Nature Knows:
Ecological Consciousness & Reciprocity
Magic is essentially the higher understanding of nature.
Nature Knows: Ecological Consciousness & Reciprocity offers a deep dive into nature's sacred gift of medicine for emotional, mental and spiritual health. We explore the Anima Mundi (Soul of the World) and the role of humanity in the interconnected web of the natural realm. Through an exploration of plant medicines such as foods, essential oils, flower essences, herbs and homeopathic remedies, we come to understand the direct relationship between the natural world and the human psyche. We’ll support you as you connect with the plants that are native to your region, and/or learn how to grow an herb from a select list of North American plants that are commonly used in spiritual baths.
During this course, you will cultivate a sacred relationship with the plant of your choice. You will also study and integrate the Flower Essence Society's Twelve Windows of Plant Perception as you engage with your sacred plant's medicinal properties through observation, research, creativity, prayer, and direct experience.
Nature Knows: Ecological Consciousness & Reciprocity meets for seven interactive live Zoom classes and includes an online student forum for class readings, discussions, and assignments. Students will also work in experiential pods to deepen their relationship with the work, and each other!
Together, we explore:
An overview of the history of flower essence therapy and shifting consciousness, from ancient times to present
The role of botanical families in flower essence analysis
Plant medicinals in mythology, archetypes, and sacred texts
Strategies to access plant consciousness through active imagination and creative expression
Perspectives within the growing field of Ecological Psychology, and how these principles align with Indigenous and Diasporic relationships with the natural world
Ways to maintain a spiritual connection to nature in our modern, tech-driven society
Personal practices that contribute to Earth sustainability
This course culminates with an optional Flower Study Portfolio Project. This project- which can either be a research paper or 30min virtual presentation, is required for Flower Essence Practitioner Certification.
Your Facilitators
Sawdayah K. Brownlee
Sawdayah is a Gullah woman based in upstate South Carolina, by way of Detroit and Brooklyn. She is a farmer, educator, cook, storyteller, sometimes muse/model, sister, daughter, friend.
Sawdayah weaves together written and spoken word, prayers, gardening, and cooking to tell personal stories of the creation of home and the reclamation of her own Nature. Through her art, she aims to entice you to reflect on how critical relationships create our homespaces and how they contribute to ‘home’ existing/persisting, in spite of neocolonization, gentrification, and displacement. Her political and artistic focus is on homes within the African Diaspora. Her own critical relationships have her grappling with the idea of home with other people of color who face hegemony.
Sawdayah's favorite artistic medium is plants. She believes they are the pipelines to all of the "nutritive & curative substances" located in the Earth (summarized from 'Self-Healing Power and Therapy: Old Teachings from Africa' by Dr. K. Bunseki Fu-Kiau, Ibayé). The practice of being in community with people, plants, and Earth, for each groups' edification and healing, is her contribution to Black liberation. She is honored to have been called to be in relationship with land and its assemblages within ecosystems.
Lindsay Fauntleroy
Lindsay Fauntleroy is the founder and director of the Spirit Seed, ans the author of In Our Element: Soul Medicine to Unleash your Personal Power. She was drawn to the healing arts after her own journey to fertility introduced her to the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit. Her extensive training includes a Master of Arts from New York University, a Master of Science from Tri-State College of Acupuncture, and clinical training in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Lindsay is currently a student at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where is is pursuing a PhD in Depth Psychology and Integrative Healing Practices.
Lindsay firmly believes that the power to heal should rest in the hands and hearts of all communities. Her approach to soul medicine emerges from over 15 years of clinical practice, her doctoral research of Indigenous and African Diasporic psychology, and her commitment to community wellness. One of her greatest joys is supervising advanced students in the Spirit Seed clinical residency, as emerging practitioners bring the soulful work of Flower Essence Therapy to diverse communities around the world.
Lindsay has been featured in ESSENCE magazine, the Shift Network, Sirius XM’s Urban View, and is a thought-leader on many wellness podcasts. Learn more about Lindsay’s work HERE
Course Details
Nature Knows: Ecological Consciousness & Reciprocity is an open level course without pre-requisites. It is a required course for the Flower Essence Practitioner Certification program.
Course Dates
This is a hybrid course that consists of live sessions via Zoom + online, self-paced study. (80% attendance of live zoom sessions + completion of online assignments is required for certification credit)
Module 1:
Live Zoom sessions: 4 consecutive Sundays 11am-2pm EST:
March 16th, 23rd, 30th, April 6th
Module 2:
April 6- May 3rd asynchronous online + experiential pod meetings, dates TBD
Module 3:
3 biweekly Sundays 11-2pm EST
May 4th, 18th*, June 1st**
*Guest lecture on the Orisa Osanyin, by Ifa Priest Baba Fansanmi Fayemi on May 18th, open to Spirit Seed Students
**Final presentations for the course are shared in class on June 1st, which is open to the Spirit Seed community, friends and family.
Recommended Resources:
These books are not required, but offer a beautiful context for the work we will be doing together. Readings and reflection assignments draw from and/or inspired by these texts, as well as additional articles that will be provided to you through the course shell.
Primarily, this course is designed to support you in personal research and exploration of the plant that chooses you, as well as your ancestral relationship to the natural world.
In Our Element: Using the Five Elements as Soul Medicine to Unleash Your Personal Power by Lindsay Fauntleroy (Llewellyn 2022)
Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveria (North Atlantic Books, 2021)
Self-Healing Power and Therapy: Old Teachings from Africa by Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau (African Tree Press, 2014)
The Home Place: Memoirs of A Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham (Milkweed Editions 2017)
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown (AK Press 2017)
Indigenous Healing Psychology: Honoring the Wisdom of the First Peoples by Richard Katz, Ph.D. (Healing Arts Press 2017)
Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind , edited by Theodore Roszack (Counterpoint 1995)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions, 2015)
$550
Single Payment
You can make one payment or choose affordable payment plans though Affirm, Klarna or AfterPay.
$550
Spirit Seed Payment Plan
Non-refundable registration deposit of $50 + 4 monthly payments of $125 beginning in February 2025.
Need financial support? Apply for a scholarship HERE