Della Medicina
Folkloric Medicine + Magic + Plants
Folk Medicine Training Based in Italian and Italian American healing traditions
"Della Medicina offers a singular, comprehensive exploration of Italian/American spirituality, weaving together all major elements—plant by plant, era by era, practice by practice—into a generative tapestry of cultural heritage. Rather than presenting fragments of tradition, it provides participants with the means to reclaim their spiritual identity within the context and depth of the lives we live here and now.
Magic and folk medicine must be discovered by each person for themselves. This doesn’t mean we can’t learn from others—on the contrary, these are lineage traditions, passed from generation to generation. Yet they are transmitted in a way that opens the student to their own capacity to directly experience the depths of their connection to the divine and the healing power of nature—or, in terms of Western Herbalism, the vital force.
In other words, this path requires full engagement of body, mind, and senses. It is the practice of full presence. The tools, formulas, and rituals exist to guide us into this state, helping us remember ourselves within the cultural symbols and conditions of our present reality. This is not relativism—not an 'anything goes' ideology. There is truth that can be directly discovered and experienced, using the wisdom we receive from our teachers, in a way that is uniquely our own yet remains part of the living continuum of human history."
“The peasant medicine that… are the cures of a forgotten knowledge. The language of the healers.”
~Christian Bonomi, Io Prima Di Me
Payment Plans Available!
join the waitlist
for the 2025 offering
of Della Medicina
9 Months of In-Depth study and practice
Through plant learning and hands-on practice, participants weave together the threads of their heritage, gaining a profound sense of connection, ethical responsibility, and personal empowerment.
**All meetings are online via zoom
✔ 2x month: live/online 90-120 minute meetings
✔ 1x month: live online practice circle (via zoom)
✔1x month: Q and A group office hours (via zoom)
✔ A package of herbal remedies and material to work with
✔ 9 plant share circles spread throughout the 9 months (via zoom)
✔ 1 60 minute one-to-one session with Lisa
✔ 9 in-depth plant monograph pdfs
✔ Private community forum
✔ Pre-recorded videos
✔ Lifetime access to all recordings and pdfs
✔ Guest Teachers
✔ Bonus Materials
Together we will discover the roots, seeds, and flowers that take us to our traditional medicine memories and magic. The natural magic of the peasants and immigrants of Southern Italy that offer us the innovative, adaptive, and regenerative healing skills we need now.
This course is an evolution of our previous courses “Della Medicina I and II”. It is a slower paced and more in-depth course of both study and practice. More focus will be placed on the practice of Italian Folk Medicine and we will go deeper into some of the foundational subject. If you already took “Della Medicina I” or both I and II, this course is still for you. There may be some repeat info but there will be plenty of new info and any repeat info will be more extensive.
Info about the course:
Live Sessions: All sessions will be held online via zoom. They will be recorded but live attendance will be encourage.
Ex-Voto/ Offerings of Completion: There will be a custom certificate of completion designed by artist Victoria Haf given at the end of the course. In order to receive the certificate you must attended at least 50% of the sessions live. This is a tradition that was originally transmitted in-person and there was a rapport between the teacher and student. Your presence in the group is important to develop that rapport between all of us.
There two attendance tiers:Attendance tier 1:
Those who attend a minimum 1 live session per month, 4 of the practicums , and at least 3 plant share circles will receive a "certificate of completion".
Attendance tier 2:
Those who attend 15 of the live teaching sessions, 7 of the practicums, and at least 5 plant share circles will receive a “certificate of completion” and free access to our growing library of ebooks and pre-recorded courses for 3 months.
Foundations: This course is based in Italian and Italian American Folk Medicine but in an adapted and expanded format that makes it appropriate for our current times. Its foundations are “medicina popolare” or “the medicine of the people” that can be found in all cultures around the world.
Lineage: You do not have to be of Italian descent to take this course but, if you are not, we will ask you to share your interest or call to study these practices. We consider anyone who was adopted and/or enculturated by Italian diasporic culture as “of Italian descent”. If you’re not sure send us an email and we can discuss it!
Monthly Plant Share Circles
with Tina Parziale
Part of the learning process of folk medicine is relational and includes our relations with other humans. During these plant share circles everyone has an opportunity to share their direct experience with our monthly plant. These shares are not from things we’ve learned in books or any outside source, but what we learn from our own personal interactions.
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Tina is a 1st generation Italian American and has been a student of Lisa’s for several years. She participated in many rounds of plant share circles which deepened her personal connections to plants and ancestors. She now teaches Italian folk medicine at the cafe and community center she helped found, “Fable”, in Connecticut.
Tina Parziale (she/her - @trparz) is many things, one of which is "averse to labels". Throughout her life, she has been captivated by the power and magic of story--from folktale and myths to stories of her ancestors and the lands they hailed from. In her capacity as a facilitator, she draws connections between the past and present, and encourages participants to learn from the past to inform, inspire, and change their present. She is the owner of Fable—a tea house/artisan gift shop/learning space/cocktail lounge— located on lands of the Tunxis and Quinnipiac people (Southington, CT).
@ctfable
@fable_underworld
Curriculum
Plants
Each month we will be working with a different plant and plant preparation that you will receive in a package before the course begins. You will be guided on how to use each preparation and on specific practices to enhance your connection with the energetic imprints of each plant. Each month there will be a “plant share circle” where our experiences can be shared and reflected on with the group.
Folk Herbalism
Together we’ll learn the foundations of Western Herbalism and folk medicine making skills. This will include the Four Elements, the Four Qualities, the Humors, and Humoral Temperaments and how they were understood by the ancient healers of the Mediterranean.
We will learn the most common types of herbal preparations used in Italian folk medicine and will practice making some of them together during our “practicum” meetings.
Mythos and Magic
We will explore the roots of Italian Folk Medicine that goes back to the ancient magicians, philosophers, and seers of the Mediterranean world. We will learn about the generative ancient cosmologies and spirituality that is woven deep in the core of our modern folk medicine by learning about the Ecstatic cults, the old Gods and Goddess, the mystics of Southern Italy such as Pythagoras and Parmenides.
Along with the philosophers and magicians are the mythic beings. We will learn about several gods, goddesses, saints and deities that have been invoked in this type of healing work. We will learn about the healing traditions of Asclepius, Vesta, La Madonna, The cult of the Saints, Persephone, Gaia, and more.
Fatto A Mani/Hands on Making
Making with our hands is a central part any folk medicine. Will be making several herbal preparations together as well as some other crafts. Materials will either be sent to you in your package or you will be provided a list of what to gather on your own. Together will be making: Corajisime dolls (a Calabrian style calendar doll), Unguento, Flower essences, healing amulet bags, un decotto (decoction), and other herbal preparations.
Divination
Human healing first began with divination. Divination in this sense means connection with the divine. Our ancestral healing traditions were always linked with the sacred and the sacred was not separate from the rational.
There are many divination practices that we will discuss and learn about including; The ancient oracles (Sibyls and Pythia), Dream Incubation, Astrology and Tarot.
La Storia/History
We don’t learn our ancestral history in the dominant culture. In the US we are taught American history and some amount of world history but certainly not Italian or Mediterranean history. Knowing our history places us in the continuum of time and enables us to know ourselves through the paths and journeys taken by our ancestors. During this course we will learn about Mediterranean history, the indigenous tribes of what is now called Italy, the impact of colonization and war on the people of the region as well as the animistic and totemic practices of the ancient people.
Italian Folk Medicine
Italian folk medicine is not a standardized system or set of practices but is, instead, a living dynamic combination of emergent practices from the Italic peninsula and the Italian diasporic communities. These include what is sometimes called witchcraft “Stregoneria” and folk Catholicism “Benedicaria”. These practices were founded in the peasant villages and neighborhoods in Southern Italy and the Italian enclaves in the US and elsewhere.
Ethics and Commitments
One of the primary values of folk medicine in a chaotic world is that we have a set of ethics and commitments that guide our practice and the way we carry our cultural wisdom. Each participant will be guided and supported in created their own living document of ethics and commitments. This is not meant to be dogmatic or rigid in any way but is meant to be a tool of awareness and cultural sensitivity.
Kitchen Magic and medicine
The hearth is the center of household life and most folk medicine is made or performed at home and often in the kitchen. We will be learning about healing recipes, cures, and sacred ingredients as well as rituals and hearth type worship practices. Kitchen spells are a part of daily life and this simple type of magic has roots in many sacred temples. In fact, the first temples were a part of the home for many people in ancient Italy. We will learn about hearth and kitchen goddess and witches and how they conducted magic with kitchen tools and simple but potent ingredients.
Folkloric:
The the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. This is the communal and multi-generational transference of skills and wisdom that has emerged and evolved over time in relationship with the social field and ecological conditions within in which the people exist.
Course modules
Subject to change
Month 1: Olive/Oliva
Working with ancestral plants | How to use plants energetically | Felt sense and organoleptic communication | Ethics and commitments | History of the Mediterranean and Italic Peninsula
Month 2: Bay Laurel/Alloro
The Ecstatic Cults of the Mediterranean | Non-dualism and Direct Realization | Shapeshifting | Totemism | The Ancient Magicians and Physicians | The Four Elements
Month 3: Rosemary/Rosmarino
Western Herbalism and Italian Folk Medicine | The Cycles of Life | Death Practices | Social Reciprocity Systems | Herbal Preparations | Critical Inquiry
Month 4: Cannabis/Canapa
Divination | Dream Temples | The Oracles | Asclepius | Snake cults | Psychoactive plants
Month 5: Mugwort/Artemisia
Stregoneria | Spells | Tools | Italian Witchcraft |Segnatura and Scongiuri | Sympathetic Magic | Curses and Conditions | Flying Ointments |The Witches Sabbath | The Witches (Janare) of Benevento
Month 6: Rose/Rosa
Benedicaria | Folk Catholicism | the Rosary and other sacramentals | Sympathetic Magic | The Cult of the Saints
Month 7: Parsley /Prezzomolo
Kitchen Medicine | Sacred tools and ingredients | The Hearth | Goddesses of the Hearth and Home | Fire and Cave People
Month 8: Garlic/Aglio
Apotropaic Magic | Brevi Bags and other protective devices | Archangel Michael | Holy Water and Salt | Astrology | Plants and Planets
Month 9: St. John’s Wort/Iperico
La festa di San Giovanni | Sacred Bathing | Flower Essences | Closing Circle
Who this is for:
Those who want to learn, grow, and further understand how folk medicine is relevant and applicable to life in diaspora as a living spiritual art form
Those who want to learn a collection of practical methods of healing that include the sacred, the mundane, and everything in between
Those who want to learn the roots of the traditions of Southern Italy
Those who are committed to keeping alive traditions that are localized, oral, and collectivist in as much alignment with our ancestral ways as possible while still meeting the needs and conditions of our time.
Those that want to practice in a way that connects others to their ancestors, their life place, their history, the divine, and their inner sense of belonging in a way that is in service to a more just, collaborative, and life-affirming generative future.
Those that want connection with plants
Those that want to practice “listening”
Those that want connection with place
Those that want to develop the capacity to be response-able to the practices and beings they encounter
Focus and Values:
Creativity: Participating in creation by learning these ways of interacting with it and each other.
Invoking the sacred: Making (healing) art with sacred intention
Wonder: sense of awe… AND sense of curiosity (that encourages thinking about other people’s and beings point of view)
Being open to sensory and somatic as well as cognitive information as a way of relating.
Adaptability: We need to be able to adapt to our times.
Maintaining and regenerating the “original instructions” in a way that taps into the tools and conditions we’re in now and that can be modified as needed.
Acting in right alignment spontaneously as a result of being integrated and fully embodied in the truth of who we are.
Collaboration: The call and response back and forth between places, beings and people. The places we can converge… as opposed to working hierarchy of dominance
Response-ability: This is in the context of “call and response” so being able to both listen and respond improvisationally to the experiences of tradition and folk practices.
Guest Teachers
We are excited and honored to present our guest teachers who will be teaching the following workshops:
Marybeth Bonfiglio: Tarot
Victoria Haf and Andrea Bressi: Making corajìsime; dolls of lent. A traditional Calabrian craft. Go HERE to read a little about them.
Dafni Mangalousi / Δάφνη Μαγγαλούση : Hellenic Dream Incubation
Summer Minerva: Traditional Dance
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MaryBeth Bonfiglio is second generation American with lineages from Piemonte (Venaus), Cilento (Vallo Di Diano), Sicilia (Nebrodi and Madonie Mountain regions) and the highlands of Poland. She’s a writer, mother, and lineage medicine seeker/keeper. She works with people of all lineages to help them reconnect and remember who they may have been before the plague of whiteness, colonization, and assimilation. She holds ancestral pilgrimages on the beloved island of Sicily for those longing to go deeper with land, culture and people through her organization, Radici Siciliane.To learn more about Marybeth:
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He/Him
Andrea Bressi, son of art, was born and raised among traditional musical instruments and books. He inherited his passion for ethno-musical research and Calabrian popular traditions from his father Silvestro.Andrea is involved in documenting and researching ancient Lenten rites. His photographic exhibition and collection of Lent dolls from Calabria and Southern Italy, entitled Paese che vai, corajisima che trovi” (town that you go, corajisima that you find) has been exhibited since 2016 on various occasions and cultural initiatives. He’s an active member of the National Lent Dolls Network (Rete Nazionale Bambole Quaresima), a partnership of enthusiasts and scholars that share their research and passion on the topic.
Andrea’s field research on Calabrian Lent dolls was included in the publication “La festa delle bambole volanti - un rito che rinasce” (The feast of flying dolls - a rite that is reborn) edited by Francesco Stoppa and Vilma Recchia for Edizioni Universitarie Romane.
During the Carnival period, he has taken on the role of "Captain Giangurgolo", bringing a traditional Calabrian mask to schools and piazze in Calabria. as well as offering the show “Il filo della Storia…da Carnevale a Pasqua” (“The Thread of History...from Carnival to Easter”), a journey through songs and stories of Carnival and Lent. As for Christmas he proposes the show “Allestitevi cari amici” with songs, stories and sounds of the Calabrian tradition.
He’s part of the cultural Association “Felici & Conflenti" that in 2017 published the ethnomusical research album “Traditional music in the Reventino area - Savuto" which Andrea co-authored. This is a collection of instrumental and vocal pieces from recordings by the last custodians, singers and players of the area.
Since 2014 they organise and curate traditional dance workshops aimed at the recovery and valorization of the musical heritage of the Reventino area.
As a musician he’s a connoisseur of the traditional repertoire for 4 and 8 bass accordion, plays guitar and chitarra battente, pipita (traditional oboe), whistles and traditional wind instruments of various types. Since 2006 he’s part of the the musical formation "I giamberiani" and since 2008 he’s also part of the ethno-popular group "Radici Calabre" that has brought Calabrian popular music beyond national borders.
Storyteller, teacher, traditional multi-instrumentalist musician and facilitator of workshops on dances, customs, traditions, songs and various aspects of folk Calabrian culture (in particular of the Catanzaro area); he’s an active member of different associations for cultural promotion, he wants to bring to the spotlight a Calabria that is unknown to many, but that holds a wisdom that deserves to be transmitted.
To find out more about Andrea and his work go to:
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(she/they)
Summer is an independent researcher, performer, author, filmmaker, activist, and educator. A lover of adventure, Summer tours internationally, sharing her performances, films, and ideas with the world. Her award-winning documentary, Summer Within (2024), is currently being screened around Europe in various festivals. She is a co-editor of Italian Trans Geographies (SUNY Press.)
To Learn more about Summer:
Go Fund Me: Sacred Gender Course and Pilgrimage
@iamsummerminerva
@summerwithinfilm
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She/HerBorn in 1988 in Mexico city “the Great Tenochtitlan” she grew surrounded by a visual language inherited from Aztec times. She grew with the inner conflict of a daughter of diaspora, a mestiza with both the colonized (Indigenous Purepecha and Mayan people, slaves from Northwest Africa) and colonizer (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Japanese migrants). Her parents are both teachers and architects so she grew surrounded by books and art. She studied and graduated from the School of Design of the Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico (EDINBA), and worked for several years in graphic and product design, with renowned brands and licenses until she took a trip to Barcelona from which she would never return the same, as this was the place where she would meet her future husband Raffaele, a Calabrian from the Piana di Goia Tauro.
After years of traveling, she and her husband decide to re-establish themselves in Calabria, one of the poorest regions of Europe, an almost hidden land that showed her through l’arte di arrangiarsi (the art of making due) how economy and abundance are not mutually exclusive.
As she explored literal motherhood, she understood that as mammals, the Mother is our primordial Archetype with deep cultural aspects that are not tied to gender or biology, this became a source of devotion and gratitude and inspired the ongoing series of “Nuestras señoras” (our Ladies), her icons of mixed female devotions (Medusa-coatlicue, la llorona-the sorrowful mother, la virgen de Guadalupe-la Santa Muerte, our Lady of Deep Soil…) which explore different facets of the Mother archetype.
Her work involves both meticulous research and artistic intuition, which has deepened the way she develops graphic work and identities for other people, channeling the symbols that resonate deeply and significantly.
Her artistic work is also communal, putting her gifts in service of community feasts and devotion: she restores statues, makes carnival floats and masks. she has also worked with several municipalities and local associations with street muralismo as a way to enrich the abandoned houses in depopulated towns and bring art to the public space.
“Mother of gigants” she is becoming well known as a creator and restorer of dancing processional puppets, a tradition with medieval origins that is still very popular in Calabria and other parts of Europe.
She is also a volunteer in several local cultural associations where she has facilitated art workshops for children and adults.
To find out more about Victoria’s work go to:
Magia Agreste
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Dafni was born and raised in Corinth, Greece - a physical and symbolic crossroad and passage of culture and civilisation within mainland Greece and the hellenic ancestry. Dafni's ancenstral roots are to be found in the Greek peninsula of the Eastern Peloponesse (Lakonia, Arkadia, Corinthia), but also the Hellenes of the East (modern Turkey). Having lived and travelled around a bit, Dafni believes that many wisdom seekers/keepers of Medditeranean heritages are skilled jugglers of the in-between (East - West, North - South) and have important messages to share with the world.
A dreamer, a philosopher, a wanderer, a student and a teacher: Dafni has been tracing hellenic tradition and wisdom in the texts, in dreamspace and in the land juxtaposing it with other lineages and traditions of the world to gain perspective. A student of the Hellenic Asklepian tradition, Dafni works with sound therapy, dream incubation 'enkoimisis' and nature reflections (eco-therapy) as means to self-gnosis and/for community healing.
To learn more about Dafni:
At completion of this course those that attend a minimum 1 live session per month, 4 of the practicums , and at least 3 plant share circles" will receive this custom art print/certificate with their name on it. The artwork is designed by one of our guest teachers from Calabria, Victoria Haf. To see all of Victoria’s art go Here
Refund Policy: Enrolling in this course is a commitment to attend this cohort, to Lisa, and the other participants. Because this is our livelihood and the decision to run this course is based on a minimum number of registrants, we do not offer refunds of any kind except for certain emergencies.
The decision to offer a refund is done on a case-by-case basis and will depend on whether or not we can fill your spot.
Thank you for understanding that this policy is based in our effort to run a sustainable business.
About Lisa
My work is multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and emergent from many systems including
Traditional Western Herbalism : Italian Folk Magic : Astrology : Plant Spirit Medicine : Benedicaria
I am the descendant of Irish and Italian immigrants and live and work where all of my people first settled Turtle Island among the foothills of the Adirondacks in what is now known as New York State.
I am a practitioner of Benedicaria (the blessing way) and Lineage witch as a granddaughter of the city of Benevento, Italy, La Citta Delle Streghe, the city of witches and of the ancient village of my Nonno, Feroleto Antico in Calabria. Benedicaria is the practice of Italian folk healing practiced by many of the indigenous peoples of Italy including my bisnonna (great-grandmother). My grandmother(Nonna) was born in Benevento where my great-grandmother was a known witch who could dispell the curse of the Malocchio (the evil eye) as well as other physical and spiritual ailments using traditional, indigenous Italian healing methods.
To learn more about my path and click the button below: