Some one asked me if I would teach them about herbs. I thought it would be good to post it here for others as well. I am a solitary practioner and learned everything on my own. I do not mind helping others, but the biggest thing I can tell you is to research and read.
Herbs are something you can not just spout, they have to be research which is how you learn to handle them and use them which allows you to decide how you what to use them in magick workings (but always with safety in mind should you use them.)
This is what I wrote back, but please if anyone has anything to add please do so:
Never been a teach before other then to my kids. I am willing to pass on information, but since this is not face to face it will be hard to teach. You will have to self teach for the most part. I do not give out spells since I believe the person who makes them should be the one to use them (I state that because of the herbal spells). I have learned from mostly researching/experimenting and reading. If you go to my photos you will find a list of herbs, copy them to computer. It's a good start. Then go through and find the ones you would like to work with first, make a list and start researching them individually (this is good since not all lists will tell you which ones are toxic for consumption or touch. Doing your homework is the biggest part of herbs because you could add something that can make you sick or is even poisoning to you. Knowing which ones they are is the key to safe herbalism. :)
I would start with finding say 5-10 on the list that you would like to know more about and go from there, keep repeating until you have gone through the whole list or have found all of the ones you would like to work with. You may even find others that are not on the list (no list is ever complete with all the herbs of the world, there are just so many of them.)
Then decide what kind of work you will want to do with herbs. This may have already been figured out while researching the herbs. Are you going to use them for healing like in teas and tinctures or for spells like smudge sticks, incense, and potions. Or all of the above :) Then it is just a matter of finding the combinations for the work you are doing and always have your research handy so as to keep the toxic ones out of anything that will be consumed or rubbed onto skin. If you are doing it for others you will also need to find out what their allergies are so you do not accidentally add something that they will have a reaction to.