ON-DEMAND COURSE
Initiations: A Life of Ritual
Practices for Living and Dying
with Dr. Daniel Foor
Learn practices to transform a lifetime of experience into wisdom and presence.
Most people on Earth are no longer raised with robust community rituals and rites of passage. This leads to uninitiated adults, not yet prepared to meet life’s ordeals in creative, empowered, and meaningful ways. In turn this becomes a generational disconnection that causes suffering and erosion of healthy community.
This foundational course provides guidance and practices to integrate the wisdom of religious/spiritual systems with teachings from developmental psychology, stages of consciousness models, and anti-oppressive approaches to cultural change.
This offering is organized around the stages and seasons of a human life: conception, adolescence, adulthood, elderhood as they mirror the cycles of one Earth revolution through spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
We don’t seek to recreate a romanticized vision of village life or an idealized past; we’ll situate the essential elements of ritual in the demands of modern life with the belief that these skills are accessible and learnable.
Find the next steps of your path at the intersection of psychology, ritual arts, and cultural healing.
We enter the world through the gateway of initiation. From our birth until our return to the ancestors, we’re invited–and at times confronted–with opportunities to develop our character and to live from greater courage and presence.
How well we’re able to meet the demands of life’s challenges will determine the impact on our soul from this Earth journey as well as the impact we have on others. These moments craft the ledger of our precious life and demand container, reverence, reflection. Ritual arts provide useful forms, vessels, and meaning to convert life’s most demanding moments into beneficial perspective and compassion.
All you need to bring to this course is yourself. At the end of these twelve sessions, you’ll be more supported in the art of converting the raw material of your life into potent wisdom, compassion, and presence.
Those new to spiritual practice are warmly welcome, and the course aims to also be of substance and benefit for those with decades of experience in personal healing and ritual arts.
Curriculum
One
Lesson One: Infancy, Voice, and Invocation
- Explore sacred aspects of conception, birth, and early childhood
- Consider the role of language and culture in early development
- Focus on the ritual skills of prayer, song, appeal, and invocation
- Learn tangible ways to utilize and strengthen invocation practices
- Enjoy resources on stages of consciousness and early childhood
Two
Lesson Two: Childhood, Boundaries, and Safety
- Explore key developmental milestones and challenges of childhood
- Gently reflect on your early life in light of your personal boundaries today
- Affirm connections between physical, psychological, and spiritual safety
- Learn effective practices for establishing ritual safety and boundaries
- Enjoy resources on animism, childhood, and ritual for young people
Three
Lesson Three: Embodiment, Pleasure, and Being Whole
- Explore the mysteries of incarnation and embodiment over a lifespan
- Affirm body, sex, and pleasure positivity in support of embodiment
- Reflect on remedies for the fragmentation of soul, power, and psyche
- Engage in practices to welcome back and celebrate aspects of self
- Enjoy resources on non-duality, embodiment, and cultivating presence
Four
Lesson Four: Adolescence, Courage, and Calling
- Consider youth rites of passage connected to the ability to call in new life
- Explore connections between accountability and accessing guidance
- Reflect on experiences with authority and connection to authentic power
- Practice ways to directly access reliable spiritual guidance and support
- Enjoy resources on youth rites of passage and ethical development
Five
Lesson Five: Early Adulthood, Devotion, and Feeding Life
- Explore love and devotion as foundational to spiritual development
- Learn ways to intentionally cultivate heart courage and tenderness
- Reflect on the healing power of relationships, human and otherwise
- Enact love and devotion by learning tangible, ritual offering practices
- Enjoy poetry, art, and other resources on devotion and the sacred
Six
Lesson Six: Limitation, Sorrow, and Choosing Love
- Consider how little we control and the sacred functions of pain and limitation
- Explore impacts of personal loss and tragedy on soul-level development
- Reflect on the courage required to choose compassion over resentment
- Practice ritual skills to receive, regulate, and metabolize grief and sorrow
- Enjoy resources on lament, heartache, and love in response to suffering
Seven
Lesson Seven: Midlife, Destiny, and Cleaning House
- Explore pragmatic frameworks for awakening and adult development
- Reflect on the process of clarifying, accepting, and living personal destiny
- Learn ways to identify and resolve blocks to more authentic expression
- Practice safely communing with and incorporating benevolent forces
- Enjoy resources on physical embodiment and communion with the powers
Eight
Lesson Eight: Early Elderhood, Warriorship, and Legacy
- Consider the myriad of challenges that follow from embracing destiny
- Learn about hazards, ritual protection, and the need to guard legacy
- Assess your current level of risk and willingness to address concerns
- Practice partnering with supportive powers to increase ritual protection
- Enjoy resources on evil, malice, self-defense, and sacred warriorship
Nine
Lesson Nine: Power, Reckoning, and Making Amends
- Reflect on meanings and right uses of both worldly and spiritual power
- Consider the benefits of courageously facing any unresolved wounding
- Learn ways to honestly assess your life and make any needed repairs
- Practice calling back personal power from past mistakes and traumas
- Enjoy resources on power, imperfection, and responsible leadership
Ten
Lesson Ten: Elderhood, Humility, and Mending the World
- Consider elder rites of passage and pathways for ongoing cultivation
- Affirm the power and importance of joy, levity, play, and irreverence
- Learn to anchor identity to more stable ancestral and ecological sources
- Ritually turn toward and recommit to alleviating the suffering of the world
- Enjoy resources on elderhood rites of passage and responsibilities
Eleven
Lesson Eleven: Eclipse, Dying, and Becoming Ancestor
- Explore death of the body as a rite of passage to becoming ancestor
- Learn ways to further support ego death before physical death
- Continue to soften unhelpful binaries and to access unitive states
- Practice steady communion with elder forces for more effective service
- Enjoy resources on the ancestralization process and post-death journey
Twelve
Lesson Twelve: Awakening, Wisdom, and Becoming What Is
- Explore teachings on consciousness after dying and becoming an ancestor
- Learn pragmatic ways to prioritize soul cultivation over the lifespan
- Reflect on your life through the long view of increasing love and wisdom
- Practice experiencing personal center as opening to the ground of being
- Enjoy resources on the far reaches of human development and potential
Lesson One: Infancy, Voice, and Invocation
- Explore sacred aspects of conception, birth, and early childhood
- Consider the role of language and culture in early development
- Focus on the ritual skills of prayer, song, appeal, and invocation
- Learn tangible ways to utilize and strengthen invocation practices
- Enjoy resources on stages of consciousness and early childhood
Lesson Two: Childhood, Boundaries, and Safety
- Explore key developmental milestones and challenges of childhood
- Gently reflect on your early life in light of your personal boundaries today
- Affirm connections between physical, psychological, and spiritual safety
- Learn effective practices for establishing ritual safety and boundaries
- Enjoy resources on animism, childhood, and ritual for young people
Lesson Three: Embodiment, Pleasure, and Being Whole
- Explore the mysteries of incarnation and embodiment over a lifespan
- Affirm body, sex, and pleasure positivity in support of embodiment
- Reflect on remedies for the fragmentation of soul, power, and psyche
- Engage in practices to welcome back and celebrate aspects of self
- Enjoy resources on non-duality, embodiment, and cultivating presence
Lesson Four: Adolescence, Courage, and Calling
- Consider youth rites of passage connected to the ability to call in new life
- Explore connections between accountability and accessing guidance
- Reflect on experiences with authority and connection to authentic power
- Practice ways to directly access reliable spiritual guidance and support
- Enjoy resources on youth rites of passage and ethical development
Lesson Five: Early Adulthood, Devotion, and Feeding Life
- Explore love and devotion as foundational to spiritual development
- Learn ways to intentionally cultivate heart courage and tenderness
- Reflect on the healing power of relationships, human and otherwise
- Enact love and devotion by learning tangible, ritual offering practices
- Enjoy poetry, art, and other resources on devotion and the sacred
Lesson Six: Limitation, Sorrow, and Choosing Love
- Consider how little we control and the sacred functions of pain and limitation
- Explore impacts of personal loss and tragedy on soul-level development
- Reflect on the courage required to choose compassion over resentment
- Practice ritual skills to receive, regulate, and metabolize grief and sorrow
- Enjoy resources on lament, heartache, and love in response to suffering
Lesson Seven: Midlife, Destiny, and Cleaning House
- Explore pragmatic frameworks for awakening and adult development
- Reflect on the process of clarifying, accepting, and living personal destiny
- Learn ways to identify and resolve blocks to more authentic expression
- Practice safely communing with and incorporating benevolent forces
- Enjoy resources on physical embodiment and communion with the powers
Lesson Eight: Early Elderhood, Warriorship, and Legacy
- Consider the myriad of challenges that follow from embracing destiny
- Learn about hazards, ritual protection, and the need to guard legacy
- Assess your current level of risk and willingness to address concerns
- Practice partnering with supportive powers to increase ritual protection
- Enjoy resources on evil, malice, self-defense, and sacred warriorship
Lesson Nine: Power, Reckoning, and Making Amends
- Reflect on meanings and right uses of both worldly and spiritual power
- Consider the benefits of courageously facing any unresolved wounding
- Learn ways to honestly assess your life and make any needed repairs
- Practice calling back personal power from past mistakes and traumas
- Enjoy resources on power, imperfection, and responsible leadership
Lesson Ten: Elderhood, Humility, and Mending the World
- Consider elder rites of passage and pathways for ongoing cultivation
- Affirm the power and importance of joy, levity, play, and irreverence
- Learn to anchor identity to more stable ancestral and ecological sources
- Ritually turn toward and recommit to alleviating the suffering of the world
- Enjoy resources on elderhood rites of passage and responsibilities
Lesson Eleven: Eclipse, Dying, and Becoming Ancestor
- Explore death of the body as a rite of passage to becoming ancestor
- Learn ways to further support ego death before physical death
- Continue to soften unhelpful binaries and to access unitive states
- Practice steady communion with elder forces for more effective service
- Enjoy resources on the ancestralization process and post-death journey
Lesson Twelve: Awakening, Wisdom, and Becoming What Is
- Explore teachings on consciousness after dying and becoming an ancestor
- Learn pragmatic ways to prioritize soul cultivation over the lifespan
- Reflect on your life through the long view of increasing love and wisdom
- Practice experiencing personal center as opening to the ground of being
- Enjoy resources on the far reaches of human development and potential
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 pricing aim to take into consideration global economic disparities, historical injustices, and personal circumstances. The system is designed for those with more to register in ways that support those with less. Each tier has the option to pay at once, or over three or six months.
Price
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Our standard rate allows us to sustain our work. This applies if you’re employed in the Global North, you come from generational land ownership, and/or you’re able to provide for your needs in a consistent way.
Other Pricing Options
Supporter
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This rate helps us to make our work accessible to those with modest means and applies if you have investments, a retirement plan, and/or access to economic abundance or generational wealth.
Reduced Cost
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This rate applies if other options are not within reach. Ideally for historically marginalized populations, and anyone who may experience economic hardship.
Four Seasons of Ritual
Spring:
Lessons 1-3
Conception through childhood. Themes include voice, invocation, boundaries, pleasure, and living from wholeness and embodiment.
Summer:
Lessons 4-6
Adolescent to early adult. Themes include accessing spiritual guidance, passion and devotion, and working with grief and loss.
Autumn:
Lessons 7-9
Midlife and early elderhood. Themes include clarifying destiny, sacred warriorship, making amends, and right use of power.
Winter:
Lessons 10-12
Elderhood through post-death. Themes include humility, service, ego death, rejoining the ancestors, and stabilizing love and wisdom.
In this course, you will
- Learn how to navigate rites of passage, transitions, and lifespan development through a framework built on spiritually and psychologically centered teachings.
- Experience how ritual arts can serve as essential life skills to effectively resolve developmental challenges as we mature.
- Set clear boundaries for consistent ritual and psychological safety, including for troubled family or cultural circumstances.
- Strengthen your practice through honoring natural cycles.
About the Instructor
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. Learn More
Frequently Asked Questions
This course directly addresses often vulnerable topics related to ongoing violence and harm in the world. The material may stir complicated emotions for some participants, and support outside the vessel of the lessons may be important as the course is not a replacement for individual or personalized support.
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.
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 and LGBTQ-only discussion spaces.
All of our lesson videos have closed captioning, as well as a full transcript and 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.
If you have general questions about our organization, offerings, or values, you may enjoy our Frequently Asked Questions page. If there’s something else, we’d be happy to help! Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch, usually within 1-2 business days.
