Awaken Herbal Wisdom has always been a living, breathing herbal learning journey. Its seeds were planted in the early days of teaching individual seasonal workshops when budding herbalists with a passion for learning both about the herbs, as well as themselves, began to ask me from the very beginning - Can we have more? Can we go deeper? They wanted herbalism to become integral to the fabric of their lives, not something that lived in isolation on a lovely weekend in a beautiful garden.
And so Awaken Herbal Wisdom grew, becoming an intensive course that offered the full arc of its learning journey over three years, with students delving deeper and deeper into their relationships with plants and their understanding of the nuances of their own unfolding practice of herbalism.
At first, I looked at ways to create as much connection time as possible via a classic hybrid model - regular seasonal in-person gatherings for each year group and many (many) live online sessions, where we’ve always had lively conversations and ample opportunities to explore the knowledge shared together. And I was keen to avoid perpetuating some of the more tedious forms of rote learning - hours upon hours of talking head videos no one ever gets the most out of (and everyone struggles to complete), long lists of required independent reading, mandatory papers to be written and so on.
But over the years, as with any plant that is well tended and thus matures to flower with greater abundance, I’ve been noticing where our students’ learning and experience has really flourished - what they really get the most out of, what lights them up - as well as where there arose opportunities to do things differently - to make them easier and more organic.
The highlight for all our students is the in-person time, the being part of a community of real people who will hug you connection time, the sitting in the garden, sipping herbal tea, making remedies, sharing gorgeous food time. Our community is central to our student experience. I wanted to create more opportunities for us to gather.
And over time, as more and more cohorts have been learning to turn up the volume on their intuition, to listen to and understand their bodies, to ask questions of societal status quos and to make their own choices about the world they want to create for themselves and their families, one thing has increasingly felt like it didn’t make sense anymore - all the time we’ve been sitting in front of screens to meet for bi-weekly Zooms when students are learning to switch on their senses and connection with the rest of nature and switch off their screens. I wanted to find a better way to deliver my hallmark high standard of teaching, whilst facilitating significantly less screen time.
I knew we were ready for an evolution. I knew we were ready for another way.
A way to weave learning herbalism into living herbalism.
A way to absorb knowledge whilst you’re out amongst the plants or pottering in your kitchen apothecary.
A way to immerse more fully into a sensory, embodied experience of getting herbalism deep into your bones and daily life.
A way to reclaim our nature as nature.
And so I am thrilled to announce the next unfolding of Awaken Herbal Wisdom as a living herbal apprenticeship, grounded in traditional ways of learning thoughtfully adapted for modern life.
This means you can grow into herbal practice with confidence, without needing to step away from your work, your family or your existing commitments. An apprenticeship is, at its heart, learning through doing - and for the home herbalist, the ‘doing’ is simply the rhythm of everyday life.
Here’s how we’re evolving:
1. More In-Person Time Learning in Community
Whilst our year groups will still gather in-person each season as we always have, we will also connect in-person across all year groups (with alumni welcome, as well!) for two mid-season community weekends to provide more time and space to be in the garden, working directly with the plants, making more remedies, sharing round table discussions in a more casual, communal atmosphere and, of course, feasting. We have an incredible student and alumni community at our school, and so we want to bring back the tradition of gathering to work with the plants and enjoy being in the presence of like-minded souls, sharing experience, inspiration and common interests across a wider group.
This will double the in-person time for students during each year of the apprenticeship, as well as provide alumni from all parts of the journey with the opportunity they’ve been asking for to keep returning to the yurt and stay connected.
2. Less Screen Time by Integrating Learning into Living
We’re also moving forward with a stronger emphasis on a key traditional mode of passing down knowledge with a modern twist - taking oral storytelling round the community fire and transforming it into guided audio teachings accessible directly through our student portal so students can engage with the learning in an embodied, meaningful way when and where it suits them. We envision your learning taking place as you walk the hedgerows, plant in your garden, sit in your favourite chair with a mug of one of the herbs you’re getting to know - and not have to sit staring at a screen to do so. This means you can focus on absorbing, feeling, listening, sensing and connecting, rather than ‘studying’.
Your learning becomes lived. Herbalism naturally weaves itself into your daily life and becomes how you live your life.
This also means those of you who have been keen to join us on the journey in the past, but for whom the live online sessions just didn’t work with your other commitments, will hopefully find this finally opens the door for you.
We will still connect live online at a few key points during the year for integration, questions and nuances to be explored and our wonderful cohort and community WhatsApp groups will continue to support the beautiful ongoing spark and sharing our school for which our school is known.
3. Our Heirloom Coursebooks Provide Both Written Record and Space for Reflection
Our coursebooks have also gone through a rebirth. What were thoughtfully created reclaimed leather binders are now beautiful embossed Wibalin hardcover books with ribbon placemarker, infused with handpainted watercolour illustrations and embellishments, crafted with the intention of becoming a living heirloom you place on your bookshelf with pride and pass down to future generations.
These second edition coursebooks are infused with all the essential information recorded for you, so you never have to worry about missing something to jot down. They are also structured with ample space for your own reflections, observations, embodied experiences, remedy-making experiments and personal areas of interest - big margins, plenty of open pages included throughout. Space for your journey to breathe and be preserved.
They were a labour of love to create, and the feedback from students and alumni this year has been incredible. As one student said, having shown her new books to a loved one, ‘Meghan doesn’t do things by halves’.
I am so looking forward to witnessing the depth of our students’ journeys increase with this evolution of Awaken Herbal Wisdom from herbal course to living herbal apprenticeship, which will begin with our 2027 cohorts. As my students know, it is a fundamental practice of mine to observe, to listen and to find ways to create an experience that is ever more joyous, ever more meaningful and with ever more ease, and that is what I intend for this next iteration of the herbal learning journey we offer at Heritage School of Herbal Medicine.
If our living herbal apprenticeship calls to you, be sure to join our mailing list, where we will be announcing 2027 cohort dates and opening applications soon.
And as always, wherever your herbal learning path takes you, I hope you enjoy the journey!
