Foundations
of Ritual
Build a deep, lasting relationship with the sacred
8 Mondays beginning April 21
3pm Vancouver | 6pm NYC | 8am Sydney (22 Apr)
About the Course
Ritual is both art and discipline; instinctual and learnable. Approaches to ritual are as diverse as life itself and the only “wrong” approach is that which is untethered from love, wisdom and relationship with life.
This course is for anyone seeking to strengthen their foundational skills in ritual arts. Our approach is kind, inclusive and non-dogmatic.
Ritual is the cultivation of personal intuition and the renewal of ancestral knowledge.
– Daniel Foor
Acquire clear approaches to invocation, ritual etiquette, and honoring limits.
Learn to build rituals that are safe, protected, boundaried, and well resourced.
Explore ritual theory alongside traditions, teachings, and practices from around the globe.
Develop new approaches to ritual-building that are discerning, nourishing, and effective.
Course Overview
In this course, we take a clear-eyed look at what ritual truly is—not a performance, but a practice that shapes and is shaped by the rhythm of our lives. We do not assume a single path forward. This offering provides tools to shape a ritual practice that is personal and enduring.
Together, we’ll consider intention, etiquette, protection, invocation, trance, prayer, offering practices, and a dozen other elements from the diverse history of global ritual arts traditions. The focus is on the living relationship at the heart of ritual—how we engage, how we listen, how we make meaning.
Course materials assume no prior knowledge: for those new to ritual, the course offers a grounded place to begin. For those already practicing, it may serve as an invitation to deepen and refine. Mental health professionals, spiritual care workers, priests, and educators may find it especially relevant in their work; as may parents, those seeking an off-ramp from the rites of organized religion, and baby witches of all varieties.
The approach is rooted in relationship—we are feminist, decolonizing, antiracist, class-aware, and Earth-honoring, and we hope you are, too.
8 live teaching calls led by Ancestral Medicine Ritual Director, Shannon Willis
12 hours of pre-recorded lessons from Ancestral Medicine Founder, Daniel Foor
At least 16 opportunities to engage with substantive guided ritual practice
Carefully curated resources to accompany lessons
Lifetime access to all course materials
Access to a dedicated community discussion space
Course Curriculum
Lesson One: Introduction to Ritual in Theory and Practice
- Discuss different approaches to ritual, ceremony and spirit work
- Introduce an animist frame that emphasizes ritual as relationship
- Consider keys elements of ritual from a creative, artisan perspective
- Start to craft a basic personal ritual to explore key elements in practice
- Enjoy resources from diverse practitioners on the nature of ritual
Lesson Two: Boundaries, Protection, and Ritual Safety
- Discuss boundary practice with both living humans and spirit people
- Affirm the reality of dangerous forces and people, seen and unseen
- Learn different strategies and practices for increasing ritual safety
- Consider the role of fear in establishing safety in the seen and unseen
- Explore perspectives from different ritualists on boundaries and safety
Lesson Three: Invocation and Appealing to the Powers
- Notice parallels between invoking living humans and the spirits
- Reflect on your own ancestry for familiar styles of invocation
- Explore personal edges around voice, rejection and vulnerability
- Start to practice different styles of invocation with people in your life
- Consider examples of different styles of ritual invocation
Lesson Four: Trancework and Relational Etiquette
- Learn ways to navigate states of awareness conducive to trance
- Consider parallels with your ways of relating with the living
- Increase discernment on who is ritually helpful to relate with
- Explore what may unfold once in contact with the spirits
- Practice different, less cultivated modes of spirit contact
Lesson Five: Sustaining Intimacy and Regulating Intensity
- Learn ways to increase and nourish the level of connection
- Explore offering practices that are right for your specific life
- Identify ways to build and diminish trust with the powers
- Practice ways to ground, disengage, and decrease intensity as needed
- Consider ways that long-term relations with the powers can unfold
Lesson Six: Speech and Song, Intention and Prayer
- Deepen on the topic of clear ritual motivation and intent
- Practice skills for spontaneous, potent prayer for self and others
- Explore basics of song and vocalization in partnership with the spirits
- Consider implications and advantages of tending a basic altar/shrine
- Find ways that work for you to start to vocalize with the powers
Lesson Seven: Authenticity, Calling and Honoring Limits
- Explore the connection between spiritual power and honesty
- Learn one framework for destiny and personal soul-level gifts
- Consider strategies for getting clear on your specific destiny
- Beyond clarity, call in backing toward fulfillment of your calling
- Examine ways to know your personal place as well as your limits
Lesson Eight: Traditions, Teachers and Established Practices
- Consider pros and cons of work with teachers, traditions and practices
- Learn ways to increase good outcomes when risking involvement
- Assess for resonance with your ancestral and cultural inheritance
- Notice links between early life experiences and level of trust in teachers
- Identify next steps for deepening with your practice and learning
Register for Foundations of Ritual
3 and 6 month payment plans available at checkout at 0% interest.
Supporter
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This rate helps us make our work accessible to those with modest means and applies if you have investments, a retirement plan, and/or access to economic abundance.
Standard
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Our standard rate allows us to sustain our work. This typically applies if you’re employed in the Global North, and you’re able to provide for your needs in a consistent way.
Reduced
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This rate applies if you’re relatively less economically advantaged in the ways listed under “standard rate” or that cost is simply out of reach for you financially.
If none of these rates are accessible to you and you’re called to this work, we offer a limited number of partial scholarships.
Applications will close on Sunday, Thursday, April 17. Replies may take time due to high volume, but all replies will be sent by Friday, April 18.
This course provides an excellent foundation in safe, effective and respectful ritual. I appreciated both the theory and the practical application examples that were given. I am a minister and have done ritual before. That said, I gained a new perspective from this class. It has helped me to expand my view of ritual from something only done in spiritual practice to a way of interacting with life itself
– Joseph G., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Course Schedule
Pre-Recorded Lessons
- 8 pre-recorded lessons (90 min each) will be released in two batches
- Recorded lessons are taught by Daniel Foor
LIVE teaching calls
- 8 live weekly calls support the recorded lessons on Mondays, April 21 through June 9
- Call times are: 3pm Vancouver | 6pm NYC | 8am Sydney (Apr 22 – Jun 10), 90 min each
- Guided by Shannon Willis
Live calls support the recordings and are not duplicative. All calls will be recorded and available alongside the pre-recorded lessons.
CLASS STRUCTURE
Live calls are guided weekly by Shannon Willis for 90 minutes. This will include time for teaching, guided practice, and Q&A.
About the Instructors
Shannon Willis
Shannon is a dedicated ritualist working at the intersection of dream midwifery, psychopomp, ancestral and oracular practices. She holds a Masters in Leadership and Professional Counseling and has more than four decades of experience leading individuals, groups, and organizations through consultation and ritual. She is an initiate of Ọbàtálá and Ọ̀ṣun in the lineage of Olúwo Fálolú Adésànyà Awoyadé, a devoted student of Jhankri shamanism through the 27th generational lineage of Bhola Nath Banstola, and Ancestral Medicine’s Ritual Director. She is a descendant of settler-colonists from the British Isles, Belgium, France, freed peoples of West Africa, and indigenous Cherokee and Kaskaskia/Illini nations.
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
Pre-recorded lessons are released in two batches:-
– Lessons 1-4 will become accessible one week before the first live call
– Lessons 5-8 approximately 10 days before the fifth live call
Live Teaching Calls | 90 min | Mondays
April 21 – June 9 at 3:00pm Vancouver / 6:00pm New York / 8:00am Sydney (Tuesdays)
Timezone Converter
Call structure
– 90 minute teachings
– Includes time for guided practice and Q&A
– No break
Call 1: April 21
Call 2: April 28
Call 3: May 5
Call 4: May 12
Call 5: May 19
Call 6: May 26
Call 7: June 2
Call 8: June 9
The timing of the live calls in this course favor participants in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Thanks to our international community of learners for your understanding around the challenges of time-zone inclusivity. All who register get lifetime access to recordings, and you’re welcome to send in questions for our teaching team to answer during live calls or in written form.
Yes, indeed. Returning participants of the Foundations of Ritual online course should receive an email with a discounted rate of $140 USD – more than 50% off the standard price. You’ll receive access to all eight live calls in addition to the eight pre-recorded lessons already accessible in the previous run of the course. You should have received a coupon code via email to take advantage of this offer. If not, please email info@ancestralmedicine.org to request your past participant discount.
To the very best of our ability, yes. All Ancestral Medicine offerings seek to embody an anti-racist, feminist, LGBTQ-celebrating, decolonizing, and Earth-honoring ethic. They are also class-aware and internationally conscious. We offer a heartfelt, non-dogmatic approach that seeks to honor each participant’s unique life experiences and ancestral storylines. Resources included with each lesson favor ancestrally and geographically diverse voices, and the online Community Forum includes BIPOC, Jewish, LGBTQ, and SWANA-only discussion spaces.
Enrollment includes access to our Community Forum – an online discussion group of students past and present, including supportive members from Ancestral Medicine’s Practitioner Network and Ancestral Medicine staff. Sharing experiences, reflecting on practices, and making connections in this private online community can provide one form of support.
You can also bring questions to the instructor during live calls.
All of our lesson videos have auto-generated closed captioning, as well additional downloadable audio-only versions. If you have needs not met here, please feel free to reach out to us with suggestions at info@ancestralmedicine.org.
Should you wish to withdraw from an online course or shift your registration to a future iteration, please contact us at info@ancestralmedicine.org to request a full refund within the refund window of that specific course. For our 8-week courses, you can request a refund up to 7 days after the course start date.
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