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
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.
AOTSS offers Live Online courses, Online Take-At-Your-Own-Pace courses and On-Mountain Immersions & Intensives.
There is a multi-year Trajection for those who feel The Call and Choose to journey
- st years: Foundational Exploration
- nd years: Choosing by Experimentation
- 3rd years: PraXercising
- th years: Choosing (stepping into exploratory service)
- 5th years: Stepping up (Embracing a role)
- th 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)
Another deeper level is training and practice in building & maintaining containers for transformation to happen in – Pillars work (Guardianship Training). There is a Mountain Way, and there are many others. 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. Inquire if you have gotten this deep and are intriqued 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 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 is a place where all courses & event details get posted to.
Mountain Woman Medicine 