Aquarius season is upon us, which means it’s time to announce the 2025 rendition of The Herbal Heathen Program.

With our dearly beloved dwarf king Pluto newly baptized into the sign of Aquarius, we are feeling an urgent tug towards cultivating our communities and moving in small ways which create big ripples. The Waterbearer applies its genius to innovating and evolving new ways to solve ancient problems, provoking ineffective systems into reimagined supports which sustain vibrant, thriving Life. It is through Aquarius that we write our own future myths, blending science and fiction to create a new kind of magic which lights our way. Knowing and knowledge, intuition and instruction, rituals and reimaginings, reverence and rebellion ~ what do we take with us into the next iteration of Being, and what is released? 

In many ways, this is the perspective that informs me when I am wrestling with building the program, now three years in a row. How do we hold on, nourished by the roots of all that has come before us, and how do we carry those things forward in subversive ways towards a future that is better-suited to its inhabitants? The Earth recovers and revives, the land around us is resilient and rebellious, our Plant kin show us how to exist with a persistence that overcomes concrete. 

Welcome, Heathens

I want the Herbal Heathen Cohort to be a part of this great, resilient shaking up. Big ripples come from tiny stones and I firmly believe that something need not be grand to be important. This year will focus on gathering and experiencing what it means to be together with our Plant kin. How to work with them in our daily lives, how to sit with them for fellowship’s sake, how to skill-fully and care-fully weave their presence into the lives of our Human kin. How can we wind our roots around theirs, netting underground networks of compassionate care that will resist erosion? How can we create human networks that focus on tying together rather than isolating and separating? How can we be a part of a resilient structure which supports our collective well-being during the times to come? 

I’ve spent the last five months reimagining and reconfiguring this container and am pretty damn excited about what emerged. It’s my very great joy to invite you to consider joining us for our next go-round.

The Deets: 

~ March 23rd - September 21st {Vernal Equinox to Autumnal Equinox} 

~ One Sunday a month from 9am-2pm

~ Dates: March 23rd, April 20th, May 18th, June 22nd, July 20th, August 24th, September 21st

~ Each session will include a shared meal

~ The cost is $400 or seven monthly payments of $60

~ There are 6 spaces available for this round

This will be a “Live and In-Person Only” year, which will make it much easier and more economical to produce *and* give us the freedom to wander around the acreage at the Haven! Also, it turns out I really, really, REALLY hate being in front of a camera. Who knew?

Everyone will be required to have some sort of notetaking set up and be willing to bring food to share for the meals. There will be an “enrichment project” each month {definitely different than homework} that will focus on working with formulas created during our group session, recording notes about your experiences and then sharing them with el grupo.

Each session will involve case studies we work on together, drinking lots of different teas to experience lots of different herbs, formulating for our individual needs, crafting/playing with flower essences, and frolicking at the meadow’s edge {while scheming for the survival of ourselves and our loved ones}.

Folks on a clinical herbal track will find this a curious and supportive container to stretch their herbal muscles and build skills under the strange but watchful eye of an experienced clinical community herbalist {it’s me!}. Community tenders, midwives/birth workers, therapists and practitioners who wish to deepen their roots and brighten the tapestry woven between themselves and other Beings of both human and plant persuasions are most welcome to apply as well. 

Folks who simply want to frolic with weeds and scheme against the machine should absolutely throw their name in the hat. .

Registration will close on March 1st, or whenever all of the spaces have been filled.

How to apply? Email me {Andi} at everylightwellness@gmail.com and start a conversation.

Information you could include: 

Who are you? 

Where are you coming from? 

Why do you want to join us in our Heathen shenanigans? 

What’s your plant/people path been so far? 

Also feel free to include any questions about format, payments, or anything else that sticks in your mind. I’ll get back to you within a day or two and when all of the spots are filled, I’ll close registration.