I'll be teaching a series of classes and workshops at...
Winter CounT
A Skills Gathering
held near Kearny, AZ
February 19-25, 2023
This event has been SOLD OUT since Nov. 2022
Those registered for the week are welcome to attend any of my classes at Winter count. The schedule is as follows:
Plant Walk: Learning Plant Medicine through Relationship - Monday, 9a-12:30p
Wild Plant Foods of the Sonoran Desert - Monday, 2-4p
Evening Discussion: Sovereignty & Sacred Honor
Ocotillo: Heart Healing in the Sonoran Desert - Tuesday, 9a-12:30p
Ocotillo Medicine Making - Tuesday, 2-4p
Ogham í Crann - Wednesday, 9:30a-12p
Tír Raon: A Bioregional Herbalist's Approach to Mind-Heart-Body Integrity - Wednesday, 1:30-4p
Evening Discussion: Recovering from Birth Trauma
Plant Walk: Cultivating our Sacred Awareness - Thursday, 9a-12p
Acorns: Our Ancestral Food; Acorn Processing and Bread Baking - Friday, 9a-12p
Plant Walk: Learning Plant Medicine through Relationship
Monday: 9a-12:30p
This class is for those seeking help in identifying some of the plants in the vicinity of camp that are used as medicine. We’ll take a walk, discuss some medicinal plants, taste tincture, and maybe take a seat for awhile and just listen to what the plants have to say.
Wild Plant Foods of the Sonoran Desert
A show-and-tell presentation on a variety of wild edible plants found in the Sonoran desert from cactus fruit, bean pods, wild greens, nuts, seeds, and more.
Monday, 2-4p
Ocotillo: Heart Healing in the Sonoran Desert
Tuesday, 9a-12:30p
Ocotillo lights up the hillsides each spring with a magnificent display of its red flowers. The preindustrial torch of the desert to show the way for travelers in the night.
Ocotillo lights the way for many who seek healing within the bounding immensity of the desert. Join John for a walkabout and intimate exploration with ocotillo in its native habitat. A healer of the emotional heart, ocotillo holds many wonders including the power to transform one's deepest fears and pains of the heart into beauty, lightness, and understanding.
Following our in-depth exploration and discussion with ocotillo, we will be preparing a tincture of ocotillo as a group in a second class after lunch. This will take place from 2-4p at John's white shade cloud tent (Tuatha O’Slatara). A materials fee of about $6-15 (for jar and alcohol) depending on the size of tincture you wish to make to take home.
Ocotillo Medicine Making
Tuesday, 2-4p
Ogham í Crann: The Language of the Trees
Wednesday, 9:30a-12p
Ogham (pronounced OH-um) is an ancestral language of Ireland and the druids which is conventionally dated to around the 3rd to 5th century BCE in Ireland. It is also found in Scotland and England…as well as North America where it possibly dates back to 2,000-3,000 years ago. We’ll discuss some of these occurrences and how this may have happened well before Europeans were ever supposed to have been here.
To begin to understand the Ogham we need to attempt to look at it from the perspective of those who created or used it. The cosmology of the “Celts” is something that is somewhat difficult to piece together through the remaining fragments, yet it resonates with cosmological views of other ancient cultures.
We’ll discuss the Ogham in relation to the ancient cosmology of the Celts and begin to work with the fidh (Ogham “fews”) for the purpose of divination and gathering knowledge.
Tír Raon: A Bioregional Herbalist's Approach to Mind-Heart-Body Integrity
Wednesday, 1:30-4p
An in-depth discussion of John’s concept of Tír Raon (Terrain) encompassing the totality of the individual and the unique path that each individual walks across the Earth beneath the sun.
Plant Walk: Cultivating our Sacred Awareness
On this walk we’ll be exploring the possibilities available to us through our direct connection with the landscape. Cultivating the ‘feeling sense’ is an important part of developing our relationship with wild plants, and through this our awareness expands and deepens. When it comes to relationship with plants, it’s not so important what we know as it is what we can feel.
Oaks & Acorns: Our Ancestral Food
Thursday: 9:30a-12p
We’ll take a walk to a unique grove of Sonoran oaks to discuss our ancient relationship with this sacred tree and its food, the acorn. Known as the Nemeton in ancient times, the oak grove was a place of sacred worship and coming together with the natural world. We’ll take a brief look at a deep, deep history of relationship between humans and oaks that spanned the entire northern hemisphere over 1,000s of years. Just as ancient cultures venerated the oak and its acorns, it became a symbol of stamina, endurance, fecundity, and creativity. The great oak en-dures in our collective psyche from the great Vedic tales to the forming of the American Republic, and its acorn our great ancestral, spiritual food.
REGISTER HERE
Acorn Processing and Bread Baking
after lunch
We’ll take a close look at the important steps required to process acorns for consumption. Although all acorns are edible, most require some preparation before consuming. Methods vary from region to region, but some techniques are better applied to certain types of acorns over others. We’ll discuss and experience a dry acorn, cold leeching process that we’ll wrap up the class by baking some bread with.