Learning to become a bioregional herbalist is as simple as going for a walk. Many walks, actually. And spending time observing your environment, looking at plants, closely. And talking to people, usually experienced elders within your community. And learning about plants which naturally grow and thrive around you. Developing relationship with our place, and the plants which grow within it, is part of who we are, each and every one of us.
If you are called to develop relationship with the plants around you for food and medicine, but unsure how to begin, then this class series is just for you.
Also, if you have been gathering knowledge about the plants around you, but would like to go deeper, this class series is also for you.
Click HERE to listen to a previous field study lecture on estafiate (Artemisia ludoviciana)
Throughout this class series we will explore the fundamental aspects of becoming a bioregional herbalist: developing relationship with place and the plants within it. This endeavor leads us to the study of field botany, respectful wildcrafting, plant energetics, landscape observation, developing and exercising the senses (particularly the feeling sense), herbal medicine making, and applying these medicines for well-being and healing utilizing our knowledge of our homeland and plant energetics.
We’ll venture into this terrain exploring various aspects of what becoming a bioregional herbalist means. The exercises in this class series will introduce the participant to principles, and a method of learning, which is empowering while strengthening one’s own relationship to learning, from within.
Whether your path is simply one of curiosity or you feel a deep, inexplicable pull to walk this road, you will find powerful tools in this workshop to realize what you are after.
There are many important aspects of becoming a bioregional herbalist. First and foremost is a deep relationship with the place you are in. As an herbalist, our focus is primarily on plants, but we can diffuse our focus peripherally into the landscape which contains and nourishes these plants to pull in a broader context. This workshop series ties together pragmatic approaches to learning about our environment with the feeling relationship that extends to all living things. This feeling relationship is as real for us as the genus and species of each plant - if not far more so!
Join bioregional herbalist, John Slattery, for this intensive workshop to begin to transform your approach to working with plants. Starting in your own backyard you can become a master of the wild food and medicine that grows within arm’s reach. Then begin to branch out with the basic principles and practices learned in this workshop to continually learn more about your local environment including unique ways to apply the herbal medicines you learn about. Becoming equipped with a hands-on approach to field botany can open up many opportunities for gaining unique knowledge and connecting with knowledge from other cultures once you know how to properly identify plants.
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Exploration of Bioregional Herbalism Series
This series of workshops will be a mixture of lecture, desert walkabout, wildharvesting principles, experiential learning, information download, hands-on plant identification, plant energetics study, holistic theory, suggested clinical applications, and much more. The breadth and scope of the material covered over this series will be vast. This workshop can serve as the foundation for a life of self-directed study for those who are motivated, as well as help many discover their personal interest within the vast world of learning from plants.
Each location will offer a different array of plants and opportunity for learning. Please visit the individual links for each day.
To enroll for multiple courses for a discount, use the dropdown menu on each page.
Series dates & locations (Classes 1-4):
2/19 - Class #1 South Mountain Park **Register below**
3/3 - Class #2 White Tank Mountains Regional Park
3/4 - Class #3 Superstition Mountains
3/5 - Class #4 South Mountain Park
*enroll in all classes for the deeply discounted price of $
Meet-up Location for Class #1:
Pima Canyon Trailhead on South Mountain (enter off of 48th St. just west of Calle Guadalupe)