Daily WellnessMay 23, 2025
At its core, herbalism is a tradition of care that’s rooted in accessibility, community, and connection to nature. And, everyone’s invited. We’re showing our herbal pride this month by exploring both a history of kindness and community in herbalism, along with ideas for celebrating and making the world a better place.
Keep reading to learn how herbalism is for everybody, whether it’s filling in gaps where mainstream care is lacking or just helping people express themselves and tune in to their bodies.
“Mutual aid” is a term you’ll hear a lot in relation to both grassroots herbalism and queer spaces. Simply put, mutual aid is community-based support where people share resources or services to be helpful, often with a focus on systematic inequality. In herbalism, this usually looks like free or sliding-scale clinics, or providing free herbal preparations to underserved communities. During previous periods of global crisis, many herbalists stepped up to offer mutual aid or underground care networks, helping people however they could when access to mainstream care was nonexistent or unsafe.
In today’s world, taking the time to care for yourself is kind of a radical act. And for some people, like those looking for gender-affirming care, herbalism helps people feel more empowered in their bodies. Working with an herbalist or naturopath, or just having your own simple daily herbal practices, can help you tune in to your individual, holistic needs and care for yourself. Gender-affirming care is also nothing new in herbalism. Some Indigenous cultures recognize Two-Spirit people, and there’s also the Māhū in Native Hawaiian culture, Hijra in India and Pakistan, Nádleehí in the Diné culture, Bissu in the Sulawesi culture of Indonesia, and Quariwarmi of the Incan civilization. These third genders are honored as healers, often work with plants, and preserve spiritual and cultural knowledge.
While not directly linked to herbalism or the plant Lavender per se, the color Lavender has been long intertwined with LGBTQ+ culture. It started with 7th century BC poet Sappho, who wrote about beautiful women with “Violet tiaras,” and the Violet soon became a secret symbol used to draw together members of the lesbian community.1 Later, a term called “Lavender marriages” would appear, marking unions between gay men and lesbian women in the 1920s. While not romantic, these marriages allowed each person to avoid societal scrutiny and maintain mutual protection and care. In many ways, this is aligned with the ethos of herbalism, where people can find safety, resilience, and well-being outside of the dominant system.
This summer, we encourage you to show your herbal pride with your own acts of kindness and empathy. There are so many ways to share the herbal love, including spreading the word about free herbal resources (check out a whole list of resources here!), making herbal goodie bags, inviting friends over for a refreshing herbal mocktail, or having a fun herby DIY project night. If you’re inspired to share your herbal pride this June, be sure to tag us in an image on Facebook or Instagram and use #HerbalPride!
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