By Contribution

Animism, Ancestors, and Psychedelics

with Dawn Davis, Courtney Watson, and Kirra Swenerton

Thursday, August 8
90 min each | 12:00 LA | 3pm New York | 21:00 Berlin
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Our Invitation

This fourth gathering in our five-part series will focus on the role of psychoactive substances in ritual arts, personal healing, and work for cultural change. Presenters will share from their experience as psychologically grounded ritualists and long-term facilitators of consciousness-transforming offerings in service to life, community, and cultural healing.

Amidst the catastrophe of our times, the Earth still sings through and around us with ancient wisdom and magic. This innate belonging and joy is fundamentally good and also our nature as human beings. In this series, we’ll ask how animist ethics—respect and love for our greater web of kinship—can help us to navigate accelerated Earth changes and bring fresh perspective and energy to the traditions that already nourish our path.

This event will be hosted by Kirra Swenerton with the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network and esteemed guests Dawn Davis & Courtney Watson. Kirra is an edge-walker, healing artist, and scientist who specializes in plant medicine and ceremonial psychedelics. Dawn is an American Indian Researcher and educator with a PhD in Natural Resources and Water Resource and CEO of NativeSci LLC, co-editor of the Journal of Native Sciences. Courtney Watson is Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex therapist, and medicine woman studying African and American Indigenous Knowledge Systems. See below for more on their work in the world.

We’ll explore topics like:

In what ways can respect for tradition and animist and ancestral teachings deepen our experiences with psychoactive medicines?
What helps in honoring a calling to psychoactives while avoiding cultural appropriation or careless approaches to strong medicines?
How can work with consciousness-altering substances support grounded and lasting work for personal, family, and cultural healing?

Our time will include:

Our time will be held in a kind and culturally inclusive spirit for participants of all backgrounds. Those new to the material as well as seasoned herbalists are likely to find something of benefit.

This event is part of a larger series that includes four other teachings on Animism, Ancestors and…Astrology, Activism, Psychedelics, and Yoga. This series also serves to highlight two of our foundational courses, Ancestral Lineage Healing and Practical Animism. Thousands have taken these courses since 2017 and have gone on to take the teachings into their practices, professions, families, and activism.

Price

Accessibility is a core value at Ancestral Medicine. We offer several pricing tiers, and we leave it to you to select the most appropriate tier. The ranges in pricing aim to take into consideration global economic disparities, historical injustices, and personal circumstances. The system is designed for those with more to register in ways that support those with less.

If $20 is not accessible to you but you’d like to attend, please take a moment to reply to a few questions before registering at any amount that allows you to join (click the text). There is no approval process for this pathway to register; we simply wish to understand a little about who our offerings are reaching and how our systems can best support that. Thanks!

Others in the Series

“You should see this world, a drop of dew, a bubble in a stream, lightning in a summer cloud, a phantom and a dream.” -Diamond Sutra, 9th century China

About the Presenters

Dawn D. Davis

Dawn D. Davis is a mother, a wife, CEO of NativeSci LLC, co-editor of the Journal of Native Sciences, a Newe and a citizen of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Dawn is an American Indian Researcher and educator with a PhD in Natural Resources and Water Resources. Her research has focused on Peyote [Lophophora williamsii] decline and conservation efforts since 2006 and in natural and water resource management. Dawn has shared her research among Indigenous, academic, ethnobotanical, and psychedelic audiences nationally and internationally. Dawn enjoys spending time with her family, growing plants for tea, and being at home.

Courtney Watson

Courtney Watson is a queer Black Mother, lover, and community member in Ohlone Lisjan territory (Oakland, California). She is descended from enslaved Africans stolen from West and Central Africa, Louisiana Chahtah, their white European oppressors and their disappointed Gallic Old Ones. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex therapist, and medicine woman studying African and American Indigenous Knowledge Systems. She owns Doorway Therapeutic Services, a group therapy practice focused on the mental health needs of Black Indigenous People of Color, Queer folks, Trans, Gender Non-conforming, Non-binary and Two-Spirit individuals. Her non-profit, Access to Doorways, helps subsidize the cost of psychedelic treatment, training programs and sponsors Queer- and BIPOC-led psychedelic projects. Learn More

Kirra Swenerton

Kirra Swenerton is an edge-walker, healing artist and scientist. Kirra teaches ritual, nature reverence and regenerative ecology. Her dharma includes picking up trash and planting seeds, restoring vulnerable populations and revitalizing wild places. Kirra specializes in land and water tending, death and dying, dreamwork, depossession, plant medicine and ceremonial psychedelics. She is a minister, Iyengar Yoga sādhaka and völva, initiated in Old Norse ways. Kirra remains an avid student of her British, Irish, Armenian and Italian ancestors. She serves as watershed custodian of the Atihana Preserve and homestead in Northern California and inhabits the wider SF Bay Area. Learn More