About
Taylor Rae is an Herbalist, Storyteller, and Clayworker working to rekindle the land relationships for herself and her communities.
Taylor has come to understand much of the separation from land that happens, especially in the Black community, as rooted in the lack of safety and agency that has been central to land relationships in the past. This was apparent in her youth as she observed much of her immediate family feeling disconnected from and fearful of the natural world. Following her love for the land, Taylor went on to earn a degree in Environmental Science at Northwestern University while engaging in research at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Pollination Biology. Upon graduating, Taylor went on to pursue 5 years of herbal education with a concentration in clinical herbal medicine. Throughout her diverse schooling experiences, Taylor noticed how few Black and Brown voices were credited, acknowledged, or called on within the field and now hopes to tell the stories of her ancestors and help community find safety and solace in the land once again. To date, Taylor has offered herbal education, sat on panels, and consulted with organizations in community spaces and institutions across the country including but not limited to The Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Cornell Botanic Garden, After School Matters, the Youth Farm projects, The International Herb Symposium and more.
Why the name Raeflower Holistics?
Now to the name, Raeflower. After this trip, sitting with plants became a common pastime for me. And who is constantly around, ready to commune at any given time? Good ole Dandelion, thats who! Whether it be in the grasses of parks or along sidewalks, I began reveling in the moments I would come across these tiny beams of sunshine. As I was beginning my deep dive into herbal traditions, I kept this companion in the forefront of my mind. I was shocked to learn of the deep nourishing medicine dandelion so freely offers. Dandelion, a plant so often villainized by modern society; scoffed at in disgust and thrown away.
Dandelion: one of the first medicines to greet us in the spring, who feeds the pollinators when nights are still frigid. Dandelion: one who teaches lessons of enduring as they grow in the most tumultuous of settings. Contrary to popular opinion, dandelion offers of lessons of care and steadfastness. Dandelion whose distinctive feature is not its many yellow petals, as some would mistake their yellow sunshine for, but its upwards of 200 of individual rayflowers, all creating their own individual seeds. It is the name we share, Ray~Rae, that my life’s work is named after. May dandelion teach us of the power held in the mundane and the abundance of healing that exists in our world.