Here at the Viriditas Healing Center & Apothecary we hope to provide our community with a gentler way of healing and supporting your health.  As Registered Nurses and Clinical Herbalists, our goal is to bridge the gap between western scientific medicine and traditional holistic healing modalities.  We offer wellness consultations for herbal and nutritional support, flower essences, folk healing techniques, Maya abdominal massage, and more.  These modalities add a holistic approach to the prevention and relief of dis-ease.  Our focus is whole family health specializing in women and children.  We offer community classes to teach supportive habits for health and lifestyle.  In the future, we hope to offer community gardens around the clinic to educate about gardening and sustainable growing practices, beautify the city, provide fresh herbs, vegetables and flowers, and bring green joy into the lives of all who come by.       

We envision our place being:

  • A nurturing, healing space where herbal education and consultations are accessible and affordable to the community.
  • To provide access to lower income, and Latino communities.
  • To educate our clients and the public about living with the cycles and seasons of the earth and honoring that connection, as well as sustainable living and plant use.
  • To spark that memory in our clients of the time when we all took responsibility for our own health care and aid them in remembering the use of traditional herbal medicines in day to day self-care.
  • We consider ourselves family herbalists, specializing in the health care of women of all ages and children.

What is Viriditas? In the year 1098 in a small town in what is now Southern Germany, a baby girl named Hildegard was born. She was the 10th child in her family, and in that day, the 10th of anything belonged to the church (a "tithe"). So, Hildegard was given to the church and became the apprentice to a nun in a local convent. Aside from being a reknowned visionary, during her life Hildegard drew inspiring art work, composed music, and was an accomplished herbalist. She coined the word “Viriditas” (from the latin for green and truth). To her it was a way to describe the presence of the divine in everything green. This divine knowledge in the plants was why they healed, because they brought that divine into people. She believed that we were all a part of a circle/cycle. The moist, juiciness of the plants showed their health, and if we are all moist and juicy, then we are filled with the presence of Spirit. :-)

So, in honor of Hildegard and the plants, we named our clinic Viriditas. We believe that we all hold with in us the ability to heal, the knowledge of the plants, of the cycles of the seasons, and of life and death. Sometimes, it just takes a little nudge from the plants to help us remember...

If you have any questions about our center, upcoming workshops, or would like to schedule an appointment, please contact Maria Muscarella at 828-254-1266 or Maria@viriditashealing.com , or Nikki Solomon at 828-337-2385 or Nikki@viriditashealing.com