The Herbal Path
walks and encounters

Sensory herb walks add a focus to walking in the Algarve this autumn. Two field trips have been arranged to enhance awareness of flowers and herbs on clifftop paths but also in the cooler springwater-fed Mountains of Monchique.

Maureen Robertson and her partner, José Melo, are offering locals and visitors the opportunity to slow down, look, touch and breathe in native plants and herbs as part of a process of conscious walking.

Maureen Robertson is a Goethe-inspired Medical Herbalist, co-founder of The Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, and José Melo is a Shamanic Practitioner. They have created a course and apprenticeship, called ‘The Herbal Path’ on what was an abandoned fig and olive grove near Barão de São Miguel, Lagos, Algarve.

Three walks are offered, two of them as stand alone days, where anyone can join Maureen and José to experience a deeper encounter with nature.

The couple have spent a year creating workshop space, a music studio, a herbal dispensary, living accommodation and gardens. The main garden has thirteen beds for herb and vegetable production. A twelve-metre herb wheel divided into eight sections with around forty different types of herbs allows the curious to understand the relationship between the plants and the four elements – hot, cold, dry and moist-within the geographically
designated areas of North, South, East and West. Most of the plants are grown from organic or biodynamic seeds.

Maureen said: “We have planted herbs in relation to their qualities. For example, the NW section corresponds to cold, moist herbs. The SE section is planted with warm, dry herbs. This gives you an idea of the energetic approach that I use in my herbal practice. It is a teaching wheel.”

“My intention is to have a relationship with specific plants and I want to share its information with the people who come here, so that they can develop their own healing relationships with plants.”

“We are also interested in medicine music, recorded at a healing resonance of 432Hz, as my partner is a musician. A lot of Shamanic ceremonies using plants involve Shamans singing songs to bring plants into a higher vibration for healing. There is a lot of cross over between plants and music.”

The public walks will introduce the herbs in different environments. The cultivated herbs within the garden are one way of understanding the nature and properties of the plants. On the clifftop, people will see maritime plants that are better able to cope with salty or marshy conditions. In Monchique, the walker will see herbs that are growing near natural water springs. They may be the same herbs but growing in a range of conditions and presenting themselves in different ways.

Maureen said, “This is an important aspect of Goethe’s work on the living principle of the plant. He believed through observation that we can connect to the essence and healing quality of the plant as we all have a cosmic originality.”

Sue Hall

I am a writer, researcher and journalist, who dabbles in books, literary festivals, environment, sustainability, community development, history, food and travel. http://www.suehall.net/