Medicine of Place with Kat Maier

Join us to gather with herbalist Kat Maier, author of Energetic Herbalism, and Emily Ruff, director of Sage Mountain, as we learn what Medicine of Place means, spending the days giving back to the plants, the land and nourishing the spirits that inhabit this small piece of paradise. While these times are challenging, they also deliver a dynamic message and instruction on new ways to move thoughtfully and with intention in our efforts for ecological preservation.

Over the years, the flora, fauna, rocks and land of the Sanctuary have given themselves unconditionally. Students, artists, teachers, botanists and folks of many walks are deeply rewarded after a visit. Whether it is knowledge, wisdom, inspiration or answers to research and investigation, no one leaves the Sanctuary empty-handed or empty-hearted.

We will open the weekend casually on Friday evening with an introduction and invitation to work in ceremonial space and the collaborative process of making medicine to give back to the land. Our weekend Saturday and Sunday will include trail hikes, observing plants and landscape, and honing our sense of perception. We will share group and individual exercises to focus our attention on a single phenomenon or the landscape as a whole. We will work with the medicine of Flower Essences to capture the energetic healing of the garden and create an essence that will be returned to the land on Sunday. Our intention is to allow this medicine of place to reach neighboring lands and beyond, where extractive processes have wrought harm and whose Spirits have been neglected. As herbalists and plant stewards, we celebrate our role in all ways of deep ecological action.

Our ancestors experienced the plants through their senses and their dreams, and above all, they listened and learned the patterns of Nature. Cycles of nature are the cosmology that define a culture. No matter where we live on the Earth, there is still the turning of the wheel as it is influenced by forces larger than ourselves. Engaging in these land-based rituals is a way to tap into very old energies and Earth wisdom, and in this time of ecosystem fragility.

Weekend begins informally on Friday evening with an introduction, and ends Sunday after lunch. Tuition of $425 includes vegetarian meals, served Saturday morning through Sunday lunch, included with tuition. Register by June 12th at the early bird tuition of $375. Scholarships are available. Primitive camping is included in tuition for the weekend. Platform camping and private cabins (with shared restroom and showers) are available for rental on a first-come, first serve basis. Several local inns are offering student rates for those wishing for private off-site lodging.

Kat Maier RH, (AHG) is the founder and director of Sacred Plant Traditions, a center for herbal studies in Charlottesville, Virginia. One of her greatest accomplishments has been to train many clinical herbalists who have gone onto to begin other schools, apothecaries or open their own practices. In clinical practice for over 30 years, Kat teaches internationally at universities, conferences, and herbal schools. She is author of the book Energetic Herbalism, published by Chelsea Green in 2021. She is a founding member of Botanica Mobile Clinic, a nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible herbal medicine to local communities. The Botanica clinic arose out of her school’s free clinic which was one of the first on the East Coast and served as a template for other herbalism schools. She began her study of plants as a Peace Corps volunteer, and her training as a Physician’s Assistant allows her to weave the language of biomedicine into her practice of traditional energetic herbalism. She is coauthor of Bush Medicine of San Salvador Island, Bahamas. As a passionate steward of the plants, Kat also served as president of United Plant Savers and was the recipient of the organization’s first Medicinal Plant Conservation Award.