Initiations: A Life of Ritual

The twelve lessons and accompanying practices are designed around a full year journey linked to the seasons and human lifespan. Each season complements and build on the previous. In this way, registration for the full course is the ideal form of engagement.

Only participants who register for the full year will receive access to:

1. Teachings with Daniel and supporters held between seasons
2. Community calls held between each season
3. Monthly new moon rituals (led by ancestral healing practitioner, Shannon Willis)
4. The social connection space for year participants only

Registration for the full year is also the best value in terms of total cost for the course.

That said, you are welcome to register only for the spring season (or any other season) to still access most features (see “What’s Included” above), and you can always upgrade to the full course at any time. If you join for or upgrade to the full course part-way through the year, you’ll receive access to all previous recordings and all full-course benefits moving forward.

This course is organized around four seasons over the course of a year (May 2022 – March 2023). We being the spring series in May here in Northern Hemisphere, and we acknowledge this is the start of the autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Aside from the seasonal difference, all other lifespan and course content applies. Each season will have three lessons, released two weeks apart, and then a six-week slower period between seasons.

At Ancestral Medicine we use EDT Eastern Daylight Time (New York/Toronto) as our anchor time zone and include two other international times for reference. Consider this tool to compare time zones or add your own – just be sure to change the date and time for accurate conversion.

Spring lessons are released on the Saturdays of April 30th, May 14th, and May 28th. The live call schedule for all Spring participants is:

• Opening Ritual (90 minutes, recorded)
  • Sunday, May 1st, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Monday) NZST
• Teaching with Daniel & Supporters (90 minutes, recorded)
  • Tuesday, May 10th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
  • Tuesday, May 24th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
  • Tuesday, June 7th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
  • Full Year Participants Only – Thursday, July 7th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
• Practice and Ritual Skills (60 minutes, recorded)
  • Tuesday, May 3rd, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST 
  • Tuesday, May 17th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
  • Tuesday, May 31st, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Wednesday) NZST
• Integration and Personal Support (60 minutes)
  • Thursday, May 5th, 8pm EDT | 10:00 (Friday) AEST | 12:00 (Friday) NZST
  • Thursday, May 12th, 3pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Friday) NZST
  • Thursday, May 19th, 8pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Friday) NZST
  • Thursday, May 26th, 3pm EDT | 10:00 (Friday) AEST | 12:00 (Friday) NZST
  • Thursday, June 2nd, 8pm EDT | 21:00 SAST | 07:00 (Friday) NZST
  • Thursday, June 9th, 3pm EDT | 10:00 (Friday) AEST | 12:00 (Friday) NZST
• Asia & Oceania call *open to all* (60 minutes)
  • Every Friday, May 6th – June 10th, 10pm EDT | 10:00 (Saturday) SGT | 12:00 (Saturday) AEST
  • Full Year Participants Only – Friday June 24th & July 8th, 10pm EDT | 10:00 (Saturday) SGT | 12:00 (Saturday) AEST
• BIPOC-only call (60 minutes)
  • Every Sunday, May 8th – June 12th, 4pm EDT | 22:00 SAST | 06:00 (Monday) AEST
  • Full Year Participants Only – Sunday, June 26th & July 10th, 4pm EDT | 22:00 SAST | 06:00 (Monday) AEST
• LGBTQ+ only call (60 minutes)
  • Every Sunday, May 8th – June 12th, 3pm EDT / 22:00 SAST / 06:00 (Thursday) AEST
  • Full Year Participants Only – Wednesday, June 22nd & July 6th, 4pm EDT / 22:00 SAST / 06:00 (Thursday) AEST

Full-year participants are also invited to join for New Moon Rituals led by ancestral healing practitioner, Shannon Willis (60 minutes) 

• Monday, May 30th, 4pm EDT / 22:00 SAST / 06:00 (Tuesday) AEST
• Tuesday, June 28th, 4pm EDT / 22:00 SAST / 06:00 (Wednesday) AEST

This course is open to anyone seeking an embodied relationship to time, life cycles, and ritual arts. The teachings and practices are not exclusive to any one tradition, and the frameworks are meant to be flexible enough for people to adapt to their own style and traditions. 

As with all of Ancestral Medicine’s offerings, we take a core values approach rooted in animist sensibilities that’s not about belief, dogma, or adopting any particular kind of identity. The focus is on becoming a more loving and ethical human in relationship with the rest of life.

Since this course is so focused on ritual practice, the structure of the course has been made more spacious for practical integration, and how much time you can make for practice in your own life is entirely up to you. 

As far as the time commitment for the lessons and live calls themselves, there are two weeks between lessons, three lessons per season. So every two weeks, you’ll need about 90 minutes to engage with the lesson video itself, 90 minutes for the teaching call with Daniel followed by practitioner-facilitated breakout groups, and you are also strongly encouraged to attend the Practice and Ritual Skills call for focused support and review of each lesson. This does not include the additional calls (see the FAQ about the schedule above).

There are more live calls and course features than you’ll have time to engage. Remember you have lifetime access, all the live calls are optional, and effective learning is also spacious and enjoyable.  

“Initiations: A Life of Ritual” weaves an understanding of life cycles and human development with foundational ritual skills, all through a culturally mindful and internationally inclusive approach. While there is a shared focus with the previous Foundations of Ritual course on building practical ritual skills, this course has been greatly expanded in content and scope. 12 lessons (rather than 8 in the previous course) are spread across a year-long immersive journey of practice and learning, with several more regular live calls added to the course schedule (see the above FAQ for the full list of calls) to support interactive learning with trained course supporters and other participants. 

The content itself is much more rooted in psychology and in an awareness of life cycles and the importance of rites of passage. It’s more comprehensive overall while still retaining the focus on practical ritual skills that can be adapted to suit the unique context of each participant. Also, those who register for the full year rather than just one season also receive additional support during the transition weeks between seasons. 

All opportunities to connect and engage with other participants, whether through the small breakout groups, discussion in the connection space, or in any of the live calls, are entirely optional. 

While ritual practice can be solitary affair, there is great value to be found in being in ritual with others. Additionally, most participants find a sense of camaraderie and support through engaging with others seeking to reclaim animist values in the modern world. 

Once you log into the course and join the connection space, you will see separate private spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQ+. To join, message the course supporter facilitating that community call and they will add you to the space where you’ll then have access to a private discussions and the zoom link for the weekly call. This process is to help course supporters familiarize themselves with who is participating in these affinity spaces and calls. 

We trust participants to self-select mindfully and decide for themselves if these spaces and additional calls (including the affinity-based breakout groups that follow each of the teaching calls with Daniel) are for them and will support their experience of the course. To learn more, please visit this page: https://ancestralmedicine.org/bipoc-lgbtq-calls.

All of our lesson videos will have closed captioning, as well as a full transcript and additional downloadable audio-only versions. Live calls will have automatic AI-generated closed captioning enabled, and the recording will be available after the call is over, accompanied by a full transcript a few days later.

Accessibility is one of our core values at Ancestral Medicine. If you have needs not met here, please feel free to reach out to us with requests or suggestions at info@ancestralmedicine.org and we will do what we can to accommodate. 

Effective ritual practice and embodied learning can be a powerful and full-bodied experience. At times, this can bring up strong emotions and participants should be prepared for that possibility. While Daniel’s teachings are informed by his professional training and experience as a clinical therapist and the offerings strive to move from a trauma-informed approach, our offerings are never a substitute for mental health support/interventions or other kinds of physical medicines.

That said, we endeavor to provide as much support as possible within ethical and logistical limits. If any of the course topics or practices have been personally activating or stress-inducing in ways that call for additional support, please go first to what you already know to be helpful to you in your life. In addition and in complement to all those things, you might also consider the trained ritualists in the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network as one valuable resource. Most are available for one-on-one sessions, and many are willing to provide low-cost sessions to support financial accessibility.

New for this course, we are offering weekly Integration and Personal Support calls every Thursday (see the schedule in the earlier FAQ). Anyone who feels they might benefit from a group container dedicated to sharing experiences that have come up during the course are welcome to join. As with all calls for the course, this one will be held and guided by trained ancestral healing practitioners. The course connection spaces were also created to help participants find and offer communal contact and support.

There is no expiration on your access to the course materials and live call recordings after the course completes (only the Teaching Calls with Daniel and the Practice and Ritual Skills calls are recorded). Just log into your Ancestral Medicine account at any time in the future and you’ll be able to repeat or continue with any part of the course. Please note that those who have not completed their payment plans may have access to the course withdrawn. 

We do not provide a certificate at the conclusion of the course, but some have requested such a record for professional purposes. While we can provide this, such a certificate of completion would not have any official standing since our courses have not been formally approved for continuing education credits. The course is intended for personal education and enrichment, and as such, our intention is not to train people to guide ritual for others through the material presented here.

The regular registration for the full year can be divided into 6 payments of $200 USD/month. In addition, there are also two sliding scale registration levels offered, each one with a 6-month payment plan option. And if your needs exceed the sliding scale options, you can also apply for a scholarship. Applications will close for scholarships on April 23rd at 7pm EDT. Learn more about those options here.

There is also the option to register only for the Spring series teachings if you are not ready (or otherwise unable) to commit to the full year, also with sliding scale and payment plan options.

If there is any reason you wish to withdraw from the course, due to a change of schedule or other circumstance, or simply because you do not resonate with the material, you have a full 30 days from the release of the first lesson to request a full refund. The very last day we will honor full refund requests is May 31st. This only applies to those who have registered for the full-year. 

For those who are registering for the spring season only, you have until the day before Lesson Two is released, Friday, May 13th, to request a full refund.

To request a refund, simply reach out to: info@ancestralmedicine.org.

We’re happy to help with any additional questions. Just reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch usually within 1-2 day. If you have general questions, you may find your answer on our Frequently Asked Questions page.