Ancestral Connection with Plants

“Plants are our ancestors that are still alive”

This course is an evolution of our previous offering “Della Medicina I”. We are still offering Della Medicina but have combined Della Medicina I and II into one course. And added a wider scope of practice to this one now including traditions from other parts of Europe!

People and plants have been in an ongoing co-evolutionary relationship throughout time, and plants have always been a part of human community as both food and medicine. We literally could not survive on Earth without plants. Being a human being means being in a continual interchange with the botanical world whether it’s from the essential exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, to the intentional planting and harvesting of seasonal foods, or the identification, gathering, and preparation of medicinal plant remedies. 

All of us originally come from plant-based cultures and plants and plant medicines have been in symbiotic relationship with the human community since the beginning of time. We have co-evolved, and plants can be strong mediums and allies that both awaken and hold space for our contact and remembrance of who we are and where we come from. Plants are the gathering basket, the net bag, where we connect to and collect our inherited losses, curses, blessings, and wounds. 

Plants and plant medicines are carriers as Ursula Le Guin describes in her “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” we need to find ways of carrying what we gather collectively and individually so that it can passed down as a bundle of vines, threads, and seeds to the next generations. Plants and plant medicines are such a bundle, “A leaf a gourd a shell a net a bag a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container. A holder. A recipient.” They are carrying and will carry from the past, through the present, to our descendants.

During this 3 month course we’ll have 9 live meetings where we will explore many aspects of ancestral remembrance and connection using plants as guides, medicine, and links to our ancestral memories. Included will be pdf’s and pre-recorded videos as well as a discord group. INCLUDES A PLANT MEDICINE PACKAGE SHIPPED TO YOU.

***This course is open to anyone of any heritage.

Basic Outline of Class (subject to change)

Week 1: Opening Circle, ancestral connection with plants, the language of the plants, working with Hawthorne

Week 2: Plant experience circle, taste and smell and ancestral memory, working with Rosemary

Week 3: Plant experience circle, making and ancestral tree, folklore, relationship with place, making a bioregional profile, working with Dandelion

Week 4: Plant experience circle, choosing and ancestral plant, making plant preparations based on Italian folk medicine

Week 5: Plant experience circle, guest teacher: making ancestral medicine formulas with Kara Wood

Week 6: Plant experience circle, building a home altar, working with saints, gods, goddesses as ancestors, choosing an ancestor, working with Elder

Week 7: Dreaming with plants, Dream Incubation and Greco-Roman dream temples, working with Mugwort

Week 8: Ancestral plants of Ireland with Kate Gilday

Week 9: Plant experience circle, ancestral plants of Italy and the Mediterranean, closing

Who is this for?

• anyone of any descent who wants to learn how to use plants to connect with their ancestors

• anyone who wants to learn how plants are an integral component of human community and the creation of collective culture that includes ritual, magic, and plant spirit medicine

• those that want to connect with and cultivate the folk healing ways of plant medicine for adapting and creating resilience in our current world

• those that want to work more deeply with plants as ancestors

• any level of plant enthusiast. no experience necessary.

You will learn:

• the medicinal, mythical, and magical uses of several plants from European ancestral lands

• How to do a journey/meditation with a plant spirit

• The basics of Italian Folk Medicine plant preparations

• Dream incubation from the tradition of the Asclepian dream temples

• How to use plants as a means to connecting with your ancestors and your ancestral memories

• Some unexpected and unplanned wisdoms that always emerge when a group gathers to connect with plants and ancestors