Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild 2003 - 2026, Conference Staff 2014 - 2020, California Chapter Founder and Director 2015 - 2024
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Certified Instructor 2012 - 2026
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Cold Process and Hot Process Certification 2012 - 2026
AHG An Association of Herbal Practitioners, Herbal Business Member 2020 - 2026
UPS Member 2021 - 2026
UPS Herbal Business Member 2022 - 2026
Global Yoga Therapist and Ayurveda Organization Founding Life Time Member 2024
The Herb Society Of America Business Member 2025 - 2026
Following Seasons with a certified Herbalist, Aromatherapist, Artisan Distiller and Soapmaster.
Enhance your environment, mind, body, spirit and soul with pure, authentic, aromatic ingredients. Our products are thoughtfully formulated by our certified clinical herbalist, aromatherapist and soapmaster to bring elevated wellness to your bath, home, and wellness rituals. Specializing in handcrafted aromatherapy bar soaps, artisan-distilled hydrosols, pure essential oils, and healthy botanicals, Following Season’s products will enliven your senses and lift spirit.
Welcome! My name is Cindy Christ. I am the educator, medicine maker, soap maker, Mother Crone, and creatrix behind Following Seasons Botanicals.
I am a student of nature and lover of plants — guiding me to live in deeper reciprocity with the Earth, to slow down, to listen, and to create from the heart. I came home to the path of plants and her medicine as a young child, or perhaps long before.
My journey is deeply rooted in my grandmothers and my father’s gardens, as well as a childhood spent in the native, untouched lands of southern California. Growing up in nature as we traversed the waters and lands between ocean and desert, I was blessed by the river of the Colorado. I found my way to aromatherapy and herbalism as a little girl. Harvesting the leaves and flowers from those gardens and nature’s gifts, I formulated teas, potpourri and perfumes in my lab on the great boulder which offered me a natural mortar. It was in that wonderful and magical sit spot I became an alchemist. As I blossomed into a young woman my interest in woman’s health became planted through the experience of pregnancy and home birth, taking my personal responsibility to a new level. The plants continue to call me and guide me in never ending lessons in formulating, distilling and creating magic and medicine.
Today I work as a community herbalist, aromatherapist, medicine woman and educator. Weaving together ancestral knowledge, Wise Woman health and healing, Indigenous traditions and the science and art of herbalism. My work is traditional as well as science based. It lives as a fabric of ancient wisdom, plant spirit, and grounded clinical practice.
My college education is in child development and education; with tenure at Grossmont Community College and The S. D. Natural History Museum. All along the way I have been blessed with opportunities to study ethnobotany with the Kumeyaay Nation’s Elders Jane Dumas, Richard Bugbee, Stan and Martha Rodriquez and many others. At the same time I traveled near and far to apprentice with herbal elders and teachers including Rosemary Gladstars’s community herbalism, Susan Weed’s Wise Woman ways, clinical herbalism with Amanda McQuade Crawford, aromatherapy and aromatic medicine with Jade Shutts, Spiritual PhytoEssencing and natural health science with Dr. Berkowsky, Chinese medicine with Thomas Avery Garran, and many, many more. I have also had the honor of sitting at the knee of Margi Flint and becoming a Legacy Teacher, sharing the brilliance of the late William LeSassier and the wisdom of Margi Flint’s The Practicing Herbalist and Reading The Body diagnostics.
My focus is on women’s health and wellness, tending body, mind, and spirit. Following Seasons has evolved as a living expression of my love and respect for green reciprocity, remembrance, and resilience. It is my hope that through this work, the old ways remain alive and accessible, empowering women and communities to remember their connection to the plants, to themselves and family, and to the Earth.
Walk With The Land – Walk In Beauty
Curriculum vitae
On-Going Studies:
Apprenticeship with Rosemary Gladstar and Jane Bothwell
The Spirit and Essence of Herbalism - 2026
EarthSong Herbals with Margi Flint
Reading The Body Legacy Teacher Course - 2024
The Herb Whisperer with Thomas Avery Garren
Clinical Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism - 2024
Yogamu - Yoga Means Union
Ayurveda Practitioner, Yoga Instructor, Meditation - 2024
Scholistico
Naturopathy Practitioner, Sound Therapy
Pacific Rim College
Womens hormonal health, blood tests, case studies
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Intermittant fasting, metabolic switching, hormonal health and nutrition
The Science and Art of Herbalism with Rosemary Gladstar
Enjoying the course for a second time for the pure joy of it!
Mathew Wood Institute of Herbalism
Herbs A - Z profiles and lectures
Aromatree Academy with Salvatore Battaglia
Masterclasses, Archetypes, Chemistry, Mindfullness
The School for Aromatic Studies with Jade Shutes
Clinical Aromatherapy, Aromatic Scholars & Aromatic Medicine
JennScents Aromaversity with Jennifer Pressimone
Advanced Holistic Gut Health Specialist
Natural Health Science and Spiritual PhytoEssencing with Dr. Berkowsky
Naturopathic Science and Spritual PhytoEssencing
Registered Spiritual PhytoEssencing Practitioner
Tisserand Institute
Essential Oil Constiuents & Safety
Previously Studied:
Wise Woman Healing Circle with Tieraona Low Dag, MD
Embracing the Wise Woman to support natural healing; Maiden, Mother, Crone - 2025
Alaskin Essences with Judith Poelarends
Flower, gemstone and evironmental essences practitioner - 2024
Midwest Womans Herbal
Herbal Approaches: Therapeutic Issues in Women’s Health; Isla Burgess - 2024
Jennscents Aromaversity with Jennifer Pressimone
Holistic Gut Health, Nutriton - 2024
Distillation Science with Ann Harman
Distilling specifically for therapeutic hydrosols
Sage Country Herbs with Shana Lipner Grover
Actions and Energetics of Western Herbalism, Field Botany, Nutritition
The Human Path, Sam Coffman
Wilderness Survival
East West School of Planetary Herbalism with Michael & Leslie Tierra
TCM & Ayurveda, beginning & intermediate seminars complete
American Herbalist Guild
S.D. Chapter co-director, +conferences
Traditional Open Fire Soapmaking with Soapmaking Historical Guild
Old Town San Diego State Historical Park
12 years - Founder, Director, Instructor, Living History Demonstrations
Sycuan Kumeyaay Reservation College
Ethnobotany and Indiginous Traditions with Elder Jane Dumas, Richard Bugbee, Stan and Martha Rodriguez and Elder Guests
12 yrs - botany, medicine, harvest & preperations, basket weaving, pottery, language, sweat lodge, traditional healing ceremonies
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild
Advanced soapmaking and formulations, +conferences
National Association Of Interpretation
Certified Naturalist Interpreter
Certified State Park Interpreter
Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy with Sylla Sheppard-Hanger
Essential Oils Foundations
The East West School of Aromatic Studies with Jade Shutes
Certified Foundations of Aromatherapy
Price Pottenger with traditional naturopath and board-certified clinical nutritionist David Getoff
Holistic Health and Nutrition
Self Heal School of Herbal Studies with Amanda McQuade Crawford
Certified Clinical Herbalist, +conferences
The Science and Art of Herbalism with Rosemary Gladstar
First year of snail mail correspondence course with Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary, +conferences
Child Development and Education Science Degree
10 yrs Education Program Manager, Instructor, Mentor At San Diego Natural History Museum
10 years curriculum development, teaching & mentoring student teachers at Grossmont College
