GROWING AWARENESS OF NATURE

Online Course – 12 Modules offer 16 hours at your own pace, affordable and accessible wisdom.

An alarming imbalance between humans and the natural world has spread in modern societies. Growing Awareness of Nature on-line course gives you a direct experience with the aliveness of nature and nature’s ancestral relationship with humans and the ability of plants to guide and heal. It inspires us to relate to plants as living beings.

The course highlights the profound influence that nature has on human life and offers guidance on how to deepen our relationship with it. It introduces Plant Spirit Medicine and the ability of plants to heal and nurture us at the spirit level. Students will learn from the practical teachings and spiritual guidance of Eliot Cowan, and the wisdom of indigenous elders and community leaders from various parts of the world:

• Alison Gayek, Plant Spirit Medicine Teacher at Blue Deer Center and Elder with the Temple of Sacred Fire Healing
• Patrick Hanaway, Mara’akame (Healer), Teacher, and Board Chair, Blue Deer Center
• Colin Campbell, Sangoma (Healer)
• Don Aurelio Ramírez, Nahua Healer and Weather Worker
• Sofía Díaz Hernández, Mayan Tzotzil Healer
• Kat Maier, Author and Herbalist
• Tieraona Low Dog, Integrative Physician and Herbalist
• Pat McCabe, Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining
• Eliot Cowan, Author of Plant Spirit Medicine, Teacher and Tsaurirrakame (elder healer) (1946-2022)

Students will be exposed to a worldview of the Five Element system as an expression and movement of energy through the natural cycle and seasonal characteristics of each element. The course will also explore the fundamentals of a shamanic way of life to foster connection with plants and their language through dream journeys.

The course will inspire you to relate to plants as living beings and recognize their generous source of help to enrich the quality of your life. Seeing plants as living beings allows us to recognize that we are part of them, and they of us – we are not separate. We are family. Through an introduction to the worldview of the five phases, you will learn a language for communicating with plants, listening and learning from them.

You will explore your relationship with the plants that live around you: the common plants that grow in your yard or surrounding area, the weeds that find their way through the cracks in the cement on the sidewalk, the trees that grace your streets and forests. With whatever types of plants and trees live near you, you will be able to perceive them with different eyes, through a new worldview.

This course is a prerequisite for the upcoming Plant Spirit Medicine Healer Training Course being offered in June 2025 at Blue Deer Center, the home of Plant Spirit Medicine founded by Eliot Cowan.

This course is for you if:

• You would like to deepen your relationship with nature
• You would like to learn how to communicate with plants
• You are an acupuncturist, herbalist, or an alternative/holistic practitioner and would like to receive continuing education credits from the NCCAOM (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine)
• You are a Plant Spirit Medicine Healer and would like to receive continuing education credits from the Temple of Sacred Fire Healing toward your Lay Spiritual Healer status
• You want to become a Plant Spirit Medicine Healer as taught by Blue Deer Center

Learning outcomes

• Learn about the natural world as an expression and movement of energy and how to connect to it.
• Learn the foundation of Plant Spirit Medicine and the influences of body, mind and spirit on our lives.
• Explore the language of plants through the seasonal worldview and learn how each of the Five Phases live within each of us and influence our lives.
• Understand the principles of deep sensory engagement with plants and the natural world based on respect and reciprocity as embraced by ancient healing traditions.
• Learn the practice of entering a dream state to journey to your teacher and plants as an avenue to communicate and receive guidance.

Requirements

This online course is for anyone around the world and no previous knowledge is needed. Make sure you have the Plant Spirit Medicine book to complement your learning. Sign up now and begin deepening your relationship to nature.

Start Now: This is an on-demand course, so you can sign up at any time and complete from home and at your own pace. Sign up here.

Testimonials: What participants are saying about the course…

• What the course delivered was something transformative: a framework that interwove these disciplines—Five Element Theory, herbal medicine, and shamanism—into a single, cohesive tapestry. (Acupuncturist)

• In all of my herbal studies and participation in meditation, I never learned to come into contact with the spirit of the plants until now. I was pleased at how your course walks you through it and I plan on practicing it regularly. — (Acupuncturist, herbalist)

• It’s important knowledge and listening to each teacher is really a special experience. The course opened my mind and heart even further to nature and how we can be in relationship with everything all around us. — C. Haston

• The course deepened my connection and awareness of the natural world. We are not separate from her. — C. Belyea

• Eliot Cowan’s message and your course seemed to offer me that deeper connection and direct communication I’ve been seeking. Working with the ancestors has strengthened that muscle. With your course, I have made great strides both in journeying and in my dreams. — K. Ritchie
  
  
• This course provides a rare opportunity to hear from teachers and indigenous elders who have had profound experiences with the natural world.  The best part is that as participant you are given guidance in how to connect with the plants so that you too can receive their knowledge and wisdom! — M. Klippel
  

Learn more and enroll here.

Blue Deer Center is a Sacred Place–a spiritual retreat center nestled among the serene Catskill Mountains of New York. It is a place of reflection, renewal, and deep connection with the mystery of life. Here amidst the whispering trees and rhythmic flow of the peaceful river, the dream stirring in so many hearts becomes tangible–the dream of embracing the Sacred, of awakening to the aliveness and presence of all beings. Blue Deer invites you to step beyond the ordinary and into a place of stillness, wonder, healing, transformation and awe.

The Blue Deer Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3), Tax ID 22-3741704.