Into the Wild Wood | black-spruce-herbals

Emma’s classes focus on bioregional herbalism, ethical wild-crafting, medicine making, ways to cultivate intimate relationship with the green world, psychic development, personal empowerment through reconnection with ancestral teachings, and the rich world of plant magic.

Into the Wild Wood: A Magical Herbal

A true herbalist is one who knows the secrets of the plants. We are called by many names: plant-wise, cunning folk, herb witches, wise women, and we have come to our knowledge through wandering the many serpentine paths of relationship to the natural world and its cycles. Deep contemplation and study, trusting the experiential intelligence of the body, planting seeds and tending gardens, being nursed by healing herbs, creating magic and medicine with the green ones, and connecting directly with the plant kingdom through intuition, trance-work, meditation, and dreams. Plants are teachers, ancestors, lovers and friends, they are kin whose wisdom reaches back to the dawn of time and deep into the very soul of the world, the numinous spirit of all things.

There is a rising interest for this sort of rooted knowledge, and as we move into an era of increasing conflict, instability, and disconnection it becomes more important than ever to build resilience through relationships of reciprocity that nourish our spirits while they nourish the earth. Plants are some of the most accessible allies on the journey back to the spirit, back to our magical selves, back to our power and inner knowing.

Into the Wild Wood is a class series focused on building personal relationship with plant spirits for magic, ritual and healing work. Personal relationship is foundational, and developing the intuitive and psychic skills needed for deep communication will be the core of this program. The scope and practice of plant magic is vast, as plants have been used by every human culture throughout time for a multitude of uses, but we will focus on the beautiful Great Lakes and Midwest bioregion and on the folk magic traditions of Europe. From love magic to plants for protection, a wide range of traditional applications will be explored and created together.

Gain an understanding of the basic tools and skills necessary for direct communication with plant spirits.
Begin to develop a personally fulfilling cosmology and deepen your spiritual practice.
Cultivate a rich network of relationships to plant allies that will support your growth.
Study the historic uses of many trees and plants native or naturalized in this bioregion.
Learn how to craft unique ritual objects and preparations for personal magical use.
Deepen your connection to the cycles of nature and to the landscape we call home.
Build community rooted in acknowledging and honoring an enchanted worldview.

2021 Schedule

July 31st - Foundations of communication with the plant kingdom; Energetic herbalism and plant spirit medicine; Bioregionalism, Animism and Polytheism; An enchanted worldview; Reimagining the triple goddess through Birch medicine - Maiden, Mother, Crone, and the Mystery beyond.

August 14th - The art of offerings; Healing and luck magic; Plants of our ancestors and finding power in innate affinities; The honorable harvest as the dance of reciprocity; Animal medicine in the urban scape; Herbs to bring abundance, manifestation and success; The god in the Oak and the sacred sacrifice.

September 4th - Aphrodisiac and lust-inducing plants; Love philtre and potion-making throughout the ages; Devotions in smoke, incense as fragrant gift to the gods; Using aromatic plants to shift consciousness; Divination herbs and those that open the second sight; The doctrine of signatures; T sensual nourishment of Mother Linden.

September 25th - Solar plants for radiant confidence and protection; The sacred fire in ritual workings; Midsummer traditions; Ointments, salves, and anointing oils for healing, protection and consecration; Tending the sacred garden as path to plant-wisdom; Betwixt the blossom and the bough — Apple tree magic.

October 16th - Birth and Fertility magic; Flower Essences as spirit guides; Herbs for inspiration and the creative flow; Ritual bathing and purification practices; Aphrodite, Freya, and Venus as patronesses of beauty, glamour, and adornment magic; Willow as Ancient Mother old//young, barren//fertile, cruel//kind, cursing//blessing, standing at the door of life & death.

October 30th - Brewing libations, wines, meads, and elixirs; Kitchen witchery and food as medicine; Altar-making as a transformative art; Harvest festival traditions and the folk magic of feast days; Samhain and Ancestress Night; Working with stone and crystal; Plants for banishment, exorcism and curse-unraveling; Elder: the tree of witches.

November 20th - Walking the poison path and plants of bane; Tending a witches’ garden; The legacy of Hecate, Medea and Circe; Underworld-work for unraveling trauma; Death-midwifery with herbal allies; Bone, blood and fur magic; The Protectress Rowan and her circle of light.

December 11th - Plants of Yule and the Winter Solstice; Re-birthing the sun and bearing witness; Solar myth and storytelling; Home protection plant magic during the thinning of the veil; Building community through an ecological lens; The Protective and Nurturing Cedar and Pine

All classes are held on Saturdays from 9am - 12pm. Priority will be given to those folks who have committed to attending a minimum of 4 classes or the whole program, though there will be availability for drop-ins as space allows. Cost for each class is $55 and will include the materials fee for glass bottles, jars, and vials, essential oils and hydrosols, dry and fresh herbs, gemstones, honey, salt, clay, wine, and other supplies for magical crafting.