The Spirit of Nettles Is Awake

Reflections from Deepening the Circle: Spiritual Herbalism – Nettles

Every morning, I wake up and look out at the nettle patch in my garden. The way the morning light catches their leaves, the way they stand so tall and proud—it’s like they’re greeting the sun with their own kind of prayer.

Nettles have been speaking to me for years now. Not in words, exactly, but in that deep knowing that comes when you spend time with a plant, when you listen with more than just your ears. They’ve taught me about resilience, about boundaries, about the kind of strength that doesn’t need to be loud to be powerful.

In my recent Deepening the Circle class, we spent four weeks with nettles. Not just learning their medicinal properties (though we did that too), but learning to sit with them, to understand their spirit, their medicine beyond the physical.

What I’ve come to understand is that nettles are teachers of boundaries. They don’t ask permission to protect themselves—they simply do it. When you brush against them, they let you know immediately. But they’re not aggressive about it. They’re just clear. “This is my space,” they say. “Respect it.”

In our work as healers, as community caretakers, this is such an important lesson. We need to know our boundaries, to hold them with the same clarity and strength that nettles do. Not to keep people out, but to create the space we need to be able to serve from a place of wholeness.

The nettles in my garden are getting ready to go to seed now. Soon they’ll scatter their tiny seeds to the wind, ensuring that next spring, there will be more nettles, more medicine, more teachers. It’s a reminder that our work isn’t just for now—it’s for the generations to come.

What plants are speaking to you these days? What lessons are they offering?