Seasonal Sovereignty
Where ancestral wisdom meets the rhythms of the Earth
Learn the plants, know the seasons, and carry the medicine forward
For generations, people have learned the plants growing around them. They knew what emerged in spring, what flowered beneath the summer sun, what roots were dug in autumn, and what was stored away for winter. They tended themselves, their families, and their neighbors with the knowledge they carried.
Seasonal Sovereignty is our way of carrying that practice forward.
This is a year of learning the plants of the place where we actually live: Philadelphia and the surrounding bioregion.
Rather than simply memorizing a list of herbs and their uses, we will meet plants as they emerge throughout the growing season and learn them within the larger stories they belong to.
We will study their identification and botany. We will learn when and how they have traditionally been harvested. We will make medicine with them. We will look at their history, folklore, foodways, agricultural significance, and the ways people before us have relied upon them.
Because knowing that a plant is "good for" something is only the beginning.
We want you to know what grows through the cracks in your neighborhood sidewalk. What appears along the edge of a city park. What can be grown in a small garden. What arrives first in spring and what remains when winter comes.
We want you to understand the life of the plant itself.
The agricultural year teaches us that life does not move in a straight line. Plants emerge, flourish, reproduce, die back, return to the earth, and begin again.
By spending a full cycle with them, we begin to understand herbal medicine not simply as something we purchase or consume, but as a relationship with place, season, history, and community.
The People's Medicine
Our work as community herbalists is rooted in the ancestral traditions that have shaped us.
We teach through our own Appalachian, Celtic, and Southern Italian lenses, alongside what we have learned from the herbalists, farmers, elders, teachers, and communities who have shared their knowledge with us.
These are the traditions we can speak from. They are not meant to stand in for everyone else's.
Part of Seasonal Sovereignty is helping you begin asking your own questions.
What did your people grow? What did they gather? What plants traveled with them when they migrated? What remedies were made in the kitchen or garden? What foods marked the changing seasons? What knowledge survived through family stories, recipes, rituals, and ordinary acts of care? And what might be waiting for you to seek it out again?
We share the stories of our ancestors because they teach us how plants and people have always existed in relationship. But our hope is that those stories encourage you to uncover your own.
Ancestral herbalism is not about claiming a tradition that does not belong to us, nor is it about pretending there was one universal way our ancestors practiced medicine.
Folk medicine has always been shaped by place: by the plants available, the seasons, the land, migration, cultural exchange, necessity, hardship and abundance, and the knowledge carried between generations.
That is the lens we bring to Seasonal Sovereignty.
Our role is not to hand you an ancestral practice and tell you it is yours. Our role is to teach from what is ours, while helping you find your way toward what is yours.
Sara
"Seasonal Sovereignty was a beautiful, immersive hands-on learning journey. Jenna and Brooke created such a thoughtful and magical container to learn herbalism hands-on. Exploring the nature we have access to right in and around the city and making medicine in circle with other women was something I looked forward to every month.
Some of my favorite memories throughout the year were crafting cedar smudge sticks and fire cider in autumn; making herbal dream pillows, frolicking at the holly grove and making pine syrup in the winter; making smoke blends and foraging for baby nettles in spring; and visiting a local herb farm and making a passionflower tincture in summer. So many magical moments and memories that I will cherish forever!
Jenna and Brooke teach the folk method of making medicine, which gave me the space and permission to really connect with my intuition and feel empowered to experiment and ~play~ with herbs!! I've really come to appreciate the folk approach because it brings balance and flexibility to my more scientific, analytical way of thinking.
After a year of gathering on the land, this program offered an opportunity to connect and align with the medicine each season offers. Truly grateful for this year of magic, gathering and learning ”
This Program is for You if…
You’re longing to connect with the plants that grow around you and build a relationship with the land you live on.
You want to learn hands-on, seasonal herbalism rooted in place, rhythm, and deep listening.
You’re ready to take a more empowered role in your health and wellness through herbal knowledge and earth-based practices.
You value community learning and want to grow alongside others in a supportive, heart-centered space.
You feel called to remember ancestral ways of healing, tending, and being in right relationship with the natural world.
Your Community Tenders
-
Brooke Johnson is the guiding light of Heart to Heart Herbology. Brooke has many feathers in her hat — a culmination of the myriad facets of her Spirit. She is currently focusing on the roles of community folk herbalist, educator, postpartum doula, community weaver & most importantly Mother. Her guiding ethos are rooted in the belief that Plant Medicine is the People’s Medicine. She leads with the intention to guide community to health sovereignty & empowerment. You may have crossed paths with Brooke during her time at Transcending Roots Apothecary & The Sacred Path Collective located in Fishtown.
By moving through various health imbalances such as Epstein- Barr Virus & severe Post-Partum depression – Brooke has embodied the path of self-healing by working deeply with the plants to find a balance point of wellness. She wholeheartedly believes the plants have been and continue to be non-judgmental companions of support along her journey.
Brooke’s ancestral thread of folk herbalism stems from Italian, Celtic and Polish roots blended with Appalachian wisdom. She consciously walks the path of remembrance – opening herself to work as a vessel of ancestral guidance. Her work supports helping others remember that they too come from an ancestry of plant medicine – the through line that connects all humans.
Peace & Green Blessings!
-
Jenna Faccenda is clinical herbalist, Italian American folk practitioner, and devoted teacher of plant medicine. Her work is rooted in ancestral tradition and deepened by years of study and practice in both Philadelphia, PA and Asheville, NC.
Jenna's path has been guided by the plants themselves, alongside the many teachers and mentors who have shared their wisdom. She offers deep gratitude to all who have walked with her on this journey.
Her journey with herbalism is also deeply shaped by the folk healing traditions of her southern Italian ancestry from Sicily and Campania. Through this diasporic weaving of Italian American folk herbalism and magic, she honors the land, her lineage, and the resilience of ancestral ways.
Jenna is the creatrix of Widow Apothecary, where she crafts small-batch herbal remedies and offers herbal consultations. You can follow her @widowapothecary or through her Substack newsletter From The Ashes.
Meet The Guest Teachers Coming Soon
Rooted in Community
We previously tended to our Philadelphia community through the Sacred Path Collective.
We watched people come through our doors looking for herbs, but also looking for knowledge. They wanted to understand what they could make themselves. They wanted to know what grew here. They wanted to learn how to care for themselves and the people they loved.
Seasonal Sovereignty grew from that work.
We believe herbal knowledge becomes more valuable when it is carried into our homes and communities.
We don't want herbalism to remain something you can only access through a practitioner, a product, or a bottle on a shelf.
We want you to learn it.
We want you to recognize the plants growing in your neighborhood. To know their stories as well as their medicinal actions. To understand how to harvest and prepare them responsibly. To learn what people before you did with them and begin discovering the folk practices and plant traditions within your own lineage.
And ultimately, we want you to feel confident carrying that knowledge beyond yourself.
Learning Through the Seasons
There is a reason we teach this work seasonally.
You cannot fully understand a plant from a photograph in a book.
You understand it differently when you meet its first shoots in spring. When you watch it flower. When you see which insects visit it. When you gather its fruit. When its leaves begin to brown. When its energy returns underground and the plant you knew in July becomes almost unrecognizable in November.
The seasons teach us when to gather leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, and roots.
They teach us patience.
And they teach us that death and life are not opposites, but parts of the same cycle.
Following that cycle for a year changes the way we understand the plants, and our place among them.
A Living Practice
We are not interested in recreating an imagined past.
Tradition has never been static. People moved. Plants moved. Knowledge traveled. Communities exchanged practices. Families adapted recipes according to what was available. People made do.
Folk medicine has always been alive because people have always been adapting it to the circumstances in which they lived.
We are doing the same.
We live in Philadelphia in the twenty-first century. Our practice is informed by our ancestors, our teachers, our experiences tending an urban community, and the plants growing around us now.
Your practice will take its own shape.
Our hope is that Seasonal Sovereignty gives you a foundation from which to begin.
To know the plants that grow around you and how they change throughout the seasons.
To learn the stories that were carried forward and seek out those that weren't.
To make medicine with your own hands.
To care for yourself and the people around you.
And, eventually, to become someone who carries this knowledge forward for someone else.
This is the work of our ancestors and the responsibility of ourselves.
Carly
“I met Brooke after receiving a frustrating 'there's nothing we can do' diagnosis from my doctor about my extremely painful cycles and mood swings. Brooke approached my concerns with genuine care, empathy, and understanding, and after following her protocol for just a few weeks, I felt a HUGE difference in mood and mental clarity. She continues to check in with me and provide guidance when it is needed, or remind me that my instincts are valid, which has been a truly empowering experience. I'm so grateful for Brooke's patience and skill set and look forward to continuing to work with her!"
When Do We Meet
This program is rooted in learning through the seasons, with a focus on the plants that grow right here in our bioregion. We meet once a month on a Sunday from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. for a hands-on gathering in the Philadelphia area. This rhythm allows us to build relationships with the land and the plants in real time, as they shift and change throughout the year.
Our In-Person Gatherings will meet on Sundays from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. on:
3/14, 4/11, 5/16, 6/13, 7/11, 8/8, 9/12, 10/17 2027
Early Bird Registration is Open
$1,111 or 8 monthly payments of $138
Register by January 1st to save $222
To keep our circle grounded, connected, and spacious for learning, we are welcoming a maximum of 12 participants.
We believe that herbal education should be accessible to all, and we’re committed to creating pathways for those who may need financial support. A limited number of scholarships are available each season, and we especially encourage LGBTQ+ folks, BIPOC, single parents, and anyone navigating financial hardship to apply.
If you feel called to this program but cost is a barrier, please reach out. We’re happy to work with you. Email us at trustdivinetiming111@gmail.com with a few sentences about yourself and your interest in the program, and we’ll be in touch with next steps.