There is a soft force that flows beneath the hands of women as they knead herbs, stir teas, or murmur blessings into the steam rising from a cup. It's a power that never asks to be noticed, but falls down on everything that it touches. At Neteru Apothecary, we celebrate this force. We see it for what it is: women’s herbal wisdom, an order of herbal prophets, not just a list of remedies, but an ancestral undercurrent that flows through time, blood, and soil.
This is more than a concept. It’s a reminder of who we are — and what we bear, the medicines we’ve had within our lineage all along.
Ancestral Memory: The Origin of It All
Before pharma came along, before the age of modern medicine, there were women, healers, midwives, mothers, grandmothers, who knew how to talk to the plants. Who knew which roots relieved fever, which flowers oiled grief, which leaves sheltered the womb? This was sacred knowledge, something to be kept deeply private. It was not anyone’s knowledge gleaned from a book, but knowledge from dreams, knowledge from the ear, knowledge from life.
Women have, in so many traditions, been the first herbalists and the first doctors. Their apothecaries did not consist of sterile laboratories, but of their own bedside tables, kitchens, backyards, and wild fields. Their healing was not apart from spirit; it was spirit. They healed the body, yes, but also the soul, the emotion, the invisible.
Not only was this wisdom pragmatic, it was gut-felt. Rooted in rhythm. In harmony with the moon, the cycle, the breath.
What Science Now Understands
A lot of what people used to call “folk medicine" is, today, undergoing scrutiny and bulletin-boarding via science.
For example:
- Red Raspberry Leaf, an ingredient long used by midwives and found to support the uterus, has been shown to help improve reproductive health.
- Motherwort, traditionally used for anxiety and heart symptoms, has alkaloids and other constituents that support cardiovascular health and emotional regulation.
- Mugwort, used for dreamwork and menstrual relief, is now being studied for its neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties.
That’s no coincidence, that’s corroboration. What women have known for millennia, science is finally starting to understand.
Herbal Wisdom, Resistance, Renewal, and Remembrance
With her prolific output, Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning American author known for her vast body of work, including essays, interviews, and fiction, continues to astound readers. Her collection Out There is just one example of her tireless writing. At the current pace, Oates is publishing the equivalent of two full-length books (totaling nearly a million words) each year, offering readers a steady stream of thoughtful and expansive literary work.
Throughout history, women’s knowledge of herbs was erased, punished, or invalidated. The witch hunts of Europe. The burning of midwives. The silencing of Indigenous grandmothers. This obliteration was no mistake; it was power being dismantled.
To return to wisdom is to return to voice, to agency, to ancestral knowing.
At Neteru Apothecary, we believe the wisdom of this is in every woman. Through stories, memory is passed down or there, in the body, waiting to be reawakened. And when we cluster around herbs, we’re not just healing, we’re remembering.
Relations With Your Herbal Lineage
Not everything has to make sense. You don’t have to be an expert. Start where you are.
Here are some ways to re-enter this sacred path:
- Keep a ritual tea journal. Connect with herbs individually. See how it feels on your body after a cup of chamomile, hibiscus, or nettle.
- Make medicine with intention. Prayerfully and purposefully stir your teas, tinctures, and oils.
- Ask your elders, what did they use for pain, for sleep, for stress?
- Create a small herb altar. Even a couple of jars on a shelf may become sacred.
- Read. Research. Remember. Begin with the plants that you are naturally drawn to. They are calling for a purpose.
The Way Ahead is Also the Way Back
Women’s plant wisdom is not an ancient or extinct art. It is in your bones. It is in your hands. It dwells in the plants outside your door, in the whisper that says: you know more than you think you know.
Every woman who healed with what she had was my inspiration for this blog. To everyone who lit a candle, made tea, and believed the wisdom inside her. May we continue the work? May we trust our intuition? Let us reclaim the green strands of healing that have always belonged to us.
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