Be Your Own Shaman: Three Generations, 101 Plants, and a Family Legacy of Herbal Wisdom

In 1979, I was 17 years old, getting ready to graduate from high school, and my dad had just self-published a book about medicinal plants.

And somehow, I became his publicist.

Well, sort of.

Dad had written a book called From the Shepherd's Purse, featuring 48 medicinal plants and the herbal knowledge he'd spent years gathering as a medicinal botanist.

And he put me in charge of booking him on the big 50,000-watt talk radio shows around the country.

I was 17!

There I was, calling radio stations, talking to producers and trying to convince them to put my dad on the air to talk about medicinal plants.

And here's the funny part.

Nobody on the other end of those phone calls had any idea they were talking to a teenage girl.

I absolutely loved it.

It was thrilling and exciting, and I felt like I was part of something important.

And once Dad got on the air, something wonderful would happen.

He was there to promote his book, of course, but the conversations quickly became about so much more than that.

He'd talk about medicinal plants and the everyday health challenges people were dealing with. Listeners could call in, ask questions and get answers from someone who had spent years studying and working with herbs.

And Dad was so good at it.

He was smart, funny and wise, and he had this wonderful ability to take something that might sound complicated and explain it in a way that made perfect sense to an everyday person.

He didn't talk over people's heads. He made herbal medicine feel understandable and accessible.

And people couldn't get enough of it.

A show that was supposed to last an hour would sometimes go on for two or three hours!

Can you imagine?

The phones would keep ringing, the questions would keep coming, and Dad would just keep talking about plants.

People were hungry for this knowledge.

Remember, this was 1979. There was no internet where you could look up an herb, watch a video or instantly find information about traditional plant medicine.

For many listeners, hearing Dad talk about herbs on the radio was an opportunity to learn something they weren't hearing anywhere else.

And there I was, a 17-year-old girl who had helped get him onto those shows, watching all of this unfold.

I don't think I fully understood it at the time, but looking back, I realize I was witnessing something pretty special.

Dad wasn't simply selling a book.

He was helping people rediscover a kind of knowledge that had been passed down for generations, and he had a gift for making them feel like they could learn it too.

I certainly had no idea that more than 40 years later, I'd be publishing a book of my own, inspired by the one Dad had written.

And that my son would be right there beside me.

The Book People Never Stopped Asking About

My dad, Dr. Max G. Barlow, passed away in 1998 at the age of 62.

He was far too young.

When I restarted his company, Barlow Herbal, in 2002, I inherited a lot more than formulas and bottles of tincture.

I inherited his customers, his stories, his reputation and the responsibility of carrying forward the work he'd devoted so much of his life to.

And I inherited a question that people kept asking me.

“Jane, can I still buy your dad's book?”

They were talking about From the Shepherd's Purse.

Dad had self-published it in 1979, and it had been out of print for a very long time.

But people remembered it.

Year after year, customers would ask whether I had any copies available or if I was ever going to bring it back.  And I thought about it.  A lot.

But simply reprinting Dad's original book never felt quite right to me.

Not because there was anything wrong with his work. Quite the opposite.

I loved what he'd created, and I wanted to honor it.

But so much had changed since 1979. We had better photography, beautiful botanical illustrations, new research and so many opportunities to make herbal information more accessible and enjoyable to explore.

I wanted to expand the plant collection, update the pictures and illustrations, and make the instructions and preparations clearer for modern readers.

I wanted something that preserved the old herbal wisdom but presented it in a beautiful, modern way.

Something Dad would recognize as coming from his work, but that also reflected everything we'd learned and experienced since then.

And eventually, I decided it was time to create that book.

A Family Effort That Made It Even More Special

One of the most meaningful parts of creating Be Your Own Shaman was having my son Brian research alongside me.

Brian loves plants and plant medicine as much as Dad and I do.

And there's something very special about sharing that interest with your child, especially when it's something that also connected you so deeply to your own father.

Here I was, decades after making those radio calls for Dad, working on a new herbal book with my son.

Dad's original book had 48 medicinal plants.

Brian and I researched, expanded, updated and brought our own experience and perspective to the project.

And my sister Joni became part of the project too, updating all of the illustrations for Be Your Own Shaman.

I love that this wasn't just Brian and me carrying Dad's work forward. My sister was adding her own beautiful contribution, helping bring those plants to life on the pages.

There was something really special about all of us having a hand in giving Dad's original book a new life.

We weren't trying to erase what Dad had done or replace his work.

We were building on it.

And I think that's one of the most beautiful things about herbal knowledge.

It doesn't have to belong to one person or one generation.

It can keep growing.

A grandfather studies plants and writes a book. His daughter grows up surrounded by that knowledge and eventually carries on his herbal company. Her son joins her in researching and sharing those plants with another generation of readers, while her sister helps bring the plants to life through illustrations.

Three generations.

All connected by the same love of plant medicine.

I don't think I could have imagined that back in 1979.

Why I Called It Be Your Own Shaman

I've always believed there's something a little magical about plants.

Not necessarily magic in the way people usually think about it, although I do believe there's more to the natural world than we fully understand.

I'm talking about what happens when you begin paying attention.

When you stop walking past a plant and start wondering what it is, why it grows where it does, what people knew about it hundreds of years ago and how they used it.

For thousands of years, people around the world have developed extraordinary relationships with the plants growing around them.

They observed. They experimented with preparations. They learned what was useful and what required caution. They remembered what they discovered and passed that knowledge along.

And that knowledge became part of families, communities and traditional healing systems.

Modern science has given us incredible tools for studying plant chemistry, and I love that side of herbalism too.

But I don't think we should forget the generations of observation and experience that came before the laboratory.

To me, there's room for both.

And that's part of what Be Your Own Shaman means to me.

It's an invitation to become curious about plants and take an active role in learning about them.

It isn't about claiming a title or stepping into someone else's sacred traditions. Those traditions have their own histories and meanings.

It's about rediscovering your own connection to the natural world.

Learning to recognize plants. Understanding their traditional uses. Appreciating their chemistry. Knowing how they're prepared and when caution is needed.

And maybe trusting yourself enough to begin asking questions.

Because the more you learn about plants, the more interesting the world becomes.

A weed suddenly has a name and a history.

A kitchen spice becomes something with fascinating medicinal chemistry.

A plant you've walked past a hundred times becomes an old friend.

I love that.

And I wanted a book that would make other people feel that same curiosity.

From 48 Plants to 94 ... and Then 101

In April 2023, I self-published Be Your Own Shaman.

The original version contained 94 medicinal plants.

I was incredibly proud of it.

After all those years of people asking about Dad's book, after all the research and work Brian and I had put into expanding and updating it, and with Joni's beautiful illustrations bringing the plants to life, there it was.

A beautiful new herbal book, inspired by the one Dad had self-published more than four decades earlier.

And then something wonderful happened.

In the fall of 2023, Be Your Own Shaman was picked up by Skyhorse Publishing.

But by then, I already had something on my mind.

I wished I'd included a chapter on psychedelics and sacred plants.

These plants have their own fascinating histories, and many have held important places in ceremonial, spiritual and cultural traditions around the world.

I wanted to acknowledge that part of humanity's relationship with plants too, while respecting the traditions and contexts they come from.

So when the opportunity came to expand the book for its next edition, I added that chapter.

And the plant count grew from 94 to 101.

The version of Be Your Own Shaman available today through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers includes those 101 plants.

Dad began with 48.

Brian and I brought it to 94.

And the published edition grew to 101.

I love seeing those numbers because each one represents a different chapter in our family's story.

More Than a Book About Herbs

When I look at Be Your Own Shaman, I don't just see a collection of medicinal plants.

I see Dad.

I see him in 1979, excited about his newly published book and sending his 17-year-old daughter off to convince radio producers to interview him.

I see myself sitting on the phone, feeling very grown-up and having the time of my life, while nobody knew I was still in high school.

I see Dad's years of studying plants, developing formulas and sharing his knowledge with anyone who wanted to learn.

I see the customers who kept asking me about his book long after he was gone.

And I see Brian researching alongside me, and my sister Joni bringing the plants to life through her updated illustrations. Each of us contributed something different to a book that began with Dad.

Dad died at 62.

I'm 65 now, and Brian is 44.

Sometimes those numbers make me stop and think about just how much time has passed.

But then I look at this book, and I realize that something Dad began nearly half a century ago is still reaching people.

His curiosity about plants didn't end when he died.

It became part of my life, and now it's part of Brian's life too.

And through this book, it has the opportunity to become part of other people's lives.

That's a pretty extraordinary thing.

The Legacy I Hope Keeps Growing

I hope people enjoy Be Your Own Shaman because it's beautiful, informative and full of fascinating plants.

I hope it inspires them to learn about the medicinal herbs growing around them and to appreciate the long history of plant medicine.

I hope it encourages curiosity, observation and a little more confidence in their ability to learn.

But on a personal level, this book will always mean something even deeper to me.

It's a tribute to my dad.

It's a project I had the joy of creating with my son and my sister.

And it's a family legacy spanning three generations of herbal wisdom and a shared love of plant medicine.

Back in 1979, I thought I was just helping Dad get booked on the radio.

I had no idea I was becoming part of a story that would still be unfolding almost 50 years later.

And I have a feeling that story isn't finished yet.

Stay grounded and growing!

Where to Buy Be Your Own Shaman

If you'd love to have a copy of Be Your Own Shaman for your own herbal library, there are two versions available!

The Original Self-Published Edition (94 Plants)
You can purchase my original 2023 edition right here at Barlow Herbal. This is the version Brian and I created together, inspired by my dad's original book.

The Expanded Skyhorse Publishing Edition (101 Plants)
This updated edition includes 101 medicinal plants, plus an extra chapter on psychedelics and sacred plants that I was excited to add. You can find this expanded version on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Whichever edition you choose, I hope it inspires you to explore the incredible world of medicinal plants and carry a little of our family's herbal legacy into your own home.