EducationaL offers
Experiential workshops • Conferences
Guided experiences • Residencies
ConfeRences and WalkthRoughs
EXPLORATIONS OF LOCAL HERBS AND TREES
Whether in an urban setting or on your rural property, Benedetti offers a tour to help us remember the many ways we can collaborate with the trees, vines, and bushes that always accompany us. Each tour includes songs and practices of reciprocity with nature.
PREREQUISITE:
none
DURATION:
2 hours
CouRses and WorkShops
BORICUA MEDICINAL PLANT FESTIVAL
Interactive workshop. You will learn how to use medicinal plants to prepare foods and remedies for illnesses such as the flu, herpes, and even mosquito-borne viruses. We will live the tradition!
• We will recognize the medicinal value of 30 antiviral plants from our culinary and medicinal traditions.
• We will begin to decipher the language of plants to discern how to best prepare our teas.
• We will sing!
PREREQUISITE:
None
DURATION:
4.5 hours incudes a snack
LIVE-IN INTENSIVE APPRENTICESHIP
During a period of 2 or 3 months, students of FitoSofía (Wise, Green Boricua Medicine) have an opportunity to do an in-depth study of the Puerto Rican tradition of herbal medicine with preparatory experiences in their own homes and later, several days of hands-on experience at María Benedetti’s home and work space in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. This course is designed for Puerto Ricans of the diaspora, and although it is not necessary to be totally bilingual, readings in Spanish are part of the course.
PREREQUISITE:
students of FitoSofía
DURATION:
2-3 months
PRacTices of DeeP ConnecTioN
The FOREST BATH
FOREST BATH is grounding and reconnection. After letting go of the physical body, we walk, breathing with the forest, until we reach the forest circle. There we lie down to give and receive offerings of attention, respect, and pure heart. Earth, sky, trees, birds, rhythms, ferns, stillness, clouds, stones. We are part of that which always heals. For individuals and groups.
PREREQUISITE:
none
DURATION:
2 to 3 hours
WALKABLE MANDALA CREATION
The Walkable Mandala is an ancient technology that receives, amplifies, and transmits our healing intentions. This participatory sculpture invites us to walk its contours, strengthening the intentions placed on the earth with each stone.
Built in spaces a minimum of 25 feet by 25 feet, this mandala is a pattern captured in petroglyphs and in the earth, from the Caribbean island of Dominica and Central America to Australia, Norway, and Ireland. The processes of building and walking it promote well-being and activate our healing intentions.
PREREQUISITE:
none
DURATION:
3 to 4 hours