ONLINE COURSE
Loving the Earth:
Practical Animism and Skills for Relationship
with Dr. Daniel Foor
April 27 – June 1, 2023
Our world is abundant with life other than just humans. Yet many of us were never taught how to develop direct and nourishing relationships with these wise and complex elders. Plants and animals; spirits of the land; stars and celestial bodies. What does it mean to practice loving and being loved by the Earth?
Loving the Earth is a unique offering that combines an in-depth, self-paced course – Practical Animism – with a six-week series of interactive live teaching calls with Daniel for guided integration and building relational skills.
In this course, you’ll explore teachings and practices that begin to fill in the cultural gaps for receiving healing from the Earth, living with a deeper kinship and intimacy among the many beings in your daily life. Beginners are warmly welcome.
Animism is the practice of loving and respecting our greater family; mountains and rivers, plants and animals, planets and stars.
In this course, you will
- Experience cross-cultural teachings on interdependence, sacred boundaries, and honoring the personhood and sentience of all life.
- Explore layers of culture, history, colonialism, philosophy, and religion as they inform our direct and personal experience of the Earth.
- Receive support for recognizing the Earth-honoring animist values and practices within your own ancestral lineages.
- Learn how to apply these fundamental relational skills to both your human and other-than-human relationships.
- Engage this framework within an intentional online community, where you’ll enjoy support from experienced course supporters and affinity group spaces.
Investment
About our self-select pricing model:
- Supporter rate invites folks with comfortable financial means to contribute more. Your generosity covers the cost for us to offer reduced rates.
- Standard rate is the actual cost for us to offer this program and sustain what we do. If you are able to enroll at this rate, we encourage you to do so.
- Community rate invites folks with leaner financial means to enjoy Ancestral Medicine programs at a reduced cost. *Limited availability.
- Scholarships are for people experiencing sustained hardship or from economically under-resourced communities. *Limited availability.
All levels include monthly payment options, as well!
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.
What’s Included
- A complete, 12-lesson self-paced course (Practical Animism) for you to explore the full depth of all teachings in this series.
- A six-week series of live teaching calls with Daniel, each 60-90 minutes, to integrate and enhance the course material. These calls are also recorded.
- Small-group breakout sessions during the teaching calls, facilitated by experienced practitioners. Includes optional breakouts for specific affinity groups, including BIPOC+ and LGBTQ+ folks.
- Generous collection of guided reflections and experiential practices, focused on bringing the course material into your daily life.
- 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 all course materials and recordings!
Relational Skills You Will Learn
Each of these weekly themes focuses on honing our skills for developing meaningful relationships and connections in both human and other-than-human contexts.
- Week one: Cultivating Gratitude
- Week two: Embracing Interdependence
- Week three: Honoring and Asserting Boundaries
- Week four: Valuing Diversity and Difference
- Week five: Grieving While in Connection
- Week six: Living Your Specific Medicine
About the Instructor
Daniel Foor, PhD
Dr. Foor is a licensed psychotherapist, doctor of psychology, 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 currently lives with his wife and two daughters near Granada, Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Frequently Asked Questions
The entire course of 12 pre-recorded lessons will be made available for participants immediately when they register, to explore at their own pace before our live call series begins. Note this is different from our typical live courses, which are released week by week.
Live teaching calls with Daniel followed by practitioner-led breakouts will be held on the following dates (all times are US Eastern).
- Thursday, April 27, 3:30pm
- Thursday, May 4, 3:30pm
- Thursday, May 11, 3:30pm
- Thursday, May 18, 3:30pm
- Thursday, May 25, 3:30pm
- Thursday, June 1, 3:30pm
All live teaching calls with Daniel will be recorded and made available within 24 hours.
This six-week series of live teachings supports a self-paced course that contains a total of 12 lessons.
We recommend about 90 minutes or so to engage with the pre-recorded lesson materials, plus an additional 60-90 minutes for the live teaching call with Daniel. That’s approximately three hours each week.
Each live call will cross-reference various aspects of the 12 lessons, and the specific lessons being discussed that week will be noted. However, you do not need to review each lesson in its entirety in order to join the live call that week. These notes are for your self-paced exploration later on. Please don’t let the feeling of “falling behind” keep you from joining any of the live calls or engaging in the discussion forum.
For 2023, we have made significant updates to the structure of this offering.
Our self-paced, 12-lesson foundational course – Practical Animism – is now being supported with the addition of a six-week live teaching series with Daniel. The format of this course is a “flipped classroom,” meaning participants are invited to engage with specific lessons of the material ahead of time, and join our weekly live calls about those lessons with Daniel.
We will offer two different call series in 2023, each exploring different aspects of the course:
- In April, our six-week call series is Loving the Earth.
- In September, we will offer a different six-week call series, Being the Earth.
The self-paced Practical Animism course utilized in both series is the same; the subjects and themes that Daniel will teach to during each call series will be different. The intention with this structure is to offer a deeply guided way of integrating animist teachings and relational skills into everyday life.
Participants who join us in April will also be able to sign up just for the new call series in September, as well. (see below.)
Past participants of our Practical Animism course will receive an email with a special discount. If you do not receive this email by March 2, 2023, please email info@ancestralmedicine.org to request the link to register at this discounted price.
Participants joining us in April for Loving the Earth will also receive a special invitation to join us in September for the next six-week call series, Being the Earth, at a discounted rate.
Details for joining the 30-minute affinity-based breakouts and online discussion spaces are provided after registration. Experienced course supporters who also identify with that affinity group will anchor these spaces. We ask folks to mindfully self-select for participation, as best meets your identities and how you wish to be supported.
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 those available. Details on affinity spaces, their intentions, and criteria for participation can be found here.
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.
