Hello folks, here in the Canyon, the Wild Roses (Rosa woodsii) are just beginning to bloom, the Blisswort (Scutellaria potosina) is flowering beautifully (more on those very soon) and the land is green and lush with such an abundantly rainy Spring! I’ve been on a bit of a writing hiatus, and my time’s been consumed by working on many big projects, not least the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference but also on several other exciting things I can’t really talk about just yet. What I can tell you is that I’ll be back to writing on a more regular basis very shortly, and that I’m putting together even more herbal, healing and related online goodness for ya’ll. To help make up for the lack of Kiva words lately, I want to announce a great new opportunity to get a big earful of my herbal ramblings in one concentrated dose.

Many of you know that I’m a big fan of the work of John Gallagher over at Learningherbs.com, who provides an amazing amount of free herbal information and opportunities as well as through his ongoing and interactive homestudy site/course over at Herbmentor.com.  John recently invited me to do a special FREE teleseminar for anyone who wanted to join in. Now, living out the sticks as I and my family do, seven river crossings from the nearest road on an 80 acre botanical sanctuary set within the Gila National Forest, you have to understand that I have no phone and only limited satellite internet running on a small system of solar panels. So it’s generally difficult for me to manage any sort of audio interviews of any kind. But I was so very excited about the particular subject matter that John proposed to me and the wonderful audience of this teleseminar that I really wanted to make the extra effort to do a live teleseminar.

This has all come together to become The Wild Remedy: Grassroots Herbalism from our Backyards & Beyond, a 60-90 minute free teleseminar. We’ll be talking about hands-on, down-home herbalism for everyone, including tips for beginners and for working with the wild and weedy plants all around you, including those in your own backyard! Additionally, we’ll be discussing working with common kitchen remedies, and even a bit about the energetics of foods and how you can create healing for your family through your meals every single day. I’ll also be sharing some details about the upcoming (and oh so exciting) Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference. Overall, we’ll be digging into the marrow of traditional herbalism, herbwifery, community-based healing and the many accessible ways we can each work with plants for greater health. You can find out all about the teleseminar right here, and also sign up (completely free) to participate next week.

And if that wasn’t enough, we’re also giving away some really great prizes during the teleseminar, including a free one year subscription to HerbMentor.com, one free ticket to the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference and multiple copies of the Wildcraft boardgame.

Sign up now at http://WildRemedy.com to join John Gallagher and I on Wednesday evening, June 9th, at 6:30 Mountain Time for a great conversation about hands-on herbalism from the grassroots!

~~~

All Photos ©2010 Kiva Rose & Jesse Wolf Hardin

At long last! –– the release of the greatly anticipated

COURSE 1

of a 5 course program for the village herbalist:

From the Ground Up: Grassroots Training in Traditional Western Herbalism

FOUNDATIONS IN TRADITIONAL WESTERN HERBALISM

Written & Taught by Kiva Rose Hardin

After years of preparation, the essential first course in Kiva Rose’s comprehensive 5 course program has just been released, with openings for a select number of committed students.  Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism provides information and tools that are important for understanding and getting the most from the 4 other courses in this groundbreaking series.  Kiva’s attention to the basics makes the practice of herbalism comprehensible for a beginner, while her unconventional perspective and innovative approach ensure that even experienced herbalists will find themselves learning new concepts, in lessons that not only inform but stretch and challenge, inspire and delight.

Lessons arrive as PDF files, with beautiful, illustrative color photos scattered throughout.

To register, go to the bottom of this post and click on the Application link.

The Course Work

Each lesson consists of a core topic, accompanying definitions and terms, a section on Materia Medica with an in-depth profile of a single herbal ally, and another featuring a description and complete directions for foundational medicine making techniques, with questions and assignments for every section. Course 1 includes 4 lessons:

• Lesson 1: The Roots of Traditional Western Herbalism
  Materia Medica: Nettles (Urtica spp.)
  Medicine Making: Tisanes, Infusions & Nourishing Infusions
• Lesson 2: Healing as Wholeness & The Tonic Approach
  Materia Medica: Mullein (Verbascum spp.)
  Medicine Making: Infused Oil
• Lesson 3: Vitalist Herbalism & The Anima
  Materia Medica: Evening Primrose (Oenothera spp)
  Medicine Making: Decoctions
• Lesson 4: The Matrix – Healing & the Material World
  Materia Medica: Goldenrod (Solidago spp.)
  Medicine Making: Herbal Baths & Hydrotherapy

Students can take as long as needed to complete work, which includes studies and readings, the answering of questions and the fulfillment of assignments.  It is these assignments that are in some ways the most crucial of all, placing the focus on the immediate, practical utilization of each idea and skill that we learn here.  “This is not so much about memorizing information,” she explains, “but about experiencing the plants and their effects, and learning to understand and integrate those effects in a practical and effective way.”  Once the coursework is completed and emailed back, Kiva reviews it and then writes a single detailed, personal response providing any helpful clarification or correction, further suggested assignments and advice where needed.

Once your Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism questions and assignments are complete, you may then want to enroll in each of the following, soon to available courses:

• Course 2: Elements in Energetic Herbalism
• Course 3: Human Ecology: Physiology & Organ System Energetics for the
  Traditional Herbalist
• Course 4: Reading the Terrain: Practical Diagnostics for the Traditional Herbalist
• Course 5: Restoration: Pathophysiology & Diagnostics for the Traditional Herbalist

Course 1 will provide the groundwork for beginning or furthering herbal healing practice, and anyone taking all 5 courses can be confidant of having been given the essential information, means and tools needed to be a highly effective herbalist… whether treating one’s self and family, or giving one’s life to helping heal others.

About Your Instructor

Kiva is the cofounder of the distinctive sense and common sense based Anima Tradition of Herbalism, author of the acclaimed Anima Healing Arts Blog (formerly the Medicine Woman’s Roots), and the village herbalist of the rural community near her lush botanical sanctuary in the wilderness of Southwest New Mexico.  She’s become known for her intuitive understanding of plants and their properties, leading her to discover – or in some cases rediscover – novel uses and treatments, as well as for her evocative, easily understood explanations of energetics, and she and her school’s bioregional emphasis.

Kiva writes: “My focus is firmly on accessible, grassroots herbalism that educates the individual and serves the community, both the human component as well as the larger earthen community. I strongly believe in restoring health at all levels and approach healing from the understanding that the body is a diverse and intelligent ecology, integrally connected to the planet as a whole.”

As her partner in this life and work, I couldn’t be more proud of her efforts, or more impressed with this life-empowering and life-enhancing course.

Donations

All courses are offered on a donations basis, with a $350 to $700 suggested sliding scale depending on your ability to contribute and how much you value what is offered.  Those unable to donate the complete amount at once, are invited to contribute over time as able.

Apply Now

To apply, click on the link below, then download, fill out and return the:

Foundations in Traditional Western Herbalism Home Study Course Application

Spread the Word

And please make the time to spread the word about this exciting series of courses, by pasting and forwarding this message to your mailing list, or reposting this announcement on your blog or in  appropriate forums you frequent.  Thank you for your patience in waiting for this course to be released, and for your commitment to healing, the plant world and this School.
-Jesse Wolf Hardin

Anima Lifeways and Herbal School
www.AnimaCenter.org and www.AnimaHealingArts.org

Spring has come a little late to the Gila but is now emerging full force, right in step with the tumultuous pace of the San Francisco River flooding its muddy banks. Thanks to snowmelt and significant rains, southwest New Mexico is remarkably well watered at the moment which most likely means a wildflower rich Spring! While there are already many flowers blooming at lower elevations in the Gila, here at about 6,000 feet we’re still at the beginning of our season.

Every year, this diminutive but beautiful little flower commonly known as Mountain Candytuft (Noccaea fendleri subsp. glauca) is one of the very first noticeable wildflowers to bloom in the Canyon.

It’s colors range from bright white to lavender to purple, depending on exactly where it’s growing. It prefers middle mountain coniferous forest and is mostly found in this area growing at the feet of towering Ponderosa Pines among the leaf litter, pine needles and fallen tufts of Usnea lichen.

Candytuft is a Brassicaceae, a member of the ubiquitous Mustard Family. And like many other mustards, it is both edible and quite tasty. Sweet and spicy, somewhat reminiscent of a cross between Mustard greens and Broccoli, these abundant flowers make excellent additions to all sorts of salads and are also wonderful and beautiful garnishes for many soups and similar dishes.

~~~

Another tiny but gorgeous wildflower is the above Lomatium nevadense, sometimes called Desert Biscuitroot. The flowers are incredibly complex and lovely in a way that my camera is unable to capture without a stronger macro lens, but you can get a hint of its delicacy from the two pictures I’ve included here.

This small plant usually grows in lower elevations, primarily in rocky areas. It is uncommon in the Canyon and as of yet, I’ve only seen this single plant growing up here on the mesa along a rocky trail. It returns each year, tenaciously persisting in flowering among the rocks and sand.

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Snow comes and goes in the Canyon and mountains just above us, feeding the already flooded river and adding to the drama and beauty of the flowers and green things as they emerge from the ground.

~~~

The Piñon Pines (Pinus edulis) are vibrant with new growth and their enticing, resiny scent is easily smelled each time I brush against their branches while climbing or hiking.

This slowly passing cold season has been one rich with hot tea brewed from the leaves and barks of evergreen trees, including the Piñon Pine, Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var glauca), White Fir (Abies concolor) as well as the nutty goodness of our local Acorns.

~~~~

Even on stormy days, Rhiannon and I venture out to discover new lichens, watch the rambunctious javelina playing by the river and enjoy the wild land we live on.

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Last year’s Penstemon flower stalks retains its beauty and grace, especially with the vivid colors unfurling all around them.

~~~

These are the leaves of some freshly gathered Oregon Grape Root (Mahonia repens), tucked in a basket also containing an abundance of White Fir (Abies concolor) branch tips.

Mahonia is a favorite medicinal of mine, and one that I use frequently in my practice. I’ve written about this plant previously, and you can read my monograph on it right here.

~~~~

With the arrival of Spring, many exciting shifts are still happening here, and the newest offerings and opportunities here from the Anima Lifeways & Herbal School will soon be unveiled, especially my extensive 5 course distance program entitled From the Ground Up: Grassroots Training in Traditional Western Herbalism. Thanks so much to all of you who have written with your enthusiastic support and interest! It will be ready soon and I will announce it here and on the Anima School blog the moment it’s available.

~Kiva

Many deeply rooted changes have been taking place here in the quiet of the Canyon during the cold months. As Spring slowly unfurls her foliate face, we’re increasingly  incorporating these transformational shifts into our existing framework of education and healing work. Regular blog readers will first notice that my herbal blog has a new title, and is now called Animá Healing Arts rather than The Medicine Woman’s Roots. Those who visit the herbal blog via the web rather than subscribing through email will also have noticed the structure and content change of the non-blog pages as well as a new front page. Even if you do subscribe via email, I encourage you to take a look at the new, expanded site and additional offerings.

The new Animá Healing Arts name reflects my increasingly strong desire to provide accessible healthcare and healing opportunities for those who most need it. While this has long been an overriding interest of mine, the current shift is evidence of my deepening commitment to the well-being of my local community, the larger human community and the earthen community as a whole.

Here’s an excerpt and description of Animá Healing Arts and what we offer:

“The Anima Healing Arts Health & Herbal Clinic provides online and on-site care on a per donation basis, with no one ever turned away for lack of funds. Integrating multiple healing modalities in order to provide optimal wellness, we offer lifeways counseling, herbal consultations, nutritional healing & other holistic therapies. We deeply desire to foster a life-affirming, grassroots and common sense approach to healing based around the unique needs of each individual and informed by the wisdom of the natural world.

The Mission of Anima Healing Arts:

• To provide accessible healing services to those who need it.
• To gift the local and larger community with tools for caring for themselves and each other.
• To empower individuals to take charge of their own health and healing.
• To restore a vital connection and integration between the person, their body and the living earth.
• To support the emotional, physical and mental well-being of human beings in order to contribute to the health of the planet.”

Please note that all old links to The Medicine Woman’s Roots blog and bearmedicineherbals.com will still work just fine. Also, if you are a feed subscriber (via email, feedreader, browser etc), your feed will remain intact and no action is needed. Also,  you can access the Animá Healing Arts blog directly at: http://animahealingarts.org/blog

The Animá Lifways & Herbal School is also placing a stronger emphasis on skill-based learning, which can be seen in our subtitle on the School blog (and soon the website as well), “Nature Awareness, Healing & ReWilding Skills”. We have always taught a blend of understanding and action, and this recent shift is simply a way of further driving home the importance of ~living~ our dreams, passions and callings in the most real and earthen ways. Wolf, Loba and I feel strongly that it is vital to pass on traditional knowledge, especially in this time where self-sufficiency is so critical to not only surviving during hard times, but thriving. A full update to the School site is also underway, and should be up within the week, with many additions and changes that will, more succinctly than ever, communicate the mission and purpose of our work.

Also be on the lookout for announcements and descriptions of this Spring’s Foundations in Western Herbalism Intensive. This will take place May 6-9 on the School grounds here on our 80 acre Animá Botanical Sanctuary, surrounding on all sides by the Gila National Forest. This intensive will be three days of exploration of the principles and practice of the traditional and vitalist herbalism, including herbal energetics, constitutional medicine, wildcrafting and much more!

Additionally, in the Spring of 2011 we will be introducing a new on-site botanical medicine program for those of you interested in pursuing in-depth herbal study at the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School in person.

Thank you all for your invaluable support and enthusiasm as my practice, school and other projects grow and blossom, I appreciate each of you so much!

~Kiva

~~~

Photograph (c) 2010 Jesse Wolf Hardin, Stinging Nettle Watercolor (c) 2010 Loba

The following is the some of the new text for the Supporter page of the Animá website, describing the new forms for contributing financially to this place, practice and purpose.  We eliminated the Memberships, as that made it sound like this was an organization rather than a school and sanctuary, and lowered the minimum Supporter contribution so that nearly everyone can afford to participate who really wants to.  There are now 4 clear levels of Support for you to choose from, according to the degree of involvement and gratitude, and your ability to help.  Due to the difficult economic times we have lost the aid of several Supporters, so we have to thank you in advance for even considering becoming a Supporter yourself… any time, at any level.

Become an Animá Supporter

Supporters are the most crucial allies Animá could have, enabling everything that this project does, creates, and ultimately engenders and inspires in others… with vital monthly, annual or even occasional donations.

For a monthly pledge of only $25 or more you can become part of a small purposeful family, counted on and depended upon for consistent support.  And with your permission, you’ll be honored with a photo, brief bio and your URL if you like, acknowledging your important involvement in the Supporter Profiles section of the Animá website Support page.

Support Levels
There are 4 Levels of Support, depending on your ability to contribute, and how strongly you feel drawn to do so:

Leaves
…aiding the spread of lessons and tools, hopes and dreams, like the spreading of new foliage
$25 or more per month, or $300 or more annually

Branches
…the strength to bear the glad load, while reaching out ever further
$50 or more per month, or $600 or more annually

Trunk
…the firm stalk from which all branches out
$100 or more per month, or $1200 or more annually

Roots: Core Supporters
…the most committed level – earth-hugging roots that can be depended upon to keep everything from falling down even through the heaviest storms
$200 or more per month, $2400 or more annually

Plus, for anyone unable to commit to consistent donations, you can consider becoming an
Occasional Supporter
…contributing what you can when you are most able, or else when Animá has a particular or particularly urgent need

To read more about the school and sanctuary, our donation policy and what your donations provide, please go to the:
Support Page

To donate through PayPal, please click on:
Donate Now

Gratitude from us, and from all those we are able to help thanks to you!

I’m guessing that a fair number of my readers are parents, grandparents or caregivers for children, and that almost all of you are interested in herbs. If those two interests overlap at all for you, you’re going to want to check out this new herbal course created through a collaboration between John Gallagher of Learningherbs.com and herbalist Angela Goodloe of The Herbalist’s Path and Authentic Mama!

Simple, straight-forward and hands on, this accessible series of lessons will likely become invaluable for a great many people wanting a natural way to practice first-aid and support wellness in the little ones in their lives.

Here’s a short description of the course from the Kids & Herbs Website:

Kids & Herbs is a conversation between two parents who use herbs daily with their kids. I interview herbalist and mom Angie Goodloe, who shares her wisdom with us. Angie is a self taught herbalist with a Master Herbalist diploma from the American College of Health Sciences.

Kids & Herbs is not a workbook style course. There is no homework for the busy parent other than to try the remedies we suggest.

The casual, webinar format fits into the busiest parents life. I know how busy you are. I’m just as busy. So, with my years of home study training experience behind me, I create a course that works for the modern parent on the go.

It’s kind of like “multi-media home study course meets NPR interview.”

You can even take the audio or video on an iPod or iPhone to listen to in the car or watch on “your breaks” at work.

And if that’s not enough to inspire you, get to know the teacher, wonderful herbalist and mother, Angela Goodloe, who just happens to be an Animá Medicine Woman student as well:

Angie is a mom to two beautiful kids, Wyatt(1) and Ella (2). She is a self taught herbalist with a Master Herbalist diploma from the American College of Health Sciences. Angie is a licensed massage therapist, and has past experience as a nutrition consultant, wellness director, personal trainer and an aerobics instructor.

Angie loves spending time outdoors with family, hiking, wildcrafting and camping. She lives with her husband and kids in Sandy, OR. She is constantly growing and learning more about herbs every day.

Angie teaches courses online. You can find out about them on her Blog as well as her new site, AuthenticMama.com. You can follow her on Twitter here.

Now, head on over to the Kids and Herbs website and check it out in full!

Intro: Recent changes at the Animá School have resulted in a continuing number of queries about both the 8 week Courses and what are now the year or longer Mentorships.  For all students of the earlier year long courses, your lessons and time frame remains unchanged, the only difference is that your special course is now called a Mentorship due to how much teacher-student time is involved.  For those considering applying of a year long program, please understand that I can take only a very few more Lifeways Mentorship students, and that anyone applying for Kiva’s Medicine Woman Mentorship will have to be put on a lengthy waiting list.  For all prospective students, we recommend beginning their work with us with an 8 week course of their choosing, ideally beginning with the Introduction/Orientation course.  The following revised and expanded descriptions should be helpful, and we thank you in advance for forwarding this information to contacts you think might be interested.  -JWH

Announcing the new Animá Correspondence Courses

—–Animá Lifeways & Herbal Courses & Mentorships—–

We live in an age where were we have largely lost touch with our feelings and needs, our knowing bodies and the natural world we remain rooted in and dependent on… unwell, under-effective and dissatisfied.  Animá teachings encourage and make possible our reconnection to our distanced dreams, awakening us to a very intimate way of engaging the world, to our individual most-meaningful purpose and likely neglected calling.

Student Opportunities

Anyone can study and benefit from Animá teachings through available Personal Counsel, free Animá articles found under the Teachings & Practice and Animá Tradition of Herbalism menus as well as on the Animá Blog and Medicine Woman’s Roots Blog, and of course in the Animá Books & Recordings.  However, for those who want to learn all that they can, and actualize what they learn, we suggest committing to an 8 Week Correspondence Course or Mentorship – Studentships open to all ages and genders, regardless of one’s existing existing experience, practices or beliefs.  The online courses of your choice will make it possible for you to study and practice at home where you live… with personalized guidance and support.

Animá Studentship courses provide not only the clarity and insight – but also the practical information, tools and skills needed for more enlivened, proactive and personally fulfilling lives.  And in the case of the Herbal Tradition courses, the ways and means to also become the most effective and responsive healers and herbalists possible.  Whether Lifeways or Herbal, the intent of these courses is increased wholeness and maximized awareness, response-ability, real world manifestation and utilization.  As a result, the course assignments are considered even more important than the questions and readings, requiring that every new insight be acted on and every new skill and tool applied.

Animá 8 Week Correspondence Courses

Correspondence Courses are topic specific, focused on specific areas of interest such as Deepening Awareness, Sense of Place, Constitutional Diagnostics, Medicine Making etc.  We recommend you register for one at a time, preferably beginning with the self-exploratory Introductory course in each field, then over time taking as many courses as you think you can learn from and use.

Like all Animá opportunities, these are offered on a donations basis, with a $150 to $350 sliding scale donation suggested for each course, either sent at the time of registering or in pledged payments as able.

Courses & Fields

Anyone can take any mix of the courses that they like, and all courses contain the core Animá perspectives and principles, but for the sake of organization we will be listing each of the available courses under one of the following 7 Fields.

• Path of Heart

Path of Heart Courses Completed or in Development include: Developing Self-Knowledge & Self-Confidence; Transforming Fear; Valuing Feelings & Trusting Instincts; Employing Empathy, Nurturing the Self, The Power  & Response-ability to Discern & Making Choices; Exploring & Fashioning Healthy Roles that Fit; Finding & Fulfilling Purpose…

• Shaman’s Path

Shaman’s Path Courses Completed or in Development include: Heightening Awareness; Ultra-Presence; Maximizing Intuition & the Senses; Vision Questing; Animal Totems & Plant Helpers; Learning to Use the Animá  Gifting Bones Runic System; Using the Animá Medicine Wheel…

• Herbal Essentials

Herbal Essentials Courses Completed or in Development include:
From the Ground Up: A Foundational Course in Traditional Western Herbalism; Blossom & Dream Herbal Course for Girls ages 8-16; Animá Principles of Healing; Wildflower Remedies Children’s Herbal Course for Ages 5-10; Grandmother’s Stewpot: Food as Medicine and Healing Through Nutrition; Introduction to Botany for Herbalists

• Herbal Advanced

Herbal Advanced Courses Completed or in Development include: Engaging the Anima: Utilizing Vitalism in Clinical Practice; Walking the Medicine Wheel: A Course in Hands-On Herbal Energetics; Wild Allies: A Weedy Materia Medica; A Grassroots Approach to The Practice and Work of the Village Herbalist

• Nature Connection

Nature Connection Courses Completed or in Development include:
Deepening Sense of Place; Getting Intimate with Your Bioregion & Plant & Animal Life; Understanding Wildness & Diversity; Primal Diet & Gathering Wild Foods; Animal Tracking as an Awareness Exercise; Preserving & Restoring Wild Species & Natural Habitat…

• Life Skills

Life Skills Courses Completed or in Development include:
Presence & Grounding; Making Every Moment Decisive; Healthy Sexuality; the Healing & Nourishing Power of Food; Making Home More Magical & Meaningful;  Empowerment Parenting & Animá Insights for Home Education; Discovering Your Most Meaningful Mission or Heeding a Calling…

• Expression

Expression Courses Completed or in Development include:
Writing Essentials for Budding Authors; Nature Writing Intensive; Art Instruction & Inspiration; The Principles of Rhythm & Giving Voice to the Drum; Protest & Activism…

Course Length & Student/Teacher Exchanges:

Each course is intended to take from 8 to 12 weeks to complete, counting a minimum amount of work on the course assignments.  Once your course work is ready to be handed in, there will be one or two exchanges with your teacher clarifying, affirming, and making suggestions particular to your personal quandaries, needs, abilities and direction.

Curricula:

Each 8 Week Course will include:

• Assigned Readings by your Animá teachers
• Self-Exploratory Questions – for you to consider and then respond to
• Useful Techniques & Practices – for you to try, and then to describe the results of
• Assignments – for testing and manifesting what’s learned, for the student to describe and then report back on… requiring our implementation of lessons and insights, and the finding of ways in your daily life to apply what is learned to further your quest, practice, path or purpose
• Plus one or more in-depth teacher/student exchanges, clarifying, affirming, adding to, and furthering… with sometimes additional personalized assignments

Students progress at their own rate of speed. Once satisfactorily completing your first chosen Course, you are then encouraged to choose and another.

Students wishing for a more demanding and possibly rewarding mutual commitment, can put their name on the waiting list for one of the year or more long Mentorships… or even apply for a potentially long-term Apprenticeship after familiarizing themselves with all that Animá is about.

Currently Available Courses

More will be added regularly, including herbal courses with Kiva Rose.

For complete descriptions of the following, go to the 8 Week Courses Section of the Correspondence Courses Page

• Orientation, Principles & Pitfalls: The Journey Begins
(For all Fields including Herbal.  Recommended for all first-time students.)
• Reaping the Blessings of Ultra-Presence: Grounding & Noticing
• Awakeness & Embodiment: Maximizing The Senses
• The Rewarding Art of Expanding & Deepening Awareness
• The Animá Medicine Wheel: Charting Our Paths, Challenges & Advantages
• Sense of Place & the Search for Home
• Rewilding: Reclaiming Freedom & Self-Reliance

To apply for any of the above courses, click on, download, fill out completely stipulating your first Course choice, then return the
Correspondence Course Application:

New Curricula is being written and expanded as you read this, so please keep checking back here often for the latest additions… and be patient waiting for your favorite subjects to be available.

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Animá Mentorships

Mentorships are intense, highly focused online courses – 12 to 18 months of study and practice with one-on-one online support, counsel and guidance.  Mentorships build on essential elements such as conscious presence, heightened awareness, awakened senses, interconnectedness, nature wisdom, reciprocity, response-ability, healing and wholeness, understanding our needs and gifts, loving ourselves, being honest about our pain, embracing our bliss, and manifesting and fulfilling our most meaningful purpose. In all cases we encourage using our fears as fuel for movement and change.  In a time and culture bent on distraction, abstraction, pretense, denial, avoidance and transcendence, Animá offers practical and perceptual tools for the fullest living of life… engagement and reconnection, creation and response.

Due to the extensive amount of student and teacher exchanges and support, there is a strictly limited number of Mentorships available each year and applicants will often have to be put on a waiting list.

Mentorship Curricula

Mentorships include 12 or more lessons, with each meant to take 1 to 2 months or longer to complete, and with each at least as extensive and in-depth as its counterpart being offered as an 8 Week Correspondence Course.
Each month or longer lesson includes:
• An introduction to the lesson topic/field
• Questions reviewing the previous lesson coursework
• Assigned reading
• Self exploratory questions for you to answer
• Practices and techniques for you to implement and then describe the results of
• Assignments for manifesting and feeding back about: implementation of lessons and insights, finding ways in your daily life to apply what you learn and further your quest, path and purpose
• Two or more in depth exchanges including teacher clarifications, comments and suggestions, and further personalized assignments

There are 3 Different Mentorship Programs:
• An Animá Medicine Woman Mentorship… with Kiva Rose
• An Animá Shaman Path Mentorship… with Jesse Wolf Hardin
• An Animá Lifeways Mentorship… with Jesse Wolf Hardin

For full descriptions of each, including the lesson curricula, please go the Mentorship Section of the Correspondence Courses Page on the website.

To Apply for a Medicine Woman Mentorship and be put on the waiting list, Click on, download, completely fill out and then return the
Mentorship Application Form

www.animacenter.org

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This is just a short post to let all my blog readers, clients, students and other people awaiting emails, know that I am working madly away at the websites and Conference planning, and will be mostly out of touch until the end of this week. Sorry for any inconvenience and many thanks for your support of this vital work, especially the upcoming Tradition in Western Herbalism Conference!

Hope you’re all having beautiful harvest seasons wherever you are. Unless of course, you’re in New Zealand or Australia, in which case I hope you’re having a gorgeous and ever more blooming Spring.

Here we’ve been having our first frosts and the mountains are gold with wildflowers and the air is thick with the honey-sweet scent of Snakeweed and Goldenrod. The kitchen and Medicine Lodge are filling up with freshly blended teas, fragrant salves, row upon row of tincture bottles and of course lots of yummy preserved foods, from Blackberry sauce to Green Chile Relish to Bone Broth.

I’ll be back soon, and look forward to sharing more of the bounty and magic with each of you in the near future!

~Kiva

Numen: The Nature of Plants

A review by Kiva Rose

Anyone who has ever experienced the bliss and connection of gathering Mullein flowers on a warm summer day or the satisfaction of facilitating wellness in another living being, who may have ever known the incredible healing power of the plants – is sure to be touched and inspired by this cinematic exploration of herbal medicine!

The premise of Numen is very much in alignment with our work in the Animá Lifeways and Herbal Tradition.  What they define as Numen in the film, is what we call the anima, the vital lifeforce in the human body as well in plants. The creators of the film also clearly understand that healing is not just about tending our individual wounds but also those of our larger self, this inspirited planet. This movie is rooted in the understanding that healing can only take place in the individual self when the large self is also being tended, and vice versa. There is also an inherent sense of the magic of healing and the plants, a recognition that while science offers us many valuable gifts and ways of understanding the world, there is something akin to spirit and the miraculous in even the best aided results.  Numen inspires its viewers to take their health into their own hands, to empower themselves to reconnect to their needs and to utilize resources close at hand. There is an invaluable sense of alliance with the plants, rather than just an expounding on how we can utilize our “natural resources”. This personalization provides the viewer with a very real connection with the plants and process of healing.

Numen is divided up topically into sections: an Introduction, Plants as Medicine, Mystery, the Decline of Herbal Medicine in America, Disconnection, Just Say Yes, Allopathic Medicine, Whole Plant Medicine, Business of Herbs, Vis Medicatrix Naturae, Numinous Questions and Future Generations. Each section deals with either philosophical or practical aspects of healing with plants. From the opening scene of a woman gathering calendula from the garden to the closing shots of children creating a gorgeous plant mandala, the artistry and intent of Numen is clear.

The bulk of the film is based in conversation with practicing herbalists, ethnobotanists, ecologists, those who have been healed by the herbs as well as authors or speakers who specialize in related topics such as chemical sensitivity, earth-based healing and ecology. I commend their careful yet broad selection of knowledgeable and experienced guests. Each individual was both thoughtful and deeply caring, experienced in their chosen field and impassioned about their message.

Brimming with the enthusiasm, experience and wisdom of many great herbalists, including Phyllis Light, Matthew Wood, Bill Mitchell, Rosemary Gladstar, Deb Soule, David Hoffmann, Guido Mase and many more. I was heartened and inspired by their compassion, insight and commitment to the healing of not only we humans but also this precious earth and everything encompassed within.

I must admit that I expected there to be a bit of the new-agey fluffiness so common to recent documentaries on healing and spirit, but was pleasantly surprised to find the whole feature to be grounded in common sense observations, real life experience and understandings straight from nature. Numen truly stands on its own as an exceptional film and testament to the compassion and wisdom of the herbal community.

Indeed, I found myself completely drawn in to the conversation and close to tears more than once, especially listening to the sage words of the late Bill Mitchell and the passionate grace of Rosemary Gladstar. The filming is both sensitive and evocative, presenting a gorgeous presentation of the natural world through time-lapse photography, exquisite settings and a wonderful emphasis on the microcosmic world of the plants.

Numen is a film imbued with the spirit and every day beauty of the contemporary herbalist. Not to be missed by any student of the plants, whether you are just setting out on your journey or have been traveling your path for many years. No matter if you are a gardener, wildcrafter, herbalist, ecologist or simply someone who deeply feels the connection and gifts of the living earth, Numen has something important and beautiful to offer you.

Information for availability and purchase is included below, please support this wonderful project and give yourself and your family the gift of a deeper look into the profoundly healing world of the plants.

My personal thanks to Ann and Terry for taking years out of their lives to create this precious glimpse into the living tradition of herbal healing and the community committed to its continuance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Numen: The Nature of Plants is a new film on the healing power of PLANTS

Hi Everyone– GREAT news!

The DVD of Numen is Arriving Very Soon!

If you haven’t heard of Numen by now – check out a quick preview here at www.numenfilm.com

The DVD’s are in production right NOW and we are expecting the shipment in the next few weeks…

***But – there is a LIMITED supply, and they will go fast, especially when you see all the extra bonuses from Herbal Companies, Herbalist teachers and authors that come with the DVD.

***Click here www.numenfilm.com to ensure you are in line to receive updates on how buy the DVD!

All the best,
Terry and Ann

***P.S. The release of Numen is a huge event for the herbal community – and for anybody concerned about healthcare… (and who isn’t concerned in the current raging national debate?) ****SO – Click here www.numenfilm.com to join the Numen Grassroots movement to take control of our own health!

Health Insurance: Disempowering for Patients, Harmful for Herbalists & Healers

By Jess Hardin

Yes, I am among the millions of unassured Americans.  Unassured by industry claims, administration promises and congressional intentions when it comes to health legislation.  No, I am not one of the privileged, able to slap down multiple plastic cards and receive the kind of A-1 care reserved for the well insured, looking down my nose at the less fortunate.  While our work and purpose includes healing others, my family and can’t get medical insurance even if we want it.  We don’t qualify for existing state and federal health insurance because our land is considered an asset, and yet not anywhere near enough money comes in to pay the premiums on even the lousiest policy.  It is a stretch for us to make small payments to a private subsidized clinic that serves our backwoods community, a wonderful doctor and staff who nonetheless lack the equipment to conduct many tests, and who have to refer their patients to the big-city hospital whenever the condition is serious or requiring surgery.  I have heard people talk about “catastrophic illness” involving medical bills that lead to bankruptcy and ruin, but in my case there will be no such ruinous bills… I simply will not be getting the treatment when needed.

As a technically impoverished healing school, you might think we would be among the first to champion a new system of universal care.  Not!  The larger and more standardized a system is, the less personal, regional, flexible and adaptable it becomes.  And as poorly managed as private enterprises of any kind can be, it is the official government run systems and programs that have the greatest potential for mismanagement and abuse.  In the hands of bureaucrats, even something as seemingly benign as health care becomes a means for the observation, manipulation and control of a country’s citizens.  Of all the so-called solutions, insurance co-ops make the most sense to me, so that participation is strictly voluntary, and its members get to vote on who directs it.  But frankly, even the very concept of insurance seems largely absurd to me, unnatural and objectionable.

To begin with, the majority of people with health insurance will pay far more in premiums during the course of their lifetimes, than they would have spent direct-paying doctors.  If that weren’t the case, the insurance conglomerates would be losing money instead of making the billions and billions of dollars in profits that they do.  In addition, in an environment where there were no insurance companies, the costs of health care wouldn’t be nearly as high as they are now.   Providers can charge the insurers more than they would individuals, leading to doctors ordering expensive and often unnecessary tests that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

A problem with the very concept of insurance itself, is that it tends to make people more dependent and less responsible.  Kids sent out into the world with the insurance of a financial safety net tend to be more careless and cavalier than those teens and twenty-somethings who know they can’t count on their parents to pay for every mistake or bail them out of every jam.  Similarly, people insured from childhood on have proven to increasingly focus on treatment after the fact, than they do on prevention.  Subconsciously if not consciously, folks may feel less need to concern themselves with the effects of the foods they eat or the exercise they miss, when the believe they can always turn to a doctor to treat the heart disease and adrenal burnout their lifestyle choices may have caused.  For the same reason, the longtime insured are also less likely to ever learn how to treat themselves, even when dealing with simple conditions that are easy to both diagnose and affect.  They’re less likely to pay attention to their own bodily signs, to experiment with changes in the way they eat, to become familiar with herbal and other natural remedies, to seek advice from an experienced relative or midwife, or to visit and support community herbalists and natural healers.

If that weren’t enough, I am at a gut level repulsed by the very way in which insurance works.  All my life I have done what many thought was impossible, doing things differently than others, taking extreme risks, following a dream with little money and little common sense, but also little self doubt and even less restraint.  In essence, I bet on myself again and again, bet my life and belongings, even my future.  I was all the more careful and tried all the harder exactly because there was no backup, no fallback plan and no net, knowing that I had placed everything I am and own on “myself” in the “first”… “to win.”  It galls me even to be forced to pay car insurance we can’t afford every month, on a Jeep we drive less than ten miles to town and back, forced to bet our scarce funds on a game where I only get paid anything if I screw up and have an accident, or fail to notice some other driver screwing up in time to avoid the collision.  There is something seriously wrong about a government threatening us with jail unless we participate in some profit-producing game, especially one in which the only way for us to win is to lose!  And now they want to force me to pay for a health care arrangement where I get fewer benefits the better that I take care of myself, where I have to get sick or do something unaware and hurt myself in order to get any payback, and where I only win the lottery big if I come down with something serious, chronic and largely incurable.

We might better place our bets on our selves, on our driving abilities and the human body’s natural inclination towards health.  That way we’re more likely to pay attention to how aware we are being on the highway, and on how our bodies feel as well as how we are treating them.  It’s said that the worst thing that could happen this year is for the Congress to fail to pass on national health bill.  It would indeed be tragic for some us with no other way to get the high dollar, high-tech help.  On the other hand, doing nothing in the halls of Congress is always better than doing the wrong thing.  And it may prove that those without sanctioned insurance plans may be most conscious, concerned and caring… the response-able, responsive ranks of the growing unassured.

(Jesse Wolf Hardin is codirector of the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School, with Kiva Rose: www.animacenter.org.  Feel free to share and post this piece)

~Snakeweed In Bloom~

The mountains are turning gold with Escoba de la Vibora (Gutierrezia spp), Limoncillo (Pectis angustafolia), Anil de muerto (Verbesina spp), Wild Sunflowers, Coneflowers and Goldenrod. It’s a been a long dry summer but the flowers are still wild and prolific, with purple Asters, white and pink Wild Buckwheat, lavender Beebalm and ivory tinted Datura flowers sprawling across mesa and meadow.

Down by the river the Willowherb and Smartweed are turning a brilliant scarlet and Sunset Hyssop is blooming a deep crimson from the cliff walls. From the beginning of August to the end of September marks my favorite time of year, full of ripe berries, deep purple prickly pear fruits, crisp red and gold apples along with a great many herbs just coming into their prime. In less than a week we’ll be making our annual pilgrimage up into the mountains to gather blackberries, yarrow, motherwort, cleavers, chickweed, violets and many other medicinal plants that can be difficult to find in the middle mountain range the canyon lies in.

~Sticky Aster flower~

A friend just transported a large load of fruit from the city for us, so Loba and I will soon be busy transforming fruit into sauce, pies, syrup, tinctures, elixirs, mead and wine! I have a fancy for hawthorn/cherry/plum mead this year and can’t wait to give it a try. I also have in mind to press some pears and apples to make a spiced hard cider for the cold winter nights to come.

~Wild Buckwheat~

I’m also experimenting with a new Immune Elixir that includes Gooseberry, Raspberry, Rose and Saskatoon and I think has great potential, especially when combined with my standard Elder Mother Elixir. In fact, I’ve been working a great deal with our wild Gooseberry and can’t praise it enough for its mood elevating effects and wonderful boost to the immune system.

I apologize for my recent lack of posts, mostly due to an incredible influx of clients and guests in the last week that has temporarily blown me off schedule. I will be working back up to speed in the near future though and look forward to writing the many future posts I have planned.

~Sacred Datura green seedpod~

In the meantime, check out Wolf’s amazing piece on Awareness. This is an incredibly important subject for any healer and perhaps especially herbalists, we who are so intimately involved in reconnecting humans not only to their awareness of their own bodies but also to the plants, and in turn the earth. For in essence, we are often most truly teachers and facilitators of awareness for our students and clients.

Of special note to the student or practicing healer is the definition and explanation of ego, a much maligned word in recent “new age” thought that desperately needed to be shown in its original and true context, and Wolf does just that. We so often worship some ideal of “selflessness” in the enlightened and caring, and yet, the very term is both frightening and contradictory. Wolf gracefully and meaningfully addresses this from an angle especially valuable for those of us involved in caring for others on a daily basis. Even if you don’t normally read the Animá blog, head over there and check this great post out!

~Velvetweed flowers at dusk~

~~~

All photos (c)2009 Kiva Rose Hardin

The Matter of Prosperity

by Jesse Wolf Hardin
www.animacenter.org
www.animacenter.org/blog

   Yes, the material matters… but we are so much more prosperous than we think.

In the year prior to my writing this, the international economy has contracted and weakened more than at any time since the Great Depression.  The results in personal terms have been difficult and sometimes devastating, with many thousands of people out of work and unable to pay their bills, and even those retaining good jobs are psychologically affected by the uncertainty and panic.  One of the ways we deal with the discomfort and stress is by taking comfort in the belief that it somehow doesn’t matter, buying into the unhealthy claim that the physical world is somehow only an illusion and the consequences of our actions and choices less important.

One such news-bedeviled student of mine pulled me aside to ask a question that was weighing on him.  “Times are terrible,” he prefaced, citing the shorter hours of work he now gets and listing some of the things he’s now afraid to buy, “but that’s only on the physical plane, right?”

What he wanted was for me to affirm what he’d recently been reading, that all that truly matters is ethereal and disembodied, existing on a higher plane unbeholden to the principles of physics, unaffected by the specter of hunger, the needs of the flesh, the limitations of human effort and enterprise.

In reality, the physical plane is more than setting, housing and vehicle, it is a tangible and directed extension and fruiting of spirit – of the connective anima – and not an alternative to it.  It’s where spirit is evident and channeled, manifest and substantial, embodied and actualized.  Matter – substance, body, being – matters.  It has significance and purpose, even if we are sometimes confused or overwhelmed by the requirements of the physical world and the responsibilities of conscious life.  Our lives and bodies are valuable and useful, with any suffering or struggle a price worth paying for the opportunity to not only be consciously aware of but actively participating in the ongoing co-creation of the world we’re an inseparable part of.

It matters then, how healthy our bodies, the exercise we get, the quality of the food we eat.  It matters what we live in, not the size and grandiosity of our houses but the precious materials they are constructed of, the history they hold, the warmth and shelter they provide.  The land matters in the region where we live, our health and the health of other beings dependent on its well being, the undepleted and unpolluted water sources, the relationships between microbe and soil, soil and plant, plant and human.  The wholesale clearcutting of some American forests matters, as does our purchase of electricity produced with coal mined in ways that wounds the earth.  And the garden we plant, the hand we hold, the care we give, the stands we take.  It matters what we do, if we harm, ignore or help.  And while it may be comforting to think otherwise, it does indeed matter that the homes we are buying may have been jeopardized by free wheeling investment strategies, that the cost of food and gasoline generally rises, that not everyone’s career is secure.  These are matters worthy of concern and response… but we have far more to feel blessed by and thankful for.

Odd as it may sound, in real terms this country is just as wealthy today as it was before the drop in stock prices.  For all the panic and scramble, we still woke up to an America blessed with as many fertile farm fields and polished plows as the week before.  With about the same amount of corn rows, accessible minerals, forests, and mechanic’s snap-on wrenches.  The same number of experienced workers and craftsmen, capable musicians and caring nurses, libraries full of knowledge and mothers with their children’s best interests at heart.  While money and especially credit may be harder to come by right now, most of us have running vehicles, food on our table and enough clothes in our closets to keep us warm (if no longer in style) for a lifetime.

Even if the economy were to do the highly unlikely thing and completely collapse, as a few alarmists are predicting, most of us would prove rich enough in the material reality of our lives to survive for a long time without enjoying further factory output.  As the people of post-embargo Cuba have shown, there are sufficient car parts to keep already existing vehicles running, and likely for so long as there is fuel remaining.  The rag-pickers of India or Mexico City prove on a daily basis how much real value there is in even the discards of the better off, scouring dumps for usable metal, seeing old or ripped clothes as sources of valuable material.  And marooned sailors on uninhabited islands have more than once come to realize how lucky they were to have gathered from the shore “junk” plastic containers capable of carrying water in, wire to fashion into an effective fish hook, or frayed cloth from which they could separate and withdraw long handy sections of golden threads.

I actually predict that there will be another long period of economic growth before the next (most likely environmentally determined) challenge to its viability.  But even if I’m wrong and we’re at the brink of awful and irrevocable contraction, we are for the most part each rich in tools as well as potential tools, in object waiting to be recycled for new uses, in raw or separable materials along with the knowhow to utilize them in the innovate new ways our needs and situation dictate.  In this country overall, we are still amazingly rich in soil capable of producing life giving food, in spite of the damage done to it by depletion, herbicides and pesticides.  We’re rich in able bodies, in easily aroused community spirit, in individual vision, strength, resilience and fortitude.  In structures, that if maintained could long keep us out of the rain.  Money may be still owed on the family van, but in total economic collapse we would still have it to at least store our well earned produce in.

My point isn’t to suggest taking comfort in the idea of a primitive, make-do survivalist existence, which few of us may ever have to experience… but to feel secure in who we are and what exists under and around us.  Whatever else happens in the future, the world will not be suddenly pulled out from under us for the reason that we both inhabit and contain it.   We don’t have to suffer the great psychological need for a safety net as much, when we fully take-in how resourceful we humans really are in this physical realm, as well as how much materia we civilized people manage and will dependably retain.  It is an awful illusion to imagine that we are for whatever reasons not up the task, that we don’t have enough of what is most needed, and what we do have is about to be taken away.

And most of all, I wish for you to know how unhelpful it is to imagine that what we are, have, love and live on is anything but real and significant, worthy of our best efforts to embody, actualize and protect.  It would not be right to disavow love, just because one is in danger of losing it.  It is equally foolish and debilitating to devalue or trivialize the physical and material, life or even our homes and base belongings just because these things may be mortal, precarious or under threat.  To my student seeking solace in detachment and transcendence, I pointed out all the ways in which his life and times were anything but “terrible” as he had described, and the wondrous ways in which spirit is manifest on and realized through the – admittedly tenuous and subject to change – physical plane.

My predicted economic upturn may be a while in coming, but that doesn’t mean there is any less reason for hope.  The key to getting past our unease isn’t the likelihood that prosperous times will come again, or even that we and our government will figure out all the right tricks… though we may well.  It’s coming to sense in the very foundations of our being the irrefutable ways that we are prosperous right now in the middle of the worst downturn in decades, rich in who we are and what we need most to go on, prosperous not just in the ways of spirit but in the well measured material reality of our earthen lives.

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(You are encouraged to post and share this piece as you like…)

This month’s blogparty is, by far, our biggest yet!  An impressive range of subjects and authors have gifted us with their wisdom, recipes, experience and wonderings.

So here we are, a wonderful array of perspectives on Sweet Medicine! I hope you all enjoy these many sharings and take the time to try and taste some of the delicious and intriguing recipes and ideas.

And to all who participated, a warm thank you! I look forward to many more blogparties with all of you.

Sarah Head of Tales of a Kitchen Herbwife had given us an excellent overview of many sweet medicines, complete with a whole slew of yummy and often ingenious recipes. 

Susan of Farm at Coventry has a gorgeous post on Exploring the Electuary.

My own post on Sweet Medicine covers a wide variety of herbal Elixirs, Cordials, Oxymels, Infused Wines and many other treats.

Karen Vaughan talks about sweet medicine in her excellent monograph of  Turmeric.

The infamous Henriette has posted a summary of her favorite past posts on sweet medicines, including a lovely one on spruce shoot syrup that I’m very fond of.

Cory’s Aquarian Bath blog explores the many benefits of Garlic Honey.

Goddess Garden Healing writes about syrups, and shares a very delicious sounding Elder Rose Syrup recipe.

Darcey Blue has given us a fascinating look at what the sweet taste really means in traditional medicine and what its healing properties are, in addition to a wonderful recipe for her Sweet Melissa Divine honey.

Lady Barbara’s Garden shares a wonderful way of immersing ourselves in the magic of sweet medicine, all night long!

Rosalee of Methow Valley Herbs talks about her delightful journey with the multi-faceted medicine of Chamomile.

Kristine of Dancing in a Field of Tansy gives a great overview of syrups, complete with a recipe and insights into using specific herbs for the syrups.

Green Man Ramblings offers an intuitive look at how glycerin can bring out the traditional divinatory aspects of Yarrow.

Giuli of the rewilding/bioregional blog, Toby’s People, shared her introductory thoughts about and inspirations for working with herbal honeys.

Amanda writes about a non-edible, but still very sweet medicine in her post on herbal creams.

Yael of dirttime.org discusses different ways of preserving the growing season’s bounty.

The lovely Kristena of Dreamseeds generously shares her adventures with Wild Hyssop with us.

Ananda tops it all off with a beautiful post on sensual Sweet Oil, mmmm.

and a last minute addition from Loving Landbase on the wonders of Monarda Honey!

and finally, a wonderful addition from Gail Faith Edwards on the virtues and properties of Honey

 1st Annual Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference
September 17th-19th, 2010
Santa Fe, NM (at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu)

 For those of you who’ve been keeping up with the Anima blog, are friends with me on FB or following me on Twitter, you’ve already read about the beginning stages of the herbal conference Wolf and I are organizing for Sept. 2010. If you haven’t, then this announcement might come as a surprise. Either way, here it is, the official description and initial details for the upcoming 1st (of many, I hope) Annual Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference.

The conference will be held in the amazing high desert landscapes near Santa Fe, New Mexico that have inspired artists, writers and naturalists the world over. Taking place at one of Georgia O’Keefe’s favored painting locations, the Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, participants will be immersed in the Southwest’s raw natural beauty and surrounded by the very landscapes that illuminate much of O’Keefe’s most well-loved work.

Above, you’ll see TWHC’s gorgeous new logo, custom-made for the conference by Wolf’s loving (and very talented) hands. Combining a variety of vibrant elements and motifs from Western Herbalism’s many traditions and landscapes, it provides an emblem for the underlying foundations of the energetic healing practices of Europe and the Americas.

I’m so excited for this new adventure in bringing together existing herbal community and inspiring important new voices! While we don’t often travel far from our beloved canyon home, Wolf and I feel strongly that this conference is a worthy investment of our limited time and resources, and are so happy to be able to share this opportunity with you. We hope to see many of you there!

We’ll have a website up with details on how to attend, vendor or sponsor the event very soon! If you’d like to help sponsor the event or volunteer your help in organizing and putting together TWHC, please write me at kiva@traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

~~~~~

Your Invitation to Attend:

The 1st Annual Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference

We invite you to attend an exciting new conference celebrating the diverse traditions that make up Western Herbalism. TWH fulfills the need for a gathering together of many of our time’s most vital voices into a single forum to provide inspiration and knowledge to a growing population of herbal students of all levels. This is a unique event with special emphasis placed on experiential learning and hands-on understanding. Our teachers speak from the voice of experience and practice rather than theory, resulting in powerful instruction and insight based on real life work.

TWH is committed to grassroots herbalism with a strong bioregional and energetic focus. Melding common sense practicality with spiritual and indigenous sensibilities, the practice of our trade with the lessons of the natural world. Today’s plant-based healers are the most recent in a long line of herbwives, root doctors, yerberas, mountain men, curanderos, grannywomen and village herbalists that stretch back through time and across cultures. From the hills of Appalachia to the shores of Cornwall, the rainforests of the Amazon to the mesas and canyons of the Southwest, we are walking in the footsteps of our ancestors to bring together people and plants at a time when such work has never before been so necessary and urgent.

We will be exploring the evolving traditions of Western herbalism through presentations, workshops, classes, panel discussions, intensives, plant walks and much more! Join us for an unforgettable immersion in a compelling blend of traditional wisdom and innovative new approaches.

Perfect for beginning herbal enthusiasts and experienced practitioners alike

In addition to what Rhiannon mentions, there is also a wonderful review by herbalist, mama and Medicine Woman student, Angie Goodloe on her great blog, Authentic Mama that you’ll want to check out.
-Kiva

Hi Everybody!  Thank you to all the people from all over the world who have bought my book!  I love you so much!

Mama Kiva says it makes a huge difference to book sales if there are lots of good reviews on the Amazon dot com site, so PLEASE if you have read it and liked it, go to the Amazon Site and say a few words.  It really doesn’t have to be that long, and you don’t have to try to be all literrary or anything!

 (A Note from Mama Kiva: We’ll soon be listed as a seller on Amazon, so if you do post a review, please mention that signed copies can be purchased from the author through Amazon.)

Here is the first wonderful one posted there, by Danu Gray Wolf.  You write really well too!  Thank you Danu, you’re so sweet!

“Jesse Wolf Hardin has written the perfect story for little earth children, no matter our ages. I was one of the first lucky people to receive this book, and I can honestly see children of all ages (as well as adults) loving this story and reading it repeatedly for years. The art is excellent, and the herb game at the end of the book is very interesting and challenging.  Not only does this book have a very inspiring quality, but it is also very interactive, and it is written from a perspective of a parent’s great love and respect for the inner wisdom of his child.  5+ Stars!!!”

Just click here to go to the Amazon Site and read this review and 7 more!

Or you can do a search for I’m a Medicine Woman Too!    THANK YOU SO MUCH!

-Love to everyone,
Rhiannon Hardin (River Otter and Canyon Protector!)