Sage Maurer

In 2000, Sage founded The Gaia School of Healing in New England and has trained hundreds of apprentices over the past 18 years. Sage is an independent practitioner and teacher of folk herbal healing, sacred plant medicine, earth-centered spirituality, and ethnobotany. She currently lives and teaches in Westminster, VT surrounded by singing white pines and nettles.

For the past two decades Sage has practiced shamanic plant medicine, infusing pagan traditions of earth medicine and magic into herbal healing. Sage's journey with plant spirits began in childhood through reconnecting to ancient traditions of plant use in Europe, woven together with pagan traditions of earth worship and ceremony. The school began with free classes on Celtic sacred plant use, infused with plant spirit medicine from her home garden.

Learning primarily from the plants directly, Sage has explored both sacred and medicinal uses of plants around the world. She was also formally trained and certified in traditional Western herbal medicine at The Blazing Star Herbal School and The Boston School of Herbal Energetics. In late 2004 Sage moved to Oahu, Hawaii to study anthropology, ethnobotany, and tropical plant medicine. At the University of Hawaii Sage trained for two years with native Hawaiian herbalists, igniting her passion for tropical plant medicine. Sage then went on to study medicinal plants of Central America and the Amazon, spending time over the last 8 years learning from rainforest plants in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Brazil. Though tropical plants continue to call Sage to travel, the local plants of New England remain her greatest teachers and guides at home. Sage teaches 9 months of the year from her home base in Vermont, as well as retreats internationally.

Sage holds a degree in anthropology with a concentration in ethnobotany from The University of Hawaii, and a masters degree in environmental education. She is committed to fighting for social and environmental justice, educating others about sustainability and permaculture. Sage believes deeply in the protection of the earth and all of our relations, working against globalization and colonization by Western culture and ideologies.

Trained in The Wise Woman Tradition of herbal healing passed on from our grandmothers, Sage seeks to help reawaken our ancient memory of healing with plants, and renew our connection to Gaia. Sage is devoted to changing the way natural and alternative health care is provided through increasing access to holistic therapies. She believes in teaching others to make their own medicine, honoring the earth-centered healing traditions of our ancestors. Currently working on a book devoted to the native and medicinal plants of the Northeast, she hopes to renew interest in protecting the wild medicinal plants of her home.

Sage spends the rest of her time following her bliss in Vermont with her partner Tracy, beloved dog, and 18 chickens. When she is not teaching or facilitating journeys with plants, you'll also find her covered in dirt, clay, water, or oil paint.