The connection with the ancestors is a primary requirement for the reconnecting with initiatory practices. It is one of the conditions for the healing that needs to happen for the modern world. Ancestors are at a disadvantage because they know how to improve things and yet they do not have the body required to act on what they know. We are at a disadvantage because, although we have bodies, we often lack the knowledge required to carry things out properly. This is why Spirit likes to work through us. A person with a body is an ideal vehicle for Spirit to manifest things in this world. --Malidoma Somé
Event Overview
In indigenous societies, community is experienced as a union of the visible and invisible worlds; the world of physical beings and the world of the ancestors, nature spirits and other divinities. As such, the indigenous people of Africa fully comprehend the interconnectedness of both worlds, and the role of the ancestors as an important element to navigate the physical world.
The ancestors, the living-dead, want to guide, heal and empower us. They care about what goes on in the families they left behind. And they are the closest link the physical world has to the world of spirit. "The living-dead are bilingual; they speak the language of men, with whom they lived until recently, and they speak the language of the spirits and of God ...it is through the living-dead that the spirit world becomes personal to men." ---John S. Mbiti
What to Expect
This weekend intensive is open to all who want to explore the meanings that the indigenous people of Africa give to healing, identity and community. We will journey experientially through Dagara wisdom both indoors and in nature to awaken ancient wisdom you can use in your daily life. You will begin the process of uncovering and remembering your gifts and purpose by:
- learning how to develop a reciprocal relationship with your Ancestors
- identifying your gift and purpose through the Dagara cosmology
- accessing the Ancestors through powerful gateways (shrines) and medicine tools (spirit shells)
- creating and participating in Dagara elemental rituals for personal healing and celebration
- participating in co-creating community through service and reciprocity
What to Bring
- names of three generations of your family, ask if you don't know. That includes parents, grandparents both sides, great grandparents both sides. Pictures, objects, stories of your ancestors if you have them
- notebook or journal
Something from at least two categories listed below. Allow your intuition to guide you:
- colored cloth (red, yellow, blue, black, green, white)
- objects from Nature, stones, rain water or water from a brook/stream/pond near you
- earth from where you live, especially earth from a cemetery
Event Summary
- Title: The Way of the Ancestors
- When: select event dates during registration
- Cost: Save $50 by registering early! $295 seven days before event, $345 late registration, plus online processing fee of 3% added during registration.
- Start/End Time: Friday 8:30 pm till Sunday 1:00 pm
Fees do NOT include accommodations. You will be asked about accommodations during registration. Please see the FAQ here
Paying by check? Download the registration form here
About the Ritual Leader
David Sprague has worked in the field of mental health since he was 19 years old. He has been a licensed social worker for 35 years. For the past nine years he has received guidance and instruction from Malidoma Somé. As a dedicated member of the East Coast Village he is a shrine keeper, maker of talismans and ritual tools, diviner, and ECV elder, having gone through the first Dagara based Elder Initiation in the West conducted by Malidoma.
David also completed a year long training in Systemic Family Constellations with Francesca Mason Boring. Francesca Mason Boring, bi-cultural author, international facilitator and trainer, is an enrolled member of the Shoshone Nation. Honoring the foundation of the developers of Family Constellation, Francesca is also nurtured by the mentoring of Native Wisdom Traditions, her own elders and the indigenous knowing field. ” one of the most profoundly beautiful healing paths that can be taken. This work, for me, is an extension of ceremony- a road of indigenous healing.” www.allmyrelationsconstellations.com
Contact Information
For questions regarding this event, contact David @ 413.527.5657
For general questions and accommodations, contact Aamirah @ 518.658.0122
*This event is a prerequisite to other other pathways of indigenous technologies.
