Before Apollo slayed her twin Dragons and usurped her, it was a great goddess who spoke with the voice of Gaia, the earth herself, at the Oracle of Delphi.

The Titaness Themis, who orders the seasons and fates of all living beings, once dwelt at the entrance to the center of the earth, and her priestesses drank entheogenic herbal brews to commune with her and offer the people her guidance on walking in beauty and living well.

No longer. 

Her guidance was devolved by upstart male deities into petty riddles for the patriarchy.

This is a story as old as chariots.

The Goddess is displaced, her wisdom watered down or lost entirely, and disorder and reckless destruction take the place of balance and regeneration.

How did the wise mushroom priestesses of Mycenae, who stared into the dark and therein found truth for their people’s futures pass into history as gorgons and their leader Medusa as a detached head in the hands of an arrogant, deceptive youth who slayed her as they slept?

How did the ancient snake goddess of Knossos and her healing wisdom disappear into the python laden halls of Asclepius—once again veiled and silenced by men who abducted Europa from the East?

By delving with a sharp eye into the corners of the Epics & Fairy Tales and in the margins of the myths and histories, we find the Goddess, once-buried and dethroned, and her plant myths and sacred rite have been hiding in plain sight.

Join us for MEDICINES OF THE GODDESS, an 8-week course with Crystal Woodling, a lineage Appalachian witch, clinical herbalist, Hellenistic astrologer, yogini, poet, and former literature professor, that reveals the faces/phases of the earth goddesses of the West that have spent millennia hiding behind the robes of patriarchy: her dream rites, channeling and divinatory techniques, alchemical healing practices, and poetic means of bringing balance and beauty to our villages and ecosystem.

We will explore her herbal wisdom and rites through our oldest links to the oral histories of 4 of the Goddesses children:  the Sumerians, Greeks, Celts, and Germanic peoples. Students will learn from and become ensouled by 8 different herbs/faces of the goddess through her ancient tales and rituals.

The mission of this course is to show you faces of the goddess, her plant magic, rites, and stories for living in alignment with the earth and starry heavens so that her medicine blossoms in your own body, life, and community.

“We will find the goddess again in her rites that hide in the old epics, fairy tales, and songs—but mostly we will find her in the plants she became to keep walking alongside us and rebirthing us in her image.”

- Crystal Woodling

MEET CRYSTAL WOODLING

Crystal is a lineage Appalachian witch, clinical herbalist, Hellenistic astrologer, yogini, poet, and former literature professor who has guided hundreds of students and clients to heal themselves from chronic illness, become more fully embodied, and begin living in the enchanted realms that are our birthright.

She has 20+ years of somatic and yogic studies, 18 years of herbal medicine study, and 12 years of committed ceremonial study with indigenous and folk medicine carriers from around the world. 

Her most important teachings were transmitted directly from the stars, her ancestors, and the spirits of her Appalachian woodlands. She spent much of her childhood outdoors and initiated herself by walking alone from West Virginia to South Dakota writing poetry for souls who showed her kindness.

She has also been initiated into several other healing traditions through arduous ceremonial fasts, prolonged isolation, ritual possession, and even being temporarily paralyzed by a lightning strike.

She has been teaching her craft full-time for over sixteen years from international universities to yoga studios, to her own wellness center and ceremonial center, and finally to the world-wide web, where she co-directs The School of Heaven and Earth with her husband Matthew Merlin.

"I developed this program to reveal the wisdom of the women who channeled the Goddesses plant teachings in the old oral tradition and show how they formed the foundations of the patriarchal alchemical and medicinal lore that evolved with the advent of writing. By communing with the goddess and her plant teachings and rituals in the old literatures we can restore the folk alchemical tradition that brought balance and beauty to the cultures of our matriarchal ancestors." 

- Crystal Woodling