Shamanic Herbalism Correspondence Course
Overview
“To become a true herbalist means to be sensitive to the being of the herbs, to commune in sensory awareness with the plant light of the universe. It is to learn to listen when the plant speaks, to speak to the plant as to another human being, and to look upon it as one’s teacher”.
~Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Vasant Lad’s “The Yoga of Herbs”
Gaia’s Green Magic
In Ayurvedic Medicine, herbs are approached through the art and science of herbal energetics. Ayurveda and the ancient Essene Way of Life are the oldest developed shamanic practices worldwide. The properties of medicinal plants are related systematically according to their elements and tastes. However, without a developed sense of energetics, we cannot tap into the plant’s spirit, which holds a pure understanding of plant medicine. Knowing the energetic language of plants is a unique system for realizing their hidden potential. It is a profoundly satisfying process which opens one’s heart to the ancient language and mysteries of the plant kingdom. Herbal energetics is the main factor in understanding herbs in the world’s Ayurvedic and ancient shamanic traditions.
Energetic herbalism is knowledge that belongs to all living beings. Adapting this healing approach to meet the individual’s unique needs, constitution, and environment is a gift of the plants.
We will explore the energetic medicine of plants in an inspiring and practical format. The course’s Apprenticeship part will include herb & medicine walks, connecting with plants’ healing essence, discovering your totem plants, and knowing a plant’s medicine through the five senses. You can expect a hands-on, participatory and enlightening experience.
You are embarking on one of the great adventures of the human mind throughout the ages. May this healing and learning journey take you to the source of all nourishment and the origins of life within your own heart. May you be inspired to follow it wholeheartedly, beneficially, and creatively. May it guide you through life and help you be of healing service to all life.
Sacred Plant Medicine:
The Heart of Green Medicine
It is a Time to Celebrate and Honor the Spirit and Essence of Herbs.
Are you studying herbs but find you spend most of your time learning about them in books?
Are you learning the medicinal uses but know little about the plant’s spirit and essence?
Do you yearn to speak the largely forgotten language of plants, hear their stories, and know their living history?
Do you want to spend time immersed in their sacred world of Sacred Plant Medicine?
Curriculum
“Continually trying to look on the bright side interferes with finding the wisdom in the fruitful darkness. Continually striving upward toward the light means we never grow downward into our own feet, never become firmly rooted on the earth, never explore the darkness within and around us, darkness without whose existence the light would have no meaning.”
~Stephen Harrod Buhner
Lesson 1 – Introduction
- The Hidden Language of Plants
- Sacred Plant Medicine: The Heart of Green Medicine
- Gaia Elemental Medicine
- Declaration of the Four Sacred Things
- The Greening: Viridatas
- The Healing Power of Plant Spirit Medicine
Lesson 2 – The Elements & Herbal Energetics
- The Great Elements
- The Five Elements & Man
- The Elements According to Ayurveda
- Creation Originating in Cosmic Consciousness
- Energy, Elements & Earth Wisdom of the Ancients
- Elements & Elemental Spirits
- The Ayurvedic Elements & the Gunas
- Plant Spirit Medicine: The Elements
- The Elements & Their Essence
- Plant & Elemental Spirits
- Herbs & the Five Elements
- The Return of the Elements
Lesson 3 – The Constitution: Your Inherited Genetic Blueprint
- History of Constitutional Medicine
- Constitutional Elemental Medicine
- Integrating Constitutional Traditions
- Understanding Your Constitution & Your Current Condition
- Prakruti: Your Permanent Constitution
- Vikruti: Your Current State of Balance & Health
- Constitutional Questionnaires
Lesson 4 – Shamanic Herbalism: Sacred Plant Medicine
- Shamanic Healing Part I
- Shamanic Transmutation II
- Shamanic Rejuvenation III
- Ancient Practices from around the world (Ayurveda, Essenes & Native Traditions)
- The Healing Power of Plant Spirit Medicine
- The Spirit in the Realm of Plants
- Plants, Spirits and their Healing Gifts
Lesson 5 – Herbal Energetics: The Language of Plants
- Herbal Energetics in Clinical Practice
- Learning From The Rishis
- Energetics and the 5-Elements
- Herbal Energetics: The Healing Tastes
- Case Study: Depression
Lesson 6 – Cleansing of the Senses
- The Five Senses & the Sun & the Moon
- Cleansing the Senses to Enhance Spirit-Plant Communion
- Expanding Your Perception of Reality
Lesson 7 – Tree Medicine
- Tree Medicine
- Sacred Tree Medicine: Quotes & Inspirational Passages
- Tree Meditations
- Tree of Life
- The ancient Tree of Yoga
- The Sacred Tree
- Tree Spirits
- Trees, Spirits and their Healing Gifts
- How to Absorb and Channel Energies from Nature
Lesson 8 – Deepening Your Relationship with Plants
- The Living Medicine: Shamanic Aromatherapy
- Ayurvedic Aromatherapy
- Sacred Smoke
- Making Your Own Shamanic Power Plant Essences
- Movement & Breath Opening Channels of Communication
- Rituals: The Natural Act of Deepening Your Relationship with Plants
Lesson 9 – Living Ecology: The Nutritional Foundation for a Living Body & a Living Earth
Lesson 10 – Supplemental Material
- Fasting: The Great Physician Within
- The Benefits of Meditation or Why Meditate?
- Grounding Earth Meditation
- A Rite for the Nature Spirits
- Spirit of Herbs- by John Seed
- Earth Rhythms- by Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera
11. About the Author & The Living Centre & Living Arts Institute
Textbooks for the Course
- The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth, (Stephen Harrod Buhner, Bear & Co. 2002)
- The Secret Teachings of Plants: In the Direct Perception of Nature (Stephan Harrod Buhner, Bear & Co. 2004)
- Sacred Plant Medicine: Explorations in the Practice of Indigenous Herbalism (Stephan Harrod Buhner, Bear & Co. 2006)
- Plant Spirit Medicine: A Practical Guide to Plant Spirit Medicine (Clare G. Harvey and Amanda Cochrane)
- Shamanic Herbal Energetics Adobe DVD Reader Course Material, Shantree Kacera, D.N., Ph.D.
- Conscious Living Manual: The Sevenfold Path to Peace, (Shantree Kacera, D.N., Ph.D. & Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera, 2002)
- The Yoga of Herbs (Drs. Frawley and Lad, Lotus Press, 1986)
This comprehensive study course is intended for both the professional health care practitioner and wholistic medicine student. It is designed to lay a foundation for the professional use of Shamanic Herbalism within a wholistic practice and may be used in several different yet compatible ways:
- As a foundation for practice as a Visionary Herbalism Diploma Program.
- As an adjunct to the practice of a therapist in another natural healing modality.
- As training in self-healing for nonprofessionals.
The Process
Part I (The Correspondence Course) Is the home study part of the course. Study the material and do the lessons at your own pace. Send in the lessons through postal mail or email. We’ll check your addresses and make comments and give you feedback on your progress.
Part II (The Advanced Study & Research) Thesis Project allows you to dive deeper into the teachings. Choose an area of study that you feel particularly drawn to in the course that sparks your passion, invites your curiosity, and beckons you to explore. Write a 5,000-word thesis and conduct a research project to be submitted within the course study time. Also, we ask you to offer to your community and document a couple of workshops or lectures to build understanding, expertise and confidence.
One-on-One Sessions
These sessions are available to both support and deepen the learning experience of this course. Three sessions of 40 minutes each can be done over the phone. These are available to guide and advise you on your research thesis project. You must book these sessions in advance once you have sent in your proposed thesis topic.
Your Guide & Adviser: Shantree Kacera
Homework
Homework is sent in upon each lesson’s completion and returned to you. You do not need to send your reference files. However, it would help if you kept us posted on how you’re doing with your projects.
Time Completion
You may complete these lessons on your schedule. But to utilize them to their fullest, we recommend you set up a scheduled time to do each class; one evening a week or an afternoon on the weekends will keep your momentum going. The average time to complete the course is about one year. Some students have completed the material in 6 months, while others may take a few years.
We do ask that you complete the course in two years. After two years, if the student fails to complete the course within the allotted period, the time-extension fee is $100 for an additional year.
Questions
One of the specialties of these lessons is the personal attention available to your questions and homework. We invite your comments and suggestions.
Certificate
Students who complete the lessons and ALL the homework will receive a beautiful Herbal Certificate. The Certificate awarded states that you are acknowledged for conducting a thorough, in-depth study of energetic herbalism.
Lessons 1-10 & Adobe DVD Reader Course Material
The Shamanic Herbal Energetics Apprenticeship Correspondence Course comes as an Adobe DVD Reader. The Adobe DVD, Reader course material makes it easy to keep your lessons, homework and other course material together. The course material will be sent out as soon as we receive your tuition.
Further Study & Hands-on Experience
For hands-on training, see our Mentorship Program. For dates and details, click here>
For information about the Visionary Herbalism Educator Course, click here>
Tuition
“Be not discouraged; keep on; divine things are well enveloped.
I swear to you, there are sacred things more beautiful than words can tell.
~Walt Whitman
“A magical intangible process healing is an art, not a science.”
~Rosemary Gladstar
“Goethe put it over two centuries ago . . . Life as a whole expresses itself as a force that is not to be contained within any one part. . . . The things we call the parts in every living being are so inseparable from the whole that they may be understood only in and with the whole.”
~Stephen Harrod Buhner
The regular fee is $1500
Includes:
- All Correspondence Course material
- One-on-One Sessions
- Taxes where applicable
Shipping is $50 for North America | Shipping is $100 for International
$1,500.00
Facilitator
