CLASSES
BIPOC friends, please be in touch. I would like to offer you a non-needs-based scholarship, as a way to begin to decolonize herbalism and make reparations.
Myth and Magic of the Trees of Ireland
Return to your roots by connecting with the sacred trees, who have been honored throughout the ages as holders of wisdom and breath, of magic and healing. Deepen into your own relationship with the land and discover intimate ways to tend to the Earth through our connection with these majestic and wise beings. In the Irish spiritual and healing traditions, tree energy and magic is a part of our heritage. The trees were so valued that they were aligned with an ancient alphabet known as the Ogham. We will delve into those symbols with the invitation to work with the alphabet in creating a set of divination sticks (called fews) and other artful creations.
Join me on a 13 tree journey with the sacred trees of Ireland. Each month we will deepen into a tree that holds energies of that lunar cycle and season and receive imbas (an Irish word meaning wordless wisdom and knowledge, especially received from the natural world) for that time. We will weave spiritual and medicinal properties of the trees into the learnings as well as myth and story.
This is an updated and expanded offering with new videos and new content from an offering I shared several years ago called A Sacred Year with Trees.
Trees included:
September: Hazel and Apple
October: Elder
November: Yew
December: Pine
January: Birch
February: Rowan
March: Alder
Aprill: Willow
May: Hawthorn
June: Ash
July: Oak
August: Holly
Each month (for a year) you will receive a email of tree treasures that includes:
Written content to include lunar cycles, Irish historical information on the trees including medicine, myth, folklore, spiritual/ magical uses, recipes, and more.
Recorded audio journey with the tree to deepen into their wisdom and healing and imbas
A video to introduce you to the tree in person, sharing their energies and special features
The packet of tree treasures will be emailed to you on the 15th of each month.
$125 for a yearlong journey with the trees. JOIN HERE.
Way of the Herbs: The Sacred Turnings
Gather in community to connect with the wisdom, magic and healing of eight herbs (called simples) that align with the energies offered by each of the sacred turnings on the Irish Wheel of the Year. Open to the ways the plants connect to and play with us as they guide us through the year.
We will discuss ways to engage with the herb for body, mind, spirit and magic, before we move into ritual with them, including a plant spirit journey and elemental connection with the energies of each ancient festival celebration.
Enroll for the year/ Eight sessions: $275: Registration will open 1 December 2024. More details HERE
GATHERINGS:
Winter Solstice/ Pine- Sunday 22 December from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Imbolc/ Dandelion- Sunday 2 February from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Spring Equinox/ Nettle- Sunday 23 March from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Bealtaine/ Hawthorn Leaf and Flower- Sunday 4 May from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Summer Solstice/ Yarrow- Sunday 22 June from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Lughnasa/ Calendula- Sunday 3 August from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Autumn Equinox/ Thyme- Sunday 21 September from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Samhain/ Mugwort- Sunday 26 October from 10am- 1 pm MST/ 5pm- 8pm Irish time
Hearth-Tending
To the sacred three
To save, to shield, to surround
This house, this hearth, this household
This night, this sacred night, each sacred night
-Old Gaelic Blessing
The hearth is the hearth of the home, a place of nourishment and connection, where the flame of illumination and connection ever burn. Where we create food for the body and are fed food for the spirit. The hearth ignites the fire within, the truest essence of our being, kept alight by the breath of our ancestors and the old ways being remembered. We come to the hearth to discover the sacred in the mundane, to practice ritual and to be still, to listen and to share.
Come back to the sacredness of the hearth as we remember we are hearth-tenders: priestess, midwife priestess, alchemist.
You are invited to journey with us: from the dark of Winter Solstice, guided by a Solstice candle lit at the hearth, through to Imbolc, where we tend to Brigid’s flame, protecting hearth, home and household. We will gather at our virtual and physical hearth each week to invoke the aspect of tending to the hearth, to find the simple and rich joy in nourishment for body and spirit, to create, to listen and to share.
We will connect with the aspects of hearth-tending as priestess, midwife and alchemist, invoking Irish goddesses Brighid, Macha, Airmid and the Cailleach. From the depths of Winter Solstice through to the awakenings of Imbolc, we will gather to practice simple hearth rituals, invoke the elements, create herbal and folk remedies and listen and share story.
We gather over five Sundays:
29 December from Noon- 2 PM MST/ 7-9 PM Irish Time
5 January from Noon- 2 PM MST/ 7-9 PM Irish Time
12 January from Noon- 2 PM MST/ 7-9 PM Irish Time
19 January from Noon- 2 PM MST/ 7-9 PM Irish Time
26 January from Noon- 2 PM MST/ 7-9 PM Irish Time
$165 for five sessions
Combine with Way of the Herbs: $400 (for both/ $40 savings): Registration will open 1 December. More details HERE
Death Reverence in Ireland: Immersive Experience
Our Irish ancestors walked with death in a way that has dramatically changed in modernity. An understanding of how we as humans have honored death through the ages and how we have grieved, can offer wisdom for living, dying and grieving in these times.
Join us for this series of seasonal sessions, to remember ways to approach and honor death, to grieve and keen, through each season of the solar year. For each gathering we will journey with a mythic death guide of Ireland and weave in the verbal and non-verbal language of our ancestors through myth, story, herb and tree. We will share a place in Ireland that holds reverence in our search for the meaning of life and death. We will offer ways to connect to Nature, noticing her ever-shifting cycles of life and death, including a herbal and tree ally for each season. We will meet via Zoom. All sessions will be recorded and recording sent within 24 hours of class time. $65 for each session or $175 for the remaining series of 3.
Imbolc- Brighid, Midwife to Death on Sunday 28 January from 4-7 PM MST: COMPLETE
Bealtaine- Mis, Grief as a Threshold to Embodiment on Sunday 5 May from 4-7 PM MST COMPLETE
Lughnasa- Tailtu, Death as Harvest on Sunday 4 August from 4-7 PM MST COMPLETE
Samhain- The Cailleach, Storming Into Your Bones on Sunday 3 November from 4-7 PM MST REGISTER HERE
Please consider joining our Death Reverence in Ireland Pilgrimage. All the details HERE
Your guides for this series are Tonja Reichley and Charlene Ray.
Tonja has been living in the seaside village of Kinvara, in the west of Ireland, for almost 20 years, connecting to the wisdom of the land and their sacred places: the holy wells and sacred springs, the beloved trees and hedgerow herbs. She has been leading sacred journeys to Ireland for many years, weaving in myth, ritual and herbal co-creation.
Charlene divides her time between the beautiful landscape of the Pacific Northwest of the US and her soul’s home, Ireland. She is a grief tender and student of the Art of Dying where she guides others to access their own inner wisdom in sacred relationships with the more than human world.