Words from Anya…
From my heart, I’m honored, impassioned and looking forward to sharing this 9-month journey exploring the natural teachings of the medicine wheel.
My journey started in my youth, being with, and learning from, the plants and herbs I was surrounded by—magic teachings of nature and kind spirits.
This, along with overcoming many physical challenges, I listened to and was led to follow a life of studying, exploring and understanding the healing potentials we each have within that are waiting to spring out like a sprout coming from a seed full of potential and what the possibility—once it’s exposed to the sun—our journey might hold for us.
This year long journey/course is coming from a weaving together of all I’ve embodied to this point.
So walk with us, to sprout all of the seeds that heal our grand ecosystem within our bodies, spirits and this planet. So that we walk grounded, purposeful, passionate, connected and medicinal to all our relations.
We are a microcosm of everything there is, woven together by earth itself. In our year-long Initiation program we will follow the Medicine Wheel around the sun, and explore ecology as the connection of our inner world to the entire ecosystem of our environment. This is our Medicine Path. Recognizing, embodying and healing our ecological intelligence is an evolution of our consciousness AND our human responsibility to care of our earth and our body as one.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
—Albert Einstein
The Elemental Journey Around the Sun
Herbalist Certificate Program
The Elemental Journey Around the Sun is a 9-month herbalist certification program designed for those who want to deepen their competence, confidence, and relationship with healing plants through lived, embodied experience.
This is not a casual workshop series.
Rooted in Taoist philosophy and Western energetic herbalism, the program bridges East and West to help students understand not just what herbs do, but how healing unfolds through nature’s patterns, cycles, and elements. It focuses on Inner and Outer Permaculture and Sustainability
Who This Is For
This program welcomes those who feel called into a deeper relationship with herbal medicine, including:
- Beginners seeking a strong, embodied foundation
- Practicing herbalists wanting a deeper, elemental lens
- Healers, bodyworkers, and facilitators expanding their tools
- Spiritually oriented seekers drawn to land-based learning
You may be seeking:
- Greater confidence working with plant allies
- A felt understanding of herbal energetics and seasonal medicine
- A supportive community to learn and grow alongside
- Clarity on your next step — home herbalism, community care, or clinical practice
The Experience
This program is intentionally designed as a healing container, much like a ceremony.
You will receive:
- 216 hours of in-person herbal education
- Small, intimate cohort (connection matters here)
- Direct relationship with seasonal plants
- Scratch-made farm-to-table lunches
- Land, garden, and apothecary immersion
- Digital notes after each session
- Online forum for continued connection
- Artemisia Institute Certified Diploma in Herbal Medicine upon completion of the full program
The Arc of the Journey
It is an initiatory arc lived season by season, in relationship with land, plants, and community where learning is imprinted through:
- storytelling and oral tradition
- practice, and presence
- hands-on practice with plants
- Community ritual and shared meals
From Spring to Winter, we walk the Medicine Wheel around the sun, aligning each module with the natural rhythms of the land and the Tao. Each weekend stands alone — and together they form a coherent, living whole.
Core Teachings & Skills
Key Frameworks
- The Tao & elemental philosophy
- Herbal Energetics (3-, 4-, and 5-element systems)
- The Five Shens (Spirits / aspects of consciousness)
- The Wheel of the Year & seasonal medicine
- Doctrine of Signatures
- Plant Spirit Medicine & ancestral knowledge
Herbal Foundations
- Plant identification, growing, and ethical foraging
- Harvesting & processing
- Herbal actions, flavors, and organ systems
- Medicine making: teas, tinctures, oils, salves, decoctions, extracts, capsules, flower essences, hydrosols
- Materia medica & key plant allies
Herbal Practice
- Diagnostics through elemental and energetic patterns
- Formulation & protocol design
- Working with self, family, and community
- Integrating herbal medicine into daily life
Graduation Project
Each student will develop a deep relationship with one plant ally over the course of the program. You will:
- Create a written plant story & materia medica
- Explore physical, energetic, and spiritual aspects
- Present your work during the final graduation weekend
This project helps anchor learning into lived relationship and practice.
