question still remained. And people will often ask me "what are your favorite books?" And
so I really decided that this is the best place to start, to just get really personal with it.
So I want to share with you what my three most influential books have been. I'm Asia Suler of
One Willow Apothecaries, and these are my top three most influential herbal books.
Book number one is the Encyclopedia of Bach flower Therapy by Mechthild Scheffer. I might be totally
butchering that German name. The German ancestor in me likes to think that I have a good German
accent—I probably don't—but that's her name and that's the book. And so this book came along for
me before I ever got into herbalism. At the time I was living in New York City and I was working in
office buildings taking care of plants there. And my mom actually gave me this book because I was
really into plants, although I knew nothing about, you know, herbal therapy. My mom gave me this book
because she's like, "oh this is something about flowers. It's something about healing. I think
you'd like it." And I opened up this book and I started reading the very first intro chapter and
I just started spontaneously weeping, like tears leaking out of my eyes. And it was just one of
those moments where you're crying not because you're sad, but because something feels really
big and really true to you. I always know when I get those like "this is true" tears that it's
something really important, really central to me. So this book goes over the major 38
Bach flower essence remedies. But really what was most influential for me with this book was having
someone put words to this idea that the energy and spirit and essence of plants are healing
for us. That it's actually touching in to our healing on a multi-dimensional level. And it
totally blew my mind wide open. Now I would go on to study traditional Western herbalism,
but really this book was the seed that helped start me down an understanding that plants are
healers for us, and they can create great change. The next book is by one of my favorite authors,
and that's Stephen Harrod Buhner, and the book is The Secret Teachings of Plants. So I had to
mention Stephen Harrod Buhner here, because his work has been so influential for me. I loved
his combination of earth poetry and research. He's really dedicated to interweaving history, science,
mythology, with this real poetic understanding of connecting into the energy and essence of plants.
So this book in particular is about learning how to drop out of your head space and into
your heart. It's about the heart as a portal for communication and understanding with the
living world. And this was huge for me as someone who tends to be a bit in my head at times and
sometimes a little over intellectual, this book really helped me to understand that the heart
is the portal through which this communication with plants can come through. Ultimately this
book really helped me to just trust what it was that I was receiving from the plants. The third
book is called Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And you're gonna see how well loved this
copy is. I cannot say enough about this book. I am in love with this book and I am in love with
Robin Wall Kimmerer. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist, a professor, a mom, and an enrolled
member of the Potawatomi Nation, and her book is just stunning. So the central tenet of the
book is this idea that indigenous ways of knowing and scientific ways of knowing can interweave and
braid with one another. That they're actually here to mutually support one another. And one of the
things in this book that has really like struck me the most is this concept or idea that we live
in a gifting economy. That this earth that we live on and our interaction with plants and the natural
world is all part and parcel of these gifts of abundance. That really this is the natural state
of the world— is feeding one another, helping one another, and that we're really being re-invited
into this co-creation once more. Now this book to me feels like being wrapped in the arms of your
most beloved grandmother. There is something about it that is just so loving, so nurturing,
so encouraging. It is absolutely one of my favorite books of all time. In fact I will
say in terms of the like truth cries, I probably cried every single chapter that I read this book.
It's just it is so so beautiful and I cannot say enough about how profound this book has been for
me on my journey. Now you might notice that none of these books are really straightforward
herbal books. Now I love those too, and if that's what you're looking for then I highly recommend
you check out the work of Rosemary Gladstar, Matthew Wood— add James Green if you're looking
for medicine making. But why I wanted to share these three books is really because they have
truly been the books that have ignited my path. And when I look back at these books, I start to
see a theme. This theme of the interweaving of science and traditional ways of knowing,
of interweaving research and sort of brain-based understanding with this intuitive or really felt
sense or direct connection with a plant. And so I get this picture really of who I am on my
herbal path. So I want to pass on this activity to you, to sit down and really think about what have
been the three most influential books for you on your path. And just let them come into your mind.
Think about when you read them and how you felt when you read them, and then just take a look at
what some major themes might be. This is going to give you a lot of information about your niche,
the specific quality of your work and your path. So if you like this video, go ahead and like it
beneath here, share it with your friends. And I would really love to hear from you in the comment
section below— what books came up for you? Let's create a little bit of a library here
so we can all reference and see what have been the most influential books for this really rich
community that we're a part of here. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time