Ceremonial Plant Healing:Healing the world, Healing ourselves -an Apprenticeship Program (round 4)

 

Plants are our ancestors and our teachers, and living their medicine can transform our lives. 

 

One Friday per month

     Begins on January 11th 2019

(and Second Friday of every month there after!)

Register now! 

 

I offer such gratitude to my teacher whom I studied these Healing Practices with, Ecuadorian Curandera and ethnobotanist Rocio Alarcon Phd, the specific details of the practices have been passed down to her by her grandmother and have been in her family for many generations, and I practice them with her guidance and blessing. 

To learn more about Rocio and her work in Ecuador please check out her website Iamoe Center

 

Ceremonial Herbalism is an exploration into the ancient ways of honoring and using plants in a sacred way for personal and global healing.10 months of Ceremonies that build our relationship, deep connection and bring us into alignment with the Earth, the elements and humanity. Rituals of deep apology, thanks, love, and forgiveness. A hands-on course, in which we will intimately explore Cross-Cultural Shamanic Arts and practice which supports and encourage balanced living in a modern age.

 

 

As we have evolved, we humans have lost direct connection with the plant and spirit world which has resulted in many forms of psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual dis-ease. Using plants in ceremony supports the evolution of our consciousness, our spiritual growth and helping us find our right livelihood. Reconnecting with the plants and elements through ceremony, we are gifted with offerings from the heart of Nature. As our ancestors and indigenous peoples around the globe have done since the beginning of time we will work on our communication with nature and tap into her sacred medicine, spirit, essence and guidance. This is important work which helps create much needed balance.

  

Prayer clears the mist and brings back peace to the soul. ~Rumi

 

 

  

The course outline includes but is not limited to:

 

 

Working with Ayni

(concept of mutual/sacred reciprocity, prayer and gratitude)

 

Power of the Heart 

We take action that is born out of awareness, compassion and love, not out of reaction, fear and anger. 

Using plant medicines to work with our Hearts Cohesiveness

 

The Elements of Life 

(Water, Fire, Air and Earth, Honoring and becoming allies with and for the elements) 

 

Understanding Spiritual Disease and Learning Spiritual Cleansing Techniques

(Energy hygiene, limpias, plant bathing, understanding spiritual disease)

  

Ancestral Healing

(we carry in our bones the trauma, illnesses, grief and pain of our ancestors, these stories are trapped and passed down generation to generation and the energy of these wounds effect us on daily basis, Ancestral healing involves clearing these imprint from our bodies)

  

Sacred Communication and Connectivity

(Relationship Building, by healing separation and restoring oneness everything can be healed, exploring our limiting beliefs, hearing and talking with the spirits of stones, plants, animals, working in the right way and being able to understand the universal language of connection)

 

The Power Of Seeds/Sacred Plants

(Protection & Grounding, medicine bundles, plant ceremonies/altars) 

"Plants have long been primary teachers for those who travel deep into the heart of the world, for those who seek the soul teaching that only the wild can bring." ~Stephen Harrod Buhner  

Our Shamanic Roots

(History of Shamanism/cross cultural Shamanism/Curanderismo)

 

Learning to Create and Hold Sacred Space

(create your own "healing team" Learn to work with your council of Elders, Ethics & Permission, Spiritual Activism)

 

Working with the Labyrinth

 “The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.” ~ Thomas Merton

 

Land Healing/Earth Ceremonies

(To help us as humans to understand, the earth as a planet, as a being, and ask her to guide us today to understand how to be here in human form in a good way on this planet which contains life in so many different forms) To teach us how to walk softly with power and grace and beauty on this earth,to live here in a good way with a feeling of grounding connection and belonging.) 

 

 

"Ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention. If you stand together and profess a thing before your community, it holds you accountable. Ceremonies transcend the boundaries of the individual and resonate beyond the human realm"

-Robin Wall Kimmerer

 

 

 

If you are ready to take a leadership role in your community working within a network of people all over the globe working to bring people back to right relationship by creating meaningful ceremony,  and by creating a deep and meaningful sacred practice for yourself, this course is for you. THE TIME IS NOW

No prior herbal experience necessary. Ceremony allows us to speak to the heart, the soul, and the spirit.

 

 

“Our work is to hold to our own internal devotion. This is why we keep up our practices – to keep reminders of reverence nearby, so when doubt enters our environment (our own or another’s), we can hold the space naturally and effectively until the doubt dissipates.”

~Elena Brower

 

Class meets second Friday of every month, first class Friday January 11th 9:30-3:30 pm

Program Cost $1000 ($250 non-refundable deposit) (Please email for application form)

  If you prefer to mail a check made out to Blazing Star Herbal School, Po Box 154, Ashfield MA

 

Payment Options

Pay in Full and Save $850.00 USD Deposit $250.00 USD Payment 1 $250.00 USD Payment 2 $250.00 USD Payment 3 $250.00 USD

 

Required class texts:

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds  by adrienne maree brown

Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner

Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based  by Sherri Mitchell

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants  by Robin Wall Kimmerer

 

 

Please note: this is not a "how to be a shaman" training, you do not get a certificate, there is no formal initiation. Transformation is the only constant we know so in that respect you will likely experience many personal initiations! but none that bestow upon you any title or elite membership! I will share with you all some of the shamanic practices that I work with, have permission to practice and share.  Practices which I believe when taken on in right relationship will help you gain access to the deep well of knowledge inside of you and the invisible realms. The shamanic path is one of opening the heart, learning to trust as you create a doorway that leads you to the hidden realms. By undertaking this work you are committing to being part of the change to hold space, managing the forces as people return home.

 

Spirit chooses a person to be initiated into a path of shamanism, it is not a chosen profession but a destiny. With all the great challenges out there in todays experiences of being alive more and more people are looking within and becoming spiritual seekers, looking for more inclusive and sustainable ways of subsisting on this earth at this time in a good way. 

 

Further Reading: Why I am not a Shaman, and neither are you

  Again, I offer such gratitude to my fierce and fearless beautiful teacher Rocio Alarcon who has taught be so much over the past few years and seems to have great faith in what I am able to do! This offering is for her! 

 

 

Apprenticeship Reflection

 

This journey was more than an apprenticeship in the ways of ceremony and the spirit of the plants. It was an invitation to apprentice to my sense of self, to my soul, to my compassion, and to my truth. It was a Deep Dive into the things I most adore!

 

This monthly circle became a touchstone to return to rhythmically, providing a container for my healing journey, and inspiring friendships that I hope last a lifetime. In the end, I found that this journey brought me through the muck and mud of my soul’s existence, breaking down the layers of all I once thought myself to be, birthing me on the other side with a newfound sense of clarity, drive, and purpose.

 

As I emerge, I am finding my “work” lies in bringing the clarity of spirit, discernment, and truth that I discovered in this journey, out into the more mundane layers of my life. We need this medicine, not just in our cozy circles of spiritual development and sacred ceremony, but in the day to day, humble-human interactions of our lives.

 

Ultimately, this course was a journey in re-discovering my humility and my humanity. It was a radical re-orientation of how I understand our shared human existence and a recalibration of who I know myself to be. I seem to see life now through the eyes of humble compassion. I know now, in a new way, how to hold the heartbreak of humanity alongside our utterly resilient nature. It has awakened within me, an activist’s spirit, with the grit, will, and determination to be humbly me, in my medicine woman roots, wherever life may take me. 

 

Within this circle I was given a set of tools, sacred ceremonies, and time honored practices with which to support the ongoing evolution of my being. My deepest learning came as I integrated and embodied these practices within my day to day life. I hold such deep gratitude for this medicine, for these plants, for the beautiful souls I shared this circle with, and for Tony(a), for guiding us with her gentle grace. 

 

Kristen avonti, soul midwife
Www.soulmidwifery.org

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Judith]

I am very interested in the Ceremonial plant apprenticeship program however I
Can not attend on Fridays during the day because of my work schedule.
If you ever consider running this program on a weekend day I would be very much interested in participating-
Thank you-
Judith Idit Sophia

[khasiat manfaat daun]

thanks to author this article is useful