Classes Session 1 • May 16-19, 2025
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In this class, we will focus on Tarot and divination in the herbal and plant worlds, using The Herbal Tarot and other tarot decks. We will also discuss other natural modes of magical divination. Bring your divination tools (decks, pendulums, dousers, etc). We will begin our class with group instruction and finish with small group and paired readings, getting to share our receptive wisdom of the journeys the Tarot offers, guiding us on our path to our most helpful and beneficial herbs.
After getting out of your vehicles, come and enjoy the beautiful welcome from the amazing green beings who open their home to us. Learn a bit of their magical attributes which they so sweetly offer us. Ground yourself in the peace and beauty of Black Oak Ranch.
Come visit our plant elders and experience their habitat and companion choices. We will discuss their preferences and needs. We'll also discuss their many gifts, and how sometimes their habitat makes them not appropriate for medicine making.
Journey through the enchanting realm of scent. Aromatic botanicals have been revered across cultures throughout the ages as a portal through our emotions, desires, and dreams. Perfume has held a core place in our rituals, from those celebrated in ceremony to even the most intimate ones of our daily lives. From medicine to magic, botanical essences have been a part of our lives for centuries. Engaging with them is akin to time travel, where we can smell and experience the same aromas our ancestors did, straight from the earth. Enveloping ourselves daily with the life force of botanicals through perfumery is one of the great pleasures of life, and engaging in the art of creating perfume is a reward in its own rite.
We will cover the foundation and the art of natural perfumery, including some key concepts from Mandy Aftel's Slow Scent® method. We will explore the rich history and the elusive mystery of botanical essences as we also indulge our senses in exquisite, otherworldly aromas. We will experience beautiful aromatic rituals and then engage in a blending workshop where we will create our very own signature scent from a botanical perfumer’s organ of 18 key absolutes and essential oils. Carole is Nomad Botanicals Founder and has been working with medicinal and aromatic plants for the past three decades, from distilling essential oils and creating products to sharing the wonders of perfumery and aromatherapy in classes and seminars throughout the country.
Build a bridge between beauty and function as we discover both the enchanting and protective elements of essential oils and absolutes. We will cover aromatherapy principles that explain why essential oils heal and protect us, exploring their physical, mental, and emotional benefits, while also learning how to create formulas, including absolutes, that become perfumes with a purpose. After smelling and learning about the properties of 12 important essences (essential oils & absolutes), we will each create a functional perfume.
Cronies
Do you have an advanced care directive that will guide loved ones and medical staff in knowing your desires should you not be able to speak for yourself? If not, this class will give you important information needed to make informed decisions about how you want to be treated at the end of life. We will show you tools that are available to make your wishes clear as well as giving thought to what you want to have happen after you die. We Crones will be there to offer support to enable you to create documents that reflect your desires, values and wishes. We will share with you the California Advanced Health Care directive and the Five Wishes forms as a template to create your personal document.
The traditional Death Café’s are held all over the world. They give participants an opportunity to come together in a safe circle of sisters to openly talk about death. This format increases awareness about death in order to help folks make the most of the life they have left.
The Symposium Death Café is not a class per-se, it is a conversation. We can ask questions, find answers, share stories, explore fears and celebrate knowledge with love!
- The menstrual cycle as a time of reflection, renewal, and connection to creative energy.
- Herbal approaches to support a balanced cycle, enhance fertility, and address imbalances.
- Remedies and practices for relieving period pain and PMS naturally.
- Herbal and functional perspectives for addressing cervical dysplasia, fibroids, endometriosis and more.
- Root causes of PCOS and the hormonal imbalances at play.
- Herbs that support hormonal health, reduce inflammation, and regulate cycles.
- The connection between metabolic health, insulin resistance, and PCOS—and how to address them.
- Case studies and practical tools from clinical herbal practice to support healing.
If you are a lover of plants, and feel a deep connection with nature, you have no doubt stumbled upon a plant that gave you a sense of remembrance. Or maybe you felt the plant speak to you. In this class, we’ll gain insight on ways to connect with plants through an intuitive and natural way - the way of knowing. In this class, we will explore the ways in which plants can, and do, communicate, and how to deepen that intuitive connection.
The heart is one of the most, if not the most, vital organ in our bodies. In this class we will gain knowledge on herbal plant allies that will help in opening and strengthening the heart. Metaphorically and physically. Join us as we are also guided in internal open heart exercises.
Learn traditional dances from Ghana, West Africa
Learn traditional dances from Ghana, West Africa
This discussion is an opportunity for white women to bring our questions, concerns, and hopes to address the ways that we unintentionally hold white supremacy culture and racism. Let’s start to unpack the difficult legacy we carry, with care, compassion, and courage, knowing that the same structures that uphold patriarchy and. destruction have also created the wounds of white supremacy culture, and we have the power and responsibility to start to dismantle these structures within ourselves and our communities.
Crones
Crones, come share lunch with other Wise Crones. We will discuss loving life after menopause, finding joy, appreciation, and health in our Crone years. We will also discuss our part in the Maiden’s Rites of Passage Ceremony and our own Crone’s Honoring Ritual.
This is time to reflect and share our experiences of Cronehood and our love for our Wise Crone ways and bodies. Past menopause and into memorypause, we will tell our stories. A time to make a ritual Crone Broom will follow.
Crones, come share another lunch with other Wise Crones. We will continue our plans for the Maiden’s Rites of Passage and our own Crone’s Honoring Ritual.
Join us for a quiet honoring of the loss of an unborn child through miscarriage or abortion.
Young Women ages 12-21
Curious about poi spinning? Have you ever seen fire dancing? Poi spinning is good introduction to flow arts. Join poi-teacher Loreta to learn and master the fundamental moves and transitions of poi! Move your body while enriching your mind! Poi spinning is a beautiful art. If you ever wanted to try this, this is your chance. Or maybe you already know some of the moves and want to improve it, this is a class for you too. We will cover the basics, turns, transitions, stalls and other techniques. We will have some sets of poi to play with.
Welcome maidens, to the Circle of Women! Join us in celebrating the beauty and strength of this phase of your life, the time of your bloods. We will explore ideas and feelings, hear stories, make things to care for ourselves and prepare for the Maiden’s Rites of Passage Ceremony to be held Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. Any young woman who would like to go through the Maiden Ceremony must attend this class.
Mid Kids ages 7-11
Curious about poi spinning? Have you ever seen fire dancing? Poi spinning is good introduction to flow arts. If you ever wanted to try it, this is a class for you. Or if you already know some moves, we can learn more tricks. Come and learn and we can perform together during the talent show on Saturday night. We will have some sets of poi to play with.
Young Children
Early Morning Classes
We will begin by grounding and connecting with this land, our breath and body. Slowly moving into our bodies with care and ease. We will open and ground invoking earth energy with the focus of connecting with the energy of the land. We will end with connecting our voices.
We will begin by finding our breath and safely move in ways that invoke creativity, ease of movement and openness. Finding awareness and flow in our joints, sacral area including our hips and supporting ease of heart. The intention is to connect with the water element that moves within and around us, that connects and remembers. We will end with chanting.
We will begin by finding our breath and supporting our ability to discern and adapt. We will focus to sustain the ability to show up in all the inpermanice that life offers. Focusing on the areas of the belly, heart, throat, and ease the mind of our monkey mind thoughts. This class will have the intention of inspiring practitioners to keep their aim and live their soul's purpose. We will end this class with a chakra clearing meditation and chanting.
Other Classes
Come join us for an evening under the late spring constellations. Guided by a green laser wand, you’ll learn to find your way around the night sky and the names of the stars and constellations, while hearing folklore from different times and cultures. We’ll meet the bright shining stars of the Twins, the Lion, Virgo, the Scorpion, and more… You will also be dosed with Essence Elixirs!
Intensives