Herbal Apprenticeship & Retreat 2023
You are invited to deepen intimacy with yourself and the living earth at Mt. Owen Forest Sanctuary, a 268+ woodland preserve in Ashfield, Massachusetts. This spring-autumn offering with author, herbalist and Sacred Warrior founder, Vanessa Chakour offers sanctuary in wild nature with monthly camping and an experiential dive into the practice of holistic herbalism.
Together, we’ll plant, wildcraft, make medicine, hike, explore healing rituals and create a homemade apothecary to last through the seasons. Each time we gather, you’ll have space for self reflection and solo time in the forest within supportive community. Plant and tend to your own medicinal garden on the land and nearby, enjoy swimming at Ashfield Lake, the local farmer’s market and more.
We will gather in person from May-October, the third Friday-Saturday of each month in person and meet online mid-month to check in. This experience is limited to 8 people. Reserve your spot with the early registration rate through spring Equinox. Payment plans are also available. Scroll down for more.
Deepen relationship to yourself & the living earth through hands-on learning with medicinal plants.
THIS EXPERIENCE EXPLORES:
Plant identification and ally work – learn the land and build intimacy with plants season by season
Ethical Wildcrafting – gather plants with respect for the ecosystem
Plant Medicine – explore the many ways plants have been used across cultures while learning new research about the ways they interact with our bodies
Medicine-making – prepare tinctures, infusions, decoctions, salves, and more
Ecology - explore plant and fungi relationships to the environment as a whole
Ancestral Medicine - dig into your own roots of herbal healing
Personal guidance – receive teachings and suggested practices for your unique path
Community garden - plant and tend to your own medicine
Storytelling - creative writing, poetry and sharing around the fire as a healing practice
DATES AND SOME DETAILS:
We begin May 19th and will continue through October.
We gather the third Friday-Saturday of each month.
We will connect online, once a month between gatherings to check in.
Arrive: Friday at 2pm, Depart Saturday at 2pm
This experience is limited to 8 people.
Be prepared for beautiful, rustic camping. The cost includes seeds and plants and you'll have your own space for a garden. We will meet online early May to get to know each other. Reading material and practices will be offered before we meet. (We are hoping to arrange some carpools for NYC and Cambridge MA. You can also use public transportation to Northampton MA)
If you’re interested and we haven’t worked together before, please send a message so we can get to know each other.
YOUR GUIDE
Vanessa Chakour is an herbalist, visual artist, educator, former pro-boxer, environmental activist, and founder of Sacred Warrior—a multidisciplinary educational and experiential “school” offering plant medicine, wildlife conservation, and meditation through courses, workshops, and retreats. Vanessa has worked in partnership with the Wolf Conservation Center in New York, The Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica, and Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands, and has shared her work as a speaker at the United Nations, Brown University, the Muhammad Ali Center and Harvard University. Her writing and work are rooted in the belief that healing happens through reclaiming an intuitive connection to ourselves, the natural world, and our own “inner-wild.” Her book, Awakening Artemis is now available from Penguin Life in the US and UK and frmo Ullstein Press in Germany. She is working on a new book, Earthly Bodies: Embracing Our Animal Nature that will be published by Penguin Life in 2023.