RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVING RECIPROCITY

Relationships of Loving Reciprocity Course Launches Fall 2024!

Empower yourself! Learn The Practice of Regenerative Wildcrafting As you Make Medicine Infused with
the Wisdom of the Wild

Distilling my nearly 30 years of wildcrafting and medicine making experience, these videos and accompanying materials complement and greatly expand upon the information I shared in my bestselling book, Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants.

Filled with practical hands-on information, experiential stories, and explorations of relational ways of knowing, Relationships of Loving Reciprocity invites you to enter into a deeper recognition and honoring of our interconnected existence with the land and communities of life. In this way, we can work together to ensure that these plants and their medicine will be available for many generations to come.

Relationships of Loving Reciprocity: Why this course, and why now?

With interest in wildcrafting, medicine making, and herbalism growing, it is becoming increasingly important to situate these practices within wider ecological contexts. The results of operating from human-centered orientations to the ecosystems of Earth are evident, and many people are looking for ways to align with new ways of interacting with the world that support regenerative ways of being.

Relationships of Loving Reciprocity guides and inspires plant lovers, naturalists, and a wide range of herbalists from the novice to the expert to ethically gather wild plants for medicine. Throughout I encourage the practice of Earth-centered ways of being as you develop caring and respectful ways of interacting with plants and the ecosystems in which they live.

Relationships of Loving Reciprocity: What you receive

Harmoniously balancing the practical aspects of harvesting wild plants within a context of
intimate and caring relationship with the living Earth, lifetime access to this course includes:

• a professionally produced series of videos describing the process of harvesting the nine most common plant parts we work with in herbal medicine

• The Practice of Regenerative Wildcrafting, an e-book containing in-depth descriptions of the many aspects of respectfully gathering plants from the wild

• a pocket field book filled with the foundational philosophy of regenerative wildcrafting and keys to studying and assessing ecosystems

• a short series of professionally produced videos demonstrating the process of making liquid herbal extracts

• Making Medicine Infused with the Wisdom of the Wild, a step-by-step e-book describing the complete process of making liquid herbal extracts 

• additional recorded audio and video lectures and short takes specific to plants not covered in the main video series

Video Series: The Practice of Regenerative Wildcrafting

The heart of this course consists of a series of professionally produced, lovingly crafted, cinematic quality videos that reflect my care for and attention to plant life and the natural world. Each invites participants into an experience of the natural world where we will flow through the arc of the harvest season from Cottonwood buds in late winter and early spring to root harvests in the fall.

In each video I share pertinent information about the plant's habitat, positive plant identification, detailed harvesting techniques, medicinal uses of the plant covered, and ways to ensure future harvests. I also share stories from years of experience that highlight important aspects of working with plants such as awareness and understanding of plant toxicity and a reframing of the concept of "invasive" species.

Each video focuses on a plant representing one of the most common plant parts gathered for medicine. We have specifically chosen each of these representative plants because they or their close relatives are commonly found and widely distributed throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and beyond. The one exception is Oplopanax horridus (Ashusha aka Devil’s Club), a Pacific Northwest bioregional plant that teaches us much about the spirit of regenerative wildcrafting.

I present the practical knowledge in these videos so that you can use the techniques of the particular plant as a template for the gathering of similar plants. For example, you would use the same basic technique of harvesting Alder bark as you would when harvesting the bark of Oak or any other tree.

• Buds (Black Cottonwood Populus trichocarpa)

• Leaves (Nettle Urtica dioica)

• Root Bark (Ashusha aka Devil’s Club Oplopanax horridus)

• Flowers (Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna)

• Bark (Red Alder Alnus rubra)

• Flowering Tops (Saint John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum)

• Seeds (Wild Carrot aka Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota)

• Berries (Blue Elder Sambucus nigra)

• Roots (Angelica A. genuflexa)

Regenerative Wildcrafting e-book

Covers the practical aspects of harvesting plants from the wild while establishing deeply caring relationships with the Earth. With it you will learn to:

• gain awareness of the importance of reciprocal gratitude when interacting with plants and ecosystems

• have the foundations for embarking upon or deepening your study of plant identification using a botanical key or through other forms of observation

• have a basic understanding of determining whether a harvest will be ethical and regenerative, and conversely when it is best to not make a harvest at all

• know the endangered, threatened, and sensitive species that have been commonly used for medicine in North America, have awareness of the species that we should never harvest, and become familiar with strategies for harvesting others that need special attention from us

• develop an awareness of the most toxic plants of your bioregion

• how to engage in practices of mutually beneficial and opportune wildcrafting

• how to properly process, dry, and store wildcrafted herbs

Regenerative Wildcrafting Pocket Field Book

This 4x6" pocket fieldbook outlines the foundational philosophy of regenerative wildcrafting. In to this, you will find:

• inspiration to deepen your practice of deep listening as I invite you to tune into the myriad voices of the natural world through meditation and other forms of connection

• be able to access relational and animistic ways of knowing and learn about connecting with the forces that guide the healthy functioning of ecosystems

• basic knowledge and awareness for assessing the well-being and key components of various ecosystems

• encouragement to begin or to continue developing relationships with plants and ecosystems

Medicine Infused with the Wisdom of the Wild
Video Series and e-book

These step-by-step videos and accompanying book contain all you need to know to start making or to increase the quality, both physically and energetically, of liquid herbal extracts, including:

• Understanding menstruum ratios and percentages of alcohol, water, and/or glycerine

• Medicinal plant constituents and solubility factors

• Medicine making tools and techniques

• The art and science of making high-quality medicinal extracts

• The benefits of scientific and folk methods of tincturing

• Techniques for working with fresh and dried plant material

• Making medicine that helps us reconnect with the ecological realities of life