Become an Herbalist with Ancestral Arts

Learn More about our Herbal Certification Program
2025 Enrollment Opens DECMBER 1st

Discover Our Pathways

Our 9-month programs are dedicated to planting the seeds of intersectional budding herbalists in our communities.

We are reimagining our program structure and look forward to releasing more details this Winter.

Are you ready to be an herbalist?

Make potent medicines with market herbs, neighborhood weeds, and ingredients from your spice rack
Support common ailments with plants instead of pills, holistically
Deepen in relation with the plant kin through ecological spirit practices
Uplift your community as a natural wellness lifestyle resource
Tune in with your body’s systems and find balanced equanimity
Approach your practice with an intersectional lens

Inspired by the work of our former Founder, Atava Garcia Swiecicki ~ our programing empowers a self-led re-connection with reclaiming your own lineage, plant and humxn kin alike. Through journal prompts, a year-long exploratory project, affinity discovery groups, and guided discussion we support you in your personal journey of re-membering.
~ Work with multi-cultural and expansively identified faculty whom approach herbalism through a decolonized lens within their own practice
~ Divest from the euro-centric allopathic narrative by integrating holistic perspectives that embody the spiritual and energetic qualities of care labor
~ Experience a sense of radical inclusion with an accessibility and accommodations friendly environment
~ Through our organized Reciprocity Action Days (RADs) we support local organizations with volunteer community tending
~ Learn strategies and systems to launch your own pop-up herbal clinic
~ Participate in political campaigns that protect indigenous and marginalized folx worldwide
~ Join a communtiy of like-minded individuals and band together and mobilize during crisis
With accessibility in mind, all curriculum content is available to students virtually.
As herbalism is an embodied practice, we bring together our student cohorts once a month in-person in both Northern and Southern California to build local community through guided plant practice.
Our programming is limited to the Bay Area (Nor Cal / Oakland) and Los Angeles (proper). Camping trips are located in an extended geographical range.
~ Live Closed Captioning
~ Downloadable transcripts
~ Captioned zoom recordings
~ Printable curriculum content to support at-home learning styles
~ Children, Pet, and All Ages friendly in-person activities
~ Request driven
Affinity Groups play a vital role in ensuring an inclusive environment where all are valued, included, and empowered to succeed. They can provide a collective voice for faculty and staff with common interests, identities, or ideologies. Empowered by Justice-Equity-Diversity-Inclusion (JEDI) sensitivity training
We will have a class discussion community and graduates will be able to access our alumni network to stay in touch and connect with Semillas from years past and cohort’s concurrent!

Click the “plus sign” to learn more about our Ethos and what sets our program apart

What Makes Us Different

TESTIMONIALS

Pray

• Tend

• Embody

• Pray • Tend • Embody •

"In my time working with Atava and her classes at Ancestral Apothecary I have grown and healed in ways that were always just out of reach but became firmly the center of my attention and love. Atava is gifted with a true connection to the plants and is a talented teacher, centering the power of the student to heal themselves, and the innate wisdom of each of our bodies. As an herbalist, Atava’s ability to talk between and through the scientific, the spiritual, the personal and political is unmatched. Thank you to Atava and your ancestors for sharing your gifts."

Jade Fair
"I have had years of solitary and group study and found home at Ancestral Apothecary. The classes are nurturing, informative and transformative. They offer a wealth of knowledge and a path with heart. The community of plants, teachers, ancestors and wise cohorts co-create a healing space that carries and nurtures me through the week until the next class. I am engaged at all levels and thankful to Atava for making this possible. My life is better for it! Atava’s program is unique; one that engages the spirit, heart and hands. Rather than communicating a dogma on the plants and spiritual practice, Liz and Atava offer guidance to develop a relationship with one’s indigenous self, traditions and ancestors. It is from here that authentic education about healing takes root."

Kate Leahy
“I have learned so much about myself, the world at large, and the plants that hold us all down through my experiences as a Cecemmana student. Getting to deepen our skills, knowledges, and perspectives as plant people in a container like this is a gift. I feel grounded by the rigorous work that was asked of us, and know that I have grown so much as a whole human.”

mika (they / she)
“I chose Cecemmana because as a queer person of color, it was important for me that my foundational studies in herbal/plant medicine be reflective of me and the world I want to live in and secure for future generations. A whole new world has opened up for me, as if it had been waiting for me all along.”

Pua
“Cecemmana is a brave space. This space has taught me the strength to know when to step back and when to have a voice. It’s taught me care in the form of community and in turn to care for myself. It’s taught me to be still. To cringe. To be okay not knowing. This is a space of magic, reverence, and power. I recommend this course to everyone.”

LG
“I can confidently say that joining Cecemmana was one of the best decisions of my life. My life has been changed by the course and connections I’ve made with the plants, students, teachers and my ancestors.” –

Gretchel
“Cecemmana was the highlight of my year. The Cecemmana program is a unique offering in the world of herbal medicine. I am so glad I participated in this program. When I was searching for herbal programs I knew I wanted something that would center the voices and knowledge of BIPOC and Ancestral Apothecary is dedicated to this. The teaching staff is knowledgeable and caring. Not only did I become more connected to plants and their medicine but I created important relationships with my own ancestral medicine and fellow plant people. ”

Asia