Alchemy Of The Seasons (AOTSS) is a ‘round the seasons school that is part of Nemeton (The Mountain), a NYS Non-Profit, HumanEarth Sanctuary and Learning Community located in Owego NY, that educates and serves the community. (This web page will eventually be moving to the Nemeton website; though still linked here)
AOTSS, founded in 2019, is a branch of Nemeton’s Wellness & Sanctuary Collective. (NWC, NSC), with Raine E. Ford of Mountain Woman Medicine as its Founder & Guidian.
Alchemy Of The Seasons is a Community Training School that has a multifaceted purpose.
- To bring Medicines to The People
- To bring Healers to their Medicine
- To support integrity, wisdom, perseverance, responsibility, accountability and SelfCare through training for the leaders, teachers & healers of tomorrow.
Our collective Mission is to live by example in our walk & talk, a Huvinity powered Trajection of Expansion in a Sustainable and Integral Way, as defined in this AOTSS Code.
We shift with the seasons, reason & rhyme, offering a weekly community gathering space, as well as education & experiences on a variety of topics that can all loosely be gathered under the umbrellas of: InnerCartography, Medicines, Ceremony & Pillars.
Alchemy Of The Seasons
Train Station & Ride.
Around the year the school flows, monitoring cycles, observing patterns, attuning to the patterns of natural healing. The “train” pulls up to the “station” monthly and or between courses, new folks to join us, or a time we do “ride = take a class/course/join membership” in a “covered space = the train” where we are afforded an amount of supported Safety. For while each and ever moment and encounter is deeply meaningful for each of us, there is also deep meaning in the observation of ourselves and the world around us from a neutral observer mode. (where the details of the stories we carry and hold are allowed to fall away/or are allowed to be peeled away, and we get to discover more layers then we could ever find – when we were deep in the identification of the thang. (I.e.: Its harder to get to the why of something, when you feel associated with the thing, cause then your questioning the relevance of your entire existence, rather then considering the deeper implication of a single cord (that may have many threads and thus layers).
In short, the train station model helps us build that mode inside ourselves through repetition, reminding & remembering.
[In later years/levels, you may see the analogy be a “Magic Carpet = that would be the ‘train ride” of that level”, because when we are playing in those layers, we know we are playing with deeper realms of risk, reward and revitalization.
The Train Ride itself is composed of the mindset, scheduling, patterning of communication, SAFETY CANsiderations. Once we are all on board we proceed to head off on our journey together,
Mindsets:
In InnerCartography that might be an experimentation mindset, & building awareness around s/Self, Trajection, Lived Terrain & Topographical Mapping.
In the Herbal Medicine realms that might be a mindset of balancing person, plant and problem.)
Scheduling:
Once a year at the start of the season I check in with the folks who are putting in their voice for consideration and who will be effected be the day and time, and I do my best to find a time that can work the best as possible for all involved. (all sessions are recorded and replays also available)
Patterns of communication:
Here we aim to listen to understand as much as to be heard, responding instead of only reacting and to discover what respect looks like for one another rather then assume.
SAFETY CANsiderations.
This is code for helping us to remember how we contribute to creating our own reality in this world. (Thank you JWoW, visit them here.)
SAFETY = Sovereign Awareness For/from
Everyone Thank You.
CAN = Choose. Action. Now.
In these train rides, we are all on the same train (the material & topics), on the same trajection (Direction, Trajectory & Projection), with each our own experiences of it. And so we become in a sense, a family for a time.
Ways you can Play with us:
AOTSS offers
– Live Online courses
– Membership packages
– Take-At-Your-Own-Pace courses (TAYOP)
– On-Mountain Immersions & Intensives.
There is a multi-year Trajection for those who feel The Call and Choose to journey
- 1st years: Foundational Exploration (Building / Revisiting Foundations (Train)
- 2nd years: Choosing by Experimentation (Train)
- 3rd years: Practicing into ISness (Magic Carpet)
- 4th years: PraXercising into Choosing (stepping into exploratory service) (Magic Carpet)
- 5th years: Stepping up (Embracing a role)
- 6th years: Stepping In (Taking on responsibility)
- 7th year: Solidifying as a Pillar (Becoming Accountable)
The school’s online component is held through Zoom and Discord and at times On Mountain and at certain events .Currently it meets 1-2 days per week, and is expanding with the addition of advanced year students stepping into select roles and other carefully selected teachers and guides.
Many of the Foundational Courses 1st’s will, over time, will be converted into Take-It-At-Your-Own-Pace courses (TAYOP), so that the foundational courses are accessible at other times of the year (Minus the community / live zoom calls) See more on this below
There are Four Branches to
Alchemy Of The Seasons School (AOTSS).
The First branch is InnerCartography, which means inner mapping, for individuals and groups. This is the use of tools, techniques, and language to better serve ourselves and the community. Things such as language of relating, Human Design, Gene keys, astrology, and many varied self-care practices for individuals and communities.
Second branch is associated with herbal medicine, holistic and sustainable living. Courses such as medicine making, emergency holistic medicine, plant identification, botany and constitutions, and plant and human energetics. Container gardening, vertical growing, Hügelkultur / Hill culture building, water collection systems, composting, humanure, free energy collection, foraging, meditation, yoga, and more.
The Third branch is Ceremony, ritual and journey work, again on the individual and group level. Personal initiations, dance lodges, smash lodge, Willow room women’s moon lodge. Transformational Immersions and more. Finding the sacred.
The Fourth branch is Pillars. This is weaving together all of the previous branches, including other dynamics that help to increase the levels of awareness, integrity and accountability. Inspiring, training, and supporting, leaders of tomorrow. (Guardianship, TouchStone training & Mountain Mediation to name some of the early stages) *This branch has prerequisites and sometimes its own discord server.
All aspects of AOTSS are based in multi-spectral Immersive Experiences.
- Education (Didactic (come with notes) learnings on subjects where science and or Istory’s exist)
- Discussion: Sharing experiences
- Various Sensory & Somatic Experiences. (Though storytelling, music, atmospheric shifts, and other modalities)
There are also Pathways that one can explore and PraXercise into Being, for a more advanced track.
The learning of what and which path shows its self in time through discussion, discernment and by walking continually though 3 questions that check Trajection. Feel invited to come to come get to know us if you have gotten this deep and are intrigued for more.)
At On-Mtn ATOSS Events you can be sure to encounter various opportunities for encountering herbal medicine preparations & usage, InnerCartography, and huvinity expansion through the use of ritual. These along with various other practices (such as Smash Lodges, Elemental Lodges, Moon Lodges, Fire Circle Rituals, Crucible Rituals, Dance Lodges, and more.)
I/we look forward to dancing with you should you feel the Call. We are not everyone’s cup of tea, and IF/WHEN/AS you feel The Call and show up Willing, you are welcomed like family. (I use that word Verrry specifically – for more context, please inquire 😉
Raine E. Ford ~ MWM 🐾♥️🐾
Join us in the Mountain Community discord for deeper conversations, chat spaces and direct messaging. (This is mine and The Mountains Main Hub for connecting with community. *Social media is in another sphere 2 layers out)
Public Facebook groups: InnerCartography, All things Herbal & AOTSS are all place where all courses & event details get posted to.
Mountain Woman Mojuicine 