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The Heart of Herbology Apprenticeship 2011
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Matthew Wood's
Advanced/Intermediate Apprenticeship Program: (FAQs at the bottom of the page) We are now taking applications for Winter 2011-(December) Spring 2012. There are six sessions, each session is from 10 am - 5 pm Saturday and Sunday. The core of the class consists of study of the organ systems in order to understand how the body works in a holistic fashion, yet compatible with modern science and also relatively conformable to TCM. Then we will match plants to organ systems and physiological processes. We will introduce an use a simple system of energetics: the six tissue states.
hot/excitation cold/depression damp/stagnation dry/atrophy wind/constriction damp/relaxation. This system makes sense of both Greek and nineteenth/early twentieth century Western Herbalism. We will study the neuroendocrine regulation behind the operation of organ systems, and the plant operating on this level. This will allow us to understand basic relationships between organs and systems, and basic constitutional types. Constitutional types will be described in terms of the three doshas (which also interact with the six tissue states) and the American Indian 'animal medicine' approach. Neuroendocrine variations create the following basic constutions:
cerebral - spider sensory - deer
adrenal - bear
Also:
Plant medicine/animal medicines
Doctrine of Signatures: resemblance of plants to organs or physiological processes, or animals.
FAQS:
1. The cost of program $1400. There are time payments available, pretty much $400 to reserve space, then $400, $300 and $300 in the first3 months. |
Salve making in class
The Philo School of Herbal Energetics
The Heart of Herbology Apprenticeship Syllabus
General Guidelines:
Welcome to the Heart of Herbology Apprenticeship at the Philo School of Herbal Energetics. Welcome to the gardens and the woods, the ephemeral stream, the birds and the four-leggeds, both wild and domestic. Sola and Bear Noir are the dogs. The cats are Aralius, Cal Cal Cat and Ami Baba.
There are many plants you will be meeting and becoming friends with. Walk lightly and carefully as you give them your attention.
PLEASE BE ON TIME!!! We will start right at 10:00 each class Please bring a potluck dish for lunch each day. Classes are the third weekend of each month for seven months except September which we decide together. Payments are: $200 deposit before the class, $1,000 for the seven months. The balance is due bythe June class, with about ½ paid in April and ½ in May unlessotherwise arranged.
Each weekend class will include:
1. An opening/blessing in the garden or house.
2. A gardening component – wear walking shoes & bring gloves.
3. Making an herbal product.
4. A digestive plant identification walk after lunch.
5. A plant spirit medicine journey.
6. Meditation time in the garden with specific plants.
7. Preparing your Mission Statement
Use my library!!! I have a large collection of books & articles.
First Weekend
Energetics & World Medicines.
This session will open with a blessing ceremony and we will ask each of you to give an introduction about yourself and your relationship with herbs. We will talk about the energetics of herbs and how herbalists from different world systems work with herbs. We will also discuss inherent properties of herbs. This is kind of a global introduction. Sunday we will watch Juliette of the Herbs by Tish Streeten. We will also do a Plant Spirit Medicine Journey and prepare a product.
Second Weekend:
The Digestive System
We always start here. We are not only what we eat but how our bodies assimilate what we eat. We look at this intricate and important system in many ways and from many points of view. We want to know what the digestive system looks like and how it works. We want to know disorders of the digestive system and how to treat them. We are digestive detectives! Always remembering how the other systems affect one another…
The Respiratory System
Respiration is done with our entire bodies. Asthma and many other respiratory problems increase in our culture as pollution
and stress increase. We want to know what this system looks
like, feels like, how it works. We want to know what herbs do
what and why. We also want to be conscious of how stopping
and smelling the flowers helps us.
Third Weekend:
The Nervous System,
Nutrition and neurotransmitters! Hypericin and hyperifon! How electric impulses change to chemicals and back again! It’s a whole other world in there. What does St. J really do? What does meditating on St. J do? Sleep is but resting in the loving arms of Morpheus. “Midnight Madness” Tea. Oat Straw, Oat Straw Oat Straw!! More!!!
The Regenerative System
The Regenerative System includes the Endocrine System and
here we look especially at the interplay of the outside and the
inside, of light and dark. Did you know that the Endocrine
System corresponds to the chakras? We will use visualization
and crystals to balance the chakras. We will also look at how
the Regenerative system, male and female, work and chronic
and acute imbalances.
Fourth Weekend:
The Immune System,
The fascination of T Cells and B Cells, of Reishi mushrooms and
garlic, of lymph and endocrine. Knowledge here is the difference
between living life as a spectator or living in the flow of your
own body. We all get sick – we all need to. What does illness
mean to us and to our bodies? How do we best defend and
protect?
The Circulatory System
Sometimes thought of as the Cardiovascular System because the
heart plays such an important part. It is, though, more than the
heart; it is the brain and the bloodstream and veins and arteries.
It is the marvelous muscular heart as well, pumping the oxygen
we take from our green allies throughout our entire bodies.
Fifth Weekend:
The Muscular Skeletal System
Our muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bones… the things
that hold it all together, the frame itself. Subject to rips and tears,
arthritis, and just plain old aches and pains. The system that we
use and abuse all the time whether gardening or sitting in the car.
Cancer in its many forms…..
My personal experience has led me to delve deeply into the
causes and cures of cancer. Today we’ll look at aberrant cells,
lifestyles, life choices, mushrooms, redwoods and many other
things that are related. Please download and read my personal
story on surviving cancer from my website for this class.
Sixth Weekend:
The Clinician: Intakes, Diagnoses, Intuition and Research.
It is a good thing to recognize how you want to use herbology.
Some of you will be drawn to clinical work and become practi-
tioners. Some of you may use your knowledge and skills for
family and friends. Some of you may become growers. Some of
you may become researchers and writers. All of these are needed paths for our discipline.
Wrap Up and Graduation:
Hopefully you spent the time between the fifth and sixth
weekends formulating questions that you have and ideas to
discuss. This is also a time to present your mission statements
and to receive your certificate.
Books!
Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal; Matthew Wood’s
Book of Herbal Wisdom, Karin Uphoff’s Botanical Body Care.
All available on Amazon.
DVD Juliette of the Herbs, available from Mary Pat.
Recommended: Pam Montgomery’s Plant Spirit Healing,
Michael Tierra’s Planetary Herbology, any of Susun Weed’s
books, any of Stephen Buhner’s. You will meet more books
during classes.
Mary Pat Palmer, AHG This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
PO Box 214, Philo, CA 95466 707-895-3007