Wort journal issue 1

Description

Wort is a new independent journal of grassroots and radical herbalism. To be published twice-yearly, it will offer a platform and a resource for those working with plants in ways that resonate with the long traditions of world-entangled, community-embedded folk herbalism. Contributions will range from poetry to polemic, with beautiful illustration throughout.

‘Wort’ is an old word for a plant and appears in the common names of many herbs. It comes from the Old English ‘wyrt’ and derives from the same Proto-Indo-European origin-word as ‘radical’, ‘radicle’ and ‘root’. This journal brings together all of these different meanings. The kinds of herbalism that it will platform are politically radical; herbalism which does not shy from understanding the root causes of ill-health. It is those kinds of herbalism that are rooted in the land and seek to work with it collaboratively in ecologically conscientious ways. Those which are culturally rooted within the diversity of traditions that blossom independently within the field. Those that understand the roots-in-common that we have with plants as our kin and our benefactors and work to nourish and honour these relationships.

The journal will include contributions from lay practitioners alongside qualified herbalists in recognition of the richness of the folk tradition(s) and the multiple kinds of knowledge held there. It is intended that it will give voice to and help strengthen a grassroots network of people working with plants as medicine in these conscientious and potent ways.

Contents:

Olly Cameron – Rooting Myself

Herbalism as a route to connection for queer, autistic people

Ríona Ní Riagáin – Abortion Herbs of Ireland 

The struggle for legalisation in Ireland and illustrations of herbs used historically for abortion

erhan – Radical Herbalism Reading List

Resources in support of the cultivation of a holistic perspective to help us strive towards a more radical herbalism

Anja Van Geert – Foraging: An Exploration Based on Science and Soul

A look at foraging from multiple perspectives including intuitive practice and insights from population ecology

Paine B. Hoehne – Project Focus: The Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais

A look at the work of the Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais, providing preventative medicine, self-care support, first aid, and healthcare to refugees and undocumented migrants living in Northern France, written by a member of the collective

Fanny Mae – Herbal Poems

From the land, through the heart, via word and hand… illustrated poetic meetings with four plant beings

Beth Maiden – Vervain: Simpler’s Joy, Holy Herb

Ethereal, yet tasting of earth, experiencing vervain as a bridge between the body and the mind, uniting sensation and perception

Leo Qawas – Folk Herbalism: The Unwritten Strand of Herbal History

Charting an excluded lineage of oral and community-embedded traditions of herbalism

Annie Randall – Cyanotypes: Using Light to Reconnect

Artworks exploring human relationships with nature, created with a simple photographic process using natural sunlight

Em Swift – On Finding Beauty

Reflections on the teaching of native weeds in finding solace, sanctuary and beauty amidst the crushing weight of the depression, dehumanisation and brutality that shapes the times we live in

Matilde Wyrdlea and Libby Bove – Plant Medicine and the Tarot

The first in a series looking at Tarot and Plant Medicine as allies to psycho-emotional health and exploring tarot through a traumatised lens

With illustrations by Ross Fleming and Libby Bove