Practical Animism

This course takes a core values approach that’s not about belief, dogma, or adopting any particular kind of identity. The focus is on becoming a more loving and ethical human being in relationship with the rest of life. When put into practice, animist values are no more or less “spiritual” than treating other humans with kindness and decency. The only difference is the emphasis placed on also extending this care to our other-than-human kin. We invite you to consider this pragmatic and psychologically grounded approach to relationship, ritual arts, and Earth-reconnection.

Extensive additional resources accompanying each lesson feature ancestrally and geographically diverse voices. Along with our 30+ course supporters from around the world, participants are given a wide set of perspectives to support them in developing their own unique relationship to the wider animate web of life. 

Each new lesson will be released at the start of the weekend: very early Saturday morning, just after 12am midnight, US Eastern. This starts with the first lesson on May 7th. 

There are many support and community calls (through the Zoom platform), and attendance is entirely optional. Two of these teaching and support calls are recorded for playback: the Teaching Calls with Daniel and the Practice and Ritual Skills calls.

The following call times are all US Eastern. You can use this tool to convert to your own time zone. If you don’t see your time zone listed, you can add it at the bottom of the list.

• Teaching Calls with Daniel and Supporters (an hour with Daniel then 30min of breakout sessions with course supporters):
  • Saturday, May 7th, 3 – 4:30pm (Opening Ritual)
  • Wednesday, May 18th, 3 – 4:30pm
  • Wednesday, June 1st, 3 – 4:30pm
  • Wednesday, June 15th, 3 – 4:30pm
  • Wednesday, June 29th, 3 – 4:30pm
  • Wednesday, July 13th, 3 – 4:30pm
  • Wednesday, July 27th, 3 – 4:30pm (Closing Ritual) 
•  Practice and Ritual Skills call every other week (alternating weeks with the above teaching calls):
  • Wednesday, May 11th, 3 – 4pm
  • Wednesday, May 25th, 3 – 4pm
  • Wednesday, June 8th, 3 – 4pm
  • Wednesday, June 22nd, 3 – 4pm
  • Wednesday, July 6th, 3 – 4pm
  • Wednesday, July 20th, 3 – 4pm
• Integration and Personal Support call every Friday from 3 – 4pm (not recorded).

• Three additional weekly community calls:
  • for BIPOC-only, every Friday from 5 – 6pm.
  • for LGBTQ-only, every Monday from 4 – 5pm. 
  • for Asia & Oceania accessibility (open to all), every Thursday from 10 – 11pm.

As you have lifetime access to the material, this is flexible; however, if you prefer to “keep pace”, ideally you can dedicate about 90 minutes per week to engage with the lesson video and guided practice as a baseline. Beyond that, on weeks where there is a live call with Daniel, that additional 90 minutes includes practitioner-facilitated breakout groups which participants report to be connective. 

You are encouraged to join any of the other calls as it fits your schedule and supports your experience of the course. Only the Teaching Calls with Daniel and Supporters and the Practice and Ritual Skills calls are recorded. The others tend to foster more personal sharing and are not recorded also for ease of sharing.

While the lessons for Practical Animism are intentionally sequenced, there is not a strong emphasis on following specific “steps” in the same way as, for example, the Ancestral Lineage Healing course. Feel welcome to follow this course at your own pace, and spend more time on the practices that feel alive for you. Please don’t let the feeling of “falling behind” keep you from continuing to engage in the connection space or from joining any of the live calls.

No – all opportunities to connect and engage with other participants, whether through the small breakout groups, discussion in the connection space, or in any of the community calls, are entirely optional. 

While the aim of this course is cultivating deeper relationship with the other-than-humans, we still encourage you to extend and practice relational ethics with the fellow humans in the course. Most participants find a sense of camaraderie and support through engaging with others seeking to reclaim animist values amidst a too often disenchanted, materialist modern world.

Once you join the connection space, you will see separate private spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQ+. To join, message the course supporter facilitating that community call and they will add you to the space where you’ll have access to a private discussions and the zoom link for the weekly call. This process is to help course supporters familiarize themselves with who is participating in these affinity spaces and calls. 

We trust participants to self-select mindfully and decide for themselves if these spaces and additional calls (including the affinity-based breakout groups that follow each of the teaching calls with Daniel) are for them and will support their experience of the course. To learn more, please visit this page: https://ancestralmedicine.org/bipoc-lgbtq-calls.

All of our lesson videos will have closed captioning, as well as a full transcript and additional downloadable audio-only versions. Live calls will have automatic AI-generated closed captioning enabled, and the recording will be available after the call is over, accompanied by a full transcript a few days later.

If you have needs not met here, please feel free to reach out to us with requests or suggestions at info@ancestralmedicine.org and we will do what we can to accommodate. 

Effective ritual practice and embodied learning can be a powerful and full-bodied experience. At times, this can bring up strong emotions and participants should be prepared for that possibility. While Daniel’s teachings are informed by his professional training and experience as a clinical therapist and the offerings strive to move from a trauma-informed approach, our offerings are never a substitute for mental health support/interventions or other kinds of physical medicines.

That said, we endeavor to provide as much support as possible within ethical and logistical limits. If any of the course topics or practices have been personally activating or stress-inducing in ways that call for additional support, please go first to what you already know to be helpful to you in your life. In addition and in complement to all those things, you might also consider the trained ritualists in the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network as one valuable resource. Most are available for one-on-one sessions, and many are willing to provide low-cost sessions to support financial accessibility.

New for this course, we are offering weekly Integration and Personal Support calls every Fridays from 3 – 4pm. Anyone who feels they might benefit from a group container dedicated to sharing experiences that have come up during the course are welcome to join. As with all calls for the course, this one will be held and guided by trained ancestral healing practitioners. The course connection spaces were also created to help participants find and offer communal contact and support.

There is no expiration on your access to the course materials and live call recordings after the course completes (only the Teaching Calls with Daniel and the Practice and Ritual Skills calls are recorded). Just log into your Ancestral Medicine account at any time in the future and you’ll be able to repeat or continue with any part of the course. Please note that those who have not completed their payment plans may have access to the course withdrawn.

We do not provide a certificate at the conclusion of the course, but some have requested such a record for professional purposes. While we are happy to provide this, such a certificate of completion would not have any official standing since our courses have not been formally approved for continuing education credits. The course is intended for personal education and enrichment, and as such, our intention is not to train people to guide ritual for others through the material presented here. 

Those who took the course in November 2021 are welcome to repeat the course and join us again for the live calls at a reduced rate. That special registration link will be emailed to you shortly after the early registration period opens, but you may contact info@ancestralmedicine.org if you did not receive the link and we can provide it. 

If you did not take Practical Animism in November but have previously participated in another full-length Ancestral Medicine course, you are entitled to a 15% discount. An email with that discount code should be sent out shortly after the registration period opens, but once again, you may reach out to us by email to receive the code. 

The early registration option of $475 USD is the best value for the course. On April 8th when regular registration begins, the cost will go up to $750 USD but with 3-month and 6-month payment plan options. In addition, there will also be sliding scale levels offered, as well as an opportunity to apply for a need-based scholarship.

If there is any reason you wish to withdraw from the course, due to a change of schedule or other circumstance, or simply because you do not resonate with the material, you have a full 30 days from the release of the first lesson to request a full refund. The very last day we will honor full refund requests is June 6th. To request a refund, simply email us at info@ancestralmedicine.org.

If you have general questions, you may find your answer in our Frequently Asked Questions page.

But we’re happy to help with any additional questions! Just reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch usually within 1-2 day.

“Daniel’s Animism online course is a chance to learn the basics of deep spiritual connection to place in a way that can be customized to your own life and location. He skillfully dodges the usual pitfalls of culturally appropriative practices. Daniel shows his students how to honor the beings and elder powers around them through direct relationships rather than borrowing another culture’s rituals. The depth of his own spiritual practice shines through his work. His wisdom is born out of personal experience and dedication. If you are looking for a doorway into a more alive and magical connection to the world around you, this course will give you many good tools.”

– Murphy R., Worcester, Vermont, USA

“Daniel is a wonderful teacher. It was wonderful to have the lectures and the live talks where people asked questions and shared concerns and difficulties. Daniel really gets this stuff. The course was super respectful of participants including, oppression and cultural issues of all kinds. Of course, our nonhuman kin was the focus. Practical Animism was a great help in feeling my way toward being right-sized and aiming for integrity despite being embedded in our problematic culture. It was great at being non-dogmatic and non-purist, while impeccably exhorting us to go deeper into relationships and find our roles in a living world with lots of troubles and complexity. The course was also packed with additional links and sources. The FAQ itself was inspired and thorough. Daniel was very responsive to questions and concerns as he did a great job fielding them with so many people. The team backed him up with responses and took care of technical stuff which was quick. I definitely recommend this course for anyone wanting to develop their animist muscles.”

– Rena K., Tel Aviv, Israel

“Incredibly timely and important work shared in this course. This course had a very accessible presentation which was deeply meaningful on many levels. Daniel’s “realness” as a teacher comes through and helps me to feel encouraged and included. As a lifelong student who has studied many approaches, this material speaks to me in a way that none else has done. I’m so grateful!”

– Victoria R., Weaverville, North Carolina, USA

“This course is an amazing way of being in relationship with the other-than-humans. The structure, resources, and pace at which the different topics are uncovered, helps one in stepping slowly but surely into the different flavors of animism. I feel more connected to my Plant Kingdom friends. Through this course, I have re-acquainted with deities who I had put aside as too linked to a specific religion. The different rituals and practices through the course helped in renewing this relationship in a more authentic way.”

– Marie M., Rathnew, Ireland

“Daniel’s continued insightful sharing along the path of awakening to earth-honoring, to ancestor awareness, to seeing the worlds of multiplicity within the one, all the while without losing the rainbow within the Light. It is an extraordinary gift to be treasured.”

– Alima S., Fairfax, California, USA