Events
what we're up to & where you can find us in 2018
MAY 31st - JUNE 4th 2018 - CAVE JUNCTION, OREGON
SPIRITWEAVERS GATHERING
INITIATION THROUGH ALCHEMY - Whitney Popham
Through following the patterns, rhythms & cycles of creation, the ancient alchemists held the key to unlocking the language of nature. This depth of understanding the greater mysteries of life helped them to create systems of medicine & science that were deeply healing & transformative.
Plants in themselves have a profound ability to initiate us into a higher level of living – of accessing and awakening our truest selves. But the work of Alchemy takes this process of working with plants to a whole new depths, for you’re not just working with a plant medicine, you’re also harnessing & harvesting the planets and elements in your medicine as well.
Each and every process in preparing Spagyric (Alchemical) herbal medicines involves working with these greater elemental & celestial forces that influence each one of us and each plant we work with. Every step in the Spagyric process of making medicine is a reflection of the processes nature goes through. In Alchemy we’re mirroring nature to assist in the evolution of consciousness through healing on these deeper levels.
In this workshop, we’ll dive into the initiatory processes behind preparing a Spagyric medicine. As a plant is prepared through each element – water, fire, earth and air – these elemental forces also cleanse, purify and exalt the highest qualities within ourselves to become more awakened and evolved beings. We’ll discuss the symbolism and meaning behind each step in the Spagyric process and meditate upon how we can experience these transformative processes within our own beings.
This class is a primer in the practice of Alchemy, beginning first with the inner Alchemy one must go through to begin preparing the external Alchemical processes of medicine making. We’re not getting into step-by-step instruction on how to prepare Spagyrics in this workshop – rather, we’re setting the foundation of becoming initiated into the great work of transformational healing that is Alchemy.
PLANT RELATIONS FOR THE AGE OF LONELINESS - Whitney Popham & Milla Prince
This workshop is focused on how to build relationships in the botanical world & rekindle kinship with plants in these times of discomfort, uncertainty & environmental destruction. It is an invitation to explore our relationship with the botanical beings we work with and how to become a better steward, protector & caretaker of the medicine plants that grow on this Mother Earth.
We will explore the many ways plants can use us to weave us back into The Web of Life, and teach us to become, once again, an animal in an ecosystem, a useful part of a greater whole.
We’re at a critical time on the planet when we need to shift away from extractive mindsets & back to a reciprocity-based relationships with plants, eco-systems, non-human others, & each other. Decolonizing herbalism from dominant society paradigms is the vital work of plant medicine folk in this time. It’s essential that we adjust our mindset and perception away from just using plants for ourselves, but how we can give back, tend to and nourish them, and be in a state of relationship with them.
This healing reaches deep within the marrow – through our ancestry, reclaiming our sacred connection to the Earth we are a part of. It also awakens the responsibility we have to tend to the medicine plants as our family members, ensuring their seedlings and the wisdom of their healing gifts may continue to flourish for the future generations. This class is an introduction to tools we can all use to relearn & practice these ancient, nourishing ways.
JUNE 7 - 10th 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
ALCHEMICAL HERBALISM WORKSHOP
SUMMER SESSION with Sajah + Whitney Popham
In this 4-day live workshop, you will get teachings from the Alchemical Herbalism online program on an experiential and tactile level, gathering the big picture concepts and detailed techniques and strategies to work with plants within a transformational and holistic context.
If you already have an interest in herbalism, these teachings will blow your whole world open to new medicine making techniques and deeper levels of healing that can be accessed through Alchemically prepared plant medicines.
You’ll also gain a whole new toolkit of diagnostic skills by learning Renaissance era medical astrology techniques to get incredibly accurate insights into health & disease. Through these teachings from this rich tradition of Western Alchemy, you’ll get profound insights & tools for deepening your practice of plant medicine and transforming the way you see the herbs you work with and the world around you.
- Learn the philosophy & practice of traditional plant Alchemy (Spagyrics)
- Get hands-on herbal medicine making using traditional Alchemical processes to make Spagyric herbal extracts. Including distillation of essential oils & spirits, fermentation of herbal wines, calcination of plant mineral ash, and more...
- Take Herb Walks & learn about medicinal plants & herbal identification
- Do plant sits & meditations in the forest to develop your direct connection & communication with plants
- Understand Esoteric Herbalism & how plants relate to Alchemical philosophy, astrology, Qabalah & tarot
- Participate in a Medical Astrology roundtable where you’ll learn how to read your own birth chart as a diagnostic tool to determine health strengths & predispositions for disease
SEPTEMBER 29th - 30th 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART ONE of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH ONE: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study the Six Tissue States, basic energetics of Western herbal medicine. The Blood and Differential Evaluation: blood deficiency, congealed blood. Application of the tissue states in simple systems: lungs, stomach.
OCTOBER 11 - 14th 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
ALCHEMICAL HERBALISM WORKSHOP
AUTUMN SESSION with Sajah + Whitney Popham
In this 4-day live workshop, you will get teachings from the Alchemical Herbalism online program on an experiential and tactile level, gathering the big picture concepts and detailed techniques and strategies to work with plants within a transformational and holistic context.
If you already have an interest in herbalism, these teachings will blow your whole world open to new medicine making techniques and deeper levels of healing that can be accessed through Alchemically prepared plant medicines.
You’ll also gain a whole new toolkit of diagnostic skills by learning Renaissance era medical astrology techniques to get incredibly accurate insights into health & disease. Through these teachings from this rich tradition of Western Alchemy, you’ll get profound insights & tools for deepening your practice of plant medicine and transforming the way you see the herbs you work with and the world around you.
- Learn the philosophy & practice of traditional plant Alchemy (Spagyrics)
- Get hands-on herbal medicine making using traditional Alchemical processes to make Spagyric herbal extracts. Including distillation of essential oils & spirits, fermentation of herbal wines, calcination of plant mineral ash, and more...
- Take Herb Walks & learn about medicinal plants & herbal identification
- Do plant sits & meditations in the forest to develop your direct connection & communication with plants
- Understand Esoteric Herbalism & how plants relate to Alchemical philosophy, astrology, Qabalah & tarot
- Participate in a Medical Astrology roundtable where you’ll learn how to read your own birth chart as a diagnostic tool to determine health strengths & predispositions for disease
OCTOBER 20th - 21st 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART TWO of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH TWO: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study the extracellular matrix, homeostasis, stress, and the tissue state. Capillary bed/matrix/lymphatic drainage as a unit. Herbal organ-affinities: example system, Muscular and Skeletal.
NOVEMBER 3rd - 4th 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART THREE of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH THREE: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study the digestive Tract, moving beyond the tissue states. 80% of our immune system is tied into the GI tract, so it is very important. Organ systems axillary to GI: lymphatics/immune, liver, gallbladder, metabolism. Evaluation from the tongue.
DECEMBER 1st - 2nd 2018 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART FOUR of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH FOUR: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study the Circulation, Cardiovascular System, Heart, Pulse Evaluation. Starting with the discovery of the circulation of the blood by William Harvey (1628) there were several strong medical movements which emphasized the circulation (osteopathy, nineteenth-century medicine), not just for the understanding of cardiovascular problems but because the pattern of blood dispersal reveals disease patterns and treatment possibilities. And then, there is the chance for assisting cardiovascular health preventatively or sometimes even after its development.
FEBRUARY 16th - 17th 2019 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART FIVE of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH FIVE: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study elimination and the use of "alteratives" or "blood purifiers" The four channels of elimination: lungs, colon, skin, kidneys. The four internal causes of "bad blood" GI (leaky gut), liver, thyroid, lymphatic stagnation. The extracellular matrix is the true site of "bad blood"
MARCH 9th - 10th 2019 - JACKSONVILLE, OREGON
INTERMEDIATE + ADVANCED HERBAL MEDICINE COURSE
PART SIX of a SIX MONTH LIVE PROGRAM with MATTHEW WOOD
This course is for students and practitioners of herbalism with some background in the subject. It is directed towards a knowledge of tissue states and organ systems. Every subject will include extensive discussion of the corresponding herbal remedies and some pulse and tongue evaluation to help introduce clinical skills.
MONTH SIX: |
with Matthew Wood |
In this weekend class, we'll study the endocrine system. Mapping out a "stickman" approach to endocrinology, showing how the endocrine "cascade" (hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, adrenals) interacts, explaining the use of adaptogens, adrenal tonics, thyroid remedies (this class and preceding). Intro to evaluation from the face, questions, specific problems in practice.
ONGOING AT HERB PHARM - WILLIAMS, OR
HERBACULTURE INTERN PROGRAM
Sajah is one of the core faculty at Herb Pharm's internship program and he teaches there consistently throughout the year. He teaches classes on Spagyrics, traditional Alchemy, Medical Astrology, the history of Western Herbalism and more. He also teaches Herbaculture interns here at our own Organic Unity Spagyrics Lab on occasional field trips the students take throughout their course.
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