When our culture loses or forgets or exiles something essential, we can begin to rediscover it by looking to the living world. This Fathers' Day, we will explore how the Oak and other wild teachers can help us reconnect with and revive the nourishing aspects of the masculine that our culture lost with the rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution.
From serotonin to psilocybin, tryptamines play essential roles in shaping the architecture and flow of consciousness, individual and ecological, human and wild. Come learn more about these molecules and the role they play in helping the world dream itself into being.
How do our stories about the nature of the universe influence our psychedelic experiences? And how do our psychedelic experiences influence our stories of the universe in turn? We explore the relationships between cosmology, set, setting, and psychedelic experiences.
When you cultivate a deep relationship with a plant over time, allowing that plant to become your teacher and ally and to transform you, there are ways in which that ally's medicine remains with you even when you do not have a tincture or a tea or a flower essence to work with. Working with plants in this way is both simpler and more profound than many of us realize. Join us for an exploration of working with plant spirits.
Research into the ways psilocybin helps people address fear, depression, trauma, and addiction has yielded compelling evidence of the role neurological inflammation plays in shaping these experiences. Join us as we explore the links between inflammation and mental and emotional health, and what psychedelic science suggests about how non-psychedelic plants might play an important role in addressing this dimension of our suffering.
The fleeting wild beauty of flowers like Trillium and Lady's Slipper is inextricably linked to the essence of their medicine and magic. Join us as we explore how Spring Ephemerals teach us about the medicine of presence, healing us through our senses as we allow them to flourish undisturbed in the forest.
The Alder marks the boundaries of land and water, and is a tree that comes to life at the boundary in time when the dark half of the year gives way to the light. Across northern Europe it is connected with the Otherworld and with warriors and lovers, Bears and Blackbirds, water and blood. Come explore the mysteries of Alder and how they connect with the ecology of the places it grows.
The flow of blood is the flow of life. We will explore the mythic and magical dimensions of our blood, and of the herbs that help bring life to the blood.
Human minds translate our emotional experiences into physical sensations that mirror what we our experiencing — we feel sick to our stomachs when we encounter something we find morally revolting, we gasp in the presence of beauty, we feel ourselves cool down when anger subsides. As herbalists, understanding how our bodies experience metaphor can guide us in our practice. In this class, we will explore that poetry of healing.
