Wisdom of the Herbs is a unique Certification Program spanning the arc of three seasons. Our focus is on the local wild plants, holistic healing and healthy life-style, skillful use of intentionality, and fostering sustainable living skills. Classes meet one weekend a month from April to November.

Our hands-on curriculum includes herb walks, nature adventures, lecture and discussion, communion and play with nature, and many aspects of knowing the wild plants: identification, plant spirit communication, sustainable wild harvesting, wild edibles and herbal home remedies.

Equally important, we address health and healing as profoundly holistic endeavors involving food as our first medicine, healthy life-style and skillful use of intention - synergistic, foundational practices for harmonious personal, community and planetary evolution.

Dates: Sign up for either Session. (See full information below.)

Session I: April 19-20, May 17-18, June 14-15, July 12-13, August 9-10, September 6-7, October 4-5, November 1-2, 2008.

Session II: April 26-27, May 24-25, June 21-22, July 19-20, August 16-17, September 13-14, October 11-12, November 8-9, 2008.

Tuition: Early registration discounted tuition: $1650. Tuition after March 19, 2008 is $1750. Non-refundable deposit: $250. (See full information below.)

Program Description

Learn the Local Wild Plants: Herb walks and extended nature adventures each day allow students to rapidly build their plant identification skills and relationship with the local wild plants. Learn sustainable wild harvesting principles. Combine research with intuitive connection with the spirit of the plant. Practice spiritual dowsing, a way to access your intuitive knowing in communing with nature beings. Become proficient at identifying plants using the botanical key in Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, the standard field guide preferred by amateurs and professionals alike.

Wild Edibles: Each month we harvest, prepare and eat wild foods. Learn to identify wild edibles, what stage to harvest and how to properly prepare them. Practice the principles of safe and sustainable wild foraging.

Medicine Making: Over the course of the eight months, students will make tincture, infused oil, salve, poultice, compress, herbal steams, capsules, pill-balls and smudge, working with the spirit of the plants, with love and gratitude. Students apply these skills to put together a customized first aid kit for their home.

Food as our First Medicine and Healthy Life-style Practices: Throughout Wisdom of the Herbs, we address and practice using whole, organic foods and supportive daily practices to nurture health and healing. Explore how to eat by blood type. Learn principles of physical and spiritual cleansing and detoxification, and experience how thought, word and attitude affect our very cellular vitality. Our potluck lunches serve as a laboratory to practice the essentials of using whole, organic foods, locally grown when possible.

Fire Making with Bow Drill: Participants create their own bow drill kit and receive step by step technical and attitudinal instruction on fire making by friction.

The Inner Journey: Working joyfully with the nature beings and each other, a rich, safe, grounded container is created, allowing inner shifts and often life-changing openings for participants. Meeting over eight months allows time for students to not only experience these profound spaces but also to truly integrate them into their daily lives.

Second Year Participation: Wisdom of the Herbs presents interlocking layers of understanding and information that develop in the student over time.We encourage participants to return for a second year to build upon the foundation of the first, growing and strengthening their knowledge and wisdom within the healing container of Wisdom of the Herbs and expanding into the limitlessness of inner and outer Nature. Second year participants may return as an Assistant, (See Assistantship Program), or as a regular student.

Who benefits from participation in Wisdom of the Herbs?

• All who seek to live more sustainably on the Earth.
• Hikers, nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts who wish to gain greater knowledge of the local plant-people and foster deeper communion with Nature.
• Parents who want to raise healthy children naturally and pass on knowledge of edibles, healing plants and home remedies.
• Herbalists and alternative practitioners who want to meet the healing plants “in person” and spend quality time on their own healing process.
• Nurses and health-care providers interested in holistic healing through healthy life-style and herbs.
• Everyone who wants to take the next steps in their self-healing process.
• Seekers who find personal and spiritual growth in communion with Nature.
• Gardeners who want to know who the weeds are and how to use them for food and medicine.

Dates, Interview and Essay

Dates: Two sessions offer you scheduling flexibility. Sign up for the session that best fits your schedule, and with advance notice, you may occasionally switch to the other session, within the limits of 15 participants per class. Each session meets one weekend a month, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday. See above for dates.

Interview and Essay: Before you register, we require a phone interview to discuss your goals and why you would like to participate in Wisdom of the Herbs, as well as give you an opportunity to ask us questions. Please read the complete program description before your interview. Phone Annie for an interview at 802-456-8122. Summarize this conversation in an essay and submit with your registration.

Physical Demands of the Program: During Wisdom of the Herbs, we are outdoors much of class time – walking and hiking, sitting and lying on the earth. We are only able to accept applicants who are essentially healthy and able to accomplish moderately difficult hiking. Please feel free to contact Annie if you have questions.

Tuition, Registration, and Payment Options

(Use our printable Registration Form)

Early Registration Discounted Tuition: To receive the early registration discounted tuition of $1650, tuition must be received and fully paid by March 19, 2008.

Tuition: After March 19, 2008, tuition is $1750. Enclose $250 non-refundable deposit with your registration. Full payment of the balance is expected on the first day of class unless arrangements for a Payment Plan or Grant have been made at the time of registration.

Payment Plan: Arrangement for use of the Payment Plan must be made at the time of registration. Full payment of the tuition is expected by the end of the program, regardless of attendance. Please inquire if you are interested in a customized Payment Plan. (Use our printable Payment Plan.)

Credit Cards: We accept VISA and Master Card.  

Grants: Qualifying Vermont residents may apply for Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, (VSAC) non-degree grants. Wisdom of the Herbs is divided into two terms, and two applications to VSAC are necessary if you desire a grant for each term. We suggest that you apply well before the end of 2007 for the first term of Wisdom of the Herbs 2008, which begins in April 2008. You must apply in June 2008 for a grant for the second term. Be aware that VSAC begins its funding cycle in June of each year and awards grants on a first-come-first-serve basis while funds last. Please apply early!   

Students who apply for VSAC grants are asked to submit $250 non-refundable deposit with your registration form. When the second grant is issued in August and your tuition is fully paid, we will refund whatever amount of your deposit is in excess of the tuition. Students who receive a grant for the first term are responsible for the entire tuition regardless of attendance and regardless of the availability of a second-term grant. Please sign and return the Grant Payment Plan Agreement with your registration. (Use our printable Grant Payment Plan Agreement).

VSAC application forms may be obtained from Wisdom of the Herbs School, or call Vermont Student Assistance Corporation: 1-800-882-4166 or write P.O. Box 2000, Champlain Mill, Winooski, VT 05404-2601.

Refund Policy: Tuition minus the deposit is refundable up to one month before the beginning of the program.

The Details

Making up Missed Classes: Students who miss class may request to make up equivalent time in the other session, in another year of Wisdom of the Herbs, or in any summer or winter workshop offered by the School, as long as there is space in the program.

Gear to Bring: Students are required to come prepared with hiking boots/shoes, rain jacket and rain pants, backpack, hat and water bottle. A full list of items to bring will be supplied upon registration.

Small Class Size: Class size is limited to 15 participants. The small group size allows each participant to see every plant and hear the instructors well on our herb walks. Small class size facilitates sharing and discussion, an important part of our program.

Certification: A beautiful watercolor Certificate of Successful Participation will be awarded at the end of the program. Certification requirements include active participation in a minimum of six out of the eight weekends, reading Wisdom of the Herbs by Annie McCleary, completion and presentation of the independent project, and full payment of tuition. 

Independent Projects: Participants are asked to engage in an independent project outside of class. Projects may include artwork, journaling, research, making herbal remedies, storytelling, or tending to your own healing journey. Participants present their projects to the group during the last meeting at our Herbal Fair.

Lunch and Snack:  Lunch and snack serve as laboratory time to practice using food as our first medicine and mainstay of our health and vitality. On Saturdays, students are asked to bring a generous, whole-foods potluck dish. We offer these guidelines for the potluck: use organic, vegetarian, whole foods, local when possible, no refined sugar or white flour. Avoid tomatoes, peppers and other nightshades and dairy in the main dish – on the side is fine. For oil, we recommend organic extra virgin olive oil or a good quality organic coconut oil. On Sundays, students are asked to bring a bag lunch. We provide healthy snacks as well as herbal teas, available throughout the day.

Lodging: For information on accomodations, please see our lodging page.

Resources: Each student receives Wisdom of the Herbs, a 130-page booklet written by Annie McCleary. In addition, students are required to bring to class Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, Peterson’s Edible Wild Plants by Lee Allen Peterson and Peterson’s Medicinal Plants by Steven Foster and James Duke. An extensive reading list is supplied.

Scents: For the comfort of all, please do not wear any scents, natural or otherwise. Thank you for your consideration.

Comments from Graduates of Wisdom of the Herbs:

I loved eating wild things and wildcrafting medicines. This is a huge part of it for me. Very hands-on. N.N.

I feel like I’ve shifted on a cellular level, now integrating all the ways I’ve been taught to remember how to be here now through Wisdom. A.B.

This 8-month journey has taught me to honor my own pace; let my inner healer emerge as slowly or quickly as she needs to emerge. A.L.

I am most grateful for the spirit-based learning and friendship with the plants. This course has been a huge piece of remembering my family and home in the universe. A. S.

Over the course of this class, my communication with plants has gone from almost nothing to strong impressions that affect the very core of my being. M.R.

I feel so comfortable in the quiet of the woods- it’s been a very restorative journey for me. M.F.