Embark on a slide deck journey as we explore seven incredible plant allies that enhance cognitive well-being. This enlightening experience will inform, inspire, and empower you to embrace herbs as a lifestyle on a path to a sharper, more focused, and clearer mind. Don’t miss this engaging and transformative adventure! This workshop was presented at the 2024 Spring Herbal Conference.

In this workshop, explore how the Hygienic Approach to Health, Mediterranean Diet, and Apothecary can improve health and wellbeing. Attendees will learn about common herbs and foods from the region, gaining a deeper understanding of their physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits. Learn a fresh perspective on underutilized, accessible healers.

Explore the history and medicinal uses of Verbena hastata. This hands-on session offers a chance to taste Blue Vervain in tea and tincture form and experiment with a unique flour made from its dried seeds. Discover how this remarkable herb can be used as a stand-alone remedy to support both body and spirit.

Life at any age and stage has its challenges and stressors. This workshop discussed how stress impacts our bodies and the herbs that can help build resilience to both physical and mental stresses. Gain a better understanding of adaptogen history, use, archetype, and preparations. Learn practical applications for these herbs and leave with a newfound appreciation for herbal adaptogens.

This workshop will help intermediate and advanced mushroomers expand their edible mushroom repertoire to include gilled mushrooms. Edibility guidelines and cautions will be provided for dozens of gilled mushrooms, with an emphasis on the most common, delicious, and readily-identifiable species in the Midwest. We will start with the easiest gilled mushrooms, advancing to some of the more challenging groups and species

Three hours to focus on keeping ourselves well as we age: - To include recent research into ageing - Practical ways to put into weekly/daily practice - Taking care of ourselves, our senses, our bones, our blood, our brain, our skin - Nourishing our inner lives and more. Notes included.

This is a case study presentation on my journey as a caregiver and herbalist for my mother over a 10-year period. We will explore research, current medications, ideas, protocols, herbals, food, nutrition, and behavioral challenges. I will share problem solving ideas, health promoting situations, and personal experiences including my favorite formula, “Elder Respect”.

Where do our American herbs originate? Weren’t our plants all burned up in the Chicxulub asteroid impact 60,000 years ago? Join us for a fascinating romp through phytogeography research as we discover how ginseng and other American medicinal plants got here.

Herbs are living beings that grow and flourish in specific conditions. They nurture and heal us. Herbs have inherent characteristics that make them speed metabolism up or down, direct them inward or outward, clear infection and inflammation, or warm us. They affiliate with certain organ systems. We will explore these energetic properties, asking the herbs to share the benefits of their wisdom and experience.

Do you find yourself working to identify mushrooms but end up feeling stuck and discouraged in the process? Together, we’ll cover frequently used terminology found in field guides/keys as well as how to break down & remember taxonomic names in an approachable way. We'll practice field skills such as: photography for ID purposes, taking measurements, using loupes/dissecting microscopes and more.

Join us for a study of autumn season activities for harvesting. Roots and cuttings and so many wonderful things happening during the deepening time. We will discuss the great boon of mycelial networks to the permaculture landscape and why having no-till areas of perennial return is so important.

This is a broad introduction to the benefits of mushrooms for our gardens and our bodies as well as a brief glimpse into how our planet has evolved with the help of these poorly understood organisms. Topics include general characteristics of mushrooms, their life cycle, medicinal properties of common mushrooms, how to grow them in your garden & how we are starting to work with these organisms to help heal the world.

Learn how to utilize the healing properties of flowers to create products to nurture your skin! Participants will learn about a variety of materials to make a facial/body scrub, toner, or moisturizer. Learn to create your own unique and personalized self-care item.

Rebekah Dawn is a community herbalist, crisis counselor, artist, and death doula. Join in for an interview exploring death as a vital stage to our human growth and development, how we can make friends with our mortality. Learn the skills of grief, and how grief might actually make our lives more joyful!

The birch polypore has medicine that we can all access. In this workshop, build your relationship with this special mushroom by learning about its medicine in community. In addition to learning, we will make a salve together that you'll be able to take home to continue your relationship with birch polypore.

We will cover the at- risk list, how to become a botanical sanctuary, the forest grown program, the Duke ethnobotanical archives and library, deep ecology fellowship program and so much more. Come with questions and leave with inspiration for a deep relationship with native medicinals. We will create block prints of at risk plants.

This class focuses on the multiple forms that digestive disorders can take, and how to manage them with nutrition and herbal medicine. We will discuss gut dysbiosis and its causes, and the many highly effective traditional solutions. We will particularly focus on Chrohn’s disease, ulcerative colititis, GERD, and celiac disease.

Welcome to the wonderful world of botany, where we uncover the elegant intricacies of patterns-based plant identification. We’ll explore basic flower and leaf anatomy and some key family patterns.

We’ll practice using a flora to “key out” plants, or to look a plant up to its species name. Keying out a plant allows for more clarity and confidence in medicine making. We’ll be walking and sitting, spending time with just a few plants. Some general knowledge of plant characteristics is helpful in understanding the content of this workshop. Please bring a loupe and flora, if you have one.

Learn botanical identification terminology by observing, dissecting, then drawing flowers and leaves. We will explore patterns and family characteristics to create pattern recognition sheets that serve as templates for continued self study and creative exploration. Focusing on field botany, we will walk a little, and stop often. Please bring a journal (unlined pages preferred)

Cannabis has moved from the underground counterculture to the regulated mainstream. The cannabis industry promotes the herb as a cure-all for everything from cancer to PTSD. Come discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of the corporate takeover of cannabis. Lets also talk about herbs that combine well with cannabis and the many, many herbs that can be used to heal conditions now commonly treated with cannabis.

Join veteran herbalist and social worker/case manager Linda Conroy for this engaging and useful presentation. Everyone will leave with an understanding of the role of a case manager, an understanding of the practical skills necessary for effective support, and resources for continuing to develop case management/advocacy skills. This presentation will be rooted in the field of social work and will be client-centered.

Come learn about the medicine that chaga offers to us and the world. With all that is has to offer, we will also talk about conservation and responsible harvest of this special fungus. In this workshop, a Materia Medica will be shared with participants that they can take home. We will make tea and something to take home with chaga in it, as we create relationship with the chaga and each other.

Cosmetic body art may be the earliest form of ritual in human culture! From Nefertiti to Jezebel and Esther, women have enjoyed decorating their eyes and skin with charcoal and clay. This workshop is your opportunity to learn how to make and apply your own clay-based eye liner / mascara, as well as bronzer and blush. You'll leave with a tin of your own custom made, earth-based, essential-oil-free paste.

This singing workshop focuses on chants for the female life cycle that can be included in a variety of women’s rituals. From birth to death, including the uterine blood mysteries of menses and menopause, this workshop celebrates the power of the female body.

This workshop covers the basics of small-scale chicken keeping and brings a natural perspective to chicken care. This workshop does not include anything about chickens for meat production, but rather focuses on chickens as pets and as part of the family.

In the face of deep poverty and great challenges, compassion, determination and friendship has lead to over 100,000 individuals having access to clean water in Guinea, West Africa. Learn about Motherland Rhythm Community’s ongoing BioSand Water (BSF) filter initiative which is transforming lives in West Africa. BSFs are based on traditional slow sand filters removing pathogens and suspended solids from water.

Together, Damiana and I have written a master’s dissertation and peer-reviewed academic articles, as well as personal essays and poems together. Learn what it means to enter into relationship with plants and how we enter that call, whatever it may look like. We will explore what it means for our emergence to be relational, and what Damiana has taught me about what it means to be a plant and what it means to be human.

Establish profound connections with plants without words. Unlock dormant senses, immerse in nature, gain insight into the intricate bond between plants and humans. Explore value in a personal "sit spot" and the rewards of mindful observation. We will delve into the therapeutic properties and energy of plants. Embrace this enchanting workshop and tap into the silent dialogue between humans and the botanical world.

Communication is often tricky for women, and needs to start with how we talk to ourselves. Through discussion, interactive exercises and reflection we will first learn to shift our relationship with ourselves. For the latter part of the workshop we will establish a number of strategies for bringing our authentic selves to relationship with friends, family and community.

Understanding how our minds got “here” can increase our sense of efficacy (“I am confident”), agency (“I am able”), and compassion (“I am worthy”). Reviewing landmark research on ACES and resiliency, we will calculate our ACE and resiliency scores, learn what it says about our health and target areas to focus. We’ll look at the results of this work in under-resourced communities and the take-aways for us all.

Join this experiential Women’s Circle to access the wisdom of our everyday plant allies for support, healing, and guidance. We gather to connect our hearts to the plants we use every day. We open to the guidance of our hearts, that still small voice within, adding to our learned wisdom for health, healing, and vibrancy. This is a co-created circle/workshop, so please bring your full self, a smile, and your open mind.

Learn to prepare Přivařenka, a beloved South Bohemian mushroom and dill soup that captures the essence of Czech comfort food. This dish combines wild mushrooms, dill, and eggs in a rich, creamy broth. Whether you're looking to explore Czech culinary traditions or enhance your mushroom cooking skills, this workshop will teach you tips and techniques for making this authentic, wholesome dish.

First, we will look at the trees and their place in the world. Then, how they shape their environs, what that means to humans in the interface with these three trees, and how engaging the trees' energy from the ground up changes both people and place.

In this hands-on workshop, you will learn to create your very own field mushroom journal for capturing notes, drawings, spore prints, and more.

A fun make-and-take activity for women of all skill levels. Lean how to take dried pressed herbs and flowers and preserve them under under a glass cabochon. Then we will set the cabochon into a metal pendant setting and string it on a cord necklace that can be kept and worn as a momento of the weekend.

This workshop will inspire you in your journey of creating your home apothecary. You will learn basic equipment and supplies to keep on hand, how to properly store your herbs and tinctures, and the importance of labeling and record keeping. You will leave this workshop with ideas and knowledge to create and maintain a functional and well-organized space for all of your herbal creations.

Women's space is powerful and needed in women's lives. This class will equip you to offer women's circles for the women in your life and have more structure for your own personal practice. You will learn about holding space for women, the lineage of the Red Tent, the basic structure of ritual creation, tips about facilitating ritual, how to set up the physical space, as well as songs, chants, and meditations.

Some of our most sustainable, accessible, and tasty herbal medicines are culinary herbs and spices with thousands of years of human use for health and medicine. Explore how to use these powerful medicines in delicious food preparations with therapeutic doses, and some of the research and tradition behind their use. It is beautiful medicine!

In this workshop we will discuss which of our endangered botanical woodland friends can be easily grown under existing trees or in shady backyard corners using permaculture techniques for low maintenance and plant resilience. We will show photographs of my endangered botanical beds and describe all the triumphs and woes of getting a healthy plant community established.

We will discuss mushroom wisdom, the carbon cycle, and our place in it. We will examine why our culture is so resistant to death, and at what cost. Join us for a deep dive into what it means to be human, and how the mushrooms are amazing teachers for living and dying in peace.

In this workshop, participants will read thought-invoking prompts. These questions will open us up to our own beliefs, edges and experiences around Death, creating a container for contemplative heart-opening connection. With multiple rounds, everyone will be able to pair with different participants with varying experiences and perspectives and drop us into heartfelt contemplations.

Learn about this delicious edible mushroom that has been cultivated in China since 1100 AD and in the US since 1972. Shiitake is more than a tasty mushroom; it has properties that help mitigate arthritis symptoms, diabetes, cholesterol, and immune deficiency. Ingrid will share her knowledge about log-grown shiitake mushrooms and several ways to incorporate them into your diet.

Long before St John's Wort was deemed helpful for depression, It was used to perform exorcisms! Alas, its medicinal properties extend far beyond this single use. In this workshop, we will explore this plant ally by learning its signatures and then discussing how these simple clues have led to many amazing uses, told through actual case histories from 30 years of practice.

Join Gina Rivers, MycoHerbalist and formulator, in an exploratory discovery of what makes the “functional” in “functional mushrooms”. From polysaccharides to triterpenes – you will leave with a thorough understanding of these amazing compounds, many of which are unique to the world of fungi.

Food is medicine. Explore the Five Flavors (五味) of Chinese medicine and how they connect with the Five Elements (五行) and Five Seasons. Your everyday spices and cooking methods are healing allies. Fold herbs into your kitchen cabinet, refine your kitchen witch skills, and have fun kitchen witchin’ through the seasons!

Latin is an old dead language, which makes it understandably intimidating; yet, it has some pretty standard and straightforward rules. Knowing common Latin terms tells you a lot about a species, and some of it is actually fairly intuitive. In this workshop you'll learn the basics of Latin grammatical forms and the etymology behind commonly used terms in a round table session, rather than a lecture with a PowerPoint.

A Materia Medica is a valuable reference providing important information about plants. It includes traditional and contemporary knowledge about a plant’s growth patterns, beneficial actions, uses, contraindications, and safety guidelines. Learn ways to compile and research this information and how to format your own personalized herbal monographs that will help you learn about each plant you use or plan to use.

Explore the health benefits and effects of Bitters! Beyond improving digestion, this constituent has actions in the respiratory tract, reproductive tract, immune health, and more. Dive into the world of bitters and the plants that contain them. This workshop will include a discussion of the health effects of bitters and how to harness the healing properties in everyday life, as well as a tasting of herbal bitters.

Have you thought about what else you might be able to grow if you have a garden that is too shady for tomatoes? What about an area you would like to enhance with mycelium to get healthier crops of vegetables while also growing and harvesting mushrooms. Come learn techniques to add diversity to your gardens and improve your soil health by adding funga to your landscapes.

Ever had a question about fungi like this and felt you couldn't possibly approach it yourself? This presentation and workshop will cover how to seek out academic literature on mycological topics, how to evaluate these different sources of information, and reading with an intent to answer your own questions on fungi.

We'll explore plants historically used to enhance dreaming, support restful sleep, and open intuitive channels. Learn about specific herbs, their traditional uses, and simple preparations that can be incorporated into their own dream practices. Join us for a practical dive into plant allies that bridge the waking world with the realm of dreams, informed by generations of Southern Italian folk medicine.

Sarah will talk you through interesting aspects of the mushroom edibility display. Learn about mushroom diagnostic features, habitat associations, foraging and cooking tips, and much more. We will also discuss the (often surprising) genetic relationships of fungi, using a printed phylogenetic tree showing the evolutionary relationships of hundreds of mushroom genera.

Learn what to collect and where to find them. A fun introduction to identifying dozens of edible, medicinal and dye mushroom species, progressing from Spring to Fall to Winter. Including look-alike species and poisonous mushrooms. Participants will learn the basics of mushroom identification and gain the courage to safely forage wild mushrooms.

Come learn about the herstory and emerging therapeutic potential of the psilocybe as well as how to discern what is safe and responsible use.

We will explore ways we can contribute to supporting the health of the places where mushrooms grow. We will begin with a grounding presentation about environmental challenges happening locally and more broadly, share stories about actions we have taken, or plan to take, to help ensure the mycelium world will thrive into the next generations.

Learn about the roles and services of end of life doulas and using raw elements of music to respond to various patient conditions. Liz Franklin and Susan Nesbit will share personal stories from their work. In the second half of the workshop a death dialogue will be facilitated where we will open the circle to discuss topics related to death and dying. A safe space will be created and held for sharing and listening.

Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses. Herbs are at the center of ethnobotany traditions, in many of our cultural heritages. This workshop will explore some of those herbal traditions.

Fungi are the great connectors of the forest. They often form relationships with other organisms that are beneficial to both. The Wood Wide Web is a great example of how fungi pair with tree roots to form an incredible network that provides benefit to both fungi and trees involved. In this workshop, we’ll explore symbiosis in the forest and in our own lives as well.

This is an illustrated talk about making a community sourced-cookbook, and the lessons I’ve drawn from testing hundreds of mushroom recipes, to wit, how and why mushrooms behave differently in the kitchen than other foods.

Calendula, one of the easiest herbs to grow, is useful in so many ways! In advance of this summer's harvest, come to this workshop to learn 10 recipes and applications of this vital plant for beauty and vitality. A Recipe handout is included.

The Voice is the oldest and most complex instrument to have existed. Let’s learn to treasure and nurture our unique voice! Now, more than ever, we need to confidently speak and sing our truths. This introductory class will teach basic exercises that help warm up the body, strengthen the breath, exercise the voice, develop the ear, match pitch, develop tone quality, and shape and define your vowels and consonants.

Bring a drum, other percussion instrument or just your own body to join Ayo as she goes over some basics of rhythm and drumming.

Learn some of the quick-acting and incredibly useful applications of gentle (and some some stronger-acting) herbs that address issues that either arise quickly, conventional medicine does not have a resolution for, are reasonably dealt with at home, or one might encounter in a wilderness or first aid situation. Be prepared. Don't just speculate.

Wu xing (五行), or the Five Elements, form one of the core principles of Chinese medicine. Guided by movement, sound, and the flavor of a representative herb, we will journey around the Five Phase cycle, exploring the primary associations with each phase, including direction, season, emotion, spirit, meridians, energetics, and personality.

Nettle is a wonderful herb to get to know – for both healing and nourishment! Learn about the medicinal and nutritional aspects of this often maligned plant and make a delicious dish with a recipe to take home!

By learning to cultivate wild mushrooms from our local woodlands, we can bypass the need to buy commercial spawn and safeguard against the introduction of non-native invasive mushroom species. We’ll leverage low-tech techniques to create spawn from native fungi and discuss strategies for small-scale home grow set-ups.

Drawing from her own experiences, Caro offers practical strategies and techniques to cultivate curiosity in artmaking and deepen our relationship with the natural world. How can we dive deeper into our personal relationships with non-human kin? How can we become citizen scientists and explore nature in our own ways?

Learn a harm reduction approach to assist individuals experiencing chronic alcohol consumption and the detoxification and recovery process. Explore herbal remedies that provide organ protection against the effects of chronic use & examine research on herbs that facilitate the body's natural alcohol elimination pathways. Discuss nourishing herbal connections that promote the restoration of recovery & vibrant health.

How do mushrooms manage to forcibly eject spores with accelerations in excess of 10,000 G? From birth to sex to reproduction, this lecture will dive into the life and times of mushroom-forming fungi. We’ll hark back to Bio 101 to review some basic genetic concepts while exploring mushroom life cycles and the weird and wonderful ways that different types of mushrooms disperse spores.

We will explore the connections between fungi and the feminine throughout history. Uncover the mysteries of the birth of human spirituality, and how fungi have helped women to mother the development of society on a global scale. Meet the brilliant women of the past few centuries who changed how science viewed females and fungi. We will discuss the ever evolving role of women in the field of mycology today.

Learn the basics of designing a garden: site selection, soil preparation, and the variations between formal and informal gardening. Theme garden designs are suggested. This class expands the mind to engage the senses for creating a space to spark creativity, gratitude and reciprocity.

Want to incorporate mushrooms into your existing garden beds? Join Roxanne as she sparks ideas and gives examples of how to bring fungal friends in to play harmoniously with your plant pals.

Knowing that greens, beans, minerals, and protein are 'so good for you' is one thing, but teaching clients, friends, and family members why certain foods are called cardio-protective, cancer preventive, or ant-inflammatory means more to the kind skeptics. Certain herbs are mineral rich, and we love that, but learn a bit more about why we care and what medicinal and nutritive actions these fabulous herbs claim.

Learn how to make Ayurveda’s healthy fat of choice: ghee! Ghee has been used for generations in India to enhance digestion and nutrition and nourish the skin. You'll see how simple it is to make your own, whip up nourishing tonics, and use as a natural moisturizer. Bring a little glass jar with a lid if you want to bring some home.

We will do a vision board about your dream business or practice. We will walk through some questions to determine the best place to start, what might be missing in your business to reach your desired goal, and what rituals, herbs, and practices can help you overcome your challenges and fears to help you shine in your business!

For established or in-progress business owners, project starters, creatives. We will apply the principles & ethics of permaculture to the world of herbal business, project creation and beyond! We can utilize the tools and framework of permaculture design to map our individual stories, uncover our soul work & recognize the value of community support as we undergo this journey in putting our work out into the world.

What kind of garden can offer nourishment for people, beneficial wildlife habitat, lower maintenance needs, and beauty all at the same time? A garden of edible native plants! Learn some nutritious and delicious native crops, and how to grow them so that they support pollinators, birds, healthy soil, and much more. Audio Recording from 2017 Spring Herbal Conference Live Event with Judy Speer.

The native habitat for many plants is dwindling. Plants that were once abundant are over-harvested and fighting to survive. We can help protect these plants by learning to grow them in our yards, and learning how to ethically harvest. We will focus on identifying, harvesting and planting roots and fall seed plantings.

Discover the latest breakthroughs in mycotechnology that show how mushrooms and their hidden body of mycelium may repair environmental disasters, reverse species decimation, even combat potential epidemics. Cultivate a new understanding of how applied mycology can create a better future for our pollinators, for us, and for our beloved Mother Earth!

Join Abigail on a meditative voyage to commune with the ancestral wisdom nestled within our sacred womb space. This somatic experience invites participants to receive messages from their ancestors, unlocking the profound truths held within. By honoring the cyclical essence of our wombs, we can forge potent connections to the wisdom of those who came before us.

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis, which controls our stress response and hormone levels like cortisol, influences brain function and gut health. When this system is overstressed, it can disrupt our gut bacteria, leading to issues like brain fog, anxiety, and depression. Explore how adaptogens and nourishing food support this system to restore balance and promote healing.

Barbara will share some of the creative and practical “systems” she uses when processing plants and herbs for food, health and vitality. Come for an introduction to getting more from your harvest, and leave with a framework for extending the life-cycle in your own kitchen and apothecary, including a personalized set of approaches to begin your daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal second life-style.

This exploration weaves together the connection between food and herbs as medicine, the healing power of nature, and health. Herbal Medicine and Food as Medicine are familiar modalities we seek and embrace. How the food and herbs are grown and processed not only impacts our health, but also the natural world. Respecting and interacting with nature offers additional healing benefits.

A great way to learn about and from our medicinal herbs is to watch them grow throughout the year's cycle. It's great fun to harvest seeds on a crisp fall day as we watch the plants get ready for winter. We will try our hand at several seed collecting methods, and talk about harvesting, storing, and planting our seeds. Then we can spend the winter dreaming about seeds sprouting next spring.

There are many ways to preserve plants for future use. Determining optimal time to harvest herbs and techniques for drying them to maintain peak therapeutic qualities can be tricky. Some herbs need to be dried quickly with added heat while others degrade quickly with that method. Learn which herbs do best with different drying techniques.

Explore the healing nature of Homeopathic remedies in the garden. Are your plants healthy? Is the pH of your soil too high/low? Having trouble with pests destroying your plants? Learn how to handle it in a more natural way and how Homeopathic remedies can help heal the energy of your garden. The emerging science behind its healing aid with plants and our soil is just emerging.

Many laws impact herbalists, whether it be state practice acts that may limit the ability to practice a healing art without conventional licensing, or federal and state product laws, including labeling or health claims issues that may restrict free speech or signs and symbols. In this workshop you’ll learn basic concepts to assist in educating herbalists on these issues.

Have you wondered what plants you might be able to use when you have bumps and scrapes? Learn about four common plant allies that have different actions that can help many small injuries – from bee stings to mosquito bites to small scrapes. We will make a herbal first-aid roller bottle.

Learn, simple, yet deep, practices of communicating with the plants and the earth. Discover ways to honor the elemental beings of the land. Create a nourishing life, gathering herbs and crafting them for healing. Strengthen your intuition through connections with your surrounding. Hear stories of the plants from our land and their wisdom and healing—wild rose, nettle, dandelion, apple etc.

An overview of various medicinal glycosides, including the notorious cyanogenic glycosides, the stimulant anthraquinones, and the cancer-scavenging isothyocyanates. What kind of reactions need to happen for glycosides to release their medicine? Why are some glycosides deadly? Specific attention is focused on toxicological concerns, and considerations for preparing glycoside-based foods and remedies.

How can a modern herbalist learn to distinguish between apparently authentic, but ultimately inaccurate information from reliable sources based on experience, practical tradition, and research? Several herbal tall tales will be deconstructed and traced back to their origins, and the actual virtues and actions of the herbs in question will be offered. We’ll learn skills for investigation, verification or debunking.

As the summer approaches, let's find balance in our relationship with the sun! We'll discuss philosophies and strategies of sun exposure, talk about herbal and folk remedies for the times we get too much, and then craft an herbal sunscreen together. Participants will leave everything they need to know to craft their own!

Mary Lou will share knowledge gathered from 15 years of urgent care experience with the goal of keeping you and your loved ones healthy and out of urgent care. We will learn to evaluate and herbally treat the most common ailments seen in the urgent care setting: sore throats, sinus infections, fevers, coughs, wheezing, wounds, and joint injuries.

Effective resistance requires endurance, resilience, and the discipline to stay healthy through stress and challenges. We'll explore herbal remedies, spiritual practices, nourishing foods, and self-care tools to create a heart-healing toolkit for navigating tough times. Prioritizing self-care, being prepared, and embracing support are essential for overcoming adversity and empowering ourselves and the world.

Through a lens of Black and feminist frameworks, we will learn how herbs can be utilized daily and intentionally to support our human nervous systems. We will expand our capacity to access our breath for transformation and explore how herbs can be used in simple yet effective ways to create healing spaces. The focus will be on healing for women, black people, brown people, and communities of color.

How can herbs effect the brain? They can enhance mood, make us more alert, and even make us smarter! Over the centuries, people have used herbs for all of these brainy reasons and more. Learn how to learn better! Liz Johnson, herbalist, will go over herbs that effect the brain, how to use them, and offer a treat or two with brainy herbs in them. Come and make a brainy brew for yourself.

Learn about particular herbs and foods that enhance digestion and best deliver herbs deep into bodily tissues. When digestion is improved, nutrient absorption is as well. These herbs can be used on their own or combined with other herbs to improve digestibility. We'll cover common Eastern and Western herbs and learn how to combine them in different concoctions for digestive wellness for women and the whole family.

We'll discuss ways our nervous system gets thrown out of balance and how we can use herbs to restore that balance - in daily, restorative ways and when in acute crisis. We'll begin and end with a grounding meditation, in order to practice giving the nervous system some care, and in-between we'll cover a long list of allies ready to help you when the stress of here and now is too much!

Pregnancy, birth and postpartum are times of great power and great vulnerability for women. Plant medicine can help heal and support women as they grow and nurture their babies. Whether you are learning to care for yourself or for the women in your community, this class will help you feel confident using herbal medicine during the childbearing years.

Learn a template to connect and engage with plants on your own and in a different way. Isla Burgess is an internationally renowned herbalist and educator, residing in New Zealand, who has been on a lifelong journey of working with plants. She is the author of Weeds Heal: A Working Herbal, Notes from a Biophilic Garden, Reconnecting People, Plants and Inscape, and Vol. I and II of A Women's Health and Wellbeing Kete.

There are many herbs associated with each planet, and subsequently, with each astrology sign. Herbs were planted and harvested in alignment with what the planets were doing in the sky. Come learn about this ancient framework for understanding the properties of some of our most beloved plants. Kate will also facilitate a group discussion about our own experiences with astrology and herbs.

Learn how to grow 12 medicinal herbs and get more ideas on making herbal preparations. This lecture will include beautiful slides as well as an herb show and tell, a remedy demo, and a garden planning activity with markers and paper.

Learning how to acquire adequate information in an organized fashion and in a reasonable time frame is the plague of most herbal students. Learn from a 40 year experienced herbalist who has quite a few tricks to jump-start your intake growth. Learn how to ask “delicate” questions, and how to get the information you really need.

This introductory workshop offers a concise overview of the multifaceted and nuanced human immune response. We’ll touch on different aspects of the immune system and how these components communicate and work together cohesively. We will discuss various traditional remedies to gently, yet effectively support this vital function in multiple aspects, and you may learn about some new ones too!

Advanced course for the clinical practitioner or formulator who desires to combine herbal therapies with the unique complimentary compounds found in select medicinal species of mushrooms. This course will explore many of the shared classes of compounds found in both the kingdoms of fungi and plantae. We will construct sample herb-mushroom formulas for various supportive purposes.

Any practice, any technique, any substance can be used with the Wise Woman Tradition- but how does the wise woman approach interventive therapies? Learn the best herbs and foods to maximize the effectiveness and minimize the damage of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Come and learn the basics of medicine making. We will talk about remedies, and even experience them, from the simple tisane, to lotions and more. Figuring out which type of remedy to make should be easy, let's take the mystery out of choosing and making herbal medicines together, so that everyone can confidently make the remedies they need for themselves and others.

This course discusses the Chinese Medicine(CM) theory behind tongue and pulse diagnosis. Learn basic CM terms & diagnoses: how they relate to pulse & tongue diagnosis as well as how they relate to modern human physiology. Learn to identify general health conditions via tongue and pulse diagnosis. This is an interactive workshop where you will get a chance to practice your new skills on yourself & other participants.

Learn how Cannabis works as a medicine, a bit about its history, the modern scientific understanding of cannabinoids, and how to craft safe and effective protocols for patients. Learn several conditions where there is good evidence for its use, methods of application, and the importance of varying them for the best coverage of symptoms and to prevent the effect of heightened tolerance that may come with daily use.

If your curiosity has been piqued by the wonderful world of mushrooms and you want to learn more, this is a great intro! Find out about how mushrooms have been used through the centuries for medicine, food, wildcrafting, and more. Learn about some of the interesting species that grow right here in Wisconsin. If you're considering attending Mycelium Mysteries in the fall, this is a great opportunity to learn more.

This workshop offers a female-centered approach to learning about the Elder Futhark runes. It has been suggested by many runic scholars that the written form of runes originate in the dendritic patterns found in our own bodies and throughout Nature. The shape, form, and energetic pattern emanated by each rune is rooted in the mysteries of nature from which this ancient alphabet was derived.

We will look at the super-abundant plants of our area, ambrosia (ragweed), honeysuckle, multi flora rose, black locust, and others if there are volunteers! These plants are highly (annoyingly?) successful, and their Resilient medicine is available for us. Come away with a new appreciation for the raucous and unruly herbal allies who invite us to rethink the scarcity economy.

We routinely hear about invasive plants and animals, but what about mushrooms? Do non-native decomposers like pose a threat to new ecosystems? Golden oysters are native to Asia, and their recent introduction has led to a rapid spread across North American woodlands. This talk will discuss my research into how they got here and spread, and the potential impacts of our intentional movement of fungi around the world.

Lung & Respiratory challenges are a major concern for a growing number of the population. Many are searching for natural support for this delicate organ system. This workshop discusses how to support a healthy immune response & graceful respiratory activity with gentle, yet effective herbal allies. We will also discuss how our fungal friends may be the perfect complement to traditional lung and respiratory remedies.

Dive into the mysteries of Lichens with this Keynote Address from ethnobotanist Patricia Armstrong from the 2022 Mycelium Mysteries Women's Mushroom Conference. Lichens are two plants living as one: are they a mutualistic symbiosis or a controlled parasitism? There are many conflicting theories about lichens. They are both old and young, long-lived yet extremely sensitive to air pollution.

Join us for A Journey through the National Geographic Herbal, where Mimi introduces nine beloved plants—Peach Leaf, Prickly Pear, Sumac, Sunflower, Self-heal, Kudzu, Saw Palmetto, Damiana, and Rooibos. Explore their sensations, uses in kitchen and apothecary, garden allies, forest traditions, and global histories in a captivating celebration of herbal wisdom.

Delve into the fascinating realm of medicinal foods and herbs where vibrant colors represent a cornucopia of bioactive constituents. We'll explore the remarkable actions of these plant pigments, from their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to their broad-spectrum bioprotective effects and their unique role as cell growth normalizers.

In this talk, Sarah will take us on a meander through the world of wild mushrooms, with an eye towards the intricate relationships mushrooms have with a surprising array of wildlife, including, ourselves. Using this lens of ecological awareness, we’ll challenge ourselves as foragers to examine our own role as active stewards of biodiversity, recognizing that natural areas everywhere are in crisis.

In today’s world of rapid technology and unending stimulation, shifting cultures of herbalism compound the difficulty of balancing life's demands in a big loud world. In the face of all this noise, how do we maintain our true connection with the plants themselves? Come reflect on many of the issues facing us today while also honoring the simplicities that make us herbalists.

Because we are passionate about fungi and believe they make our world better it can be difficult to equate a fungus like the Golden Oyster with harm. But the truth is Golden Oysters are invasive and may be damaging the forests we love. I’ll unpack the colonized thinking that continues to dominate our discussions of local biodiversity and talk about how to safeguard our native species

This talk seeks to share what is known, what is knowable, and what is unknowable about the psychoactive properties of Psilocybe species.

We can learn from the rich story of the ancient Sumerian Goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, and her underworld sister Ereshkigal. Their story of power struggle, liberation, and forgiveness requires trust, a bit of grace, and a whole lot of compassion. How might we see these two Goddesses within ourselves? What is possible when we learn to let ourselves off the hook?

In this talk, we'll delve into the sadly short list of ladies who helped advance the science of mycology prior to 1900. We'll learn who they were, what they did, and give them some long overdue thanks!"

What is the story we are weaving for our granddaughters? All of our granddaughters? Will they want to cultivate what we are seeding, in their lives, in the soil, in the world? Sit with Venice Williams as she shares the stories of her ancestral grandmothers, and invites us to explore, more fully, what we are, and may not be, sowing for the women who will follow us.

Barbora will share her personal journey into the fascinating world of mushrooms, highlighting the significance of ethnomycology as a vital field that connects culture, ecology, and culinary heritage. You’ll learn about the historical context of mushroom foraging in Czech society, culturally significant mushroom species, old mushroom legends, and the culinary heritage through traditional Czech mushroom recipes.

Katherine MacLean will trace the development of psilocybin mushroom medicine from its underground, secret, humble beginnings in the hills of what is now called Oaxaca, Mexico through the halls of academia and the social lives of modern Americans, and finally, to its current lofty status as an alleged treasure of the Western corporate pharmacopeia.

Mushrooms could hold the key to humans having a future on this planet. Fungi were some of the first life forms to make land habitable and they’ve already survived five mass extinctions and will most likely survive several more. Could a deeper understanding of Mycelium change our own brains? Perhaps it could change our current way of thinking and help alter our disastrous and self‐destructive trajectory.

Truffle-forming fungi, cryptic, charismatic, and living right here in the Midwest. This includes genera like the genus Tuber with its rich culinary legacy as well as many, many other truffle-forming fungal species with fascinating and important ecological histories. This presentation will explore and introduce you to the diverse fungi which produce truffles and can be found in the Midwest region of North America.

Your menstrual cycle is as unique as you are! Discover the root causes of your period woes through the lens of the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. Learn about the three menstrual types and which food and herb allies may be most supportive.

Robyn encourages everyone to grow their medicines, trade them, and learn herbs that can act as substitutes rather than harvest from the wild. She has been teaching plant identification since 2004 and currently teaches at Montana State University in Bozeman. Robyn's gardens are full of unusual plants from Russia and China. She learned from Dr. Christopher Hobbs and Sevensong, both teachers of plant identification.

Explore new scientific discoveries, clinical trials, clinical reports, and testimonials about the Legendary Lion’s Mane! In this lecture we will discuss how important this phenomenal fungi may be to our neurological system, as well as other body systems. Also reviewed are some of the latest scientific studies that help to uncover the potential of Hericium erinaceus – both the fruiting body and the mycelium.

Music and song underscore our lives. Singing together heals our hearts and strengthens community. Join in the circle to learn and sing simple songs and chants to enhance your magickal and herbal practice.

I turned to the social sciences to learn how to communicate about invasive species and other sensitive, multi-faceted topics in science. What I learned completely transformed how I think, how I reflect on society, and how I conduct myself as a scientist. Join me in an open conversation about how we interact with science and each other.

Does lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus) truly promote neurogenesis as some companies suggest? Or, does lion's mane promote neuroplasticity? What is the difference? How does all of this relate to lion's mane's traditional uses for improved attention, memory, and cognition? This workshop will take a deep dive into the neuroscience and psychological effects of lion's mane mushroom.

The paradigm of liver cleansing has changed dramatically as our understanding of liver function has expanded. We will demystify Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification, discuss why supporting and nourishing the liver may be a better approach than liver cleansing, and explore herbal and mushroom allies that can nurture our hardest working organ.

Discover food, herbal, and self-care practices inspired by Ayurveda to support the ebb and flow of the body-mind-spirit through the course of a lunar month. Learn how to observe the New and Full Moon holidays to support energy, mood, mind, and heart. Every lunar event is presided over by a lunar and zodiac sign and their planets, which lends a theme and personal meaning.

In this workshop, we will investigate the relationship between psilocybin-containing mushrooms and various sacred plants and healing herbs by drawing upon qualitative (interview-based) academic research, biographical explorations of Maria Sabina’s life, and anecdotal stories from present-day mushroom healers. We will also discuss a more modern concept, of the role of the mushroom ceremony in preparation for death.

We will investigate the relationship between psilocybin-containing mushrooms and San Pablo (Nicotiana rustica, sacred tobacco), San Pedro (Echinopsis pachanoiina, a sacred cactus also called Huachuma), and Salvia divinorum by drawing upon qualitative (interview-based) academic research, biographic explorations of Maria Sabina’s life (prints and films), and anecdotal stories from present-day Oaxacan mushroom healers.

Make your very own Apple Cider Vinegar. Come to the "hearth" with other women to create, build your recipe repertoire, and learn more about the health benefits of ACV.

Hands-on demonstration of inoculating soaked cardboard with Stropharia (Wine Cap) spawn, and presentation on its uses.

Scottish herbalism is a methodical, scientific, yet mystical approach to health concerns and wellness, which evolved over 12 thousand years of practice. Join us on a sensory journey through these largely oral traditions that have been collected in writing for the past 400 years. Explore the use of this system of healing, and get a glimpse of it’s preventative measures, herb remedies, and healing lifeways.

In this talk, Katherine MacLean will elevate and illuminate the voice of Mama Mushroom by drawing from her experiences as psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins, as a guide in sanctuary spaces and intentional mushroom retreats, and as a humble practitioner at the mushroom altar. She will share her vision for a future that includes safe, legal and sustainable access to sacred healing through psilocybin mushrooms.

We will discuss and explore four species of functional mushrooms and review basic immune system functioning and the role the microbiome plays in immune health. Identify mechanisms of action within the body, as well as discover potential mushroom allies for immune health (and more). Finally, we will discuss beneficial herbs and nutraceuticals that may complement functional mushrooms in a formula.

Dr. Cho will discuss traditional knowledge, current research and cutting edge case studies, sharing the many ways mushrooms can help us. Many of these mushrooms are easy to cultivate on logs and DIY grow environments. You'll leave with a clearer understanding of which mushrooms you'll want to welcome into your personal apothecary and how to safely do so.

Overview of the Medicine Generations Book from the History throughout eight generations of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe. Talk about how to use the Medicines, how to gather, dry preserve them, make the teas, tea sampling, show examples of dried and fresh Medicines, overview of the Medicines and what they are used for.

A woman’s life is one continuous change, deepening her connection with herself and her unique life. Understanding the different demands and tasks of each stage and calling and engaging allies, green and otherwise, is at the heart of this class. Just as a butterfly emerges from a cocoon, this extraordinary rite of passage, the metamorphosis of menopause, becomes your second spring.

MDs may say the client is ‘fine', even when they still have troubling symptoms. Explore a method of discovery to find what sub-clinical health concern is happening in the body, and how to address it before it becomes a full-blown disease state. Includes case studies, how to get MD cooperation, and herb and nutrition protocols that have worked.

In this exploratory lecture, we will discuss how sub-intoxicating doses of psilocybin, combined with other allies, can influence neurite outgrowth, nerve regeneration, and re-myelination of nerves. We will take a deep dive into the science and clinical applications behind the Stamets Stack, as well as discuss the neurogenic synergy that occurs when psylocibin is combined with Lion’s Mane and niacin.

Join herbalist, mycophile and fermentation expert Linda Conroy for this fun and inspiring session. We will learn about the fungi that are used in the fermentation process that results in miso and tempeh. Once we learn about these, there will be a participatory hands on experience and preparing these for fermentation. Instructions on how to incubate each of these will be covered.

Get to know the magic and medicine of our wise friend and teacher Mother Elder. In this class you will get to know how to work with elderflower and elderberry for food/drink, medicine, and folk magic, all in a practical way from someone who grows elder and makes medicines every year.

Together, we shall deepen our understanding of our hormonal cycles within our bodies, illuminating the vital seasons of death and decay and the life they bestow—akin to the wondrous mycelial realm. We will explore how various mycology terms can enlighten our understanding of womb sovereignty and honor our cyclical essence.

The scent of conifers and other plants is a well-known aspect of forest bathing, but so are the scents of forest fungi! You'll learn how to make mushroom-based perfumes for forest-bathing-on-your-wrists. We'll also dive into fungal aromatics, nerding out on what some of the most common scented mushroom chemicals are, what they smell like, what they do for the fungi, and what they might do for us.

Develop the skills and confidence to begin collecting, identifying, and safely eating wild edible mushrooms. We will introduce over 35 common, delicious mushrooms from the following groups: Polypores, Puffballs, Tooth Fungi, Chanterelles, Boletes and Corals. Edibility guidelines and cautions are provided, with emphasis on the most common, delicious, and safe species, and their look-alikes.

We will talk about the hows and whys of mushroom journaling, a practice that allows us to stay connected to mushrooms (and nearly all aspects of the natural world) throughout the year, even when walking the woods and fields is impossible or impractical. Almost as important, your mushroom journal will remind you when it’s time to head back into the woods to revisit your good spots.

Throughout the art and writings of the very earliest religious expressions of humanity, images and descriptions of mushrooms and other fungi can be found. In this class we will walk through time as we explore the role fungi have played in the development of human spirituality, from the beginnings of civilization to the end of the Classical Age.

This fun interactive class allows you to choose your own ethnomycological adventure! The class will be able to choose the outline of this session from a list of topics from flying reindeer, to mushrooms of immortality, and so much more! If folk tales, supernatural beings, and even conspiracy theories intrigue you, this is the class for you.

Making paper is magical; the medium holds boundless potential. In this hands-on session we will apply the basic process of making paper using a (fungal) chitin base to create beautiful, earth-toned sheets of paper and learn the basic papermaking process. This session will introduce you to some mushrooms you can use for a variety of hues.

The easiest and sometimes the only way to take in the healing and delicious qualities of mushrooms is by starting with dried mushrooms. Rehydrating gives you a tasty liquid (that you might call tea or broth) but you can create something even better when you take some simple steps to improve the texture of the liquid. We'll work with creams, syrups, and other healthy add-ins to make some amazing sipping potions.

As women, our hormonal tides ebb and flow throughout our lifetimes, and change is a guaranteed constant as we navigate a healthy and whole existence at any age. Discover how select medicinal mushrooms and herbal allies can help to holistically balance challenged hormonal tides, nurture our bone structure, calm our “fight or flight” response, and boost our brain and neurological systems!

Join Cornelia in exploring the healing properties of an array of edible and medicinal mushrooms. She'll discuss ways that Fungi can become some of your best allies in achieving health and well-being. Fungi can be accessible, cultivate-able, and forage-able. They dovetail perfectly with the DIY way of life.

We have long known that beneficial bacteria promote gut and overall immune health. Mounting evidence is now suggesting that fungi also play a crucial role. In this workshop, we will take a deep dive into the microorganisms. We will discuss approaches to enhancing gut and immune health, dealing with health issues related to the mycobiome, and strategies for encouraging our funga allies four our overall health.

Even with centuries of traditional medicinal use around the world, we are just beginning to understand the science behind the enzymatic and chemical genius of fungi. Learn how we can begin to harness the healing properties of mushrooms from a mycophilic physician who has been gradually incorporating them into her clinical practice.

Learn about the healing value of mushrooms and how to prepare them for optimal nourishment and healing. This presentation will be multifaceted, offering information about both mushroom nourishment and mushroom medicine. An overview of the health benefits and the medicinal qualities of mushrooms will be shared and the instructor will offer a cooking demonstration.

This experiential workshop invites us to enter the mycelial forest of grief, where loss is not something to fix or avoid, but to compost. Through embodied practices, communal ritual, and deep listening, we'll honor personal, collective, and ecological grief, allowing what is dying to be laid down with reverence.

Zoom into the wonderfully weird world of fungi, with a microscope as our guide. Discover the colors and patterns that fungi weave beneath our feet, in this hands-on laboratory. We will compare spores and mycelium from local mushroom species, and explore the ecological role of these ancient creatures and some of their lesser-known relatives.

Explore the wide range of color that can be obtained from two common mushrooms. In this live dye demo, learn how to recognize Dyer’s Polypore and Lobster mushrooms, where to look for them, when to harvest for maximum dye potential and how to extract the colors. We will also explore how to work with mineral salts like alum and iron as well as pH modifiers to achieve a nearly full spectrum of color.

We can utilize mushroom’s mycelial powers to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce pathogens in agricultural and urban watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests, gardens and local ecosystems (mycoforestry). We will discuss each of these four branches of what Paul Stamets coined “Mycorestoration."

Discover how mushrooms can nourish and support your skin naturally. Many fungi are rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, and polysaccharides that help hydrate, soothe, and protect the skin. Mushrooms offer a wide range of benefits for skin care and healing. In this class, we'll explore the skin-supporting properties of different medicinal mushrooms and create a couple of samples.

When we hear about working with herbs, we think of tinctures or salves, or even syrups, teas, or capsules. What we may not think of are nourishing herbal infusions. Nourishing herbal infusions- strong, long-infused herbal teas- are a very simple way to benefit from herbs on a regular basis. We will discuss how to make a nourishing infusion, which herbs to consider working with, as well as the benefits of each herb.

Tall, resilient, and furiously green, nettle has a bad reputation as a stinging weed... but it also has many health benefits and uses. That's why we've been growing it for so long! Learn 40 ways to use nettle and enjoy some tasty treats made with this deeply nourishing herb.

A healthy nervous system is an integral component to all aspects of vitality. Let’s explore ways to nourish our individual and collective nervous systems and avoid the varied ways that our nervous systems are sabotaged. We'll discuss supportive foods, herbs, and lifestyle choices and identify neurotoxins in food and the environment.

As herbalists and human beings, it is our responsibility to learn how plants want to be encountered and engaged with. We will explore how to acknowledge a plant’s agency and autonomy in our herbal practices. What would it feel like to ask permission before entering a forest, or before harvesting a plant? What would it look like to consider the needs and preferences of a plant alongside or even before our own?

We will explore a traveling library of mycology books on many themes and handle fresh mushrooms. Creative tools will be provided. Recipes, poems, observations, facts, quotes, stories and drawings can all go in. All experience levels are welcome. We may then allow our pages to be digitally recorded (or not) and then take ours home or give them away.

We’ll explore the lore, chants, and rituals of sacred plants like Mugwort, Hypericum, Mandrake, Rue, Vervain, Rowan, and Datura. Topics include the Nine Herbs Charm, folk names for women healers, midsummer herb customs, traditional healing methods, and practices of Italian, Slavic, Celtic, and Germanic herbalists—plus songs, offerings, and ancestral plant wisdom.

This class is designed to empower caregivers of children to be more self-sufficient in treating children with herbs. Get to know a broad range of healing plants that can serve as a materia medica for childhood. Learn how to safely treat everything from head colds to head lice with herbal remedies.

Permaculture ("permanent" + "agriculture") is both than a method of gardening and a philosophy. Learn how to apply Permaculture ethics and principles to growing medicinal herbs. We will discuss soil health, sheet mulching, water retention, ecosystem restoration, guild plantings, food forests, seed saving, and delve into social permaculture.

Ritual is a human need- the more conscious we are with ritual in our lives, the more grounded our lives become. In this workshop, we will talk about the importance and significance of personal ritual. You will learn basic ritual structure and a process for Personal Ritual Creation. We will create our own personal ritual and enact a mini-ritual together.

Alkaloid, flavonoid, glucocorticoid, phytosterol, resin, oil, wax, terpene, aromatic, polysaccharide. Herbalists spout these terms to assert confidence that herbs work, and how, but do you really know what these terms mean, or even scratch the surface? We will learn the memorable distinctions, some of the structural characteristics and common actions, and put these and other phytochemical classes in context.

A trip through the faerie portal into the realms of plant intelligence. A slide into the center of the Earth to reconnect with plant wisdom. A flight on magic carpets of pollen into the heart of green blessings.

Audio Recording from a 2018 MWHC Live Event with Patricia Armstrong. This class is designed for beginners to acquaint them with the parts of a plant which help us identify it. You will learn plant terminology, heighten your observatory skills, and begin to recognize some plant families. We will use specimens and books to key out several trees and flowers that can be found in the area.

This is a audio recording of a Fall Plant walk with Patricia Armstrong recorded at the 2019 Mycelium Mysteries Women's Mushroom Conference. Do you have your mother’s eyes or your grandfather’s dimple in your chin? Are your leaves opposite, alternate or whorled? You can put plants into families by looking at their sepals, petals, pistils, stamens and leaves. Come and learn a few fall plants and their relatives.

In this interactive class, we will sample, smell, and experience the medicine of this long-used and well-loved plant that is Native to North America and regions of Mexico. In this class, we will explore the magic and medicine of our native Sweet Leaf, its proper botanical identification, respectful harvesting and storing, its energetic makeup, and how to partner with this herb in baths, steams, tinctures, and teas.

Whether you are familiar with your sun sign or follow the moon phases, we will explore herbal & astrological connections for a deeper connection to self and the cosmos with a focus on the moon as a personal luminary for alignment and flow. You will take away a basic foundation of astrological principles, their herbal connections & a greater awareness of how the planets and plants connect within our day-to-day lives.

Over 150 pages of beautiful poetry & hand-drawn illustrations by elder ethnobotanist Patricia K. Armstrong. This product is a PDF download (it's not a physical copy of the book).

The holy day of October 31st in the Northern European agricultural calendar marks the first day of Winter, and the closing of the old year. It is a time to honor our Beloved Dead and prepare to enter the liminal space between endings and new beginnings. Learn traditional customs and themes of this holiday, and how we can ritualize this holiday with meaning for today with consciousness and reverence.

Birth is a profound rite of passage, and a culture’s birth rituals tell us much about that culture’s beliefs and values. Returning to wild human birth is integral to healing our culture and the Earth. Discussion will include the perils of professionalized birth support and how to create community that supports woman-centered birth.

You’ve just returned from the woods and are faced with the daunting task of dealing with all those mushrooms you’ve found. What to do, what to do? In this workshop, we’ll demonstrate various methods of preserving your harvest: drying, freezing, pickling, and canning. We’ll walk you through a couple of mushroom jerky and pickled mushroom recipes, as well as provide some samples to taste along the way.

There are several ways to prevent and manage the itchy eyes, tickly throat, runny nose, and congested lungs that decrease our enjoyment outdoors. You will learn a few herbal ideas to help inhibit the inflammatory response, tone and restore the respiratory mucosa and lungs, modulate the immune system, and fortify the nervous and endocrine system while marveling at the amazing intertwined systems of our bodies.

Pulse testing is a technique that helps us narrow down the choice of remedies, whether herbal, homeopathic, flower essence, or supplement, by feeling the effect that these remedies have on the pulse. In this hands-on class, Lise will take you through the basics of pulse testing, then we will work together to test various remedies and learn to discern different pulse reactions.

The Conscious Nature of Healing. We know that healing doesn’t come from a box or a bottle...or even another person. Healing is a personal process between ourselves and the Divine that is adequately undergirded by our own biology and consciousness. Let’s explore our biology with mystical intelligence and find our organic place with healing.

Intermediate and exploratory course that will contrast and compare the 3000 year old clinical history of Reishi with published world research. Become familiar with the subtle energies of the Mushroom of Immortality, as well as able to identify herbal allies that complement the Imperial Tonic in formulation, and learn to incorporate Reishi’s adaptive influence into wellness protocols and individualized wellness plans.

Sleep and relaxation are fundamental to our health, yet they can be elusive in our modern experience. Join me for a deep dive into the mechanics, physiology, and psychology of sleep. We will discuss why we are so challenged as a society with this critical aspect of health, explore strategies that may help improve our relationship with sleep, and discover herbal and mushroom allies that may optimize our rest.

We all have a story. How and when that story is told, and the framing of the story, can all affect the success and timing of healing. Listen to some historic and modern case studies of the use of narrative story to heal. Discover the method to use narrative story in health and healing, for preventative measures, healing lifeways, and to tell the stories of herbs.

Take a journey with Elder and it's centuries of medicine and magic. You'll be enchanted with a presentation rich with the story and lore of these globally embraced plants, as well as the medical possibilities emerging today. We will look at contemporary application and the latest biomedical research, and we'll incorporate ecology, specific clinical prescriptions, and other surprises.

Preserving our heirloom garden seeds & indigenous wild seeds is the cornerstone of any localized food movement. In our time together we'll explore ways to building a sustainable seed community. Topics to be touched on include basic seed saving info, seed libraries, hosting seed swaps, useful tools & best practices for harvesting/storing seed.

We will explore what we have learned from our people and the seasonal foods that we gather, grow and prepare throughout the year through stories. From maple sugaring, wild leeks, wood greens, and morel Mushrooms in the spring, to milkweed, berries, corn, beans, and squash in the summer and beyond, this Keynote will explore the fishing, hunting, and gathering practices through stories of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe.

The Midwest Women's Herbal Conference has been a source of inspiration for me for over a decade. While honoring the amazing women who have shared their wisdom at the conference, this workshop highlights my favorite teachers, presentations, and experiences and their impact on my journey of growing and wildcrafting herbs, medicine making, clinical practice, self-care, family care, and community tending.

Explore the relationship between taste, smell, and the phytochemicals in these herbs through sampling tinctures, glycerites, and herb-infused honeys. Participants will experience these herbs as medicines for the physical, emotional, and psychological bodies, and learn how to use them for various ailments in themselves, family members, and clients.

Take a deep dive into the world of Parasitic Plants. Take a historical journey of scientific literature and botanical art of medicinal parasitic plants found around the world.

In this class we will learn how to paint mushrooms and unleash our creative potential through our womb space. Starting with a guided meditation that will help inspire you to birth your own watercolor mushroom womb piece, this class will observe elements of mushrooms from a different perspective. Molly will discuss her personal process of painting mushrooms and their interrelation of our own creative life force.

Join Sarina Partridge in creating a space to hold our personal and collective grief, fresh and ancient grief, disconnection and loss of our bodies’ holy pathways to grief, and practices of remembering through breath, truth-telling, and song. We will share original songs to support us in tending and holding grief, and offer reflections around using song as a healing modality for individual and collective grief work.

Join in a circle of melody and movement, inspired by the words of mystics and poets, to deepen our connection with each other and to the whole web of life. The dances will take us on a journey of expressing respect and gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, attuning with nature’s wisdom, and focusing, with renewed energy, for the path ahead.

Learn chants for female seasonal celebrations and rituals celebrating the mythic cycle of the Goddess within the earth’s seasonal cycles of birth, death, and regeneration, and it’s correspondences to Women’s Mysteries.

Three plants considered sacred by Indigenous people of the prairie - sage, sweetgrass and cedar - combine to make an amazing skin salve. Rachel demonstrates the folk method of salve-making and presents information on the ethnobotany of each plant. You'll also learn the skin-soothing, pain-easing, itch-relieving properties of other common prairie wild herbs. Sample and salve recipe card included.

This workshop focuses on songs that propel us into the Light. Learn songs about healing, peace, love, and building community. This is music that affirms us in our own truth, body, and spirit. We will also learn songs that are widely known among women's circles.

Join Phyllis for this introduction into Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine. We’ll learn about the Southern Blood Types (bitter/salty and sweet/sour), the four constitutions (fire/water and air/earth), and the blood qualities of high/low blood, thick/thin, fast/slow, and good/bad. In addition, we’ll talk about local plants and how to prepare them in the Southern Appalachian traditional manner.

All around the world and throughout time, are beliefs in Otherworld Beings who share the natural world with humans. These beings live around us, attend to us, and help us and guide us with our work. The Folk are understood to be powerful sentient beings with whom it is important to be in good relations. Learn who their neighbors are, how to honor them, and how to begin fostering a deeper relationship with them.

World-wandering is the best when you are healthy and thriving, but it isn’t always easy with the challenges of being on the road. Simple preparations and practices can make your journeys more likely to be happy, healthy ones, and make you better prepared when things go awry. This talk will share practical, simple strategies you can use whether you are traveling to Indiana or to India.

There are a variety of teas, tinctures, topical salves, and foods that can be used to prevent and alleviate illness by strengthening our immune systems. There are also antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral herbs that can be safely and effectively used to help us heal when illness or infection is already present. Learn how herbal allies, from astragalus to zingiber, can help us regain and maintain our health.

The adventure of unpacking this invisible perspective changes as our needs change. This is an exploration of our connection with plants beyond fixing, curing and saving. We are rising up rooted in our heritage, seeing how this old way for a new day still has a place in the world.

Herbal medicines can work deeply to support and restore health, even in situations where we are experiencing complex health issues or have limited energy or resources. Learn about how to consider, choose, and implement sustainable herbal therapies in situations where individuals are experiencing deep imbalances.

What is our cultural and historical inheritance of conquest, survival and resilience: our biological response to sustained stress? How does it drive our unconscious stress response, express our mental health, set our threshold for addiction, and influence our burden of chronic disease. Understanding “it’s not my fault, but it is my responsibility” can help us celebrate our survival and reclaim our cognitive map.

"The Ancient Oak to the Druids spoke, but any Tree can talk to me.” Bigger than a whale, Older than Methuselah, Trees join Earth to Sky and hold millennia of wisdom. Your conversation with Trees becomes more intimate and personal when you honor them by knowing their names.

Enjoy this audio recording of Pat's tree identification workshop from the 2019 Mycelium Mysteries Women's Mushroom Conference! "The Ancient Oak to the Druids spoke, but any Tree can talk to me.” Bigger than a whale, Older than Methuselah, Trees join Earth to Sky and hold millennia of wisdom. Your conversation with Trees becomes more intimate and personal when you honor them by knowing their names.

Tataki-zomé is also known as ‘flower pounding.' This process uses plants to create a print onto material like fabric or thick paper. It has been used by artists from Japan for many years and is now something that artists around the world have explored in their own ways. In this workshop, you will learn how to make direct dyes from leaves, petals, flowers, and ferns without the use of chemicals.

Our heart is both physical and emotional, sensing the spectrum of life every day. Our womb brings life into this world, yet also knows the art of letting go. These two centers of our body are connected and constantly in communication. Working with herbal allies is a way we can begin to tend to these sacred places within us. We will explore herbal allies and simple practices that nourish the heart and the womb.

Katherine MacLean will teach the basics of psychedelic facilitation, including issues of safety, maintaining healthy boundaries, the ethics of engaging with sacred substances, providing unconditional support and compassionate presence, and navigating difficult experiences that may arise.

This foundational anatomy and physiology course explores the various components of our primary, innate and adaptive immune systems and finely details the wise and miraculous way the smallest parts of our being keep us safe and protected every day. We’ll also discuss herbal and food allies that help to fine tune these instruments so we may dance on in joy and balance!

We will look at herbal actions and pair them with energetics; we will look at the differences between cooling diaphoretics and warming ones, stimulating nervines vs calming ones, and many other categories where the energetic distinctions are important. We will look at how to fine-tune treatments and herb choices by matching the energetics of the herbs to the energetics of the illness and the underlying constitution.

We will look at simple but useful criteria for making determinations if a condition is hot or cold, excess or deficient, and how to choose wisely among our herbal allies. We will also look at our Materia Medica of plant allies: tonic herbs vs. activators, heating herbs vs cooling ones, herbs that work deeply or are surface releasing, and herbs that cause energies to descend or ascend, move inward or outward.

This talk is a broad introduction to the many benefits of mushrooms for our gardens and our bodies as well as a glimpse into how our planet has evolved thanks to the help of these organisms. The general characteristics of mushrooms and their life cycle, the medicinal properties of some common mushrooms, how to grow them in your garden and how we are starting to work with these organisms to help heal the world.

In this highly informative session, we will explore the relationship between inflammation, disease, and oral health; and more importantly, discuss strategies for squelching the smoldering fire within.

The flavors we consume play a crucial role in the overall functioning of our body. This workshop aims to educate you on the flavors and their corresponding organs and elements based on the principles of Chinese medicine theory. You will gain knowledge on the energy and direction of flavors within your body and which body types are most compatible with each flavor profile.

Indigenous peoples enhanced the food and medicinal plant bearing capacity of every region in the Americas. Drawing from her doctoral research, Lyla June will discuss the nature of these food systems, why their stories were never told, and how humanity can bring them back. Please see the file with this lesson for complete recording description and Lyla June's full bio.

Beautiful blue butterfly pea flower is a powerful plant ally both medicinally and spiritually. Join Ayanna in this interactive workshop, in which participants immerse and engage with Clitoria ternatea, also known as Asian pigeonwings. Participants will create and leave with a tea and a spiritual bath centered around this lovely herb.

Mounting evidence is suggesting that fungi play a crucial role in promoting gut and overall immune health. In this workshop, we will dive into the microorganisms that we coexist with. We will discuss approaches to enhancing gut and immune health, dealing with health issues related to the mycobiome, and strategies for enlisting or encouraging our funga allies in the interest of overall health.

What are the basic principles of Celtic Spirituality? How do these principles apply to Celtic Christianity and Celtic Paganism? How is Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism different from more modern paths such as Wicca? We will examine evidence from the historical Celts and their cosmology, traditional practices, poetry, Celtic triads and aphorisms, and Brehon Law.

Learn the latest in pain science and functional medicine with holistic practices to address the root causes of muscle and joint pain. Learn how hormones, gut health, food sensitivities, and biomechanics contribute to pain and explore natural solutions, including herbs, nutrition, and innovative therapies like shockwave treatment. Empower yourself with practical tools to eliminate pain and reclaim your vitality.

It has been theorized that one of the biggest obstacles to the feminist movement stems from the wound of sisterhood: women distrusting or undermining each other. Is this just the nature of women, or is this a learned behavior? We will uncover the roots of this issue by exploring communities of women throughout western history. By tending to our roots first, we will see our gardens of sisterhood flourish.

Learn how to make clean, safe water using BioSand Filter technology. BioSand Filters are based on traditional slow sand filters, removing pathogens and suspended solids from water. Helen will share how her nonprofit, Motherland Rhythm Community, builds and delivers these life-changing filters in Guinea, West Africa, and show you how you can do it too.

Discover the Female Erectile Network and find out what you’ve been missing! In a mind-blowingly informative, radically empowering, fun, funny, comfortable presentation, with unique anatomy images, classic and humorous art, and demos on my ‘vulva pillow’, you’ll get new integral maps of women’s bodies that will guide you to realizing your ultimate ecstatic pleasure capacity!

Together, we'll weave myth and medicine, science and ceremony, tracing Psilocybe's mycelial threads from sacred rites of the past to the therapeutic practices of today. Whether in ceremony or as a microdose, we'll explore how these fungal teachers help mend trauma, ease transitions, expand consciousness, and root us more deeply in the ancient wisdom of the Earth.

We'll discuss how to identify Trametes versicolor, true turkey tail, it’s possibilities in mycoremediation and land management, and explore the unique compounds found in this complex species. We will discuss clinical applications of this versatile mushroom and common preparations of extraction. Attendees will leave with the knowledge of how to easily identify true turkey tail and prepare their own turkey tail extract

In a time when hypothyroidism and other thyroid disorders are epidemic, many of us are looking for more natural methods of treatment. We will examine the causes and treatment of the more common disorders such as Graves, Hashimoto’s, Wilson’s temperature syndrome, and post-partum thyroiditis. Nature has given us many extremely useful botanicals that we will discuss, as well as lifestyle and supplementation regimens.

Discover the wonders of the Prickly Pear Cactus, a versatile plant rooted in Mexican culture and cuisine. In this course, explore its growth across America and learn to harvest, process, and use its pads and fruits in your kitchen. Led by Mimi Hernandez, delve into its medicinal properties, tasty recipes, and tips for caring for a vibrant cactus stand.

Have you noticed an abundance of any specific plants? What is the message in their abundance for us? Now more than ever it is important to trust and lean into our local allies for support. Join me as I dive deep with goldenrod, yellow dock and the amazing gingko tree as we discuss the multitude of lessons they have to share during trying times.

Explore and learn about the ancient agricultural practices of harvesting and readying seeds for storage. While our forebears utilized baskets, gourds, and the wind, we'll practice streamlined ways to speed up the process. Come immerse yourself in a time honored tradition. Feel free to bring seeds to swap as well!

Journey through the sacred gates of menopause. Starting long before 50 years of age for many women, menopause is a journey with many twists and turns. Homeopathy is a powerful ally to aid the body and it is a wonderful companion to herbal support. Let's travel down the sacred path & learn the process our body moves through, and how these powerful allies can provide a safer, more grounded pathway from Mother to Crone.

Tincture making is an easy and accessible form of herbal medicine that can be done right in your kitchen. In this workshop you'll learn to make herbal tinctures using fresh and dried herbs. Explore tincture-making methods including folk, maceration, and percolation. Learn about tincture concentration and dosing.

Learn helpful skills in how to design personal rituals and to work effectively one-on-one with others. Whether it is to initiate a life change or attitude, facilitate a change already in process, or name and claim a change or transformation that has already occurred, tools from Ruth’s unique guided intuitive process includes how to develop the purpose, theme, energetics, and appropriate structure of your ritual.

Learn what basic equipment to take on a foray and how to use them. We will spend a fair amount of time observing mushrooms, learning how to use a loupe and getting comfortable using field guides. We’ll discuss how to make a spore print, why it’s necessary and best practices to harvest, collect and transport mushrooms.

In this workshop you will learn tree lore of Northern Europe and North America and explore the mythical, magical, science, and healing properties of selected trees. Learn about common, yet ancient customs, and why we still adhere to them in this fun and informative class

This workshop invites you to connect with the sacred energy of trees, tuning into their unique sound or message. After grounding exercises, Marjasana will guide you into the woods to connect with a tree, focusing on its vibration or song. Come with a light heart, child-like curiosity, and a journal to capture your experience.

Explore mental health diagnoses and symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder from an integrative health perspective, trauma informed lens, and holistic biopsychosocial model. Learn to select herbal remedies that uniquely support each individual's needs. Consider how shifts in their client's symptoms once using an herbal remedy can be better understood.

How do mushrooms forcibly eject spores with accelerations in excess of 10,000 g? How do mushrooms actually create their own breeze for spore dispersal? Why do stinkhorns, well, stink? This lecture leverages scientific findings to reveal weird and wonderful ways that fungi live their lives, exposing mechanisms often invisible to the naked eye.

A general education course designed to introduce fundamental concepts to the fungally-uninitiated and to the novice practitioner. Our exploration will span from the lifecycle of mushrooms, to how mushrooms impact immune function. This course dispels common mycophobias, reviews the basics of mushroom cultivation & medicine making, & illuminates several key species and their affinities to act upon specific body systems

This workshop is designed to help participants begin and/or maintain relationships with herbs in city environments. Ayanna will share her experiences and knowledge as a gardener, steward of the earth, and shaman in Chicago, which is her ancestral land. Participants are encouraged to share their experience and knowledge with the collective.

Learn about how to formulate with familiar herbs, using an awareness of the temperature continuum, the moisture continuum, the temporal continuum, and other energetics such as trophorestoration and vital stimulation. We'll discuss the basic principles of Vitalist herbalism including removing obstacles to cure and providing the intelligence of Nature with the tools required to facilitate the free flow of Life Energy.

Our ancestors used plants for just about everything, including for beautiful, artistic, and utilitarian textiles. Join Marguerite and learn to dye natural fibers with traditional plant dyestuffs: flowers, plants, tree barks, nut hulls and roots.

We follow the Moon throughout our lives. She is feminine, and we feel her ebb and flow physically, mentally, and energetically. Do you feel more vibrant in one moon cycle than another? Join Lisa to learn why and how to support your children, grandchildren, and wise woman years by following the moon’s cycle. This workshop focuses on herbs that support these cycles in our bodies.

There are plenty of invasive species of plants growing around you. Learn culinary uses and how to utilize their medicinal properties in your apothecary while also helping to control their spread. Mary Colvin RH(AHG) will introduce you to some uses and applications of some invasive species growing around her while also suggesting ways you can identify and utilize common invasive species growing near you.

Weakened blood vessels and increased capillary permeability contribute to swollen limbs, varicosities, hemorrhoids, and other venous insufficiencies. Congestion through the heart and the liver can manifest issues of hepatic portal stagnation, which may also affect the efficiency of blood movement from the veins. Explore ways to enhance healthy blood flow throughout the body using herbs, nutrition, and lifestyle.

Dropping fully into your natural voice surrounded by nature can be life changing. Learn to breathe from your natural rhythm, and sing from your natural voice. Whether you're a professional vocalizer or curious to explore the bounds of your authentic vibration, this workshop will be fun and eye-opening. Find the blurred area between where we end and where our nature begins.

This workshop offers a deep experience and overview of herbalism and wise woman ways. Linda will introduce the central focus of herbal work from a wise woman lens as well as some of the common plants enlisted by herbalists. Approaches to preparing these plants will be discussed and samples provided. Participants will leave feeling connected to the plants and with a starting point for your herbal path.

Helen will share the joy of traditional hand drumming. You will learn basic patterns and we will play a rhythm together. Everyone is welcome no experience is needed. Your instruments are welcome. Some djembe and bass dunun drums will be played.

In this session, you'll learn about the science and scientists working to help protect the landscapes and mycelial species we value as well as the ways mushrooms are helping solve sustainability challenges. We'll talk about what we can do individually and collectively to support and nourish the diversity of living things in the places we live. Go home feeling empowered to protect what you love!

Learn the basics of foraging for wild edible mushrooms in this beginner-friendly lecture. We'll cover 14 species commonly found in Wisconsin (and much of North America), focusing on key identification features, practical foraging tips, and how to distinguish them from look-alike mushrooms. This is a great way to kick start your journey into safe and satisfying mushroom foraging!

This walk will focus on wild edibles from the traditional (human) perspective, while also exploring the nutritional needs and preferences of insects and other wildlife. For example, Nettles are cherished not only by us, but also by caterpillars of the red admiral butterfly who feed almost exclusively on this plant. Isn’t it wonderful how connected we all are?

In this workshop we will discuss basic food preservation including pressure canning, water bath canning, inversion canning, and dehydration. We will talk about which technique should be used for a particular plant or product. After this introduction, we will then process some food using one of these methods, most likely inversion canning!

Does lion’s mane promote neurogenesis? Can purslane substitute omega-3s found in fish and eggs? What benefits and potential harms does foraging have on our nervous system? How do we increase equitable access to wild foods and strengthen the self-reliance, sustainability, and well-being of our community? Learn how wild foods alter our nervous system, foster a sense of belonging, and create resilient communities.

Menopause is a natural transition rather than the disease it's often made out to be. However, chronic stress, pervasive environmental hormone disruptors, and other factors can make it a bumpy ride for many. Mushrooms provide nutrients and other bioactive compounds that are supportive during perimenopause and post-menopause. We'll dive into some of my favorites, which I'll pass around in extract form for sampling.

This is a beginner-level introduction to the most commonly foraged mushrooms in Wisconsin. We’ll focus on the approved species list for the newly-launched Wisconsin Wild Mushroom Certification to support folks interested in getting to know the mushrooms before investing in the certification. We’ll talk about how to confidently identify the mushrooms, where and when to find them, and look-alikes to watch out for.

We intuitively know that wild foods are exceptionally nutritious, but what makes them nutritious? What does the science say? How can we potentize their effects through story, ritual, and kitchen magic? We'll be exploring tips and tricks to easefully fold wild foods into your diet, including a cooking demo with recipes included.

It is our nature to create original music. Original melodies can be as natural as wildflowers. Sometimes they simply plant themselves in our consciousness! We will hold space for plantings of this nature, starting with a guided nature-listening session. Develop a sense for hearing and singing fresh, new songs together in this collaborative, creative experience.

Did you know that the brewing of beers, ales, & the like was considered a role of the ancient woman? Learn about the long herstory of brewing & fermentation from prehistoric humanity to the extreme cultural changes wrought by the Inquisition to female brewers today. The preservation of nutrients has been vital to the development of humankind, lets celebrate the powerful role of the feminine in this important practice

Misty Cook documented 58 Native American herbal Medicines that have been told through her family stories in her book Medicine Generations. For seven years she studied these Medicines in depth, touching all aspects of their preparation and use, including the importance of spirituality.

The life of a woman contains many initiations. Recognizing these rites of passage through ritual and ceremony is important in our journey to wholeness. This workshop will help you to bring ritual into your life and the lives of the women around you. We will focus on Menarche, Motherhood, and Croning. We will discuss ways to ritualize these important moments in the life of a woman.

Join a women and plant-specific song circle. We will learn songs to sing with and to women, and songs to sing with and to our green friends. By imbuing our herbal medicines with song, we imbue them with pure spirit and intention.

The Wheel of the Year refers to the Solstices, Equinoxes, and cross-quarter days that traditionally mark the seasonal holy days. This workshop is an introduction to the interconnectedness between the earth and agricultural cycle, the mythic cycle of the goddess, and the female life cycle.

This introductory workshop will support you in bringing ritual into your life and the lives of the women around you. We'll dive into the many initiations of womanhood, focusing on menarche, motherhood, and croning. The class will cover ritual structure, ideas for rites of passage rituals, personal ritual, women's circle facilitation skills, and circle songs & chants.

We will explore the fascinating world of fungi, acknowledging their vital role in maintaining life on this planet. How can we interact with them in ways that will help us forge a bond with this ancient yet hardly understood world living all around us? Introduction to the world of fungi ecology. A brief primer on mushrooms for food and health. An overview of mushroom propagation. Some basics of mushroom foraging.

Discover the energetics of commonly used Eastern and Western herbs through the lens of Ayurveda. Learn how to combine them using energetic principles to create a synergistic action or "yoga" to support balance in body, mind, and spirit and match them to the different body types: airy, fiery, and Earthy/watery. Sample a herbal tonic for each of the body types and take home simple recipes to try.