Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing

by Daniel Foor

A practical guide to connecting with your ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing

• Provides exercises and rituals to help you initiate contact with your ancestors, find ancestral guides, and assist the dead who are not yet at peace

• Explains how to safely engage in lineage repair work by connecting with your more ancient ancestors before relating with the recently deceased

• Explores how your ancestors can help you transform intergenerational legacies of pain and abuse and reclaim the positive spirit of the family

Everyone has loving and wise ancestors they can learn to invoke for support and healing. Coming into relationship with your ancestors empowers you to transform negative family patterns into blessings and encourages good health, self-esteem, clarity of purpose, and better relationships with your living relatives.

Offering a practical guide to understanding and navigating relationships with the spirits of those who have passed, Daniel Foor, Ph.D., details how to relate safely and effectively with your ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing. He provides exercises and rituals, grounded in ancient wisdom traditions, to help you initiate contact with your ancestors, find supportive ancestral guides, cultivate forgiveness and gratitude, harmonize your bloodlines, and assist the dead who are not yet at peace. He explains how to safely engage in lineage repair work by connecting with your more ancient ancestors before relating with the recently deceased. He shows how, by working with spiritually vibrant ancestors, individuals and families can understand and transform intergenerational patterns of pain and abuse and reclaim the full blessings and gifts of their bloodlines. Ancestral repair work can also catalyze healing breakthroughs among living family members and help children and future generations to live free from ancestral burdens. The author provides detailed instructions for ways to honor the ancestors of a place, address dream visits from the dead, and work with ancestor shrines and altars. The author offers guidance on preparing for death, funeral rites, handling the body after death, and joining the ancestors. He also explains how ancestor work can help us to transform problems such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious persecution.

By learning the fundamentals of ancestor reverence and ritual, you will discover how to draw on the wisdom of supportive ancestral guides, heal family troubles, maintain connections with beloved family after their death, and better understand the complex and interconnected relationship between the living and the dead.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Witchcraft, Death, Magick

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2017

About the author

Daniel Foor, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors. He lives in Asheville, NC.

Reviews

[Seyta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most thorough and practical book I've encountered dealing with the topic of ancestors. In a pragmatic yet eloquent style that manages to be both scholarly and clear, Dr. Foor leads the reader through all kinds of questions, background, and topics relating to the meaning of ancestors--and then delivers a strong step-by-step process for ways of working with ancestral healing based on his many years of practice and fine-tuning. This book is intelligent and accessible to those curious about ancestral practices from any background, and is clearly rooted in cultural respect and neutrality. I'm admittedly a practitioner of his method, and I LOVE how he has made the method accessible and available in this book to anyone who wants to look into their roots in a meditative way. Dr. Foor's method of ancestral lineage repair/healing is effective, and is also a wonderfully nourishing and fascinating process to engage in. The logical way his book is laid out makes it easy to follow with foundational, research-based knowledge and stories followed by sequential exercises/meditations that are precise and directive, with natural pacing. I love a good new-agey book that doesn't feel wishy-washy or ungrounded (a rare feat!), and Dr. Foor really pulls this off, offering an intelligent and concise piece of writing for curious minds wanting to explore the inner world of ancestral connection. Highly recommended!!

[Pattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed information of ancestral healing presented in a clear, precise manner.

[Larisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This highly practical book outlines a clear, detailed path for healing the wounds of past generations that keep so many of us stuck in patterns of pain and purposelessness. Daniel's teaching are accessible and inclusive with a strong focus on how to do this work safely and effectively on your own. Further, he outlines how to know whether your efforts are (or aren't) working including when to call in the assistance of someone more experienced. I've been working with my healthy ancestors for personal/family healing for nearly a decade. It wasn't until I completed the repair work for all four of my primary lineages using the method Daniel outlines in this book that the really stuck patterns of pain held in my lineage and in my body (migraines in particular) began to shift and soften. I highly, highly recommend this book and Daniel's work in general.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fabulous, practical and immediately applicable. It is accessible to anyone of any faith who would like to make progress on intergenerational family healing. It gives clear instructions and safe protocols for spirit work and clearly distinguishes that from psychology. It is a helpful addition to my already existing ritual skill sets and will improve my ability to provide individual and group healing ceremonies around death and grief and Ancestral healing.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow mr Daniel Foor has written an incredibly beneficial book for all of humanity, and esp esp during these times we live in. As the corona virus hysteria is peaking right now: I ask our loving, wise Ancestors (who are well with Spirit and capable of helping humankind in the most beautiful ways) to shine their light into our hearts, and whisper their secrets into our dreams, and bath us in clarity and support and up-leveling magical growth and blossoming so that we All emerge more connected, more unified, more powerful—to cut through all bullshit—and to bring to the forefront of our existence here on earth what is most important in all of our individual and collective hearts!! Thank you so much!! 🙏🏼

[Jo Scoble · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve later discovered that this author is problematic in that they have appropriated practices and not properly credited them within or in their courses.

[Elly Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has great ways to approach lineage healing, especially for adoptees and those who are missing lineage threads. A little too much “how-to” vibes at times, and it felt like there were opportunities to wax poetic that were missed. But still certainly worth the read.

I like this book in the context of the figurative, like working with the spirits of our psyche, but this book takes spirit work literally. I don’t have a problem with that, but just a heads up if you’re anti-mysticism.

In the context of psychological work, I loved how many boundaries the author gives the reader. It can be destructive to nose dive into trauma work, so the author advises the reader to avoid troubled spirits (to me the dark part of the psyche) until you’ve worked with ancestral guides (the part of the psyche where you are already enough and can access wisdom). Lots of boundaries of discernment and patience were recommended. It’s good general advice not to blindly trust every urge we have. “…one test question is to ask to see the ancestral guide’s connection with his or hers earlier ancestors. Remember that the dead that are well in spirit tend to function as a collective energy.”

I loved how the author was responsible and wise in several dubious areas. He provides an appendix addressing psychosis, recognizing this work may not be for everyone. He addresses the egotism/narcissism that can be found in championing your ancestors above other peoples and in claiming past lives of powerful leadership roles or of persecuted races or cultures that aren’t in your ancestry. He advices against use of psychoactive drugs for connecting with the ancestors in most scenarios.

Overall, this was such an earthy read on work I’ve been curious about. The book recommends many rituals and ways to know your family, land, and most importantly, yourself better. In the moments I can suspend disbelief, I love the idea and feeling of a whole spirit lineage rooting for me. In moments of disbelief, I still see how this has had such a positive impact on my healing. I’ve reconceptualized a lineage of violence into a lineage that has many peaceful babas smiling at me. For such psychological pain that burrows into the marrow, this modality is indeed like medicine.
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“What relationships do you already enjoy that you have inherited from your ancestors? With what animals, plants, metals, sacred places, deities, and other spiritual forces did they interact? Which of these relations are most deeply rooted in your family history? And any of them still part of your daily life?”

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

From an unrelated talk with Brandon Shimoda, as relayed by A over text:: "It seems to be that there is always one person in the family that becomes the de facto storyteller because they are overflowing — why me, why you, why are we so sensitive to this when everyone around us is so closed off — I happen to be the valve, the exhaust of the family (relating to exhaustion). This lonely, alienating gift, in the family. And sometimes I think, I’ll take it. Because there must to be one place it can go."

As somebody whose family's assimilation lead to the loss of all our cultural ancestral reverence practices, I found this book to be a helpful starting point. Daniel Foor is a white man, so if that's not your thing, I would look elsewhere, but for the most part I really trust his sense about where he stands as a white person engaged in ancestral medicine. He offers a pretty comprehensive starting point to think about ritual and ancestors, and it was a take what's helpful leave the rest kind of situation, and so much of it was deeply clarifying. I would definitely recommend to anybody who has lost ancestral medicine practices in their family and perhaps for all of us who find ourselves in the position of being the *valve*

Also, my other note is that I learned about this book from Taya Mâ Shere on the Jewish Ancestral Healing podcast (what you need to know about me is that I literally am a changed man because of this podcast), but anyways... This book did everything it promised. 5 stars.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review – Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by Daniel Foor, Ph.D.

Newsflash – the Ancestors are with us now, and there is health and wholeness to be gained when you understanding the complex and interconnected relationship between the living and the dead. Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by Daniel Foor, Ph.D. is a manual for accessing the benefits of working on healing your ancestral line.

I checked Ancestral Medicine out from my library and will be buying a copy, so I can get to work on healing and strengthening myself through the blessings and benefits of my own family line. The base premise is intriguing, compelling, and I’m looking forward to following through with the work on my own family and ancestral streams.

The author Daniel Foor “is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisa tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors.”

The book purports, “By learning the fundamentals of ancestor reverence and ritual, you will discover how to draw on the wisdom of supportive ancestral guides, heal family troubles, maintain connections with beloved family after their death, help children and future generations to live free from ancestral burdens, and transform Family patterns into blessings.”

I think the most compelling element is that it provides hands-on processes and coaching on how to approach some potentially emotionally-charged material dealing with family dynamics in a safe way. This leads to the possibility of attaining better relationships with your current family and with the world. Foor makes the claim, and in my opinion, solidly delivers, the following benefits
• Reflecting on your ancestors boosts intellectual performance and confidence
• Awareness of family predispositions, including behavioral health risks, may encourage life choices that benefit you and future generations.
• Forgiveness, a common component of family healing and ancestral repair work, promotes greater physical and mental health.

The fact we will all become ancestors one day is a powerful and healthy reminder that we should do whatever we can now, while we are alive, to ensure that our own lives are coherent and congruent. The life well lived is precious, the work that we do and the way we lead our lives ripples outward and affects all we touch, both now and in generations to come. After reading Ancestral Medicine, I’m convinced that it’s critical we heal ourselves now, so that when it comes time we can take our own place as an ancestor, and be a source of blessings to those who come after us.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great and may change your life. I've been recommending it to all my family and friends. The author's approach to ancestor reverence and ancestor ritual practice is non-dogmatic and non-specific to any particular culture or tradition. He has over a decade of experience guiding individuals and groups in ancestral healing work, and his mastery of this material is evident in the clarity and accessibility of his writing. The flow of the writing is easy to follow, he divides big concepts up into bite-sized pieces, and he includes stories and wisdom from many different traditions. Anyone with interest in animism, psychology, intergenerational trauma, social justice/healing justice, genealogy, integrative health or spirituality would benefit from reading this book and doing the exercises.

The basic premise of this book is that one's dead ancestors, one's dead great/great/etc/grand/parents on back through time, continue to exist on some level, and they continue to have influence on you, their grandchild, and some of that influence is helpful, and some of that influence is not. If you have unhelpful patterns present in your family and your self, patterns like violence, sexual transgression, addiction, early death, and disease, consider that these challenges are rooted in your ancestral lineage, and resolving and healing these patterns involves collaborating with the ancestors. Or if you see intergenerational wounding in your family related to histories of genocide, enslavement, famine, immigration, displacement, colonialism, empire - consider that ancestral ritual work is useful in healing these wounds. Relating with the ancestors is like any relationship, in that if you have good relationship tools, you can work out your problems and have a mutually beneficial, loving, and supportive relationship that is even stronger because you invested the energy into healing and growth. This book teaches you the tools and techniques and frameworks to safely do that.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for a book on ancestral healing that was not religious. Foor's approach is practical.

Although the approaches were not new in sensibility and manner to me, I enjoyed Foor's discussion on singular versus multiple souls, because it was the first time I have encountered a similar POV I have had since I was teen. If plants compost into soil components with other soil components and that combine soil is uptaken by the next generation of plants, then why not human souls when upon death, following the backward replay, and then rejoining Original Source--when down the rainbow bridge that soul would be an amalgation too.

More modernly, per single electron postulate--our ancestors or past lives are not a thing; they are an experience at a place & time.

Foor's broad cultural studies informs this book and makes it a solid read.

[Heidi | Paper Safari Book Blog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very accessible book on working with your ancestors, healing family patterns and reclaim blessings of your bloodlines. There are meditations and ceremonies that are outlined in the book that are easy to follow and explained well. While the author suggests you research your lineage back seven generations it is not necessary to do this to commune with the ancestors.

If you are like me you may not be able to trace your lineage back that far due to adoption, and first generation American grandparents that are no longer alive to point me to the place to look for more relatives. Then due to nature of the family I do know even DNA kits aren't as helpful as one would think.

There is no specific dogma taught in this book it is just a very well written book that shares many rituals and traditions from different cultures on how to commune with the ancestors. How to protect yourself from ancestors who are not at rest and how to help those souls that do not seem to be at rest. It also touches on how to help your loved ones cross over to become ancestors.

This is a book that will stick with me for a while and I have a feeling I will be returning to it again and again.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great on its own, but I recommend reading it in conjunction with the online course ("Ancestral Lineage Healing") that the author offers. At least, that helped me to be able to actually implement the practices that the book describes. (I found myself procrastinating doing the healing work until I had the community of course participants, course supporters, and the author himself, on hand for guidance.)

[Erin Book Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it took me a long time to finish this book, and I alternated between reading it and listening to the audio version, I found it exceedingly helpful and first rate for its genre/subject. Daniel Foor is an awesome human being; tactful, compassionate, humble, wise. I would buy any books he writes on the topic of the dead, ancestors, working with animal powers/energies or rituals. Really, any topic.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I pick up books because I know nothing about the subject. I was really impressed with how down to earth this turned out to be, and the questions I never considered were extremely thoughtful. Bravo.

[Ginger Eager · Rating 5 out of 5]

I prefer doing the ancestral work in a group with a facilitator, but if you can't get to such a group, this is a helpful text.

[Omari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very pragmatic and culturally inclusive approach to ancestor reverence. Obviously very well researched and practiced and yet presented in accessible non pretentious, low woo woo language.

[David Speer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Potent and pragmatic

This book is a fantastic guide to working with ancestors, discovering more about your own lineages, and becoming more accepting of death and transition.

[Lynne Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genealogy and family history have become popular recently - witness Henry Louis Gates' PBS show "Finding Your Roots" and others like it. It's fascinating to know and learn about your ancestors, but what if you can do more with this information, like begin a healing process that has troubled a family line for generations? And everybody has had troubled ancestors at some point.

There are people in the world today who care for their ancestors with various ceremonies, but except for a graveyard visit to the grandparents, or to clean off Mom and Dad's graves, the modern west really doesn't offer anything of note to the unknown people who are responsible for us being here. Enter Daniel Foor's Ancestral Medicine. The author is a psychologist who has studied and worked with various ancestral traditions that are still being practiced today. He has modified them into a set of rituals that sit easy with the western mind. That doesn't mean they are easy to do; it requires imagination, focus and discipline to do the rituals properly, but if you're willing to do the work, the payoff could be powerful and fulfilling.

This is not weird woo-woo; the practice is grounded in western psychology as well as various spiritual traditions, and is safe to do, if you follow the author's cautions. You don't have to be religious to do this, and if you are, this work will not negate any belief system you may have. Get to know your strong, powerful ancestors from far in the past, and help them to heal the troubled souls in your family line. This can only help you, and all of your family.

[🦇 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an introduction to ancestor work while being neither superficial nor overly simple. The author gave a thoughtful collection of ideas and concepts from different traditions & his own experiences. I especially appreciated the practical approach: each chapter included a suggested ritual. It was helpful to me to learn about the different kinds of ancestors (beyond blood-related ancestors). The author did attempt to include information about cultural appropriation, structural discrimination, and gender, but I felt this wasn’t always successful or as comprehensive as needed. I was a bit disappointed by the way the author only briefly addressed trans & genderqueer people, and dismissed a more complex, affirming approach to ancestor work for trans folks by basically saying they should just follow the gender lineage of their sex assigned at birth. In general, the approaches were very binary of either following a maternal or paternal lineage. I’d have loved some more ideas how to connect with my ancestors as a non-binary person, and also how to connect with and acknowledge potential non-binary ancestors.

[Ela · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are all sorts of books and practices aimed at helping one become more enlightened or to re-frame emotional/mental malaise but very few, in my experience, that guide us in how to become more whole and human in the best sense. Dr. Foor guides the reader through the essential framework and practice he's developed to safely and effectively navigate the terrain of the ancestors. Making the distinction between bright and loving ancestors and the dead who are not yet well, the exercises create a clear process for accessing guidance and support from loving guides along one's lineages; at the same time, space is opened for healing to occur in troubled areas. Life-affirming and grounded in cultural and social awareness, this book is a gift for everyone who loves their families as well for those who feel abandoned/cut-off from their families and the human experience. This book is medicine to help claim one's gifts and develop a relationship of reverence and appreciation for their people and this Earth.

[Kelly Miess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for exposing me to new concepts and for excitement about connecting with my ancestors. I read the all of book but have not completed any of the exercises. The author recommends reading the book through completely before embarking on the exercises. Though the book certainly cultivated a desire in me to connect with my ancestors, I feel overwhelmed by the first step of researching my four ancestral lines as far as possible up to seven generations. I began on that task and quickly realized what a huge undertaking it is. I feel like I can't commit to doing that research to the extent the book recommends at this time in my life. So fours stars for what seems like a lack of a "middle path," but leaning toward five stars with hopes that at some point soon I have more time in my life to follow the book with the time and commitment it deserves.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful guide is accessible to readers on any spiritual path or lack thereof. Heal your intergenerational trauma, reclaim your gifts, and take your place among a long, unbroken line of ancestors.

My mental health has improved significantly, and I'm only halfway through the book. I'm working the exercises as I go. I have learned a lot, and it's helped me put both my gifts and my burdens in context of my lineage and my family's history. This means my gifts (resilience, righteous anger, intuition, bravery) are more accessible, and my burdens (a silenced voice and disconnection from God or whatever you call the big network of souls we all are) can be addressed and resolved.

[Briar 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both incredibly insightful and helpful AND dense af. I won’t remember most of this. Definitely will have to use it as a reference and hope I find everything I need when I’m looking. I think I would prefer to take one of the authors classes instead with my inability to keep track of this much in book form. Really good still. I kind of wish it was several books possibly with a focus on different parts of the beliefs and practices instead. Sooo much and super helpful but overwhelmingly so. Information overload but in a way I wish I could retain.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a framework to support my belief in continuity of consciousness after death, a methodology for gathering my family history and new methods of ancestral contact. However, when actually required to assist my remembered dead to complete their unfinished business, I went beyond its covers to find professional help. It's a great practical guide, provided the inspiration for me to connect with my wise and loving ancestors and helped me to understand the on-going connection between the living and the dead. And for that, I absolutely love it.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read this a handful of years ago, and it has had a big impact on the way I see the patterns of relationship in my life and my feeling of connection to my ancestors. As an only child with a fragmented family, it is comforting and reassuring that my ancestors are here for me, even the ones who had mostly happy and contented lives and family experiences.

[Cassiopeia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book practical and informative. I liked the level of reader engagement, moments and questions to contemplate within the text. This book has clear instructions and precautions for initiating conscious relationship with your ancestors.

[Jeffrey Berger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended! But especially since it's a challenging book.

[Karen May]

Recommended by Pat Wright SC

[Elisefur]

我沒有做裡面的練習（有看沒有懂...），是因為很欣賞Daniel Foor和好奇這個主題才買來看的
希望哪天比較開竅之後再回來重看