Medicine at Our Feet… Herbal Apprenticeship
We have co-evolved with plants as our relatives and allies…and their medicine offers us a direct relationship with Earth as well as the unseen realm where the mystery of healing begins. In this apprenticeship, we will be deepening our relationship with plants, wild nature, ourselves and each other to support our overall health and well-being.
The apprenticeship begins in April as the plants are just beginning to emerge from the soil, and continues to meet one weekend a month through October, when the energy of the plants sinks down into their roots. Each session will include time immersed in the desert, mountain and garden, interacting with plants through ceremony, open awareness meditation, deep listening and offerings. Direct experience of making remedies from plants will include the art and ethics of collecting, drying and storing herbs, as well as, preparing infusions, decoctions, poultices, tooth powder, salves and tinctures.
More than an apprenticeship this is a journey…the plants call us in and then deep learning and healing occurs. My teaching style is that of facilitator, offering practices that provide students with a direct experience of the profound medicine the plants offer us. Past students have expressed an appreciation for the ability to learn directly from the plants and how meeting in person transfers a level of knowledge that isn’t accessible with online courses. This is a journey of deep connection and soulful intimacy into the plant realm… senses open and hearts resonating.
At the end of this medicine journey, participants will have:
A full herbal apothecary including dried herbs for infusions and decoctions as well as prepared tinctures, salves and powders.
Practical application of the medicinal and wild edible plants of this region.
A deep awareness of and connection with plants as our relatives and allies.
A foundation in holistic health, including perspectives from Ayurveda and Western herbalism.
An understanding of how to work with plant medicine based on energetics, tissue states and organ systems compared with an allopathic approach to using herbal remedies.
Knowledge of herbal first-aid applications.
An understanding of medicinal plant stewardship, conservation and growing our own medicine.
Knowledge of ethics of collecting and wildcrafting.
A deeper connection with Self, Others, the Earth and All Beings.
Details
Dates for 2024 TBA
This 7month-long apprenticeship meets one weekend a month from April to October. The sessions will be from 1:30-5:30pm on Saturday and 9am-1pm on Sunday. Please plan on committing to all the sessions. Reciprocity for the course is $1400, (sliding scale is available by request). A $200 non-refundable deposit is due by April, 14th and will cover the last session. At our first session I will collect a $25 fee for supplies we’ll need for making remedies.
Herbal Apprenticeship Application
What is calling you to attend this apprenticeship at this time?
What most interests you about the course description?
What is your current experience or relationship with plants?
What does reciprocity mean to you?
What do you value in Life?
Are you able to commit to the full course?
Please include where you are from and how you heard about this course.
GRATITUDE FOR MEDICINE AT OUR FEET
Thank YOU for such a beautiful and medicinal and nourishing journey. I had no idea how much I would change and deepen my relationships with this beautiful earth we live on. This has been a precious experience for me and will not stop here now that I have been led along the plant path and into the plant realm.
— Lisa Hartman, apprentice 2021, Escalante, Utah.
Thank you so much for what you taught me about plants, self care and relationship. It has been a transformative experience. You have inspired me to live a life closer to my heart.
—-Kierstie Leavitt, apprentice 2021, Santa Clara, Utah.
“One (day) I will never forget—-a Navajo woman without a day of university botany training in her life—spoke for hours and I hung on every word. One by one, name by name, she told of the plants in her valley. Where each one lived, when it bloomed, who it liked to live near and all its relationships, who ate it, who lined their nests with its fibers, what kind of medicine it offered. She also shared the stories held by those plants, their origin myths, how they got their names, and what they have to tell us. She spoke of beauty. ”