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Kitchery Witchery wild herbs weekend ~ Mother’s Medicine – 12 to 14th of May 2023
12 May 2023 @ 15:00 - 14 May 2023 @ 16:00
Connect with our wild native herbs and plants
Would you like to learn more intuitively and practically about the wild plants and herbs found in our native forests?
Many courses in herbalism mainly explore the scientific context of the plants and their chemical constituents. This is immensely valuable for those who would like to become herbalists and make it their profession, but if you are an ordinary plant lover, this can greatly inhibit your herbal enthusiasm.
During the Kitchery Witchery weekend we explore a more intuitive and personal connection with plants as they were known by our nature-connected ancestors. We connect with the herbalist/herbalist in you and learn techniques to engage in direct communication with the plants.
Each weekend we connect with up to 5-10 herbs and plants that can be found in season and go on a journey to connect with each of these plants individually, learn to recognise them and learn about them. By the end of the weekend, you will be able to distinguish them all, know what to consult them for and they will have become your closest companions on every walk in the garden or forest.
Gradually, we will discover how all plants can be our teachers, and what they have to tell us about ourselves as human beings.
In addition, during the weekend we will also collect the herbs, you will learn about the harvesting process, drying and the different ways to apply them, which ones you can eat, which ones are medicinal and their common magical uses.
Learning areas
– Respectful and conscious attitude towards the herbs and plants
– Deep contact with the plants and herbs
– Knowledge about the influences of lunar and solar phases
– Drying and processing herbs in the best conditions
– Working properties of the indigenous herbs
– Ancient legends, myths and transmissions around the herbs
– Reviving and activating the herb and the basis of herbal magic for ceremonial use
– Enjoying the beautiful nature in your own homeland
– Relaxing and enjoying being together by a cosy stove in the evening
– You will go home feeling wonderfully happy, a lot of new plant friends at and some herbal creations of your own!
Are you joining with your mother or daughter, or a friend who is a mother for this Mother’s Day edition? Then you both get a discount. Read more at the bottom!
Accommodation & stay
During the weekends, you will stay overnight with Chamai, in the Old Presbytery of the small village of Hodister, in the Ardennes. You will stay in a spacious room with 2 or 3 people. Staying in the tent in the beautiful garden is also possible. During the day, we are out in the forest most of the time. We also prepare delicious vegetarian meals with herbs and greens from our own garden.
All meals are provided during the weekend. If you like regular snacks in between meals, be sure to bring what you need for yourself, or possibly to share with the group. Tea, coffee and water are provided at all times.
Registration and prices
Social price: on request via email, 350 euro (max 2 people)
Standard price: 390 euro
Supporter & business price (if you would like an invoice, or want to support someone who is struggling financially: 490 euro
Deadline to register is at the latest 10 days before the start of the retreat and after payment of your participation fee. Later is not possible due to organisational reasons.
Special Mother’s Day edition: if you bring your mother as a daughter or another friend who is also a mother, you will both receive a 150 euro discount together. The invited Mother will receive a little gift during the weekend.
Are you registering at least 2 months in advance? Then you get an early bird discount of 70 euros, if you transfer your full participation fee in one go (not valid for social prices).
Your registration for the weekend is complete as soon as you have sent an email to chamaicentre@gmail.com and transferred the full registration fee to the following account: BE12 7340 4886 7292 – Sophie Vandenkerchove, stating your name + Kitchery Witchery weekend and date.
If you cancel your participation, part of your contribution will be withheld to cover the administrative costs of your cancellation. Two months in advance 25% of your contribution will be retained, one month in advance 50% and 2 weeks in advance: 75% of your contribution. If the retreat has to be cancelled due to external organisational reasons, your registration will be fully refunded.
The Kitchery Witchery weekend is a weekend we organise on a regular basis throughout the year. You can write us a message at chamaicentre@gmail.com and we will keep you informed as soon as the weekend is launched to be the first to register.
Facilitation team
Sophie Vandenkerchove
Sophie is a beautiful treasure, a wise woman with an innately warm heart for all that lives, a deep soul listener, an initiator in the nearly-lost-sacral-wildness, an initiator and guardian of the wildness of nature and its inhabitants, a guide in the land-of-not-knowing. She guides nature retreats, solos and Vision Quests in and around her centre Chamai in the Ardennes. Several years ago, she returned to her grandparents’ home in a small village in the Ardennes to dedicate her life to herding wildness, listening deeply and caring for the Earth.
Sophie was trained at the School of Lost Borders in California, founded by Steven Foster and Meredith Little. She also took courses in Spiritual Ecology, the Way of Council and the Work that Reconnects. She also finished a four-year training in Druidism and Celtic Shamanism and is a Dharma Teacher in Training in the Korean Zen tradition. In her workshops and pathways, Sophie works around rites of passage and time alone in nature, silence retreats and forest art. In these, she integrates the power of ceremony with her love for the land of her ancestors and her powerful connection to all life and beings in nature.