When asked how she knew these things, the Wise Woman Wortcunner replied the same as other Medicine Women, Shamans, Sin Eaters, Plant Spirit Healers the world-wide:
“I asked them and their spirits were gracious enough to tell me.”
A gifted Wise Woman Wortcunner works directly with the plants and nature to receive the secrets of the plants. She is a “wise woman” and “seer” who can read the signs of nature. She may be an herbalist but she is so much more than that.
Let’s look at the definitions …
Herbalist
Wikipedia says: “Herbal medicine (or “herbalism”) is the study and use of medicinal properties of plants.” And the Free Dictionary says: herbalist: n. 1. One who grows, collects, or specializes in the use of herbs, especially medicinal herbs.
Wortcunner
To the Anglo-Saxons of the days of yore, the wise women and the wizards who knew the virtues of plants were known as wortcunners. Wort means “root,” “herb,” or “spice,” and cunning (from the Middle English cunnen) means “to know.” A wortcunner is not just a botanist or a knower of herbs, but one who has the occult, hidden, or secret power to see into the origin of things, to see beyond the surface. He or she has a relation of kinship and kindness to the worts, knows their names, and knows the words, chants, and mantras with which to call upon the spirits that inhabit the plant world. A root-knower is a seer. He or she knows the root of the illness that strikes a human being down and knows the root of the cure: the wort, which unfolds as secretly in the dark as the very malaise it will heal.
–from Storl, Wolf D, The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: The Healing Power of Medicinal Plants. North Atlantic Books.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner Archetype you connect with in this Wortcunner Journey is a portal into the deep mysteries that you hold within your self. She embodies aspects of your multisensory, multidimensional self that are being awakened.
Through merging with your connection with this ancient archetype, you gain access to pathways that will reclaim your ancient wisdom and renew it in your life today.When you make contact with this aspect of your self you will dive deep into the mysteries and magic of its energies.
The energetics that you connect with in your Wise Woman Wortcunner archetype act as contact points that usher you into the essence of wisdom and knowledge and self-realization held throughout time in archetypes.
Working with the natural magic and ancient wisdom of your Wise Woman archetype, you create a resonance that allows you to travel into the heart of the energetic signature held in her.
You use the essence of the energetics of this aspect of your self to create a series of guideposts for your journey deep into your self as you find and liberate those parts of your self that have been activated by this Wise Woman Wortcunner archetype.
By journeying through these archetypal landscapes you become open to your self and more conscious and familiar with your natural multisensory, multidimensional nature. You reclaim the whole of who you naturally are.
In this Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey, you utilize the natural magic and ancient wisdom of this nature centered archetype to awaken the corresponding energies within you and travel an Inner Journey through a specific Cycle of Healing.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner archetype you encounter will present you with initiatory processes that prepare you to seek your own inner mysteries, natural magic, and ancient wisdom.
The intent of the Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey is not primarily about learning about herbal medicine (although you do learn a whole lot about herbal medicine as we go along) but rather about reclaiming the inherent sacred feminine shamanic ability (which some call the natural systems thinking process) to live in direct sensory communication with the many intelligences of the Plants.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey’s core message is about learning and incorporating a structure and a system for accessing your own ancient archetypal wisdom and knowledge. Through connecting with these archetypal aspects of your self as ancient Wise Woman Wortcunner you would come to consciously inhabit and use your many natural senses of different forms of intelligences, attractions and love.
As you recognize and reclaim these archetypal parts of your self, you rebirth your self back into the wholeness of who you really are. As you do this you gain an unparalleled understanding of the true consciousness of the Plants and their Healing Ways.
Archetypal Herbalism As Eco-therapy
Did you ever walk along outside and get a sense that you might have heard some message – or something?
Plants talk. You know that by now. Plants continually are calling you to come join them in a journey through your mutli-dimensional awareness to the wholeness of yourself.
At its heart, herbal medicine is about taking the journey into deep healing for yourself. The plants have things to say to you about yourself, your personal healing, and how you can become the stewards of their secrets. They invite you to step into this deep healing and with their assistance carry it into yourself and in doing that take a step to heal the world.
Plants aren’t just remedies – they are consciousness. Each type of Plant carrying its group consciousness as well as their own individual consciousness woven into the whole.
Remedies don’t heal. Consciousness heals.
Original Intent
Most of the world has used herbal medicine for most of recorded history. Herbal medicine is part of a traditional culture of medicine and healing. Original herbal medicine played a central part in an integral system of healing that addressed the individual as part of a whole constellation of order.
In this kind of traditional healing culture, the whole person and their entire context of being was addressed. Each problem the person encountered had its physical, emotional, psychological, social, spiritual, relationship, family, and community correlates. Not only were the person’s symptoms considered in choosing healing remedies but also the person as part of the whole constellation of her social order was addressed.
Remedies were chosen by taking into account all of these factors– herbs often being a part of the remedy constellation.
An herbal remedy was a marker for this holistic medicine approach. The herb was not just used for its chemical constituents. Rather the herb was used to carry the intention for healing the whole. As a part of nature – an integral part of the whole – it was appropriate for herbs to represent this wholistic intention.
When you took an herb, the intent was to imbibe that representative part of the whole with the entire healing intention. Herbs were more than just a physical remedy to relieve a physical symptom more than just a convenient remedy to overcome troublesome aspects.
Herbal Medicine was a way of restoring Earth and healing the wholeness of your self – mind, body, soul, and spirit – all of you.
Herbalism is eco-therapy in action – a way of rejuvenating Earth and healing yourself and others. Eco-therapy is a means by which we are healing and growing through healthy and supportive interaction with Earth.
The wholeness of our being – our psychology, physiology, spirituality, sociology – our thoughts, feelings, intuition, creativity, language, relationships – all of what we are – arises out of our connection to Earth or our separation from it.
The latest scientific understandings of our universe and the most ancient indigenous wisdom tells us that Nature has the central and most vital role in our in our healing, development and evolution.
As you have been traveling along your Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey you may be experiencing that you are “intimately connected with, embedded in, and inseparable from” nature.
As you experience this, you will begin to realize and understand that healing with herbs can only truly take place when it arises out of your deepest multi-dimensional, multi-sensory connections with Earth. You will come to recognize your self as a “part of Nature’s global, self organizing, perpetuation and regeneration system”.
Through your continued sensory experiences with Nature you will become consciously aware of the ever present, ongoing communications of your 54 Natural senses. Each of your natural senses is an intelligence common to you and all of Nature and Nature is speaking to you through each of your many varied experiences of these senses.
As you learn to release to and recognize your sensory experiences you will be able to gain the guidance of your Natural senses in your unfolding. In this way, your interactions with the Plants access the wisdom of “Nature in action” and guide you in the use of Herbal Medicine as Eco-therapy.
Entering into the Archetypal Energetics of the Wise Woman Wortcunner will carry through the deep connection to Earth to these Mysteries of Healing held in your Heart and Soul’s Consciousness.
I believe that we began to call ourselves “herbalists” when we became afraid to know ourselves as Sacred Seers; Those who know the essence of all and who communicate with the soul of all; Those for whom traveling in these deepest mysteries is the common way.
Truth is, today very few are guided in unfolding themselves as a Wortcunner. Many are trained to be herbalists and sometimes along the way a few may fall into the essence of their Wortcunner souls.
My task here is to offer up to you portals that will assist in unfolding your Wise Woman Wortcunner soul.
This Wise Woman Wortcunner soul of yours will certainly not be found in any books – and not in the classroom learning botany or anatomy. Nor any other subjects.
Your Wise Woman Wortcunner soul lies alive and well in the fullness of your multi-dimensional, multi-sensory self – cradled in the bosom of the web of life and brought to awakening through the Breath of Nature.
When you have connected again with your Wise Woman Wortcunner soul and given it space to blossom in the light and grow in the dark then you will have gained enough familiarity with the ways of the mysteries to complement that with learning from the books.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner’s Path supports you dreaming your Wortcunner soul to see what ancient wise and kind part of yourself comes to find you.
Wise Woman Wortcunner Training
In the Wise Woman Wortcunner’s Self-Directed Online Training Programs described below, you will travel deeply with your Wise Woman Wortcunner Archetype and work with shamanic energetics to support you in learning from the Plants.
We will use specific Journey techniques to open the portal to connect with your Wise Woman Wortcunner Archetype. Through this multidimensional aspect of your self you will be introduced to your multiple sensory intelligences and attractions which will open your direct sensory communication with the Plants.
In this way you will connect with your Wortcunner Archetype, Herbal Ally and some Plant Friends who will give you an introduction to the ways of the Wise Woman Wortcunner and become your first Wortcunner Council of Plant Friends.
Each month you will make connections with different aspects of your Herbal Ally and your Plant Friends. Including:
Throughout your Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey you will experience Direct Sensory Perception Plant Encounters and work hands on with an extensive Materia Medica. You will explore:
Kind Words…Being with the plants reminds me of the blessed and beloved time I spent many years ago when I first started learning about herbs and this class has brought back that feeling. I am eager now to revamp my practice to reflect my new insights from the class. |
The Wise Woman Worthcunner’s Path Online Herbal Training Program
“These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Every pain, every plant, every problem is cherished. Night is loved for darkness, day for light. Uniqueness is our treasure, not normalcy.
These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Receive abundance with compassion, knowing you will be food for others. Know that dying is a portal just as birth is. Celebrate all comings and goings, they are the turnings of the spiral.
These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. The joy of life is the give-away. You are the center of your universe. You are the axis, life’s matrix, the still point in the ever-moving. The designs of the universe radiate through you. You are god, goddess, unique and whole.” ~Susun Weed
The Evenstar Wise Woman Wortcunner Online Trainings are self-directed year-long journeys of practical, magical and mystical encounters with the herbs. Every month you will receive specific activities, journeys, and plant encounters to work with that will help open up the Mysteries of the Plants to you. The Wortcunner Online Trainings are magical programs that take you through a full year and a day turning of the Wheel of the Year. This allows you steady and consistent practice that will bring the Wise Woman Wortcunner Archetype alive in you.
Each month’s learning is keyed to a focus of deepening, growing and expanding your relationship with the Plants. This is not a program that trains you to be a professional herbalist but rather an exploration of your own energetics and those of the Plants. The Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey is suitable for beginners and professional herbalists.
Every month you will be emailed a link to special webpages with each month’s Wortcunner Journey. These teachings are a beautiful interactive online program. Plus, you will also receive a PDF of each month’s Wortcunner Journey which makes it easy to bring the teachings along with you when you are in the field working directly with the Plants.
These monthly Wortcunner Journeys give you materials to study, tasks to undertake, adventures to embrace, resources to seek out, inner journeys to travel, and guidance for coming to use and know the plants. There will be work for medicine making, plant encounters, journaling, ritual, and journeying work with the Plants.
What Lies Ahead For You In Your Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey:
Welcome Journey
Journey 1: Making Connections
Journey 2: Your Wise Woman Wortcunner Herbal Ally
Journey 3: Medicine Making
Journey 4: Unfolding Your Wortcunner Archetype
Journey 5: Apprenticing to the Plants
Journey 6: Dreaming the Plants
Journey 7: The Heart Of Your Wise Woman Wortcunner Self
Journey 8: Wise Woman Wortcunner Council
Journey 9: The Greater Sight
Journey 10: Earth As Healing
Journey 11: Receiving the Healing Gifts of the Plants
The Wortcunner Journey curriculum is subject to change without notice.
This course has no deadlines and expectations. You are not required to prove what you have accomplished nor will you be graded on your work. It is a journey for your Soul as Wise Woman Wortcunner. It is your own journey and you will take your self as far as you want through your engaged participation. The material is flexible but you are cautioned to adhere to guidelines that will help to make our journey a successful and safe one. Your relationship with the Plants will take on your own dynamics and be colored by your own personal multidimensional aspects.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner Online Herbal Training Program Special Features
Choose your Wise Woman Wortcunner Path below:
Wise Woman Wortcunner Solitary Online Journey
On this path, you take your Wortcunner Journey with the Plants completely on your own. Each month you will receive that month’s Wise Woman Wortcunner teachings and the rest is between you and the Plants! This is a good choice for those who are self-directed and who don’t feel the need for a guiding experienced hand.
Of course, you will still be able to reach out to me by email if you are experiencing any logistical or herbal difficulties and we’ll see what you need.
Tuition: The tuition for the Solitary Path is $140 paid upfront or $37.50 paid in four installments ($150).
Registration
To get started, select your preferred payment option as described above, read the Terms of Service, and then click the appropriate payment button below to pay securely.
You can contact me for questions.
By making your payment you are committing to a Wise Woman Wortcunner Online Journey.
All payments are non-refundable and there is no credit given for any of the Wortcunner Online full or installment payments. If you decide not to continue with the program all unpaid installment payments will be processed when due as agreed and you will continue to be emailed your monthly Wortcunner Journeys which you can complete in your own time.
Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess Guided Dedicant Cycle
The Wise Woman Wortcunner Guided work is the Dedicant Cycle for the Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess Initiatory Journey.
Taking up the Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess Journey- This is a strong call and takes much steadiness of mind and heartfelt love. To honor your courage in answering the Call, we invite you to begin your Shaman Witch Priestess Journey as a Dedicant in the Wise Woman Wortcunner Guided Journey.
The conversation within the Wise Woman Wortcunner Guided Dedicant Cycle is taken at a level significantly elevated beyond traveling solitary in the Wise Woman Wortcunner Solitary Journey.
As you travel as a Shaman Witch Priestess in the Wise Woman Wortcunner Dedicant Cycle, you receive personal mentoring, teaching, and guidance from me throughout the Cycle. As an Evestar Shaman Witch Priestess Dedicant, your comprehensive and disciplined Wise Woman Wortcunner work extends into the greater Mystery realms and provides a solid foundation for your initiatory Shaman Witch Priestess Journey.
In your Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess, Dedicant Cycle – you follow the Wise Woman Journey and we meet monthly in private sessions to weave your Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey with your Shaman Witch Priestess unfolding. Every month you complete a Wise Woman Wortcunner lesson using a special Debriefing Template for each activity in the lesson. I review your work, return it to you and we dive deeper into your Wortcunner Shaman Witch Priestess Mysteries.
In the Shaman Witch Priestess Dedicant Cycle work, beyond the Wise Woman Wortcunner monthly work, there are certain rites, rituals, Priestess work, Quests, Cycles of Healing, Sacred Feminine spiritual dedication work, etc. that you will be given as is appropriate for you and that takes into account your Shaman Witch Priestess unfolding. In the last three months of your Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey, Dedicants are integrated into monthly rituals and rites as appropriate.
The purpose of the Dedicant Cycle is to give you experience with many of the fundamental principles of the Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess training through the Wise Woman Wortcunner work, to enfold you in some of the Evemstar Shaman Witch Priestess ways, and to consolidate the habit of completing the monthly work of each Wise Woman Wortcunner lesson. In this way, you can have a good solid experience that will support you in knowing if Woman Shaman Priestess is the path you want to continue to travel as you unfold your Priestess self. Also, it lets me see if the Dedicant is capable of undertaking the work, the journey, and the initiations of an Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess.
The Wise Woman Wortcunner Dedicant Cycle gives you clear directions with work you are attracted to without too many distractions and allows you to fully consolidate and integrate your calling into the Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess Journey. If you can complete the Shaman Witch Priestess Dedicant Cycle you will be immensely stronger and will have beautifully grown your power.
Once you successfully complete the Wise Woman Wortcunner Dedicant Cycle and find that you wish to continue in the Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess Training we will chart your path forward as Evenstar Shaman Witch Priestess.
Tuition: The tuition for the Guided Dedicant Cycle -Wise Woman Wortcunner Journey is $3000, paid upfront to demonstrate and lock in your commitment.
Registering for the Wise Woman Wortcunner Dedicant Cycle for the Woman As Shaman Priestess Healer requires a personal interview with me for admittance.
I have time for just 2 more students.
“When we know through direct experience that “we are of the earth, made of the same stuff,” we can no longer play the old sacred game that separates us from nature and our own bodies. Something inside us shifts. . . Sometimes this means opening up parts of ourselves that have been hidden away for decades, or even for a lifetime. And when this shift occurs, when we are able to reclaim parts of ourselves that have been disowned, reviled, or feared, we may discover that we come to meet the divine more fully too.”
~Sherry Ruth Anderson & Patricia Hopkins, The Feminine Face of God
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