~ Certificate Track
For Year Two ~

Based on Gaia’s Advanced Sacred Plant Medicine
Apprenticeship

Please enjoy the home practice! You will love the process of creating blends and formulas this year from all the simples you made in Year One. The assignments for year two are building on what you did in the first year Certificate Track. I hope you will feel nourished and excited by the assignments! We have an incredible time in our Year Two Course in person sharing the medicine blends and formulas created each month. I hope you find you end up with an incredible apothecary stock of healing medicines you use and will share with others for many years. Make sure to write your recipes down loves! Don’t make the mistake of not being able to recreate the magical blends you will end up with this year.

The home practice will continue to support you in journeying with the plants covered each module, and strengthen your knowledge through first hand experience and research. You will hand in your completed modules at your own pace, finishing by April 1, 2027 to receive a certificate.

Options to purchase the certificate track is available to those currently enrolled in Year Two course and the lecture series. A printed certificate will be mailed to you after completion of the full course.

Module Assignments

Home Practice for Year Two
3 Plant Journey ~ 3 Medicine Blends ~ 3 Plant Profiles ~ 6 Research Articles

3 Plant Journeys

Choose 3 plants to journey with each module. Try to go deeper than in year one… Ask the plant to show you where it grows and how it’s been used. Ask the plant to bring you into its world and wisdom. Journal your journeys with 3 different plants each month. Tea meditations are a way for you to introduce yourself to a few plants each month, experiencing them in your own body, and learning how to brew them. These reflections should be written down in a journal right after your tea meditation. They can be in the form of writing, art, poetry, video, audio, or journaling. You can type them or handwrite and photograph the journal entry.

3 Plant Ally Profiles

Write three plant profiles from that month’s module and theme. Choose plants you have not profiled or worked with in depth from the first year! We recommend profiling the plants that you also work with in tea meditations. These profiles are one page (or more) including research you have collected. Here is a template you can use, or create your own! You do not have to write in complete sentences, this is just a compiling of research you find for your own reference. Make sure the medicinal uses section is the largest part of the information you include! Scroll down for more details.

Plant ID or Plant Profiles Binder –
In this binder you will gather your plant profiles and plant ID information. Add in articles or info you gather on specific plants, as well as photos or drawings of them. You will want to start with your allies and plants you work with locally or can harvest yourself. You can zerox or print information from sources on different plants that you are planning to use in your practice - make sure it’s reliable info.

3 Medicine Blends

Create three medicine blends total for each chakra/system of the body. Use simples you created in Year One. For example I might make an adaptogen deep immune strengthening anti-cancer blend tincture from the simples I made of Astragalus tincture, Burdock tincture, Siberian ginseng tincture, and Reishi tincture. Or maybe an aphrodisiac sacral healing blend of jasmine glycerite, shatavari tincture, red raspberry glycerite, and rose glycerite. Other examples are vinegars blends, tincture blends, glycerites, jsteams, tea blends, oils, salves, body care products etc. Please take a photo of each medicine and include a description of what it is.

6 Research Articles

Systems of the Body Binder – (Or Google Folder)
Please research each module information on that specific system of the body. Gather articles on subjects you are particularly interested in, focusing on holistic treatments for illnesses that affect that particularly system of the body. In this binder you’ll add class handouts and collected information on anatomy and physiology. Include information on herbal treatments, holistic treatments, and information you will find most helpful. This will be an important reference tool for you, and a good binder to gather a lot of your information for later reference. For example I might have in my Digestive System section an article on foods to feed our gut flora, an article on herbs to help support liver health, a recipe for a digestive bitters blend, an article on holistic therapies for crohn’s disease, and an article on what causes acid reflux as well as herbs that can help. Focus on researching what you most want to know about!

Go at your own pace!

Please go at your own pace, the homework for each module can be submitted anytime you like. You can submit multiple months at once if you like. Do not feel you need to hand in the work for each module by the end of each month when the next module releases. You can choose to finish them at your own pace, but the work will need to be completed for the course one year after the online course ends. *** You are welcome to add to your work after submitting them.

Detailed Instructions

You will receive detailed submission instructions upon purchase of the certificate track. Submissions are sent via Google Drive.

Monthly Homework Detailed ~

PLANT ALLY & TEA MEDITATION REFLECTIONS ~

Choose 3 plants from each month's module to drink as a tea, introducing yourself to them. These tea meditations are meant to just introduce you to new plants so you have a feel for their taste, and how they feel in your body. From introducing yourself to a number of plants over the course, you’ll find a few that you really want to go deep with over the course of the year. Think of the tea meditations as a way to just get a feel for new plants, in order to find your deep allies. Please hand in a journal entry on each of the plant meditations you choose for that month's module, sharing your reflections from drinking the tea. You can also include experiences during plant sits/communication, medicine making, or rituals with the plant. Each journal entry about these 3 plants should be a paragraph to 1/2 page, or longer. You can share photos here as well as journal entries of your experiences with each plant. Share what you experienced from them physically drinking the tea, energetically, emotionally, spiritually… Let yourself write free in any way that feels good to you. Poetry welcomed! Art welcomed.

PLANT ALLY PROFILES - 3 Plant Medicine Profiles / Monographs

Choose 3 plants from that month's module to research. Write a page or more on the information you most what to remember. I recommend choosing the plants you journeyed with in tea meditations! See instructions below for the information to include. Please do not copy and paste information in your plant profiles, the information should be written in your own words (but does not have to be in complete sentences. Think of these as taking notes on the research you find on each plant. Cite your references, either books or websites. Do not take information from websites that do not have a clear author. You are welcome to add quotes, but you should have most of the profile written in your own words. Here is a template you can use, or make your own!

Please include the following information for each profile. If you have already created herbal monographs, please add to them so you are continuing to learn and research! Do not copy and paste other people’s information unless you are adding in a quote. Please cite your sources at the bottom of each profile.

Latin name & Common name
Habitat & Where they grow in the world
History of Use ~ Through research (ethnobotany/history/culture) or memories the plant relays to you).
Herbal Actions & Western Classifications ~ (antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, vulnerary etc.)
Energetics - Ex. Warming, moistening, drying, and elemental energies such as Fire, Earth, Water, Air... Yin/yang, etc. Or describe their energy in your own words and experience.
Systems/Organs/Tissues Strengthened ~ Share what primary systems and organs the plant supports.
Specific medicinal actions - This is where you want the bulk of the information on a plant’s medicinal uses to be. I suggest having this section be 1/3 - 1/2 of your whole plant profile (and does not have to be in complete sentences, but should be organizing for your easy reference). This is information about the physical actions of the plant on the body. I recommend having a section for each organ/system this plant supports or a specific action, so you can add information later as you like. For example with dandelion, a section on the plant’s effects on digestion, section on it's effects on the kidneys, a section on it’s effects on the liver, hormone balancing, or blood cleansing. Choose the sections you create by what you think are the most important actions this plant has on the body. Share your experience and what research you have gathered. Make sure the information is from reliable sources with a clear author! Please mention your sources at the bottom of the profile.
Dosage & Preparations - How can this plant be used and what are a few options for preparations and dosage? What are the dosages and preparations you enjoyed with this plant?
Spiritual / Magickal Uses - From what the plant shared with you, what you experienced, and what you have gathered from research/lore/history.

Plants for the Year

Purchasing herb material

For US orders - Check out Oshala Farm, Pacific Botanicals, and Mountain Rose Herbs. You can try Jean's Greens, Zack Woods Herb Farm, Healing Spirits herb farm for local folks. Starwest botanical and Frontier tend to be lower quality, but we use them when there is no other source. Please buy organic and the more local farms you support the better!

For outside US - Sourcing might be more challenging. I recommend contacting a local herbalist to find out where they buy or source dry plant material from. You might want to focus on your local medicinal plants as much as possible!

Quantity - You might want to only purchase a few ounces of a plant until you get to know it. I buy by the pound, but I know I want a large quantity. If you want to make medicine from a plant, you will want 1/2 lb to 1 lb. The lighter weight leaves are a big bag at 1 lb. Nourishing herbs because we use them in high quantity I recommend getting 1 lb.

*** Note ~ There are more plants than this list, so you may end up wanting to get a plant that isn’t on this list once you’ve done that month’s module!

Enjoy a year of magick!