Herbal Roots
An in-person, 13-moon journey to learn plant wisdom for
body, spirit, and earth
October 2023-October 2024
With Erin LaFaive of Full Circle Herbals
In Augusta, Wisconsin
application closes Sept. 12, 2023 or before, if all spots are filled first
This unique Apprenticeship will support you to . . .
Come Back to Your Roots . . .
. . . and return to the part of you that instinctively knows how to be in sacred connection with plants and . . .
Your Wild Essence
Reconnect to your herbal roots – the part of you that feels plants are alive, vibrant, and filled with medicines.
At the Herbal Roots Apprenticeship you will:
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- Learn herbal wisdom
- Make herbal remedies
- Practice developing plant relationships
- Immerse yourself in Nature
- Restore the roots of our plant magic lineage
Collectively, we’re taught not to trust or believe that we can commune with plants.
We’re told that it’s all in our imaginations,
It’s an obsolete way of being and living,
That herbal remedies don’t work,
and that wild is dangerous.
Over the years our inner knowing, plant connection, and relationship to nature becomes slowly tamed.
The wild part of ourselves begins to get stifled, told to be quiet, and change to a more “civilized” way of life.
Eventually, we dismiss the magic we feel with plants – the draw, the call, a magnetic pull – begins to fade as we suppress it.
The good news is – we are only in dormancy.
Let’s wake up our herbal roots by cultivating fertile ground, nurturing their growth to open the portal of our wild apothecary.
Our herbal roots may have been buried deep, covered up, denied they exist . . . but they don’t die.
At the Herbal Wisdom Apprenticeship we’ll wake them up!
In the Earth,
In our collective,
And within ourselves.
Let our roots unfurl and be wild!
At the Herbal Wisdom Apprenticeship you will receive:
- 13 day-long workshops
- 13 virtual group check-in sessions
- Email support for 13 months
- Catered lunch during in-person workshops
- 9 weekend retreats at Stargazen Woodland Retreat Center
Reconnect to your herbal roots at this unique 13 moon, in-person apprenticeship experience
Monetary exchange for this Apprenticeship is $6,000
payment plans available
application closes Sept. 12, 2023 or before, if all spots are filled first
Come down to the earth,
lay your body on the holy soil,
listen to the plants, and co-create with them
as you circle up with other herbal wisdom keepers.
Herbal training can often lead to us keeping our heads in books and forgetting to use our bodies, plants, and intuition to inform us, too. We memorize lists of plants we’ve never seen and consume as much information as possible to feel like an expert.
The emphasis on analytical and disembodied learning can only go so far. It is devoid of the plants, our bodies, and the Mystery.
This stifled way of learning is so deeply entrenched within us, that we end up dishonoring our personal rhythms, the Earth’s cycles, the Plant Beings, and our own Desire.
Yet, when we practice embracing and trusting our innate self that knows how to create an intimate interconnection with plants, we feel grounded, centered, and in “right” relationship with the plants and our Essence.
The old ways of listening to the plants and our bodies to guide us along the way.
We must begin again and bring the old ways into the now
The old ways of listening to the plants and our bodies to guide us along the way.
During the Herbal Roots Apprenticeship you will learn herbal wisdom through many “ways of knowing” such as:
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- Guided meditations
- Scientific research articles
- Hands-on activities
- Plant Temples
- Ceremony and ritual
- Communing with Plant Beings
- Archetypal resonance of the healer, priestess, witch
- Reading books, handouts, and worksheets
- Creating your own Materia Medica, Book of Shadows, etc.
Rewild your sacred plant connection during the Herbal Roots Apprenticeship
Monetary exchange for this Apprenticeship is $6,000
payment plans available
This appreticeship is a plant temple
Here, plants are the teachers.
Here, we explore our interconnection with all living things.
While held in a nurturing, embracing temple sanctuary, you’ll discover a community that shares the vision of tending the Earth with integrity and reverence.
The more of us who do this, the more we can recalibrate our sacred connection to Earth, expanding a connective, unlimited healing vibration for all living beings . . including plants.
Together, with reverence, love, and down-to-earthness, we can hold the resonance of plants and help heal the Earth through our hands, our gardens, and the remedies we make.
Together, we’ll re-root and reconnect with plants the way our ancestors knew . . . the way we inherently know, through . . .
At the Herbal Wisdom Apprenticeship you will learn:
Plant identification
Herb Gardening techniques
Herbal remedy making skills
Harvesting & preserving herbs
Herbalism his/herstory
Herbal indications
Embodying your herbal lineage
And more . . .
It’s the Right Time for Herbal Roots if You . . .
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- Feel ready to be committed, dedicated, or devoted to know and learn herbal wisdom
- Feel connected to the spirit of plants & want to be in sacred communion with them
- Yearn to be embraced in a secure, held, and safe space while expressing your innate love of plants/herbs
- Desire to make remedies, grow herbs, and acquire plant knowledge—with ease, integrity, and co-creation with the spirit of the plants
- Are financially resourced and committed to attending the 13 live lessons.
In Right Relationship with Plants and Ourselves
To know the herbs medicine and craft herbal remedies, we must remember that we’re in the same web of life as they are. We must realign with the frequency of Nature’s language.
This 13-moon journey will support you in this remembrance and realignment.
You will learn, practice, and experience many aspects of herbal wisdom such as:
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- How to make herbal applications
- Choose herbs for body, spirit, and earth
- Best practices for harvesting and preserving all botanical parts of herbs
- Communing with Plant Beings
- Connection and immersion in nature
- Be supported in a group/community setting
- Learn the tenets of rewilding herbal wisdom
- Use “other ways of knowing” to guide your herbal learning experience such as the archetypes of the healer, priestess, witch
Grow your apothecary by learning to make herbal applications such as:
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- Water based applications: Tea/tisane/infusions, decoctions, steams, and more
- Tinctures (glycerin and glycerin)
- Poultice (fresh and dried)
- Herbal oils & Salves
- Oxymels
- Flower essence
- Capsules
- Electuaries
- Syrups
- Herbal tea blends
Creating Community & Co-creating Retreats
The nine weekend retreats are self-guided and community created. Apprentices are welcome to arrive at Stargazen Woodland Retreat Center the day before the in-person workshops and stay overnight until the day after Friday through Sunday.
Bring your drums, flutes, fun witchy/hippy clothes, songs, stories for time around the campfire. Or, take time for yourself wandering retreat grounds, gardens, forests, streams, or relaxing in your dwellings.
You may want to share your gifts or practice your abilities with other Apprentices such as a pop-up, informal lesson, make-and-take craft party, or care-taking of the retreat grounds.
At other times you may desire solitude, rest, and quiet. All forms of retreat are welcome.
Stargazen Woodland Retreat Center is a portal of enchantment
The retreat grounds hold gardens and art of all kinds. From hosta filled shade gardens to a fenced in apothecary garden, and the wild gardens Mother Nature created. Art is found as sculpture of metal, stone, wood in the gardens; mural paintings on outdoor showers; and in places one barely notices until a breeze brushes past and moves their singing parts.
Sacred spots are tucked in throughout the grounds from simple markings of rock circles, altar areas, cauldrons to Crow’s mound.
The accommodations are semi-rustic with electricity in most dwellings and campsites; canteens filled with purified drinking water; outdoor private sun showers, and several clean portable restrooms.
The retreat grounds have nine small dwellings with some sleeping up to three people and others only one person. Each with a different theme and accommodations such as heaters, air conditioning, hot plates, mini stove, mattress beds, pull out futons, bunk beds, kitchenettes, and more.
Camping sites for tents, small campers, and RVs are available with electricity hook ups.
The in-person workshops will be held outdoors when weather permits. An indoor space is available too.
Retreat Center Gallery
Reconnect to your herbal roots at this unique 13 moon, in-person apprenticeship experience
Monetary exchange for this Apprenticeship is $6,000
payment plans available
Receive a Unique Combination of Spiritual
& Academic Wisdom
When you join Herbal Roots, you’ll receive a unique combination and breadth of spiritual and academic transmissions.
With me, Erin LaFaive as your trusted guide, you’ll be deeply and expertly supported on your herbal journey, while being connected to a like-hearted community.
I have a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees; worked in greenhouses; taught in universities and gardens with thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds. I’ve participated in sweat lodges, sacred fire circles, ceremonies, rituals, temples, and my own nature centered spirituality practice.
“I have been blessed to know Erin as both a co-educator and student of herbalism. Her loving heart provides a guide for a deeper connection to our green world. She is an articulate writer/author, a masterful teacher and a healing force in the world. She has the perfect blend of science and ancestral roots to bring balance to our chaotic world through the wisdom of the plants.”
Dates of the in-person, Saturday workshops are on these weekends.
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- October 27-29, 2023
- November 17-19, 2023
- December 29-31, 2023
- January 26-28, 2024
- February 23-25, 2024
- March 22-24, 2024
- April 26-28, 2024
- May 24-26, 2024
- June 21-23, 2024
- July 26-28, 2024
- August 23-25, 2024
- September 27-29, 2024
- October 25-27, 2024
Summary of Herbal Roots
Monthly, in-person workshops (13 months)
Virtual check-ins by Zoom each month
Email Support inbetween workshops, retreats, and virtual checkins
