There are times when the world can feel like too much. Times when our resilience and stamina have taken a hit. Times when one more thing feels like it will tip the scale. Whether stemming from the current political climate, stress from home or work, relationship challenges, adulting or pivotal life passages the result is the same. Feelings of uncertainty, fear, shock, trauma, anger, disbelief, confusion and apathy can arise which can leave us feeling a little shaky or unstable. Herbs are wonderful allies for these times. Come join us & sip a cup of tea while Judy reviews herbs that can assist and ease stress & overwhelm, lift our moods, help us relax and relieve anxiety. Teas, tinctures, hydrosols, essential oils and flower essences will be experienced and shared.
In TCM, Reishi mushroom has been used to nourish the “shen” or spirit of the body. The Chinese name for Reishi is Ling Zhi and translates to “spiritual mushroom” and has been described as the “ herb for spiritual benevolence”. Come nourish your spirit and journey with Reishi!
Cacao (Theobroma cacao) – Cacao has long been considered a “Food of the Gods” and even its Latin name Theobroma translates to exactly that! Cacao’s medicine is rich, deep, clarifying, blissful and has been called “truth serum” for the heart.
To this day, the Cacao spirit is considered one of the most powerful deities in Mayan cosmology. Many indigenous cultures in Central and South America have used Cacao for food and medicine dating back to 1900-900BC.
For this Journey, we will drink a traditional ceremonial dose of Cacao and align with the Equinox energies. The format of this class will be a little different as we will be ingesting the Cacao first as there is a 30-45 min ramp up. The class will include a brief introduction to the ethnobotany and growing habits of Cacao, a plant attunement, an hour long meditation, ceremony and time for sharing and/or journaling to integrate and catalyze the experience. The Cacao Flower Essence will be available as well for those who desire another level of experience. All of this, will be followed by a potluck to help us ground before we leave class. Join us for a heart-enriching Journey!
Class size is limited to 12 . Pre-registration is required.
We will immerse ourselves into the world of roses with all of our senses. The day will include a plant attunement, numerous plant journeys, foot & hand baths, medicine making with rose, and the making of rose beads and a few surprises! Medicine sharings will include how to work with Rose medicinally on all levels. Everyone will go home with a .5oz of rose glycerite, rose petal vinegar, rose flower essence and rose beads.
Class size is limited to 10 people. Pre-registration is required.
Herbal Aphrodisiacs help to open the body, mind and heart to feelings of love and abundance. They can be worked with to inspire creativity, openness between oneself and others, dissolve boundaries, lift mood & spirit, instilling devotion and more. Herbal Aphrodisiacs fall into a few categories: Stimulating, relaxing and nourishing. We will review some favorites in each category and end class with everyone making their own herbal aphrodisiac cordial to take home!
Class size is limited to 12.
Pulse, tongue and facial evaluation dates back several thousand years and has been used by practicioners of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine as a diagnostic tool to help determine the condition of disease or health of an individual. The tongue, pulse and facial look can indicate a person’s state of health and provide vital cues on the degree of imbalance. Class is both lecture and hands-on.
Pain meds generally do not heal a problem and the pain persists. How do we achieve lasting, rehabilitating results? In this class you will learn remedies for the bone, muscle, tendon, extracellular matrix polymers and fluids, synovial fluids, cerebrospinal fluids, nerves (boneset, teasel, parsley, solomon’s seal, gotu kola, comfrey, pleurisy root, black cohosh, st. john’s wort, prickly ash, etc.), and analyze which are needed for what kind of injury is present.
The extracellular matrix is the ‘stuff’ between the blood vessel and the cells. It doesn’t just carry food and waste (which is a big enough deal in itself), but also signals. In fact, the cells are completely controlled by the matrix polymers—feeding, elimination, migration, and reproduction. Signals in the matrix simultaneously communicate with all cells, so they are unified into a single whole. In other words, they do not act as individuals; the cell theory is disproven, and the basic premise of holistic medicine is now ‘evidence based medicine,’ as they say. The matrix also interacts with the microbiome in the gut and elsewhere. The implications for holistic therapy is tremendous. We will particularly study the herbal mucilages, because they are basically matrix polymers/polysaccharides. Drawing agents, astringents, warming tonics.
This unique book develops themes that first appeared in Matt’s “Seven Herbs” book in 1987. He came to the realization that the seven major stories in Genesis did not just describe a spiritual path, in sequence, as outlined in that book, but that they described the seven primal lessons on the shamanic path. Indeed, the indications were not deeply buried, but are fairly easy to see.
Shamanism has always been associated with a ‘hidden language’ or ‘language of Nature.’ This is not an actual language, but a method of communication based on associations, inferences, and wordplays that lead the listener or reader to the experience of inner understandings. The book, in fact, is a detailed map of the unfoldment of the shamanic path, the Old, Old Way built into the pre-literary experience of the Living Nature and the Wisdom of Nature.
Wow! What a year. I last taught a week or two before the covid lockdown and now I am returning after (hopefully) the pandemic is fading into its omicron sunset. Or at least, after most of us have had it. We are all different. We all have had to deal with stress, depression, anxiety, and worry or even fear or anger in one form or another. In this class we will discuss the herbs, and some of the flower essences for these conditions. We will also include anger, exhaustion, and adrenal exhaustion. We will encourage the exchange of ‘covid stories’ and we can compare protocols for the disease and vaccine side-effects. Too much happened for anyone to claim to be an expert, the information is still in flux, so we will be in ‘sharing mode’ as we move through the material.