Sierra Bigham, Bear Earth Herbals

Sierra Bigham is an herbalist, a lover of plants and a passionate member of her community both great and small, human and non-human. Sierra founded and runs Bear Earth Herbals, a Michigan tea and salve company, as well as teaching about plants to anyone who will listen. She has recently started the Kingsley Folk School and taken over management of the Kingsley Farmers Market in attempt to build more earth respecting community in the town she calls home.

Can you tell us about your background and how that has shaped the work that you do now?

I grew up in northern Michigan, and I grew up in a rural area across from a lot of state land. I spent most of my childhood going into the woods and spending the day there. I really connected a lot with the plants. I didn't name them. I didn't have a teacher to teach me about what they could be used for, but I really connected just with plants and trees in general. 

I started working on an organic farm as a teenager in the summers, and work trading at a yoga retreat center. This led me to graduating high school a year early and moving to Hawaii where I spent about five and a half years. About four and a half of those years were living off grid and foraging for food, for water, for wood. That was just kind of the day-to-day tasks. I got really connected to plants because they were sometimes the only people I saw for many days on end. They saved my life and others’ lives while I was there and in certain wilderness first aid situations.

I would say my relationship and my trust in plants grew greatly there. When I moved back to Michigan, I had fun combining that level of relationship with my history of knowing the plants here. And just fell headfirst into herbalism. I didn't realize I was going to be an herbalist until one day I was like, Ah, I think I am an herbalist— there's a word for it.

It I would say has been developed and led by the plants and the plant relationship. I kind of always wanted to have a teacher or a mentor. While I've learned from a lot of people along the way, and a lot of plants, and a lot of different writings and traditional practices— I haven't had one teacher or one mentor that had a really large influence. For a long time, I really wanted that and now, in retrospect, I see how having such an eclectic set of influences and being led by my own questions and my own curiosity has been a really cool path.

What is currently in your curiosity?

The last couple years I've been trying to forget a lot of what I thought I knew because I'm realizing that it's only ever partially true. By having all of these set beliefs about plants, I am missing a lot. So, I'm trying to go back and kind of ask questions that I thought I knew the answer to again and see if I find a different answer.

I've been working a lot more with flower essences in the past couple years and really enjoying learning about plants in their spirit essence and working with them as friends and allies. Sometimes, that's not even ingesting the plant, but just thinking about it and calling in that presence. That's been really sparking my curiosity.

What does your work look like today?

I wear many hats as I think many herbalists do. I have a tea and salve business, Bear Earth Herbals. My sister and I make and sell teas and salves with herbs that we grow and that we get from our friends at Golden Hour Farm and wild harvest. I like that- that is our bread and butter. It's also how we reach out to the community and spread the word to the general public about herbs and healing. 

My real passion right now is in teaching and working with people clinically, which have been organic in coming into my life. I never sought out teaching or clinical work, nor did I see myself doing it. But I got asked to fill in for someone, and I said sure. I did not know it would lead to years of teaching hundreds of classes and totally loving it. Working with people on a more intimate basis in smaller groups has been really appealing to me because rather than just, you know, “Yeah, lavender’s calming,” to a 100 tourists in a day. You get to go deeper. 

I have also been doing land consultations in recent years and really loving it. I go to people’s property and we, often with their friends and neighbors, will walk around and we talk about the plants that are right there. So, rather than going on an herb walk an hour away and then coming home and saying, “Was this the one she was talking about?” They are building relationships directly with the land that they are living on every day and building connections with their neighbors over the plants that they are all living near. In that way it is really fulfilling and puts in roots deeper. 

As you know, we are calling this the Healer Series. What do you think that it means to be a healer? 

Interesting question. So, I have actually stopped identifying myself as a healer, although, I mean— I think we are all healers. I think that when we separate people in our culture as healers and then non-healers it's kind of using that same allopathic model that we're trying to get away from— where the doctors are in authority and in some senses have authority over your body and that takes away authority from ourselves. 

So, in my work I really want to empower others to be their own healers and not only is that way more effective, but it's also sustainable because I can't be everyone else's healer. I have a hard enough time doing my own healing work. It's more of a teaching than doing.

Would you think of yourself as a guide? 

I would say I am a facilitator and a space holder. 

I think that is so much of what healing is about. It’s about holding space and listening. And as a clinical herbalist, 80% of what I do is therapy. It's basically the same thing my counselor offers me when we just do talk therapy. I listen, I help people work through lifestyle habits, trauma, I give them resources and the herbs are about 20% of that. Most people just wanna be listened to I think just holding space— you don’t even have to do anything— it’s really just about being a container and creating a safe space. 

How do you practice boundaries and self-care?

I am still learning, and I think that in our greater culture and in the healing or healer’s culture there needs to be a lot more focus and education on that. It should just be a course in school, but in these professions, it needs to be a much bigger part of the education because it is the other side of the coin. 

I have struggled to find enough support and resources around that in this journey, and that’s something I hope to offer in more ways. A lot of the people that I work with are in healing professions, as well. 

But, one thing that has really been helpful for me is Cedar. I work with Cedar in a variety of ways. I really see it as a protective ally, as a very powerful plant spirit that deserves a lot of respect, but offers a lot of protection. So, I use a Cedar infused witch hazel spray around myself and the room, and my hands when I am working with others. Sometimes, I will burn Cedar leaves. I often just lay fresh Cedar leaves out like around where I am doing consults, or just going into the Cedar forest after a particularly intense experience to let that be washed away. It is said that our waters in Michigan would not be drinkable or even safe to swim in if it weren't for the Cedar trees. They are powerful purifiers, and being that we're mostly water— I figure just giving a big hug to a Cedar tree probably has some pretty good purification effects. 

Another area that's been helpful for me is forest bathing, just going out and being in nature. And then reaching out for support with other practitioners because it's something that so many people are feeling and not necessarily knowing how to have support around. So, I'm considering starting a support circle or something, but just talking to other healers or people in these professions and saying, “Hey, how are you doing this?” or just talking about difficult situations with somebody who is in a profession who can respect that privacy. 

Certain plant allies, other ones calendula, sage, yarrow. I have a Yarrow shirt that I will often wear during a consultation. It just says “Yarrow” on it— it’s really big. It was my first plant friend, and it’s one of my really strong plant allies. I feel it’s very protective and it’s also a really good guide. So, two-fold it helps protect me and helps guide me to the right plants, to the right things to say.

And then dreams, too. Asking for messages in dreams and also releasing dreams. So, when working with a client, I will often ask for some dreams about it and that will help me gain greater insight, but also helps my brain process it and release it, so I'm not carrying it consistently. 

What do you think we need healing from?

Do you have several hours? So much trauma. Personal trauma, but there’s ancestral trauma. We see a lot of somebody's childhood, if you look at it on the surface it seems like well, they had all their needs met. They didn't have any big capital T traumas or anything. But, we all have ancestral trauma especially living here in a land that's been so heavily colonized. No matter which side of that coin you’re on there’s trauma there. 

The land needs healing from it, we all need healing from it. There is so much inbred violence and prejudice. I think the physical stuff is kind of the least of it, but that’s a huge portion, too, is the pollution and the physical onslaught of these things. 

But, I feel like the physical is representative of what’s happening underneath the surface with trauma and it goes back thousands of years. So, I think recognizing, facing it, as hard as that is, maybe even apologizing for our ancestors sometimes can be a really healing thing that's really hard to do because it's easy to say, “Well, I didn't do it, it wasn't me.” But, unless that issue or that trauma gets repaired and acknowledged— it’s just going to continue to fester. So, while we might not have started it, we do have this opportunity to heal it. 

What are some routines or rituals that are grounding for you?

Being barefoot on the earth, being around other women, taking time to make space for yin, softness and coming inwards— that can be really hard in July to make time for that. 

But, our culture is set up to feel like if you're not doing something all the time then you're not being productive, or you're missing out, or you're not having all the fun or all the experiences— you're wasting your life. But, we need so much more downtime than we are giving ourselves. So, for me I would say— it's a bit hypocritical because at this moment I am really lacking in downtime—but, the thing that I need to do is make sure to carve out my downtime and nature is my favorite way to spend my downtime. 

How do you incorporate different herbs and flowers into your life on a daily basis?

Well, for instance, today, I spent a little time with my flowers in my garden before I left. I hung out with the lilies. I've been really loving lilies this year. On the way down here, I took some Borage flower essence because I was feeling a little timid and self-conscious, and Borage really helps me feel more courageous and come out of my shell. 

I used some Lemon Balm salve behind my ears because I was feeling a little down and it really helped lift my mood. And now, I'm drinking this wonderful Anise Hyssop tea, which is bringing in all the sweetness to my day. So, I guess that's just the last few hours, but that is representative of every day. I do not know what I would do without plants in my life. I love them dearly, but I also rely on them as a support system to get through my day. 

Is there something that you've read or listened to lately that has stuck with you or inspired you?

Well, my motto for my work is: ‘Bringing the medicine to the people, and the people back to the Earth.’ That's what I intend to do, and a big focus of mine recently has been reciprocity. 

I hosted a weekend retreat with just the topic of reciprocity, which was really cool because a lot of times when we gather for other reasons that's really what we're seeking. So, to take all the other agendas out of it and say, ‘Hey, we're just here to figure out how we can give and receive even more and more freely and openly and safely?’ And just having those discussions and those dialogues was really powerful, and it's really got me paying a lot more attention to that balance in my life. 

I think that working with plants it's really, really important to have that be one of the cornerstones is being in reciprocity with the plants and not coming into working with plants—  whether it's farming, or gardening or herbalism, in that colonized mindset of extraction and entitlement. One thing that really bothers me is when I hear people say, like with wild plants, ‘Oh it's free, it's free food.’ Just because we're not paying money for it doesn't mean it's free. What are we giving back? I think that's an important question I just always keep asking.