Writing with the Dead
with Erica Nunnally and Rachel Jamison Webster
8 Mondays
Beginning January 11
About the Course
By affirming that your ancestors can be active participants in your life and creations, you open ourselves to channel the poems, essays, and stories that you most need to write—both to understand the past and to live fully in the present. In this eight week course, you’ll develop lasting ancestral connections and build a foundation for spirit-infused writing practices that endure beyond the time of the course.
Our life is a continuation and extension of all that has come before, a new and resounding word in a story still being told.
Develop lasting ancestral relationships
Build a foundation for ancestral writing
Learn to speak with and for your people
Course Overview
This course, developed by authors Rachel Jamison Webster and Daniel Foor, aims to help students develop writing practices that also support lasting relationships with their blood lineages. Now with Rachel Jamison and Erica Nunnally, the curriculum in this third iteration reflects two prior cycles of teaching and refinement. Each week, through guided ritual and writing prompts, participants will safely connect with wise and kind ancestors and invite their words and inspiration. In a supportive and practice-oriented space, join us to bring your ancestral stories to life.
During our time together, we’ll establish healthy boundaries with the troubled dead in our lineages and appeal to loving and wise elder guides for personal, family, and cultural healing. Course co-leads will integrate intellect and intuition, theory and practice, and will center time for writing as well as direct practices to support ancestral connection and communion. The course is structured to be useful to seasoned ritualists who are newly called to writing, experienced writers who are new to ancestral contact, and folks comfortable in both worlds.
Participants can expect a kind, responsive, internationally oriented, culturally mindful approach that honors diverse styles of writing and ancestor reverence. Weekly small-group breakouts, plus an additional writing and practice support call led by Catherine Dunne, will support your ancestral and writing practices.
8 live teaching calls by Erica Nunnally and Rachel Webster
8 additional live support calls with Catherine Dunne
Small breakout groups anchored by trained ritualists
16+ substantive guided experiential practices
50+ carefully curated resources to accompany lessons
Access to a community discussion space
Course Curriculum
Lesson One: Foundations of Writing with the Ancestors
- Acknowledge and attune to your connection with ancestral guides
- Review a framework for safe, direct relationships with blood ancestors
- Enjoy freewriting time and the start of a ritual writing practice
- Discern between writing as the self and writing as an ancestral channel
- Practice improvisation at the crossroads of intellect and intuition
Lesson Two: Balancing Range, Honesty, & Ritual Safety
- Learn to distinguish our opinions of the dead from their present state
- Name the recent dead and extend to them a healing process and container
- Learn to collaborate with the dead in writing while honoring your boundaries
- Explore ways to enact effective protection from the troubled dead
- Develop writing techniques for tending boundaries with unhealed ancestors
Lesson Three: Understanding Lineage Blessings and Burdens
- Enjoy guided practice to deepen with wise and loving older ancestors
- Write into distinct blessings and burdens in your ancestral line
- Optionally enjoy group time with Rachel focused on ancestral writing
- Alternatively spend focused Erica time refining spirit contact skills
- Explore writing before, during and after ancestral connection practices
Lesson Four: Working with Specific Lineage Stories
- Engage how you see your people as entry points for new, direct learning
- Explore, also in writing, the terrain of imagination and ancestral memory
- Practice writing as listening (clairaudience) and as seeing (clairvoyance)
- Continue to gently tend to those on the lineage still receiving healing
- Welcome any changes or healing shifts in your perception of the lineage
Lesson Five: Writing into Forgiveness and Emotional Healing
- Learn about the benefits of ancestral storytelling and a “coherent narrative”
- Expand through writing into the energy of non-judgment and compassion
- Attend gently to old stories that your lineage may be ready to release
- Address warriorship aspects of writing and the courage to name the difficult
- Practice writing as a form of active invocation, healing, and prayer
Lesson Six: Living the Gifts, Writing as Courage and Vow
- Discuss impacts of individualism on writing and ancestral reconnection
- Write as a way to connect past and present, personal and collective
- Explore ways to tangibly embody ancestral gifts in your daily life
- Continue to tend to those on the lineage still in need of healing
- Practice softening individualism to support good writing, living, and dying
Lesson Seven: Conscious Communion, Writing as Intimacy
- Explore intersections of channeling and ancestral co-writing
- Write about yourself as an embodiment of these specific ancestors
- Optionally enjoy group time with Erica refining ritual skills
- Alternatively spend focused with Rachel on ancestral writing
- Practice conscious co-writing with your well and wise ancestors
Lesson Eight: Embracing Relationship, Writing for and with the Dead
- Discuss integration, next steps, and ways to deepen with course material
- Savor a handful of heartfelt writing shares from course participants
- Tend to the dead still mending and honor any recently healed ancestors
- Learn tangible ways to nurture and continue your writing projects
- Practice dwelling with your ancestors in the energy of celebration
Prerequisite & Preparation
This course sits at the intersection of two well-established practices: creative writing and ancestor-honoring ritual. To go deeper into writing with and about the dead, we ask that you complete one prerequisite and a few basic preparations before the course begins.
Participants should have already established a connection with an ancestral guide from one of their lineages, following the Ancestral Lineage Healing framework. Paths to this outcome need not be expensive or time-consuming and could be from individual sessions with a practitioner, participation in the online course (Ancestral Lineage Healing), self-study with the book, or participation in an in-person intensive. This doesn’t need to be a long process. If pursuing the sessions route, this can often be achieved during one to two sessions. If cost is a barrier, please note this additional Collective Action resource.
We ask that you acquaint yourself with the Ancestral Lineage Healing method. If you’re new to this approach you can explore the resources here and listen to this free introductory talk any time before our first class in January of 2027.
Warm up: If you don’t already have a regular writing practice, any time before our first live call, please take the time to generate at least two pages of creative writing. It doesn’t need to be refined or focus on any particular topic. You won’t be asked to share it. The intent is simply to ignite the spark, or prime the pump as it were. It’ll help you arrive ready to write.
Arriving with these basics in place will allow us to make the most of our shared time.
Register for Writing with the Dead
3 and 6 month payment plans available at checkout at 0% interest.
Early Registration | 26% Off
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Discount rate available until capacity is reached.
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 scholarships.
Applications will close on Thursday, September 24. Replies may take time due to high volume, but all replies will be sent by Friday, September 25.
Course Schedule
MAIN TEACHING CALLS WITH ERICA & RACHEL
8 Mondays | January 11 through March 1
8am San Francisco | 11am New York | 16:00 London
WRITING & RITUAL SUPPORT CALLS WITH Catherine Dunne
8 Thursdays | January 14 through March 4
8am San Francisco | 11am New York | 16:00 London
CLASS STRUCTURE
75 minutes in the main room with Erica and Rachel
30 minutes for small groups
All 16 calls, minus breakout sessions, will be recorded and available to you in perpetuity.
About the Instructors
Erica Nunnally
Co-Teacher
Erica Nunnally, MA is an animist, ritualist, teacher of yogic traditions, Reiki master teacher, and a steward of Earth’s medicines. She was raised in a Christian and military family with a fluid sense of home and shallow connection to roots, and after decades of personal study and reclamation, found home with her ancestors. Erica specializes in supporting folks with limited knowledge of their family and cultural origins but who are called to deep healing and reconnection. Her ancestors are primarily Choctaw, Nansemond, West African, and Irish.
Rachel Jamison Webster
Co-Teacher
Catherine Dunne
Writing and Ritual Support Calls
Catherine Dunne, MA has over three decades of trauma-informed experience as a psychotherapist, supervisor and Movement Medicine teacher. Her passion and service in the world is rooted in embodied relationship – with ourselves, with other human folk, with our ancestors, and with the other-than-humans. Born and raised on traditional Lenape lands now known as Queens, New York, all eight of her great-grandparents are from Cork, Kerry, and Tipperary in southern Ireland, and for the last thirty years Catherine has been living on her ancestral lands in Cork.
Frequently Asked Questions
Main Teaching Calls | 105 min | Mondays
8 Mondays beginning January 11, 2027 through March 1, 2027
8am San Francisco | 11am New York | 16:00 London
Call Structure
- 75 min teachings with time for guided practice and Q&A
- 30 min of small breakout groups
- No break
Call 1: January 11
Call 2: January 18
Call 3: January 25
Call 4: February 1
Call 5: February 8
Call 6: February 15
Call 7: February 22
Call 8: March 1
Practice Support Calls | 60min | Thursdays
- All 8 calls will be anchored by Catherine Dunne
- 8am San Francisco | 11am New York | 16:00 London
Call 1: January 14
Call 2: January 21
Call 3: January 28
Call 4: February 4
Call 5: February 11
Call 6: February 18
Call 7: February 25
Call 8: March 4
The timing of the calls favor North America, Europe, and much of Africa. 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.
This is the third iteration of Writing with the Dead. The curriculum was originally developed by Rachel Jamison Webster, author and professor, and Daniel Foor, author and founder of Ancestral Medicine, and the January 2027 run reflects two prior cycles of teaching and refinement.
We’re glad to welcome back returning participants from 2024 and 2025, and look forward to meeting new participants who’ve met the prerequisites. We’ll continue offering support for a ritual writing practice through an additional weekly call.
Sharing your writing is entirely up to you. You can keep it private or share in safe, supportive breakout rooms. We hope you enjoy how the course has developed and improved.
Yes, indeed. We’re pleased to offer a past participant rate of $210 which is about half the standard price. You’ll receive access to a new module in your course portal with new prompts and other resources, access to all 12 live main calls with Erica and Rachel, and access to 12 live additional Writing and Ritual Support Calls with Catherine. You should have received a coupon code via email to take advantage of this offer. If not, please email info@ancestralmedicine.org and explain that you’ve taken the course in the past, and would like to request a past participant discount code to re-enroll.
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, SWANA, and LGBTQ-only discussion spaces. Additionally, the course will include ancestrally and culturally diverse call anchors and break-out group supporters with the option of being in a BIPOC, LGBTQ, or SWANA small breakout group.
This course directly names and creates a welcoming space for exploration of vulnerable topics related to family and lineage violence and harm in the world. The material may stir complicated emotions for some participants. In addition to the weekly Writing and Ritual Support Call, additional support may be important 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.
No. But there will be opportunities to do so if you wish.
All of our lesson videos have automatic 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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