Nancy Phillips
Gracie Phillips
Rosemary Gladstar, one of our 2024 guest teachers. Read about them all here.
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times 2025
An 8 month empowering immersion into the practical, mystical and healing wisdom of Herbalism, Yoga and Ayurveda.
Teachers: Nancy & Gracie Phillips with
Guest Teachers: TBA!
Immerse yourself in the mystery, magic, and common sense of these ancient traditions in this eight month course. The time honored healing paths (Herbalism, Yoga and Ayurveda) weave together perfectly, guiding us to align with nature for vibrant health. You can integrate these ancient teachings and practical skills into your daily life to improve your health and the well-being of your loved ones. Come to Heartsong Farm and enjoy the camaraderie of kindred spirits as we learn, grow, and celebrate life together. Strengthen your connection to the earth, your own inner wisdom, and Spirit. The teachings work together and overlap as strands in the same yarn…
Through the Herbal strand you will learn to:
- identify, grow and harvest wild and cultivated medicinal herbs
- create effective home remedies to build health and treat common ailments
- formulate and blend herbs for health promoting teas and tonics
- harvest and prepare wild foods
- choose plants for clearing, protecting and assisting us energetically
- create herbal body care products, and much more!
Through the Yoga and Ayurveda strands you will:
- enjoy joyful movement
- increase flexibility, strength, balance and sooth the nervous system
- practice a variety of breath work and meditation techniques to increase inner peace
- delve into some of the basic philosophical tenets of holistic health
- align with the cycles and rhythms of nature to enhance your vitality and natural radiance
- gain insights into your individual constitution and the foods and herbs that will nourish you best
2024 Dates: April 27, May 25, June 22, July 27, Aug. 17, Sept. 21, Oct. 26, Nov. 16 2025 Dates: T.B.A. soon! (will be similar to 2024)
Meet Nancy & Gracie, & our Guest Teachers:
Nancy Phillips
Welcome to our Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times course. I have been living and loving the land here at Heartsong Farm for almost 40 years, which has been a great blessing. I look forward to sharing our peaceful place on the planet with all of you.
I’m a passionate herbalist, holistic health coach, yoga instructor, natural foods cook, and avid gardener who loves sharing these teachings and practices with others. I delight in guiding people on their path to finding more peace, joy, and vitality.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to share some of the ancient and timeless teachings of Ayurveda, Yoga and Herbal Medicine with you. My studies and practice of these teachings have made such a powerful impact in my life. They have really changed the trajectory of my path and helped me to stay saner and healthier. In addition to the valuable knowledge and skills gained, each of the groups I have studied with along the way has enriched my life. I look forward to our new AWMT group doing the same.
Our beautiful and needy world is in a crisis and ever-shifting, and now more than ever, more practical wisdom and earth-based skills are essential. When we take time to build community, strengthen our connection to the Divine, the Earth, and our own inner wisdom, this benefits ourselves and the planet. I commend you for following your heart and committing to learn new things. This course has been transformational for many; I hope it will be a blessing for you.
I’m happy this year to be co-teaching with Gracie. She is an excellent presenter, is passionate about sharing these skills, and has a great love for the earth. We also have a great line of up guest teachers this year as you will see below. They are all women I greatly admire and have learned a lot from myself; I have no doubt you will learn a good deal and enjoy each one of them.
Gracie Phillips
Gracie is a home herbalist, gardener, and lifelong student. She’s a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and has spent time traveling, studying, and assisting with herbal events. Thanks to her mom, Gracie has used herbs as her primary form of medicine since she was a baby and has learned a great deal about how to stay healthy and happy using the plants. She currently lives and works on her family’s apple and herb farm where she grew up, Heartsong Farm and Lost Nation Orchard, in northern New Hampshire. She helps manage the gardens and orchards as well as hosting and teaching educational programs about herbalism, orcharding, and sustainable living. She is deeply committed to continuing to learn and grow her own knowledge of the plants, and to find ways to share her knowledge and passion for herbs and the earth with others.
Gracie also works for, Taproot, the local non-profit organization supporting economic viability, restorative food systems and environmental education.
Gracie is so excited to be teaching Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times with her mother, Nancy, and to share her love of the plants with you. She is looking forward to getting to know this incredible circle of students over the next eight months, sharing her knowledge of the herbs, and learning from all of you.
Rosemary Gladstar
Rosemary Gladstar is, literally, a star figure in the field of modern herbalism, internationally renowned for her technical knowledge and stewardship in the global herbalist community. She has been learning, teaching and writing about herbs for over 50 years and is the author of twelve books.
Her work includes Medicinal Herbs: A Beginners Guide, Herbal Healing for Women, Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, and The Science and Art of Herbalism, an extensive in-depth home study course. She is the Founding President of United Plant Savers and founder and past director of the International Herb Symposium. (Just to name a few of her amazing accomplishments.) Rosemary will be joining us and sharing her knowledge, wisdom and big heart.
Andrea Thibaudeau
Andrea offers yoga, meditation, self-reflection, and empowering practices, that bring individuals back to their innate wholeness and worthiness. She helps people recognize their gifts and activate their personal power to embody confidence in their value, purpose, and unique Soul expression.
Andrea is a passionate, ERYT500 certified Yoga Teacher with over 22 years of full-time experience. She has been a Vermont Yoga studio owner since 2008, and a certified Ayurveda/Health/Life Coach since 2012. She also is the founder/director of Heart Space Healing Collective in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. This Collective is an expanding team of 14 qualified and caring holistic health professionals dedicated to providing equitable wellness opportunities to all in the region.
Lisa Ainsworth Plourde
Lisa Ainsworth Plourde comes to us from N’dakinna, the homeland of the Vermont Abenaki people. A citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki, her family line reaches back over 13 thousand years in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and into northernmost NH. Lisa will discuss the deep connections to the land and her inhabitants; the standing ones, four legged, flyers, swimmers, crawlers and two legged, as we are all equal in the great wheel of life.
Amy Goodman Kiefer
Amy Goodman Kiefer is a Community Herbalist, an avid grower, medicine maker, practitioner and an herbal teacher. All her work is informed by a passion for plants and people. Over the years one of her main devotions has become communing with the spirit of the plants and trees. The past 20 years have brought her the opportunity to work with many groups and individuals, accompanying them into deeper relationships with the green world. She stewards the White Dove Herbal Sanctuary in Central Vt. with her husband Joseph, where their gardens are planted, worked and harvested with awareness of the spirit of the plants in the center of their work.
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times is an eight month course to become a skilled home herbalist with the ability to improve the health of your whole family. Cost includes in person class each month, medicine making materials, course manual with notes, recipes, and resources, mentoring for your personal health program, and a copy of The Herbalist Way by Nancy and Michael Phillips. Notes and recordings available for missed classes.
Course Cost: $1250
Current Cost, Early Bird Discount: $1050
Couse Deposit–$250
Enroll now to join our 2025 group! Pay in full to secure your place or send in just the nonrefundable $250 deposit. Final balance payments due by check at the end of March and are nonrefundable after this date. Cancelations prior to this date will receive a refund minus the price of the nonrefundable deposit. For more information please contact us at HeartsongFarmWellness@gmail.com.
Don’t want to drive home Saturday night?
Rustic Camping options available. Contact us for details!
“I’m forlorn that we are coming to the end of our Ancient Wisdom program. It’s felt like a homing beacon each month- a time and place to replenish and in-gather all the flighty energy that is so disruptive. Coming down your driveway, that wonderful winding and steep road that ends literally in your garden, I always feel the stomach knots softening. This wonderful course weaving yoga and Ayurveda and plant teachings has felt like medicine for my life. In many ways these 8 months of teachings in this extraordinary community of women has allowed me to confront complacency and timidity, forcing some big life changes. Nancy I am forever grateful for your vision and energy and deep kindness. For those who are considering this 8 month commitment, it is a joyous journey accompanied by beautiful seekers.”
~Eurydice 2019
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
A 8 month empowering immersion into the practical, mystical and healing wisdom of Herbalism, Yoga and Ayurveda.
“If there’s a person who embodies the essence of a community herbalist, it is Nancy Phillips. She’s been one of our most popular teachers at Sage Mountain and has assisted me in my Herbal Apprentice Programs, the Science & Art of Herbology home study course, and at the New England Women’s Herbal Conference and International Herb Symposium. Quite simply, I’m enthralled by her way of life, her beautiful gardens, her farm and family and encourage anyone wishing a more in-depth knowledge of herbalism or seeking a more harmonious way of living to study with Nancy. You’ll be delighted you did!”
~Rosemary Gladstar, Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center, The “Godmother of American Herbalism”
Thyme in the Kitchen with Rosemary Gladstar & Nancy Phillips
Join Rosemary and Nancy for this online class featuring wholesome plant-based recipes from main course to dessert.
Learn to craft mouthwatering salads, hearty main courses, scrumptious sides, and divine desserts. Plus, you’ll receive a detailed handout with all the notes and recipes to cook in your own kitchen.
This is a replay of a live class originally aired on April 18, 2023.
Thyme in the Kitchen
Join Heartsong Email List
Get updates about yoga classes, workshops, retreats and Nancy's seasonal journal with recipes, herb growing tips and health musings.