Daniel Foor – Practical Animism

Expand your relationships with our other-than-human kin to experience life in a more nourishing, healing, and reciprocal way.
Discover powerful practices and a down-to-earth framework for navigating your relationships with the Earth and with the rest of life.

What if you could connect more deeply than ever with plants, animals, the stars, our ancestors, a river near your home, or other spirits of nature?

What if you could establish reciprocal, healing relationships with our Earth in a way that nourishes both YOU and our many diverse and beautiful kin?

If you long to step into a more alive and magical connection with our other-than-human family… to speak with trees, to commune with the mountains on your horizon, to relate with a local body of water or the spirit of a place…

You’ll want to explore the power of animism to come into relational intimacy with our larger community of beings or people — only some of whom are human.

Just as there are many sacred and necessary forces in the world around us, there are also many diverse and beautiful kinds of people.

Animists see the world as full of both human and other-than-human people with whom we can live in conscious and respectful ways.

Humans are people. Plants are people. Mountains and rivers are people.
— Daniel Foor
Imagine reclaiming this kind of kinship simply by anchoring your life in a heart-centered approach to honoring the Earth.

You would have access to the love, wisdom, companionship, and reverence that so many of us feel is missing from our culture…

You would have a soul medicine that’s yours to regain — and share with others…

You would have rituals and practices that you can enjoy, adapt, and expand into for the rest of your life…

And you would fortify your life with the support of the many ones who are available to help you even more effectively love our precious, messy world that’s in so much need of love right now.

A Core Values Approach to Loving the Earth
Our more ancient ancestors maintained conscious dialogues with the beautiful other-than-human people upon whom their lives depended — and upon whom our lives depend.

Having lost or forgotten these relationships is part of the yearning for connectedness that we feel — and it’s a direct cause of the ecological devastation that we face.

This loss has brought us to where we are now with the heartbreaking state of our deeply troubled world.

But YOU carry the ability to remember and inhabit more relational, animist ways…

You can find an IN with a new sense of belonging and an expanded sense of kin.

And you can re-establish lasting reciprocal relationships with our other-than-human family — which can be pivotal to shifting your evolution and that of our planet.

Animism is nourishing for your spirit, an essential part of reclaiming our relationships with the rest of the natural world, and it’s learnable.

In this deeply immersive and highly anticipated video training with ancestral medicine and animism teacher Daniel Foor, you’ll have the opportunity to discover and practice the skills you need to build strong, ongoing, give-and-take relationships with our planetary companions and the elemental powers who surround you every day…

During this transformational 14-week program with Daniel, you’ll:

• Anchor into place-focused rituals to deepen your connection to where you are in the world
• Cultivate a sit spot for healing and guidance
• Explore practical ways to connect with plant spirits, fellow animals, the ancestors of both blood and place, and each of the elemental powers
• Practice speaking directly with our other-than-human kin
• Understand how to dial up the intensity of your connection (and how to dial it back when you need to)
• Connect with the spirit of a tasty food (plant or animal)
• Release any fear of being judged by the dominant culture for having affinites with other-than-human people
• Get an inviting, down-to-earth framework for how to value, legitimize, and honor your devotional relationship with the Earth
• Discover simple, profound practices to expand your love beyond the human — while letting this expansion help you love other humans more deeply too
• Attune your ability to respectfully relate with more intact, Indigenous cultures (including your own older Indigenous ancestors)
• Receive an expanded sense of support and enjoy more relational intimacy
• And much more…

Whether you’re familiar with different kinds of earth-honoring practices… you’re new to connecting with our many kin… or you have accessibility challenges, you’ll experience how animism can speak to you, nurture you, and include you — anywhere, anytime, and most especially when you’re immersed in the everyday of your life.

You’ll feel relief and empowerment as you transform disconnection into belonging…

You’ll work with the elemental energies for healing attachment, trauma, or childhood pain…

You’ll help dispel the shame that has surrounded Earth-honoring traditions for hundreds of years in most modern cultures…

You’ll see how relearning to love the Earth can be congruent with a decolonizing ethic, and proactively respectful to Indigenous folks…

And as you commune with the many star, metal, and river people who, like you, embody nature, you’ll enhance your ability to see the sacred in what’s happening in your life and all around you.

And you’ll have practices and rituals that will help you honor and commune with our other-than-human kin.

Every step we make to come back into connection with our other-than-human kin is met by triple the effort as tendril, proboscis, claw, and tentacle reach lovingly to welcome us back into relationship.
— Daniel Foor
Discover Earth-Honoring Rituals and Practices for Reclaiming Kinship
While Daniel lays down a strong conceptual framework for you, the heart of what you’ll attain from the course will be experiential in a soul-deep and visceral way.

Throughout each of the 14 modules, starting in spring and extending through summer — or stretching through the other two seasons if your home is in the Southern Hemisphere — you’ll be guided through (plus you’ll develop your own) rituals and practices to embody the depth of relatedness and belonging that our souls are calling for… which can fill your life with more meaning, support, and connection than you might ever have felt before.

This course is values based and not about learning a specific ritual system. This is intentional to weave in folks of all different backgrounds and levels of experience. The angle is decolonizing, anti-racist, queer-friendly, and also loving; not uptight, rigid, or noxiously politicized. Ritual is an art, and I have no investment in the ritual specifics looking the way I do it. When you understand the principles, your own ritual creativity is enhanced, whether you’re working within an established tradition or improvising. The approach is kind and non-dogmatic but still at depth. And most of all, we’ll have a good time with it all.
— Daniel Foor
Pragmatic, Down-to-Earth Skills for Connecting With the Green-Bloods and Other Sacred Ones

If you’d like to embody the gifts and blessings that are your birthright in these sacred connections…

… and gather nourishment from the Earth to draw upon your specific gifts and the beauty that you carry and you walk in the world with…

Daniel gives you a framework for how to navigate these relationships in a practical, humble, relational, and non-appropriative way.

You’ll relate with what’s near to your home, and maybe also with what’s far — if your ancestors came from a ways away…

You’ll make devotional offerings… practice speaking aloud to the other-than-humans… attune your sensitivity to the larger field of consciousness… learn how to pull back your personal energy and make space for the other. .. find out how to recognize power differentials and know when you’re in the presence of an elder… experience how the contours of these dynamics may shift… and learn how to adjust your approach based on who you’re relating with…

Learn From an Internationally Trained Ritualist, Leading Teacher of Practical Animism, and Heart-Led Earth Devotee

Daniel has helped thousands of people restore healthy and empowering relationships with their ancestors, and has guided hundreds of rituals for working with diverse spirits of place.

As an author, a licensed psychotherapist, and a doctor of psychology, he’s recognized for drawing from his extensive apprenticeships with traditional peoples and weaving his wisdom together with psychology for personal, cultural, and Earth healing.

This nourishing course with Daniel will immerse you in ways in which you can develop lasting reciprocal relationships with the many ones who are available to support you as you cultivate wisdom from the chaos of our beautiful world…

Daniel teaches with a fusion of pragmatism, levity, and poetry that speaks straight to your soul, expanding your capacity to frame your experiences and emotions in new ways, and to think in terms that are more supportive of your gifts.

His approach is kind, non-dogmatic, inclusive, and profound… AND his invitation for you to explore his teachings gives you the enjoyment of being part of an international crew of learners and great people.

Special Pre-Course Preparatory Sessions
There’s such depth to this rousing work that we’ve added an extra six weeks of material to prepare you for Daniel’s 14-week Practical Animism training. To start, you’ll have two additional live calls with Daniel (plus, be sure to scroll down to see the 4-Session Immersion Course you’ll receive when you register early to complement your learning!). To support your participation in the preparatory pre-course, you’ll also receive complementary foundational animism texts and recordings.

Live Session 1: April 1 at 5:00pm Pacific
In this first session, you’ll begin to lay the groundwork for the program by diving right into preliminary teachings via immediate access to select readings and resources. You’ll explore in depth the specific topic of how ancestral healing and reconnection can support your animism/earth-focused work, plus you’ll experience a guided practice to begin recruiting ancestral support for your journey ahead.

Live Session 2: April 22 at 5:00pm Pacific
In your second live call with Daniel, you’ll discover animism practices from around the world. Daniel will share in a more personal way about his own journey within different religious/spiritual systems and reveal key lessons from each. You’ll learn how those systems approach relationship with the other-than-humans, and you’ll be encouraged to reflect on your own life experience and accumulated wisdom, as you re-orient yourself to global animism.

What You’ll Discover in These 14 Weeks
Course lesson content is released on Mondays at 6:00am Pacific and live calls alternate Thursdays at 8:00am Pacific and Wednesdays at Noon Pacific. Weaving in folks from around the world, our aim is to help people across multiple time zones feel resourced and well met.

In this 14-week transformational intensive, Daniel will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully reclaim the lasting reciprocal relationships with our other-than-human family — which can be pivotal to shifting your evolution and that of our planet.

Each weekly training session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones so you’ll develop a holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to expand your relationships with our ancient kin into your everyday life.

Plus, Daniel will be available for LIVE Q&A following every live call to engage with your questions and experiences about the course material.

Module 1: Kinship, Intimacy & Animist Psychology (Lesson Released May 13 & Live Call Thursday, May 16 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll begin by exploring historical, psychological, and conceptual frameworks from which to understand relationships with the others. You’ll also:

Affirm an ethic of humility and friendship for the work ahead
Distinguish between animism, shamanism, and Indigenous traditions
Start to bridge psychological wisdom with animist teachings
Practice speaking directly with our other-than-human kin
Enjoy resources from important voices in animist scholarship
Module 2: Eating, Killing & Giving Thanks (Lesson Released May 20 & Live Call Wednesday, May 29 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll consider how to understand and honor our kin whose bodies we eat, whether you’re vegan, you love steak, or anything in between. You’ll also:

Explore psychological implications of plants and animals as people
Bring attention to the intimate killing that sustains our lives
Connect with the spirit of at least one tasty food (plant or animal)
Learn a ritual of gratitude to weave into daily consumption of family
Expand knowledge of ancestral rituals for honoring food as life
Module 3: Respecting the Ancestors and Tradition (Lesson Released June 3 & Live Call Thursday, June 6 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll explore in a personal way the ties between animist teachings and relationship with your blood ancestors. You’ll also:

Understand the human dead as part of the sacred ecology of place
Reflect on impacts of colonialism on your diverse ancestors
Invite connection with an ancestral guide from your lineages
Learn to respectfully greet ancestors of place near your home
Explore diverse animist perspectives on ancestors and place
Module 4: Boundaries, Consent, and Sacred Space (Lesson Released June 10 & Live Call Wednesday, June 19 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll discover how the dynamics of relating with human people can be similar to (and enhanced by) your relationships with other-than-humans. You’ll also:

Examine cultural conditioning that minimizes others’ existence
Practice clear boundaries and saying ‘no,’ including with the spirits
Explore role of permission and consent in our ecological crisis
Ritually test your ability to give and receive a ‘no’ during ritual
Learn protocols for establishing and honoring sacred space
Module 5: Celebrating Diverse Bodies and Wisdoms (Lesson Released June 24 & Live Call Thursday, June 27 at 8:00am Pacific)
In this module, you’ll explore how our fellow animals are brilliant teachers about the tremendous diversity of forms and expressions of the sacred. You’ll also:

Deconstruct limited views of animals due to cultural conditioning
Expand your vocabulary for the sacred by reflecting on our animal kin
Reflect on ancestral and local-to-your-home animal affinities
Humbly seek connection with an animal teacher for your life
Consider older wisdoms on other-than-human kin known as animals
Module 6: Extinction, Grieving, and Opening the Heart (Lesson Released July 1 & Live Call Wednesday, July 10 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll be introduced to skills to feel the big troubles in the world in cracked-open, yet resourced ways for grieving and responding constructively. You’ll also:

Explore ritual skills for working with grief, loss, and heartache
Contextualize your devotions amidst the current extinction crisis
Learn ways to respectfully approach the waters near to your home
Craft personal grief ritual to offer near a local body of water
Engage traditional perspectives on spirits of and near the waters
Module 7: Finding Your Place in the Natural Disorder (Lesson Released July 15 & Live Call Thursday, July 18 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll explore the uniqueness of your own destiny. You’ll also:

Consider how power dynamics and differentials inform ritual etiquette
Greet local stones/mountains as one source of wisdom and perspective
Ritually appeal to the larger web for greater self-understanding
Further deconstruct false splits between humans and nature
Engage traditional teachings on destiny and unique soul-level gifts
Module 8: Deeply Rooting Into One Very Specific Place (Lesson Released July 29 & Live Call August 1 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll be invited to go deep with one particular place in the natural world — and as always, this includes you if you have accessibility challenges. You’ll also:

Apply ritual etiquette and intuition to locate a ‘sit spot’ near your home
Start to reclaim dynamic relationships with previously overlooked Earth kin
Practice heart-aware listening for the sacred qualities of a place
Bring vulnerability and receptivity without dominating the relationship
Consider themes common to intentional outdoor solitude practices
Module 9: Friendship and Healing with Our Green Kin (Lesson Released August 5 & Live Call Wednesday, August 14 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll commune with the plant people to reclaim a spirit of friendship. You’ll also:

Release hang-ups about not being a plant person (whatever that means)
Learn to prioritize love and friendship before botanical or herbalist training
Practice letting in the kindness and generosity of the green-bloods
Make connection with a plant near your sit spot for healing and guidance
Engage resources on plants as sources of love, wisdom, and companionship
Module 10: Praising and Feeding the Earth as Deity (Lesson Released August 19 & Live Call Thursday, August 22 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll relate with our planet as an elder worthy of honor. You’ll also:

Withdraw projection of personal pain and gender norms on the Earth
Consider implications for healing trauma and early attachment conditioning
Expand into diverse ritual applications of the practice of making offerings
Offer ritual at your personal sit spot to feed the divinity of this Earth
Explore themes in cross-cultural teachings on Earth as an elder deity
Module 11: Blood, Sex, Tears, and the Water Spirits (Lesson Released August 26 & Live Call Wednesday, September 4 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll deepen into different kinds of mysteries around grief, the erotic, blood, intuition, and other themes often in the domain of the waters. You’ll also:

Consider your sit spot in light of the local watershed and water cycle
Explore water ritual themes (grief, the erotic, ancestors, food, healing)
Reflect on personal strong and weak areas with respect to elemental water
Craft ritual using skills from previous modules to honor local water spirits
Engage cross-cultural sources on how to honor water spirits and deities
Module 12: Honoring Place-Specific Blessings and Challenges (Lesson Released September 9 & Live Call Thursday, September 12 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll increase your ability to discern the unique, specific magics, medicines, and wisdoms of places. You’ll also:

Learn ways to think about the deeper qualities or sacred medicines of places
Ask nicely to understand deeper layers of magic at your specific place
Offer ritual to reflect back the specific qualities you perceive at this place
Share about your specific magical place with others in the course
Enjoy resources on place-focused rituals from diverse cultures
Module 13: Ancient Ones Who are Animals, Plants, and Places (Lesson Released September 16 & Live Call Wednesday, September 18 at Noon Pacific)

In this module, you’ll explore the intersections between our diverse kin and how they also take form as the big personalities we think of as deities or gods. You’ll also:

Learn inclusive ways to think about deities, archetypes, and weird old gods
Distinguish between deities of ancestry, place, and chosen tradition
Consider ritual and cultural etiquette for approaching different deities
Humbly offer ritual to convey respect to an elder power at your sit spot
Explore resources on place-specific deities with active priesthoods
Module 14: Animism as Lifestyle, Culture, and Public Policy (Lesson Released September 23 & Live Call Thursday, September 26 at 8:00am Pacific)

In this module, you’ll consider the larger implications of living animist values and working for the systemic changes that our world so desperately needs. You’ll also:

Assess for congruence between core values and what you show others
Reflect on your past and current vocations through an animist lens
Learn ways to harmonize ritual skills with cultural and political advocacy
Take one tangible action to advocate for the local Earth and peoples
Enjoy contemporary animist voices in law, science, politics, and the arts
The Practical Animism Bonus Collection
(Valued at Over $800.00!)
In addition to Daniel’s 14-week virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions with leading visionaries, teachers, and practitioners. These bonus sessions complement the course and promise to take your practice to an even deeper level.

Revisioning Relationships With Our Plant Kin
Video Conversation With Daniel Foor and Rachel Weitz

What comprises the human-plant relationship, and what are our reciprocal roles? Are humans important to plants? What about native and non-native plants? Tune into this lively interview for answers, where Daniel talks with psychologist and shamanic practitioner Rachel Weitz about relating with plants through the lens of animist sensibility and ancestral connection.

Rachel Weitz has an MA in counseling psychology, and apprenticed for over a decade with Earth-centered ritualists from diverse traditions throughout North and South America. She has trained in spiritual and shamanic healing, plant spirit medicine, and ancestral repair work. Her work includes teaching animist ways of relating with the seen and unseen and supporting people in remembering their true nature. Her people are from Ireland and the Jewish diaspora, most recently Eastern Europe, and she lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on traditional lands of the Ute and Arapaho people.

Healing Attachment Wounds With Ancestral Reconnection
Video Interview With Daniel Foor and Saskia Ison

Ancestors can be kind, steady, and healing allies in metabolizing ongoing pain from miserable childhoods and other kinds of human loneliness and suffering. In this conversation, marriage and family therapist Saskia Ison talks with Daniel about the intersections of ancestral healing and psychotherapy in a practical, helpful way — without being overly technical.

Saskia Ison, LMFT, received her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco. Her background includes working in a multitude of settings with people from across all ages of the lifespan, as well as a very wide variety of presenting issues. She’s worked at a hospital doing guided imagery and expressive arts therapy with palliative care patients, at a mental health clinic with a sliding scale fee in service of the community and accessibility to mental health, and with homeless mothers and children. She’s also worked in the school system providing therapy to young children and teenagers with their families.

Microanimism: Celebrating Our Relationships With the Smalls
Video Conversation With Daniel Foor and Siobhan Watkins

Can we meaningfully relate with the millions of microorganisms that support our lives? If so, how? In this intriguing interview, environmental microbiologist Siobhan Watkins and Daniel discuss aspects of being in relationship with the communities of beings that comprise the microbial world — within an animist framework. Discover how you can have functional reciprocal relationships with the smalls such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

Siobhan Watkins is an environmental microbiologist specializing in examining the activities of microorganisms in found in soils, freshwater, and wastewater. Since 2003 she has worked in industry, commercial applications and academic research and faculty positions. Since 2016, Siv has been a student of West African Ifa/Orìsa tradition, ancestor reverence, and practical animism. Her living family hail from the British Isles, with Scottish and Welsh ancestry. She is the founder of microanimism.com and offers support to people who wish to relate to microorganisms from an animist perspective.

Ancestral Lineage Healing for Personal, Family, and Cultural Transformation
Video Dialogue with Daniel Foor

Join Daniel as he focuses on ancestral repair work on blood lineages. This framework encourages not only personal and family healing, but also cultural repair around issues such as intergenerational trauma, unresolved lineage debts, ancestral shame, and reclamation of previously undervalued lineage gifts.

During this fascinating session, you’ll discover:

A framework that can hold both the horror and the beauty that dwells in our diverse ancestries
Effective ritual technologies for assisting the troubled dead to become well-seated ancestors who are able to serve as potent allies in cultural and family healing
Ways in which the troubled dead are implicated in cultural troubles like racism, sexism, and colonialism, and learn how this influence can shift to support just and healing futures

Here’s What You’ll Receive

Two LIVE Pre-Course Bonus Sessions and Support Materials From Daniel Foor (Valued at $120.00)

Kick off your immersion into practical animism with two special calls starting in April. Daniel will deepen your understanding of relating with the rest of life in an animist way and guide you in powerful drop-ins to expand your consciousness, relationships, and healing. To support your participation in the preparatory pre-course, you’ll also receive complementary foundational animism texts and recordings.

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Fourteen Pre-Recorded Lessons From Daniel Foor

On Mondays at 6:00am Pacific, a pre-recorded lesson will be released which guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to come back into direct relationship with the other-than-humans who surround you every day. The recordings will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format for up to one year after course completion. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.

Fourteen LIVE Class Sessions With Daniel Foor

On alternate Thursdays at 8:00am Pacific and Wednesdays at Noon Pacific, you’ll have the opportunity to attend a live class session with Daniel, including time for Q&A with Daniel as well as small-group breakout sessions to get more focused connection. Each live class will also be resourced by 20 to 30 diverse, amazing supporters. You’ll be placed in a small group with several other participants and Daniel or a supporter so you can interact, share, and do additional practices with to help further integrate each lesson. These conferences will be recorded for playback and typically transcribed within 48 hours. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Facebook online community allows you to connect with each other and find alternative times to interact.

Additional Resources, Exercises, and Questions for Each Lesson

Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson. Additionally, you’ll regularly receive pre-recorded video, homework, reflection questions, and loads of supplemental resources.

Fourteen PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions

In addition to the high-quality digital resources, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.

Online Community

Your exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about your course materials and interact with your fellow students to take your exploration to an even deeper level.

The Practical Animism Bonus Collection

Revisioning Relationships With Our Plant Kin
Video Conversation With Daniel Foor and Rachel Weitz
Healing Attachment Wounds With Ancestral Reconnection
Video Interview With Daniel Foor and Saskia Ison
Microanimism: Celebrating Our Relationships With the Smalls
Video Conversation With Daniel Foor and Siobhan Watkins
Ancestral Lineage Healing for Personal, Family, and Cultural Transformation
Video Dialogue with Daniel Foor
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Practical Animism Virtual Training
We feel honored Daniel Foor has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a rare opportunity to interact directly with a contemporary spiritual teacher, doctor of psychology, and internationally-trained ritualist whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and transform our lives and our world.

Through this powerful online format, you’ll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations, and meals — which would cost thousands of dollars), you’ll be able to benefit from Daniel’s incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home — and at your own pace!

If you’re serious about developing earth-honoring rituals and practices to shift your evolution and that of our planet, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.

About Daniel Foor

Daniel Foor, PhD, is a teacher and practitioner of practical animism who specializes in ancestral and family healing, and in helping folks learn to relate well with the rest of the natural world. His focus on ancestors flows from his training as a doctor of psychology and licensed marriage and family therapist, from the guidance of his teachers in earth-honoring traditions, and from two decades of implementing the teachings of ancestor reverence in his own life.

Since 2005 he’s guided hundreds of ancestor trainings, rituals, and talks throughout the United States and helped many others reconnect with their family ancestors through personal sessions. He’s the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing.

His doctoral research in psychology focused on the use of shamanic healing practices by clinical mental health professionals. Training as a therapist, living in other societies, and immersion in different lineages of ritual work all inform his kind and non-dogmatic approach to ancestor and earth reverence. Although he draws inspiration from lineages of established practice, his public offerings and ritual methods aim to be culturally inclusive, and he holds work for cultural and earth healing to be inseparable from spiritual teaching and practice.