Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensive
Palermo, Sicily
February 17-21, 2025
About the work
Ancestral lineage healing is the practice of relating directly with one’s blood ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing. It involves safely establishing relationships with wise and well ancestors and enlisting their participation to deeply heal your lineages as they speak through your life today.
If you’ve participated in various kinds of personal healing work and you’re seeking greater breakthroughs, ancestral healing may be for you. This approach weaves helpful elements from psychology, cultural healing, and spiritual/ritual traditions. Patterns rooted in intergenerational cycles and cultural pain can finally find resolution. Coming into relationship with recent and more ancient ancestors can serve to re-establish obscured blessings, improve relationships with the living, and encourage clarity of purpose.
At Ancestral Medicine, we offer this work in a variety of forms—through our 12-lesson online course, Ancestral Lineage Healing, in one-on-one work with a trained practitioner, with the book, or by coming to an In-Person Intensive like this. These in-person gatherings were how we got our start in 2005 and Daniel has guided well over 100 of these intensives in the past 18 years. After the organization moved largely online during the pandemic, we’re now back to offering several per year around the world.
About the location
With over 15,000 years of continuous human inhabitation, Palermo remains a vibrant crossroads of diverse Mediterranean cultures. Phoenecians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, French, and others have claimed rule over the millenia, and each have contributed to the rich Italian and distinctly Sicilian cultural heritage and magic.
The Sicily we think of today got its start around 700 BCE, and many of those ancient stones are still visible and walkable today. Once a Phoenician outpost, now a melting pot of Norman, Byzantine, and Arab influences, Palermo is a testament to resilience and cultural fusion. The Palermo Cathedral and serene Monte Pellegrino offer vistas and spiritual solace. Bustling markets are awaft with the scent of arancini and sfincione, and every corner reveals a story, from the grand Teatro Massimo to the Baroque beauty of Quattro Canti. Amidst the mosaic of tradition and modernity, Palermo is an ideal backdrop for an ancestral healing retreat.
The weather in Palermo in February is typically lovely and fresh, akin to a UK springtime. Average daily temperature is 13°C (about 55°F) with highs around 15°C (around 59°F) and lows around 11°C (about 52°F). Rain is unlikely, but you never know. In general, February is still considered off-season in Sicily, and so it’s a great time to visit as prices all over are lower than usual, and few to no crowds can be expected at popular tourist destinations.
Logistics
Registration includes lodging, meals and snacks, and five full days of ritual. Prices do not include travel to or from the venue or any extras like room or spa services.
The Venue: We’ll gather at Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa in Palermo’s historical center. The venue was previously the center of the Sicilian stock market and prior to that, it was a convent!
Accommodations: Your rate is fully inclusive of single occupancy rooms with private bathrooms and air conditioning for the full duration of the event from February 17-21. The best way to get a sense of the space will be to explore the hotel website. You’ll likely be placed in what the hotel calls “executive rooms”.
Ritual Space: We’ll gather for dedicated time in group ritual for five days. About seven hours per day over three full days (approximately 10:00 – 18:30 with pauses for meals and other breaks) with shorter gatherings on the first and last day of the intensive. Ritual space will be within the hotel.
Meals: Your rate is fully inclusive of three meals per day served on site on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Monday’s dinner is included in the price as well as Friday’s breakfast and a light lunch before departure. Vegetarians and other dietary restrictions will be generously accommodated. We’ll take spacious lunch breaks each day.
Price: The price is €2,350 or approximately $2510 USD. Fees will be paid in euros. Some modest scholarships are available, especially for Sicilians, and we can also try to open a few non-residential spaces for Palermo locals who can demonstrate that you truly live in Palermo. We typically offer abundant scholarship options, but for all-inclusive residential events that include meals and lodging and that have limited seats in circle, reductions are more challenging.
Un benvenuto ai parlanti di italiano
Rispettiamo il fatto che questo incontro si realizza in terre di lingua italiana e siciliana e ci proponiamo di riunirci in modi che siano culturalmente umili, che onorino la terra e che siano veramente inclusivi.
Anche se l’incontro sarà tenuto in inglese, siamo in grado di procurare una traduzione dal vivo (interpretazione sussurrata) in italiano per i partecipanti che ne hanno bisogno, e uno dei nostri dedicati sostenitori rituali parlera’ italiano. In questo modo, cerchiamo di rendere l’incontro accessibile agli italiani, anche se sarà utile parlare almeno un po’ di inglese.
Abbiamo anche alcuni spazi a costo ridotto specificamente per i partecipanti di Palermo, per i siciliani e per gli italiani, in quest’ordine di priorità. Vi preghiamo di rivolgere qualsiasi domanda in inglese o in italiano al nostro team e faremo del nostro meglio per aiutarvi. Grazie mille!
We respect that this gathering is taking place in Italian and Sicilian-speaking lands, and we aim to gather in ways that are culturally humble, honoring of the land, and truly inclusive.
Although the gathering will be taught in English, we are able to make live whisper translation available in Italian for participants who need this to participate, and one of our dedicated ritual supporters will be an Italian speaker. In this way, we seek for the gathering to be language accessible to Italians, even though it will be useful to speak at least some English.
We also have some cost-reduced spaces specifically for participants from Palermo, for Sicilians, and for Italians in that order of priority. Please direct any question in English or Italian to our team, and we will do our very best to be of help. Thanks so much!
Register for the Palermo Event
Our partners at Souliology are managing registration for this event. To confirm your place, please head over to their website. We hope to see you in Palermo!
What to expect during session
In this five-day intensive, you can expect a dynamic learning environment that’s a mix of teaching, ritual, and conversation.
A Five-step
Framework
Learn a life-long framework to relate in direct, safe, and empowering ways with your family and lineage ancestors.
Experiential Practices
Engage in experiential practices to make connections with ancestral guides and teachers and learn to partner with those guides for personal and family healing.
Different Ways
to Learn
Enjoy a nurturing blend of teaching, direct practice with your ancestors, and inclusive space for group dialogue and exchange.
Group
Ritual
Explore ways to join with your ancestors to support the resolution of larger systemic, generational, and cultural wounding within the supportive vessel of group ritual.
Tangible
Offerings
Make tangible offerings of healing and beauty for your ancestors and for the larger prayer of cultural and Earth healing.
Our shared time is guided in ways that are psychologically grounded, ritually safe, and culturally inclusive. All teachings and practices are led by Daniel and a team of trained ritual supporters. Those new to ancestor work, adoptees, and folks with a tough experience of family and culture are warmly welcome.
Daniel Foor
Daniel is a doctor of psychology, experienced ritualist, and the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. He is an initiate in the Òrìṣà tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has learned from teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and the older ways of his English and German ancestors. Daniel is passionate about training aspiring leaders and change makers in the intersections of cultural healing, animist ethics, and applied ritual arts. He lives with his wife and two daughters near Granada, Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Frequently Asked Questions
We gather each day, Monday through Friday. Monday’s session will begin around 14:00. Tuesday through Thursday, we’ll gather for a full seven hours from 10:00-13:30 and 15:30-18:30 with shorter mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks and a spacious two-hour lunch break. On Friday, we’ll have a morning session followed by a light lunch and departures.
Our shared time each day will consist of four teachings in the main space with smaller group practice sessions of roughly 90 minutes each, two before lunch and two after.
These sessions are a blend of teaching, direct visioning and trance work (often with drumming), sharing in small break-out groups anchored by trained supporters, main group dialogue, and other elements of ancestor-focused ritual, such as offering practice, song, and prayer. There are no prerequisites, however prior experience with ritual and personal healing are helpful.
The lineage healing intensive closely follows the first nine chapters of Daniel’s book, Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. You can expect to connect and partner with ancestral guides to support any among the dead still in need of assistance. Our signature online course Ancestral Lineage Healing also follows the steps of the lineage healing process, and these are the fundamental steps that practitioners are trained to guide in individual session work.
The process itself originated from years of in-person events, and there is an alchemy to multi-day group ritual that is unlike any of the other approaches to the work.
It’s important to note that the lineage healing intensive is fundamentally different from the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Training. Participants at intensives learn life-long skills for personally accessing ancestral support. However, this five-day intensive is not a substitute for the nearly year-long professional training that practitioners undertake in how to guide this work for others.
At Ancestral Medicine, accessibility of all kinds is a core value. We generally offer abundant scholarships and cost reductions, and with residential all-inclusive gatherings (like this one, at a nice hotel in Palermo) we’re a bit more limited in how many reduced-cost spaces we’re able to offer. Our costs also include all meals and lodging, which is well over half of the total cost of the event. We also have a limited number of seats in circle as the ritual space is on the smaller side. All this comes into play.
That said, we have reserved a number of reduced cost residential spaces reserved mostly for Sicilians. We also hope to offer another few non-residential spaces for folks who can demonstrate they live in Palermo and won’t need to stay at the hotel. Thanks for your understanding about these constraints. For a more economical in-person intensive experience, consider a non-residential option like Belfast (2024), Barcelona (2025) or Sarajevo (2025).
About bodies: The space is well-lit, clean, spacious, and wheelchair accessible. Our core values and ethics affirm full inclusivity for people of diverse genders, ancestries, religious orientations, and other factors that can lead to exclusion and harm.
About language: The intensive will be guided in English with options for small breakout groups led by a supporter who is fluent in Italian. In the main group space, we intend to provide “whisper translation” if needed for Italian speakers and we need to know in advance how many actually need this as full translation requires preparation from our side. We are committed to this offering being accessible to Italian speakers and realistically it will be an English-dominant space so Italian speakers will derive greater benefit if they have at least some English capacity. We will also have fluent speakers of German, Spanish, and Bulgarian present.
This approach is experiential, rooted in an ethic of kindness, and welcoming to people of diverse ancestries and any spiritual background (or lack thereof). Consistent with our organizational core values, intensives are rooted in feminist, decolonizing, anti-racist, LGBTQ-friendly, class-aware, Earth-honoring ethics.
We seek to embody these values in ways that are non-dogmatic, warm-hearted, and encouraging of the vulnerability that supports depth ritual work.
Participants work directly with their own lineage ancestors, and are not expected to hold space for others beyond showing up in a mindful way during group shares. Attendees work alongside one another, each in their own space and personal process.
Each intensive also weaves in explicit respect and healing for the histories of place. With respect to the specific history of Italy, Sicily, and Palermo, we firmly oppose any form of ancestral supremacy, fascism, anti-immigrant sentiment, or ethnonationalism while welcoming historical honesty and acts of healing and repair for past and present troubles. Participants descended from ancestors who have both enacted and experienced major harm are all warmly welcome.
Participants can expect an in-depth experience and should be personally well resourced. In addition to the lead teaching from Dr. Foor, there will be at least five ritual supporters from the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network, at least one of whom is fluent in Italian and another in German. Even with the care from a coordinated and culturally welcoming team, when guiding a group ritual over five days, there are still limitations to the level of individualized support we will be able to provide.
If you have doubts about whether the intensive is a good container for your depth work, be in dialogue with the team beforehand. The intensive is not a substitute for personal therapy or physical medicines.
In addition to the in-person support during the time of the intensive, many participants find working with an individual practitioner to be beneficial. To connect with practitioners or practitioners-in-training, see this link for the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Directory. The network includes options for different language needs, low income sessions, and other specializations.
This event is being managed by our partners at Souliology. Please reach out to them to inquire about refunds or other registration details. Thanks!
We’d be happy to help with any additional questions! Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org with your question and someone from our team will be in touch, usually within two business days.
That said, this particular retreat is being organizations by our friends and colleagues at Souliology and so if it’s about reservations, accomodations, food, etc. then they’re likely the best to ask.
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