Testimonials
“Blazing star herbal school helped me fall in love with life again. Coming back to myself, my roots, the land, and community.”
Emily J.
Carolyn Walker
“Blazing Star is more than an herbal school. Blazing Star is a community, a safe haven, and a garden for the soul; a place where the mind, body, and spirit are nurtured and nourished in the Wise Woman tradition. I learned more than how to ally with the plant world for health and wellbeing- I learned how to come into alignment with my Self.”
“Tony(a) Lemos is a wonderful teacher and herbalist - her approach is holistic, creative, and deeply earth-based. This is an apprenticeship like no other offered today - you will have the opportunity to meet every week, tend to the plants, do integrative materia medica work, make medicine, and learn the ins and outs of the body and how to tend to it for health and vitality. This program takes a truly personal appraoch to health, emphasizing your relationship with your health and community - there is nothing cookie-cutter about Tony(a)'s approach! I took Tony(a)’s advanced therapeutic herbalism apprenticeship back in 2009 and it was a wonderful experience. I can't recommend this program more!”
Brittany Nickerson
More Testimonials
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My experience as a first year herbal apprentice has been one of the best decisions I have made for myself. I am building a strong foundation in the basics of herbalism and have formed new and nurturing friendships. I have gained a new understanding of the global impact of food practices and its politics on the world and on our bodies. I have become aware of the importance of living organically and environmentally. I highly recommend this program to anyone interested in enriching their lives and living more consciously!
Patty McKenizie, 2002
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Blazing Star Herbal School is more than just learning about herbs. It's about creating connections; connections to plants, people and yourself. Being in such a supportive and loving environment gave me the courage to believe in myself. Whether I am working with herbs or creating art or both, I have the confidence to pursue my dreams. And the friendships and memories made will stay with me always
Kristen J, 2022
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I tell everyone (just so you know) that my apprenticeship with you was the best, most useful class I've ever taken.
Lucia D, 2008
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This herbal medicine apprenticeship has offered so much more than I anticipated. Not only am I learning about herbs and their uses, the class has also offered hands-on exploration of the plant world and medicine making, and in-depth discussion about food activism. Tony(a) has integrated into our study field trips to beautiful, local areas of interest, encouraged attending an array of noteworthy speakers and has created a meaningful, conscious attitude toward community.
Kara Leistyna, 2002
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The 10 month program is a perfect way to gain insight to the world of herbalism, learn about gardening and the harvesting of herbs, and making medicine and body products out of earth's natural gifts to us. Coming from the Boston area, I look forward to my weekly apprenticeship at BSHS and find it a good way to begin the journey into plant medicine, whole health and conscious living.
Amber Mamakos, 2002
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This is where I see the garden changing my life. I knew on that higher level of knowing, that Blazing Star is not just a garden. It is a quieter space where I have one day a week to contemplate how the rest of my life can be spent-In a tornado or the eye of the hurricane.Tues has become one of my favorite days of the week.
Julie Robbins, 2005
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Still feeling so grateful for the apprenticeship and all my herbal friends (both plant and human!)
Rachel S, 2011
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I am very happy to say that as an apprentice I have learned how to identify many new plants and have become better friends with those that I already knew about. I am able to make oils, vinegars, honeys, salves, lotions, medicinal tea infusions, elixers and tinctures. I have learned how to take time to draw and sit with plants, meditate and make mandalas, come up with a health plan for myself that entails a true understanding of the word nourishment! I very enthusiastically recommend this apprenticeship to anyone I know! Anyone who is interested in learning more about identifying plants, using them in self care, and wanting to ensure that their lifestyle as an herbalist is practical and can be applied in daily nourishing ways with themselves and people they know- would benefit greatly from the apprenticeship. I really wish I could take it again next year!
N. from Northampton, 2012
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"The Blazing Star Herbal School herbal apprenticeship was an amazing opportunity to learn in-depth ways of connecting with the plants. You learn about how simple weeds growing all around you are really a gift of medicine from the Earth, for you to nourish your body, mind and spirit. You learn tons of different types of medicinal preparations, and Tony inspires you to use these in your daily life. Tony does a great job at teaching about local herbs and helps you understand what it means to use food as medicine with the herbal plant allies. Learning what systems in the body benefit from which herbs, gives you a very practical way to apply everything you learn pretty much immediately. Since going to Blazing Star, I have gone on to study Naturopathic Medicine and became a Naturopathic Doctor. I have built and maintain an online business where I teach people how to use individualized natural medicine to heal their body, mind and spirit. Teaching people how to use their diet, herbs, and natural medicine to heal is an honor and I know that we can change the world for all humans, the more we know and understand how to take health back into our own hands.
(Dr.) Maggie Luther, 2004-2006
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After living out west, studying herbal medicine and starting my herbal business, I returned to Western Mass where I had grown up. I arrived in a moving truck on Sunday and began the Therapeutic Herbalism Apprenticeship at Blazing Star Herbal School on Monday! It was the perfect homecoming - providing an opportunity to reconnect to the plants of my childhood, to engage in a focused, holistic study of herbal medicine, and to connect with a community of plant loving people. I gained so much from Tony's holistic, creative approach to herbalism - influenced by the wise women ways, social justice, art and spirituality. I will always be grateful to Blazing Star for providing this community for me and so many others. As a teacher, Tony is committed to each apprentices's well being and education - she reads the group and adapts lessons accordingly. This was something I had never found in a teacher before and having such a teacher was both refreshing and healing!
Brittany Nickerson
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I consider my apprenticeship at Blazing Star to be the foundation of my herbal practice. Time and time again I find myself coming back to the simple and profound tenets of the Wise Woman Tradition that I learned at Blazing Star- nourish, look within, healing as a spiral path, the 6 steps of healing, and so on. It was the perfect first apprenticeship for me and provided a jumping-off point for me into the world of herbalism, while providing that firm foundation that I can always come back to. I always tell folks how grateful I am that Blazing Star was my first herbal school- I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!
Jade Alicandro
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My apprenticeship at Blazing Star Herbal School was life changing. Through a practice that weaves gratitude, connection, reciprocity, and creativity Tony guided us to be in deep communion with the plant world. Remembering how to be in loving conversation with the land is the most valuable form of self-care that anyone has ever taught me. Tony’s class reawakened the most essential part of who I am and helped me back on my path. Now I have all the tools I need to create medicine for my self, for my family, and for my community.
Devon Whitney
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To put my experience as an Apprentice is a rather impossible task. I have learned so much, and experienced so much, that to truly do it justice would take several hours. Yet what I can say is that I have learned more about myself, and more about the natural world in this short year, than I ever expected too. My connection to the earth and to myself is so strong as a result of this course, that I shall forever be grateful. I am more intune with my body than I think I have ever been, and my heart is lighter and happier than I can ever remember it being. Tony is a wonderful teacher who is clear, conscise and passionate. My sisters in the practice are each unique and insightful and have brough much joy wisdom and perspective to my new life. My apprenticeship has also evolved my spiritualiy and allowed me to connect better and stronger to my family to my friends, and to my community as a whole. I am def continuing to the second Level, and my intentions are to start my own medicinal farm, and spread the knowledge and healing as my life's work. Blazing Star Earth Ninja's for LIFE!
In Love and Eternal Gratitude -A.from Dalton, 2012
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My experience as an apprentice at Blazing Star Herbal School has been one of magical awakening and an even deeper appreciation of the plant world. I have taken quite a few herb classes over the years from correspondence courses to a 5 month intensive as well as community college courses and this one is by far THE BEST! The thing I feel most gives this apprenticeship the edge over the rest and sets it apart from all of the classes out there being offered is the true garden and plant based connections. You really can't replace or replicate the garden based experiences of planting, learning, growing and harvesting the plants on your own. Nor can you learn everything from books alone. Also having class every week makes it flow so well versus a one weekend a month type apprenticeship. It is a big committment but one you won't regret! I have never been confident up until now in identifying many plants on my own, but now I am very confident and have learned so much in such a short time. I also have learned how to interact better with naysayers and disbelievers. I can finally hold my own with the most challenging of beliefs and come out feeling like I offered the other person something tangible. If you are contemplating taking the course I urge you to go for it! You will graduate as a competent and confident herbalist and will have many memorable and happy experiences during the duration of the course.
A from Vermont, 2012
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Our Tuesday class has been the highlight of my week this whole year. Not only have we deepened our connection to the plants in our area (my original goal) we have formed beautiful friendships which will last a lifetime with people and plants we resonate with on a deep level. Tony has helped me reconnect to the world through plants in a way that I understand intuitively and have not felt since childhood. It means so much to me to feel a part of the world again and revel in its beautiful gifts. This apprentice woke me up, brought me back down to Earth, healed my spirit. Totally unexpected. I am overflowing with gratitude.
D. from Shelburne, 2012
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I highly recommend this apprenticeship for anyone who is interested in deepening their connection with the plant world. Whether you are just beginning your journey or would like to continue learning more, this program is amazing! I personally took both apprenticeships at blazing star, with teacher Tony. I learned so much here. Not just about plants and their healing properties, but also about myself and others. Her influence changed my life and set me on course for bigger things to happen in my life. The people I met and grew connections with while studying there was another huge thing for me! Sharing space with other like-minded men and woman was something I was never able to have in my life on that level before ❤ So grateful that I had this experience!
Caitlin Wolf, 2014
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My name is Kate O’Shea, Ph.D., and I have had the good fortune of taking both the beginner and intermediate programs in herbal plant medicine given by Tonya Lemos at the Blazing Star Herbal School in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Having been a professional working with folks recovering from cardiac surgeries and cardiac events in addition to being a teacher and a college professor, I feel as though I am very familiar with myriad social institutions that go about patient and student education in very limited and finite ways. As a student in Blazing Star School, I feel as though, through study and numerous opportunities for practice, I was able to expand my worldview of learning, teaching, and healing, and bring my practices and skills to new levels. With superb leadership and expert guidance from Tonya Lemos, the class of apprentices grew into a warm, cohesive team supporting ourselves, each other, clients we were working with, and making contributions to healing the earth. Through Tonya, I was also able connect to a wider group of herbalists and practitioners, nationally and internationally. For me, these experiences have been life changing. I highly recommend either apprenticeship to those who are looking to “shake things up” in their worlds, deepen their study of plants and healing while growing closer to interesting people in tight knit community. It is also for those who wish to expand their worldviews through healing practices and beliefs that enhance their lives one hundred percent!
Kate O’Shea
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The apprenticeship is a dream incubator. Many of us find ourselves quite literally living our dreams. Do you dream of plants, better health, healing yourself or others, farming, making, community? If so, this could be a pathway to those dreams. You will be expertly guided and supported by others.
Lisa Bassi, 2016