Welcome to Kala’s Quick Five, where I chat with fascinating authors, artists, teachers and researchers and ask them five questions about their work. My guest today is Lee Warren, Program Coordinator of the SouthEast Women’s Herbal Conference, which will be held on October 1-3, 2010 at Lake Eden, in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Kala: Lee, welcome to Kala’s Quick Five. The SouthEast Women’s Herbal Conference is described as ‘… a weekend for women to learn, connect and deepen into the Wise Woman Tradition: earth-based healing, local plants and deep nourishment’. Can you describe for us what goes on during this weekend at the conference and how long the conference has been running?

Lee: The conference is in its 6th year and has grown to more than 600 women participants. There are more than 60 classes by over 30 teachers in 8 different tracks of classes throughout the weekend plus evening events, amazing meals based on nourishing traditional foods, and artful vendors. Classes range from beginner to advanced and cover topics such as herb walks, storytelling, classic kitchen remedies, the art of drumming, seasonal living, self-esteem, wholistic sexuality, and more.

The conference offers an opportunity for women to steep themselves in teachings on the wise woman tradition, which encourage them to take charge of their health and their lives. As you mentioned, The Wise Woman Tradition embraces earth-based healing, local plants, and deep nourishment.

As Susun Weed puts it: “The Wise Woman Tradition is the oldest tradition of healing known on our planet, yet one that is rarely identified, rarely written or talked about. A woman-centered tradition of self love, respectful of the earth and all her creatures, the Wise Woman Tradition tells us that compassion, simple ritual, and common herbs heal the whole person and maintain health/wholeness/holiness.” The Wise Woman Tradition values nourishment, flexibility, transformation, groundedness, and the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference was inspired by the thriving herbal conferences for women in the Northeast, Southwest, and California. Corinna Wood, Director of Red Moon Herbs, felt that the Southeast, too, was ready for this kind of gathering. From our first annual event in 2005, we quickly discovered that the community was ready and eager, that we were filling a need. The conference now has a heart and soul of its own. For many it has become an annual event, a tradition in education, inspiration, and sisterhood. Our herbal conference community grows stronger and reaches further each year.

Kala: I love the Asheville and Blue Ridge mountain area of North Carolina and visit as often as I can to bask in the energy of the land and the warm feelings of the mountains. I’ve lived in other mountainous regions in my life, but the Blue Ridge is my favorite in the US. They’re the oldest mountain range in the country and have a softness that I connect to the Divine Feminine energy. When planning the conference, Lake Eden in this area was chosen, what do you enjoy energetically about this area and how does it support the conference?

Lee: Yes, it’s a beautiful area and Lake Eden is a gem for sure. The choice of Lake Eden as a location for our conference site was in large part due to our desire to expand the conference to a facility that could hold our capacity (our previous site had a maximum of 400 women.) Further the coming together of the Lake and the Mountains offers a beauty typical of this area and conducive to basking in the beauty and scenic nourishment ideal for a weekend away. Thus women who travel get to experience being in the beautiful Western NC terrain. As we’ve already talked about, earth-based awareness is part of our focus for the weekend and having women be immersed in such amazing earth energies helps embody that value.
Additionally, there are four of us who co-create the planning of the annual Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference: Corinna, Ema, Lee, and Renee. We all live in a forested valley in the Broad River District, about 30 minutes from Lake Eden. We are friends and neighbors sharing values of simple, low-earth-impact living, and environmental and social activism. Our offices are off-the-grid and our lives are filled with child rearing, food growing, and community. The conference gives women the opportunity for a part-time living-wage income in a rural area without much opportunity for employment and allows us work that is deeply aligned with our values.

Kala: During the conference, over 35 teachers present over 60 classes throughout the weekend. How does this work, is there one fee for the entire conference and you choose which classes to attend or do you pay by individual class? What do the classes focus on?
Lee: The fee for the weekend is $270 with food and lodging as an additional fee. Participants can purchase a meal ticket of local, organic, lovingly prepared meals for $58 and choose to camp or stay in various lodge or cabin beds at Lake Eden. Once registered, participants can choose from any class in seven class tracks, named: Weeds & Walks, Herbal How-To, Health & Healing, Advanced, Tending our Spirits, Love Your Body, Love the Earth. There is one additional class track called Intensives, which come with an additional cost and take up two class slots. Intensives are an opportunity to study more deeply with a certain teacher or on a specific subject.

Intensives this year include:

• The Best of Rosemary – Greatest Hits from 35 years of Herbal Wisdom with Rosemary Gladstar
  
• Mountain Mama’s Apothecary — Do-it-Yourself, Down Home Concoctions with Teresa Boardwine
  
• The Endocrine System — Exploring the Body/Mind Mystery with Kathleen Maier
  
• Women Rise Up Ceremony with ALisa Starkweather
  
• Women’s Anatomy of Arousal — Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure with Sheri Winston
  

For a full schedule, please see:
http://www.sewisewomen.com/womens_herbal_conference/pdfs/SEWHC_Schedule_2010.pdf

Kala: When looking at the courses offered, I noticed that some of them are geared towards nurses and medical care givers. I think that’s very encouraging to the see the medical community connecting with the wise woman ways and incorporating this work into their care. What do you see occurring at this time with the medical community, are they opening to embrace holistic healthcare as part of their service?
Lee: Not only are holistically minded nurses and caregivers seeking out this information for personal interest, it seems that more and more hospitals and other health care facilities want their staff to be trained in these modalities. They’re finding that their patients are regularly asking about supplements, food, lifestyle, and the like, and they are starting to step up and realize the value of engaging around these ideas.

The Wise Woman Tradition translates and integrates well into all forms of care because it is inclusive. It encourages us to look at nourishment and supportive strategies first before resorting to pharmaceuticals or surgery, but it doesn’t rule those options out as valid and legitimate forms of healthcare.

For the first four years of the conference, we had nurses and other health professionals attending who were interested in incorporating the Wise Woman Tradition into their lifes and work. We received repeated requests for making continuing education units available for nurses at the conference.

With the support of the New England Women’s Herbal Conference, we connected with the American Holistic Nurses Association. The AHNA is very much in resonance with our holistic approach to self-care and health care. The process to be approved to offer CE’s for nurses is an extensive one. Three months of effort resulted in a 71-page application in 2009 which was approved by the AHNA. Last year, 25 nurses took advantage of the program.

We’re applying to AHNA again this year and hope to attract twice as many nurses.

Kala: What is the intent and vision of the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference? Where do you hope to see it blossom in the future?

Lee: Southeast Wise Women, which is the umbrella organization for the The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference is, simply put, holding a voice in the Southeast for the Wise Woman Tradition.

In specific, hundreds of women get charged and changed through their experiences at the conference and look forward to returning to get renewed each year. We’re hoping that this charge infuses their lives with the inspiration and initiative to create more self-care, well-being, empowerment, and aliveness in themselves, their families and their communities.

We want women to learn, connect and deepen during the weekend and take home a seed-pod of hope for what is possible in their lives.

Here are some testimonials from past participants…
• “I had never been to an all-woman event before and it was amazing how free and un-self conscious I felt! I also especially loved waking up early in my tent and walking to the gym for Sierra\’s lovely, restorative yoga sessions, and eating the truly wonderful food provided. Thank you!”  SK Valentine, Tallahassee, FL

• “This year my mother and my daughter attended the conference with me. They loved it as much as I did in previous years. It was such a bonding and connecting experience. Thank you for offering something for everyone, and a huge thank you to the childcare staff. My daughter cried when it was time to leave this special space you create.” Crystal Merrell, Jasper, GA

• “I was particularly grateful for the harmonious vibration and cooperation. Every year we surrender a little more of our egos in service to the greater good. It is a very powerful experience to be with so many grateful women supporting other women so that we may carry our medicine back out into the world as the healers that we are.”  Thea Summer Deer, Whittier, NC

We love hearing from women who go back to their lives and create women’s circles, or study their passion, or begin making herbal infusions as medicines at home, or start a new business based on healing, or even just incorporate more nourishing foods into their lives. In any way that we can help create movement back to a connection with the earth, ourselves and each other as women, we are helping to create healing…..personally and planetarily.

If we can come together as empowered, healthy, and alive women, there’s no stopping what is possible.

Kala: Lee, thank you for joining me here on Kala’s Quick Five. More about Lee and the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference on their website: www.sewisewomen.com

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More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Developing Business Intuition, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom. More information about Kala at: www.ExploreYourSpirit.com and readings and consultations with available at: www.exploreyourspirit.com/psychic.html