To parent in 2024 is to nurture along curious, tender kids, teenagers, and young adults amidst the backdrop of a human-driven extinction crisis; the ongoing, televised genocide of over 13,000 Palestinian children; and hundreds of millions of kids with food scarcity. The entire global ecology is saturated with human impact and there’s no bubble strong enough to shelter the younger ones from our collective crossroads.
Earth-honoring ways of knowing are being embraced again while hazardous supremacy-based systems continue to salt the Earth and bring ruin to life. In the best of times, parenting is a life-changing commitment that tests our values and stamina; all the more so now. Time with kids can bring joy, magic, and tenderness as well as heartbreak and a chance to revisit the vulnerability of our own childhood, including as it speaks through the present.
Raising kind, clever, and culturally courageous children is one of the most subversive and impactful ways to support long-term systemic change.
This course is for anyone spending dedicated time with children, teenagers, and/or young adults or hoping to step into that capacity more in the future. Participants will learn the importance of rites of passage, honoring soul-level differences, and the link between parenting styles and political change work. We’ll emphasize kind and effective ways to instill Earth-honoring, decolonial values and teach ritual life-skills for a world that includes genocide, systemic violence, and ecological catastrophe alongside tremendous human beauty and tenderness.
Course material will be rooted in an inclusive, international ethic that includes respect for diverse approaches to parenting younger ones of all ages. Teachings will give care to the massive economic disparities between the Global North and South and how this presents regarding access to care and resources and navigating the realities of systemic oppression. We’ll be unflinching in our acknowledgement of the political, but the focus of this course is heart-connected and pragmatic. The core of the conversation will be spiritually-attuned, culturally-liberatory parenting. Each lesson will include Q&A and opportunities for guided practice, and the learning space will be lively and engaging.
*The timing of live calls for this course will favor participants in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Thanks to our community of learners in Asia and Oceania for your understanding around the challenges of international inclusivity. All who register get lifetime access to recordings, and you’re welcome to send in questions ahead of time for Daniel to answer during live calls or in written form.
Price
Accessibility is a core value of our organization, and all price levels also include monthly payment options.
Price
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Our standard rate allows us to sustain our work. This rate best 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.
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 or generational wealth.
Other Pricing Options
Community
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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.
Economic Hardship
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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. *Spaces limited
What’s Included
- Four live (and recorded) sessions, each 90 minutes in duration.
- Two guided experiential practices accompanying each lesson.
- Access to dedicated community forum for those engaged in similar learning.
- Responsive and helpful support, if needed, from Ancestral Medicine staff
- Lifetime access to course resources
Curriculum
One
Lesson One: Animist Ethics and Ritual Arts
- Learn ways to parent that include the Earth and ancestors
- Consider ways to make ritual arts fun, engaging, and relevant
- Explore personal blocks to teaching kids about ritual and the unseen
- Practice calling in direct spiritual support for your daily parenting
Two
Lesson Two: Systemic Violence and Parenting
- Explore the overlap of education, life prep, and transmitting fear
- Reflect on and articulate your most essential values as a caregiver
- Discuss limits of our ability to keep our kids safe and the role of faith
- Practice connection and self-regulation while witnessing real danger
Three
Lesson Three: Honoring Specific Soul Needs
- Learn to harness the calling to make positive changes in your lineage
- Consider ways to honor radically different destinies in the same family
- Make connections between parenting styles and political implications
- Practice affirming soul differences between you and those in your care
Four
Lesson Four: Rites of Passage and Community
- Learn the principles, importance of, and approaches to rites of passage
- Reflect on your development as it relates to young ones you care for
- Make connections between cultural change and spiritual cultivation
- Practice inviting Earth and ancestral wisdom for your parenting journey
About the Instructor
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 practicing Muslim who has also learned from Mahayana Buddhism and the older ways of his English and German ancestors. Daniel is passionate about generational healing and training leaders and change makers in the intersections of cultural healing, animist ethics, and applied ritual arts. He lives with his wife and two daughters, ages six and three, near Granada, Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Learn More
Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all. If you’re at any stage of the caregiving journey with a person who is not yet an adult, this offering will have something for you.
This course directly addresses vulnerable topics related to ongoing violence and harm in the world. The material may stir complicated emotions for some participants. Support outside of the lessons may be helpful as the course is not a replacement for personal therapy or spiritual care.
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.
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 are willing to provide low-cost sessions to support financial accessibility needs.
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.
For full-length online courses (8 weeks or more), we offer a 30-day money back guarantee starting when the first lesson is released, no questions asked. For shorter courses, we offer full refunds before the first lesson begins and partial refunds if requested before the second lesson begins. See our Terms & Conditions
We’d be happy to help with additional questions. Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch, usually within one or two business days.
