Heartstone Herbal School

This program spans three seasons making it possible to learn about the plants intimately over the course of their life cycles; greeting them as they appear in the spring and being with them through their phases of growth, reproduction and dying or overwintering.

Whenever possible, we make herbal medicines in ways that correspond to the season and plant life cycle as well as a connection to body systems being studied.  We study the liver with burdock and yellow dock in the spring when plant energy is in the root and our bodies are eager for cleansing; reproduction and flower essences in the summer at the height of the beautiful blooming time.  Oils are put up in the heat of June sun where they infuse until we gather again in July to transform them into creams & salves.

Our curriculum emphasizes local and regional plants. We want students to become especially intimate with these green friends who grow right around us, Many of the plants we mow, trample and bushwhack are the ones who know how to care for us the best! There is an entire basic food group of love to be discovered here as well as a top notch first aid kit.  However, we also cover non-local plants with important medicinal qualities - especially the longevity and immune support plants and of course, kava-kava.

Our Apprenticeship program offers many ways to learn about plants and their medicines.  On a typical weekend, we cover 15-25 plants in depth, 1-2 body systems, and learn to make 2 forms of plant medicine.  Our days are divided among lectures and discussion, hands-on practice with harvesting and making medicines, weed walks to meet plants in their homes, and a variety of experiential activities.

One of the special offerings at Heartstone School is a chance to learn the mechanics and magic of human physiology in a deep but highly accessible way.  In our travels among budding and seasoned herbalists, we often find a longing for more in-depth understanding of the  body. Students have sometimes studied medicinal plants in depth but lack a commensurate knowledge of physiology to use when preparing formulas for themselves, their families or their clients. Tammi Sweet  has been teaching anatomy and physiology for over 25 years and has a gift for teaching about the body which is delightfully accessible to “non-science” students while engaging to practitioners and “science-heads”.

As time and interest allows, the Apprenticeship covers the digestive, lymphatic, cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, integument and musculoskeletal, urinary, respiratory, reproductive,  & nervous systems. In addition, we discuss winter health care and herbal first aid. We now offer links to 2 of Tammi's online A&P lectures per weekend to give students a chance to learn some information about body systems in advance of the weekends and to allow more in-depth discussion during our class time together at Heartstone.

Since we co-evolved with plants and have been highly dependent on them for our survival, we find that our innate perceptual systems are especially designed to to be able to learn some information directly from them. To this end, each weekend, we share 1-2 activities to deepen our direct experience of the green world; learning to hone our senses, our imaginations and our hearts as we build relationships with them in their wild or garden habitats.

On Saturday evenings, we make clearing sticks of mugwort, herbal dream pillows, or gather around the fire circle to celebrate a season or cycle of the moon or a special theme connected to our learning. On occasion, we’ll offer an optional Friday afternoon session where students can join us to prepare freshly harvested kava from Hawaii or make sacred basil mead or an herbal beer.

An additional part of each weekend is the chance to simply be with kindred spirits to share our experiences with the plants and enjoy each others' company. We find that the experience of community which emerges from each group adds it own special nourishment, learning and fun to our time together.