Year 1: Foundations ( 9 Months)

Focus

Foundational knowledge and practice, including traditional and intermediate formulating and medicine making, ancestral rituals, and herbal remedies.

• Botany, Land & Reciprocity: Honoring that many students already carry deep relationships with plants and the Earth, we will continue to nurture this connection by engaging plants as both medicine and relatives, as teachers and kin. Together we’ll center ancestral ways of knowing with botany, strengthening skills in identification, harvesting, and cultivation through seasonal herb walks. This learning is grounded in reciprocity, respect, and stewardship, affirming that healing is inseparable from the land and the communities we belong to.

• Monographs & Body Systems: Create in-depth herbal monographs to understand the properties, energetics, and uses of key medicinal plants. Study body systems (anatomy, structure and function)—including digestive, nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive/generative system, immune, lymphatic, urinary, and cutaneous, and explore how herbs and rituals can support them.

• Curanderismo & Ancestral Healing: Explore the traditional healing practices of Curanderismo, learning its history, principles, and applications while honoring the diverse healing traditions carried by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Together, we will engage with ancestral rituals such as pláticas, limpias (water, egg, smoke, chile, and barridas), introductions to rebozos and embroidery for storytelling, deities, soul retrieval, and the teachings of Los 13 Aires/Cosmic Winds. This work creates space for participants to reconnect with their own ancestral practices and lineages, placing Curanderismo in conversation with other BIPOC healing traditions, and centering community care, resistance, and our collective medicine.

• Medicine Making: Develop a deep understanding of herbal actions and energetics while engaging in hands-on medicine-making. Students will practice both traditional folk methods and the clinical ratio-method to create a wide spectrum of remedies, including: infusions, decoctions, bitters, oxymels, vinegars, and syrups, tinctures, glycerites, percolations, gummies, and suppositories, oils, salves, liniments, and poultices, flower essences, pelvic steams, Agua Florida, medicinal baths and ritual/ceremonial preparations.

• Frameworks of Justice & Care: Ground learning in harm reduction, healing justice, and transformative justice. Explore how these frameworks support self-determination and community care, empowering individuals and communities to reclaim health through accessible and culturally rooted practices.

• Bi-weekly Root and Bloom Peer Support Check-ins ( date and times are decided by group members) Through the peer Root & Bloom groups, students will practice these skills collaboratively, sharing insights, testing formulas, and supporting one another’s growth. These groups serve as spaces of accountability, creativity, and reflection, ensuring that this medicine is rooted in both personal practice and collective care.

• Community Engagement

  • Service Hours: Complete 8 hours of service at Tierra Rituals’ healing events, offering hands-on practice and community experience.

  • Mutual Aid Project: Co-create and participate in a mutual aid support project at the end of the year, offering direct support to your local communities.

  Field Trips and Ceremony

  • Camping Trip and Fire Ceremony: One camping trip to connect deeply with land, fire, and ancestral plant teachings.

  • Seaweed foraging and water ceremony

  • Herb Walks: 5 seasonal herb walks for plant identification

  Ongoing Mentorship & Support

  • Bi-Monthly 1:1 Sessions / Platicas

    • Format: Individual Zoom Sessions with Lidia

    • Purpose: Personalized support and guidance for each mentee on herbal practice, personal growth, and integrating ancestral frameworks into daily life and community care.

Certificate of Completion for Year 1: Foundations in Ancestral Healing & Community Herbalism

Upon completing the first 9-month segment, participants will receive a Foundations in Ancestral Healing & Community Herbalism certificate. This certificate acknowledges your commitment to learning traditional and intermediate medicine-making, ancestral curanderismo practices, herbal monographs, and the study of body systems within the Tierra Rituals framework. It serves as a milestone in your ongoing journey as a healer and herbalist, highlighting your dedication to serving with humility, integrity, and a deep respect for ancestral wisdom.

Please Note: Herbalism is not a legally certified profession in the United States at the federal level. The certificates provided by Tierra Rituals are intended to honor your personal journey, education, and commitment to ancestral healing practices. While organizations like the American Herbalists Guild (AHG) offer voluntary certifications, there is no federal or state licensure for herbalists in the U.S.

Our certificates are a reflection of your dedication to learning and practicing herbalism within a framework of ancestral wisdom and community care. They symbolize the knowledge and skills you have gained through this program but do not grant legal authority to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for medical conditions. We encourage all participants to practice herbalism ethically and to continue learning and growing in their practice.