ONLINE COURSE
Ancestral Lineage Healing
Practices for Personal and Cultural Transformation
with Dr. Daniel Foor and guest teachers
Begins February 3, 2024
We’re never truly alone, in our joy or in our struggles. The practice of learning how to connect with our ancestors – to really speak to them and understand their wisdom – reveals this to us. Join us and remember how to listen and to trust.
Through inclusive, well-crafted teachings and guided practices, explore living in conscious relationship with the many generations who came before you. The course is appropriate both for beginners and those with years of experience in the terrain of family and ancestral healing.
Registration includes 12 pre-recorded lessons and access to an additional 12 live teachings with Dr. Daniel Foor, author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Cultural Healing, and Shannon Willis, Ancestral Medicine’s Practitioner Network Ritual Director (her bio is below).
Weekly calls supplement the recorded lessons and dive deeper into each lesson’s themes. You’re encouraged to keep pace week-by-week and welcome to move through the course at whatever pace best suits your schedule. There’s no requirement to attend the live calls, but it is an opportunity to interact and ask questions in real time with a diverse, international community.
* please note, the video refers to 14 lessons, but the most current course is 12.
In this course you will
Learn a
five-step framework
Learn a five-step framework for safely engaging with your blood ancestors and for partnering with elder guides to heal your family lineages.
Acquire
new ritual
skills
Acquire important skills through 12 live teachings guided by Daniel and other experienced ritualists in the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network
Establish
boundaries
with the ghosts
Affirm and maintain clear boundaries for ritual and psychological safety. Engage in lineage healing in nourishing, trauma-aware, and sustainable ways.
Join a diverse, international community
Enjoy learning and guided practice in an international community, where you can honor your own pace and enjoy support from experienced practitioners.
Build deep relationships with your ancestors
Internalize and make use of simple, effective practices to sustain a lifetime of potent and nourishing connection with your personal lineage ancestors.
Curriculum
Lessons emphasize psychological, cultural, and energetic safety and move through the foundational steps of the Ancestral Lineage Healing method.
Live calls, held each week, are followed by small-group breakouts with practitioners. These calls parallel and complement pre-recorded lessons and emphasize building ritual skills in areas that both nourish your ancestral reconnection practice and support relational wellness in everyday life.
One
Lesson 1: Foundations of Ancestor Reverence
- Explore the animist and cross-cultural basis of ancestor reverence
- Learn the origins and framework for this approach to lineage healing
- Address ritual safety and differences between ancestors and ghosts
- Consider family inquiry, DNA ancestry tests, and historical research
- Enjoy resources on animism, ancestor reverence, and family research
Topic of the live call in week one: Intuitive and Historical Honesty
Two
Lesson 2: Assessment of Four Blood Lineages
- Assess the current condition of four of your ancestral lineages
- Establish any necessary boundaries for you and your family
- Explore ways to trust your intuition and reclaim direct knowing
- Determine the focus of your ancestral repair work
- Enjoy resources on epigenetics, psychology, and epistemology
Topic of the live call in week two: Boundaries and Ritual Safety
Three
Lesson 3: Contacting Ancestral Guides
- Learn a framework for sustained connection with older ancestors
- Safely seek direct connection with wise and kind ancestral guides
- Invite blessings and support for your life from these ancestral elders
- Explore ways to nurture and expand into new ancestral connections
- Enjoy resources on West and Central African ancestral traditions
Topic of the live call in week three: Trusting Intuition and Direct Knowing
Four
Lesson 4: Deepening with Lineage Elders
- Learn about offering practices and ways to tend an ancestral altar
- Expand into spirit-guided historical inquiry and cultural recovery
- Practice attuning, listening, and following the lead of the lineage elders
- Ask the guides to surround the generations between in healing prayer
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in Celtic cultures and Ireland
Topic of the live call in week four: Altar Tending and Feeding Relationships
Five
Lesson 5: Ancestral Blessings and Burdens
- Learn to conceptualize, identify, and transform ancestral legacies
- Consider six major types of cultural trouble and their antidotes
- Seek understanding from the ancestors on lineage gifts and burdens
- Embody blessings and transform burdens with ancestral support
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in Mayan and Nahua cultures
Topic of the live call in week five: Aligning with What is Healing
Six
Lesson 6: Assisting Older Lineage Ancestors
- Explore causes of ancestral wounding and pathways for healing
- Support as needed in the ancestralization of older lineage ancestors
- Practice allowing the guides to oversee and enact the healing
- Reinforce previous steps and focus on stoking what feeds life
- Enjoy resources on ancestral traditions in China, Mongolia, and Korea
Topic of the live call in week six: Deepening Trust in the Sacred
Seven
Lesson 7: Grieving and Forgiveness
- Consider the importance and benefits of grieving for and with the dead
- Practice regulating the intensity of collective ancestrally infused states
- Seek to balance emotional courage, cultural awareness, and ritual safety
- Partner with the ancestors for potent grieving and forgiveness practices
- Enjoy resources on prehistoric ancestors and others in the genus Homo
Topic of the live call in week seven: Welcoming Strong Emotion
Eight
Lesson 8: Assisting the Recent Dead
- Learn important differences when assisting more recent generations
- Invite the guides to intervene on behalf of recent generations in need
- Reinforce safety protocols in cases of serious lineage disturbance
- Reflect on tales of trouble and healing from this stage of the process
- Enjoy resources on LGBTQ+ ancestors and diverse types of families
Topic of the live call in week eight: Inviting Big Shifts and Healing
Nine
Lesson 9: Tending the Bones
- Learn a framework and additional protocols for worst-case scenarios
- Explore ways to support lineage ancestors to shift from well to vibrant
- Consider the ongoing relationship of the ancestors to this dimension
- Practice caring for remains, ancestral objects, and inheritances
- Enjoy resources on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Mormonism
Topic of the live call in week nine: Caring for the Body and Physical
Ten
Lesson 10: Embodying Ancestral Blessings
- Consider the impacts of ancestral wounding and healing on living relatives
- Invite the guides to bring healing and goodness to your extended family
- Request physical healing and optimizing of your blood, bones, and DNA
- Embody lineage blessings and pray with the ancestors for your relations
- Enjoy resources on decolonization and select Indigenous traditions
Topic of the live call in week ten: Becoming the Face of Your Ancestors
Eleven
Lesson 11: Harmonizing the Lineages
- Learn new ways to celebrate well and healed ancestral lineages
- Reflect on personal shifts with respect to family, identity, and purpose
- Consider a ritual dedication to care for family ancestral wellness
- Practice the harmonization of multiple well lineages if possible
- Enjoy resources on ancestral traditions of Europe and North Africa
Topic of the live call in week eleven: Embracing Complexity and Nuance
Twelve
Lesson 12: Pathways for Deepening
- Learn ways to safely engage other-than-blood family ancestors
- Consider blood ancestors in conversation with ancestors of place
- Review pathways for cultural healing and tangible acts of repair
- Practice engaging ancestors of vocation or other shared identities
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in popular culture
Topic of the live call in week twelve: Grounding Changes in Daily Life
Lesson 1: Foundations of Ancestor Reverence
- Explore the animist and cross-cultural basis of ancestor reverence
- Learn the origins and framework for this approach to lineage healing
- Address ritual safety and differences between ancestors and ghosts
- Consider family inquiry, DNA ancestry tests, and historical research
- Enjoy resources on animism, ancestor reverence, and family research
Topic of the live call in week one: Intuitive and Historical Honesty
Lesson 2: Assessment of Four Blood Lineages
- Assess the current condition of four of your ancestral lineages
- Establish any necessary boundaries for you and your family
- Explore ways to trust your intuition and reclaim direct knowing
- Determine the focus of your ancestral repair work
- Enjoy resources on epigenetics, psychology, and epistemology
Topic of the live call in week two: Boundaries and Ritual Safety
Lesson 3: Contacting Ancestral Guides
- Learn a framework for sustained connection with older ancestors
- Safely seek direct connection with wise and kind ancestral guides
- Invite blessings and support for your life from these ancestral elders
- Explore ways to nurture and expand into new ancestral connections
- Enjoy resources on West and Central African ancestral traditions
Topic of the live call in week three: Trusting Intuition and Direct Knowing
Lesson 4: Deepening with Lineage Elders
- Learn about offering practices and ways to tend an ancestral altar
- Expand into spirit-guided historical inquiry and cultural recovery
- Practice attuning, listening, and following the lead of the lineage elders
- Ask the guides to surround the generations between in healing prayer
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in Celtic cultures and Ireland
Topic of the live call in week four: Altar Tending and Feeding Relationships
Lesson 5: Ancestral Blessings and Burdens
- Learn to conceptualize, identify, and transform ancestral legacies
- Consider six major types of cultural trouble and their antidotes
- Seek understanding from the ancestors on lineage gifts and burdens
- Embody blessings and transform burdens with ancestral support
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in Mayan and Nahua cultures
Topic of the live call in week five: Aligning with What is Healing
Lesson 6: Assisting Older Lineage Ancestors
- Explore causes of ancestral wounding and pathways for healing
- Support as needed in the ancestralization of older lineage ancestors
- Practice allowing the guides to oversee and enact the healing
- Reinforce previous steps and focus on stoking what feeds life
- Enjoy resources on ancestral traditions in China, Mongolia, and Korea
Topic of the live call in week six: Deepening Trust in the Sacred
Lesson 7: Grieving and Forgiveness
- Consider the importance and benefits of grieving for and with the dead
- Practice regulating the intensity of collective ancestrally infused states
- Seek to balance emotional courage, cultural awareness, and ritual safety
- Partner with the ancestors for potent grieving and forgiveness practices
- Enjoy resources on prehistoric ancestors and others in the genus Homo
Topic of the live call in week seven: Welcoming Strong Emotion
Lesson 8: Assisting the Recent Dead
- Learn important differences when assisting more recent generations
- Invite the guides to intervene on behalf of recent generations in need
- Reinforce safety protocols in cases of serious lineage disturbance
- Reflect on tales of trouble and healing from this stage of the process
- Enjoy resources on LGBTQ+ ancestors and diverse types of families
Topic of the live call in week eight: Inviting Big Shifts and Healing
Lesson 9: Tending the Bones
- Learn a framework and additional protocols for worst-case scenarios
- Explore ways to support lineage ancestors to shift from well to vibrant
- Consider the ongoing relationship of the ancestors to this dimension
- Practice caring for remains, ancestral objects, and inheritances
- Enjoy resources on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Mormomism
Topic of the live call in week nine: Caring for the Body and Physical
Lesson 10: Embodying Ancestral Blessings
- Consider the impacts of ancestral wounding and healing on living relatives
- Invite the guides to bring healing and goodness to your extended family
- Request physical healing and optimizing of your blood, bones, and DNA
- Embody lineage blessings and pray with the ancestors for your relations
- Enjoy resources on decolonization and select Indigenous traditions
Topic of the live call in week ten: Becoming the Face of Your Ancestors
Lesson 11: Harmonizing the Lineages
- Learn new ways to celebrate well and healed ancestral lineages
- Reflect on personal shifts with respect to family, identity, and purpose
- Consider a ritual dedication to care for family ancestral wellness
- Practice the harmonization of multiple well lineages if possible
- Enjoy resources on ancestral traditions of Europe and North Africa
Topic of the live call in week eleven: Embracing Complexity and Nuance
Lesson 12: Pathways for Deepening
- Learn ways to safely engage other-than-blood family ancestors
- Consider blood ancestors in conversation with ancestors of place
- Review pathways for cultural healing and tangible acts of repair
- Practice engaging ancestors of vocation or other shared identities
- Enjoy resources on ancestor reverence in popular culture
Topic of the live call in week twelve: Grounding Changes in Daily Life
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 our pricing reflect global economic disparities and historical wealth imbalances. The system is designed for those with more resources to support those with less, considering factors like financial responsibilities, wealth, income prospects, historical discrimination, and local socio-economic conditions.
Price
-
This is the standard cost that allows us to offer this program and sustain our work.
Other Pricing Options
Supporter
-
This rate invites folks with comfortable means to contribute more. Your generosity allows us to offer reduced rates.
Community
-
This rate invites folks with more modest means to enjoy our programs at a reduced cost. *Limited availability.
Scholarship
-
Scholarships are for those experiencing hardship or from economically under-resourced areas. *Limited availability.
Money-back guarantee
If you’re not satisfied with the course after having engaged at least one lesson, we will grant you a full refund within 30 days of the beginning of the course.
If the sliding scale prices and payment plans listed above are beyond your financial means, we have a limited number of reserve scholarships. Read and fill out the form below to be considered. Applications will close on August 11, 2023.
Apply for a reserve scholarship.
The application for our Reserve Scholarship has closed. The scholarship-supported price listed above is available without an application and is in limited supply.
Contact info@ancestralmedicine.org if you have any questions.
What’s Included
- Weekly live teaching calls with Daniel, each 60-90 minutes. These calls are also recorded.
- Small-group breakout sessions during the teaching calls, facilitated by experienced practitioners. Includes optional affinity space breakouts for BIPOC+, Black, LGBTQ+ and Jewish participants.
- Six additional support calls, each guided by experienced ritualists, specifically designed for integrating course material and practicing ritual skills.
- Course workbook to chart your path over these 12 weeks and beyond.
- Extensive course resources offering multicultural perspectives from around the world.
- Access to our private Community Forum, where you can interact with Ancestral Medicine staff, course supporters, and fellow learners.
- Lifetime access to course materials.
About the Instructors
Daniel Foor, PhD
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. Learn More
Shannon Willis
Shannon is a dedicated ritualist working at the intersection of dream midwifery, psychopomping, ancestral reverence and oracularship. She founded the Centre for Ritual and Reverence, where she devotes her passion to helping others navigate the complexities of being in service in the seen and unseen realms. She is a student and devotee as an initiate of Ọbàtálá, and Ọ̀ṣun, in the lineage of Olúwo Fálolú Adésànyà Awoyadé, and of Nepali shamanism under the tutelage of Bhola Nath Banstola. As a certified practitioner and teacher of Ancestral Lineage Healing, she also is the Ritual Director for the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network. Learn more
Frequently Asked Questions
This course runs February 3 – April 22. Pre-recorded lessons will be released weekly on Saturdays at 12:00am US Eastern, beginning February 3, 2024.
Live teaching calls led by Daniel, Shannnon, and other teachers will be held weekly on Mondays at 3:30pm US Eastern starting February 5. These calls will also include small-group breakouts facilitated by trained supporters. Participants will have the option to join affinity space breakouts during these calls for BIPOC, Black, LGBTQ+, and Jewish folks.
Teaching Calls:
- Opening Ritual with Daniel: February 5
- February 12, 19, 26
- March 4, 11, 18, 25
- April 1, 8, 15, 22
Practice and Ritual Skills Calls: These are hosted by Shannon Willlis every other week.
- Dates will be announced as we draw closer to the event.
All live teaching calls with Daniel will be recorded. These calls focus on the core content of the course and will generally reference the most recent lessons released. The Practice and Ritual Support calls guided by Shannon Willis offer time for specific questions and support and will also be recorded. All recordings will be made available within the course portal.
This is a 12-week course. Each pre-recorded lesson requires approximately 90 minutes per week and the weekly calls with Daniel and course supporters are an additional 60-90 minutes. The optional practice and ritual skills calls every other week are for one hour. Lessons are sequenced in an intentional way, so it’s recommended to create time for yourself to follow the lessons in order.
That said, the emphasis of this course is ritual skill building to support your daily life and practice well beyond these 12 weeks. So don’t let the feeling of “falling behind” keep you from joining the calls or enjoying the community, course material and resources. There aren’t goals to hit within this course; the lineage repair process simply needs space and time to unfold.
In early 2023 we made significant updates to the structure of Ancestral Lineage Healing. The heart of the material is the same, but the outcomes and learning objectives are more clear. There is a new focus on building and sustaining broadly applicable ritual skills. We have also streamlined the number of additional calls, both to make engagement more sustainable and to improve our staffing capacity. With these changes, we’re also able to offer this course at a more accessible price.
If you have taken Ancestral Lineage Healing before and are interested in this updated version, we think you’ll enjoy the focus on skill building and improved sustainable engagement with the course.
Support for these four groups include private discussion forums and 30-minute small group breakout spaces after the main teaching calls each week. Experienced course supporters who are familiar with the curriculum of Ancestral Lineage Healing and also identify with that affinity group will anchor these spaces. Details on affinity spaces, their intentions, and criteria for participation can be found here.
We ask folks to mindfully self-select for participation in these spaces, as best meets your identities and the communities within which you wish to be supported during this course. You’re welcome to participate as often or as little as you wish. There’s also no pressure to opt in.
We recognize there are many other affinity space interests. We encourage participants to self-organize through the private course connection space if interested in forming groups beyond the four available. In the event that there is not sufficient interest or we are missing a course supporter, it’s possible for some calls that only 2-3 of these spaces will be available (e.g., the BIPOC and Black-only spaces may at times be consolidated in the BIPOC space).
While the course and the lineage repair process are designed with ritual safety and self-paced practice in mind, this tender journey with your ancestors can bring up challenging emotions. If at any point in this course you feel overwhelmed, consider starting with participation in the Practice and Ritual Skills call.
Please also consider reaching out to someone in the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network for one-on-one support and guidance. Most are available for private individualized sessions, and many offer low-cost sessions to support financial accessibility.
Returning participants to the Ancestral Lineage Healing course will receive an email with a special discount. If you do not receive this email by July 1, please email info@ancestralmedicine.org to request the link to register at this discounted price.
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.
