PAST TEACHERS:

 

Karyn Sanders has been working with plants for most of her life. She was first trained in Native American traditional plant medicine. Karyn is of Choctaw and Hungarian blood. Karyn was formally trained in medicine ways for 7 years by her grandmother. In her mid-teens she apprenticed with a Mexican curandera and has subsequently studied with various traditional teachers as well as Western herbalists. Karyn has been teaching and practicing herbal medicine from an energetic perspective for over 42 years. She co-owns and runs the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine in Fort Jones, California.

Ericka Zamora ­Wiggin (Yaqui/Apache/Chicana) is an elementary school counselor and main herbalist and teacher at Medicine of the Ancestors in San Diego. She works alongside her husband and sons to make herbal remedies for the community, including herbal and Cannabis education. Ericka began her herbal studies with birth of her first child almost 30 years ago, and continues to learn and grow as the plants and nature are always teaching. Her first teacher was her father, who recited his mother’s materia medica to her over long cups of coffee at the kitchen table. Her paternal grandmother, doña Josefina Zamora de Leon was a well-respected traditional healer and birth attendant who served the community of Ejido Coahuila in Mexicali, BC, and had a vast working knowledge of the plants in the surrounding desert community. Formal and informal plant studies with family including Fam. Zamora, Fam. Solórzano, Fam. Acosta, Elena Avila, Carole Brown, Kumeyaay Ethnobotany with Jane Dumas and Richard Bugbee, California School of Hispanic Herbalism, California Healing Institute and sister plant nerds. Ericka graduated from San Diego State University with an M.S. in Counseling, and was a scholar with the Native American Scholars and Collaborators Program. Ericka continues to work in the spirit of her grandparents offering traditional herbal education, counseling, and wellness support in San Diego. She is a mother of four grown sons and grandmother of two grandchildren.

Abigail Singer is a Community Herbalist and medicine maker who practices Western Energetic Herbalism. She runs a small, Portland-based herbal medicine business called Spring Creek Herbs and works with people one on one to address the root causes of health issues. Abigail is inspired by vitalism and folk herbalism traditions in which health care is accessible, is connected to place, and honors each person's unique experience and capacity for healing.

Abigail is a co-founder and herbalist with the People’s Health Clinic of Portland, a multi-modality free clinic serving folks at the crossroads of economic injustice and other systemic oppressions. Having been active for many years in organizing efforts for social and environmental justice, she believes that everyone has a right to compassionate, respectful and empowering health care. Abigail has a deep love of the plant world, and is passionate about bringing the wild into spaces for healing in the city.

La Loba Loca is a Sudaca (South American) Queer Brown yerbera, abortion/birth/post-partum companion (doula), student midwife, seed saver, gardener, tattoo artist and student weaver.
Check out La Loba Loca's work:
-Instagram: @lalobalocashares
-Website: www.lalobaloca.com
-Patreon: patreon.com/lalobaloca
-Facebook: www.facebook.com/lalobaloca
-Tumblr (blog): lalobalocaart.tumblr.com
-Online Store: lalobaloca.bigcartel.com
-Email: contact@lalobaloca.com

Sarah Holmes, Clinical, Energetic Herbalist. Sarah's work focuses on the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit as well as the dynamic interchange between people and plants. She enjoys working with clients and students to support their opening to these concepts on both obvious and subtle levels. Sarah also runs, in partnership with Karyn Sanders, the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine and a weekly radio program on KPFA, The Herbal Highway.

Shelagh Brown holds a BS in Herbal Sciences and a MS in Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine from Bastyr University. She also has completed a yoga teacher training at the Samayra Center for (Human) kindness as well as additional training in Integrated Movement therapy (a yoga based therapy), medical qigong, craniosacral, and aromatherapy.  As a black, fat, poor, queer, disabled woman living in chronic pain, shelagh has a unique perspective that many in natural healthcare are unable to have, due to their privilege. Shelagh approaches all aspects of care through an anti-oppression lens and is deeply dedicated to carrying forward conversations about race, privilege, institutionalized oppression and how these things affect health as well as access to care.

Clara Parnell is an LMT, queer activist, magic maker, Femme Entrepreneur, and a clinical western herbalist going on 20 years. She volunteers for accessible health clinics locally & internationally, and is the co-founder of Seasonal Wellness Clinic. She is also the founder and owner of Open Hand Health, a clinic offering queer, gender affirming, and fat positive health care here in Portland.

JP Hawthorne began his journey with astro and herbalism in 1995, later wedding the two disciplines and began seeing clients 7 years ago. In 2013, he founded the community-focused Portland School of Astrology with a focus on anti-oppression--which sees hundreds of students a year. His work with Cosmophilia connects people with both earth and sky, including a line of Astrological Herbals: planetary teas, tinctures, elixirs, sprays and Plants Against the Patriarchy vibrational essences. JP has completed 2 years of herbal medicine school, 3 years of herbal retail, 5 years at the Blue Iris Mystery School, holds a degree in Public Health and even attended university in Japan. He currently sees clients and teaches in Portland, and is writing a book about Astro Herbalism titled 'BioCosmophilia: the Confluence of Plants, Planets and People'. His work has been featured at Portland Art Museum, Portland State University, Reed College, Nike, Marriott Hotels, XRAY.fm, several astrology and herbal medicine conferences, numerous venues and websites. www.Cosmophilia.us | www.PortlandAstrology.org

Guadalupe Chavezis a Queer Abolitionist healer, parent, flower apprentice, and fierce protector of Momma Earth. She has a M.A. in Clinical Psychology​, with an emphasis in Social ​​Liberation Psychology​. Social Liberation Psychology calls forth a psychology for and by the people it serves. Her commitment to ​healing herself and her communities​​ brought her to Dignity and Power Now​ (DPN)​where she serves as the Director of Healing and Wellness. In this role her goal is to lead healing justice work that hono​rs the long and beautiful​​​ legacies of Resiliency and lucha ​while ​address​ing​ the traumas that the PIC, White Supremacy, and Imperialism force onto LGBTQI, poor, Black, Latinx, and other Brown communities across Los Angeles County​. ​Guadalupe has been studying flower & plant medicine since her work study began with her Elder and friend Queen Hollins at the Earthlodge Center for Healing and Transformation in Long Beach. She has a private practice where she weaves together Earth-based Spiritual ​tools and rituals​, plant medicine, flower card readings, and talk therapy.

Follow her IG @aguadulce and FB @Agua Dulce Healing for workshops, events, and 1-1 sessions.

Dio Dmitri is a priest/ess, clinical energetic herbalist, medicine maker, and teacher. Their commitment to re-membering ancestral skills and practices is rooted in cultivating a sense of belonging for settler people, bringing us into deeper alignment with natural rhythms of the earth and the call to rise up in this time. Herbalism, magic and “rewilding” are all part of weaving this path of re-enchantment. Dusty strives to integrate decolonizing and anti-racism work into their practices as a crucial pathway for coming into right relationship. They reside in Chanchífin, the area of Kalapuya territory often called Eugene, OR.

Dusty is a graduate of the Columbines School of Botanical Studies and Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine. Their magical training has primarily been with Colette Gardiner and Pomegranate Doyle at the Blue Iris Mystery School as well as with Rain Crowe of the Village Mystery School.  www.bloomingheart-arts.com

"Motivated by her own experiences navigating a deeply racist medical system, and similarly problematic alternative healing spaces, Sade Musa founded ROOTS OF RESISTANCE -- an educational project that seeks to help folks reclaim healing ways interrupted by colonization, to disrupt narratives which invisibilize Afro-diasporic contributions to medicine, and bring attention to health disparities and other forms of health injustice. ROR operates under the belief that bodily autonomy and culturally relevant medical care are essential, and that learning to heal ourselves is a liberatory praxis of self-determination and resistance. ROR is dedicated to helping historically looted communities advocate for their wellbeing, access quality healthcare, and to find alternatives if western healing models fail them. Through ROR she offers donation-based and sliding scale community herbal classes and consultation, leads free plant walks, operates an apothecary, and donates medicine to various grassroots wellness programs. You can learn more about her work by following her on Facebook or Instagram at @rootsofresistance."

Mara Cur is a rural islander, a wildcrafter, herbalist, and hide tanner. She is deeply excited to take part in promoting a folk culture steeped in knowledge of and respect for land-based living. She is a wilderness first aid attendant and curates Crow’s Nest Wildcraft, a rural skills project that offers workshops and immersive adventures in wild settings. Through her work as an educator, Mara has seen that grief, trauma, and the impacts of injustice come to the fore when people begin participating with the natural world as peers. Skills that inherently connect people to their bodies, their somatic memories, and their ancestry thus become a vehicle for personal healing journeys. Mara’s approach is informed by a commitment to decolonizing her relationship to people, culture, and place. As a settler, living on Klahoose, Tla-amin, and Homalco territory, she strives after the intersection of individual and cultural regeneration.

Letty Chichitonyolotli, born in San Antonio Texas. first generation Mexican, norteñé. i am the youngest of 4. i have two living sisters and one brother, who passed before i was born. it is in his loss that i was planned and now have the privilege to learn and love on this earth. our indigenous roots are lost to us. from the region we originate from, we are likely the survivors of nomadic clans who lived along the gulf coast, killed off by disease, murdered for being "savage", and assimilated and converted to catholicism for survival. the indigenous peoples of that area are now collectively know as the Coauhtlican. We are of the diverse terrains of Northern Mexico. i am not familiar with these lands and have only in the last 6 years begun my efforts in ancestral reclamation and decolonization. i grew up in Chicago and did much of my learning there. five years ago i moved to Portland OR and have begun to build community and heal my severed roots. i am indigenous. i am culturally american. i worked as a youth worker and community health educator for fifteen years. i am a veteran of the us armed forces as well. i am queer and gender non conforming and i am coming into what is called a don, of my own, after suffering a soul loss of my own a decade ago. ​i have my roots in many worlds. i have studies and practiced the art of heart to hearts (Platicas) for many years and have begun my studies in herbalism and dog medicine and am an herb farmer.

Emiliano Lemus is an herbalist, medical student, and fourth-generation healer/plant meddler. Their Oakland-based herbalism practice centers both social justice and energetic herbalism, based on the teachings of Karyn Sanders and Sarah Holmes. Emiliano has also spent a decade working as a community organizer and educator, on topics including sexuality, sexual health, gender, and the impacts of structural violence on health and wellbeing. As a queer and trans chicano (Purepecha and Chichimeca), they are passionate about combining experiential and professional knowledge to provide trainings on sex positivity, transgender competence and LGBTQ competence in health settings. Learn more at emilianolemus.com. 

Lizanne Deliz is a queer Puerto Rican herbalist, medicine-maker, gardener, and community organizer. She initiated her herbal education at the Ohlone Herbal Center in Berkeley, and went on to advanced study and continued mentorship with Sarah Holmes and Karyn Sanders of the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine. Lizanne has a private practice in Oakland, where she also works at the herbal pharmacy Five Flavors Herbs. She is co-organizer of queer herbal events and clinics in Oakland and in Los Angeles with the collective Queer Care, and makes a line of products under the name Eye of Crow Herbs. Her work is rooted in radical intersectional lenses that aim towards collective liberation in collaboration with the plants. www.energeticherbalism.com

Heaven Celeste Thunder is a medicine-keeper, mama, Aztec dancer, and student of ancient East Asian and Mexican medicine. Born in a ghetto in Los Angeles County, she was deeply removed from the sophistication and creativity of her most recent heritage, the indigenous people of Mexico. The daughter of two “immigrants,” Heaven felt the faint remnants of her parent’s upbringing and culture left behind them – a mixture of the indigenous peoples with the Spanish conquest. Her energetic field immediately attuned to her first experience with Aztec indigenous culture and she passionately pursued this calling despite her family’s antipathy. You can find her chasing her Master’s at Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland, on hikes with her boo and her baby, in Aztec dance ceremonies/demonstrations/rallies, and in Native American healing ceremonies. The vision of Heaven’s private clinical practice will tie East Asian and Mesoamerican medicine together to support health and wellbeing on all levels: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. She plans to emphasize her studies on Womxn’s Health and Pediatrics with a strong foundation in the emotional-spiritual.
For more of Heaven’s offerings, visit www.amomatimedicinals.com

Sage Goode lives in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, Canada with her wife, two cats and many magical beings. She is the founder of Crossroads Mystery School and has been teaching the Craft for 30 years. She teaches workshops around North America and through Telephone Ritual Workings — an amazing and powerful way to connect through space and time. She has also created a CD of guided visualizations and trance workings. "For us to follow the path of our Soul’s purpose we must be willing: to listen, to transform, to surrender to the Divine and to become who we were meant to be. This is essential. This is the Work. First, become willing … everything else flows from that."

Check out her website at www.sagegoode.com

Jenn Rawling is an artist and song writer who works as a studio artist in Durango, CO where she pursues her interests in print making, painting, and song writing. Her work reflects her continued relationship to medicinal and native plants, herbalism, and her love of botanical illustration. It is her intention to use art to shift the culture. "I draw on my connection to land, plants, weather, and the outdoors, and focus my creativity to illustrate life's beauty and strength".

Toby Joseph Sr. currently serves on the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association (NISA) advisory council and has been a featured Master Storyteller/Workshop Facilitator for The Northwest Indian Storytellers conferences and retreats. He has over two decades of experience as a Traditional storyteller with additional education and experience in the digital arts. He has contributed to projects including Wisdom of the Elders, Discovering our Story, White Bison Families of Tradition, All My Relations Culture program and as a camp and cultural mentor for multiple programs serving tribal youth. Toby serves as the Executive Director for the Consultants for Indian Progress, which is currently focusing on encouraging the ancestral connection to first food and medicines for Native American in urban areas. In addition, Toby & his wife have parented 29 children, 18 foster and 11 of their own, using story as the foundation to learning and communication.

Queen Hollins
“For the last 30 years of my life I have been a global community spiritual activist and Earth Steward. Long before I remembered what my purpose was in life I was doing it. My journey as a Practitioner of universal/indigenous spiritual practices has allowed me to remember and cultivate my ability and technique to hold sacred circle rituals/ceremonies for the purpose of transcending lineages of pain and non productive behavior patterns. To encourage and have the audacity to create a new Legacy by honoring the medicine that everyone walks with and blending it all in such a way that we come up with a global culture that honors ((laws beyond the human)) and all the different expressions of ourselves. I teach from a contemporary Aquarian energy (current zodiacal time on our planet) that reminds us to “Know Thyself from the inside out,” healing and balancing of feminine energy on the planet, creating a new legacy in immediate family, trusting in your inner voice and exploring truth outside of doctrine prescriptions. I share practices for healing, problem solving, self-discovery, self-empowerment and personal growth…”

Nicole Telkes is a Practicing Herbalist, RH(AHG), writer, speaker, and naturalist from Austin, TX. She has a background in botanical studies, plant conservation work, community activism, and herbal first aid clinics. Nicole has spent the last 20 years traveling around wild and weedy corners of North America, studying and using bioregional native and naturalized medicinal plants, and wrote the book: “The Medicinal Plants of Texas”. Nicole is the lead teacher and founder of the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine in Austin, which has offered one-month to one-year onsite and online education in holistic Western and Folk herbalism since 2003. Nicole is a founder of the Traditions Not Trademark Free Fire Cider campaign, working to protect our traditional remedies for future generations. Nicole is also a Co-Founder of the Moonflower Herb Fest. nicoletelkes.com

Rhonda Lee Grantham is a member of the Cowlitz Nation of SW WA, which translates to “Seeker of the Medicine Spirit”. She is a direct-entry midwife, herbalist and founder of the Center for Indigenous Midwifery. For over two decades, she has been actively catching babies and supporting culturally-centered programming within Indigenous communities. She is honored to share her experiences in midwifery and plant wisdom; as well as wilderness emergency medicine, cultural anthropology and global health; both at home and globally. She has served alongside Indigenous midwives and healers on tribal lands ranging from disaster relief zones to refugee camps, from reservations to rural birth centers. And everywhere she goes... she is thankful for her plant relatives, growing and offering their medicines, always traveling beside her.

Gradey Proctor is a botanist and ecologist who has spent years studying the flora and fungi of Oregon's forests. Growing up in a place without intact ecosystems, Gradey fell hopelessly in love with the Northwest upon his arrival in the '90s. His longing to develop a sense of place has driven his passion for sustainably wildcrafting medicinal and edible plants -- and he loves supporting his community by teaching others to do the same. Gradey studied at the Columbine’s School to hone his botanical skills. Working with Bark, a nonprofit that advocates for and protects the Mt. Hood National Forest, added depth and breadth to his knowledge. Gradey’s insatiable love of plants has driven him to work with both adults and children in nurseries, farms, and gardens. He is a co-founder and teacher at the Arctos School Of Herbal and Botanical Studies. His other herbal endeavor, the Medicine Garden, is an independent nursery specializing in healing herb starts.

I am Kirin Bhatti - a witch, a magician, a mermaid bridging the magical and mundane. I am privileged to have my creature self birthed in a beautiful brown body born of hearty earthy Punjabi roots. I've been gifted an ancient heart deep as the ocean. I am a water warrior. Tears are my warpaint. Love my greatest weapon My work does not speak the language of fast and quick. Slow down, go deep or you’ll miss me. I speak and live the language of water at low tide, flowing, cleansing, still, deep, revealing. My tools are faith, intuition, and play. My work is about creating individual revolution for collective liberation by remembering how to move at the speed of love so that we may say yes to our truest self in each and every moment.

Michella Onnis
Hi, i’m Michella and I’ve been a student of herbalism since 2007. I’ve spent my time between a variety of different learning styles and situations-from traditional schooling focused on biology, botany, and human health sciences to experiential time in free-clinics, herb shops and herb schools, to personal connections with plants and space. I spent three years doing work with the Olympia Free Herbal Clinic and currently work with the Seasonal Wellness Clinic and People’s Health Clinic of Portland. My desire to be involved in plant teachings are many. I want to spread connection with land, community, history and personal, intuitive growth. I think that herbalism is at the core of creating that connectivity, as a practice and intrinsic knowledge that is a part of all of our histories, despite many groups best efforts to rip us away from it. My hopes are to continue to learn from all of the amazing teachers (plant, fungal, animal, and more) while we as a group work to discuss radical theory, trauma informed care and create deeper connections with land and the creatures that inhabit it. Outside of these topics you can find me solely talking about my deep love of my dog, Russula K. Le Guin, and Burdock.

Sean Croke is a wildcrafter, medicine maker, and gardener who has been working with the plants of the Pacific Northwest for a decade. He is a co-founder of Understory Apothecary which produces small batch tinctures of local herbs, and is also involved in Cascadia Terroir which produces essential oils from native plants. Sean is a graduate of The Evergreen State College with a BA/BS where he focused on Ethnobotany and Organic Chemistry. Through his botanical medicine business Understory Apothecary, he makes ethically harvested herbal products for the community. Sean is the medicine maker for the Olympia Community Herbal Clinic, and has been teaching about Pacific Northwest healing plants since 2012.

Sophie Geist is a community herbalist, medicinal landscaper and somatic educator living and working on ste-chass, squaxin and medicine creek treaty land. She comes to this work as a settler, as descendent of Polish, French Canadian, Jewish and Roma people, and as a queer person. She seeks to fiercely and dearly encourage and honor how the intricate dynamics that life experience, systemic oppression and place based learning shape our experience of power and healing with our bodies and plants. She works with the Herbal Access project, Canoe Journey Herbalists and in thriving gardens throughout coast Salish territory.