MEET OUR TEAM
THE SCHOOL
OF THE SACRED WILD
OUR FOUNDER
Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing.
A multilingual and multicultural devotee of Mother Earth, Marysia has spent her life traveling, learning and sharing different regenerative ways of tending to the Earth, healing land, and healing people. She apprenticed with Sage Maurer of The Gaia School of Healing, and works with sustainable sources of healing plants that belong to Western Herbalism, Ayurvedic, Siberian, African, Tibetan and Traditional Chinese Medicine paths.
Born in Poland, she carries with her a lineage of European folk herbalism
Marysia teaches from her own lineage, her training and her personal experience with the plants and connection to the Earth. She shares only practices passed down to her with permission, honoring the source of the teachings when not her own. Marysia acknowledges that cultural appropriation also refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. Marysia is committed to holding a safe, loving and non hierarchical container for learning and growth.
Marysia honors plants as sentient beings, elders, healers and teachers. As a Plant Spirit Communicator, Marysia channels messages from the Earth spirits and guides students to connect with plant spirits through meditation and through their bodies, to receive guidance and learn about the constituents, energetics and properties of plants.
OUR FOUNDER
Earth Activist, Community Organizer, and Designer
Marysia’s passion for permaculture and biodynamic gardening combined with her experience as an Earth activist, community organizer, and designer weaves into her work of cultivating spiritual connection to land, and ripples into action. While the teachings she shares come from deep time, she compels students and clients alike to bring these themes into inquiry, participation, and activation:
How can we be medicine ~ for ourselves, each other & the Earth?
Dedication To Healing The Land, Earth & People
Her dedication to connecting the healing of people with the healing of land has driven Marysia to consult with farm and land owners. Her signature "Regenerative Land Plan" customizes edible and medicinal sacred gardens and helps bring regenerative farming practices to any sized patch of Mother Earth’s soil body.
As a medicine maker, Marysia grows organic and biodynamic herbs in Malibu, makes herbal medicine for her apothecary, is the formulator and cofounder of Sacred Rituel Skin Care and formulates products for other ethical companies such as Foria.
Marysia teaches & speaks at conferences internationally, writes, interviews for TV and radio, and appears as a guest expert on TV shows. She is faculty at Esalen Institute and offers yearly retreats.
Over the last several years, Marysia has had the immense honor and joy of training hundreds of herbalists. Many of Marysia’s students have gone on to start successful medicine lines, implement regenerative farming practices on their land, and offer herbalism in their own healing practices.
Marysia lives in Topanga, CA. with her daughter Flora.
Connect With Marysia
SACRED WILD TEAM
Rachel Jonte guides the Mentorship Program for our Year 2 Apprentices
Rachel is a teacher and the head of the Mentor Training Program and holds bi monthly small group circles with our mentors, offering them individualized support and teacher training guidance.
In order to receive certification, our Year 2 students create & offer four workshops to first year students. This serves our student community by providing more in-person, smaller group learning and hands-on experience with students all over the world and provides our Year 2 students training and experience in holding and carrying forth our tradition of healing.
The individualized mentorship that our graduating students receive sets us apart from other Herbalism Programs and the community building that the Year 2 program fosters leads to lifelong friendships, collaborations and rich community.
Rachel is a Folk Herbalist, Medicine Grower, Maker, Ceremonialist & Intuitive Guide
Rachel is a folk-herbalist who has been studying herbalism since the plants called her in 2015, guiding her to learn from herbalists around the country. She graduated from an intensive apprenticeship with Marysia Miernowska and the Gaia School of Healing in 2019 and has been helping mentor apprentices in School of the Sacred Wild since its inception. Rachel’s intuitive gifts have grown alongside her practice and study of herbalism, and today she teaches classes, provides one-on-one intuitive herbal sessions, and makes hand crafted herbal medicine products from her extensive garden of medicinal plants. She is also a ceremonialist who officiates weddings, leads seasonal rituals, conducts home blessings, and personalized ceremonies.
Rachel has a background in science and communications and spent over 20 years in an intense career in nonprofit fundraising, mainly for organizations focused on scientific research including neuroscience, immunology, and ovarian cancer. Her offerings today are fueled by a background of scientific literacy, a lifelong devotion to the natural world and a deep spiritual practice of communion with the divine.
After moving with her husband in 2015 to live and work on an organic farm that grows avocados, coffee, passionfruit, and dozens of other exotic fruits, Rachel began growing her own medicine plants resulting in a garden of over 75 different herbs that she uses to create tinctures, salves, teas and other herbal medicines in her home apothecary. Rachel is passionate about empowering people to nourish themselves and has taught many classes about ways to work with herbs for optimum wellness. With the plants, our ancient elders, as her guide, Rachel’s highest joy is helping people find healing, wholeness, freedom, empowerment, and courage to develop & share their unique sacred gifts to be expressed in the world.
Our team behind the scenes…
Gaby
Director of Operations + Student Support
Gaby is a folk herbalist who graduated from The Gaia School of Healing CA in 2017. Her love for the experience—and the plants—was so profound that she couldn’t bring herself to leave. She stayed on as an assistant to the school, which would later evolve into the School of the Sacred Wild.
A lifelong seeker of knowledge, Gaby delights in learning, reading, and diving deep into research rabbit holes—both for the thrill of discovery and because she has a special fondness for rabbits.
With 30 years of experience in IT support and software development, she brings a unique blend of logic and creativity to her work. However, when she steps away from the screen, her heart belongs to the native plants and wild landscapes near her home in the Santa Monica Mountains, where she spends her time studying ecosystems, connecting with the land, and writing poetry.
Michal
Operations + Sacred Wild Graduate
Michal is a graduate of the Apprenticeship and is our incredible Virgo queen. Michal works with the farmers and suppliers that grow the medicinal herbs we get out to students each month. Michal also is the team manager of Marysia’s other business, Sacred Rituel Beauty, where she makes the organic botanically infused skin care in Los Angeles, using traditional herbal practices. A woman of many talents, we are so grateful for her phenomenal organization and leadership skills!
Flora
Shipping & Online Shop Fulfillment
Flora is Marysia’s daughter and joined our team of employees in her 8th grade of school. Flora has been around the herbs and all her many witch aunties her whole life, and from a young age, she helped her mama label medicine and process plants. Flora is a fantastic farmer, skateboarder and community minded, creative soul. She studies guitar, arial silks and musical theatre in her free time and she has just authored a book titled, “Best of Both Worlds” about being mixed race and growing up with divorced parents. Flora lovingly receives all orders that come through our small online apothecary, packages and gets your orders out to you! She also helps with our monthly community herbal bagging that is open to all apprentices.