Welcome to my cosy corner of the internet.
Here we like to talk about stars, plants and all kinds of medicine.
Come on in, pull up a comfy corner of your sofa, put on your fuzziest pair of socks and enjoy a warming tonic as you begin this journey into the unknown with me.
My name is Hannah Forest and I love to talk about herbs, and astrology and all things magical. To introduce myself, I’m a bachelor-qualified naturopath, a folk herbalist, new mother, animal-lover, apprentice astrologer and a die-hard fanatic for the written word.
I’m here on Substack because even though I’ve been on social media now for over a decade (about as long as I’ve been dedicated to the plant-path actually), I have always had this hot and cold relationship with sharing my life online. If you ever meet me in person, you’ll know I’m a pretty open book, I don’t hold a lot back and I’m more prone to over-sharing, if anything. I love to talk, I love to connect and what you see truly is what you get. Online I get this uneasy feeling at the thought of people judging my words, and of people having access to me 24/7 - there are no boundaries or privacy in the world of social media.
I also happen to be a fervent lover of long-form content. Let me read your musings about the universe that you had while sipping your coffee at 5am. I want to know the updates about your kids, and I want to see pictures of your garden each month. I want to hear you talk about things you are passionate about, and if you’re teaching me something I want to get deep with it. I want to really, truly know you. I absolutely loved the days of casual blogs, it was one of my favourite things to do! Now I have people telling me I need to shorten my posts and write in a certain way to gain attention. Reels have taken over my small business life, and while they can be fun I hate the pressure to have to make them for my business to survive. Don’t even get me started on my whole two minutes on Tik Tok.
Social media is killing divinely inspired creation.
And then I heard about this platform called Substack, and I thought it couldn’t possibly be for me. I started to see people who inspire me jumping over here and I convinced myself it was another platform that would die out or be bought by the internet overlords; I guess I was wrong.
I’m so excited to be here and be beginning to flex my long-form content muscles again. I love to write, it’s always been a dream of mine to get published and to write for a living. I worked in a book store as a young adult and it still goes down as my favourite job ever (and I’ve had some pretty cool ones). I love to teach people about plants and my amazingly supportive community that I have managed to build online seem to also enjoy learning about all the unusual things I like to share.
So what can you expect out of this space?
You can expect detailed newsletters ranging in topic from astrology, herbalism, healthy eating, gardening, parenthood, paganism and witchcraft and more. I will be mixing up my content between my own words, and interviews with inspiring individuals who have a lot to offer in their own realms. You’ll get a mixture of podcast episodes and writing here, and in the future I aim to have short courses and eBooks available too. You’ll notice I have both free and paid options. One of the reasons I love the idea of this platform is that it offers creatives and independent educators a means to be compensated for what they bring to the world. I have a small family to support, and Substack gives me the opportunity to achieve this. You can also absolutely just join in with the free content, but if you feel the pull to become a paid community member just know that it is incredible helpful and valued.
If you want to learn more about who I am and what I get up to, definitely go ahead and read my about page - it has a lot of information there.
I saw
share some of the most pivotal moments in her life and I thought that would be a nice way to kick things off, so here we go:When I was 15 years old, I went vegetarian and developed anxiety, in fact a lot happened at this age but more on that another time
I met my now-husband at age 18 in a backpacker bar, and we went on to do long distance between Australia and Canada for almost two years
I started in a Western Herbal Medicine diploma, which quickly turned into a Naturopathy diploma which eventually turned into a full-blown bachelor degree
At 19 I moved to rural China for a year on a whim after getting sick of doing long distance, and my husband (Chris) was moving there to teach while he worked on getting his Australian visa, and I taught there while I studied my degree online
Age 20, right after we moved back we bought our first house (a beautiful little miner’s cottage), which was utterly insane and we were not at all prepared for it
Around age 23 we got engaged, and by this time we had also adopted a rescue cat and dog, and at the very beginning of 2019 (I was 24) we got married in a beautiful rainforest not too far from the one we live in now - it was amazing and wonderful
When I turned 26 we bought our second house here on stunning and powerful Wangerriburra Country, also known as Tamborine Mountain, where we still live now
At the end of last year, my 28th year, I birthed my beautiful baby boy Finneas) safely at home after a 52 hour labour which was absolutely no joke, but I got the home birth I wanted and I truly believe it’s a big part of the reason he’s as bright and sparkly and healthy as he is
So much more happened in the years in between. I worked in many different organic stores, and eventually owned my own boutique brand promotion agency where I worked as a brand ambassador for well-known independent health and wellness brands, helping to educate the public about really amazing products. I also gathered wonderful teams across the country to do this with me, and I loved this work however the industry changed after the pandemic and smaller brands no longer prioritise this type of education.
In 2014 I picked up my very first mushroom cacao tonic from a brand in Canada and brought it home with me. This started a love affair that is still thriving to this day, in form of my brand Grown Botanicals.
After I moved to the mountain, through some serious manifesting and a good dose of kismet I met a person I had set out to meet while I was in the middle of a massage. I became her “wizards apprentice” as she puts it, and I now act as a secretary for her not-for-profit while I learn all kinds of things including psychological astrology and alchemy, sacred water wisdom, crystal healing, chakra work, flower essences, meditation and connecting with deities among other lessons.
I really believe in this life anything is possible, but energy is everything and inspired action is always required.
If you want to hear more of my thoughts, absolutely check out the Old Ways for the New Age Podcast which is now integrated here on Substack - new episodes finally coming soon. I bet you'll love it.
As I will always say a thousand times over, thank you for being here. I’m grateful and ever so excited to get started in this space. I see really big beautiful things on the horizon, and I look forward to sharing it all with you.
All my love,
Hannah.