Anima Wilderness Learning Center SUMMER EVENTS

Please forward and tell all of your friends!

We invite and welcome your participation in any of the following workshops and gatherings, held in a magnificent river canyon and ancient place of power, deep in the mountains of the enchanted Southwest… 5 hrs. from the Tucson airport, or 4.5 hrs. south of Albuquerque.

Anima Wilderness Learning Center & Medicine Woman Tradition

(by donation)
May 22-27: The Wild Women’s Gathering
A six day event for women only, with a focus on primitive camping, interaction with the natural world and personal rewilding: learning to trust our senses, instincts and needs – and to heed our callings and live our dreams regardless of constraints, norms, fears and habits.

June 12-17: The Woman Spirit Gathering
Another six day women’s event, a memory-making celebration of the spirit of womanhood, dedicated to self nourishment, sisterly sharing and sweet savoring – with inspiring teaching circles, wonderful outdoor feasts, swimming, singing and riverside dancing!

July 3-6: The Shaman’s Path Intensive
For men as well as women, a four day long workshop imparting insights and techniques for heightening awareness, connecting with inspirited nature, exploring alternate realities, instigating ecstatic states, developing our powers to affect events, and defining and fulfilling our individual most-meaningful purpose.

Aug 1-6: The Medicine Woman Gathering
Six days of presentations and discussions, plant walks and medicine making – for women who feel called to a healer’s life of intense awareness and personal responsibility. The Medicine Woman Tradition defines healing as contributing to wholeness and balance… of our selves, of others, and of the living world we are a part of.

Aug 29 -Sep 1: The Wild Foods Weekend
Four days of learning to identify, gather, preserve and deliciously prepare a wide number of the wild native foods of the mountainous West and Southwest – increasing observation skills, self confidence and our ability to survive, while helping us connect deeper to the natural world and cycles of life that we are each a natural part of.

If you can forward this announcement to your email lists, it would be greatly appreciated. For more information, or for Registration forms you can download, please go to the Anima Events page at:
www.animacenter.org

Anima Center also offers Retreats with meals in riverside cabins, Vision Quests, personal Counsel, resident Internships and Apprenticeships, and empowering Correspondence Courses including the Way Of Heart, Shaman and Medicine Woman paths. There is no set charge for any of the various opportunities, services, courses and events… only a suggested, sliding scale donation.

UPDATE New Herbal Resource Herb Mentor

Some of you may have read my previous post "There is no Official Certification of herbalist in the US"

In that post I list several resources you can use to practice herbalism.


Herb Mentor is packed with great videos, articles and resources.

I am so excited about Herb Mentor I wanted to discuss the site in a separate post so no one misses the new launch they have coming March 20th. On the launch day herb mentor is offering a free tele seminar with Rosemary Gladstar at 5:30 Pacific 8:30 central time!

In todays video about chickweed John Gallagher talks a little bit about the details of what being a member of herb mentor is all about, the costs (extremely reasonable by the way!) etc.

There is also a great new video interview with Susun Weed
and many other great instructional videos too many to list!

One of the many things I like about Herb Mentor is that they keep things simple and accessible for everyone! There is no need to be overwhelmed you can learn at your own pace. They are basically bringing village herbalism right into your home via the web.

They also have message forums where herbalists and students can interact, great articles, and more! I highly recommend checking it out :)

HerbTV on YouTube

For those of you interested there are some excerpts of videos on YouTube HerbTV
Southern herbalist Phyllis Light and northern herbalist Matthew Wood discuss the advantages and differences of herbal teas and tinctures, Southern Herbal Traditions, Thin Blood Thick Blood et.
Herbalist David Hoffmann discusses to herbal action of anti-cattarhal herbs such as goldenseal, goldenrod and elderflower
Herbalist Jackie Nikolaus has a strawberry love story to share with you from herbalist David Winston & More!

Business Name Change !!!

I changed my business name. For 5 years I had the name Makia Massage for my massage practice. In the past I would use my personal name for my holistic herbal consulting, teaching et and Makia Massage for my massage business. Since I focus on holistic health (not just massage) with every client, I wanted the business name to better reflect this. Since I do not have a permanent space for massage at this time (practicing out-call to have more time with my daughter at home, and enjoying my current pregnancy), I thought this would be the perfect time to make the transition.

Drum roll please.......

The new name is Sacred Forest Holistic Wellness

I am in the process of creating a new website that will hopefully be up in the next month or so.
In the meantime look for any updates, new classes et here on the blog.

There Is NO OFFICIAL CERTIFICATION for "herbalist" in the US

OK, I guess this is somewhat of a rant. I still get this question so often off and on from friends, list members, students, I felt the need to write about it.

There is no official certification or license for you to become an herbalist in the USA!
There are many educational programs that may give you a "certificate of completion" all this means is that you completed a program from whatever school you attended. They may claim to be "accredited", what does that mean? Well it means if you have a another license, such as LMT, or Naturopath, you may be able to qualify for Continuing Ed credits (CEU's), and that the school has met certain standards by whatever accrediting agency it belongs to, this does not mean the credits transfer to any college for credit hours!! If you think that going to a school that is accredited equals a better education, this is not necessarily true.

Someone said "But I want to have an accredited education so I will be respected in the allopathic world"
Hate to tell you, but most Doctors either are warmed up to the idea of herbal medicine or they are not. Saying you have a certificate from so and so school that you paid a pretty penny for really will not sway them, because for the most part they have no idea about these schools and have little time to listen to what you have to say. Some Doctors think that Chiropractors are quacks, and they have a DO degree, spend tons of $$$ and time on their education. The "licensed" practitioners clash in the medical world all the time.

I have said this before and I will say it again, some of the best herbalists I know are self taught. They do not hold a certificate from one of the major "accredited" schools. Most of the pioneers in herbalism, Juliette Levy, Rosemary Gladstar ,Susun Weed, for example paved their own road- learned from the people & the plants, they did not need a certificate to start learning. A few in my generation (and 2 of my favorite) are jim mcdonald (read his bio here) & kiva rose (she explains what she does well here) ......and many others.

There are tons of resources and it can be very overwhelming. Starting with one of the many programs will give you a good foundation, but you will find this is a lifetime passion, and you will learn new things daily, you may later decide to expand your education, or focus on your own niche. I still have classes I want to take, books I want to read, plants I want to meet. I think if you have the opportunity to learn from the herbalists themselves this is a great start. Research the herbalist you are going to work with, do you like their teaching style & the type of herbalism they practice? this can make a big difference in what you retain and learn. Join some of the online forums like herbwifery, Susun Weed ,take hands on classes in your local area, read books ( I think The Herbalist's Way by Nancy and Michael Phillips gives an excellent overview of what an herbalist does, profiles different herbalists and their teaching styles, talks about different events and programs, even teaches you a few things to get started as a community herbalist yourself!- if you can buy it directly from them, they are such nice people!) join herbal email lists like medicinal herb list, the herbstudent yahoo group, medicine woman mom's, tribe, go to Henriette's site, she has tons of free information that will keep you busy for days, visit jim mcdonald's article index for other great resources, and of course visit all of the wonderful blogs (check out my links on the side bar). A great new website Herb Mentor launching March 20 2008.

Before you jump into a major program and spend tons of your hard earned cash, I would really do some soul searching and research the both the instructor and the style of herbalism they practice, start with immersing yourself with recourses, books, websites, et ask around how did others like the class? Make some teas, get out in nature, practice at your level of experience, then the right instructor and class will become apparent to you.