A YEAR OF PLANT INVOCATION
only when you stop
and sit for a while
among the wild hyacinths
do you know where desire
was leading you
on a stone beside water
listening to the water
and to something else
serious and delicate
playing behind the sounds
- from "The Grey Fold" by Thomas. A Clark
The road of Herbal Mystery School is lined with white birches; sappy, starry candles that we carry as lanterns into our months together. Birch gives birth to the forest in early spring; so birch is our first oracle, our first guide, our first shrine. Paper-skinned Birch is the flowering maypole of our village dance. For the rest of the year, with each spin around the maypole, we follow the bone-rhythm of Birch as the road opens to other plant initiators: we knot the lush green fiber of Nettle around our hips, we sing the harmonized, honeyed, hymns of Hawthorn to the bees and we sip on the nectar of Roses to loosen our limbs and unfurl every petal. Other plants (who are to be revealed further along) will tie their magic ribbons to the birch and join us in the dance.
Each month begins with a plant initiation. We cross the threshold into a ritual cycle, opening to the mysteries of this plant. We are practitioners of devotional collaboration. The work of Herbal Mystery School is ceremonial. Our plant ceremonies emerge through divination, offering, meditation, trance, folklore, dream tending, poetry and art exploration. The work of Herbal Mystery School is earthly. We brew the tea, bathe with the plants, we drop tinctures into our water, we feast on the plants. Even though our cohort is not physically together, we hold each other in the web. A lot of our rituals and plant work may be personal, but when they are offered in the group they become stronger, part of our community folklore. Sometimes we forget to take the plants, but the other participants in our cohort invite us back into presence through deep witnessing, discussion and reflection.
This is a program that focuses on plant energetics and magical plant practice. In Herbal Mystery School we do not aim to define what plants do, rather we open ourselves to being in devotional relationship with plants. Each month with our plant initiation, magical practices are offered to accompany and deepen your time with every plant. We embody the mysteries of each plant through these practices.
May we be moved by mystery.
We work with one plant a month in Herbal Mystery School. Students will also be working on creating their own system of divination, writing devotional hyms to the plants and maintaining a consistent dreamwork practice. Additional readings and ritual practices are offered each month.
2025 DATES
Herbal Mystery School meets 2x a monthClasses are held on a Monday and a Sunday of every month.
Sunday classes are our plant initiation days.
These classes are held in ritual space.
Each Sunday, Liz offers a teaching around a particular magical practice and tradition
to support the deepening of the expereince with the plants.
Mondays are our harvest days.
We hold our experiences together in the community cauldron and learn from one another
about our devotional time with the plants.
Monday classes (harvest sessions) meet from 12-2 pm EST
and Sunday classes (initiations) meet from 12-3 pm EST.
Please note that for our first month together, there is one additional mandatory class in March.
2025 DATES
Monday, March 3 and Sunday, March 9
Monday, March 10 (from 2-4 pm EST)
Monday, April 7 and Sunday, April 13
Monday, May 5 and Sunday, May 11
Monday, June 2 and Sunday, June 8
Monday, July 7 and Sunday, July 13
Monday, August 4 and Sunday, August 10
Monday, September 1 and Sunday, September 7
Monday, October 6 and Sunday, October 12
Monday, November 3 and Sunday, November 9
Monday, December 1 and Sunday, December 7
A note on attendance:
Due to the intimate and participatory nature of this course, students are required to be present for the class sessions. Missing one or two classes for unforeseen reasons is understandable but
please consider that missing three or more classes greatly affects the group integrity and dynamic.
While recordings are available to you if you miss a class, your participation is crucial.
If you miss more than three classes, your participation in the program will be incomplete and unfinished.
INCLUDED IN CLASS REGISTRATION
~ A large parcel from Liz of tinctures, essences and dried plant material from each plant of our ritual year. This is a box of homemade medicine that is made with intention and care. This box contains over $350 of medicines.
~ An thirty minute one-on-one meeting with Liz that can be booked at anytime throughout the program to ask questions, receive support and further explore class materials.
~ A closing certificate and parting gift to be received upon completion of the program.
~ An online class hub (hosted on Discord) for checking in with each other, sharing our experiences with the plants and continuing the converstaion outside of class time.
a note from Liz about the program:
It is common in herbal education programs to learn about 50-100 medicinal plants in one year. That's a lot of plants! And I think it's a lot like speed dating: you learning some general, basic points about each plant to find the way it can work for you in your life and then you move on to the next. I think this does the plant realm a huge disservice. The plants are so much more than just a few basic herbal actions. It's also a lie to say that they are just here to help us as physical medicine; they have their own minds, their own way of relating in the world, their own quirks and truths and personalities.
What has been so profound about plant medicine to me is not just the way the plants can support my intention for physical well-being, but that they are incredible teachers and friends. They hold space. They release tears. They set strong boundaries. They show me how to be big, how to wield my sword. They have made me get on my knees to listen. They open dream gates. They walk me through fire. They ask me for help too. They are facilitators of big magic. They have put me in touch with the invisible. That which is the mystery.
The biggest gift here is the act of collaboration, the reciprocity between plant and human. The art of relationship. This is the magic they have brought into my life. We are living in a time when we need to be in cahoots with the weeds outside our front doors, the owls that hoot in the pines, the water that we drink, the boulders that slowly murmur of eternity, the swift fox, the wind that rolls through and dances with our hair, the breath of the Earth. Cosmos and All. The real magic of the plants has brought me home to belonging. Nine years ago I started Herbal Mystery School as a way to work deeply and magically with the plants. To enter into ritual collaboration. The circle has been through many iterations, both in person and online, and while I am hoping to bring HMS back to real life meeting in the next few years, in 2025 the program will once again be offered on zoom. I do hope you will consider applying this next year. It really just keeps getting better and better.