The Healing Plant: A Journey from Nature to Medicine
Set in a beautiful, diverse medicinal plant garden at Camphill Village Copake, this day-long participatory workshop will bring human beings and plants into intimate relationships and conversation. In the morning we will work with plants to “read" in the book of nature, exploring exemplary plants through Goethean observation. Insights from anthroposophic medicine will be offered as entry points to illuminate the plants' healing potentials. The afternoon brings experiences with different processes for enhancing the plants' gifts and the reasoning behind them, including hands-on work and tastings.
Event Presenters:
Marc Blachere completed training in curative education in Camphill Perceval, Switzerland, before moving to Camphill Village in Copake, New York. He has worked as a teacher, farmer, bookbinder, homemaker, and a gardener. For the past 14 years, he has been the head gardener of the Healing Plant Gardem in Copake. During these years the focus of his activity has been on biodynamic research and training and soil management. He is a mentor gardener for the BDA's farmer training program and has a particular interest in forming spaces of encounter between human and nature. In this context, he has taught and served as a consultant in Vietnam. He has been on the core faculty of the Social Therapy Program in Copake since 2008 and is responsible for various courses on general anthroposophy and art, the senses, phenomenology, the life phases, organizational development, drama, and clay. He also serves as a member of the Collegium of the Camphill Academy.
Dr. Steven Johnson finished his residency in internal medicine at the University of Massachusetts affiliated hospitals in Worcester in 1996 as Co-Chief Resident of Internal Medicine. He has lectured frequently in Europe and the U.S. on anthroposophic/integrative medicine, oncology, and meditation retreats. Dr. Johnson consults on anthroposophic pharmacy and helped to establish the use of local plants and resources for Uriel pharmacy.
Dr. Johnson founded the mistletoe and integrative oncology course in the United states as well as the Foundation for Health Creation. He educates and trains doctors in anthroposophic medicine and anthroposophic oncology. He has co-authored and edited the book Mistletoe and the Future of Integrative Oncology and will soon publish a second book on resilience and meditation. Presently Dr. Johnson practices medicine at Camphill Village in Copake, New York, and Collaborative Medical Arts in Ghent, New York. He is the former president and a current board member of the Physician Association for Anthroposophic Medicine.
About the Healing Plant Garden at Camphill Village Copake
The Healing Plant Garden and its herbal studio bring person and plant closer together, growing and providing high-quality herbal products that are provided to residents and visitors of Camphill Village, as well as local customers in the Berkshire Taconic region. The garden hosts more than 300 plant species, some of which are medicinal, and some of which are culinary herbs. Some are grown for their beauty, their form, or the color of their blossoms, or because they express something strange, unique, or archetypal.
The garden is situated on two acres of south-facing sloped land with good sun exposure in Camphill Village Copake(link is external). The inspirations found within Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic growing text, the "Agriculture Course," guide us in creating the most favorable conditions for an optimal manifestation of each species of plant.
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