Getting Started in Herbal Pharmacy: A Review of James Green's Classic Guide
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Making herbal medicine — the alchemy of transforming living medicinal plants into healing remedies — is one of the most empowering parts of the plant path. In this post, I'll share my thoughts on The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook by James Green, a classic and comprehensive guide to the art and craft of herbal pharmacy. Whether you're new to medicine-making or refining your technique, this book offers a solid foundation and plenty of inspiration.
Here's what you'll learn in this review:
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Why The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook is an essential foundation for every herbalist
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Some essentials of preparing raw herbs and why they're important
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The fundamentals of solvents and menstruums, and how choosing the right menstruum and dilution for each plant is essential
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The key differences between tincturing fresh and dried herbs
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A rundown of the herbal preparations covered in this book
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Tips for consistent, potent medicinals
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ABOUT THE PLANT PATH
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The Plant Path is a window into the world of herbal medicine. With perspectives gleaned from traditional Western herbalism, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Alchemy, Medical Astrology, and traditional cultures from around the world, The Plant Path provides unique insights, skills and strategies for the practice of true holistic herbalism. From clinical to spiritual perspectives, we don't just focus on what herbs are "good for," but rather who they are as intelligent beings, and how we can work with them to heal us physically and consciously evolve.
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ABOUT SAJAH
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Sajah Popham is the author of Evolutionary Herbalism and the founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, where he trains herbalists in a holistic system of plant medicine that encompasses clinical Western herbalism, medical astrology, Ayurveda, and spagyric alchemy.
His mission is to develop a comprehensive approach that balances the science and spirituality of plant medicine, focusing on using plants to heal and rejuvenate the body, clarify the mind, open the heart, and support the development of the soul. This is only achieved through understanding and working with the chemical, energetic, and spiritual properties of the plants. His teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves.
He lives on a homestead in the foothills of Mt. Baker Washington with his wife Whitney where he teaches, consults clients, and prepares spagyric herbal medicines.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey there everybody and welcome back to the plant path. I'm your host, |
| 0:15.2 | Sagea Popham, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and Natura Sophia |
| 0:20.7 | Spajirix. And you know, I thought I would do |
| 0:23.1 | a book review because it's been a little while since I've done one of those. And I was standing |
| 0:28.4 | there and I was looking at my library and I was like, you know, I was thinking to myself, |
| 0:32.7 | what was one of the most impactful books or what was one of my favorite books, when I first got into |
| 0:39.3 | herbal medicine. And I think one of the things that most people tend to really enjoy, |
| 0:46.4 | especially when you're just getting going with herbal medicine, but honestly, if you should |
| 0:49.9 | probably hopefully still enjoy it, even if you've been doing it for a while is medicine making |
| 0:55.7 | right is the actual act of taking those plants and preparing them transforming them into a form |
| 1:04.8 | that you can take that you can use that you can put on that you can somehow utilize in a way that will impact |
| 1:12.4 | your health in a positive way. And that is why today I will be sharing with you my thoughts |
| 1:19.3 | about the herbal medicine makers handbook by James Green. This is probably one of my first, probably one of the earlier herb books. |
| 1:29.9 | This was our textbook that we used in the herb lab while I was studying at Bastille University. |
| 1:38.2 | And I think this is one of the more comprehensive in-depth, as the name implies, handbook for herbal pharmacy, |
| 1:49.2 | right? I think this is the best place to start. For those of you that are wanting to learn |
| 1:56.8 | about medicine making, for those of you that are wanting to dig in to the art and craft |
| 2:03.3 | that is herbal pharmacy. Now, I like to acknowledge this book in the way that James, first of all, |
| 2:13.9 | he's fun to read. I think he's a great writer. I think it really struck me when, you know, when I got this book and I was like |
| 2:20.5 | probably 20 years old. |
| 2:21.5 | And he was like, herbal medicine is a little bit like dancing. |
| 2:24.5 | And I was like, yeah, I like to dance. |
... |
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