Return to Hogwarts

Return to Hogwarts

Durango is the confluence of a lot of things: mountains and desert; new West and old. And next month, it will also be the confluence of good medicine. 

From July 10-13, Fort Lewis College hosts the 14th annual International Good Medicine Confluence, a gathering of “natural healers, nature lovers and culture-shifters from all over the world.” FLC will be turned into a “virtual Hogwarts” as 43 teachers offer more than 100 classes ranging from “Medicinal Plants & Their Actions” and “Home Medicine Making” to “New Science & Ancient Wisdom,” “Mushrooms,” “Mead Making and Botanical Cocktails” and our personal favorite, “Alchemy.”

This will be the fifth time the event has been held in Durango, and local herbalists, locavores and folklorists will be joining in, including: Katrina Blair, of Turtle Lake Refuge; Marija Helt, herbalist and occasional contributor to the Telegraph; and Elliot Brinkley, owner of Dancing Willow Herbs.

The four-day event will also include a Kid’s Village; a “Plants & Faeries Masquerade Ball;” and a daily Healer's Market, featuring herbal and natural products, books, healing services, jewelry, clothing, books and more. There will also be bonus plant walks and field trips for attendees on Sun., July 14.  

The Confluence is hosted by Jesse Wolf and Kiva Hardin of planthealer.org, a website dedicated to  herbalism, natural healing, plant lore and artisanal skills. They also publish Plant Healer Quarterly and Herbaria Monthly, which were founded in 2007 and have about 46,000 subscribers.

In addition, Jesse is a poet and musician who has written several books on herbalism and ecology. He also founded the Animá Sanctuary, a nature-informed retreat surrounded by the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico.

“Folks have been speaking of (The Confluence) for over a year as a ‘Return of The Tribe,’ acknowledging the pent-up hunger to convene physically again with kindred plant healers, visionaries and practitioners,” Jesse and Kiva wrote in an email. “It is a vastly diverse and widely dispersed clan of clinicians, activists, artisans and home medicine makers … it is for you impassioned natural healer of bodies, psyches and planet that these events are dedicated.” 

The Healer’s Market is open July 10-13 from 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. in the FLC Ballroom and is free and open to the public. More info and tickets for the rest of the event can be found at: www.goodmedicine confluence.com. 

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