Viridis Genii 2016

2016 Lectures:

Dan Riegler

2016 Key Note Lecture: Putting the Genii in our bottle-Raising the bar of quality and efficacy of herbal products

Currently, there is no benchmark to distinguish between the herbal products of a novice and a master. Let’s change this.

Can we utilize our “Magical”, Spiritual and esoteric practices in our plant medicine? Can we increase the quality and efficacy of our finished products and deliver finer quality through our knowledge and experience? Can we sublimate our work, our art, and service to the world in a tangible way?

Once we comprehend that there is an intelligence to the land, and each of the plants we work with, how do we work with them, enhance them, coax them into our products? Can we refine and elevate, sublimate our products to new standards?

What methods and practices can we utilize? How do we gauge our success?

To describe my own work with plants, I coined the word “Astrodynamics” for easy public comprehension. For me it is a synthesis of traditional plant alchemy and medical Astrology combined with my intimate relationship with Gaia and the Genii loci. However, each of us has our own path, knowledge, experience and relationships with Gaia and Spirit . How do we manifest our understanding and experience in our work and physical creations?

In this presentation I will share some of the methods I use to put the Genie in my bottles and raise the quality and efficacy of my own herbal products. I look forward to hearing of the practices and methods of others.

Biography

Herbal Apothecary, Wildcrafter, Sculptor, Craftsman. Father, mentor. Owner of Apothecary’s Garden and Fairtrade Frankincense. A sap for resins, ritual, Sun, Moon and Mother Nature. Author of Apothecarysgarden.com, a journal about Herbs, plants and processes, Plant Alchemy and our Relationship with Nature. Natural fragrance and medicine. Astrodynamics, rhythms and cycles, Medical Astrology, traditional Wisdom. Herbs and Healing, Science and Spirit.

 

Daniel Schulke

Lecture: Transmission of Esoteric Plant Knowledge in the 21st Century

Plant knowledge, magic, and tradition penetrate nearly every culture and historical era, each having its varied means of preservation and transmission. The act of ritual transmission, in particular, may be interwoven with the actual knowledge being passed, and thus can serve as a complimentary component of esoteric botany. Explored will be varying historical means of transmitting esoteric plant knowledge, in systems ranging from the shamanic, to the religious, from the magical to the scientific. Also discussed will be the challenges of preserving and transmitting traditional plant knowledge under the specific pressures of cultural erosion and ongoing attempts of corporate hegemony over plant knowledge and resources. Models for the present and the future will be proposed.

Biography

Daniel Schulke is an esoteric herbalist with an academic background in ethnobotany and agriculture. He is the author of several pioneering books on the occult and spiritual dimensions of plants including Viridarium Umbris (Xoanon, 2005) and Veneficium: Magic, Witchcraft snd the Poison Path (Three Hands Press, 2012). His forthcoming book The Green Mysteries, an original magical herbal 25 years in the making, is due to be released by Three Hands Press in Autumn 2016.

 

Corinne Boyer

Lecture: Funerary Plants and Folklore

There is a selection of plants that have been historically used for funerary rites and for dealing with the beloved dead. How did these plants assist spirits into the Other world? What were the ways in which plants brought comfort and communion with the land of the dead to people in the past? How is this still applicable to day? These questions and more will be addressed.

This lecture primarily focuses on plants from Northwestern European tradition and their application in funerary rites. Some early American superstitions are included as well as some plants used by the Native Americans in their dying and death rituals. Also included are some divination rites pertaining to death omens for the forth-coming year and traditional plants historically used for contacting spirits of the dead.

Biography

Corinne Boyer is a folk herbalist, teacher, and writer with a passion for traditions surrounding plants and folk magic. She has been studying and working with plants since1998. Corinne has taught community herb classes since 2005 and teaches weekly classes out of her home with a focus on wild crafting, medicine making, plant lore, folk medicine and magic. She distributes an eight-page paper newsletter about plant lore to her local community, since 2012, called The Gathering Basket. She is most inspired by the ‘old ways’ of the village rustic, which included not only physical medicine but also magical medicine and a deep connection to the spirit world. She lives with her family in the forest of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Visit her website for more information.

 

Gail Faith Edwards

Lecture: Baltic Amber – Myth, Medicine & Magic

This lecture is experientially based and will demonstrate that warming, magnetic, stimulating, aromatic, bitter and beautiful Baltic amber is an energetically protective substance that has been revered as such for millennia and is now being revisited as a potent and effective medicine.

Baltic amber has a long and illustrious history of medicinal as well as magical/spiritual uses throughout China, India, the Middle East and all of Europe, from the northern Boreal forests to the Mediterranean Sea. In this lecture we’ll take a look at its magnetic properties and dive deep into the magical lore that has clung to Baltic amber down through the millennia, including its significance as a protective amulet and/or talisman, burning amber to invoke good fortune and its use in sacred ceremony.

This will be an extensive sharing about the many diverse and compelling properties and uses of Baltic amber. We will peer into ancient myths from a number of cultures associated with the sun stone and discuss its historic and traditional uses, as well as attitudes toward it and beliefs about it, from the Neolithic, through the Middle Ages into the present. We’ll review the most recent science, talk about succinic acid, take a look at amber in the history of medicine, and examine some of the traditional as well as innovative new ways this millions of years old tree resin is being used to enhance immunity, relieve pain, and boost over-all vitality.

Biography

Gail Faith Edwards is an internationally recognized Community Herbalist with well over thirty years experience. She is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Herbal Pharmacy: The Art of Herbal Medicine Making.. Gail has taught Herbal Medicine in India, Italy, Poland and Russia, at the Yale School of Nursing, the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic and numerous national conferences. She is the founder of Blessed Maine Herb Farm and Director of the Blessed Maine Herb Farm School of Herbal Medicine. Gail lives on her farm in Maine during the growing season and in her ancestral village in Italy for three months each year. She is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of four beautiful boys.

 

Jesse Hathaway

Lecture: Man-Dragon, Man-Root and the Witch: Mandragora and Ginseng as Plant Allies

Alraune, Man-Dragon, Crown of Hell, Babe of the Gallows–few plants share as much lore and hold such awe for the Old World Witch as the mandragora. While often brought up as ally and in workings, few have worked with living roots so much as desire to. Fast forward to the New World, and the often looked over American Ginseng comes forth, having similar roles within its cultural context and tied heavily to being a key ally in working with plants as healers and teachers. Here the dragon merges into dream, and the Old Man of the Mountain tames fantasy, helping one find clarity in the Otherworld, rooting it firmly in this world. The lecture will look at the Rites and Roles of Mandrake and proposes a parallel in and further study and necessary appreciation of American Ginseng as potent ally of similar portend to the new world witch, herbalist and dream-walker.

My studies sprouted two new small projects entitled the Northwest Urban Soil and Plant Improvement Project and the Phalaris Pasture Propagation Association which seek to evaluate the best nitrogen-fixing plants to add to pastures and at-home endeavors. Legumes such as Vicia, Medicago, and Lupine spp. have been studied and contrasted with their ability to increase crop yields. The Phalaris have been the tell-all of if these plants are improving their usual conditions and how. Other plants that have been added to this study are from the Elaeagnaceae (Elaeagnus Umbellata and Hippophae Rhamnoides), which may also have a place in the world of Tryptamine/Beta Carboline interactions, commonly known as Ayahuasca Analogues.

Biography

Jesse Hathaway Diaz is a folklorist, diviner, artist and performer living in New York City. With initiations in several forms of witchcraft from both Europe and the Americas, he is also a lifelong student of Mexican Curanderismo, an initiated olosha in the Lucumí orisha tradition, and a Tatá Quimbanda. For the last decade he has been a member of Theatre Group Dzieci, an experimental ensemble based in NY dedicated to the search for the sacred through the medium of theatre. He is half of www.wolf-and-goat.com, a store specializing in occult art, esoterica and materia magica from many traditions including Traditional Craft and Quimbanda.

 

Jenn Zahrt

Lecture: Astrological Considerations for Plant Magic and Talismanic Oils

This presentation will cover the astrological considerations necessary for the operating plant magician. First, the morphology of plants will be discussed to answer the question of “which planet rules this plant?” We will then discuss cycles of time (hours, days, months, yearly seasons) and the import they have for plant magic. Rather than a list-driven onslaught of facts, this presentation aims to arm one with the proper Hermetic astrological theory to be able to dynamically engage with the material dynamically on their own. Finally, a specific example of the creation of a talismanic plant oil will be shared, which will teach how planetary energies can be harnessed to enhance the transformative power of plant magic workings.

Biography

Jenn Zahrt, PhD, writes about the history, philosophy and epistemology of astrology, with a special focus on the German cultural realm. Her doctoral thesis, titled The Astrological Imaginary in Early Twentieth Century Germany (University of California, Berkeley, 2012), concerns the ways in which astrology shaped philosophy, literature and the arts during the Weimar Republic. A chapter from this thesis appeared in Sky and Symbol (Sophia Centre Press, 2013). Since 2007, Zahrt has worked as a professional editor—for the interdisciplinary humanities journal, Representations (2007–2010), the literary arts quarterly, The Threepenny Review (2011–2013), and the academic journal, Culture and Cosmos (2010– ). As a recognized expert in the field of the cultural history of astrology, She has taught and lectured domestically and internationally in places such as Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig), the United Kingdom (Bath), and Canada (Montréal).

Her work is not limited to astrology alone. In 2013 she translated Zoroaster’s Telescope from German into English for the first time, and other articles have appeared in The Threepenny Review, including their book Table Talk, which she also co-edited with Wendy Lesser and Mimi Chubb. Zahrt is currently working on a book titled, Strategies of Legitimacy: Astrological Polemics in Pre-WWII Germany. Zahrt co-founded and runs Rubedo Press with Dr Aaron Cheak and serves on the Board of Trustees of Kepler College. She currently lives in Seattle, WA.

 

Jon Keyes

Lecture: Devil’s Club- Sacred Cascadian Medicine

In this talk, Jon will explore working with Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus), a plant that grows from the NorthWest to Alaska and has long been revered as sacred by indigenous communities and as a frustrating “Devil” by settlers here. In this talk he will juxtapose these ideas and explore the plants magical and ceremonial use by numerous coastal native nations. Devil’s Club has not only been used for treating physical ailments such as tuberculosis, ulcers and diabetes, it has also been used for protection, initiation and healing medicine. This is a plant that is deeply armored with thorns and symbolizes both boundary protection and wounds. Often these wounds relate to inner unresolved trauma and Devil’s Club is expert at uncovering those hidden recesses and also bringing deep strength and wisdom. In this talk we will explore this powerful transformative sacred plant.

Biography

Jon is a licensed professional counselor and herbalist who works with plants extensively in his therapeutic practice. Jon often work with people who are neurodiverse, are working through spiritual emergence and are looking for someone who weaves energetic plant medicine into deep work. He has written extensively about herbs, astrology and challenging the medical model of treating those in distress. Jon wrote a book called Guide to Natural Health, Using the horoscope as a key to Ancient Healing Practices and writes for Plant Healer Magazine, the Mountain Astrologer, StarIQ, Beyond Meds and MadinAmerica. He works in the Montavilla neighborhood of Portland and can be found at www.hearthsidehealing.com

 

Troy Chambers

Lecture: Goblins in the Green: An Examination of the Little Ones of the Wild

Goblin, Imp, Pixie, Mmoatia, Curupira, Puckwudgie, Chichiricú, Chaneques, Tokoloshe, Duende– known by many names in as many cultures, each distinct within their home-forests but with strong overlaps in character, body and mythic themes, the Little Ones are some of the most vivid characters of the Green World. An intersection of the Land and the People, they have distinct advantages as ally to those who are patient enough to develop relationships with them. Through many years of experimentation and close work with these beings, Chambers will explore the little folk, those spirits that live in and play off of the Forest and Wild, exploring the cross-cultural omnipresence of such spirits, their patterns in folklore and practice, and discuss his own findings and workings in both personal alliance and in the making of charms and fetish-dolls, the practical ways in which one can begin works and relationships with these Goblins in the Green.

Biography

TROY CHAMBERS is a sculptural artist working in a variety of media across a wide array of spiritual traditions, working through spirit contact and artistic innovation to bring spirit to form. He is half of www.wolf-and-goat.com , a store specializing in esoterica, materia magica, and occult art, drawing from and inspired by Traditional Witchcraft, Quimbanda, Demonology and Necromancy.

 

Urtica

Lecture: On the Importance of Keeping a Poison Garden: Entheogens & Sustainability

Entheogenic plants have long served as teachers and guides to us humans here on this planet. They help us to understand our place and our purpose in life. They help us to walk in beauty and to become as dreams walking across the land. Traditionally these plants have had very specific relationships with the human people that lived around them in one specific part of the world, but nowadays in the midst of global capitalism the plant teachers are more easily accessible to the vast majority of the people existing in the western world. These plants can help to heal our culture of the apparent desire to destroy all life on the planet, but this same hunger that drives the destruction has led to the plants being over harvested in the majority of their native habitats in order to feed the growing market for entheogens around the world.

Fortunately, there has been a push from folks around the world to figure out ways to either cultivate their own entheogenic plants in their homes or to find local and abundant plants that contain similar compounds to those found in more exotic and scarce traditional plants. This class will cover some basics on plants that are easy and legal to grow while still being mighty plant teachers that can provide healing to the gardener in many ways. We will also discuss some plants that are native or even invasive to the greater PNW regions that can be worked with as visionary teachers.

Biography: Urtica has been a student of the plants his whole life & is an avid gardener.

2016 Workshops:

Corinne Boyer

Workshop: Graveyard Folk Magic- Protection Plants and the Power of the Dead

Beyond the use of plants for funerary rites, how did practitioners of old work with graveyards for magic and why? The power of the ancestors and the dead have always been known to spirit workers and those who have lived with one foot in the human world and one foot in the supernatural realms. There are a few special plants that were harvested from graveyards for use in folk magic along with many folk cures ascribed to visits to the local cemetery. In this workshop we will explore this lore and make a protective powder from grave earth and traditional protective plants. This powder can be used for personal protection around the home, carried as a potent amulet, used for divination’s of all sorts and used in any work that requires protection from the Other side.

Biography

Corinne Boyer is a folk herbalist, teacher, and writer with a passion for traditions surrounding plants and folk magic. She has been studying and working with plants since1998. Corinne has taught community herb classes since 2005 and teaches weekly classes out of her home with a focus on wild crafting, medicine making, plant lore, folk medicine and magic. She distributes an eight-page paper newsletter about plant lore to her local community, since 2012, called The Gathering Basket. She is most inspired by the ‘old ways’ of the village rustic, which included not only physical medicine but also magical medicine and a deep connection to the spirit world. She lives with her family in
the forest of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Visit her website for more information.

Dan Riegler

Workshop: Be Distilled My Heart

The mechanics of distilling the volatile components from odiferous material is a simple science. Anyone can build a distillation train at home from found or purchased parts and distill water, rectify alcohol or make their own essential oils. We borrowed the science from traditional alchemy, but we stripped it down, discarded the less tangible precepts and wisdom, those that did not fit in with our industrial/materialistic and Judeo/Christian world view.

We turned a rich, transcendental and deeply spiritual art form into a quantifiable mechanical process. As with many processes we streamlined for modern society, in our ignorance, we left the heart, the hidden, the subtle, the soul and the meaningful behind. The content. Are all essential oils equal? All distilled waters? all rectified alcohols? The answer is no. There are worlds of difference between the work of a novice and one who applies a deeper understanding of the subtle bodies, harmonics, and the intelligences that are ever present in all living things.

How then can we seduce, entice, invite the intelligence and the full presence of the material we distill into our essence? How can we elevate and sublimate it?

Through us, over the past few decades, our culture has been reclaiming many of our old traditions, ancient knowledge and wisdom from our collective cultures. Many of us are now living and working with insights, practices and tools that were not commonly available till recently. How do we apply our new knowledge and experience to our work with plants, animals and minerals?

We are, all us radicals on the fringes of society, combined, a great spiritual and healing force in this world on many levels. Healing not only ourselves and those around us, but the fabric of time, culture and space. Channeling and reweaving ancient technologies and lost knowledge back into our collective consciousness. Shamans and witches of every stripe, casters, diviners and conjurers, Magicians, philosophers and Alchemists, poets, craftspeople, pagans, plant whisperers and so many more. We are, all of us, performing a healing function with the intelligence of the planet. How do we nurture, elevate, incorporate, channel and manifest this in our work?

This workshop touches on some of the ways we can each incorporate our own unique body of wisdom and experience into one of many processes to create products that reflect and manifest our path, art and mastery.

Biography

Apothecary’s Garden and Fairtrade Frankincense. A sap for resins, ritual, Sun, Moon and Mother Nature. Author of Apothecarysgarden.com, a journal about Herbs, plants and processes, Plant Alchemy and our Relationship with Nature. Natural fragrance and medicine. Astrodynamics, rhythms and cycles, Medical Astrology, traditional Wisdom. Herbs and Healing, Science and Spirit.

 

Gail Faith Edwards

Workshop: Amber Pharmacy

In this workshop we will create an amber tincture, oil, cream, incense and pills.

Biography

Gail Faith Edwards is an internationally recognized Community Herbalist with well over thirty years experience. She is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Herbal Pharmacy: The Art of Herbal Medicine Making.. Gail has taught Herbal Medicine in India, Italy, Poland and Russia, at the Yale School of Nursing, the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic and numerous national conferences. She is the founder of Blessed Maine Herb Farm and Director of the Blessed Maine Herb Farm School of Herbal Medicine. Gail lives on her farm in Maine during the growing season and in her ancestral village in Italy for three months each year. She is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of four beautiful boys.

 

Jason Scott

Workshop: AlcheMycology: Introduction to Preparing Mushroom Spagyrics

This workshop is an introduction into preparing mushroom spagyrics and to the topic ofAlcheMycology: exploring the realm of mushrooms through the alchemical framework, from philosophy to practice. Using the three alchemical principles of Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury we will lay a foundation for properly processing mushrooms through the spagyric anatomy, as well as how to apply the doctrine of signatures with planetary archetypes and correspondences to a few selected fungi.

We will explore a brief history and introduction to the spagyric process and the doctrine of signatures and how the three principles create a praxi for understanding the teachings of mycology from a philosophical perspective. Through that we will discuss what relevance that has towards our transformation as individuals and as a culture.

Together we will create a simple mushroom spagyric tincture. While we work, we will explore more complex paths that can be followed to a variety of different alchemical preparations with different mushrooms. The final product will be a full extract of the mushroom that will be effective as a physiological and psycho-spiritual remedy. Everyone will walk away with a bottle of the tincture that we prepare as well as an understanding of how to create your own at home.

Biography

Jason Scott is an amateur Mycologist, Ethnobotanist and Spagyricist who has studied traditional Hermetic Alchemy, from history and philosophy to practice, for the past 4 years. He has a background in Ethnobotany and Plant Medicine that started on the Big Island of Hawaii, and has carried through into the Pacific Northwest, which has expanded into an interest in the use and application of medicinal mushrooms. Jason is interested in the Fungal Kingdom and all of its assets: from cultivation and mycoremediation, to historical and cultural relationships. He is on an ever-deepening journey of education to understand the practical applications of his interests, and the golden threads that connect them.

Julie Charette Nunn

Workshop: The Song of the Plants

Come learn the ancient art of listening into the invisible realm to hear plants talking and receive wisdom from them. During these practices, the plants will offer songs. Discover the healing that can occur from the song of the plants. Learn how to bring these practices into your life to enhance your vitality, and receive healing for yourself and others.

Biography

Julie Charette Nunn, Crow’s Daughter is a shamanic herbalist, nature mystic and long-time teacher, herbal crafter, organic gardener/farmer, goat herd and successful business owner from Whidbey Island in Washington State. She teaches listening as a way to gain access to the abundant wisdom in nature, and supports people to open themselves to greater possibility by sharing their gifts. She offers shamanic herbal apprenticeships, wisdom circles, home study courses and individual mentorships sessions in the shamanic herbal tradition of the wise woman. Julie’s specialty is connecting people in nature to learn more deeply who they are.

Karl Feret

Workshop: Magic in the Woods – Trees Beyond the Herbal Remedies

We will explore cultural legends and lore about trees from around the world, beyond their herbal and medicinal uses. Discussion will include narratives of sacred trees from around the world; magical wood tools in the historical contexts of religious texts, ancient grimoire and mythology; current forms of active and passive energetic woodworks; a few basics of esoteric woodworking; and a comparative overview of energetic properties found in various domestic and exotic trees. Samples of the nearly two hundred trees I work with will be on hand to delight the eye and inspire the soul.

Biography

Karl Feret is a Taurus. Bull-headed and a bit brash, but he is always working with and in the Earth. A lifetime of woodworking skills and decades as a practitioner and student of every bit of knowledge he can lay eyes on has given him a global education in the esoteric, but it always comes back to the Earth – and the trees in particular. A skilled tradesman and designer, Karl currently makes his way by crafting energetic tools for people of various faiths, traditions and paths with woods collected from all around the world.

Marcus McCoy

Workshop: Botany of the Dead: Spirit Traps

In this workshop, folk magic practitioner and teacher Marcus McCoy will be teaching how to create spirit traps using local plants and materials. This will be a hands on class where you will create your own spirit traps. And how to find and identify the plants used in making the traps. There will also be a discussion on how, when, and why to use spirit traps.

Marcus McCoy will be teaching how to create spirit traps using local plants and materials. This will be a hands on class where you will create your own spirit traps. And how to find and identify the plants used in making the traps. There will also be a discussion on how, when, and why to use spirit traps.

Spirit traps have been utilized in magical systems and religions around the world. The stories of Djinn getting trapped in a magic lamp, or the recent movie about the Dybuke box bought on eBay represent actual working systems and concepts of being able to effectively trap and contain a spirit utilizing spiritual and physical means. Spirits traps are most commonly used as a form of protection and banishing of malicious spirits, both human and inhuman alike that cause problems in the lives of the living. We will discuss a bit of the history and different methods used in creating these traps, the rituals and magical logic utilized as well. We will also discuss other, more nefarious motives for capturing and housing spirits as well.

Biography

A student of plants since he was a child, Marcus R. McCoy holds a degree in Transpersonal Anthropology with a focus on the ethnobotany of magical plants. He is the progenitor of Bioregional Animism, and has published his works on the subject of plant teacher shamanry in Reality Sandwich and Verdant Gnosis Volume I. He studied with a South American Vegetalista for six years, which is where he started his focus on perfumerismo. He is now a professional perfumer and the proprietor of House of Orpheus, and enjoys a magical practice performing house clearings and cleansing. He lives in the forests of Olympia, Washington with his lovely partner in the cunning crafts, Catamara Rosarium.

Troy Chambers

Workshop: Goblins in the Green, Hands in the Dirt

An expansion on Chamber’s lecture ‘Goblins in the Green’, this workshop will take the study and theory of the Little Ones into the practical, discussing the myriad ways of creating alliances and formal relationships with these green folk through providing physical form, consistent offerings and regular interaction. Building upon his own years of experimentation and study, Chambers will walk participants through building small goblin fetish-bundles, mixing plant, animal, and mineral materia magica to build suitable dwellings that allow each attendant to call a sympathetic ally or to bring forth new life and purpose by birthing anew.

Biography

TROY CHAMBERS is a sculptural artist working in a variety of media across a wide array of spiritual traditions, working through spirit contact and artistic innovation to bring spirit to form. He is half of www.wolf-and-goat.com , a store specializing in esoterica, materia magica, and occult art, drawing from and inspired by Traditional Witchcraft, Quimbanda, Demonology and Necromancy.

Urtica

Workshop: On the Importance of Keeping a Poison Garden: Practicum

This workshop will be based upon the class of the same name and will be a hands on experiential workshop in which we will go over in more detail methods of acquiring, propagating, and cultivating legal entheogenic plants. We will go over seed germination, propagation through various types of cuttings, acclimating plants to your garden, indoor growth methods, grafting and more! Plants discussed will include Trichocereus spp., Phalaris spp., Acacia spp., Desmanthus spp., Silene capensis, and Salvia divinorum. There will be some seeds included and perhaps some other propagation material.

Biography

Urtica has been a student of the plants his whole life & is an avid gardener.

2016 Performances:

Witch Bottle

With songs inspired by folklore, fantasy, and magical people and places, Witch Bottle will take you on a journey with stories that will captivate your senses and leave you hauntingly enraptured. The enchanting combination of the accordion and the musical saw paired with electric bass and drums creates a modern edge to an otherwise old world sound while two and three part vocal harmonies will take you to the state of lucid dreams.

2016 Hosts:

Catamara Rosarium

Catamara Rosarium is a Master Herbalist, Ritual Artist, and botanical alchemist. She is the sole proprietor of Rosarium Blends, a business dedicated to concocting various alchemical and talismanic creations to enliven the senses. She is Administrator and Host to The Esoteric Book Conference, an annual international event held in Seattle, WA since 2008.

Her extensive herbal experience is motivated by a deep attraction to plants, scents, and how they impact the senses. She has undertaken numerous unique training programs, including the Hermit’s Grove Master Herbalism Program (Paul Beyerl), the Herbal Kingdom work at the Spagyrics Institute of Practical Alchemy (Robert Bartlett), Hoodoo and Rootwork (Catherine Yronwode), and the Arte of the Wortcunning Incense Tradition (Leon Reed). For the past seven years, Catamara has co-organised the Esoteric Book Conference, and is the founder and convenor of the Viridis Genii Symposium. She has previously appeared in Sorita D’Este’s Hekate anthology, Her Sacred Fires(2010) and Verdant Gnosis published by Rubedo Press.

Her continuous passions lie in esoteric arts, with an emphasis on cross diversification, working to cultivate networking and community based events wherein diverse belief systems and traditional practices may be shared and to offer deeper understanding and education through these communal experiences.

Rosarium Blends On Facebook

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Marcus McCoy

Marcus McCory is a student of plants since he was a child and holds a degree in Transpersonal Anthropology with a focus on the ethnobotany of magical plants. He is the progenitor of Bioregional Animism, and has published his works on the subject of plant teacher shamanry in Reality Sandwich. He studied with a South American Vegetalista for six years, which is where he started his focus on perfumerismo. He is now a professional perfumer and the proprietor of House of Orpheus, and enjoys a magical practice performing house clearings and cleansing. He lives in the forests of Olympia, Washington with his lovely partner in the cunning crafts, Catamara Rosarium.

House of Orpheus On EtsyVesta Home Clearing

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