A Letter From Rosemary Gladstar
Dear Friends,
It’s been 20 years since we first began teaching and offering classes on this beautiful Mountain. I’ve lost count of how many people have traveled to this wild remote place to commune with nature, learn about herbal healing, and become more in touch with themselves through the teachings of the plants. The ‘students’ who have come have been our teachers and have gifted us in so many ways. It has been a feast for the heart and the spirits of the Mountain. Much has happened, of course, in 20 years. When we first moved here, there were no gardens or out buildings, no trails, no boardwalk to see the Ladies Slippers blooming in the early spring. But there was so much beauty and wild spirit here. It was manna for the soul.
Over the years we’ve created beautiful gardens that meander over the hillside, many of them accentuated with magical stone castles created by Uncle Eddie for the ‘little people’ of the gardens. The gardens are intoxicating and inviting to native pollinators, butterflies, birds and other creatures that call these gardens their home. Beyond the garden gates, are thousands of acres of wilderness. In many ways, these are our most favorite ‘gardens’ of all, untouched and wild.
So, it’s with a heart full of sadness that I write this newsletter to let our friends know that this will be our last year of offering classes at Sage Mountain. I started sharing and teaching about herbalism in 1972 when I was 22 years young. I opened my first herb store, began hosting large herbal events, founded the California School of Herbal Studies, and help start Traditional Medicinals all in the 1970’s. When I moved to Vermont in 1987, we started Sage Mountain Retreat Center. These have been wonderful years, filled with heart and spirit, wonderful adventures, incredible gatherings, amazing people, always with the beauty and the power of the plants guiding us.
But I feel the need to slow down, to let go, to surrender to what comes next. It’s an initiation process for me, a time of change as I pass menopause and enter into a new phase of life. People have asked me if this means I’ll never teach classes on the Mountain again. I only chuckle, because I have a hard enough time planning year to year, let along ‘forever’. But I do know that for the next couple of years, at least, I’m going on a ‘Sage Mountain Sabbatical’. We will still host the larger herbal gatherings ~ The International Herb Symposium, The Women’s Herbal Conference, and Sacred Teachings of the Plants ~ and continue to offer the Science and Art of Herbalism, my home study course, which I’m currently rewriting and updating. And, of course, we’ll continue to offer our Plant Lover’s Journey’s! We have a few new ones in the plans!
In our community in the heart of central Vermont, there is so much herbal abundance. We have a thriving Free Herbal Clinic, excellent herbal practitioners and teachers, organic herb farmers, and a new herb school has just started, The Vermont Center for Integrated Herbalism. Many of these fine herbalists were students at Sage Mountain and have gone on to create their own herbal dreams. In the traditions of our herbal elders, it’s the perfect time for me to step from the inner circle into the outer and become a voice of support and encouragement.
If you’ve never been to Sage Mountain, this is the year to visit. Come walk the trails, drum, do ceremony, and visit the beautiful Sage Mountain Gardens. Visitors are welcome on the weekdays. Please call the office first to confirm. Our Apprentice Programs and Advanced Herbal Training Program are full, but we have several other offerings, look around our site for more information.
On a last note, I’d like to encourage each of you who love plants, to join with us in our effort to preserve Native Medicinal Plants. Our work is making a difference but we need your help. Consider joining United Plants Savers and become a ‘Steward of Healing Herbs’. For a small amount you can make a big difference. For information visit the UpS website at www.plantsavers.org. Or call UpS at 802.476 – 6467.
With Green Blessings and a heart full of Love,
Rosemary Gladstar
