‘The Way of the Wise Healer’
Apprenticeship in Sacred Plant Medicine
May 2022 – October 2025
*****Current Apprenticeship is Full. We are no longer accepting applications********
Email info@derrynagittah.ie for further details
This is an intensive apprenticeship program for those wishing to walk a sacred path of healing with the plant world. The course covers herbal medicine, flower essences and plant spirit healing. This is a magical path with plants.It intends to foster an understanding of the sacredness of plants and all of life, offering an opportunity for profound personal development and building a bridge between inner and outer worlds.
Participants learn how to identify, grow, harvest and prepare simple plant remedies for the treatment of common ailments. For each system of the human body, we review basic anatomy, physiology and pathology and go on to study appropriate herbs for the related conditions including the hands-on preparation of remedies such as infusions, decoctions, syrups, tinctures, oils, ointments, lotions, vinegars, poultices, foot and hand-baths, amulets and flower essences.
By developing both physical and inner senses, students get to know plants in the herb garden and on the land. We enter the Dreamtime of the plants, journeying to meet plants in the inner realms and bonding with plant allies who can help with healing and giving guidance. We align with the cycles of nature, connecting with the invisible world and working with the Medicine Wheel, the energy centres of our own bodies and the attributes of the five directions (Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether). Each apprentice quests his or her own Medicine Wheel of plant allies and creates plant profiles which go to form a Herbarium of their personal Medicine Wheel.
As the course progresses, we delve ever more deeply into the ancient ways of the Wise Healer. We work with plants to bring a way of healing that addresses imbalances on all levels – body, mind, spirit and emotions; whether personal, collective or planetary. This is a way of prayer and sacred ceremony, of deep dreaming and connection with the magic of the plant world. We remember the unity of all beings and who we truly are. We seek to know our life purpose and how we can best be of service in the world. We each seek to embody the wisdom of the plants, to fulfil our destiny, to learn about the power of unconditional love and to live in harmony with Nature. Apprentices undertake personal ceremony to anchor the teachings from the plants and to facilitate self-knowledge & personal transformation. Each student makes a wand or staff as a personal magical item. In the final year, apprentices make a personal Medicine Shield, representing the beauty of their Soul and the medicine they carry in the world.
The course reflects Carole’s work and experience as a healer over more than 35 years and represents a committed personal apprenticeship. It offers a way to develop a deep relationship with the plant world, encouraging self-discovery and providing an opportunity for profound personal growth.
Carole’s aim is to unlock each student's potential, and help each one find and develop their own personal ‘medicine’ or the gifts they bring to the world. The apprenticeship offers knowledge and skills with which to support and assist others as they move through the many transitions of life. Successful completion of the apprenticeship can provide the training necessary to become a practitioner of sacred plant medicine, as healer and/or ceremonialist (priestess or priest). Where appropriate, apprentices may continue for further training in advanced healing/ceremonial practices and/or receive personal supervision to assist them in the expression of their own healing gifts. The course is suitable both for beginners and professional herbalists/healers alike. Essential requirements include a love of plants, the desire to be of service in the world, a willingness to look honestly at oneself and a commitment to personal growth.
As the program progresses, students pass through several Gateways or stages of initiation. These are as follows:
- Primrose Gateway
HERO archetype – questing, setting off on a spiritual journey, learning to make decisions.
- Vervain Gateway
MAGICIAN archetype – mediating between physical & spiritual worlds, stimulating creativity & imagination, manifesting one’s intentions, co-creating with the Cosmos
- Datura Gateway
WARRIOR archetype – facing oneself & making commitment, being of service, transforming one’s inner enemies
- Blackthorn Gateway
WISE ONE archetype – knowing & claiming one’s own medicine, having the wisdom to apply knowledge and understanding successfully
Apprentices undertake a series of personal overnight outdoor ceremonies which promote movement through these Gateways. Please note: these are potent Initiatory Gateways and sometimes require more than one attempt to negotiate successfully.
The course is divided into 13 modules over 3 and a half years. These modules include teaching days, two Plant Diet ceremonies, two 4-day summer workshops and a series of personal overnight ceremonies on the land.
Apprentices attend the workshops to learn and grow through participation, observation and by assisting. This is an opportunity to receive the teachings given at the workshop as a participant and at the same time to train in certain tasks, whatever is appropriate, ranging from smudging or looking after the altar to taking part in healings or other ceremonial work. Attendance at 2 workshops is an integral part of the course and is part of working with the respective Gateways. Course content may vary as appropriate for the group.
Students are expected to do work at home inbetween sessions. During the program, apprentices are taught how to undertake one-to-one sacred plant healings. Those who wish to practice Sacred Plant Medicine (this is optional) are asked to submit case studies and will be tested on their ability to perform healings. Practitioner level certificates are awarded to successful candidates.
Where appropriate, further advanced training may be called for and offered in additional modules or ceremony (not included in the 3 1/2 year apprenticeship). This can include advanced Priestess/Priest training for those desiring to hold ceremony for others and leads to ordination as a Priest or Priestess of the Temple of Plants.
Successful graduation from the Wise Healer Apprenticeship can confer eligibility to apply for full membership of the Foundation for Sacred Plant Medicine (FSPM). Sacred Plant Medicine honours the sacredness of plants and all of life. The medicine of the plant world is expressed in a multitude of ways around the Earth. At Derrynagittah, through the Way of the Wise Healer Apprenticeship, Carole is sharing her personal expression of Sacred Plant Medicine and aiming to facilitate each student in embodying their soul’s dream and finding their own way of being in service to the plants, whether as a healing practitioner, a priestess or priest, a maker or grower, an artist or in some other way.
For further details or to apply for the Apprenticeship, please email Marion at info@derrynagittah.ie Acceptance on the course is subject to a personal interview. 
