“CLOUD HIDDEN/WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN”
HARVESTING WILD MEDICINALS/STUDYING CLASSICAL CHINESE MEDICAL TEXTS
A five-day excursion and study program with Z’ev Rosenberg L.Ac., Alembic Institute, San Diego, CA, and Sabine Wilms Ph.D., Happy Goat Productions and Imperial Tutor, Freeland, WA.
Home base at Southern Methodist University, Taos, New Mexico
This exciting program will take place in Taos, NM, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Z’ev lived for seven years in Santa Fe, NM and ten years in Denver/Boulder, CO, before moving to San Diego, CA, to chair the Department of Herbal Medicine at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine twenty-eight years ago. During his years in Colorado and New Mexico, in addition to practicing Chinese medicine he learned to identify and wild-craft local medicinals growing in the Rocky Mountains and classify them according to Chinese medical criteria. In recent years, he has focused on clinical practice (thirty-five years’ experience), teaching advanced seminars in Classical Chinese Medicine, and releasing his first book, “Returning to the Source: Han Dynasty Medical Classics in Modern Clinical Practice”, from Singing Dragon Press.
Z’ev will be joined by author, scholar, and international lecturer Sabine Wilms, Ph.D. For seven years Sabine operated a biodynamic goat farm and apple orchard outside of Taos, New Mexico, centered on subsistence farming and living in harmony with Heaven and Earth. She has since become one of our most prominent translators of classical Chinese medical texts, including a translation of the Shén Nóng Běn Cǎo Jīng, available from Happy Goat Productions. Sabine’s newest projects include the launch of Imperial Tutor, a mentorship, retreat, and educational portal for practitioners of Chinese medicine, as well as a translation of Sù Wèn 5, forthcoming as “Humming with Elephants: The Great Treatise on the Manifest Resonances of Yin and Yang”, due in spring, 2018.
This program will balance field work with study, practicality with classical scholarship. The focus will be on identifying and harvesting local medicinals and finding their equivalents not only in the Zhōng Yào Dà Cí Diǎn 中药大词典/Great Dictionary of Chinese Medicinals and the Shén Nóng Běn Cǎo Jīng 神農本草經/Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, but also many other historical and contemporary commentaries and other materia medica texts in order to determine potential uses in consonance with mainstream Chinese internal medicine.
In the mornings we will head up the canyons into the mountains to harvest herbs, then in the afternoons and some evenings there will be classroom study at the seminar site (SMU). We will also include a visit to Ojo Caliente Hot Springs on Monday morning, and then to the Redwing Book Company warehouse where participants will have a wide selection of books on Asian medicine available to buy for their libraries.
Since the traditional herbal system in China developed out of local plants used over millennia, it is important that we learn the medicines of ‘mountains, fields, and streams’ in our own native environment. An herbalist is like a ‘hunter’ for medicine, who closely examines habitat, climate, season, and qualities of plants, animals, and minerals when choosing medicines. Being an herbalist requires a similar sensitivity to the diagnostic skills of Chinese medicine.
New Mexico’s northern high desert and mountain ranges are an unspoiled treasure of potent herbs nurtured by the high altitude, strong sunlight and sharp temperature changes of the region. The contrasts of altitude, rainfall and sunlight have created several life zones with a variety of medicinal plants found in few other locales. The staggering beauty of the area calms the mind and increases sensitivity to studying the traditions of Chinese medicine.
Location: Ubelaker Seminar Room, Southern Methodist University at Taos, New Mexico, 87557. www.smu.edu
Date/Time: Sunday, August 19th thru Thursday, August 23rd. Orientation session begins Sunday afternoon at 2 PM.
Cost: $1295.00 plus travel and lodging.
$625.00 deposit required by May 1st via check or money order, with remaining balance due 30 days prior. Full refund available until June 23rd.
CEU: 35 units pending NCCAOM approval.
Z’ev and Sabine will be available to autograph copies of their books, both of which will be utilized in the class lectures.
For event questions and payment please contact Justin Penoyer, workshop organizer at justinpenoyer@yahoo.com.
There are a limited number of rentable rooms at seminar site, along with nearby hotels, camping, and teepees. A full class list and additional information will be made available at https://zevrosenberg.com/ and www.imperialtutor.com
“The sage rests. Resting then results in balance and ease. Balance and ease then result in tranquil indifference. Balance, ease, and tranquil indifference mean that worries and trouble are unable to enter and that evil Qì is unable to carry out a sneak attack. For this reason, the sage’s virtue-power is complete and the Spirit is not lost.” -Zhuāngzi 莊子