Nature Evolutionaries: Recent Episodes
Organization of Nature Evolutionaries
Many of us feel a need to be in closer connection with nature, our land, and with all beings. The Nature Evolutionaries podcast series, hosted by the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries (ONE) is a consciousness-raising exploration of what it means to be in co-creative partnership with the living Earth. Join us each month as we interview leading Nature Evolutionaries, inspiring individuals who hold a profound relationship with Nature, as they share their experiences and wisdom. Humanity and the Planet have come together in ONE voice~ to delve into the realms of the wild, our oceans, forests & gardens, sacred earth activism, ecology, spirituality, nature intelligence, poetry, storytelling, and more.
What if the hive is not merely a colony, but a field of intelligence?
In this special Listening Field conversation, we welcome beekeeper, teacher, and author Jacqueline Freeman into a deep exploration of communication with honeybees.
After moving to a biodynamic farm in southwest Washington and beginning her beekeeping journey in 2001, Jacqueline quickly sensed that conventional approaches did not honor the true nature of bees. Over time, through reverent observation and heartfelt presence, she began to experience the hive as something far more than a biological system. She encountered bees as conscious collaborators, responsive partners, and teachers of collective intelligence.
In this conversation, we explore:
• What it means to communicate with bees
• How a bee-centric approach reshapes beekeeping practices
• The difference between managing bees and being in relationship with them
• What bees reveal about cooperation, sovereignty, and collective consciousness
• How humans can re-enter sacred partnership with the more-than-human world
Jacqueline’s work bridges biodynamic agriculture, natural beekeeping, and lived experience of interspecies communication. Her internationally distributed book, Song of Increase, opened the hearts of thousands to a more compassionate and participatory way of being with honeybees.
Together, we listen into the subtle field of the hive — and consider what becomes possible when we approach bees not as resources, but as wise elders guiding us toward a more coherent world.
Whether you are a beekeeper, a gardener, or simply someone who senses that communication in the living world runs deeper than we’ve been taught, you are warmly invited.
The Song of the Hive is part of the 2026 Listening Field Series, ONE's year-long exploration of communication in the more-than-human world.
Jacqueline Freeman is a beekeeper, teacher, and author devoted to restoring respectful partnership between humans and honeybees. She and her husband Joseph moved to their biodynamic farm in southwest Washington in 2001, where Jacqueline began keeping bees and quickly sensed there must be a more compassionate way to care for them—one that honors their innate intelligence and the way bees live in the wild.
Over the years, Jacqueline developed and teaches a bee-centric approach that blends natural beekeeping practices with direct observation and deep relational presence. Her work invites beekeepers to shift from managing bees to being in conscious partnership with them.
She is the author of Song of Increase: Listening to the Wisdom of Honeybees for Kinder Beekeeping and a Better World (Sounds True), now published internationally in multiple languages, and co-author of What Bees Want: Beekeeping as Nature Intended, a practical guide to creating natural habitat and supporting thriving colonies.
Jacqueline has spoken at the Organic Beekeepers Conference, Women in Agriculture gatherings, and treatment-free beekeeping conferences across North America and Europe. She appears in the documentaries Queen of the Sun, Dancing with Thoreau, and the French film Abeilles: La Voix des Ruches. Through the USDA, she has worked with rural farmers and beekeepers in the Dominican Republic using historic, respectful beekeeping methods.
Before dedicating her life to bees, Jacqueline founded a holistic health center and a women’s crisis center, and served on faculty for a Structural Integration school. In 2003, she and Joseph founded a school of Equine Structural Integration.
At the heart of her work is a simple but profound premise: bees are not livestock or commodities, but conscious collaborators. Through careful attention, humility, and partnership, Jacqueline invites us to rediscover what becomes possible when we meet honeybees as teachers.
Learn more about Jacqueline at her website: https://www.spiritbee.com/
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The Living Mirror: Waters of the Body Reflecting the Patterns of Nature
What if the same intelligence that shapes rivers, galaxies, and snowflakes is also moving through your blood?
Holographic Microscopist Fiona Gardner has spent years peering into the microscopic world of plasma and water — and what she finds there is not random. It is patterned, responsive, and alive. The fluid architecture within the human body organizes itself into intricate geometrical structures that mirror the forms found throughout the natural world. The same forces shaping the curve of a fern or the spiral of a shell are quietly at work within us.
In this Listening Field conversation, Fiona invites us to see ourselves as living participants in Nature's ongoing conversation — not observers of an outside world, but reflections of it. When we slow down enough to look, the body becomes a listening field of its own.
This conversation is no cost and open to all.
About Fiona Gardner
Fiona Gardner is a Holographic Microscopist, researcher, and visual explorer whose work reveals the dynamic relationship of plasma and water. Plasma is not simply the fluid of the blood — it is a dynamic field where the body's internal waters organize, respond, and communicate with the living architecture of life. Using the lens of the microscope, she observes the living motion of plasma, watching how the body's internal waters organize into intricate geometrical structures and living expressions of meaningful events. These formations often mirror the structures seen in the natural world — the same intelligence that shapes galaxies, rivers, and snowflakes organizing within our blood.
Through years of observation, her work raises profound questions about the nature of plasma and the role of water in the body. Her work invites us to see ourselves as living art — patterns of consciousness shaped by the same forces that move through all of Nature.
To learn more about Fiona's work, visit her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/messagesinplasma/
Find the video recording with images for this episode here: https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/events-programs/2026/fiona-gardner
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Elephants call each other by name. They grieve. They remember. They communicate across distances in frequencies we are only beginning to hear. What does it mean to truly listen to another species — one with memory, language, and a social world as intricate as our own?
In this Listening Field conversation, we enter the world of elephant communication with two of its most devoted witnesses. Dr. Mickey Pardo led the landmark discovery that elephants address one another with name-like calls — a finding that traveled around the world and cracked open new questions about animal cognition and communication.
Moderated by Katie Surma of Inside Climate News, whose reporting sits at the intersection of science, rights of Nature, and environmental justice, this conversation asks not only what elephants are saying, but what it means for us to finally listen.
Dr. Mickey Pardo is a behavioral ecologist and bioacoustician interested in the intersection of animal communication, cognition, conservation, and welfare. He earned his PhD in behavioral ecology from Cornell University, where he studied vocal communication and social cognition in both Asian elephants and Acorn Woodpeckers. He completed a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University on vocal communication in African elephants, working in collaboration with Save The Elephants in Kenya, where he led the discovery that elephants address each other with name-like calls. This work was featured by over 3,000 media outlets in more than 90 countries, including the New York Times, NPR: Morning Edition, and BBC World, and helped contribute to the recent surge of interest in using machine learning to understand animal communication. During a second postdoc in the Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Dr. Pardo expanded his skillset into applied wildlife conservation, using passive acoustic monitoring, AI, and computer simulations to assess the status of bird populations. He is currently a Senior Scientist at the non-profit research organization ElephantVoices, where he is once again studying vocal communication in African elephants.
Dr. Pardo has authored over a dozen scholarly publications, including in top scientific journals such as Nature Ecology and Evolution and Current Biology. In addition to his scientific work, he is an outspoken advocate for the rights of nonhuman animals and for food system reform to end our reliance on animal agriculture and commercial fishing.
To learn more about Mickey’s work, visit ElephantVoices’ website here: https://elephantvoices.org/
Katie Surma is a reporter at Inside Climate News covering the rights of nature movement and international environmental justice. Her work has a strong focus on the intersection of human rights and the environment. Before joining ICN, she practiced law, specializing in commercial litigation. Her journalism work has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and others. Katie has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, an LLM in international rule of law and security from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, a J.D. from Duquesne University, and was a History of Art and Architecture major at the University of Pittsburgh.
Learn more about Katie's work at https://insideclimatenews.org/
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Join renowned herbalists Pam Montgomery and Kate Gilday for an intimate storytelling session spanning a combined 85 years of wisdom. Get a rare glimpse into the triumphs of their flourishing gardens and herbal apothecaries, to the challenges and hard-won lessons of their teaching and healing practices, all of which shaped their herbal journeys.
In this deep dive with two longtime friends, they share the laughter and tears of a lifetime dedicated to plants. Come walk down memory lane with these beloved mentors and gain an insightful view into what they believe is next for the future of herbalism.
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This free Earth Day webinar is a gift from the heart of our community—and we invite you to give back in support. Your donation helps the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries continue offering Earth-honoring programs like this one, uplifting Nature’s voice and deepening our collective relationship with the living world.
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Pam Montgomery has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. As an author, teacher, and practitioner, she has passionately embraced her partnership with the plants who are guiding us in our spiritual evolution.
She is the author of Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology; the best-selling Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness; and most recently Co-Creating with Nature: Healing the Wound of Separation. She teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries.
Pam is the founder of ONE. She has dedicated herself to co-creative partnership with all of life and feels the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries is a way to make this partnership manifest.
You can connect with Pam here: www.wakeuptonature.com
Kate Gilday is a clinical herbalist, flower essence practitioner and creator, Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant and herbal teacher working and living in the foothills of the Adirondack Park. She is the founder of Woodland Essence, a forest (and more) botanicals and flower essence company that she began 30 years ago with her husband Don Babineau that over time has developed a focus on Lyme, tick-borne infections and support for those challenged by chronic conditions.
Healing with Flowers is her delight and passion, along with tending her relationship with the woodlands she loves so well. Songwriter of love songs to the plants, Earth and life, she is trying her best to write and share more via her personal website: www.journeybacktotheforest.com
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Anna Breytenbach’s path into interspecies communication did not begin as a calling—it began during a tracking workshop in the United States.
While immersed in the discipline of reading land, movement, and animal sign, Anna experienced an unexpected and unmistakable moment of communication. What occurred was specific, relational, and grounded in the reality of the moment—and it altered the course of her life.
That encounter opened a body of work spanning more than two decades, during which Anna has communicated with wild animals and ecosystems across continents, supporting conservation efforts, wildlife rehabilitation, predator research, and ecological restoration. Her communication with a black jaguar named Spirit, later featured in the documentary The Animal Communicator, is one of many encounters that demonstrate how information can move clearly and accurately across species boundaries.
In this session, Anna shares stories from the field that reveal how interspecies communication actually unfolds—how animals convey perception, intention, and environmental awareness, and how humans can receive that information when attention is steady, assumptions fall away, and relationship leads.
Grounded in lived experience rather than belief, this conversation offers insight into interspecies communication as a natural human capacity—one that becomes available through presence, respect, and sustained engagement with the living world.
This gathering is part of The Listening Field: Tuning into the heart of Nature, a live, interview-style conversation with space for reflection and participant questions.
Anna Breytenbach is an internationally acclaimed professional interspecies communicator, based in Europe and practising for over 20 years on several continents. Native to South Africa, she mentors and consults globally. She holds a degree in Psychology and Economics, and studied telepathic animal communication with the Assisi International Animal Institute as well as tracking and mentoring at the Wilderness Awareness School in the USA. Her work is the subject of the documentary The Animal Communicator, watched by tens of millions of people and available on YouTube.
As a qualified and experienced master facilitator, Anna focuses on mentoring in a practical manner that reminds us humans of the ways of indigenous nature awareness. She has guided thousands of people to rediscover and develop their natural senses and connection with all species in an honouring manner.
Anna’s consultation work is exclusively with wild places and beings, facilitating peaceful interventions globally via remote work. This includes predator and cetacean research, wilderness protection, ecological restoration, wildlife management and rehabilitation. She facilitates wilderness retreats and animal communication safaris, and is engaged by communities and organisations as a teacher and inspirational speaker.
Anna’s passion is raising awareness and advancing the relationships among human and nonhuman animals, on interpersonal and spiritual levels. She is a voice for animals and natural environments, sharing wild wisdoms for the benefit of all.
Explore Anna’s Work: https://www.animalspirit.org
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When Emelie Cajsdotter was eleven years old, she stood outside the stall of a small, unmanageable pony no one could “handle.” In a moment of shared presence, something shifted. The boundary between them softened. She did not disappear — but she was no longer alone inside herself.
That moment shaped a lifetime.
Over decades of living in close relationship with horses and other animal kin, that early encounter has opened into something quietly vast: a way of experiencing the world not organized around separation, edges, or isolated selves. Through life in the herd, Emelie has been shown a cosmological view shaped by continuity rather than division — one in which awareness is shared across a living field, and humans are only one expression within a larger intelligence.
In this conversation, Emelie shares stories that arise directly from that lived reality. Rather than offering explanations or frameworks, her stories loosen what we habitually hold tight — our sense of boundedness, linear time, and standing apart. They invite us to sense what life feels like when boundaries are porous, when belonging is inherent rather than earned, and when the world is encountered as responsive, relational, and whole.
In the Company of Horses opens a space to meet the world as the herd meets it — vast, participatory, and already alive with meaning.
Emelie Cajsdotter is an author, storyteller, and the founder of Friskeröd, a sanctuary she established in 1995. She lives on the farm with her family and approximately 160 animals, and has been responsible for the daily life and care of the sanctuary for nearly three decades, supported by volunteers and community sponsorship.
Trained as a homeopath, Emelie is best known for her storytelling—sharing what has been revealed to her through long, attentive relationship with horses and other animal kin. Through stories rather than theory, she conveys ways of understanding life, time, and belonging that arise from interspecies encounter and shared presence.
Emelie has worked and studied in Ireland, Jordan, and New Zealand, and for many years has offered courses at Friskeröd in which other species are understood as the teachers. She is the author of All the King’s Horses, Zander and the Time, and Song of the Grass, and has participated in Swedish television and podcast projects connected with the sanctuary.
To Learn more about Emelie and her work, visit The Friends of Mio website: https://www.friendsofmio.com/en
Continue into The Listening Field
This webinar is part of a larger collective offering from the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries. Visit the main Listening Field page to learn more about the full conversation series and how to engage with this ongoing exploration of listening and relationship with the living world.
→ Return to the main Listening Field page
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The Mycelial Conversation opens a doorway into the living language of fungi and the ways they invite us into deeper relationship with the natural world.
In this conversation, we explore how fungi communicate within ecosystems and how humans can learn to listen more deeply through relationship, attention, and practice. What stories are carried in mycelia and mushrooms? What messages travel through spores across landscapes and time?
Through lived experience, forest-based practice, and cultural ways of knowing, this session invites reflection on mycelial intelligence as both ecological process and relational teacher. We explore what it means to be in relationship with fungi in the places where we live, and how these ancient beings can help us listen more fully to the wider intelligence of Nature.
This gathering is part of The Listening Field: Tuning into the heart of Nature, a live, interview-style conversation with space for reflection and participant questions.
Christopher Parker is a mycologist, Culture Keeper, and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He is the co-author of The Mycelial Healer: A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation and Traditional Uses of Medicinal Mushrooms, a recently released book grounded in decades of hands-on practice, traditional knowledge, and applied mycology. Christopher is the co-founder, along with his wife Katherine Parker, and an instructor at The Forest Farmacy, where he teaches mushroom cultivation, medicinal uses of fungi, and regenerative forest-based practices.
A self-taught mycologist, Christopher began cultivating mushrooms at a young age and brings more than 30 years of experience in mushroom cultivation, wild harvesting, herbal medicine making, and mycoremediation. He is deeply committed to food sovereignty and resilient local food systems and founded Asheville Fungi to provide mycological supplies nationwide and fresh mushrooms locally. His work is rooted in relationship with land and fungi, and in the ancestral foodways and traditional skills he carries.
To learn more about Chris and his work visit his website: https://www.theforestfarmacy.com/
Continue into The Listening Field
This webinar is part of a larger collective offering from the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries. Visit the main Listening Field page to learn more about the full conversation series and how to engage with this ongoing exploration of listening and relationship with the living world.
→Check out the main Listening Field page
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Each year, as we come to the close of another vibrant season of Nature-centric learning, story, and ceremony, we gather to ask one of our favorite questions: Can plants save the planet?
Our wise green kin, plants and trees, have been shaping, sustaining, and transforming life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. They know how to cooperate, adapt, and thrive even in times of upheaval. What can we learn from their quiet genius and generous hearts?
This year, Pam Montgomery, ONE’s founder and longtime voice for conscious co-creation with Nature, is joined by the ever-insightful (and often delightfully funny) Tammi Sweet, herbalist, anatomist, and co-founder of the Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials. Together, they dive into the astonishing intelligence of the plant world, from root networks to heart medicine, and explore how plants just might be showing us the way forward.
Expect stories that make you laugh, insights that may change how you see every leaf and stem, and reminders of what it means to live in kinship with the living Earth.
Take part in this joyful, thought-provoking conversation and help nurture ONE’s work of deepening our partnership with Nature. Your participation supports a thriving, life-giving future for all beings.
Tammi Sweet is the co-founder and co-director of The Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials near Ithaca. For the past 30 years she has taught thousands of students in a variety of learning environments.
She offers classes in cannabis and herbal medicine, along with a variety of courses in anatomy and physiology both in-person and online. Sweet holds a master's degree in endocrinology.
To access her free online cannabis world, and her upcoming Grow course, visit heart-stone.com/cannabis.
Pam Montgomery is an herbalist, author, international teacher and Earth elder who has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for the green beings and has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than four decades. More recently she has been working with the plants to heal the wounds of separation from Nature in order to move into co-creative partnership with all Nature. She is the author of three books including Co-Creating with Nature; Healing the Wound of Separation and the highly acclaimed Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness.
She teaches internationally and virtually on plant initiations, spiritual ecology and co-creative partnership with Nature. She is the founder of the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries or ONE and was a founding board member of United Plant Savers.
You can connect with Pam here: www.wakeuptonature.com
🌿 With Gratitude to Our Sponsor
This year’s Can Plants Save the Planet? webinar is generously supported by The Plant Initiative, a nonprofit advancing respectful treatment of plants through education, advocacy, and collaboration.
Their work to uplift plant intelligence and consciousness aligns deeply with ONE’s mission to honor the Living Earth as a community of beings.
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What happens when science, law, and love for the Ocean come together?
Callie Veelenturf, marine conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has walked the nesting beaches with sea turtles and worked hand in hand with coastal communities, turning relationship into real protection. Michelle Bender, an international leader in Ocean Rights, is helping reshape law itself—pioneering policies that recognize the Ocean and her beings not as resources, but as relatives with rights of their own.
In this conversation, Callie and Michelle share how their paths of biology and law weave into a movement for change: sea turtles and people thriving side by side, orcas and other beings gaining legal recognition, and humanity stepping into its role as caretaker of the living Sea.
Be inspired by two voices showing that transformation is not only possible—it is already underway.
Callie Veelenturf is a marine conservation biologist, National Geographic Explorer, a Scientist with the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme, and Founder of The Leatherback Project and National Geographic Society’s program For Nature, who inspires high-impact conservation measures through collaborative scientific research initiatives. Callie has a special focus on marine turtles, ocean ecosystems and the Rights of Nature.
As Founder of The Leatherback Project, she has trained over two thousand Panamanian Army and Navy soldiers in the recognition of illegal sea turtle products; identified new to science sea turtle nesting and foraging sites; and spearheaded groundbreaking conservation proposals and laws in Panama including a new National Wildlife Refuge; Law 287 recognizing the Rights of Nature; and Article 29 of Law 371 that recognizes sea turtles as legal entities with specific rights.
She leads the Operations for three field research programs that document coastal development threats, justify new protection measures, and combat fisheries bycatch in the Pearl Islands Archipelago, Darien Gap, and project Iluminar el Mar from 2022-2025 in Ecuador. Most recently, she has received the 2024 Future For Nature Award, 2024 Schmidt Ocean Institute Visionary Award, and 2024 New Explorer of The Year Award from The Explorers Club and been named a 2022 United Nations Development Programme Ocean Innovator and 2020 National Geographic Early Career Leader.
Michelle Bender is the creator and leading expert in the movement towards "Ocean Rights," the application of Rights of Nature in the ocean policy seascape. She has provided her expertise to Rights of Nature laws and policies worldwide, including in the United States (Rhode Island and Washington), Panama (national law, sea turtle conservation law and marine reserve), the Philippines (national law), Aruba (constitutional amendment), the Moananui Sanctuary Agreement to recognise whales as legal persons, and within international law and institutions (IUCN Motion 056 (2025)). She serves on the Advisory Board for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, is a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Environmental Law, an expert of the UN Harmony with Nature initiative and Steering Committee Member for the UN Ocean Decade Coordination Office on Connecting People and the Ocean. In 2018, she was named one of 15 Youth Ocean Leaders taking on the world internationally by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. Michelle graduated Summa Cum Laude from Vermont Law School, where she earned a Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy and holds a B.S. in Biology with a Marine Emphasis from Western Washington University. To learn more about Michelle and her work visit the Ocean Vision Legal website.
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We are often taught to see ourselves as separate from the living world — yet this separation is an illusion. As we grow into our fullness as human beings, we come into resonance with the shared intelligence of Life. It is natural to be open to conversation with Nature and other species.
In this unique two-hour webinar-workshop, the Ocean Voices team — Intuitive Interspecies Communicators collaborating with marine scientists and researchers — shares how this groundbreaking initiative began and how it is transforming the way we listen to and engage with the Ocean.
During this experience, you’ll:
• Hear first-hand how Ocean Voices bridges science and intuitive communication.
• Learn the principles of Intuitive Interspecies Communication (IIC).
•. Experience the H.E.A.R.T. method (Heart Energy Achieving Real Transformation).
•. Be gently guided in a direct, heart-based communication with our Ocean kin.
Led by Dr. Lynne Shannon, Principal Researcher and head of the Marine Sustainability Lab at the University of Cape Town, the team also includes Wynter Worsthorne, Eleni Gkikakis, and Christine Noble Seller. Their work has been shared at the Global Biodiversity Forum in Davos and within Nature’s Council, inspiring new ways of knowing and collaborating across species. This is a special meeting of science and spirit as we listen to the Ocean together.
Be ready to slow down, listen deeply, and embrace your fully human self — stepping into that wider conversation and relationship with Ocean, grounded in respect, reciprocity, and wonder.
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Among the Tlingit people of Sheet’ká Kwáan (Sitka, Alaska), the yaaw, the herring, are honored as sacred relatives. The story of Kaxátjaashaa, the Herring Rock Woman, tells how the first herring came when she sang to them with respect, laying their eggs in her hair. From this teaching, Kiks.ádi women have carried responsibilities to the yaaw for generations through ceremony, harvesting, and collective care.
In this conversation, Kh’asheechtlaa – Louise Brady, of the Kiks.ádi (Raven Moiety – Frog Clan), shares stories of the yaaw, their importance to Tlingit culture and ceremony, and their place in the wider ecosystem that supports whales, birds, fish, and people. She also speaks about the founding of the Herring Protectors, an Indigenous women-led grassroots movement rooted in traditional teachings that celebrates the yaaw, challenges destructive extractive practices, and asserts a sovereign Tlingit relationship with the land and waters.
We invite you to join this webinar to learn about the yaaw, the people who continue to honor them, and why protecting herring matters for the life of the Ocean and for us all.
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Dive into the deep wisdom of Whales with Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining), as she shares stories of kinship, presence, and the great evolutionary teachings carried by our Ocean relatives.
During her recent time with Whales in Tonga, Pat witnessed their intimate family constellations — mothers and calves, quiet escorts, and the radiant love that flows through them. Through these encounters, Whale offered profound reminders about relationship, guardianship, and the spiral of time itself.
Whale invites us to see evolution not as a long, linear timeline, but as something simultaneous — a vertical movement where past, present, and future rise together, like Whale itself lifting from the depths into the light.
In this special conversation, Pat shares about her experiences with Whale as elder, teacher, and kin. Through her stories and ceremonial presence, we are invited to listen more deeply, to feel the spiral of time within us, and to remember our place in the great web of life.
This is a chance to sit with Whale’s medicine of love, presence, and evolution — and to let their song awaken new possibilities in our hearts.
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Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent and far-reaching threats facing our Oceans today—touching everything from marine life to coastal communities to climate resilience. In this powerful conversation with Rachel Bustamante of Plastic Pollution Coalition and Tamara Adame, a scientific ocean diver and anti-plastics activist, we explore the multifaceted impacts of plastic on Ocean health, and the deep interconnections between pollution, policy, and our relationship with the living world.
With a background in environmental policy analysis and campaign coordination, Rachel has worked to protect marine biodiversity and Ocean health at both state and global levels—including participation in the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and direct advocacy with U.S. lawmakers. Her work is grounded in a commitment to justice, care, and solutions that protect people and planet.
As a scuba diving instructor in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, diving in the Mexican Caribbean, Tamara started noticing a huge influx of plastics to the Ocean about eight years ago. Her own grassroots efforts at organizing Ocean cleanup - and seeing how little impact that had on the quantity of plastics in the region - led her to become an anti-plastics activist, both in her state of Quintana Roo and at the national level. Plastic bags in supermarkets have now been banned across Mexico, thanks to the efforts of many anti-plastics advocates, including Tamara.
This session includes grounded insight, personal story, and tangible steps for those seeking to become more active stewards of Ocean health—whether in local watersheds or at the global level.
Visit the webinar page to watch short film Mermaids Against Plastic and download a resource list with links mentioned in the webinar.
To learm more about Rachel Bustamante and her work visit her here Plastic Pollution Coalition.
To learn more about Tamara Adame and her work visit her website.
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The Amazon breathes life into the Ocean. Through airborne rivers, nutrient cycles, and unseen pathways of energy and water, these two great bodies—Forest and Ocean—are intimately intertwined.
In this opening session of our Ocean Conversation Series, we are joined by Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza—Peruvian chemical biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist. Raised between Lima and the edge of the Amazon jungle, Rosa’s work bridges Indigenous knowledge and modern science in service of biodiversity, conservation, and cultural resilience.
This intimate, conversational session explores the nutrient flows between forest and sea, the role of traditional ecological knowledge in scientific understanding, and the art of storytelling as a pathway for ecological healing and reconnection.
We also glimpse Rosa’s personal journey—her grandmother’s backyard “natural pharmacy,” her pioneering research on the Boiling River and medicinal stingless bees, and the global ecosystems that have shaped her vision. Her newly published book, The Spirit of the Rainforest, weaves these threads into an immersive journey through the Amazon—science, spirit, and story entwined.
This is a conversation about relationship and reciprocity. A chance to listen to the waters—of land, sea, and self.
Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a Peruvian chemical biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist whose work bridges Indigenous knowledge and modern science to protect biodiversity and uplift rainforest communities. Founder of Amazon Research Internacional, Rosa has led groundbreaking studies on extreme ecosystems, including the Boiling River and medicinal stingless bees, while advocating for policies that honor the intrinsic value of Nature.
With Andean-Amazonian roots and global research spanning from the Amazon to Yellowstone and Alaska, Rosa integrates science, storytelling, and ancestral wisdom to foster deeper connection with the living world. Her recently published book, The Spirit of the Rainforest, offers an immersive journey into Amazonian ecology, culture, and healing.
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Join Suzi Steer, founder of The Tree Conference and co-author of Rooted in Ethics, for an insightful conversation on citizen-led reforestation, protecting old-growth forests, and transforming our relationship with trees. Suzi explores the intersection of science, policy, and deep listening with Nature, highlighting innovative projects, grassroots movements, and cultural shifts that are reshaping how we care for Earth’s ecosystems. This session inspires new ways of thinking about trees—not just as resources, but as intelligent, interconnected beings essential to planetary wellbeing.
Suzi Steer’smission is to support trees to survive and thrive on Earth in these times. She is the founder of the Tree Conference, an event that brings together scientists, tree-related NGOs, foresters, grassroots communities, creatives, legal experts, tree-speakers and the general tree-loving public.
Suzi’s specialism is in the relationship between human construct systems (e.g. financial, legal, technological and governmental) and Nature’s planetary intelligence system. From her profession as a maths teacher, Suzi’s journey into exploring systemic change with individuals, communities and organisations has been through deep listening with trees and plants as experts in Earth’s multidimensional living systems.
For six years Suzi worked through the UK charity TreeSisters to articulate the Ethics and Nature Relationships that support land, forest and biocultural restoration that honours all beings of Nature as conscious, intelligent and having agency.
This involved listening with representatives of Original Peoples and Nations and reforestation practitioners alongside specialists in law and international agreements. The resulting Rooted in Ethics: The Community Tree Stewardship Framework and Practices Guides are co-published by TreeSisters and The Fountain, a US 501c3.
Learn more about Suzi and her work at thetreeconference.com
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Join us for a rare and profound conversation with visionary botanist, biochemist, and bestselling author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, whose work reveals Forests as living, breathing networks essential to our survival.
In this intimate webinar, Diana shares insights from Our Green Heart, the culmination of her life’s research on the deep connection between forests, human health, and planetary survival. As one of the last people in Ireland to receive a full Druidic education, she bridges ancient ecological wisdom with cutting-edge science to show how forests serve as Earth’s lungs, medicine, and protectors against climate breakdown.
Discover the hidden intelligence of trees, the critical role forests play in stabilizing climate, and how Diana’s groundbreaking Bioplan offers a roadmap for replanting the global forest—and our future. She calls on each of us to take action through planting, protection, and reciprocity with the natural world.
This is more than a conversation—it’s a call to action. Leave inspired and empowered with steps to help safeguard the forests that sustain life on Earth.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a globally recognized author, medical biochemist, botanist, and climate visionary. Raised in Ireland after the early loss of her parents, she was educated by elders in the Brehon tradition who passed on ancestral knowledge of plants and nature.
Told as a child she would one day carry that wisdom into a troubled future, Diana has done just that. Since the 1960s, she has been sounding the alarm on climate change and advocating for the protection of global forests. Her scientific path led to degrees in botany and biochemistry, and to discoveries such as genetic smearing and cathodoluminescence in biological systems—now used in cancer detection.
Yet her heart remained with the forest. In the 1970s, she created her own arboretum, gathered rare trees from around the world, and uncovered the chemical language and medicinal intelligence of forests. Her Bioplan empowers people everywhere to replant and protect native species. The plan has been adopted by cities like Ottawa and inspired international action.
Diana’s 2016 documentary Call of the Forest introduced wider audiences to this vision, alongside a tree-planting app matching native species to location. Her collaboration with activist Sophia Rabliauskas helped secure UNESCO World Heritage status for Pimachiowin Aki, a boreal forest of immense ecological and cultural value.
Diana’s legacy project is to clone and map the entire global forest—creating a living library of seeds to safeguard biodiversity for future generations.
Learn more: https://dianaberesford-kroeger.com
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The Elwha River Watershed is a living, breathing web of interconnection—home to salmon, orcas, towering trees, and the stories of the Lower Elwha Klallam people. For generations, these lands and waters have sustained life, and in return, they have been cared for as kin. But today, 850 acres of mature, structurally complex forests in the watershed are at risk of being auctioned for logging, despite decades of restoration efforts.
In this conversation, we will explore the urgent movement to protect the Elwha’s legacy forests, guided by those who stand on the leading edge of this movement for protection and stewardship. Tashena Francis (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Citizen) and Freddie Lane (Lummi Nation Elder) have been organizing their communities to defend the watershed, upholding their sacred responsibility to protect the land. They are collaborating with Elizabeth Dunne (Elwha Watershed Resident), co-founder of the grassroots Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition (of which Tashena and Freddie are also a part). Elizabeth, who leads Earth Law Center's Cascadia Bioregion Program, is working to establish legal protections rooted in the Rights of Nature and principles of respect and reciprocity.
Together, we will discuss:
🌿 Forests as relatives, elders, and teachers
🔥 Community organizing as an act of resistance and protection
⚖️ The Rights of Nature and how law can align with Indigenous knowledge
🌳 Working together as Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies for the places we love
🛡️ What we can do, collectively, to ensure these forests remain standing
This is a call to listen, witness, and act. The Elwha’s forests are not lost yet—but they need all of us.
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Join us for a transformative Earth Day webinar with renowned plant spirit healer and author Pam Montgomery. Pam guides us into a deeper relationship with the living world, inviting us to experience Nature as an ally and teacher rather than a resource to manage.
Pam offers a perspective that is both practical and profoundly heart-centered, illuminating the subtle yet powerful connections between human beings and the natural world. Her newly released book, Co-Creating with Nature, delves into this relationship and offers pathways for healing.
In this webinar, Pam shares stories of her own journey into plant communication, explores the intelligence present in Nature, and inspires us to rekindle our relationship with the Earth. Come with an open heart and leave with a renewed sense of wonder and connection to the world around you.
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This free Earth Day webinar is a gift from the heart of our community—and we invite you to give back in support. Your donation helps the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries continue offering Earth-honoring programs like this one, uplifting Nature’s voice and deepening our collective relationship with the living world.
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Thank you for helping this work grow.
Pam Montgomery has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. As an author, teacher, and practitioner, she has passionately embraced her partnership with the plants who are guiding us in our spiritual evolution.
She is the author of Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology and the best-selling Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and most recently Co-Creating with Nature: Healing the Wound of Separation. She teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries.
Pam is the founder of ONE. She has dedicated herself to co-creative partnership with all of life and feels the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries is a way to make this partnership manifest.
You can connect with Pam here: www.wakeuptonature.com
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For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have used fire as a tool to cultivate and sustain the land. Yet, colonization and fire suppression policies criminalized these ancient practices, leading to devastating consequences for ecosystems and communities. Today, cultural fire practitioners are reclaiming the knowledge of their ancestors, bringing back "good fire" to heal the land, reduce catastrophic wildfires, and restore balance.
Join us for an illuminating conversation with Elizabeth Azzuz, a dedicated cultural fire practitioner working to restore Indigenous fire stewardship. As a member of the Cultural Fire Management Council on the Yurok Reservation and Ancestral lands, Elizabeth helps train new generations of fire lighters, ensuring that traditional ecological knowledge continues to shape a more resilient and thriving landscape.
In this webinar, we will explore:
- The spiritual and ecological importance of cultural burning.
- How fire supports food, medicine, and basket-making materials.
- The challenges Indigenous fire practitioners face in reclaiming their ancestral stewardship.
- The growing recognition of prescribed fire as a solution to today’s wildfire crisis.
Elizabeth’s work is not just about fire—it is about sovereignty, cultural survival, and the renewal of life itself. Come listen, learn, and support the movement to restore Indigenous fire practices to the land.
Elizabeth Azzuz is a cultural fire practitioner who has been burning since the age of four. Her Karuk grandfather taught her about her obligations to Mother Earth after catching her playing with fire. She is a mother and grandmother, and she gathers foods, medicines, teas, and basket materials in post-burn areas. As part of the Cultural Fire Management Council, she works to train fire lighters to restore ecosystems with the greatest tool left by the Creator—fire.
You can learn more about Elizabeth and Cultural Fire Fire Management Council at https://www.culturalfire.org/
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Forests hold stories—ancient memories woven into their roots, whispered through their leaves, and carried on the wind. In this special gathering, Katherine Parker invites us into a deeper relationship with the Forest as both a place and a presence.
We begin by exploring the connection between Forests and ancestral memory, touching on how these living landscapes hold the echoes of those who came before. Katherine then shares a Forest story, offering a glimpse into the mythic consciousness that has long honored the wisdom of trees.
From there, we turn to practice—ways to attune to the intelligence and consciousness of the Forest, to listen rather than simply observe, and to experience the Forest not as separate from us, but as a part of who we are.
This session is an invitation to slow down, to listen, and to remember. Join us as we step into the stillness and presence of the Forest together.
Katherine Parker, PhD is a Wilderness Rites of Passage Guide and recovering psychologist. She wanders the liminal space between mythology, psychology, and animism, looking for ancestral connections. Kat is an oral storyteller in the tradition of the British Isles and created the podcast Celtic Medicine Stories. She writes “Adventures in the Otherworld, the Science and Mythology of the non-ordinary” on Substack.
You can learn more about her work at https://ancestralconnection.earth
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Join us for Forest as Community: The Ecology of Relationships with Luke Cannon, a journey into the interconnected world of the forest ecosystem. Grounded in Appalachian Forest ecology, this exploration touches on Forest principles that play out in countless ways across the planet.
From the hidden networks beneath the forest floor to the towering crowns of ancient trees, we explore the relationships that sustain these living communities. Luke helps us traverse the intricate web of interactions between fungi, plants, animals, and the elements, touching on deep time and illustrating how these relationships form the foundation of a thriving forest. Within this conversation, you are invited to consider your own connection to the greater community of life, including the Forests where they live—as humans, what is our Forest niche?
Luke Cannon, a seasoned botanist and naturalist, brings decades of ecological study and experience to this conversation. His insights draw from Appalachian ecology, ethnobotany, and a lifetime of immersive study with the living landscape.
This webinar offers a unique perspective on Forests as collaborative, relational communities rather than just collections of individual species. Centering our own role within ecosystems, it provides a broad yet nuanced understanding of the Forest's intricate dynamics. It leaves you with a renewed appreciation for the profound interconnectedness that makes a Forest a Forest.
Luke Cannon is a botanist, naturalist, and lifelong student of the living Earth. His passion for understanding the ecological intricacies of forests has taken him across the Americas and beyond, learning and teaching about the Earth's astounding diversity. With a background in Appalachian ecology, ethnobotany, permaculture, and experiential education, Luke draws from diverse fields to share practical, insightful knowledge about the natural world.
As the founder of Astounding Earth, Luke has dedicated decades to teaching and mentoring people of all ages, helping them deepen their relationship with Nature. He has led programs for numerous institutions, including the North Carolina Arboretum and Organic Growers School, offering accessible, experience-based learning that inspires a lasting connection to the forest community.
You can learn more about Luke and his work at https://www.astoundingearth.com/.
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Step into the Heart of the Forest and discover the Spirit and Medicine of the Northeast Woodlands.
Join Kate Gilday on a journey through the Northeast woodlands, where Nature encourages us to slow down, observe, and form a deeper connection with the world around us. Kate will share her wisdom and stories, inspiring you to use your senses to experience the unique essence of the forest.
Discover the medicinal and energetic gifts of trees like White Pine, Scots Pine, Golden Birch, and Black Birch, as well as the remarkable qualities of at-risk plants such as Goldenseal, Black Cohosh, and Bloodroot. Learn practical methods for sustainably growing and protecting these precious forest medicines.
Whether you’re an herbalist, Nature enthusiast, or someone seeking to strengthen your bond with the wild, this webinar will illuminate the beauty and healing power of the natural world.
To see the slides that Kate is referring to, check out her full recording here.
Click here for Kate’s Printable Forest Resource List
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Reconnect. Rebalance. Restore.
Start the New Year by reconnecting with what truly matters.
Join renowned teachers Pam Montgomery, Deb Soule, and Myra Jackson for a transformative free webinar exploring how grounding in Nature can enhance your health, well-being, and resilience.
Together, we’ll delve into the profound interconnection between people and Nature, discovering how embracing natural cycles can restore balance not just for ourselves but for all life. Gain practical insights and inspiration to help you move through 2025 with clarity and purpose.
This free event is part of the Drinking from the Well: Women Restoring Balance and Knowing series and marks the final day to take advantage of our early bird registration price for the full course.
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Each year, as we conclude another season of dynamic learning and ceremony with our Nature Evolutionary community, we return to the question, “Can plants save the planet?” Gathering with plant and Earth-centered voices, we explore how plants and trees—these ancient and wise green beings—have the long view and continue to thrive in our ever-changing world.
The vast bio-intelligence of plants and trees is no longer seen as a fringe idea but is now recognized as a well-researched truth. Recent discoveries are illuminating how plant consciousness affects our lives and the life of the planet in ways we could hardly have imagined just a few short years ago.
This year, renowned herbalist Rosalee de la Forêt joins ONE founder Pam Montgomery to explore this powerful topic. Together, they’ll share stories from decades of relationship with the green beings, including deeply healing experiences, “wow” moments, and actions we can take to support a thriving world.
Be a part of this inspiring conversation. Your participation and support make ONE’s work possible as we deepen our partnership with Nature for a life-giving future.
Rosalee de la Forêt is passionate about inspiring people to turn to the healing gifts of medicinal plants and Nature connection.
She is a registered herbalist and the author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transforming Everyday Ingredients into Foods and Remedies that Heal and co-author of Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine.
Rosalee and her husband live in a log cabin in the northeastern cascades of Washington state, where she’s an avid gardener and excels at cuddling up with her cat and her latest knitting project.
You can learn more about Rosalee by visiting her website, www.herbalremediesadvice.org, and her Instagram profile.
Pam Montgomery has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. As an author, teacher, and practitioner, she has passionately embraced her partnership with the plants who are guiding us in our spiritual evolution.
She is the author of Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology and the best-selling Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. She teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries.
Pam is the founder of ONE. She has dedicated herself to co-creative partnership with all of life and feels the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries is a way to make this partnership manifest.
You can connect with Pam here: www.wakeuptonature.com
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Join us for a profound journey into the heart of Earth wisdom with herbalist and storyteller Robin Rose Bennett. In this special webinar, Robin will lead us in honoring the ancient, living intelligence of the Earth through the magic of plants. Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or a curious beginner, you’ll discover new ways to deepen your relationship with plants as sacred allies, healers, and guides.
We’ll explore how plants connect us to ancestral wisdom, helping us feel rooted in our bodies, communities, and the natural world. Robin will share rituals and practical insights for working with plants to awaken our inner strength, inspire joy, and—most importantly—pass this wisdom on to the next generation.
Learn how to weave these practices into everyday life with children, grandchildren, and students, nurturing their natural curiosity and connection to the green world.
Robin Rose Bennett is a story-teller, writer, and herbalist, offering classes in Herbal Medicine and EarthSpirit Teachings since 1986 - at herb conferences, festivals, medical schools, and most joyously, outside with the plants. Robin Rose shares herbal medicine with gratitude for the loving generosity of the plants and the magic, mystery, and beauty of the web of life.
She is the author of: Healing Magic - A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living, The Gift of Healing Herbs - Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life, A Young Green Witch’s Guide to Plant Magic - Rituals and Recipes from Nature, and A Green Witch's Pocket Book of Wisdom-Big Little Life Tips.
To read more about Robin’s work, please visit https://www.robinrosebennett.com/
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Join us for a compelling interview with Hilary Giovale, a writer and community organizer who is deeply engaged in the work of truth, healing, and repair. Hilary will share her personal journey as a ninth-generation American settler coming to terms with her ancestral legacies and the responsibilities they carry. We'll explore her process of ancestral repair, her solidarity with Indigenous-led movements, and how her relationship with the land where she lives informs her activism and personal growth.
In this conversation, Hilary will discuss the challenges and insights she has encountered as she navigates the complex terrain of unlearning white fragility and committing to reparations. She’ll offer a candid look at how these experiences have transformed her understanding of kinship, responsibility, and resilience. Expect an open and vulnerable dialogue that goes beyond intellectual analysis, inviting us into the realms of intuition, dreams, and practical rituals for healing.
This interview is an opportunity to hear firsthand from Hilary about her ongoing work to address the harms of colonialism and racial hierarchy. Whether you're beginning your own journey or have been on this path for some time, Hilary’s reflections will offer valuable perspectives and practical tools for those dedicated to creating a more just and equitable world.
Hilary Giovale is a ninth-generation American settler descended from the ancient Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples of northwestern Europe. She lives at the foot of a sacred mountain, a being of kinship, that stands within the traditional homelands of Diné, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai, Apache, and Paiute Peoples, as well as several Pueblos. Her relationships with this land inform her life as a mother, community organizer, writer, and philanthropist. In 2015, Hilary became aware of her ancestors’ longstanding presence as American settlers. Since then, she has been living a process of inquiry that includes ancestral repair, solidarity with Indigenous-led movements, reconnection with Earth, apology, forgiveness, and reparations. She is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing and Repair (now available for pre-order). Hilary also co-facilitates the Rekindling Ancestral Memory circle hosted by ONE. To read more about her work, please visit www.goodrelative.com.
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Join us for the fifth session of our Soil Conversations series, featuring a compelling discussion with Hunter Lovins, renowned environmentalist, author, and champion of sustainable development. This session promises to delve into the intricate relationships between soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture. Lovins will share her wealth of knowledge on how nurturing our soil can lead to a regenerative future, offering insights drawn from her extensive experience and pioneering work in the field.
In this conversation, we will explore practical strategies for improving soil health and enhancing ecosystem services. Lovins will discuss the role of innovative agricultural practices, such as agroforestry and holistic management, in building resilient food systems. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how healthy soils contribute to carbon sequestration, water retention, and biodiversity, and how these benefits can be realized on both local and global scales.
This session is an invaluable opportunity to hear from one of the leading voices in sustainability and to engage in a dialogue about the future of our soils. Hunter Lovins’ unique perspective, grounded in decades of activism and research, will provide a rich context for understanding the critical importance of soil stewardship in addressing the pressing environmental challenges of our time.
L. Hunter Lovins is President of Natural Capitalism Solutions. NCS helps companies, communities and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably.
A professor of sustainable business management at Fordham University, Hunter teaches entrepreneuring and coaches social enterprises around the world. A Managing Partner of NOW Partners, she is also a board member of Aquion and several non-profits. Hunter has worked in energy, regenerative agriculture, climate policy, sustainable development and resilience for 55 years.
A consultant to industries including International Finance Corporation, Unilever, Walmart, the United Nations and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as sustainability champions Interface, Patagonia and Clif Bar, Hunter has briefed heads of state, the UN, and the US Congress, leaders of the numerous local governments, the Pentagon, and officials in 30 countries.
Author of 17 books – including the recently released A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life, which won a Nautilus Award – Hunter has won dozens of awards, including the European Sustainability Pioneer award and the Right Livelihood Award. Time Magazine recognized her as a Millennium Hero for the Planet, and Newsweek called her the Green Business Icon.
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Join us for an engaging discussion featuring Dr. Elaine Ingham, a renowned soil microbiologist and founder of Soil Food Web. Dr. Ingham will share her insights about the fascinating world beneath our feet and the community of healthy soil ecosystems. She will discuss the vital role that microorganisms play in maintaining soil health and how they can dramatically impact plant growth, nutrient cycles, and overall ecosystem resilience.
Dr. Ingham's extensive experience and pioneering research make her an expert in understanding how we can collaborate with the power of the soil food web to improve soil health and promote regenerative practices. Whether you're a gardener, farmer, or simply a Nature enthusiast, this discussion will provide practical insights into how you can support soil health in your own backyard or community. Topics will include composting, natural soil amendments, and methods to enhance microbial diversity for a thriving garden or farm.
This interview is an inspiring and educational experience for everyone interested in nurturing the life beneath our feet.
Dr. Elaine Ingham serves as the Soil Food Web School's Founder, Principal Ambassador, and Science and Research Advisor.
Dr. Ingham has advanced our knowledge about the soil food web for over 4 decades. Widely recognized as the world’s foremost soil biologist, she’s passionate about empowering ordinary people to bring the soils in their community back to life.
Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web Approach has been used to successfully restore the ecological functions of soils on six continents. The courses offered by Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web School have been designed for people with no relevant experience – making them accessible to individuals who wish to retrain and to begin a meaningful and impactful career in an area that will help to secure the survival of humans and other species.
Dr. Ingham began her college career at St. Olaf College, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts. She earned her Master of Science in Marine Biology from Texas A&M and her Ph.D. in Soil Microbiology from Colorado State in 1981. From there, she completed her post-doc at the University of Georgia Institute of Ecology before serving as an Instructor and later an Associate Professor for many years at Oregon State University. During her travels, she served as the first President of the Soil Ecology Society, the Program Director for the Ecological Society of America, and a member of the American Society of Microbiology.
In 2019 she teamed up with Luke Louka and created The Soil Food Web School (SFWS). While she was satisfied with an LMS-based instructional approach to begin with, she has been an advocate for being in contact with students. Even though the school has grown to over 3,000 students in three short years, Dr. Ingham still responds personally to email requests, student forum questions, and course content creation. Using technology to its fullest, Dr. Ingham hosts global webinars and conferences with some of the world's premier experts in soil science and does so for free both for students and the general global audience to help bring awareness of the gifts possible through farming without the use of pesticides and inorganic chemicals.
Dr. Ingham also opened Soil Foodweb Incorporated in 2020 to serve as her research and consultation company, where people can reach out to hire Dr. Elaine and her research team directly. To reach out, visit soilfoodwebinc.com or email general@soilfoodwebinc.com
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Join us for an insightful conversation with the brilliant Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, a leading soil scientist who has pioneered groundbreaking studies on soil’s role in regulating the Earth's climate.
In this third session of our Soil Webinar Series, Dr. Berhe shares her deep passion for the science of soil, helping us all see how essential it is not just for our climate, but for the health and balance of our planet's ecosystems. She talks about the powerful connections between soil and our communities, making it clear that when our soil thrives, so do we. Dr. Berhe also touches on the importance of making sure everyone’s voice is heard in climate discussions, reminding us that diversity in STEM leads to richer, more resilient solutions. Her insights on leadership are truly inspiring, showing us how inclusive, thoughtful leadership can bring real change.
Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is a Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology at the University of California, Merced. She previously served as the Director of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
Her research interest lies at the intersection of soil science, geochemistry, global change science, and political ecology. Prof. Berhe’s work seeks to improve our understanding of how the soil system regulates the earth’s climate and the dynamic two-way relationship between soil and human communities.
Numerous awards and honors have recognized her scholarly contributions and efforts to improve equity and inclusion in STEM. She is an Elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, and a member of the inaugural class of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, New Voices in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. You can learn more about Dr. Berhe and her work on her website: https://aaberhe.com/
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Join us for a compelling live webinar interview with Briana Alfaro and Danielle Peláez from Soul Fire Farm as we dig into the rich and essential world of soil as well as the profound relationship we share with soil. This engaging discussion will cover:
- Is Soil Alive?: Taking a look at the composition and nature of soil and perception of soil and its vital role in sustaining life on Earth.
- Soul Fire Farm's Soil Practices: An in-depth look at how Soul Fire Farm’s regenerative practices in caring for their soil promote biodiversity and ecological balance.
- Caring for and Honoring Our Soil: Practical advice and insights on nurturing and respecting the soil in our own landscapes.
Briana and Danielle will share their expertise, experiences, and ways that Soul Fire Farm partners with the land to help the soil remain vibrant and life-giving. This webinar promises to be a rich exchange of knowledge, fostering a deeper connection to the Earth beneath our feet and inspiring actionable steps to support soil health in our own communities.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from two passionate experts in regenerative agriculture and soil stewardship!
About Soul Fire Farm: Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. To learn more about Soul Fire Farm and their fantastic work, visit their website at www.soulfirefarm.org.
Briana Alfaro, Soul Fire Farm Administrative Director of Programs & Partnerships, (she/her) is a multiracial, Mexican and Indigenous grower, educator, writer, and activist living in unceded Gayogohó:nǫ˺ territory, in Ithaca, NY. She co-creates educational offerings and supports coalition work as Director of Programs & Partnerships at Soul Fire Farm. Her passion for land stewardship and agriculture is rooted in a long-held infatuation with food and cooking; in her family’s experience as campesino farmers and US farm workers; and in a love of nature cultivated by family camping trips as a child. She has worked with National Young Farmers Coalition, Northeast Organic Farming Association of NY, and San Diego Food System Alliance. She holds a M.S. Food Studies from Syracuse University and serves on the Board of the Youth Farm Project.
Danielle Peláez, Soul Fire Farm Education Manager, (she/they || ella/elle) is a queer farmer, educator, and land tender. A lover of plantitas, fungi, human and non-human beings, Danielle dreams of serving her community through facilitating (re)connection to the soil, drawing on her roots in the western highlands of Guatemala. As the Farm Education Manager, Dani co-creates and co-leads earth-based educational offerings. They love being outside in all forms (gardening, hiking, foraging, napping in hammocks) and sharing meals with friends.
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Join us for a lively and informative conversation with dynamic herbalist, farmer, and educator Tammi Sweet. Her passion for soil and her perspective that "Compost is God" set the tone for a fun and insightful discussion. Discover the alchemical magic of composting, where kitchen scraps and yard waste transform into fertile, life-giving soil.
We’ll discuss practical tips for creating and maintaining a compost system that works wonders. Tammi will explain how organic matter turns into rich soil, boosting fertility and plant growth. Whether you're a composting newbie or a seasoned pro, Tammi's enthusiasm and years of farming experience will help you see composting in a whole new light.
Tammi will also share about growing hemp and its close relationship with healthy soil. Learn how this versatile plant thrives with nutrient-rich compost and how it, in turn, enhances soil health. Tammi's holistic, knowledgeable, and practical take on soil, compost, and hemp cultivation will leave you inspired and ready to get your hands dirty.
This is the first webinar in our Soils Series, culminating in our Soil Gratitude Ceremony. Join us on this journey of discovery and celebration of the Earth’s incredible processes. Come and discover why "Compost is God" and how you can contribute to the health of our planet through soil and compost practices.
Tammi Sweet loves to teach. It’s her superpower. She has a magical ability to connect with almost anyone when teaching and help them understand complex material.
For over 30 years, Tammi has shared her gift of teaching at various colleges, massage schools and herbal schools throughout the country. Her background in physiology makes her an invaluable resource to developing herbalists and massage therapists alike, who want to deepen their foundation as practitioners.
In addition to her physiology expertise, Tammi is also a practitioner and teacher of herbal medicine. She is deeply influenced by her studies with accomplished herbalists, including Rosemary Gladstar, Pam Montgomery, Tom Brown, Jr. and especially Stephen Buhner’s pioneering work on the heart as an organ of perception.
In 2007, Tammi set out to “combine all the things I love into one curriculum and teach whatever I wanted in ways that made sense--on my own terms.” So, she and her partner Kris Miller launched the Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials.
At Heartstone, Tammi and Kris run their Herbal Apprenticeship. Tammi also offers online courses that integrate physiology and plant medicine with Tammi’s love of teaching, such as her signature course Anatomy & Physiology for Herbalists.
The other branch of her teaching is Cannabis. In 2019 Tammi offered her first online course in Medicine Making with Cannabis. 2020 brought about her six month long Online Cannabis Grow course. Teaching these two courses led to publishing two books; The first; The Wholistic Healing Guide to Cannabis and her second, The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Cannabis.
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Join us in discussion with Jakob Shockey, co-founder of Project Beaver, for an insightful webinar that explores a pivotal question, "How can we move towards coexistence and partnership with Nature even in places where we as humans have dramatically altered the landscapes?" Looking to Nature and co-creative partnership, we will delve into the role of beavers as natural engineers and their crucial contributions to environmental health and sustainability.
During the webinar, you’ll learn about the critical ecological benefits that beavers provide. They create and maintain wetlands, essential for a diverse range of flora and fauna, which serve as natural water filters, reduce flooding risks, and help in carbon sequestration efforts. Jakob will discuss how the structures built by beavers, such as dams, can prevent flash flooding and reduce soil erosion, essential for restoring degraded landscapes and repairing damaged watersheds.
Despite their importance, beavers are often seen as nuisances. This session will challenge such views and highlight the need for a shift towards coexistence and appreciation of beavers as valuable partners in our environmental efforts.
Engage with us to explore how co-creative and co-existence efforts with beavers can lead to a more sustainable and resilient future for all life.
Jakob Shockey is a professional wildlife biologist, entrepreneur, land steward, and storyteller. His work focuses on restoring the natural process and order of resilient habitat, its wildlife, and the complex interrelationship with humans. He has been working professionally in Oregon’s streams, rivers and wetlands for over a decade. He is the foremost authority in mitigating beaver conflicts with human infrastructure in Oregon, through his company Beaver State Wildlife Solutions. Jakob also co-founded and leads Project Beaver, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering humans to partner with beavers and value their works.
Jakob lives in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southwestern Oregon, with his wife and their three children along the same creek he grew up swimming in. While Jakob remembers cannonballing into pools that teamed with young coho, that stream now goes dry every summer, and instead of swimming, his kids play with powdery rocks. That shift in baselines for what is perceived as “normal” in just one generation has animated his work.
Jakob values community, truth, awareness, and grace. He is a clear-eyed optimist, working for resilient human and non-human habitat with tools like strong inference and evolutionary theory. He flies a paraglider, climbs big trees, volunteers with Search and Rescue, plays the fiddle, and once gentled a wild horse, which he took with him to college. He also sings to himself, loves flying kites and can’t spell.
To learn more about Jakob and Project Beaver, visit their website at: https://projectbeaver.org/
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Embark on a captivating journey of herbal exploration with renowned herbalist Rosalee de la Forêt in our upcoming webinar, "Weeds to Wellness: Strengthening Your Connection to Nature." Join us as we unravel the untold stories of the often-overlooked plants that thrive in your local environment, proving to be powerful allies on your path to well-being and connection to Nature.
In this enlightening session, Rosalee will guide you through the transformative potential of seasonal, local herbs – commonly dismissed as 'weeds.' Learn to identify and appreciate the healing and nutritional qualities of these resilient plants right in your own backyard. Discover how these humble herbs can become your partners in fostering a profound connection to Nature, promoting balance and vitality in your life.
As we delve into the symbiotic relationship between humans and these resilient plants, Rosalee will share her expertise on seasonal foraging, offering practical tips and personalized insights. Don't miss this unique opportunity to cultivate a deeper connection with Nature, embracing the wellness potential of your yard.
Join us and unlock the healing secrets hidden in the seasonal weeds around you!
Rosalee de la Forêt is passionate about inspiring people to turn to the healing gifts of medicinal plants and Nature connection.
She is a registered herbalist and the author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transforming Everyday Ingredients into Foods and Remedies that Heal and co-author of Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine.
Rosalee and her husband live in a log cabin in the northeastern cascades of Washington state, where she’s an avid gardener and excels at cuddling up with her cat and her latest knitting project.
You can learn more about Rosalee by visiting her website, www.herbalremediesadvice.org, and her Instagram profile.
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An insightful webinar featuring Keith Laakkonen, Sanctuary Director at Audubon’s corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Southwest Florida. In this engaging conversation, Keith delves into Corkscrew's unique ecology, focusing on its old-growth cypress, Ghost Orchids, Wood Storks, and the significance of prescribed fire in maintaining the delicate balance of this unique sanctuary. Discover the fascinating history of the Everglades and the impact of development and alteration of this landscape through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
We explore ongoing restoration and conservation efforts in the region and emphasize the crucial role wetlands play in maintaining ecological balance and the health of the entire region. Keith, who grew up in Southwest Florida, also shares his experiences amidst the captivating landscapes, the inspiration that fueled his connection to the land and water, and the journey that led him to his current role.
This webinar offers a rare opportunity to connect with the heart of this natural wonder and gain insights into the passion and commitment driving conservation efforts in the area.
Keith Laakkonen, as Sanctuary Director of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, oversees the 13,450 acres in the Western Everglades. Leading a dedicated team of 25 people, he focuses on land conservation, research, policy, and public engagement.
Laakkonen is Audubon's spokesperson for the Western Everglades. He collaborates closely with Audubon Florida's leadership to reach conservation goals in the region, and he and his team are dedicated to restoring and protecting the Sanctuary's ecology.
With over 20 years of environmental management experience, Laakkonen has held distinguished roles, including Director at the 110,000-acre Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and a regional administrator for the Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. His accolades include the Guy Bradley award from Audubon Florida, earned during his tenure as the Environmental Sciences Coordinator for the Town of Fort Myers Beach.
A Southwest Florida native and avid birder, Laakkonen's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida and a master's degree from Florida Gulf Coast University with a focus on sea-level rise policy. His diverse interests encompass watershed management, environmental policy, wildlife ecology, prescribed fire management, hydrologic restoration, exotic plant and animal management, as well as environmental education and outreach.
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Join us for this enlightening webinar as Cynthia Jurs shares her story of Sacred Earth Activism and inspires us to ask ourselves this question:
How can we bring healing and protection to the Earth?
In 1990 Cynthia climbed a path high in the Himalayas to meet an “old wise man in a cave”—a venerated lama from Nepal. In response to her question, the old lama gave her a formidable assignment based on an ancient practice from Tibet: she must procure earth treasure vases made of clay and potent medicines, fill them with prayers and symbolic offerings, and bury them around the world where healing is called for.
Ultimately, the path from the wise man’s mountain cave winds around the world, bringing Cynthia into relationship with elders, activists, diverse ecosystems and communities. One by one, as the humble clay pots are planted in the Earth, the power of an ancient technology of the sacred comes alive and a global community grows to protect the Earth and learn how to become vessels of healing.
As many of us wonder what we can do in this eleventh hour, Cynthia offers a riveting account of one woman’s response to the challenges we face, and invites all of us to become “sacred activists” heeding the call of the Earth.
Cynthia Jurs became a dharma teacher(Dharmacharya)in the Order of Interbeing of ZenMaster Thich Nhat Hanhin in 1994 and, in 2018, was made an honorary lama in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in recognition of her dedication to carrying out the Earth TreasureVase practice. Inspired by thirty years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems, today Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia—a path deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous cultures, and devoted to collective awakening. Cynthia leads meditations, retreats, courses, and pilgrimages to support the emergence of a global community of engaged and embodied sacred activists. She lives at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico, where she is often found walking in the wilderness with her dog or gardening with her husband. You can find her offerings and join the global healing community at www.GaiaMandala.net
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Join us for the third session of our Wetlands Series as we explore the confluence of Water and Earth in sustaining abundant life. Drawing on her years of work with communities, rivers, and freshwaters worldwide, Earth Elder Myra Jackson will share about her co-creative partnership with water and wetlands as places of wonder, unity, and connection. These awe-inspiring, unifying spaces foster biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and help sustain life on a global scale.
Immerse yourself in the reciprocal movement between water, a life-giving and dynamic force, and wetlands, which purify our ecosystems. Delving into the intricate relationship between humanity and wetlands, Myra will skillfully guide us to feel our connection with the freshwaters in our own landscapes.
As we approach the Spring Wetlands Gratitude Ceremony, let's come together to honor the magic of wetlands and deepen our connection to these vibrant, vital aspects of Nature. https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/wetlands-gratitude-ceremony
Myra Jackson is an Earth Elder who has held careers in engineering, holographic organizational development and academia. She carries the title of Diplomat of the Biosphere with a primary focus on transforming our societal relationship with Nature through public policy approaches that recognize Nature's intrinsic rights to exist whole along with all Her life forms. She also serves as an expert on the platform of the U.N. Harmony with Nature Program. Her life’s work is anchored by her role as an Evocateur of the Sacred and those ideas whose time has come.
Myra participated in the Women Working for the Earth Summit hosted by ONE and has been a webinar guest sharing her highly popular topic, “Nature’s Embrace: The Way of True Reparations”.
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Join us for the second session of our Wetlands Series.
We talk with Dr. Emily Hite to explore the complex connections between communities and their land and water. Dr. Hite is a cultural, environmental anthropologist and passionate advocate for environmental sustainability whose research focuses on the intersection of human-water relationships and climate governance.
Dr. Hite investigates the far-reaching consequences of damming rivers and how communities and wetlands are intricately linked to the health and vitality of these waterways. We will speak about the importance of maintaining the integrity of rivers and the delicate balance required to sustain both human communities and the diverse ecosystems they rely on. As part of this conversation, Dr. Hite will share stories of communities working together to maintain an ancestral connection to their waters and land in the face of infrastructure and land development.
How did Dr. Hite find her passion for her work, and what is her personal relationship with water?
She shares valuable insights from her research and collaboration with the Global River Protection Coalition and her studies in Costa Rica, as well as shed light on the Coalition’s ongoing efforts to enhance wetland protections on a global scale.
Together, let's empower ourselves with knowledge and contribute to the collective effort to preserve the waters that flow through our world.
Dr. Emily Hite is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Saint Louis University. She is also a primary investigator at SLU's Water Institute and serves as a regional co-chair of the Global River Protection Coalition. Her research is focused on understanding human-water relationships and how they are challenged by both climatic changes and climate policy. A central concern of her research is the justice and equity of the processes of climate governance, with particular interest in how different knowledges, values, and belief systems are integrated into those processes.
Dr. Hite works with dam-impacted communities in the United States and throughout Latin America and conducts research at international climate and hydropower meetings to understand local-to-global perspectives. The ultimate aim of her research is to influence more culturally-informed governance that aligns with the principles of climate justice.
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Here we delve into the profound intersections of Wetlands, Indigenous food systems, and the enduring impacts of colonization, featuring the esteemed Dr. Lyla June Johnston. A luminary in her field, Dr. Johnston, a poet, anthropologist, and advocate for Indigenous wisdom, will lead us through an exploration of the intricate relationships between these elements.
Lyla June speaks about the significance of Wetlands and highlight their importance in Indigenous cultures and food systems. From her unique perspective, Dr. Johnston shares stories and sustainable practices that have shaped Indigenous food cultures and deep connections and partnerships with the land.
As part of this conversation, we also examine the impacts of colonization on Wetlands and Indigenous food systems following the westward expansion of European settlements across Turtle Island. Together, we explore changing perspectives on Wetlands and restoration efforts, as well as movements for reclaiming and revitalizing Indigenous land stewardship and food systems.
This is an incredible opportunity to engage with a visionary leader and gain a deeper understanding of the vital connections between Wetlands, Indigenous food systems, and the ongoing impacts of colonization.
Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives, and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.
Note: Slides that she references can be seen in the video recording of this presentation available here: https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/events-programs/2024/lyla-june-johnston
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It's time to rewild ourselves and our dominant worldviews to build earth-centered communities for all.
Join us for an illuminating journey with Osprey Orielle Lake, a renowned author, activist, and changemaker, as we delve into the pressing need to rewild ourselves and our dominant worldviews. In a world teetering on the edge of social, environmental, and climate collapse, this webinar offers a beacon of hope and a roadmap to building Earth-centered communities that can thrive.
In our exploration, we'll tackle the complex web of interconnected crises, including colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ecocide. By weaving together ecological, mythical, political, and cultural perspectives, Osprey invites us to reconnect with the Earth's lineage and historical memory. Together, we'll explore the delicate threshold between peril and promise.
Uncover the collective wisdom passed down by Earth-centered cultures. Gain a deeper understanding of climate justice and systemic challenges. Find inspiration to contribute to the creation of thriving Earth communities. This webinar promises to be a wellspring of hope and a remedy to the prevailing despair of our times.
Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). She works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future.
She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Free Non-Proliferation Treaty. Osprey’s writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine and many other publications.
She is the author of the award-winning book Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. Osprey holds an MA in Culture and Environmental Studies from Holy Names University in Oakland and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Coast Miwok lands.
To learn more, go to: https://ospreyoriellelake.earth
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Join us for an insightful webinar as we delve into the inspiring journey of Christina Lynch, a story of reconnecting with her Bajan heritage, her unique upbringing, and the profound influence of her environment on her path to regaining her voice. In this engaging and enlightening discussion, Christina will take you on a journey through her intuitive herbal path, sharing the powerful plant allies that have played a pivotal role in her physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
Christina will also shed light on her current projects aimed at guiding and supporting others on their own paths of self-discovery and healing. You'll gain valuable insights into the practices and resources that have helped her along the way, empowering you to connect the dots in your own life and find your voice.
This webinar is a unique opportunity to hear from a passionate and knowledgeable herbalist as she shares her wisdom, stories, and vision for personal and collective healing.
Christina Lynch is a growing community herbalist who desires to share her knowledge and passions with those around her. She is a first-generation American, with her lineage deriving from Barbados. Taking a great desire to reconnect to the Earth, continuing the spiritual and physical connections with the Earth as her ancestors once did, her intent is to assist others in starting or continuing their journeys in becoming one with themselves.
Christina is the founder of Black Herbalists Alliance, Trydent Consulting, and Gingerly Expressions, an organization focused on intentional creation of herbal products and services, to assist others in starting or continuing their own journeys in becoming one with themselves; and to finance fiscal sponsorship and opportunities to support BIPOC healers.
Christina offers herbal programs, herbal classes, and herbal tea blends. She studied under Emily Ruff and Maggie O’Halloran and is an avid tea lover, recovering foodie, and cultural explorer. She is currently on the board of Red Hills Small Farm Alliance, Florida School of Holistic Living and American Herbalists Guild.
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This webinar is part of our end-of-year fundraising campaign. Your contribution makes it possible for ONE to share these educational resources for building co-creative relationships with the Living Earth. You can Donate here and read more about the fundraiser: https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/give-to-thrive 🌎🌿💜 Together we are cultivating a world where all beings have the right to thrive and our Sacred connection with Nature is honored.
Join us for this exciting webinar that looks deeply at the vast intelligence of the plant world, including plants and trees that heal us, guide us, and feed us. You have probably heard the expression “master plants” and immediately think about psychotropic plants. In this paradigm-shifting webinar we will explore the idea that All plants are master plants and if approached and treated in a sacred manner, have the ability to open doors of perception, heal us at a core level, and nourish us optimally.
🌿 Imagine plants that can guide us in co-evolution into the “New Earth”.
🌿 Imagine plants that have certain chemical constituents that heal and nourish us because of their spiritual intelligence.
🌿 Imagine yourself connecting effortlessly directly into the spiritual intelligence of plants.
🌿 Imagine that simply by eating certain plants they are serving as “master plants”.
Teacher, curandera, and ethnobotanist, Rocio Alarcon, is joining us once again to inspire, guide and deepen into the realm of the spiritual intelligence of plants. This is new and exclusive never-before-shared material that she has prepared for ONE participants.
Rocio Alarcon is a healer for our times. She has worked tirelessly for decades to preserve indigenous cultures and land both in the Amazon and in the Andean community where she grew up, under the tutelage of master healers. She has lovingly brought many modern seekers, as well as skeptics, into the fold of the healing traditions of her ancestors, teaching especially about our relationship with the “divine forces” in the natural world. Rocio’s grandmothers held intimate connections with the forces of nature, particularly the plants and the hummingbirds, whom they could call upon for the healing of their communities. Recently, Rocio has been bringing forth this particular ancestral heritage.
Rocio brings to her inherited knowledge a scientific understanding of the co-evolution of plants and animals and ecosystems, as well as understandings of healing based on modern neuroscience. She weaves this all together in her teachings on the healing power of the plants.
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What does life look like if we live with an awareness of interbeing? How is our relationship with Nature informing our lives today to support a vibrant future?
You are invited to join us in discussion with an incredible panel of Nature Evolutionaries, Pam Montgomery, Myra Jackson, Larry Karsteadt, and Lauren Valle as they share their experience of deep kinship with Nature and their vision for a vibrant future.
This discussion will be grounded in our present time and our daily lives and you will also be invited to share your perspectives and vision in the meeting chat. From this rich conversation and your input, we will assemble the highlights and essence of our time together in a shared document.
🎉And, we are also celebrating ONE's 10th Anniversary during this webinar!! We will have a prize drawing for registrants for some wonderful gifts: Plant Initiation with Pam Montgomery at Sweetwater Sanctuary in Vermont (or online), Connecting Creatively with Nature online course, and an all-access pass to Women Working for the Earth Summit recordings.
Pam Montgomery is an herbalist, author, international teacher, Earth elder and new-paradigm thinker who has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for green beings and has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades.
Larry Karsteadt’s life journey has been rich, rewarding and varied, with a long professional career as an Emergency Medical Services administrator in California, a Master’s degree in Biology from Cal-Poly Humboldt in northern California, extensive world travels, and a growing musical repertoire with his beloved guitar.
Myra Jackson is an Earth Elder who has held careers in engineering, holographic organizational development and academia. She carries the title of Diplomat of the Biosphere with a primary focus on transforming our societal relationship with Nature through public policy approaches that recognize Nature's intrinsic rights to exist whole along with all Her lifeforms.
Lauren Valle is a community herbalist, gardener, artist, and a mother of two young boys. She is devoted to reawakening the memories we all carry of being joyfully woven into the web of life, and to dismantling the social constructs that lead us to believe that we are separate from each other and that we are separate from Nature.
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Join natural builder, Sigi Koko, as she shares about working with Nature to create inspired architectural designs and construction from natural materials. We will explore Sigi’s passion and commitment for eco-sensible design and her practical outlook in partnering with Nature in the building of our homes. Creating in collaboration with our own ecosystems leads to more efficient homes as well as incredibly beautiful, connected spaces.
Mimicking Nature instead of trying to overpower with our will just makes sense to Sigi.
Sigi Koko, owner and operator of Down to Earth Design, is one of the most established and prolific architect/builders of natural structures in the United States. Her company, founded in 1998, predominantly serves the mid-Atlantic region of the US and designs strawbale homes and residential-scale commercial structures for their environmentally minded clients. For over 25 years Sigi has been pushing the boundaries of the construction market towards sustainable and environmentally conscious building. She is also a major advocate and educator of natural building techniques, holding workshops and courses for students seeking to learn to build with natural materials.
To learn more about Sigi’s work visit her website https://buildnaturally.com/
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What does life look like if we recognize Earth as our kin and Mountains as our ancestors?
Join Dr. John Hausdoerffer as he shares his vision and experience of deep kinship with Nature and talks about how good life can be when we are in a meaningful relationship with our landscapes. We will honor Mountains in our discussion as wise Elders who can help guide us in being the ancestors we want to see in the future.
Being those ancestors is rooted in the here and now and calls us to enliven values that nourish life for the following generations. As guardians of Earth, Mountains show us the way.
Dr. John Hausdoerffer is an environmental philosopher, teacher, organizational founder, and writer from Gunnison, Colo. He believes that peace between humans begins with a spiritual connection with a just distribution of the “ecosphere” that forms our local and global home. His books “Catlin’s Lament“; “Wildness“; and (forthcoming) “What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?” imagine how environmental health must come from and result in the healing of deep histories of social injustice and cultural trauma. “Dr. John” calls for a new ethic that views all places as part of our home, all generations of all beings as part of our scope of responsibility, and all actions as potential expressions of human care for the world. As he often says, “environmental ethics insists on humans as more than bodies that consume bodies in a global economy, insists that we are wholehearted beings capable of understanding and caring for the complex local and global systems that sustain us.”
Throughout his life, Dr. John’s dedication to peace has been driven by this question: What does the good life look like once we accept that all places are “here” and all eras are “now”? What does the good life look like if all peoples are considered as part of an equal humanity and if all species are considered as persons?
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Partner in supporting the “Black Joy is Lit(erature) Workshop Series”: a writing workshop and retreat for Black undergraduate students in Florida
https://www.pledge.to/black-joy-is-lit-erature-retreat
What does it mean to propagate Black Joy? To begin, Dr. Chris Omni invites you to think about how we propagate plants.
In order to create new plants, the parent plant must be healthy and striving. In the space of propagating Black Joy, Dr. Omni, the parent plant, spent several years on an intentional healing and nature-inspired journey of self-discovery after the passing of her Mama from a 26-year battle with cancer. Seven years later, she is strong, whole, and grounded. Now, Dr. Omni joyfully enters a space of celebrating and growing Black Joy in the lives of other Black people such as Michelle Gunn and Ashley Powell - 2022/2023 Black Joy research mentees from Florida State University who were promoted to interns for the 2023/2024 season. During this webinar, you get to hear directly from these brilliant young leaders.
Dr. Chris Omni, the Black Joy Scholar is a speaker, award-winning entrepreneur, artist, and activist. Her research explores Nature’s influence on the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of Black people and by blending her 25-year background in public health with her foreground in art education, Dr. Omni provides a counter-narrative to the typical deficit lens generally applied to the Black experience.
Michelle Gunn is an international affairs student at Florida State University. Originally from Orlando, Florida, she aspires to one day lead a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the issues amongst the Black diaspora.
Ashley Powell is a Psychology and Business student at Florida State University. She is a senior this year and plans to attend graduate school to pursue a master’s in business and eventually work in a field where she can utilize both psychology and business.
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Join us in conversation with Lisa Estabrook, artist, author and creator of Soulflower Plant Spirit Oracle deck as she shares her journey with her plant spirit mentors. We will explore the power of intentions, living body wisdom, restoring imagination as a super sense, and conscious creation with the elemental realm.
It has always been Lisa’s intention to grow herself which means that the plant spirits have continually helped her stretch her comfort zone! Over the last year or so her gardens have been calling for a new “blueprint" and she is leaning into that and what it can mean for our work in the world.
Feeling empowered and listening to and following the wisdom of our own hearts is an ongoing thread that Lisa is sharing with others as she remembers with the help of the plants. Lisa encourages us all to give ourselves permission to create a life from the inside out rather than the outside in, as so many of us have long been conditioned to do.
Lisa Estabrook is an artist, mother, way shower, author, home herbalist and plant whisperer who has spent the last 30 years figuring out how to live a meaningful, heart-led, healthy and joyful life. The creation of the Soulflower Plant Spirit Oracle deck was the result of a two-year long personal journey of self-discovery and healing which also launched her heART based Soulflower business with a growing range of products intended to support and inspire connection with ourselves and our planet. Lisa's belief is that the more we learn about ourselves, and take responsibility for our own healing (wholing) journeys, the more we will empower and support ourselves and by extension our families, our communities and ultimately the Earth herself. The founder of the online CommUNITY Garden, Lisa lives in Yarmouth, Maine.
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Join William Padilla-Brown as we discuss the fascinating relationship between truffles and mammals, and how this connection may have played a key role in the evolution of intelligent life on Earth.
It’s possible that after the extinction event, which wiped out the dinosaurs, truffles were a vital food source for surviving mammals with their high nutritional content and unique chemical composition. In fact, researchers suggest that truffles may have been one of the first foods that triggered the part of the neural system responsible for learning and memory, which in turn may have led to increased cognitive function and the evolution of more intelligent mammals.
In addition to the incredible history of truffles, William will also discuss the different types of truffles, their distribution, and their unique culinary and cultural significance. There is great economic and ecological potential with truffle cultivation for many local communities.
William Padilla-Brown is a Multidisciplinary Citizen Scientist practicing social science, mycology, phycology, molecular biology, and additive manufacturing. William founded and is the current CEO of MycoSymbiotics, a permaculture research and production business based in Central Pennsylvania focused on innovative, practical applied biological science. William holds Permaculture Design Certificates acquired through Susquehanna Permaculture and NGOZI, and a Certificate from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences for completing their Algal Culturing Techniques Course. William published the first books written in the English language on Cordyceps cultivation. William regularly teaches k-12 classes around the United States, for universities, including Cornell’s Small Farms Program, private clubs, and events, as well as offers private consultations. William is constantly in the mix of contemporary ritual in a nuanced modern Urban Shamanism, spending his time vlogging for social media, writing, researching, rapping, singing, and loving his Beautiful Lady Lydia, their son Leo, and baby daughter. William and his work have been featured on Fantastic Fungi, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Verge, Outside Magazine, Civil Eats, Public Goods, The Book “One Earth,” and much more.
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As we engage in co-creative partnership with Nature, old beliefs and wounds can emerge to be healed. Connecting with trees or water, we become aware that our ability to thrive is predicated on the wellbeing of our kin, both human and more-than-human. In this dance of healing, awakening, and embracing our potential, we realize that our human relations need some attention. Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed, not sure where to start, or even afraid to dig deeper.
Dr. Amanda Kemp is a lifelong advocate of justice. As the founder of Racial Justice from the H.E.A.R.T., Amanda has helped over 25,000 people have open-hearted conversations, consciously use their power and practice compassion to cultivate racial justice and authentic community.
Over the last several years, Amanda’s life and work have been transformed as she has deepened her relationship with Nature, particularly Trees. She now utilizes Earth’s intelligence to create transformation that is heart-based, joyful, and regenerative. We can nourish ourselves, our communities, Earth as we engage in the incredible healing work of racial justice.
We are deeply honored to have Dr. Amanda Kemp share her wisdom and heart with our community. The gifts that Amanda shares not only help us heal injustice, they also help us have more authentic, connected, and empowered lives.
Join us for this transformative hour as we discuss how to create regenerative racial justice by learning from the Earth.
To learn more about Amanda's work visit her website here https://www.dramandakemp.com/
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Everyone has an innate ability to consciously communicate with Plants. Author, and teacher, Jen Frey gives us a taste of the synergistic process of communicating with Plants and how they can help us heal and teach us to trust, forgive, and embrace self-love. Jen is joined by botanical illustrator, Lillian Edwards, who additionally shares her process in visually bringing forward the essences of plants. Jen and Lillian recently collaborated on Jen’s new book *Communicating with Plants: Heart-Based Practices for Connecting with Plant Spirits.
Note this episode references images in the video recording which you can view here.*
Jen Frey is a Healer, Mentor, and Earth Advocate. She is the Founder of Brigid's Way and is leading the Plant-a-tary Evolution. Jen is the co-steward of Heart Springs Sanctuary, a living example of how to create a more sustainable future by engaging in co-creative partnership with Nature. With over 20 years of experience with plant essences, energy work, and herbal practices her private consultations and plant based protocols are known for helping clients through emotional life transitions, physical health crises, and chronic conditions. Jen has dedicated her life to the spiritual path of plant work. Her apprenticeship certification programs, ceremonies, retreats and workshop offerings are designed for people wanting to open their hearts, fall in love with plants and deepen their relationship to the planet. Jen is a Visioning Council member for the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries.
You can learn more about her work at: www.brigidsway.com
Lillian Edwards is a plant spirit healer and visual artist, on a mission to mend the rift between human consciousness and the ever-accessible, loving and wise, presence of Nature’s intelligence. Her healing business, Earth Prayer, was birthed from a deep desire to give voice to the Plants, weave Their prayers into writing and art, share flower essences, and serve her local community with plant spirit healing. Lillian has a background in ecological restoration, permaculture design, organic urban farming, and freelance illustration. She is grateful and excited to be involved with ONE, aligned with the organization’s work to deepen our collective relationship with the Sacred in all of Life. Her roots are nestled into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California~ the landscape she calls home.
You can learn more about Lillian at: http://earthprayer.love/
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Join Unangan Elder, Ilarion Merculieff, as he invites you to explore a new way of living, guided by our hearts, with each and every unique heart beating together in the great song of creation.
Over ten thousand years ago, Elders at that time knew that a great imbalance was coming, so the original instructions of how to live in harmony as one Earth family were partially hidden by a wave of forgetting to keep them safe. Each group of people had enough wisdom to survive and continue on, but no one people had all of the knowledge once available to them.
It is time NOW, many Elders from around the world agree, to reweave the original instructions by coming together and sharing their unique cultural ways that are each a piece in the puzzle with much overlapping wisdom. With Earth's living systems being stressed and dishonored in new extremes, we must come together to weave a new story and new awakened presence as one Earth family in harmony with all of our relations if human beings are to continue on this Earth.
About Ilarion
Ilarion (Larry) ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff has decades of experience serving his people, the Unangan (Aleuts) of the Pribilof Islands and other indigenous peoples in a number of capacities—locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. For his entire career, Merculieff has been a passionate advocate for indigenous rights/wisdom, and harmonious relationship with the Earth Mother. His reach has been broad and varied.
Close to Merculieff’s heart are issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, climate change and the environment. Having had a traditional upbringing, Merculieff has been, and continues to be, a strong voice and activist calling for the meaningful application of traditional knowledge and wisdom obtained from Elders in Alaska and throughout the world in dealing with modern day challenges. He founded and currently heads the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways, and is a chief consultant and member in several other board councils. His present work revolves much around the council of Elders he co-founded, called the Wisdom Weavers of the World, to bring the messages of Elders from throughout the world to global attention.
With a solid background as a community, business and environmental leader, Ilarion’s later years reflect both this lifelong career path as well as the fulfilment of his cultural role as Kuuyux, or traditional messenger for the Unangan people.
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“Remember, you are not alone as you gather herbs. Birds, butterflies, insects, other animals, and elemental beings may be nearby, sometimes visible and sometimes not.”— DEB SOULE
In this webinar, Deb Soule shares her journey following the southern migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird, and what inspired her.
Deb and Pam will also discuss how herbal gardens offer sanctuary for pollinators. Flowering plants and trees, hedgerows and pathways, arbors and benches, altars and bells add magical dimensions into a healing garden. A diversity of plants, blooming throughout the gardening season encourages a diversity of pollinators and birds.. The biodynamic approach that Deb uses at Avena Botanical gardens helps create a sacred environment for all beings that enter the gardens.
Deb Soule is an herbalist, gardener, teacher, and author of The Woman’s Handbook of Healing Herbs, How to Move Like a Gardener and The Healing Garden. Deb began organic gardening and studying the medicinal uses of herbs at age 16. Her faith in the healing qualities of plants includes a desire to make organic herbs easily accessible to women and families living in rural areas. In the fall of 1985, with her first mail-order catalog and a small selection of herbal extracts and teas, Deb launched Avena Botanicals, an apothecary that now serves thousands of customers. Deb has a special connection to the hummingbirds and has traveled part of the migratory path.
Pam Montgomery has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. As an author, teacher, and practitioner she has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for the plants who are guiding us in our spiritual evolution. She is the author of Partner Earth; A Spiritual Ecology and the best-selling Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. She teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries. Her latest research is on the light and sound of plants which are foundational means of communication in the biological world. Pam is the founder of ONE. She has dedicated herself to co-creative partnership with all of life and feels the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries is a way to make this partnership manifest.
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Join Syren Nagakyrie, founder of Disabled Hikers, in a discussion about their experience in navigating the natural world through the lens of disability. They have found both exclusion and comfort in outdoor spaces, noting that even though “the outdoors has been a place that I can retreat to,” there are many barriers for disabled folks in getting outside. Access issues, lack of reliable information, and gatekeeping are all consistent problems.
Disabled Hikers is an entirely Disabled-led organization. They celebrate disabled people’s experiences in the outdoors and help facilitate those experiences with information, resources, and events, including trail guides and group hikes. They are also committed advocates for justice, access, and inclusion and work with parks, organizations, brands, and more. Disabled Hikers challenge the dominant narrative of who is considered to be valid and which experiences matter in the outdoors.
Syren (they/them) is an activist, writer, community organizer and outdoor enthusiast. They have become a leading advocate and expert voice in making the outdoors more inclusive and accessible for the disabled community and others that are underrepresented. Syren grew up with multiple disabilities and chronic illnesses, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. They also live with depression, anxiety, and CPTSD. In their mid-twenties, when Syren started hiking and exploring what their body could and couldn’t do in the outdoors, they found a lack of infrastructure, support, and resources for the disabled community. It’s not enough to know whether or not a trail is wheelchair/ADA accessible. How exposed is it? What’s the grade? Are there crossings? How slick is it? Is there cell service in case of emergency?
Syren founded Disabled Hikers in 2018 with four main goals: organizing group hikes, celebrating disabled people’s experiences, facilitating those experiences by making specific information available, and advocating for change in the outdoors. Syren is now working on hiking guidebooks for disabled hikers with Falcon Guides, a leading publisher of guidebooks.
For more information and links visit:
https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2023/syren-nagakyrie
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Connecting to the seasons and natural rhythms of the earth offers us a path to spiritual wisdom and a sense of groundedness and peace. Remembering that we are created from the same elements as earth and stardust helps us connect to the Divine within and recognize our place in the boundless web of life. Embracing the energy of Springtime can be a catalyst for nurturing our own growth.
The spring equinox, when day and night are equal lengths, is a time of balance, renewal, and welcoming new life into the world. Depending on where you are on the planet it can be a time to notice the sap flowing, the ice breaking up and the buds swelling to prepare to burst forth into the healing green and colors of spring. We can take time to pause and honor the places in ourselves that still long for the inward contemplativeness of winter and the parts of us that are ready to blossom forth with new growth and purpose. These are Lynn Unger’s words from her poem, Camas Lilies.
“And you — what of your rushed and
useful life? Imagine setting it all down —
papers, plans, appointments, everything,
leaving only a note: “Gone to the fields
to be lovely. Be back when I’m through
with blooming.”
Let’s take time to drink in this spring energy with a sense of joyfulness and celebration. Allowing ourselves to explore the places in ourselves that want to burst forth, be lovely, and revel in place in the Divine creation. Spring is a time of hope and renewal, a time to celebrate the beauty and sweetness of life.
NANCY PHILLIPS is an herbalist, holistic health coach, yoga/Ayurveda instructor, and small-scale farmer. She delights in supporting people on their path to finding more peace, joy, and vitality. Her heart’s desire is to support people in connecting more deeply to the Divine within and without. She and her husband, Michael, have lovingly tended Heartsong Farm & Wellness Center, an herb farm, organic apple orchard, and educational center for over 30 years. She and Michael co-authored The Herbalist Way: The Art and Practice of Healing with Plant Medicines. Nancy offers consultations, workshops, grower’s intensives, and healing retreats at their farm in Northern NH.
Visit Nancy at https://HeartsongFarmWellness.com
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“Wild, uninhibited love is the single force powerful enough to send us head over heels, out of our minds and into our bodies; to bring us home to our senses. These enchantments ~ the same magic used by the flower who seduces a honey bee to carry pollen for his petalled love ~ hope to entice you to love the world in ways you have forgotten.” — SHARIFA OPPENHEIMER
Join us in discussion with renowned teacher and author, Sharifa Oppenheimer about the reflection of Sacred Earth and Sacred Self, mirroring our inner and outer worlds. We will explore this connection especially in deepening our kinship with Nature.
“Come close ~ lie down in the generous arms of the wild. She is exhilarating, nurturing, dangerous, essential. She is life. She is calling you:
Come to love.
Come fall awake.
Come hold all of my cascading beauty
my aching fragility.”
-Sharifa Oppenheimer from a Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology
If it’s possible for you, please have paper and a pencil, crayons, or markers present during the webinar.
Sharifa Oppenheimer was the founding teacher of the Charlottesville Waldorf School and is the author of the best-selling book Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children and its companion workbook How To Create The Star of your Family Culture. She recently wrote With Stars in Their Eyes: Brain Science and Your Child’s Journey Toward the Self.
After writing extensively from her experience, wisdom, and love of young children, she has turned her hand toward writing about other aspects of profound connection. She has been a student of Sufism for many decades and has deep respect for other indigenous wisdom traditions which point humanity toward the sacred nature of the living earth. She offers Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self gatherings that explore humanity’s biological and spiritual inter-being with our other-than-human relations. Her new book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology (Red Elixir Press, April 2022) explores these themes through essays, poetry, and litany. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to many grandchildren, she lives with her husband in an enchanted forest in Virginia.
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Are we stuck in an archaic view of an ecosystem that keeps people and Nature separate? How do we foster ecosystem repair AND community healing?
This month’s featured webinar guest, Layel Camargo, has deeply explored these topics and will share their experience as a person dedicated to restoring our diverse relationship with Nature.
Over the last few years, Layel has been involved in stewarding an organization called Shelterwood, a 900-acre forest and former church camp right above what’s called the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, on Unceded Kashaya and Southern Pomo territory.
Shelterwood is a Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ-led community forest and retreat center, healing people and ecosystems through active stewardship and community engagement. As a collective of land and community protectors, they model how ecosystem health can only be achieved by communities who are in deep relationship with the Earth and with one another.
They are dedicated to enriching the waterways, filling the food baskets, quickening the forests, rematriating laughter, painting the future, rewilding hearts, and healing people.
Layel Camargo (they/them) is an indigenous descendant of the Yaqui and Mayo tribes of the Sonoran Desert and is an advocate for the better health of the planet and its people. Layel is a transgender and gender non-conforming person. They graduated from UC Santa Cruz with dual degrees in Feminist Studies and Legal Studies. Layel is an organizer with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective and is also the founder of ‘Woke n Wasteless‘ an online platform on waste reduction and people of color issues. Layel is a builder & a novice carpenter by way of taking classes in the Carpentry department at Laney Community College and has worked on building tiny homes for homeless people in the bay area, CA. Layel is also a big advocate of spreading the Just Transition Framework in the arts and an advocate of both low waste/low impact lifestyles. Most recently, Layel was named on the Grist 2020 Fixers List. Layel is also a staff member at Movement Generation’s Justice and Ecology Project
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Join us for a discussion about cultivating resilience and liberation with Nina Simons, Bioneers’ Co-Founder and author of Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership.
Nina shares her personal learning and extensive experience with women’s leadership development and its importance in reconnecting and defending people, Nature, and the land, both practically and spiritually.
From shedding self-limiting beliefs to leading from the heart, Nina offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into their own unique form of leadership with joy and connection to the natural world.
About Nina
Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman’s Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, revealing a regenerative and equitable future that’s within our reach today.
Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women who share practices for regenerative leadership through reclaiming wholeness and relational mindfulness.
Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age, orientation, and more to create conditions for mutual learning and leadership development. She produces and speaks at large-scale events to work intimately to help small, diverse groups of women leaders knit together to strengthen each other’s work pursuing intersectional healing and ecological justice.
Visit our website for the video recording. To learn more about Nina’s work, visit her website or Bioneers.
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Most humans alive today have been taught that we live on the Earth. This form of positionality relative to Mother Earth is a corruption of our actual relationship that has occluded our sense of interrelatedness, interconnectedness and interdependence within the web of life.
The dominant and pervasive human consciousness operative is abnormal when a view of Earth, including her body and life forms, is seen as property and assets for one's full use and enjoyment without impunity.
And yet, Nature’s embrace is fulsome and surprisingly resilient.
We do not live on the Earth - we live embedded within a nourishing mantle of gases, light and biota calibrated to flourish as a living planetary Being. We are being deeply called to recognize that the debris field of a dissolving paradigm that can no longer be sustained and maintained is evidence of emergence and that which brings forth true reparations that enables the blossoming of humanity.
Walk with Myra as she shares a few field notes on the invitation before us all to RISE whole.
About Myra
Earth Elder, Myra L. Jackson has held a diverse array of hefty careers in engineering, holographic organizational development and academia. While those experiences might seem divergent from her deep mystical roots, she found that her early training in electrical theory, physics and music informed her inner and outer life. Today, that training provides useful metaphorical language in discussing the physics of now that points to our intrinsic bond with Nature.
Today, Myra carries the title of Diplomat of the Biosphere with a primary focus on transforming our societal relationship with Nature through public policy approaches that recognize Nature's intrinsic rights to exist whole along with all Her lifeforms. In listening to the Earth, Myra strives to fully realize the aspirational premise of the luminous thread she carries.
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There is a strong relationship between the land and our interior landscapes. When we are connected to the land, we’re connected to ourselves, and one another.
Hillary will share how art can be a bridge helping us to reconnect with land, ourselves, and our Ancestral lineages, ultimately helping to re-weave ourselves into the web of life. She will discuss her own creations which bring together materials and processes that express the union of humanity and the physical world.
Hillary states, “Stitching, like agriculture, can be functional-- a technical solution to join materials/a means of survival-- or, both can be done purely in service of the soul, lifting the spirit through beauty and wonder.”
Hillary Waters Fayle is an Artist and Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she directs the fiber/textile program. She has previously taught at the Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), Penland School of Craft (NC), the Mediterranean Art & Design Program (Italy) and Yasar University (Turkey) and was recently awarded residencies at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (VA) and Bazart Textile (France). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY, United States Embassy to Sri Lanka, Colombo, the Kalmthout Arboretum & Botanical Gardens in Belgium and the US Embassy in Tangiers, Algeria. Recent professional projects include collaborations with Grace Farms Foundation (Ct), Thoreau Farms Trust (Ma), Domestika (Spain), L'Occitane en Provence (Switzerland), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France), and the New York Botanical Garden. A public installation in collaboration with the AKG Museum can be seen year round in Buffalo, NY.
More information and images of Hillary's work can be found here on ONE's website.
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Mitakuye Oyasin is a Lakota philosophy that roughly translates to "we are all related" or "all my relations." It recognizes one's relationship and responsibility to all living things and reminds us to always consider how our behaviors and actions impact the life around us.
Unsurprisingly, this philosophy is at odds with colonialism and the capitalist notions of "me" over "we." This discussion will review the universal and practical applications of Mitakuye Oyasin and how humans can cultivate kinship with the life, space, and time around them in ways that reject Western bootstrap/individualistic theories and acknowledge and affirm Indigenous people, values, and practices.
Taté Walker is a Lakota citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. They are an award-winning Two Spirit storyteller for outlets like "The Nation," "Everyday Feminism," "Native Peoples," "Indian Country Today," "Apartment Therapy," and "ANMLY." They are also featured in several anthologies, including "FIERCE: Essays by and about Dauntless Women," "South Dakota in Poems," W.W. Norton's "Everyone's an Author," and "The Languages of Our Love: An Indigenous Love and Sex Anthology" (forthcoming Summer 2022). Taté recently released their first full-length, illustrated poetry book, "The Trickster Riots" (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022). Learn more at jtatewalker.com.
Taté and ONE have also collaborated to get "The Trickster Riots" out to Lakota youth through The Cheyenne River Youth Project. You can contribute here through October 30th. Link: https://www.pledge.to/getting-the-trickster-riots-out-to-lakota-youth-9078 or Text TRICKSTER to 707070 to donate
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A great episode with Chris Omni, eco-spiritualist, Black Women’s health researcher, writer, and filmmaker in celebration and exploration of Black Joy in Green Spaces.
Here is your invitation from Chris
Greetings, Souls of Love and Light! You are warmly invited to join me, Chris Omni, as we hold space with and for one another and journey into a world of Black Joy in Green Spaces.
In this new world, we will bear witness to the 2022 TEDx Talk, Granny’s Garden: Growing Black Joy, followed by an intimate conversation about how this journey started, where it is now, and where it is going.
In addition to the Divine Timing of this webinar, we will collectively celebrate the eve of the National Black Joy Day! Yesssss, there is such a day! Your presence at this webinar will be one of the many ways to recognize this beautiful holiday while spreading awareness of this movement to provide a counter story to the typical deficit narrative that is generally associated with Black people.
If you are ready to honor the lived experiences of Black people, I invite you to read the following poetic theorization of Black Joy. Read it to yourself and then read it out loud. Make people ask you…
What is Black Joy?
Black Joy is a Statement
Black Joy is a Stride
Black Joy is Permission
Black Joy is Pride
Black Joy is a form of Resistance
Black Joy is a form of Rest
Black Joy is ANYTHING you need it to be
because Black Joy is truly the best!
Chris Omni is an eco-spiritualist, two-timeTEDx speaker, three-time First Place 3-MT (3-Minute Thesis) Winner, Black women's health researcher, published author, documentary filmmaker, internationally recognized nature writer, community mobilizer, and former health motivation columnist. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Services and two master’s degrees - Public Health and Liberal Arts. Chris is a doctoral candidate at Florida State University where she is researching Black Joy in Green Spaces through the methodologies of auto-ethnography, narrative inquiry, photo-elicitation, and nomadic inquiry. Most recently, Chris’s TEDx Talk, “Granny’s Garden: How to Grow Black Joy,” featured the first, public, poetic theorizing of Black Joy! (https://youtu.be/PScP5BcKsxU).
Chris deeply values the unapologetic use of her voice and agency to speak life, love, and Light to all people with a particular emphasis on Black people. She views her body as a vessel that has not only delivered life but receives life in the form of lessons and abilities from the Ancestors. As others have stated, “Chris Omni is a whole vibe!”
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We are happy to welcome Sharifa Oppenheimer, author of A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology! She shares with us not only her poems and essays, but also the process of transformation she underwent as she wrote this new book of love for the wild and tender Earth. She experienced an ever deepening understanding of Gaia and the countless beings, landforms, waters, and winds that compose Her living body. Through her gift of these poems, she inspires us to go out into the emerald earth ~ to touch, smell, listen, taste ~ to forge friendships with our more-than-human neighbors.
Sharifa Oppenheimer was the founding teacher of the Charlottesville Waldorf School and is the author of the best-selling book Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children and its companion workbook How To Create The Star of your Family Culture. She recently wrote With Stars in Their Eyes: Brain Science and Your Child’s Journey Toward the Self.
After writing extensively from her experience, wisdom, and love of young children, she has turned her hand toward writing about other aspects of profound connection. She has been a student of Sufism for many decades and has deep respect for other indigenous wisdom traditions which point humanity toward the sacred nature of the living earth. She offers Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self gatherings that explore humanity’s biological and spiritual inter-being with our other-than-human relations. Her new book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology (Red Elixir Press, April 2022) explores these themes through essays, poetry, and litany. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to many grandchildren, she lives with her husband in an enchanted forest in Virginia.
https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2022/sharifa-oppenheimer
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Krista Nelson is on a mission to share what she’s learned about the power of nature to acknowledge loss, soothe grief, quiet fear, and nurture the seed of peace, love, and optimism; a process of transformation and manifestation.
Many people have lost innocence, relationships, jobs, titles, property, and in the COVID-19 pandemic, a lifestyle. As a collective, we’ve experienced loss due to climate change, racial injustice, sexism, ageism, and disease.
Cultivating an intimate relationship with Nature elements is powerful medicine you don't need a prescription for and access is as close as your own breath.
Krista Nelson, an African American single mother of five is an author, mentor and nature whisperer. She lives in Eastern Pennsylvania and works as a life coach helping artists, executives, teachers, advocates, environmentalists, and feminists connect with nature elements to support their leadership abilities. As a Silver Lining Sentinel, she helps as many people as possible see their personal silver linings by falling in love with nature.
Krista has written several books including, “My Secret Barack: Crowning The King” and “Create Your Dream Life in 6 Steps or Less”. In 2015 she was selected as a featured author in the 31st annual Celebration of Black Writing festival sponsored by The Art Sanctuary in Philadelphia. Krista was both presenter and panelist for The Tomorrow People Organization’s 2021 & 2022 International Conference on Spirituality and Psychology.
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Following in the footsteps of Germany's Bard, Goethe, Maureen will share his 7 step method which is a protocol for studying natural phenomena. We will learn how to breathe into what Goethe referred to as the "Life-filled Giving”. This will be applied to the study of dynamic images of plants and the living principle of how a plant/living being manifests its unique Essence.
This approach brings a true recognition that plants have an inherent Cosmic connection to their Eternal Essence in the Cosmos. With examples of plant studies to illustrate how this can connect to the Eternal Nature of our own spiritual being. Prepare to have your mind blown as we answer the call to connect to our own inner world on what Goethe called "The Human Journey of Universal Oneness"!
In this episode Maureen uses visual aids. To view the video recording and see the slides, please visit our website here: https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2022/maureen-robertson
About Maureen
Maureen Robertson has almost 30 years of experience working with herbs as a Medical Herbalist, Herbal Educator & Herb grower. She co-founded the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine in 1992 offering courses from introductory to professional training at BSc and MSc degree level.
At the same time that she encountered Goethe's way of studying "the Holy Open Book of Nature" as shared by Rudolf Steiner and she also discovered an approach of wholeness to studying plants, landscape, and natural phenomena that have continued to inspire. She developed a clinical application of Goethe's method which shaped her herbal practice, the plant studies she shares, and the way she supports the healing process for the people she works with.
In 2012 she established the Herbal Apprenticeship at Drimlabarra Herb Farm, Isle of Arran, Scotland which she ran for 4 years before relocating to Portugal in 2014 where she runs the Herbal Path programs.
For the last 4 years she has been immersed in studying Medical Astrology and now integrates this fascinating and birth right knowledge into her practice.
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Our relationship with plants dives deep into our psyche. Surely, it is coded in our ancestral DNA. Cultures throughout the world have always turned to plants to heal the mind and heart, both as medicinal herbs and energetically. Plants guide the individual, but also family and community, to work together towards the highest good in the future. Each one carries its signature healing message that is reflected in its form, function, and sacred geometry. Much of this plant symbolism is still strongly embedded in our spiritual practices and seasonal celebrations. We can open this gateway to hear what the plants are teaching us—and make the world a better place with nature as our ally.
Kathi Keville has written 15 books and over 150 articles for national magazines. An internationally known herbalist, aromatherapist, forager, and avid organic gardener, she is highly recognized in the natural products industry. Kathi is the Director of the American Herb Association, a founding member of the American Herbalist Guild, and was granted honorary membership to the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy and American Aromatherapy Association for her pioneering work.
Kathi’s Green Medicine Herb School offers a year-round herbal program in Nevada City, California. The beautifully landscaped herb gardens showcase 500 species of medicinal and aromatic plants from around the world. Kathi also teaches at institutions, symposiums, herb schools, and retreats throughout the US. These have included the University of California, Omega Institute, Blue Sky Education Foundation, and International Herb Symposiums. She also leads an annual Aroma-Herbalism Journey to Tuscany.
Kathi presents herb healing and gardening information on her Garden Forum KVMR radio show. She also co-hosted a 15-part TV series Everybody Nose for Dish TV that featured her gardens. In addition, she previously co-owned and managed a commercial, organic herb farm and herb products company. She is currently working on up-coming books about essential oils and the herbalist-mystic, Hildegard of Bingen.
You can follow Kathi on Facebook and Instagram and visit her web site at www.ahaherb.com
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What can we (as in you and I) do about climate change and our rapidly shifting landscapes?
The water cycle of our planet is being severely disturbed, from the tops of our watersheds to the river mouths feeding the oceans. This is leading to increased drought, desertification, flooding, water scarcity, collapse of ecosystem function, disease, crop loss, etc – which, when they occur, are called “natural” disasters. However, there is nothing natural about these disturbances; rather, it is the direct result of short-sighted land stewardship.
This feedback loop is not only preventable but reversible through improved management of and cooperation with natural systems. Decentralized water retention landscapes - returning the water to the earth that is otherwise being diverted by human development - provides a proven and effective method for enhancing the cycling of water in the landscape, reversing desertification, stabilizing climate change, and improving water availability and quality; all while increasing productivity and vitality for both humans and nature.
In this presentation Zach Weiss will share both the context for the larger water-ecological issues at hand, as well as real-world stories of the solutions and approaches that can effect change and create incredible possibilities for Restoration and Regeneration.
Zach Weiss - Protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, Zach is the first person to earn Holzer Practitioner certification directly from Sepp - through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship. This led to the creation of Elemental Ecosystems to provide an action-oriented process to improve clients' relationship with their land. The firm specializes in water retention landscapes that harvest rain to create naturally productive ecosystems. Through Elemental Ecosystems Zach has worked in more than 25 different countries on 6 continents, spanning a wide range of climates, contexts, land-forms and ecosystems. After a decade of experience in the field, Zach is now creating an online educational platform called Water Stories, to bring these approaches and techniques to the masses, in order to revive the health of our planet. You can learn more at www.WaterStories.com
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In this episode Judith Poelarends shares about the healing qualities of the Alaskan wildflowers and what they have to share with us about living in challenging circumstances. The vibrational remedies made from these flowers help us on the emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Learn more about how they support us in finding balance, releasing what we no longer need, and enhancing our connection with Nature.
Judith Poelarends is the Director of Alaskan Essences. Her roots are in The Netherlands where she had a career as a scientific researcher in animal health. In 2007 her search for more meaning and happiness in life led to the discovery of flower essences. In 2008 she did a one-year class on flower essences. After she was certified she started doing consultations for people and animals. In 2013, during a flower essence workshop in Alaska, Judith met Steve Johnson, the founder of Alaskan Essences. She moved from the Netherlands to Victor Montana in 2015 to be with her husband and start a practice here. After Steve passed away in March 2017, Judith decided to continue the Alaskan Essences and she is now the Director. She enjoys teaching about flower essences and their amazing empowering qualities.
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Join Maeve McBride, a climate justice organizer and writer, as she shares stories about her intertwined paths of seeking justice and finding spirit. Maeve will share poetry, song, and her lived experiences, weaving together vignettes from her past, transformative moments, and maybe even some nuts-and-bolts of organizing direct actions. She will draw from her work organizing a five-day climate walk in Vermont, blockading oil trains, and her recent practice of movement chaplaincy. Listen to her thoughts on how we can thrive while doing the seemingly impossible work of dismantling the nasty -isms of our time - capitalism, racism, colonialism - to name a few.
Maeve (she/her) is a white settler of predominantly Scot-Irish, English, and German heritage living on Abenaki land in what is now known as Vermont. Maeve is currently the Fundraising Director at the Global Ecovillage Network and organizes with the No Coal, No Gas campaign, working to shutter the last coal-fired power plant in New England. For many years, Maeve was the director of 350Vermont, an affiliate organization of 350.org, where she organized local, regional, and national actions and events. Maeve's professional background is varied - from political campaigns to the US EPA, from river engineering in Alaska to fieldwork in Philadelphia. One of Maeve's current passions is reclaiming her family's farming roots by starting a small cooperative farm in Jericho, where she and her family recently relocated. Maeve also writes memoirs, poetry, and prose on the subjects of grief, land connection, somatics, social justice, and god. You can find her writing on Patreon.
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How do you connect with Nature? Come hang out with the ONE Visioning Council as they share their favorite daily activities for connecting with Nature. You'll receive simple tips, insights, and inspiration from this group of fun and dedicated women~ Pam Montgomery, Jen Frey, Julie Caldwell, Sara Artemisia, Lillian Edwards, April Thanhauser, Laura Parisi, and Elyshia Holliday.
In this special episode we celebrate Giving Tuesday by recognizing the many wonderful people who support ONE’s work, who are dedicated to living in co-creative partnership with Nature, and more than human kin who bless our lives in extraordinary ways. The ONE team offers this heartful opportunity of connection in the spirit of reciprocity.
If you'd like to contribute, you can use this link to donate or send a check to ONE, 1525 Danby Mt Rd, Danby, VT 05739. 💚
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The medicinal blessings of the plant people begin with their more obvious physical gifts. When we are in need of those gifts, we are surely grateful to have access to them, whether comfrey is being applied as a poultice to help heal a sprained ankle, or someone is sipping a cup of rosemary tea to prevent or soothe a migraine headache.
But plant medicine runs deeper than physical constituents; plants are more than the sum of their visible parts, they are multi-dimensional, and their spiritual medicine is revealed within and just underneath their physical attributes.
In this conversation, we’ll explore ways to see and access the metaphorical, spiritual magic of common plants and trees as well as ways to connect with these gifts in a grounded way. As we learn to embody the teachings of the plants we become empowered to offer ever more joyful service at this pivotal time in our world.
Robin Rose Bennett is a story-teller, writer, and herbalist. She has been offering classes in Wisewoman Healing Ways: Herbal Medicine and EarthSpirit Teachings since 1986 - at herb conferences, festivals, clinics, medical and nursing schools, and most joyously, outside with the plants. Robin Rose shares herbal medicine with gratitude for the loving generosity of the plants and the magic, mystery, and beauty of the web of life. She is on the faculty of the New York Open Center and the Arbor-Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism, and is the author of two meditation mp3’s and the books: Healing Magic- A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living and The Gift of Healing Herbs- Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life. (FB: WiseWoman Healing Ways, with Robin Rose Bennett, IG: @RobinRoseBennett, YouTube: Robin Rose Bennett. For more information, visit: www.RobinRoseBennett.com.
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As a gardener, teacher, and mother, Erin O'Neill speaks of the seeds and how they are always waiting to be born and longing to grow. She invites us all to remember our common ancestry of planting, gathering, foraging, hunting, and knowing our food. Exploring these seeds of ancestral food memory helps us to reconnect and work with the forces and natural abundance at our fingertips and under our feet.
During this Teleseminar, Erin discusses the importance of reclaiming the sacred act of gardening including the broader scope of nourishing and cultivating life in all forms. As we engage with and are guided by Earth, we heal our perceived separation and come Home to ourselves and grow in alignment with our landscapes.
About ErinErin O’Neill is a tender, teacher, and steward and is deeply committed to helping all life grow and thrive. She is the founder of Growing Home and a guide on the journey of deepening our connection to place and the living whole. For the past 20 years, Erin has been planting, gathering, and seed saving in the high desert, where she is growing home on 1/5 of an acre in a fertile valley that has been providing food for people for thousands of years. Erin is a Waldorf-inspired mother-of-three and brings the beauty of song, storytelling, puppetry, and the natural world to her family and extended community through Wildflower Parent & Child classes. She deeply understands the transformative journey both parent and child are on in this life and is devoted to nurturing families as they grow. As a consultant and garden educator, she helps members of her community collaborate with the land in creating abundance and partnership with nature.
To learn more about Erin’s work visit her at her website or on Instagram.
www.eringrowinghome.com
https://www.instagram.com/eringrowinghome/
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The Five Elements are the soul of Eastern medicine and express the fundamental unfolding of everything in the universe. These old, primordial powers shape our body’s health and internal ecosystem, and act as a doorway through which we can come to remember that we are an embodiment of nature’s cycles.
In celebration of being on the cusp of the Fall Equinox, we will rejoice in the Earth Element, which is an expression of the paradox of late summer rising and abundance, mixed with the beginnings of decline and falling back to the ground. How are we feeling this transformation in our animal bodies at this time?
We will also explore the spirit question of the Earth Element: How do I give and receive nourishment? Nourishment not just in my relationships with other humans but also from the whole of the living world.
This Teleseminar will combine Elemental Medicine, Seasonal Alchemy, and Earth-honoring principles, exploring how the Earth Element wants to speak through you.
About Kendra
Kendra Ward, LAc. (she/her/hers) has been a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine since 2003. She is a diplomate of Chinese herbology with advanced training intherapeutic essential oils, flower essences, shamanic journeying, practical animism, and ancestral healing.
Kendra’s primary teachers are not the long-dead figures of history or dogma, but the land where she lives, her life-long meditation and spiritual practices, and the complex, honest, radiant human beings she has been fortunate to hold sacred space for in her healing practice.
Kendra’s writing has appeared in Yes! Magazine, the Elephant Journal, Rebelle Society, We’Moon, and elsewhere. Her passion is teaching and writing about rewilding healthcare through remembering our intimate belonging to the living world.
All of her offerings are on her website, including her practical Earth-honoring skills course, EarthHeart, EarthPysche.
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For over forty years, David Dalton has been working with plant and gem essences to support the healing of himself, others, and the Earth. Flower and gem essences offer a natural way to support our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. As vibrational remedies, essences boost vitality and resiliency by introducing new “frequencies” into the human system. Essences provide an opportunity for us to shift our patterns, heal our traumas, and evolve into our wholeness. As we heal individually and collectively, new essences offer themselves to aid in our mutual co-evolution.
During this teleseminar, David will discuss a few of the essences who are offering support for us at this time, while also sharing his incredible journey with the Plants and Gems and how we can utilize the healing gifts of these Essences for our own evolution and healing.
About David
David Dalton has been making flower essences in his New England research gardens and in natural habitats throughout the world for over forty years. He is the founder of Delta Gardens which has been dedicated to flower essence production, research, clinical practice, and education since the mid-1980s.
From the beginning of his unique flower essence adventure, David has combined clinical thinking, intuition and a strong relationship with nature to create an extensive collection of essences that support emotional, mental and physical health. As an essence producer and practitioner, David has realized two important truths that have guided his work - Partnership with Nature is essential in creating high quality essences and in addition to affecting the mind and emotions, flower essences can have a profound effect on the health of the body. David is the author of Stars of the Meadow.
To learn more about David and his work visit www.deltagardens.com
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Businesses - be they clothing stores, auto repair, consulting firms, or in Julie's case, an herbal apothecary - have a life force all their own. Join us as Julie explains how she's learned to consciously connect with the life force of her over 23-year-old business, Humboldt Herbals, and how that connection informs her work as a community herbalist. She'll discuss the role of plant medicine in the social health of a community, and offer suggestions for how everyone, herbalist or not, can engage with plant sentience and the interconnected web of life for community transformation.
About Julie Caldwell, MAOriginally from Alabama, Julie grew up with a plant-talking granny, a pharmacist father, an artist mother, and loads of fiddle-playing, guitar-picking relatives. Her first serious relationship with a plant began almost 50 years ago at age 5, when she became great friends with a wild black cherry tree her granny called Crazy Doug. Julie’s “formal” education includes a BS in research psychology and biology, a MA in contemporary American poetry, and many, many herb classes including extensive studies with Pam Montgomery that have greatly influenced her herbal approach. She serves on the Visioning Council for the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries and continues to enjoy a long history of spiritual exploration with wise ones from various traditions around the world.
Julie offers personal sessions, classes and herb walks in the Humboldt County area, and facilitates ongoing retreats in Northern California. To learn more about Julie’s classes, services, and herb shop, you can sign up for the Humboldt Herbals monthly newsletter at www.humboldtherbals.com.
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It is our relationship to food that keeps us connected and bound to the life force of the plant kingdom, where the 5 elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether continually exchange energy, transmuting into each other to create atoms, molecules, minerals, foods, and other life forms.
How do we feed ourselves and honor the relationship with Mother Earth and all her living beings?
We can behold the genetic blueprint of a seed that follows its cosmic destiny in the cycle of natural forces. When this seed is fed by the minerals of the earth, watered by the heavens, warmed by the sun, and pollinated by the birds and bees we have already followed a miracle of life-giving nutriment.
All of this can be an invitation for us to develop a profound relationship with the food we eat and how we live our lives.
Come and join Laura for an enlightening, engaging conversation about food and life in her kitchen. No previous cooking or gardening experience required, only an open mind and heart! She will be sharing seasonal recipes that engage all the elements while honoring the divinity that lives within us all. Visit our website for Laura's printable recipes https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2021/plant-consciousness-food-you-with-laura-parisi
About Laura
Laura Parisi is a Food Shaman, Holistic Health Coach, Gardener, Artist, and Energy Healer. She teaches others a different way of looking at food that combines her knowledge of food and plant spirit medicine along with a heart-centered love of cooking and tending the land with gratitude for what Mother Earth has provided for us. To learn more about Laura and her work, please visit her website, Rooted Angel.
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Old-growth trees are such incredible teachers, healers, mentors, and friends. Witnessing and being in relationship with these amazing planetary elders, we can learn so much about how to be clear conduits both aligned with the Divine self and rooted into the Earth through this time of great transition on the planet.
Every old-growth tree has multidimensional healing and wisdom to share. During this teleseminar, we will explore how when we tune into their essence with heart-centered practices, we can connect directly in Love and relationship with the trees and learn from their experience of Presence and wise ways of being.
About Sara
Sara Artemisia, MS, CMC (she/her) is a Plant Spirit and Flower Essence Practitioner, Multidimensional Abundance Coach, and Akashic Records Reader. She helps Wellness Professionals and Empaths clear their inner blocks and clarify their life purpose. Sara has been coaching individuals to move through obstacles for over twelve years and loves facilitating life-changing retreats in Mt Shasta. She shares this work with people on the journey of understanding how the conscious wisdom of Nature can help them fully embody their soul's purpose.
To learn more about Sara and her work, please visit https://www.saraartemisia.com/ and on Instagram @akashic.plantspirit
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The rosary is one of the most readily identified symbols of Catholic faith yet hold this circle of beads from the loop with its cross dangling down and it reveals the first of its many secrets: The rosary forms a symbol for woman that is far older than Christianity.
Bead practices are ubiquitous around the world and lead us back to the spiritual ways of our ancestral grandmothers, gathering nuts and seeds to sustain their communities while murmuring protective prayers, spells, and mantras to guide those they love through life and death. Unlike meditation practices derived from hunting behaviors that privilege stillness and silence, the rosary is a story that invites us to tell our story, listen and bear witness to each other’s joys and sorrows, and reopen the channel of conversation with our plant and animal allies in the natural world.
Perdita and Clark will explore the pagan roots of the traditional rosary and its origins in the rose garlands once offered to the Great Mother. We’ll discover how powerful worry beads can be, and have been for tens of thousands of years, and how having something, and someone, to hold on to can infuse our lives with rest and renewal, courage and compassion.
In almost every one of Her modern apparitions, the Lady has invited everyone, regardless of religious background or belief, to pray the rosary with Her. Together, holding on to each other and to Her, we will find our way back to the garden of the earth.
About Clark and Perdita
Clark Strand and Perdita Finn are co-founders of The Way of the Rose, an inclusive fellowship of rosary friends dedicated to the Earth and to the Lady “by any name we wish to call Her.” Strand is the author of numerous books and articles on spiritual practices, including Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey and Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age. Finn is the author of The Reluctant Psychic and the forthcoming Take Back the Magic: Getting to Know the Dead. They live with their family in the Catskill Mountains.
To learn more about the work of Clark Strand and Perdita Finn visit www.wayoftherose.org.
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Join us in conversation with Nadine Canter Barnicle, a professor of the practice and community engagement specialist at Middlebury College in VT as we discuss deepening our relationship with nature by approaching sustainability from the roots through unlearning and re-learning.
At Middlebury College students may choose a course of study that goes beyond the traditional academic. Through community-connected learning and a study of the dominant ontologies (the study of the nature of being) rooted in our 10,000+ year history of agriculture, students who take coursework as part of the “The New Perennials Project” find themselves exploring what it is to be perennial by re-considering the practices that created civilization and culture. Through a perennial focus on education and the ideas of learning and unlearning students put ideas into practice working with practitioners in the Champlain Valley of Vermont from the Creative Arts, Healing Arts, Education, Food/Ag Systems, and Sacred Practices spheres. Through their inter-being projects and classroom contemplative practices rooted in re-connection and embodiment, New Perennials students are called upon to develop deep and personal spiritual knowings with the natural world. Nadine is part of a 3-person team teaching and establishing the New Perennials Hub of the Champlain Valley. The New Perennials Project was founded by Bill Vitek and his colleagues at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, founded by Wes Jackson.
In her teleseminar, she’ll tell us about this initiative and unfold for us the story of her own journey as a sustainability practitioner.
About Nadine
During her decades working in the government and non-profit sectors while also teaching in higher ed, Nadine recognized: “we can’t correct climate change or our industrial agriculture practices, or the lifestyles we are beholden to and sick from if we continue to live a material existence that comes from being trapped in our heads.” As Yuval Harari states, ‘we have imagined our planet into its current form.’ By making the invisible visible, her work focuses on the hope that humans can learn from “our kin in the forests, in the estuary, and on the plains that if we stop, listen, and open our hearts we can re-imagine our way to a life of reciprocity and mutuality and all beings can flourish.”
Nadine has a 30-year career in strategic community engagement, journalism, advising, mentoring, facilitation, and teaching that began with a master's degree thesis focused on the collaborative community process to protect river segments under the Federal Wild and Scenic River Act. Much of Nadine's work focuses on strategic coalition-building in the areas of land use, transportation, air quality, conservation, and climate change. She is a student and teacher of contemplative practices including Tai Chi. Her roots are in New England including 23 years in Vermont, but she also calls the Pacific Northwest home.
She describes herself as a “pattern hunter” who has sometimes felt as if living “in the shadows of Sisyphus and Cassandra” (Greek heroes given impossible tasks and the gift of prophecy no one believes) while working within systems of government and non-profits.
She says these lines from Denise Levertov’s poem “Sojourns in the Parallel World” describe her life’s journey:
“A world parallel to our own though overlapping. We call it ‘Nature’; only reluctantly admitting to ourselves to be “Nature” too.”
To learn more about Nadine and her work please visit her website at http://www.wooddragonadvising.org/or New Perennials at http://www.newperennials.org/
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To see images that correspond to this episode please see the complete video on our website at https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2021/hummingbirds-with-rocio-alarcon
Hummingbirds have long captured the hearts and imaginations of people worldwide. Many Indigenous communities have celebrated Hummingbirds as messengers and teachers, particularly helping us celebrate the joy of life. Dr. Rocío Alarcón, an ethnobotanist with ancestral roots in the lineages of the curanderas of the Ecuadorian Andes, writes, “In my healing work with clients I have observed that the iridescent colors of the feathers of hummingbirds have the ability to change the brain’s electrical frequency and modify a person’s mental state. When sunlight touches their plumage, they send rays of light. When the rays touch the person, these iridescent special colors produce changes in his or her brain like a phenomenon of bioluminescent that generates changes in the emotional states of the person.”
During this Teleseminar, Rocío will share with us the magic and healing power of Hummingbirds. She will discuss their unique connection with Plants and how they can help uplift our everyday lives, bringing us into the present moment with happiness and joy, offering healing for our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies, and ultimately, shifting our consciousness.
About Rocío
Rocío Alarcón is a healer for our times. She has worked tirelessly for decades to preserve indigenous cultures and land both in the Amazon and in the Andean community where she grew up, under the tutelage of master healers. She has lovingly brought many modern seekers, as well as skeptics, into the fold of the healing traditions of her ancestors, teaching especially about our relationship with the “divine forces” in the natural world. Rocío’s grandmothers held intimate connections with the forces of nature, particularly the plants and the hummingbirds, whom they could call upon for the healing of their communities. Recently, Rocío has been bringing forth this particular ancestral heritage.
Rocío brings to her inherited knowledge a scientific understanding of the co-evolution of plants and animals and ecosystems, as well as understandings of healing based on modern neuroscience. She weaves this all together in her teachings on the healing power of the plants and the hummingbirds. For those who may not be able to witness first hand the rich diversity of hummingbirds native to Ecuador, she has created an Oracle Deck of cards containing exquisite portraits of 37 species by artist Luisa Acosta, each with a description of its physical and spirit-healing qualities. The cards themselves are meant to be messengers of beauty, light, and healing. She will gift us with a taste of this magic in this teleseminar.
To learn more about Rocio’s work visit the Iamoe Center’s Facebook page.
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During this episode, Jen Frey shares her experiences of working co-creatively with Nature to create Heart Springs Sanctuary. Her stories include the occasional struggles as well as the joy of being guided by nature and learning to deeply listen.
In May 2017, Jen Frey moved to a place, which would become known as Heart Springs Sanctuary, with the intention of working with the Nature Spirits to co-create a Sanctuary. Shortly after moving there, Jen realized that she was in a form of “school” and had much to learn through her experiences with the Nature Spirits. For the last nearly four years, they have co-created a place where all Beings are welcome and honored.
Nature is able to guide us through this time of great change, if we are willing to listen. When we work with Nature through co-creative partnership, we can create a more beautiful world (or even backyard). It is time that we remember our rightful place as part of Nature.
Co-creative partnership is at the core of ONE’s work and offerings. Some find this to be a vague process or are overwhelmed by the concept. Though once you begin to engage in this, you discover that working with Nature requires much less energy than trying to control Nature and you are able to find solutions and create projects beyond your imagination. Jen will give simple and concrete examples of how to engage in Co-creative partnership during this call and will expand further in a webinar on this topic “Deepening Your Relationship with Nature through Co-Creative Partnership” for ONE Members and Affiliates on January 27th at 7:00 PM EDT. To become a ONE Member or Affiliate click here.
About Jen
Jen Frey is a Healer, Mentor, Earth Advocate and Voice of the Plants. She is the Founder of Heart Springs Sanctuary, where she helps people deepen their connection with nature through plant communication. With over 20 years of experience with plant essences, energy work, and herbal practices her private consultations and plant based protocols are known for helping clients through emotional life transitions, physical health crises, and chronic conditions. Jen has dedicated her life to the spiritual path of plant work. Her apprenticeship certification programs, ceremonies, retreats and workshop offerings are designed for people wanting to open their hearts, fall in love with plants and deepen their relationship to the planet. Jen is a Visioning Council Member for the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries.
Visit www.Brigidsway.com to learn more.
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In this episode, Zigola talks about how co-creative partnerships are the foundation in the community where she lives, Damanhur, and how co-creation with nature plays a role in her work as a singer, teacher, and practitioner. Damanhur is a federation of Communities in Northern Italy with a focus on living in harmony with all that lives. Ecology, art, spirituality, and co-creation with nature are key elements of the community. Situated in the Valley of Valchiusella, around 400 Damanhurians live there and participate locally in the projects.
Other thousands of Damanhurian citizens live around the world collaborating and initiating projects related to teaching, community building, ecology, and the creation of sacred spaces in harmony with nature. In her work, she is confronted on a daily basis with how nature’s intelligence is reaching out to help humans evolve and to develop together towards a sustainable future. As a practitioner she uses her connection with nature to help people raise their frequency, to live a happy and healthy life, and to be in connection with nature.
About Zigola
Zigola Pioppo works as a singer, teacher, and practitioner, all in the field of the union between nature and humans. She has a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Energy and Human-Technology Interaction and has worked as a consultant in this field for corporate businesses. After several years of focus on a scientific approach to a sustainable future, the focus of her work changed more to the spiritual connection with nature and the work as a practitioner for individuals. She combines her passion for music (she studied Jazz singing in different institutes amongst which the Conservatory of Amsterdam) and healing (she is a Prano therapist of the Spiritual Healing School of Damanhur) with her work and connection with nature and developed a healing method in which technology, voice, and plants come together. She currently teaches courses for the Damanhur University, such as “Communication with the Plant World” and teaches her own courses on using the voice as a channel with nature. As a practitioner she helps people with their health issues and with getting clarity on how to live their lives without obstructions, standing in their full potential. In her sessions she collaborates with the intelligence of the plant world, integrating the technology of the Music of the Plants in her work. As a singer, she performs concerts in nature, with the music of the plants and the use of her voice. To learn more about Zigola’s work please visit her website at https://www.voiceandplantmusichealing.com/media
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This episode features Jen Costa, Herbalist, Critical Care RN, BS, EM-CST and creator of ElderMoon School of Herbs & Earth Medicine.
Our dialogue in this special teleseminar is rooted in the ways that COVID has highlighted a need to develop our personal and collective connections for healing. We’re each faced with developing our ability to cooperate among ourselves and with Nature in order to meet our personal and community needs. Within this internal and external Quest, there’s this deep healing process we’re in with Nature that is demanding we be conscious, demanding we stay awake, and also demanding we choose to really see, feel, and act when called. The plants and trees, minerals and elements, the great Earth landscapes, and our hard-working Ancestors are here in support of this evolution which is truly driven by the unseen and ever-present microbial world.
From Jen
Plants Heal. I learned this in the gardens and forests in a family that knew it was all about the soil, about learning to listen, and about connecting to small local community farms and businesses. These times are familiar with this wave back to carrying forward what works as we birth something new.
Jen Costa is a critical care RN of 13 years working frontline these days in the OR and ICU, and an Herbalist, Nature Activist, and Environmental Biologist of 30 years teaching herbal healing skills, apothecary tending through growing and making your own medicine, along with consulting on integrating healing plants into our collective healthcare system.
To learn more about Jen and her work, visit her website at www.eldermoonschool.net
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When the outer world feels uncertain, we are called inward to find deeper meaning, connection, and faith. What is the role of prayer in crisis? Does it actually make a difference?
We will explore answers to some of the oldest questions of the spiritual path; What is your relationship to the Divine? What is prayer? What is it for? How do you pray when you are not religious? When god is not a person?
Fearn will share her understanding and practice of prayer as a Druid. We will discuss some forms prayer can take. We will explore prayer as an offering, as a divine dialogue, as a force for healing, as courtship, devotion, faith, and love for the world.
This will be an engaging talk that will give you tools and inspiration to build a personal, authentic prayer practice.
Find your way, your words, your unique relationship with the Divine, and change the world.
About Fearn
Fearn Lickfield is a web weaver, faery seer, earth diviner, temple tender, and magical activist. She is the director and headteacher of The Green Mountain Druid School and Ecstatic Dance Vermont. She serves life as a flower essence practitioner, geomancer, dowser, dancer, community organizer, gardener, and medicine maker. She co-creates community celebrations in honor of the earth and waters, the seasons, and for rites of passage. Fearn is the steward of Dreamland, a sanctuary and mystery school in Worcester VT.
To learn more about Fearn and her work visit www.greenmountaindruidorder.org or email Fearn directly at Fearnessence@gmail.com.
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As the planet continues to rapidly urbanize there is a growing sense that a new model of cities is needed: one that overcomes the physical (and mental) disconnect between humans and nature. Timothy Beatley believes that contact with nature is not something optional but it is absolutely essential for leading a happy, healthy, and meaningful life. Beatley will review the many ways in which cities are already profoundly natureful and biodiverse and he will describe the emerging vision and practice of Biophilic Cities. He will discuss the newly formed global Biophilic Cities Network and will provide examples of innovative design and planning in cities in the Network.
Timothy Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last thirty years. Beatley is the author or co-author of more than fifteen books, including Blue Urbanism: Exploring Connections Between Oceans and Cities (Island Press, 2014) and Blue Biophilic Cities: Nature and Resilience Along the Urban Coast (Palgrave, 2018). Beatley directs the Biophilic Cities Project at UVA (http://biophiliccities.org/) and is also co-founder of UVA’s Center for Design and Health, within the School of Architecture.
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In this episode, Hilary Giovale, shares her experiences with ancestral apology, decolonization, and finding our indigenous heart-ways.
Apology is a catalyst for healing and forgiveness which helps to build our capacity for wholeness and restoration. When we ask for forgiveness, we engage in authentic relationship and open the possibility of healing for all peoples, the Earth, and all beings (seen and unseen).
What does it mean to live as a settler on Indigenous lands? How can settlers honor our ancestors to rekindle memory of the rich, diverse, Earth-connected cultural lineages from which we are all descended? How can we build heart-centered relationships with Indigenous communities and Earth, to create pathways toward healing the harm inflicted by colonialism?
Hilary Giovale is a ninth-generation American settler of Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian descent. She lives at the foot of a sacred mountain, a being of kinship, that stands within the traditional homelands of Diné, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai, and Paiute Peoples, as well as several Pueblos. Her relationships with this land and with Indigenous peoples inform her life as a mother, dancer, community organizer, writer, and philanthropist. In 2015, Hilary became aware of her ancestors’ longstanding presence as American settlers. Since then, she has been living a process of decolonization including ancestral repair, solidarity with Indigenous-led movements, reconnection with Earth, apology, forgiveness, and restoration. She is the author of a forthcoming book that shares about this healing process. To read more about her work, please visit www.goodrelative.com.
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Jerry Tello believes that essential to true health and healing is our scared interconnectedness to all our relations. In this seminar, he will share teachings from his indigenous culture that allow us to acknowledge and understand the significance of this medicine way and the ramifications of not respecting the teachings of dis-ease and imbalance. He will also share significant aspects for Recovering One's Sacredness and moving towards health and healing as a daily practice.
About Jerry
Jerry Tello is a father, grandfather and over the last 40 years has dedicated himself to the healing of individuals, families, communities, and systems by speaking to over half a million people and training 1000’s of facilitators across the nation. Born from a family of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan roots and raised in the south-central/Compton areas of Los Angeles. Mr. Tello is considered an international expert in the areas of trauma, healing, men and boys of color, fatherhood, family strengthening, racial justice, racial healing, community peace, and mobilization and culturally based violence prevention/intervention issues. He is co-founder of the National Compadres Network (established in 1988) and presently is Director of Training and Capacity Building. He has authored numerous articles, videos and curricula addressing the issues of generational trauma and culturally rooted, trauma-informed, healing centered practices. He served as a principal consultant for Scholastic Books on International Bilingual Literacy curriculum, is the author “ A Fathers Love”, a series of children’s books, co-editor of Family Violence and Men of Color, a series of motivational health and healing CD’s and co-author of the recently released award-winning book, “Recovering Your Sacredness”.
He has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Latina, and Lowrider magazines and has received many major awards including in 2016 Maria Shriver’s Annual Advocate for Change award; the 2015 White House Champions of Change award; in 2012 the Presidential Crime Victims Service Award, presented by President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno; two California Governor’s Awards and the Ambassador of Peace Award presented by Rotary international. Finally, in collaboration with the American G.I. Forum, Mr. Tello was part of an effort of providing Domestic Violence awareness, healing and support services to Iraq, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf veterans and their spouses. Presently, He also directs the Sacred Circles Center in Whittier, California and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group, a group dedicated to community peace and healing. He is the proud father of three children; Marcos, Renee, Emilio and grandfather of Amara, Naiya, Greyson, and Harrison. To learn more about Jerry visit his website at jerrytello.com
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Explore the possibilities of living and leading from the embodied worldview of interbeing with Claire Vanderplank. Claire is a shamanic practitioner and nature guide who works with individuals and teams to become forces of creation through cultivating a direct connection with the fundamental creative power and principles of life.
We are in a time when many of us have had individual waking up experiences, however, we now need to integrate that into our communities and systems that have been built from a worldview of separation. True Oneness involves both a realization and an embodiment of what it is to be fully human, a union between the 'human' and the 'being', very much a part of this earth and eternity at the same time.
Practically, this involves a commitment to personal cultivation and of listening to nature and spirit for guidance and understanding of purpose and path. It also requires the skills to navigate a world in transition, to lead courageously through holding a new worldview and inhabiting the future we want to see in our everyday actions and choices in the building of the next phase of humanity.
The vision is of a world where humans model ourselves as Nature itself. Where we realize our unique gifts as individuals and as humans collectively. Where we know that we belong here on Earth as an essential part of life itself, here to give our gifts to each other and the rest of life in a creative expression of love, joy, and beauty. This becomes our sacred anchor, always guiding us back to truth and giving us the courage to face our individual and collective shadows.
About Claire
Claire is based in Fremantle, Western Australia, also known as Noongar Boodjar. Her works centers around deepening connection with inner, outer, and true nature and how we can integrate the worldview of interbeing into our collective systems and communities as an imperative for this transitionary period in human history. She is a facilitator, shamanic practitioner, and guides people in nature-based spiritual cultivation practices through the Way of Nature lineage, including multi-day wilderness quests. To learn more about Claire and her work, visit her website, http://womc.com.au/
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Is your kitchen ‘herb-ready’? Kami McBride can help! With the widespread increase in chronic and infectious diseases, having the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant power of your herbs working for you at maximum capacity is what’s needed now. Setting up an effective herbal kitchen is the foundation for making sure you get the daily dose of herbs you need if you really want a pro-active herbal health care plan in place for your family.
Stocking your pantry with herb-filled condiments is the easiest way to have an ‘herb-ready’ kitchen so you can fill your food with the healing power of herbs at every meal. Kitchen herbs not only add flavor to our food, but they also support our overall health on a daily basis with their anti-oxidant and anti-viral supporting activity. You don’t have to be an herbalist and you don’t have to be a good cook to benefit from the top disease-fighting spice rack herbs. With 30 years of inspiring families to feel confident in using herbs, Kami has developed some fast track tips that to help you sort through the herbal information overwhelm and enjoy using more herbs in your daily meals.
Kami McBride’s 30 years of teaching herbal medicine is steeped in her calling to activate culture that embraces deep connection with the earth and inspire the next generation to love and care for the plants. Kami has taught herbal medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing and in the Masters’ program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has helped thousands of families learn to use herbs for self-care. She is the author of The Herbal Kitchen and her online workshops fuel the home herbalism movement to revitalize our relationship with the plant world and use herbal medicine for home wellness care. For more information about Kami and her work visit www.KamiMcBride.com
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As we navigate through our changing times, many of us are experiencing grief. Some of what we grieve we can name and recognize, perhaps we grieve the loss of connection, the absence of touch, the loss of work, the destruction of Nature, the passing of our Loved ones, or the life paths we’ve taken. There may be other times when we feel grief or perhaps sadness or anger and are unable to identify their roots. At these times, we may be tapping into the collective grief.
Grief is a powerful, transformative experience that is essential to experiencing a full life. As Martín Prechtel writes in The Smell of Rain on Dust: “If we do not grieve what we miss, we are not praising what we love. We are not praising the life we have been given in order to love. If we do not praise whom we miss, we are ourselves in some way dead. So grief and praise make us alive.” And yet in our dominant culture, grief is often considered a weakness and something to pass through quickly, resulting in numbing and other coping mechanisms to help us deny our true feelings. If we want to live full, vibrant lives and particularly if we want to be co-creative partners with Nature, we are compelled to identify and heal our grief. Fortunately, the plants are willing to guide and support us through this process.
Join O.N.E. Visioning Council members, Pam Montgomery and Jen Frey, as they delve into the depths of grief, sharing its beautiful and powerful role in our lives as well as Plant Allies who help us navigate through grief.
Pam Montgomery is an author, teacher, and practitioner who has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for the green beings and has been investigating plants/trees and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. She is the author of two books one of which is the highly acclaimed Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and Partner Earth; A Spiritual Ecology. She operates the Partner Earth Education Center at Sweetwater Sanctuary in Danby, Vermont where classes, plant research, and ceremonies take place. Pam also teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries. She is a founding member of United Plant Savers and more recently the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries or O.N.E. Her latest passion is to engage ceremonially in full symbiosis within the plant/human matrix where the elder common plants and trees initiate and guide us into being truly human. www.wakeuptonature.com
Jen Frey is a Healer, Mentor, Earth Advocate, and Voice of the Plants. She is the Founder of Heart Springs Sanctuary, where she helps people deepen their connection with nature through plant communication. With over 20 years of experience with plant essences, energy work, and herbal practices her private consultations and plant-based protocols are known for helping clients through emotional life transitions, physical health crises, and chronic conditions. Jen has dedicated her life to the spiritual path of plant work. Her apprenticeship certification programs, ceremonies, retreats, and workshop offerings are designed for people wanting to open their hearts, fall in love with plants and deepen their relationship to the planet. www.brigidsway.com
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Jolie Elan shares her experience of tapping into the wisdom of the oaks for guidance in hard times.
Many Indigenous people say that plants reveal their medicine via dreams and visions. What if these types of relationships are within everyone’s reach? How do we go about building mutually beneficial relationships? On a decade long adventure to eat acorn food, ethnobotanist Jolie Elan became so intertwined within the oak web of life that the oaks began to reveal myths and medicines in dreams and visions. Join Ethnobotanist and oak lover Jolie Elan as she tells her ethnobotanical love story that discusses the ecology, botany, medicine, myth, spirit, and food of the mighty oak.
Jolie Elan, M.S. is the Founding Director of Go Wild Institute. She is a deep ecologist, ethnobotanist, consulting botanist, and educator. She has inspired thousands of people to deepen their relationship with nature. Jolie has worked with ethnobotanical projects on four continents including restoring sacred forest groves in India and developing the herbal medicine sector in war-torn Kosovo. Jolie is also a certified permaculture designer and a seasoned environmental advocate with twenty years of experience building diverse networks, especially with Indigenous groups focused on protecting sacred sites. Combining her love for the earth and spirit, Jolie completed her training as a Spiritual Director and acts as a spiritual companion for those who wish to increase their intimacy with the divine, especially through the natural world.
Jolie is adjunct faculty at the College of Marin and regularly teaches at Point Reyes Field Institute, the San Francisco State University’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus, as well as a large variety of herbal medicine schools, and environmental and spiritual organizations throughout the west. She works with Jewish organizations, like Hazon, Wilderness Torah, Temple Emek Shalom and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco to offer eco- Jewish classes that ground Jewish practices and teachings in the Earth. Jolie received her B.A. from the Evergreen State College in Environmental Studies, her Master’s degree in Natural Resources from Humboldt State University, and her certification in Spiritual Direction from the Chaplaincy Institute. She has served as the President of the Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Jolie can often be found foraging wild foods and medicines and hanging out with oak trees. To learn more about Jolie’s work visit the Go Wild Institute website.
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A special episode highlighting the importance of connecting with Nature during this unprecedented time.
By connecting with Nature, we feel calmer, more grounded, and more resilient, which helps us be of service to our family and community with grace and patience. In fact, the deep truth is that many of us have been preparing, even training in a way, for this moment when our mother, the Earth, would begin to heal herself. We are seeing this healing around the world- birds singing, wildlife returning, more breathable air, waters running clear and clean amidst us quieting our lives and slowing down. Let’s use this quiet to deepen our connection with Mother Earth, listen to what she is sharing and allow that to inform our way of life.
Join Pam Montgomery (ONE’s founder) and Elyshia Holliday (ONE’s Executive Director) as they share their hearts and stories about their years working towards healing our relationship with Mother Earth and the gifts it brings to this time. Sit in circle with us and receive the gifts of their dialogue of gratitude, abundance, and love.
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Ann Ambrecht is a writer and anthropologist (PhD, Harvard 1995) whose work explores the relationships between humans and the earth. Most recently through her work has focused on plants and plant medicine.
Ann is the director of the Sustainable Herbs Program, a program of the American Botanical Council. She is the co-producer of the documentary Numen: the Nature of Plants, and theauthor of the award-winning ethnographic memoir, Thin Places: A Pilgrimage Home, based on her research in Nepal. She is a student of herbal medicine and was a 2017 Fulbright-Nehru Scholar documenting the supply chain of medicinal plants in India. She is currently completing a book, From Seed to Shelf: Following Herbs Through the Supply Chain, to be published by Chelsea Green Publishing and is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. She lives with her family in central Vermont.
From Ann:
“As a nation, we are struggling with a profound lack of imagination. We don’t see the forests being cut down to build our homes, the lakes being drained as we fill our tub. We live on the far side of a broken connection. Not seeing the people and places on the other side – not seeing the moral and ecological consequences of producing these commodities – simply makes them easier to buy.”
— Wendell Berry
Healing this broken connection, Berry concluded, begins with seeing beyond what the market wants us to see.
I began the Sustainable Herbs Program to follow herbs through the supply chain, to make visible the people and places behind the finished products because I believe that knowing those stories, as Berry points out, is the first step toward being more responsible for the moral and ecological consequences of our choices.
In this conversation, I will explore the ways herbal medicines offer an invitation to live in a deeper relationship with the world around us. I will talk about my work with the Sustainable Herbs Program, how we are sharing stories and resources to help inspire more sustainable and regenerative practices in the industry as a whole.
But I am also interested in much broader questions about our role as citizens of the world and how, through our choices about the commodities we buy, we impact that world. Plants are alive and yet they are also commodities bought and sold on a global market governed by the laws of capital. Is it possible to buy herbal medicines produced with these plants in ways that honor and respect that aliveness? What might exploring stories about efforts to responsibly source and produce herbal products show us about living more lightly on the earth? What insights do they offer for how to treat each other, the earth, and ourselves with more care and respect? And finally, what can we learn about creating worlds that are healthier—physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually?
I’ll explore these questions by focusing on companies working to ensure that the vision and values of herbal medicine apply to the entire medicinal plant supply chain, not just the end product. In this way, I hope to show how changing this particular industry is a way to change the world.
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Maureen Robertson (Medical Herbalist) and Jose Melo (Musician & Composer) explore medicine. They have been working together for over 5 years to forge a conscious crossover between the healing vibrations of plants and the healing vibrations of music- a powerful example of working with nature in way of deep listening, attunement and cooperation.
In this teleseminar, they will give an overview of health or disease being a dissonance of vibration musical harmony within the body, mind, spirit whole, and how the sound vibration of the different chords in any octave can have a strong effect on the different energy centers of the body. Jose uses guitar chords to illustrate the concepts of the top, middle and base notes within essential oils. If you have your own essential oils, have them ready to smell whilst the relevant chords are being played to emphasize the qualities!
Aromatherapists already know how essential oils with their range of different notes can literally resonate with the energy centers to enable them to create a blend that harmonizes the energy. By experimenting with different chords stemming from the notes of aromatic oils choices, it is possible to begin a co-creative composition of healing vibration translated into music. This experimental technique gives a unique insight into which areas of the body need attention and then the relevant vibration of essential oils and their herbs which can help address that as well as the associated musical note(s).
The self-evident opening up to vibrational energy in this way can literally bring an immediate healing resonance as well as informing blends of essential oils to support energy imbalances.
Maureen has over 25 years of experience working with herbs and sharing Green knowledge. She co-founded the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine in 1992 offering courses from introductory to professional training at BSc and MSc degree level.
At the same time, she encountered Goethe's way of studying "the Holy Open Book of Nature" as shared by Rudolf Steiner and discovered an approach of wholeness to studying plants, landscapes, and natural phenomena. She developed a clinical application of Goethe's method which shaped her herbal practice and the way she supports the healing process for the people she works with.
In 2012 she established the Herbal Apprenticeship at Drimlabarra Herb Farm, Isle of Arran, Scotland which she ran for 4 years before relocating to Portugal where she continues her Apprenticeship training as well as hosting Inspiring International Herbal Speakers.
Her travels in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador meeting shamans and teacher plants helped create a deepening into the interior world of self-healing and shamanic practices which aid these processes are now an integral part of her approach to purification and rejuvenation. https://www.theherbalpath.net/about-us
Jose has been involved in music since his first successful punk rock band as a teenager in Sintra, which had a strong following for many years and made a number of recordings. He quickly moved into working with the uplifting, feel-good beat of ambient electronic music which he composed and produced as a professional musician for several record labels and performed as an internationally acclaimed musical artist DJ for over a decade.
His warm, easy-going, and caring approach allows people to work with him to relax into their own healing through close encounters with teacher plants as allies and healing musical resonance. https://www.theherbalpath.net/about-us.
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Geneen Marie-Haugen explores an emerging dimension of the human/Earth relationship – a relationship in which the human capacity for imagination is an essential component of planetary ecology. We’ll consider the possibility that our manner of approaching the wilder Others make a difference – both reawakening the older mind in us that knows the animate nature of the world, as well as re-enlivening the wilder Others themselves.
“A practice of celebrating the wild Earth and cosmos – like other practices – holds the possibility of re-shaping consciousness; the more our thoughts, words and gestures are intertwined with the beings among whom we abide, the more the world pulses with life, the more we hear the exuberantly singing Earth, and perhaps even the songs of starlight.” –Geneen Marie Haugen from her essay, “Thomas Berry And The Evocation Of Participatory Consciousness,” which appears in Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth.
Dr. Geneen Marie Haugen grew up a little wild, with a run-amok imagination. As a guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche, she delights in multidimensional listening and in offering perceptive questions, ceremonies, escapades, and reflections that help expand a sense of our own possibilities as individuals (and as a species) and deepen our experience of participation with an intelligent, animate Earth/Cosmos. Her writing has appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Written River; Parabola Journal; Kosmos Journal; Ecopsychology; and The Artist’s Field Guide to Greater Yellowstone. A former tipi-dweller and whitewater river guide, she now lives amidst the creatures and features of southern Utah’s sandstone labyrinth. She is exploring the awakening of what she calls “planetary imagination,” and the possible emergence of a new mode of the human that she has called Homo imaginans. She is committed to the world-transforming potential of the human imagination in collaboration with the Earth community.
To know more about Geneen’s work visit https://animas.org or see her offering this spring at Esalen.
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Rina Kedem, environmental peace-builder, dialogues about peace, ecology, and communities. Rina believes in peace between people and the land and is part of an international network of projects and communities that are involved in this work.
Rina Kedem has developed and directed cooperative projects with Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians for the past 16 years. Her work is guided by a holistic perspective that includes the social-economic and environmental well-being of communities, as well as hands-on, long term peace-building opportunities that impact policy. She helped found a multi-cultural center for peace and ecology at the Almog- Jericho junction, an area accessible to Israelis and Palestinians, and was part of a volunteer team that has built a network of ecological villages in Israel (GEN- Israel).
Rina is currently working on her Ph.D. in Community Development and Environmental Conservation Across Borders in the Department of Geography at Hebrew University and resides with her family in the Israeli desert. She is part of the University of San Diego’s 2019 Women PeaceMakers program. and lives with her family in the desert of Israel.
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Join Dr. Ablard on a journey to the heartwood of growing and preserving, sharing, and healing.
Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora) faces possible extinction due to unsustainable harvesting and management practices driven by a high global demand for its precious essential oil. Native to many biodiversity hotspots throughout South America, the loss of rosewood is inseparable from the loss of many other native species. Its cultural importance among the Shipibo Indigenous people of Peru attests to its importance as a traditional aromatic and spiritual medicine with a reputation for strengthening the heart and relationships.
Kelly Ablard holds a Doctorate in Biology, an MSc in Conservation, and is a certified aromatherapist. As Director of the Airmid Institute, she is dedicated to the global education, research, and conservation and sustainable management of aromatic medicinal plants.
Kelly has completed and published research on olfactory systems, chemical communication across species, and clinical uses of plant medicine for humans and animals. Her work has taken her all over the world where she has studied the different uses of traditional medicine, worked to help protect threatened species, and discovered firsthand the vital role that chemical communication plays in the natural world. For example, she has recently identified over 60 Peruvian aromatic medicinal plants, her novel discovery of how small wasps rely on individual chemical signatures to mediate their mating ritual is featured in Canadian Geographic magazine, and how she identified potential toxins in the critically endangered slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) is highlighted by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). She has also reported on the ingenuity of tool use by endangered orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and has investigated the link between sociality and olfactory communication in mammals. She currently conducts research in Peru with the Shipibo and Quechua Indigenous peoples into their near-threatened and threatened aromatic medicinal plants.
Kelly sits on the Board of the United Plant Savers, is Co-Chair of the International Committee on Sustainability of Aromatic Plants used in Aromatherapy and Natural Perfumery, and is co-owner of Essence of Thyme College of Holistic Studies.
To connect with Dr. Ablard and to help protect threatened aromatic medicinal plants, please visit: Website:https://www.kellyablard.com or Facebook: @airmidinstitute
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This Dialogue with ecologist and artist, Dr. Rene Henery will explore pathways toward the simultaneous healing of systems in nature and of our own internal systems, hearts, minds, and spirits. In the process, Rene will share some of his experiences, as a scientist deeply engaged in the complex and contentious politics of water in California, pivoting from an emphasis on the application of science and mind to “fix” the world to an emphasis on relationship and heart, to heal, to catalyze greater connection with others and alignment with nature, and to be guided by what emerges from that connected place. The discussion with Rene will also explore how science, deep listening, and inner wisdom can work synergistically to orient us, with the dynamic natural systems we are a part of and the effects of that reorientation on the way we understand and value diversity and equity, our capacity for growth and change, and our felt sense of belonging. We are part of nature.
Dr. Rene Henery is a Deep Ecologist, artist, writer, and speaker based in Northern California. Rene holds a joint position as California Science Director for Trout Unlimited, US’s oldest and largest Salmon and River conservation NGO and part-time Research Faculty with the University of Nevada, Reno, Global Water Center. Rene’s work in the US and abroad embraces water, diversity, reconciliation, and equity as pathways to resilient ecosystems, coherent communities, and personal experience of belonging. In his home state of California, Rene works collaboratively with private landowners, resource managers, universities, NGO’s, and state and federal agencies to recover water-dependent systems through science, relationship, and the reconciliation of conservation, flood management, agriculture, environmental justice, and indigenous wisdom
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Linda Lombardo is A Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Life Coach & Sacred Activist. She finds wonder in the worlds-within-worlds of the forest; seeing nature as a regenerative culture, in which nothing is wasted, nothing is without purpose.
In addition to forest therapy and coaching, Linda produces and hosts Voice of Evolution Radio, sharing the voices of those creating a more compassionate and sustainable world. Her eleven-part radio drama series, In the Souls Waiting Room, chronicles her own spiritual journey to create a story about who we are as Humans today and why the world is the way it is. She uncovers and explores deep wounds that we no longer remember or accept as part of our collective stories that continue to create polarity in us as a species. The radio drama series led to Linda publishing her pre- and post- production notes and the scripts as a book, now available on Amazon.
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Earth Activist, Ardelle Ferrer shares about the regeneration of the Ceiba Tree on Vieques, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. She also speaks about the creation of a park around the ancient Ceiba Tree and the meaning it holds for the community and the land.
Excerpt from: An Ancient Ceiba Tree Blooms Once Again After Puerto Rico’s Devastating Storms
A protest movement, known among locals as “the struggle,” finally ousted the Navy in 2003. Four years later, Ferrer and others started La Ceiba Community Project to remove trash and debris from the grassy area around the ancient tree.“She brought us all together to restore that space, which is now used by the locals all the time,” Ferrer said. “It’s a symbol of hope that we can continue, that things may get hard but if we stand strong we can make it.”Today, the ceiba is the centerpiece of a 51-acre coastal park where endangered manatees, green turtles, and brown pelicans live. On rainy days, water pools in the bowl-shaped crannies between the tree’s twisted limbs, attracting tiny crabs and wild horse, who drink the rainwater.
Nature is Ardelle’s artistic muse. Her life is colored by evolutionary change, as is her art. Ardelle’s artistic history has and will continue to eternally emphasize the protection of our natural environment. Her deep connectivity to nature started as a child and has continued to be inspired by Puerto Rico’s natural wonders, where she first learned how to connect with the trees of El Yunque rainforest and the raw elements of nature.
Since 2007, Ardelle has dedicated endless community-based efforts to the preservation of a 400-year-old Ceiba tree site, located in the heart of El Parque de Ceiba in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Ardelle is the principal force promoting the legacy of the sacred ceiba tree and the primary organizer of projects that encourage the youth of Vieques to absorb the wealth of knowledge the ceiba tree has to offer to the local and global community. The goal of the community outreach project is to incorporate art, culture, nature, and spirituality, in a way that emphasizes the conservation of the land of our ancestors, the sacredness of the tree, and its teachings.
Ardelle received her BFA, Magna Cum Laude, from the Puerto Rico School of Fine Art and postgraduate studies at the Urban Glass studio in New York. She has been awarded several prizes for artistic excellence and her art includes multiple performances, expositions, symposiums, stained and fused glass, sculptures, public murals, installations, and monumental works of the ephemeral.
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Emma and Davyd Farrell speak about the power of plant dreaming and sacred earth activism. They will share with you how dreaming can inform your daily life and help you break through illusions to come to a better understanding of reality and therefore become a more whole person.
Emma & Davyd work in co-creation with plants and trees for every aspect of their work, from event design and creation to making medicines and providing healings for their clients. Living in the hills of Mid-Wales their house sits underneath a large 1000-year-old Yew Tree. The plants, trees, and more specifically the ancient Yews serve as spirit guides and teachers and help to inform their actions through dreaming whether it be shamanic dream journeying, daydreaming, or lucid dreaming.
Emma & Davyd are the founders of Plant Consciousness, the ground-breaking London event about the conscious intelligent world of plants and trees. A lot of their understanding of the healing process comes from years of their own inner work into childhood, ancestral, and soul traumas. Combined with a daily spiritual practice they have gone to the depths of their souls to make awakening an embodied process and uncover the truth of their existence.
Emma spent 6 months in the Himalayas with master energy healers and five years learning from one of the world's leading plant spirit healers, Pam Montgomery. She is a certified plant spirit healer. Emma also spent 5 months in the Ecuadorian Amazon with Kichwa elder and shaman Kurikindi, his mother and sister learning a unique form of shamanic healing and receiving initiations into their Sacred Tobacco & Jaguar lineages. She is one of the first people to be initiated into the Yew Mysteries for hundreds of years, brought to the modern era by Michael Dunning. She has studied Geomancy with Dr. Patrick MacManaway and Celtic Shamanic Healing with David Leesley.
Emma also holds a practicing Master's Degree in 'The Preservation & Development Of Wisdom Culture & The Art Of Liberation' in the Tibetan Buddhist Mahayana Tradition, writing her thesis on 'Understanding The Nature Of The Self Through Lucid Dreaming'. Emma spent 2 years at the Lama Tsongkhapa Institute in Tuscany studying under lamas and geshes including her refuge lama, Dagri Rinpoche.
Davydcomes from a strong Celtic background with ancestry from both Cornwall and Ireland. This connection forms an essential part of his healing practice. He has trained and studied under many great masters and teachers. After a powerful wake up in Egypt in 2010 he then initially spent 3 years studying Tibetan Buddhism in first India and then at a semi-monastic center in Tuscany. He has received teachings, transmissions and empowerments from; HH Dalai Lama, Dagri Rinpoche, Chamtrul Rinpoche and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
After living overseas for 15 years a powerful experience with teacher plant medicine called him back to his homeland and so began a journey deep into the world of plants. Since then he has spent 5 years studying under herbalist and plant spirit healer Pam Montgomery and is now a certified Plant Spirit Healer. He also spent 2 years learning in Ireland with herbalist and plant diet initiator Carole Guyett.
In addition to that, 4 years was also spent studying the Yew Mysteries with Yew Shaman Michael Dunning during which time he and Emma moved to a house that sits directly under a 1000-year-old tree in Mid Wales. The teachings of the Yew have continued under this powerful tree's tutelage.
To learn more about Emma and Davyd visit their website at https://www.plantconsciousness.com/
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Karyn Sanders, herbalist and activist, talks about healing our relationship with nature and our vital need for connection to all beings. Her analysis focuses on the trauma caused by living in a way that separates us from our power and the resulting loss of connection with all our relations. Karyn will also speak about how to overcome this separation and heal the wounds we have been carrying in our own lives.
An essential evolution of Sacred Earth Activism is taking the step from healing our own trauma to then serving all our communities. Karyn will speak to this as she talks about her “sacred site” and “water” work and their meaning in the world.
Karyn has been working with plants for most of her life. She was first trained in Native American traditional plant medicine. 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.
Karyn has a live radio show, The Herbal Highway, that has aired weekly since 1996 on KPFA, 94.1FM out of Berkeley, California. She co-hosts this program with Sarah Holmes. You can listen to her show live through the internet at http://kpfa.org/herbal-highway, Thursdays from 1 to 2pm PST. Karyn is also available to teach at other schools, community groups, and conferences. To learn more about Karyn Sanders, visit her website at https://www.blueotterschool.com/
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David Haskell spent several years listening to the stories of trees in forests, cities, and coasts. At each, he explored the many interconnections that give us all life. It is these connections that David speaks about in this talk. In the lives of trees, we see that living beings are made not from "selves" but from networked relationships. Trees, therefore, tells us both about the fascinating stories of particular places and about the processes that unite all of life on the planet.
"He thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk rather than a hypothesis-driven scientist." --A profile of David Haskell by James Gorman in The New York Times.
David Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world. His book, The Forest Unseen, was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction and recipient of numerous honors including the National Academies’ Best Book Award for 2013. The book has been translated into ten languages. Haskell’s second book, The Songs of Trees, examines biological networks through the lives of a dozen trees around the world. The book was the winner of the 2018 John Burroughs Medal, named one of the Best Science Books of 2017 by NPR’s Science Friday, selected as Favorite Science Books of 2017 by Brain Pickings, and in the 10 Best Environment, Climate Science and Conservation Books of 2017 at Forbes.com. Haskell received his BA from the University of Oxford and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is a professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He serves on the boards and advisory committees of local and national land conservation groups. Haskell’s classes have received national attention for the innovative ways they combine action in the community with contemplative practice. In 2009, the Carnegie and CASE Foundations named him Professor of the Year for Tennessee. In addition to his books, he has published scientific papers, essays, poems, and op-eds.
To learn more about David visit his website or follow him on Twitter (@DGHaskell), Facebook, or Instagram.
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Brooke Medicine Eagle shares about the wisdom of the Buffalo and the co-creative journey and sacred ecology shared by the people, the land, and the herd. This talk is rife with rich stories about living in regenerative partnership with the land- see below for photos of the herd and the Old Moccasin Place - near the medicine springs shared by Brooke after the seminar.
Brooke Medicine Eagle is a legendary indigenous Earthkeeper, wisdom teacher, mentor, healer, visionary, singer/songwriter, shamanic practitioner, catalyst for wholeness, and sacred ecologist. She is the best selling author of the Native American literary classic, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, and of The Last Ghost Dance. Her individual and group work is empowering, enlightening, and supportive of your very best self.
As a sacred ecologist Brooke has a focused interest in promoting a conscious and sensuous relationship to All Life and to living a harmonious, sustaining lifestyle. She has a deep personal dedication to the honoring and preservation of our sacred waters. What she has to offer has been deepened remarkably by going back to her childhood home buffalo ranch in the mountains of Montana.
Over the last 40 years, her many music recordings, teachings, writings, conference appearances, and wilderness spiritual retreats have touched the hearts and minds of people all over the world. Blossoming Into Harmony, the primary ongoing resonance of her work, promotes a heart-centered, ecologically sound, healing way for the flowering of Mother Earth and all our relations. She is now traveling and teaching internationally, enjoying the experience of being a Gaian citizen. For more information about Brooke visit www.MedicineEagle.com and https://brookemedicineeagle.wordpress.com/
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Felicia Kainat Norton and Charles Muinuddin Smith speak about feeling into our sacred connection and how this can be a source for the transformation needed at this time. They will speak of our shared issues and how each of us can be a force for change by continually joining our inner cultivation with hope and Sacred Action.
Felicia Kainat Norton is a senior teacher, retreat guide, and faculty member of Suluk Academy in the Inayati Sufi Order. She serves as the International Head of the Ziraat Activity which is devoted to inner cultivation and sacred ecology. She also tours as a solo dance theater artist internationally with the one-woman show ‘NOOR’.
Charles Muinuddin Smith, Ph.D is a senior teacher, retreat guide, and teacher of Ziraat in the Inayati Sufi Order. He teaches leadership and sustainability studies at Hofstra University.
They are both longtime students of Pir Vilayat Khan within the Sufi tradition and in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Together Felicia and Charles co-authored the book, An Emerald Earth: Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World. and they have published articles in Resurgence and Ecologist magazine and The Jung Journal.
They offer meditation workshops and retreats worldwide.
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Mary Reynolds – Reformed Landscape Designer and Nature Activist-- explains how we can all become guardians of the earth, starting in our own back yards, shifting human consciousness into remembering that our role here is one of caretaker and creator.
Mary is a garden designer, a philosopher – a writer. She is the youngest woman to win a Gold Medal for garden design at the Chelsea Flower Show since its inception over 100 years ago and is known as one of the world’s ten best landscape designers.
Mary grew up on a small mixed farm in Wexford, in the south of Ireland. 20 years ago she set up her own company designing gardens in Dublin. A few years later, having lost the will to live from constantly creating modern gardens, she realized that she could no longer continue shaping land in the same way and re-imagined her work to become nature rather than human-centered.
Mary brought her new, still relatively unformed ideas to be showcased at the Chelsea flower show in London where she achieved a gold medal, unusual at the time for a first-time effort. Since that time, she has built up quite a cult following in the world of garden design and is considered unique in her field.
Another transformation came a few years ago when Mary realized we had to rethink the whole relationship we had with the land and re-examine what it means to truly design in harmony with nature. Those latest revelations lead to The Garden Awakening – Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves being born, which imparts so much wisdom to people who are fashioning their own gardens and wild places. The book was written at night, over four years, when her two young children were asleep… and Mary was almost awake.
Mary has appeared on numerous television programs, and podcasts. She regularly offers talks and workshops about her work. To learn about Mary, visit her website www.marymary.ie
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Dr. Patrick MacManaway speaks about how you can listen to and take care of Earth within your nature community whether it is your backyard, park, garden, or farm. There is a sentient intelligence in the spirit of place, in the spirits of the elements, and of vibrant nature that we can interact with telepathically.
Patrick will share land whispering stories of working with farmers, gardeners and land stewards over the past 25 years on three continents to inspire and invite you to what might be possible where you live.
Dr. MacManaway is a third-generation practitioner of psychic and healing arts, trained in Western Medicine and the arts of Geomancy and Shamanism. He works with earth energy balancing, and earth acupuncture for geopathic stress remediation, and space clearing for site energy enhancement.
Training first with his parents at their Healing and Teaching Centre in rural Fife, Scotland, Patrick graduated in Medicine at Edinburgh University before taking apprenticeships in both Western and Eastern approaches to traditional Geomancy and working with landscape energy.
He is the author of several books and CDs including “The Practical Guide to Dowsing: How to Harness the Earth’s Energies for Health and Healing“, “Cultivating the Light Body” and “Keys To Grace“. For more information about Patrick please visit his website.
Past-President of the British Society of Dowsers, he is a Founding Member of Circles for Peace, and design consultant for the Burlington Earth Clock.
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Lauren Valle, O.N.E. Vision Council Member, shares about her experiences as an environmental activist in her 20’s and her evolutionary journey to become a Sacred Earth Activist, and the importance of the internal source of activism.
The source of our activism is equally as important as the action itself. Although fear, anger, outrage etc. can certainly serve us at times, action initiating from our connection within nature is an effective and sustainable model for environmental change.
Lauren is a healer and community herbalist dedicated to bringing the healing powers of plant medicine and nature to her Cape Cod community. She is the founder of Kinship Herbal and Holistic Healing. Prior to founding Kinship she worked in the field of ecological engineering, working to build ecological wastewater and water remediation systems around the world based on the intelligent design of nature. She received a B.A. from Columbia University and during her college years and early twenties she worked as an environmental activist focused on issues of environmental justice, fossil fuel consumption, and natural resource depletion. She has also lived and worked on two organic farms and has a longstanding interest in permaculture and whole system design. She is deeply committed to a mission of visioning and creating a healthy future for all through reconnecting to the earth and our biological heritage. She currently lives on her homestead with her husband where they raise chickens, grows an abundance of good food, and many of the medicinal herbs she uses her in practice.
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Terry Mock, of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, shares his story of taking action for the world’s most important old-growth trees. Terry has worked for decades with David Milarch, as they’ve cloned the champion trees of the world — the largest, the hardiest, the ones that have survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change-- before they are gone.
Part of their mission is to reforest the Earth with the offspring of these ancient trees and archive their genetics in living forest libraries around the world.
These champion trees are excellent at sequestering carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen, and providing beneficial aerosols and medicines. They are essentially a global warming solution.
Archangel has successfully cloned some of the world’s largest and oldest trees — among them coast redwoods and giant sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah. Many of these cloned seedlings have been planted in climate compatible areas and there is even a “super grove” of clones in Oregon from over 70 individual champion coast redwoods and giant sequoias.
Since the 1980’s Terry has developed a variety of residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational land development projects which employed innovative sustainability technologies, including a specialty in native plant preservation and restoration techniques.
In 1997 Terry co-founded the Florida Champion Tree Project and in 1998 was appointed as a founding Executive Board member of the USDA South Florida Community-Urban Resources Partnership.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Terry completed a three-year term as Director of the International Society of Arboriculture and stepped down as the Founding Executive Director of the non-profit Champion Tree Project International to become certified in permaculture design, establish Tree of Life Sustainable Development Consulting, work with Sustainable Land Development Today magazine, as an Editorial Board Director and SLDT Newsletter Editor, and co-found Sustainable Land Development Initiative.
Terry is now developing a sustainable home and permaculture eco-forestry research, education, and recreational project overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the largest remaining old-growth forest on the southern Oregon coast.
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Cosmologist, physicist and author Dr. Jude Currivan invites us to remember who we really are and take our place as micro-cosmic co-creators of the cosmic river of life. The ancient and sacred understanding of the fundamentally interconnected web of life is finally being reconciled with the latest scientific discoveries. Instead of the hitherto scientific model of a merely materialistic Universe of randomness and separation, compelling evidence is revealing that our entire Universe not only exists and evolves as a unified entity, but that its very appearance emerges from deeper nonphysical realms of intelligence and intention.
Dr. Jude Currivan is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, author, and previously one of the most senior businesswomen in the UK. Having grown up as the daughter of a coal miner in the north of England, she has since journeyed to more than seventy countries around the world and for the last, nearly twenty years has lived in the sacred landscape of Avebury. She has experienced multidimensional realities since early childhood and worked with the wisdom keepers both incarnate and discarnate of many traditions.
She holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Reading in the UK researching ancient cosmologies and a Masters's Degree in Physics from Oxford University specializing in cosmology and quantum physics.
She is the author of six non-fiction books currently available in 15 languages and 25 countries including CosMos – A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole World (co-authored with Dr. Ervin Laszlo). Her first fictionalized e-book Legacy is available on Amazon.
Her latest is The Cosmic Hologram- In-formation at the Center of Creation, the first book of the Transformation trilogy. She is currently writing book two Gaia: Her-Story. Learn more about Jude here.
This episode is the fifth in a series of episodes centered around the Rivers of Life.
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Phyllis Hogan --herbalist, activist, and ethnobotanist-- shares her story and insights from participating in efforts to preserve sacred waters and lands, working with the native people and plants of Arizona, and serving her community as a village herbalist. One of her most inspiring stories is about a small group of tribal activists that were successful in stopping an aquifer from being destroyed at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado River in Hopi sacred lands. This is the Hopi place of emergence, and Phyllis will share the creation story linked to this special place and the importance of Rivers to all life.
Phyllis Hogan is an acclaimed herbalist and ethnobotanist with over 40 years of experience practicing and teaching in the American Southwest. She has worked deeply for many years with the Navajo and Hopi, helping preserve sacred traditions and medicine ways. She resides in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she founded the Winter Sun Trading Company in 1976. Since its inception, Winter Sun has provided exceptional organic botanical products, with a special emphasis on traditional southwest herbs and tinctures. Working directly with indigenous artists, she also showcases Hopi and Navajo jewelry and fine art. Immersion in the rich cultural heritage of her bioregion inspired Phyllis to cofound the Arizona Ethnobotanical Research Foundation (AERA) in 1983. The AERA is a 501(c)(3) private non-profit foundation committed to the investigation, documentation, and preservation of the traditional plant uses in Arizona and the greater Southwest.
Phyllis has been awarded the United Plant Savers Conservation Award and the Culture Bearers of the Colorado Plateau Footways Award, and in the 1990s was the first Practitioner Associate to be recognized by the Northern Arizona Anthropology department. She has taught ethnobotany in bilingual health and educational programs for the Pima, Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo tribes.
This is the fourth episode in a series of episodes centered around Rivers of Life.
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Grant Wilson, Directing Attorney for the Earth Law Center, speaks about the rights of rivers and the processes that individuals and communities engage in to assure basic rights for their rivers. See the Earth Law Center's Universal Declaration of River Rights.
Grant has advanced environmental campaigns in the United States and worldwide, from representing island nations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to National Land Policy work in Kenya. As Directing Attorney of Earth Law Center, Mr. Wilson works to advance the rights of nature in law, and in particular focuses on ensuring that our rivers thrive. Grant earned a degree in Environmental Policy from Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University, and a J.D. with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.
This is the third episode in a series of episodes centered around Rivers of Life.
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Dr. Rosita Arvigo-- famed ethnobotanist, spiritual healer, shaman, and author-- will share about the Macal river which was the life-blood of an ancient Mayan civilization and is still important to the people there today.
The Macal River flows through the Cayo District in western Belize and eventually into the Belize River. Sites along the river include the ancient Mayan town of Cahal Pech and the Belize Botanic Gardens. The river is a meandering waterway flowing through rugged mountains and countless ancient archaeological sites. It was one of the ancient Maya’s superhighways, linking urban, trade, and ceremonial centers and connecting the interior to the coastal trade routes. After linking up with the Mopan at Branch Mouth, it joins the Old Belize River to carry on down to the coast. For centuries it was a vital part of the Maya Empire and an important source of water, transport, communication, trade, food, hygiene, and recreation for the Maya.
Rosita Arvigo is a Doctor of Naprapathy, ethnobotanist, spiritual healer, author of six books on traditional healing of Central America, co-founder of The Belize Ethnobotany Project with Dr. Michael Balick of the New York Botanical Garden , and an international speaker. She is the founder of Ix Chel Tropical Research Centre in Belize, the Rainforest Medicine Trail, the Terra Nova Medicinal Plant Reserve, and the children’s Bush Medicine Summer Camp in Belize. She had a thirteen-year apprenticeship to one of the last Maya shamans, Don Elijio Panti, who was born in Peten, Guatemala. She is the recipient of The Earth Award, 2007. As the founder of THE ARVIGO TECHNIQUES OF MAYA ABDOMINAL THERAPY she teaches extensive courses on the subject as well as courses in Maya Spiritual Healing.
This is the second episode in a series of episodes centered around Rivers of Life.
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Ecuadorian, teacher and healer, Rocio Alarcon will join us to kick off a series of episodes centered around Rivers of Life and will speak about the Amazon River-- considered the “mightiest river in the world”. South America’s Amazon ecosystem is often described as ‘larger than life’ and indeed it comprises the most expansive rainforest in the world, home to the second-longest river on earth. Combined, they spawn an incredible amount of life, with the sheer abundance of flora and fauna making it an essential breeding and feeding ground. A passionately protected yet endangered bio-network, the Amazon River and Rainforest provide our planet with indispensable oxygen, fresh water, and biodiversity. Join us to hear Rocio’s unique perspective of this magnificent river.
Rocio Alarcon is renowned and beloved worldwide for her caring, loving, and passionate approach to people, plants, and nature. An Ethnopharmacologist, Ethno-botanist, shamanic practitioner, and extraordinary teacher and healer, Rocio has spent over 30 years working with ethnic groups in the tropical rain forest and Andes Mountains of Ecuador and in the Basque Country, Spain. Rocio is the co-founder and director of the Iamoe Center in Ecuador.
This is the first in a series of episodes about Rivers of Life.
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Rani Findlay, celebrant and For a Tree Co-founder, speaks about Tree ceremonies and especially the Tree Gratitude Ceremony, and the importance of reciprocity. The short ceremony is a way to say thank you and show our deep appreciation for the trees that give us life.
In ceremony, we connect with one another, to the spirit, and to the web of all life. The sacred act of ceremony with trees creates the opportunity for us to experience our identity and responsibility as caretakers of life on our Mother Earth. Our whole-hearted participation opens closed parts of ourselves to all the blessings that are ours to offer for all the gifts we receive. Rani will share about Tree Gratitude Ceremonies and invite us to use this ceremony to begin or expand our grateful relationship with trees, one based on an exchange of giving and receiving.
Rani Findlay was initiated into the act and art of ceremony in India forty years ago, guided by revered teachers of the Vedic tradition in upholding the harmonious functioning of nature. A decade ago she met a ceremonial leader of Andean lineage and continues to receive counsel in the indigenous wisdom ways of preserving the continuity of life on Earth.
In 2012, Rani began exploring with her Celebrant colleague, Woody Winfree, how to actively engage individuals and communities in ceremonies that honor Trees and recognize their immense significance in the web of life.
This episode is the fifth in a series of episodes centered around the Tree of Life.
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Kate Gilday has been a clinical herbalist, flower essence practitioner and creator, Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant, and teacher for over 30 years. In this episode, she speaks about the intimate partnership Trees invite us to be a part of.
For many years, Kate was a member of Collaborative Healing, a group of local practitioners who address health care through a unique integrative network, educating the community and combining conventional medicine with expert complementary care. She is well-loved for the clarity and clinical relevance gleaned from decades of experience in her teachings. Kate brings her love of the wild places, song, and healing to the workshops she presents around the Northeast. A creative medicine maker, Kate is the founder of Woodland Essence, a forest botanicals and flower essence company and workshop center.
Over the millennia we have lived and grown with the trees and they continue to invite us into a partnership that we may all thrive even in uncertain times. Each species carries gifts of its essential nature. By creating time to be with these ancient ones and in paying attention with all of our senses, we can answer the invitation the trees offer and learn how the spiritual essence of a tree can touch and enter our hearts, minds, and own personal essence. We come into a relationship where our lives and that of the trees are enriched. It simply takes stepping forward, opening our arms and spirits to embrace the gift of intimacy that awaits.
These tall ones do seem to be conduits between earth and sky-- storing sunlight in their bodies, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere, and bringing water up from the deeper recesses of the soil. They carry the long story of the land, of change, and of the qualities to withstand and even flourish in times of uncertainty. Strength, resiliency, networking, communication, generosity, and the essence of community, there is much we can learn and integrate from the wisdom held in a forest.
This episode is the fourth in a series of episodes centered around the Tree of Life.
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Esperide Ananas has traveled the world to reactivate the deep connection between humans and Trees. In this episode, she speaks about the network that trees create and the role of humans in that network.
Trees, through their specific sensitivity and intelligence, are able to weave the tightest network of connections that exists on the planet making them the largest and most powerful “living computers” on Earth. For us, as humans, re-establishing a spiritual connection with these beings is a way to recuperate an important part of our collective soul. We have long forgotten that we are all part of the same spiritual ecosystem, and that our survival and evolution depends on the presence of these extraordinary beings. Through her stories and sharing, Esperide reminds us of our deep kinship with Trees and inspires right-relationship with the Tree World.
Esperide Ananas is an ambassador for Damanhur, an eco-society in Italy, and has been instrumental in their Tree Orienting project. She is also a spiritual researcher, innovation consultant, and international speaker; she is also the author of several books including The Music of the Plants and Spirals of Energy. Additionally, Esperide conducts research in the field of Selfica, the energy structure of the human being, and the vital energies of nature, and leads courses around the world helping humans to awaken to their potential and connect with nature.
This episode is the third in a series of episodes centered around the Tree of Life.
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Michael Dunning is a teacher and a guide who-- after a sequence of harrowing near-death encounters with elemental beings -- was drawn to an ancient yew tree close to Edinburgh. In this, episode Michael speaks of the wisdom and mysteries imparted on him by the yew. Mysteries learned over nine years as the immensely powerful female yew restored him to health and initiated him in the teachings of the Yew Mysteries. Michael now lives in the USA.
The Yew is the earthly and sentient expression of the ONE original pre-earthly organism that the earliest cultures referred to as the Tree of Life. The ancient and yet timeless language of the living Yew holds memory and information concerning the pre-earthly origin and spiritual lineage of human beings.
This episode is the second in a series of episodes centered around the Tree of Life.
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Clare tells her story of awakening into nature connection and her search for her purpose. She shares her relationship with the trees and gives us all an embodied experience of the TreeSisters' BluePrint of a Restorer Species to help activate our life force on behalf of life. She also shares how we can take a life-changing inner journey of awakening alongside thousands of others as part of the launch of the TreeSisters journey to a Billion trees a year.
Clare Dubois is the founder of TreeSisters.org, a feminine nature-based organization inspiring the world’s women to take shared leadership around tropical reforestation. TreeSisters reflects Clare’s exploration of the links between feminine consciousness and Nature’s intelligence. She and her team experiment overtly to discover how to call forth the unique capacities and creativity of women on behalf of the trees. They aim to be funding a million trees a month by the end of 2017.
Clare is known for her direct, catalytic energy; her whole systems approach to behavior change, and her unending loyalty and love for the natural world. For two decades she created behavior change processes within the personal growth and social change sectors and volunteered for three years as the UK co-ordinator for a massive agro-forestry initiative in southern India called Project GreenHands (PGH) before initiating TreeSisters. In her own life, her aim is to reclaim balance, rediscover freedom and health, and to be 'walking permission' for those who are fed up of being held back, and just want to have a go.
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In this episode, Pam shares the teachings and wisdom of White Pine, the tree of peace. White Pine has been a main ally of Pam’s for two decades and is an elder among trees who helps to initiate humans into what it means to be truly human. Pam will also share stories from the White Pine Initiation held in September.
Pam Montgomery is a founding member of O.N.E. For over 30 years, Pam has been inspiring and guiding individuals to remember their innate relationship with all Beings and to deepen this connection by creating an intimate partnership with Nature. Pam lectures and teaches around the globe and is recognized internationally as a Voice for the Plants. She is the author of Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology, as well as a contributing author of Planting the Future. Pam is the creator of Partner Earth Education Center and co-steward of Sweetwater Sanctuary in Danby, VT.
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Arkan Lushwala bridges the global north and south, carrying spiritual traditions from the Andes in his native Peru. In this episode, Arkan introduces our new series of episodes around the Tree of Life, and speaks of his own experiences and teaching with the Tree as the embodiment of the prayer and promise of continuity. His eloquence, as both an author and speaker, gives expression to timeless wisdom in a refreshingly simple and digestible way.
A traditional healer, and founder of a remote ceremonial center and community in New Mexico, Arkan has been a leader and teacher for many years and is the author of Time of the Black Jaguar and Deer and Thunder.
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Rosemary Gladstar shares stories about how to create a retreat center that is also a sanctuary for plants, animals, and people. What are the key ingredients that go into making a place such as Sage Mountain a true sanctuary – a place of safety and sacredness?
Rosemary Gladstar's Sage Mountain Retreat Center & Native Plant Preserve is one of New England’s foremost learning centers for herbs and earth awareness. Located on 500 wilderness acres in central Vermont, this beautiful piece of Earth Mother is a natural sanctuary and teaching site. There is an incredible assortment of wild herbs and flowers growing in habitats that vary from meadows, forest to swamp. Our wild neighbors include deer, bear, moose, beavers, bobcat, otters, fox, and a wonderful variety of feathered folk that honor us with their presence.
Rosemary Gladstar is, literally, a star figure in the field of modern herbalism, internationally renowned for her technical knowledge and stewardship in the global herbalist community. She has been learning, teaching, and writing about herbs for over 40 years and is the author of eleven books. Her work includes Medicinal Herbs, a Beginners Guide, Herbal Healing for Women, Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, and The Science and Art of Herbalism, an extensive in-depth home study course. She lives and works from her home, Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center and Botanical Sanctuary — a 500-acre botanical preserve she founded in Central Vermont. She is also the Founding President of United Plant Savers, director of The New England Women’s Herbal Conference and founder and past director of the International Herb Symposium.
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Deb Soule's biodynamic approach at Avena Botanical gardens helps create a sacred environment for all beings that enter the gardens. As humans, let's be respectful and welcoming to the seen and unseen ones whose presence in our gardens and woodlands brings harmony, balance, and joy.
Herbal gardens offer sanctuary for pollinators, people, and elemental beings. Flowering plants and trees, hedgerows and pathways, arbors and benches, altars, and bells add magical dimensions into a healing garden. A diversity of plants, blooming throughout the gardening season encourages a diversity of pollinators and birds. Hedgerows and bells are friends to Elemental beings.
Deb Soule practices as an herbalist, educator, and biodynamic gardener and is the author of The Woman’s Handbook of Healing Herbs and How To Move Like A Gardener: Planting and Preparing Medicines from Plants. Raised in a small town in western Maine, Deb began organic gardening and studying the medicinal uses of herbs at age 16. Her faith in the healing qualities of plants and her love of gardening led Deb to found Avena Botanicals Herbal Apothecary in 1985. Five years earlier, Deb lived in Nepal near three Tibetan monasteries and was deeply moved by the Tibetan people’s commitment to ease physical ailments and mental and emotional upsets through the use of plants, prayer, and other spiritual practices. Deb received a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1981. Since then she has devoted her life to working with and understanding the healing gifts medicinal plants and pollinators offer individuals, families, and landscapes. She focuses on using nourishing herbs, flower remedies, whole foods, and meditation as part of her consulting practice. Avena Botanicals’ three-acre medicinal gardens are open to the public year-round, Monday-Friday. Avena is the first Demeter certified biodynamic farm in Maine.
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Designing a beautiful kitchen garden is one of the best ways to incorporate the sacred into your garden and ultimately your kitchen. In this episode, Ellen Odgen speaks about the power of creating garden sanctuaries that allow the healing power of plants to be received.
Beautiful kitchen gardens ultimately bring more joy and connection through nature and the healthy food that is grown and eaten. In this teleseminar, you will learn a basic foundation of simple steps to successful kitchen garden design, that will feed your spirit and soul in new ways. Create a sanctuary to grow food, in order to open your senses to a bigger world that turns work into play and allows plants to nourish and bring peace to our lives.
Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of The Complete Kitchen Garden and other books on food and garden design. She teaches and lectures on kitchen garden designs, creating small, intimate gardens to nourish the body, mind, and spirit. She was the co-founder of The Cooks Garden seed catalog, specializing in hard to find salad greens and herbs for cooks who love to garden.
For more information about Ellen Ogden or her work please visit her website.
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Join Kathleen Maier for an in-depth discussion of United Plant Savers’ Goldenseal Botanical Sanctuary which includes a living seed repository. The United Plant Savers 360-acre Botanical Sanctuary sits in the Appalachian Foothills of Southeastern Ohio. Thanks to optimal soil conditions and unique topography, the Sanctuary is a refuge for wild medicinal plants that occur in abundance throughout the property. Historically known as “Paynes Woods”, what is today the Goldenseal Botanical Sanctuary has had the reputation for being the best place to collect medicinal plants since the 1900's. The Sanctuary also offers several acres of restored prairie, reclaimed strip-mine land, ponds and fields to provide visitors the opportunity to see several ecosystems and a wide-ranging variety of herbs and trees. Over 5 miles of foot trails allow visitors access to learn about and see firsthand these herbs and trees flourishing in their natural environment. Visit the new Goldenseal Sanctuary website at: www.goldensealsanctuary.org
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Jennifer Radtke shares about how our gardens, however elaborate or simple, offer sanctuary to pollinators. There are many practical reasons to keep bees, like honey and pollination, but she encounters more and more people keeping Bees for the Bees--their presence and magic. She invites us to step more consciously into this partnership, providing a wealth of information and offers a meditation to help us connect more deeply with Bees.
Jennifer has been keeping bees in her backyard in Oakland, California for 13 years. She currently has 4 hives spread between Oakland, Piedmont, & Orinda, but grandmothers many hives across the area owned by her apprentices and students. She is former Vice-President of the Alameda Beekeeping Association. She is co-founder of the BioFuel Oasis in Berkeley, which sells beekeeping supplies & bees, and has a whole beekeeping education program for backyard beekeepers. She believes in putting the bees and their health first and listening to the bees rather than a top-down management approach. She mostly enjoys sitting with her hives in her garden and just being with them. Her hives are dedicated, like her, to teaching people about beekeeping, partnering with bees, and connecting with nature. Jennifer is also a founding member of the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries.
For more information on Jennifer's classes please visit her here. Look at her instagram for bee video and photos (https://www.instagram.com/jenniferradtke/).
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This episode addresses the degradation of our oceans from the perspective of scientist and sailor, Carol Pease, after just returning from 3 months at sea. She was recently traveling on an ocean voyage in a 400 foot boat beginning in Finland, then on to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, then sailing from Lisbon to Barbados.
Carol Pease is a retired and widely peer published oceanographer and meteorologist who lives in the "beautiful Pacific Northwest" in Seattle. Carol calls herself a high latitude traveler, being Norwegian, and is a daughter of Norway.
Carol studied at the University of Michigan, University of Miami and the University of Washington where she achieved Masters Degrees in both Oceanography and Atmospheric Science and ultimately a PhD in Atmospheric Science.
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In this episode Susan Draffan offers a brief overview of Sea Turtle evolution and mythology and shares her understanding of their esoteric purpose and requests for humanity in the context of the transformational shift of the ages that is currently unfolding. Together Susan and her Sea Turtle guide lead us on an inner plane journey to remember our true selves and birth our soul’s gift to our beloved planet.
Sea Turtles are one of the most ancient, widespread, fascinating, mysterious species on Grandmother Earth. They occupy all our planet’s oceans except the polar regions, and are both fundamental to and indicators for the health of marine ecosystems. All 7 extant sea turtle species are currently endangered or threatened. Turtles embody central roles of honor in the cosmological and creation stories of many world cultures, and sea turtles in particular act as gatekeepers for liminal portals – the “thin” places between sea and land, unseen dimensions, and levels of consciousness.
Susan is a vibrational essence co-creator and practitioner, plant spirit healer, animal communicator, and seer. Her background includes a former career in clinical medicine and research, spiritual studies in the Western Mystery Tradition, and a lifelong connection to the animal, nature, and fairy realms. She lives and dreams in a sacred valley rimmed by mountains near the sea, where she is presently developing a line of essences with native plants and places while holding a vision of the New Earth. To contact Susan, please email susan@shiningspirits.net or visit her website www.shiningspirits.net.
Listen to Susan's talk below
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In this episode, Rachel recounts some of her experiences communicating with the whales, shares her observations and concerns about the booming new “whale-watching” tourism, and offers guidance on how to reach out to these beings without disturbing their lives. She leads us in a meditation practice to make contact with the whales, receive their wisdom, and share our love.
Rachel Baird is an artist, peace activist and writer (best known as a poet). Her books in print include Uplands and Valentines and Other Tragedies. Baird's conceptual art, including video, installations, and peace centered work can be viewed at http://rachelbairdart.com. Currently, she is working on a series of "Peace Wells"- kinetic sculptural installations aligned to the Earth's lay lines, these wells provide visual cellular memory points for the frequency of peace and also create a collaborative energetic grid that will help generate and sustain the frequency of peace across the planet. The Embrace Project is another of Baird's peace focused creations- utilizing our common human ability and need to be held, this project gathers groups of people in a series of mindful embodied connections to invoke personal and global transformation.
Since childhood, Rachel has been aware of communicating with beings of the natural world, particularly the whales. She facilitates voyages to commune with whales and leads guided meditations to “help us reconnect with our water ancestors, meeting them where we are and creating a future together – helping hold the common dream to restore an ocean of peace.”
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Larch Hanson is a seaweed harvester on the North Eastern coast, running a family business out of his home in Steuben, Maine. Along with seaweed harvesting, Larch is a structural body worker, a carpenter, a cook, a gardener, just to name a few of his many talents.
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Storyteller April Thanhauser recounts traditional tales of the sea and guides us in a meditation journey of remembrance of our ancient and intimate soul connection with Ocean.
April is an educator, healer, and story-teller whose spiritual path has brought her to love a kind of meditation that is based in communion with Nature. She draws upon her life-long devotion to folk and fairy tales, and to the ocean, to share magical stories of ocean spirits interacting with humans.
Mermaids and silkies, nereids and sea gods, are very much alive in our collective imaginations and our mythology. No matter where we live now, there’s a good chance our near or distant ancestors lived in close relation with the sea. Traditional folk and fairy tales are carriers of our ancestral wisdom, speaking to us down through the generations of things that are important for us to remember. They may instruct us, caution us, make us laugh or shiver or simply entertain us. Many, many of these stories, though, are meant to illuminate aspects of our soul’s journey and remind us of our connection to spirit.
Since the Ocean is indeed our Mother, having birthed the first life on earth so long ago, and since, therefore, her creatures are our relatives, it makes sense that the story of our soul’s journey is filled with ocean connections. The water in our bodies was likely once flowing in an ocean current, and the tides of our emotions are subject to the same cosmic forces which orchestrate the seas. At some deep level, we recognize our kinship with whales, dolphins, and seals.
And so, there are powerful stories, from many cultural streams, in which the Ocean beings are central. They remind us of the Ocean in us all.
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We explore common wild edible plants found at this time of year (late August) and delve into recipes that turn them into tasty delicious food!
Dina Falconi is a clinical herbalist with a strong focus on food activism and nutritional healing. An avid gardener, wildcrafter, and permaculturist, Dina has been teaching classes about the use of herbs for food, medicine, and pleasure, including wild food foraging and cooking, for more than twenty years. She produces Falcon Formulations natural body care products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is a founding member of the Northeast Herbal Association, a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and an organizer of Slow Food-Hudson Valley. She is the author of Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody and Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook. www.botanicalartspress.com
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Loving our Mother through the ecological crisis by hearing and intoning poetry in the Wild.
Timothy P. McLaughlin is a poet, spoken word artist, and teacher. He founded the Spoken Word Program at the Santa Fe Indian School and he and his students received numerous awards and were featured in many media publications and programs, among them The New York Times and The PBS New Hour. He is the editor of the award-winning book Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth and the producer of a poetry album and documentary film both titled Moccasins and Microphones: Modern Native Storytelling through Performance Poetry. McLaughlin received a Lannan Writing Residency Fellowship in 2011 and his writing has appeared in a variety of journals. His debut collection of poems, Rooted & Risen, chronicles an inspired intimacy with the still wild places & presences of the Earth. He is best known for his powerful style of embodied recitation and his commitment to revitalizing ancient oral traditions in fresh contexts. He offers concerts, workshops, and ceremonies—often in collaboration with his wife, singer & sound healer Madi Sato—meant to awaken an integrated body-soul continuum and rekindle humanity’s basic reciprocal, loving relationship with the Earth. McLaughlin lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife and their three children. Visit him on the web at www.TimothyPMcLaughlin.com or https://praisingearth.org/
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As humans, we are born from the living web of wildness that is the universe itself. The galaxies are wilderness, as are the planets, the oceans, and the creative depths of the human soul and psyche. Yet much of our modern culture has had the effect of alienating us from the cosmos and our creative selves. Together we will explore the transformational shifts in worldview and practice that are reconnecting us with the Great Community of life. As John Muir wrote, "The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."
Drew Dellinger, Ph.D., is an internationally known speaker, writer, poet, and teacher who has lectured and taught extensively across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. He is author of the award-winning poetry collection, Love Letter to the Milky Way, and the upcoming book, Martin Luther King – Ecological Thinker: Toward a Cosmology of Connection. Dellinger has lectured at numerous colleges and universities and has taught at Prescott College, Schumacher College, Naropa University–Oakland, the Sophia Center, CIIS, and John F. Kennedy University, where he was Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Social Ecology. Dellinger has been called "a national treasure," by Joanna Macy, "a deep and courageous poet," by Alice Walker, and "one of the most creative, courageous, and prophetic voices of his generation," by Cornel West. www.drewdellinger.org Twitter: @drewdellinger
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Tammi Sweet is a passionate and energetic teacher. Her love, amazement and wonder of the human body and how it interrelates with the Earth shines through as she presents the material in ways people can really understand and take home. She loves integrating the wisdom of the body with all aspects of living. Presently she co-directs her Herbal Program at Heartstone Herbal School, and travels throughout the country teaching at Herbal Schools and Conferences. Her learning has come through many paths including traditional Master’s level college studies in Neurobiology, collegiate athletics, College level Anatomy teaching, Massage School, Yoga Teacher Training, Herbal studies, extensive trainings with Tom Brown Jr. and most importantly, an ever-growing love of understanding who we are in relation with this wonderful wild home we call Earth. To learn more about Tammy visit her website, www.heart-stone.com
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Rachel Corby is a plant whisperer, nature dreamer, biophile. She is passionate about growing and foraging for both her food and medicine. Rachel is the author of The Medicine Garden and 20 Amazing Plants & Their Practical Uses and Rewild Yourself: Becoming Nature. Rachel conducts workshops, retreats and personal sessions on reclaiming your wildness, plant consciousness and sacred plant medicine.
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This is our inaugural telesemiar episode from March 20, 2016. Pam Montgomery is a founding member of O.N.E. Really, it is her vision that led to the creation of O.N.E. For over 30 years, Pam has been inspiring and guiding individuals to remember their innate relationship with all Beings and to deepen this connection by creating an intimate partnership with Nature. Pam lectures and teaches around the globe and is recognized internationally as a Voice for the Plants. She is the author of Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology, as well as a contributing author of Planting the Future. Pam is the creator of Partner Earth Education Center and co-steward of Sweetwater Sanctuary in Danby, VT.
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