Wisdom Through Herbs
Author and herbalist Maia Toll suggested we meet at Dobra Tea on Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville. The morning was rainy and chilly. I hoofed it from the parking garage to the tearoom. As I stepped inside, my frantic disposition eased in response to the delicious smell of leaves and the quiet ambiance that embodies such a place.
As someone who enjoys learning about and using natural remedies, I was very much looking forward to this encounter with Toll. I’d been reading her new book Herbiary during the weeks leading up to the interview. The book had become an integral part of my morning quiet time.
There is a quote by Rumi that says: “The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” My ritualistic morning routine is paramount for a good day, and Herbiary was a perfect addition.
It had many secrets to tell me.
The subtitle for the book is ‘Guidance and Rituals from 36 Bewitching Botanicals.’ Each page of the book honors an herb, plant, flower or fruit, paying homage to each. Toll is skilled at weaving together the scientific with the fantastical, leaving the reader enlightened and more connected to the inner spirit.
“This book has a life of its own,” Toll said. “There’s a magic bubble around it and my job is to not break the spell.”
If I hadn’t already experienced it myself, her statement may have sounded far-fetched. But I felt my head nodding as she talked about the book being its own entity, separate from her, the author. For me, the book felt powerful, bewitching in a positive way. The illustrations and words pull the reader into the plant world and encourage a life lived in harmony with nature.
Interestingly, the book doesn’t actually describe each herb or flower or fruit. It doesn’t provide factual information. Yet, when you leave the page, you feel more intimately connected to each plant. It’s quite fascinating.
“My goal is to help people live fully on this earth and be aware of what’s going on around us, to find a personal path to the sacred,” Toll said.
Many years ago, Toll said she used proceeds from the sell of her home to spend a year in Ireland with a traditional medicine woman. Each day, she and her mentor studied and lived among the herbs and other plants. She describes the experience as “life-changing.” It was during this year when Toll says she learned the art of botanical medicine and the magic of coming into communion with the plant world.
Toll’s time in Ireland and a subsequent series of personal and professional events led to opening her own business, also called Herbiary, where she sells oils, tinctures, herbs, teas, bath products and other items. What started out as a tiny stall in Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market evolved into two full-blown stores in Philadelphia and Asheville.
A decade later, Maia’s husband, Andrew, manages the stores while she teaches, writes and helps people find that place within them that will lead to a beautiful, organic life.
“I want others to see that their everyday life, the things that already surround them, are magical,” Toll said.
The Introduction of Toll’s book tells of her time in Ireland and the impact it had on her philosophy of medicine and healing. She went into the experience expecting to gain knowledge but came out of it gaining so much more, including deeper intuition and an ability to learn and know using her senses.
As an herbalist and a teacher, her goal is to transmit the ability to find the “second song” which is what she calls the additional layer of knowledge, the one that goes beyond the simple facts or cause and effect relationship of using a plant for this or that. To encourage this skill, she includes exercises within her book; regimens that help the reader feel and absorb all the green world has to offer.
Whether you read the book front to back or choose a page based on your favorite herb or flower or fruit, be prepared to feel transformed.
“We all need to feel connected to something beyond the common,” Toll said. “Plants were my way in, but there are many ways. Many ways up the same mountain.”