la mala yerba
  • home
  • about
  • offerings
    • 9 month plant + ancestor journey >
      • welcome
      • before we gather
      • module 1
      • module 2
      • module 3
      • module 4
      • module 5
      • module 6
      • module 7
      • module 8
    • bipoc herbal immersion
    • traditional abortion, survivor + TGNC care
  • reparations
  • contact
    • booking


​rites of passage
year 1:
self-healer

9 month BIPOC herbal  + ancestor apprenticeship

Applications closed for 2019

our intention

Our black, indigenous, API, people of color have been enslaved, damned, murdered, and taken by the claws of colonization, white supremacy, and capitalism. We spend more time disconnected than we do in right relation with each other, all beings, and ourselves. Our people have  equitably resisted and are calling you to  release the veil. Release the veil of our unworthiness, of our lack of sacredness, of our too black, too brown, too different.

​We welcome you to your first rites of passage: self-healer.

We believe in your abundance, your healing, your freedom. We welcome you to journeys of (re)membering yourself, ourselves, and all beings' sacredness. 
​In year 1  we gather with humility to connect to our holistic self and meet our ancestors. We come to the huts, temples, and bodies of our ancestors in the companionship of plant, mineral, and energetic allies. We sit in meditation, offer ritual, and create ceremonies as easily as we breathe to listen to the wisdom within. We will be guided by the medicine of the energetic fields known as the chakras, our bodies, and a circle of community partners that will deepen our skills as urban medicine people.
​
Release yourself into all that you are. Continue reading to begin your first rites of passage: self-healer.

Rites of Passage Year 1: Self-Healer is also available to DISTANCE LEARNING (online).

Listen.
Indigenize.
Heal.

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our  focus

April - Creating the container
Opening ceremony, Bruja feminista medicine, Intro to the subtle body + the decolonized spirit, Intro to herbopolitical concepts, Blessing herbs, nourishing herbs, musculoskeletal system
Medicine making: herbal infusions, balms
​
May - Healing for roots + immunity
Root chakra + immune system, Ancestor communities + dwellings, Intro to your embodied altar, Indigenous technologies, land sovereignty + urban gardening
Medicine making: tinctures + tisane (herbal tea)

June - Healing for intimacy
Sacral chakra + genitourinary system, Ancestor birth rites + creation myths, Decolonizing the womb, Conscious urban foraging + consent
Medicine making: honeys, cordials, elixirs
​
July - Healing our power
Solar plexus chakra + digestive system, Indigenizing our diet, Herbalism on EBT. Wild foods + edible weeds
Medicine making: bitters
August - Healing our hearts
Heart chakra + circulatory system, Practices for protection + shielding, Seed keeping technologies 
Medicine making: oils, flower essences

September - Healing our truths 
Throat chakra + respiratory system, Ancestral truths, songs + sound healing, Spiritual activism
Medicine making: sacred smoke part 1: herbal smoke blends

October - Healing for ancient presence
Third eye chakra + nervous system, Ancestor visions for communal justice, Uprooting colonizers, harvesting roots
Medicine making: sacred smoke part 2: medicine bundles 

November – Healing for liberation
Crown chakra, Radical oneness, Ancestralization ceremony, Trees + plant consciousness
Medicine making: anointing oils, sacred tools

​December - Closing the container
​Rites of passage ceremony, Gratitude circle, Ancestor + medicine share
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schedule

We will gather every first Saturday + Sunday from 10a-5p during April-December 2019*
*gathering dates are subjected to change until January 15, 2019, pending elder approval


Saturday classes will be held in our Roxbury home on Mount Pleasant Av
Sundays we will be joining our generous + resilient Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan + Boston community members at their garden and healing spaces

Gathering weekends:
April 6 & 7, May 4 & 5, June 1 & 2, July 6 & 7, August 3 & 4. September 6 & 7,* October 5 & 6, November 2 & 3, December 7 & 8
​*camping weekend
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apprenticeship details

  • 200 herbal hours ​(125 weekend gatherings/75 home practice)
    • Attending + engaging with home practice are equally important to be considered for our second Rites of Passage, beginning in 2020
  • ​To gather with us please apply here [application open for 2019]
  • Our ancestor centered folk herbal community is open to black, indigenous, API, peple of color who are also cis women, two-spirit, trans women + trans men, genderqueer, gender variant, non-binary femme beings of racially oppressed communities​
  • Learn more about the application process + our energetic exchange below​

APPLICATIONS CLOSED
​
spring 2019
BIPOC ancestor + herbal apprenticeship​


a weekend  in 
rites of passage:
self-Healer

saturday
​
10a-5p

Opening circle
Talking circle
Plant meditation + share

Chakra medicine 
Ancestor connections
Lunch
Plant meditation
Socially conscious brujería
​Sacred movement
Singing for liberation
Closing the circle

sunday
​
10a-5p

​Opening circle
Plant meditation
Holistic anatomy + physiology

Rooted in the community [community partner]
Lunch
Medicine making + magical practices
Ceremony for resistance

Singing for Liberation
Closing circle
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our application process

The first step to journeying with us for you to fill out our online application: [currently opened]. Once invited to journey with Seed, Root, + Bloom we encourage a $150 deposit to hold your space. At this point we will come to a mutually agreed energetic exchange. CONTINUE READING TO CONNECT WITH PAYMENT OPTIONS, BARTER + SCHOLARSHIPS,

We are taking applications until March 1, 2019; application will close once spaces are filled. Space is limited! 
+Please read all available information and reach out to seedrootandbloom@gmail.com with your questions before applying. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

frequently asked questions

our energetic exchange

honoring each other's labor + wisdom

We are a community supported and operating space.  We labor for you from our ancestors' wisdom to our physical labor in preparing spaces, gardens, and materials. We humbly ask for an energetic exchange that honors our work. Your financial contributions support your own and other's journeys to ancestor who are coming from historically oppressed communities. Your financial contribution is a direct investment in the sustainability of bellx + supporting facilitation's work, and the VITAL work of our community partners, who are healers, cooks, caretakers, urban farmers, prison abolitionists, and liberators.  We strive to make this healing community the most accessible to those needing to be with us and to learn from their ancestors. we also will name that our program offerings are already reduced compared to similar 9 month long herbal apprenticeships. We humbly ask you to begin a process of decolonizing your fears around money, and consider how to make this exchange the most mutual. ​
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We believe that historically oppressed communities, such as our black, indigenous, femme + trans* communities NEED this sacred community, In service of that, we offer different ways that we can support each other!
​

WORK TRADE/BARTER: FILLED 2019

We are offering 2 work trade positions with apprentices able to make contributions in the following areas: landscaping/gardening, plant medicine/healing rituals/music from your tradition, reiki, art, web design, woodworking, other medicine related services you can offer. The trade will be up to 25% off of total apprenticeship costs. It is more [uncompensated] labor for us to organize + maintain bartering positions, we are accepting this trade with folx who have the time + energetic capacity to show up for this work. 
​

SEED SCHOLARSHIP: FILLED 2019
We are ​offering as many partial and full scholarships based on contributions received (see our 
gofundme or follow us on instagram to help us!). We are offering 1 full scholarship, 2 partial scholarships. If are seeking a partial scholarship please indicate this on your application.
Priority will be given to our native Roxbury, Mattapan + Dorchester residents who experience racial + economic oppression that bars them from sacred communities like ours.

benefits

  • onoring + contributing to the livelihood of our INCREDIBLY HUMBLE community growers, healers, + caretakers of the generations
  • 1 one-on-one check-ins with bellx + Seed, Root + Bloom teaching contributors
  • Monthly medicine
  • Growing materials + plant friends
  • Discounts on our other herbal, energy, ancestor medicine classes + individualized sessions [See xochitlcoatl's offerings at semillaofixchel.com]​

APPLICATIONS CLOSED
spring 2019 

​​ancestor + herbal apprenticeship​

meet your facilitators:
xochitlcoatl, seed, root + bloom alumnae + bipoc contributors

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 xochitlcoatl bellx is born from the womb of Adriana, ​​a mestizo cultura, and border experiences from Acapulco, Mexico to Los Angeles, Califas to Boston, MA. moving wildly as we have always been, xochitlcoatl flows with the gifts of ancestor + spirit, baring witness and acting from the messages that they are needing to share. she communes with plant beings, four-legged, finned, and people beings to support the healing of the tapestry of our oneness.
xochitlcoatl offers support and companionship for individuals + families in life transitions, such as emotional or health changes, first moon, menstrual cycle, birth, postpartum, abortion, loss, bereavement, and miscarriage. she weaves her mesoamerican cultura, the indigenous, african, + european knowings + healing ways in supporting others with herbal, massage, energy & rebozo support. she believes in your autonomy, medicine, and advocates for our collective healing. ​
weave with her by visiting Semilla of Ixchel to learn more about her birthkeeping, one-on-one session, and wisdom-shops.

​
photo by jenny rebecca mcgaughlin

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la  mala yerba

formerly SEED, ROOT + BLOOM
  • home
  • about
  • offerings
    • 9 month plant + ancestor journey >
      • welcome
      • before we gather
      • module 1
      • module 2
      • module 3
      • module 4
      • module 5
      • module 6
      • module 7
      • module 8
    • bipoc herbal immersion
    • traditional abortion, survivor + TGNC care
  • reparations
  • contact
    • booking