Plant Spirit Apprenticeship Winter/Spring 2024

"Flowers"

The Winter/Spring 2024 Apprenticeship is all about relationship with Flowers. There is a unique magic that flowers hold, long recognized by healers. Along with mediumship with the plant and tree flowers, we will also work with practical partnerships for everyday living. How might a plant or tree flower be willing to partner with you? Flower preparations will emerge in our work. You will be sent ample flower materials to make your own preparations and discover how they work with you.

This Apprenticeship is for gaining skills in your personal work and personal growth with Plant Spirit. This offering is not for learning to do client work.

The plants are calling out to us, to come to know them, to accept their friendship and unique medicine for our times. Will you come to apprentice to them? Will you sit and listen to them?

This offering is BIG. It is immersive. It is for those select few that are ready.

Relationships with plant spirit are those that are held dear, and have taken significant amounts of time to develop and are rarely written about in-depth. People who do this work tend to be out of the spotlight, in remote places, in deep relationship with the land. You may be able to study with them, but they cannot reveal the deep secrets of the plant. You must study with the plant for them to be revealed to you.

This is Initiatory Work that Few Have Done

This is an experiential knowing, that is so far beyond our human vocabulary, it cannot be communicated properly to someone who hasn’t apprenticed with the plant themselves. It is a deep knowing of the energy and spirit of this plant being. Many plants demand your attention, intention and respect to reveal the deepest part of themselves and their relationships. They are really no different than we are right? We hold our deep knowings dear too. Revealed only to those we know and trust.

There is an etiquette to working with plant spirit. Each plant is very different to work with and this work requires trusted guides. There will be several guides we work with in developing relationship.

Why work with plant spirit?

This is not the same as working with plant medicine, constituent medicine. Working with teas and tinctures for health is usually very far removed from working with plant spirit. You are using a plant, not working with a plant.

When the plants know and trust you, they will do incredible things. One plant will help you to move through a place unnoticed, another helps you find your way home. One offers protection from certain difficult spirits, another plant reveals what is hidden. Plants that can open up our senses and psyche, while we are in relationship with them, can do incredible healing work. This relational work is not about ingesting constituents of plants/trees, it requires something more of us.

What is Utiseta?

Utiseta is a term from Northern Europe Mystery Tradition (Norse/Icelandic) that refers to the art of “sitting out”. It is a practice of setting aside the thinking mind and connecting to the energy and spirit around us. Using our “Other” senses, our clair senses. Typically this practice was done outside, where a plant or tree is growing and is done for longer periods of time.

Our utiseta won’t involve spending the night outside with the plants for days or weeks. We will come together as a group, into a realm of deep knowing that can be entered and exited as needed. Each time we meet, a new plant will come to teach us. We will enter into a place between here and there, a liminal space of mediumship. After our group work, we will each come into this realm on our own during the week to continue our apprenticeship. Our private discussion group will facilitate our sharing of the deepening of our knowing from during the week.

Plan for one to two sessions of utiseta each week with the plant. Its easy to do this by going to bed early or waking up early for one or two days every week, to sit with the plant and listen. We will be discussing our findings together in our chat group, so we are very much in this together in-between classes too!

Utiseta Box and Plant Grimoire

You will be sent a plant spirit apprenticeship box that includes plant material for every plant we will work with and materials to assist in your creative work in-between classes.

It is recommended that you find a plant journal or grimoire (try Etsy) to create your own book of plant spirit magic. Your grimoire can become a guide for you in your practice, recording when and how you work best with each plant. Much of what we learn requires relationship and is not dependent on the physical material of the plant or tree.

Exclusive Few

Please consider carefully if you are able to commit to this apprenticeship with the plants. It requires time and attention. This apprenticeship is for a select group of people who are feeling the call of the plants. Do some meditation and journey work on this before applying. Do you feel the plants are calling you to do this? If so, will you make the commitment of time and attention to them?

I ask that you not apply if know you will miss more than two of our meetings. Since this is experiential, we all rely on each other to show up. I will provide recordings of our meetings. The on-line discussion group will also be important for us to share with one another in between meetings.

Schedule

4pm to 7:00pm Central Time

2pm to 5:00pm Pacific Time

3pm to 6:00 Mountain Time

5pm to 8:00pm Eastern Time

On the following dates for 2024:

January 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th

February (NO meeting on 5th), 12th, 19th and 26th

March 4th, ( NO meeting on the 11th), 18th and 25th

April 1st

April 8th as a possible meeting if I need to cancel a class

I believe we all have the skills to do this work. What we may not all have, is the trust and development of those skills. You may already been using your non-physical senses and aren't realizing it. Please schedule a no-cost phone call with me to discusss if this class is a good fit for you if you aren't sure.

Some helpful skills: Attending the recording-on-demand Boundaries, Protection and Clearing Class and Energetic Structures Class or already having similar skills will help support your work in this offering. Developed clare senses (the non-physical senses) and are recommended to be successful in connecting with plant spirit. If you want to schedule a one-on-one session with me to do some skill building before the Apprenticeship starts, please reach out.

Apprenticeship Includes:

11, three hour live video meetings that include teaching and experiential learning in group mediumship with plants/trees. (no prior mediumship experience necessary)

You will receive your Utiseta Box in late December or early January. It includes plant material for every plant we will work with.

Shipping to an address in the United States. (With enough notice (and additional shipping cost), it is possible for me to send some of the materials internationally, and for those I am not able to send due to customs regulations, I will send instructions for you to obtain the other materials yourself, though foraging, or connecting with your local apothecary).

Recording from each class, accessible for a limited time. This gives you the opportunity to be present in the live class, and not have to take notes since you can view the recording and take all the notes you like.

Class chat forum, where everyone can share knowings and observations outside of class, including photos and videos. You can also connect with other participants from class. I will also answer questions here that we didn't have time for in class.

Want to read reviews from previous apprenticeships? Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Investment

$1550 investment. If your application is accepted during the early registration period, a $500 deposit holds your place.

Application

*Receiving applications until December 9th to apply. Most years the class fills before the deadline.

If you feel called by the plants to join their wonder-filled teachings, please send me answers to the questions below. As long as the plants are willing, I will send you an acceptance within a few days, with payment instructions. jean@nativamedica.com

-why do you want to join the apprenticeship?

-what is your experience with plant spirit? (none is required)

-what is your experience with journeying/mediumship/clare senses?

More plant spirit classes will be offered throughout the year. Please sign up for the e-mail list on the contact page to be notified.

Contact Me

Testimonials from previous years

Plants, Trees and Ritual, Apprenticeship 2023

"What sits with me now is some conversations from our first apprenticeship offering about how we will decide to “show up” for the work. And I can sense that working with the plants has changed me at the core, so now I’m contemplating how my “new” self will choose to show up in the work and in the world… hmmmmm…

YOU are a great facilitator, Jean. Listening, asking the questions that prompt curiosity and contemplation. You, like the plants themselves, also know how to meet people where we’re at. (Maybe that is one of the things that keeps me interested in taking the classes you offer.) The further along we go, the more I realize and appreciate the amount of preparation you put into each offering. Thanks for all you do to make these things happen. I’ll most likely be continuing to apply for the apprenticeships and the smaller offerings in between. No one meets me and greets me as honestly as the plants do and I feel blessed for the opportunities to know them and honor them, and to know and honor you as well. So thank you again for all your hard work!"

"The plant spirit apprenticeship is always a life changing and healing experience for me. This year for me was a direct call to the "in -between", the spaces between dualities and integrating both and all the pieces in between into the whole . Each plant had so much to say and echoed each other in different ways. It felt like they came in to reinforce or support the messages of each other, eventually building the whole container, again, different ways of seeing or the many aspects of wholeness. I particularly enjoyed lavender- she has become a true ally for weaving things together with the strength of a warrior and compassion of a grandmother. Lilac was also probably my most challenging plant but taught me a lesson I needed to learn at the appropriate time- one of permeability and allowing things to pass through without attachment. I will now forever love kelp- delicious, nutrifying and the essence of connection to all in the watery womb of the world. I also really enjoyed our host Rue- embodying both light and dark, showing up in the way that needed to be seen for each at the moment. What a wonderful space holder!!!

Thank you for this offering and to all who shared in it."

"My Guides told me to apply for your apprenticeship, and that it would be a weaving together of everything I have learned in plant medicine and the mediumship from last year, and also of my art.

Other than working as a volunteer in the phytotherapy department in a hospital in Brazil, much of my studies of working with plants has been with indigenous peoples. I am sure you know how that is- seeing/understanding with the heart, but not really being given that oh-so-western how and why answers for almost anything. The rest – the personal recipes I have been gifted by Spirit, has been oneiric, through my dreams- so definitely no scientific explanations given there.

I enjoyed so many things in this apprenticeship- having the plants give permission and then the recipe and amount of how much to use for a given preparation; the actual feeling of how the plants physically touched and embraced me; their insistence in how I should create and/or paint something- and then the joy of seeing that they were right, and being glad that I had listened. Hawthorn was especially insistent – and right. And the writing of vows on the birch paper is a special jewel that I will continue to cherish. There is probably so much more I could say, but to not write a book, I will end here, unable to completely express my gratitude to you, Rue and all the other wonderful plants. So, I hope that even if I am not here in this country, I will find a way to continue participating in your apprenticeship and classes. Insha’Allah!"

"I have always seen nature as the ultimate teacher and healer but there was something in this trip that felt expanded from being in circle with you and the plant spirits. I loved the class, I loved the intimacy of it and the surprises that met me. The discovery and the remembering. I know I need to go deeper with this and will be delighted to join you again. Deepest gratitude for the calling you carry and the wisdom you share."

"The class went above and beyond all my expectations. From the moment my package arrived to the last day of class I could not have hoped for more. The plants and yourself held a beautiful container for our class to grow and connect. I learned that initiation could be part of the process on more than one occasion and feel that I'm connecting even more with the plants and trees in my environment. I appreciated the way you taught and guided us and enjoyed the breakout rooms as well as whole class discussions. I look forward to the next winter group and to working further with the plants I've already met... Birch was asking me earlier today about vows and agreements.. Thank you very much!! I so appreciated you and the class, and the plant spirits brought into my life."

"It was a very unique experience and I’m grateful to have been introduced to these plant beings, through you, in this beautiful and honoring way. It has opened up a doorway of relationships that I will continue to explore for the rest of my life. I am humbled by the depth and nuance of your sensitivity to and respect for the the spirits of plants and tree beings and am very impacted by this. I really appreciate being able to learn from you, and hope to keep working with you in different ways, classes and one on one sessions."

A Council of the Forest Guardians, Apprenticeship 2022

"I think that your apprenticeship has surpassed more than my dreams or expectations.

I heard told, some years ago, that when curanderos in the Amazons are not able to obtain the physical plant, they invoke the plant’s spirit as medicine for their patient and their patients are healed by this alone, I wondered…

Your class has gifted me the answer to that wondering, without me ever consciously remembering, until Peruvian Elder Grandmother reminded me that I once asked that question.

Receiving the information from the Plant Spirits via energy in my body, and then watching the energy lines being sung outside of my body, learning how to interpret- or just absorb- has been so enriching. Receiving information from the plants about themselves, plants that I know absolutely nothing about and have never met in the physical world, has been fascinating.

Some time ago I was instructed/guided by my Guides to begin painting a series of Orisha tarot cards, (20’ x16”), that will look like they have been painted on parchment. There are 2 that I was told to wait to paint, and that I would be painting them during your course: Oxossi, the Orisha of the Forest, and Ossain, the Orisha of plant medicine.

I completed Oxossi in these past days. Shapeshifting also seems to have snuck its way into the painting. I am waiting more towards the end of your apprenticeship, when we have connected with all the plants to some extent for the painting of Ossain…

Thank you for this apprenticeship and your generosity."

You can find this art here: https://www.onceinaturquoisebluemoon.com/news-updates

"I just wanted to thank you for all of these beautiful and revealing classes over the past few months. The Boundaries class and the Plant Apprenticeship (plus Mugwort and Absinthe) have been truly revelatory. They have changed ways I practice, ways I think and ways I view the world. I feel like they have heightened my awareness of and trust in my clare senses and have made me feel more a part of the natural world in the most beautifully held way. I will be keeping an eye on future course opportunities for SURE. But I just wanted you to know how special things have been for me thus far. I plan to spend the summertime integrating what I have learned and deepening my practices and relationships."

"Overall, this class was deeply illuminating. I came in feeling very doubtful and insecure in my clare sense and ability to know how to glean anything in a mediumship space. But I am so glad I took the risk. I am leaving with a lot more confidence in these abilities. I feel as if the plant and tree spirits helped awaken something in me, I am deeply grateful for that.

I am super interested to do another plant class and work more with smaller plants and herbs. The tree spirits were so different from Absinthe and Grandmother Mugwort, and Moss and Lichen. But we covered SO much, I just will have to keep coming back for more.

Thank you again for everything. This class and the Boundaries class really changed how I see the world. I think I will use the Boundaries work daily. I know you didn't ask about it in this survey but I want you to know how much it meant to me!"

"I started this journey with the intention of learning how to be in good relationship with plant and tree spirits; they are definitely teaching me this, and interestingly it looks different than what my idea of “good relationship” is/was. (And this is speaking of relationship in general, not just with plant spirit.)

I can feel a shift in my personal perspective happening through this work, I can’t really explain this in words any further than that I FEEL a shift happening.

I haven’t been spending as much time intentionally connecting with these elder beings as I would like to be, but at the moment I think maybe all is as it should be… information and knowings are happening during my sleep, when I can be in that liminal space without my analytical mind interfering, but I do spend a fair amount of my awake time in wonder and amazement of the things I am being shown and given.

I’m liking the stories and the lore in class AFTER we’ve done the mediumship; I find this to be validating of the information I’m receiving during the mediumship itself."

"I feel like this has helped me tune in and hear more with my Heart and Clare senses. I feel as the last apprenticeship was to me, life changing unfolding is happening. I feel like obstacles are clearing and the path forward seems hopeful and more clear. I found the mediumship space a rich fertile place to rest, receive information, and to filter out the noise of my thinking mind, mundane worries, and felt like I was able to be more in touch with my true self, and also sense my connection to these other beings in a more reciprocal way. I feel protected and nourished in a way if have not experienced before. I also feel like I made so many relationships with these amazing beings, and the others that also hear the call to listen and do the work.

My biggest takeaway from this class was they want me to dedicate time to draw them, as I see their energy, and to do something with that. What that is at this moment I am still allowing to unfold, and have begun the discipline of sitting with a plant, listening, and then trying to capture it. I have signed up for rigorous courses to accurately draw botanically, as that was the message I got, that it should not just be my emotional impression, that it needs to be both- my subjective and objective observations. So far that is what is evident. I will keep going back to those trees to ask for wisdom and guidance as to how can I be a guardian in that way. So I imagine that is the answer for me to the question, “How can I be a Forest Guardian” I imagine it has to do with the trees sending the message they want representation and translation to bring more people to be guardians of the plants and trees."

Plant Spirit Apprenticeship 2021

"I've been learning about relationship from the Spirits for sixteen years now, and I'm amazed at the depth of this offering. Jean, thank you for trusting the Plants' wisdom so thoroughly, and for putting this out there in absolute trust in a way that is so very different from any other training/apprenticeship that I've been a part of to date. It is transforming me in ways that I will be unpacking for years."

"I loved the apprenticeship class and am very grateful I was able to be a part of it. You do a superb job of facilitating--I love the way you bring the space(s) together and how you reverently and respectfully you address the Spirits! It was a wonderful experience with a wonderful group. I feel revitalized and connected to my land and the plants!"

"This apprenticeship has changed my relationship with plants. I had no idea there could be this kind of depth in plant work, and I have been working with plant medicines most of my life. The plants are the best teachers I have ever had, now that I know how to be in relationship with them in ways I never dreamed possible. The work in this apprenticeship has greatly evolved how I facilitate my professional plant work."

"I absolutely loved the plant spirit class! It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Since the class, some really amazing breakthroughs have happened for me. I also think I have just become a better and more caring person overall. Thanks so much for all you do. You have been an amazing teacher for me and helped me learn so much from the plants."

Plant Spirit Apprenticeship Winter/Spring 2024 "Flowers"