ElderMoon School's Mission...
Nature first. We humans and the plants have walked side by side since our beginning as an extension of Nature. Our bodies have evolved based on the plants we've lived around and taken in as food and medicine, for fiber, building and shelter. Here in herbal school this is the core or central knowing as we honor one aspect of this larger picture, the plants for healing. Ancient and modern ways are consulted as we learn about the nature of plants as the original medicine carriers for healing. ElderMoon School is a gathering place for connection and community among people who feel the same deep in their heart about the plants. This journey, be it online or in-person, awakens a deeper connection to the cycles of Nature as we hone within us a range of ancient and traditional skills and tools to serve ourselves, families, communities, and humanity.
ElderMoon School of Herbs & Earth Medicine is based in New York and dedicated to respecting one's choice in healthcare by providing an integrative form of wise herbal knowledge during a time where many are combining through and seeking within the knowledge of ancient and modern practices.
The mission here at ElderMoon School is to bring this 'walk in two worlds' experience together to provide for integrative ways of healing that are based in Nature first through engaging the power of simple green plants for healing through the entrainment of our bodies to follow Nature. This requires more than a 'take this for that' and 'come back when your symptoms are worse' mindset. Herbal medicine is a primary healthcare system rooted back in time. And it actually IS primary health care for many in the world today. Learning directly from the plants is the path. Beginning now, as you are, is the first step. Thank you for dropping in for a bit. Welcome. -Jen
ElderMoon School of Herbs & Earth Medicine is based in New York and dedicated to respecting one's choice in healthcare by providing an integrative form of wise herbal knowledge during a time where many are combining through and seeking within the knowledge of ancient and modern practices.
The mission here at ElderMoon School is to bring this 'walk in two worlds' experience together to provide for integrative ways of healing that are based in Nature first through engaging the power of simple green plants for healing through the entrainment of our bodies to follow Nature. This requires more than a 'take this for that' and 'come back when your symptoms are worse' mindset. Herbal medicine is a primary healthcare system rooted back in time. And it actually IS primary health care for many in the world today. Learning directly from the plants is the path. Beginning now, as you are, is the first step. Thank you for dropping in for a bit. Welcome. -Jen
Jen's BIO: Getting to know me a little...
What does change look like? It can take the form of a total deconstruction and reconstruction. It can look like spending two years apprenticing with an herbalist and visionary on a super rustic farm in the early 1990s in the Hudson River Valley of New York where the world of healing plants and Earth Medicine ways shifted everything. It can look like being asked to listen more, question more of what we're taught and walking towards traditional, ancestral ways carried forward to infuse with our modern times and needs. And all the while carrying two little boys in her back too who chose this time and place too. That’s some of how it all began.
Jen now mentors spiritual wellness seekers, practitioners, and teachers through her online programs, ‘Birthing and Herbalist in 13 Moons’ and ‘The Monthly Herbal Councils’, and 'Plant Dieting', along with her live courses including ‘Walking The Herbal Path The Earth Medicine Way’, held at The ElderMoon School of Herbs studio and gardens in Woodstock, NY.
Medicine making is a passion and creative exploration with the plants that anchors Jen into the beautiful cyclic dance with Nature and healing. She keeps an apothecary as an extension of Nature at her fingertips that is always changing and evolving through a creative process that tends to health and healing. Jen makes plant medicines from the biodynamic and organic ElderMoon gardens and wild areas and tends The ElderMoon Apothecary where one can find supportive herbal products for healing. She consults privately, provides Earth Medicine Craniosacral sessions, and occasionally lectures on Botanical Medicine at hospitals, universities, and herbal conferences. She blogs about medicine plants, integrative medicine, and healing to an international following at and lives in Woodstock, NY with her husband Jay and third son Cyrus.
Thank you for coming. May our paths cross soon. Many Blessings Always, Jen
Jen now mentors spiritual wellness seekers, practitioners, and teachers through her online programs, ‘Birthing and Herbalist in 13 Moons’ and ‘The Monthly Herbal Councils’, and 'Plant Dieting', along with her live courses including ‘Walking The Herbal Path The Earth Medicine Way’, held at The ElderMoon School of Herbs studio and gardens in Woodstock, NY.
Medicine making is a passion and creative exploration with the plants that anchors Jen into the beautiful cyclic dance with Nature and healing. She keeps an apothecary as an extension of Nature at her fingertips that is always changing and evolving through a creative process that tends to health and healing. Jen makes plant medicines from the biodynamic and organic ElderMoon gardens and wild areas and tends The ElderMoon Apothecary where one can find supportive herbal products for healing. She consults privately, provides Earth Medicine Craniosacral sessions, and occasionally lectures on Botanical Medicine at hospitals, universities, and herbal conferences. She blogs about medicine plants, integrative medicine, and healing to an international following at and lives in Woodstock, NY with her husband Jay and third son Cyrus.
Thank you for coming. May our paths cross soon. Many Blessings Always, Jen
A little more on how I got here...
I'd been preparing all the way through as my twin sister and I grew up quite literally in the gardens created for beauty and food, but the decision to walk to the plants for medicine and follow that path of deeper integration started as a young mama in my mid-twenties while wearing my two little and eldest sons, birthed a year apart. Their tiny bodies disagreed with what I’d been given as a healing medicine way. Sickness after sickness with immune systems faltering for all three of us and chronic conditions rearing their heads for me provided the perfect fertile soil for me to drop into that seeking mode of existence we enter when we know there is another and better way than what we’ve being given.
Being a Biologist and Botanist, with later training as a Secondary Ed-Teacher through formal college training, and a plant lover from my earliest memories, it was an easy leap to turn and look to the plants from another angle, to support healing. It didn't take long to win me over. Two infections taken care of overnight in myself and one of my sons would catch anyone’s attention. And so my decision to walk more sure-footed into a world I knew nothing about began. In studying with some of the now rock-stars of the herbal world, such as David Winston, Matthew Woods, Pam Montgomery, Rosemary Gladstar, Amanda McQuade, Dr. Tierona Lowdog, I began a community herbal apothecary, health consulting practice, and teaching center that continued for 15 years. It was a beautiful life, yes, raising three sons with my husband and continuing my path as a woman walking this land and keeping the ripples soft and solid. There were other teachers along the way and as beautiful and intense as it was, change always comes.
My thriving herbal business was sold to a dedicated herbal student within three months of deciding it was time. I put myself on an herbalist hiatus, sort of for I always have had an apothecary, and dove into modern medicine. I knew very little about the fast changing world of our modern medical system, hardly walked in there or needed it either, and yet knew I needed to integrate some of it in order to be of better service as an herbalist. There was unanticipated criticism to navigate from both schools of medicine. Some herbally-oriented folks felt betrayed or abandoned for the pervading thought then was you were for one way, or the other. Nursing school was an absolute and complete culture shock, unfortunately, but tested my character in many ways as I anchored into who I was authentically at my core. It’s true that we all get moments like these where we know what we must do even if few see why or agree. Following our unique inner compass is a way of tending well.
Twelve years have gone by working as a Critical Care RN in the Cardiac-Stroke Unit, ICU, ER, and OR, where I currently work in my local community helping people manage their healing through surgical experiences. Yes, I 'walk in two worlds' as I bring both together with mutual respect where support for being informed of the many choices and how they affect our bodies, and Nature, are provided. My herbal studies and work continued during my nursing journey as I stayed connected to the many teachers already mentioned. During this time, now 8 years ago, a new inspiring teacher arrived, Rocio Alarcon, PhD Botanist and traditional shamanic healer from Ecuador and founder of the Iamoe Center for Healing & Shamanic Studies in Ecuador. The Amazon region in Ecuador is the center of the Earth richest in biodiversity. I chose to travel with Rocio to where she was born and study in the jungle as an herbalist first, and scientist too, where her traditional curandera Grandmother trained and worked as a healer for her people. She trained Rocio for she knew Rocio was chosen before birth for the curandera path. Rocio’s teachings have deepened my connection to knowing the imperative and innately natural need to turn to Nature first for our healing. Yes, my journey continues with Rocio who infuses further teachings on connecting to your local landscapes and plants and this continually informs my work and service as an Herbalist.
I often find myself saying, “I’m an Herbalist first.” This remains true for me. Ancestral healing ways continue to inform me as a modern Herbalist. Modern medicine also informs this part of me too as I provide a way to integrate and seek what would be the best path for anyone seeking assistance from the medicine plants. Thank you for dropping in, Jen
Being a Biologist and Botanist, with later training as a Secondary Ed-Teacher through formal college training, and a plant lover from my earliest memories, it was an easy leap to turn and look to the plants from another angle, to support healing. It didn't take long to win me over. Two infections taken care of overnight in myself and one of my sons would catch anyone’s attention. And so my decision to walk more sure-footed into a world I knew nothing about began. In studying with some of the now rock-stars of the herbal world, such as David Winston, Matthew Woods, Pam Montgomery, Rosemary Gladstar, Amanda McQuade, Dr. Tierona Lowdog, I began a community herbal apothecary, health consulting practice, and teaching center that continued for 15 years. It was a beautiful life, yes, raising three sons with my husband and continuing my path as a woman walking this land and keeping the ripples soft and solid. There were other teachers along the way and as beautiful and intense as it was, change always comes.
My thriving herbal business was sold to a dedicated herbal student within three months of deciding it was time. I put myself on an herbalist hiatus, sort of for I always have had an apothecary, and dove into modern medicine. I knew very little about the fast changing world of our modern medical system, hardly walked in there or needed it either, and yet knew I needed to integrate some of it in order to be of better service as an herbalist. There was unanticipated criticism to navigate from both schools of medicine. Some herbally-oriented folks felt betrayed or abandoned for the pervading thought then was you were for one way, or the other. Nursing school was an absolute and complete culture shock, unfortunately, but tested my character in many ways as I anchored into who I was authentically at my core. It’s true that we all get moments like these where we know what we must do even if few see why or agree. Following our unique inner compass is a way of tending well.
Twelve years have gone by working as a Critical Care RN in the Cardiac-Stroke Unit, ICU, ER, and OR, where I currently work in my local community helping people manage their healing through surgical experiences. Yes, I 'walk in two worlds' as I bring both together with mutual respect where support for being informed of the many choices and how they affect our bodies, and Nature, are provided. My herbal studies and work continued during my nursing journey as I stayed connected to the many teachers already mentioned. During this time, now 8 years ago, a new inspiring teacher arrived, Rocio Alarcon, PhD Botanist and traditional shamanic healer from Ecuador and founder of the Iamoe Center for Healing & Shamanic Studies in Ecuador. The Amazon region in Ecuador is the center of the Earth richest in biodiversity. I chose to travel with Rocio to where she was born and study in the jungle as an herbalist first, and scientist too, where her traditional curandera Grandmother trained and worked as a healer for her people. She trained Rocio for she knew Rocio was chosen before birth for the curandera path. Rocio’s teachings have deepened my connection to knowing the imperative and innately natural need to turn to Nature first for our healing. Yes, my journey continues with Rocio who infuses further teachings on connecting to your local landscapes and plants and this continually informs my work and service as an Herbalist.
I often find myself saying, “I’m an Herbalist first.” This remains true for me. Ancestral healing ways continue to inform me as a modern Herbalist. Modern medicine also informs this part of me too as I provide a way to integrate and seek what would be the best path for anyone seeking assistance from the medicine plants. Thank you for dropping in, Jen
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