Before Somatics
How did our ancestors practice embodiment?
Before somatics we had Keening.
Before somatics we had Folk Songs.
Before somatics we had Waulking.
Before somatics we had Holy Wells.
Before somatics we had Saining.
Before somatics we had Imbas Forosnai.
Before somatics we had Cults of Ecstasy.
Before somatics we had Polyphonic Singing.
Before somatics we had Weaving.
Before somatics we had Sacred Groves.
Before somatics we had Kulning.
Before somatics we had Corrghuineacht.
Before somatics we had Morris Dancing.
Before somatics we had culture,
(and we still do).
Many years ago now I began searching for answers to the question “how did my ancestors practice embodiment?” This inquiry lead me down winding paths of research and many moments of both gratitude and grief.
European folk practices are not relics of the past, they continue to be remembered, enlivened, and many are finding new life. I am deeply grateful for somatics in many ways, especially in how the lineages I have studied have lead me towards ancestral reconnection through embodiment.
What somatics lacks in the Western context is a rootedness in culture. I would argue in fact that somatics is both a response to a lack of culture amongst European descended peoples, as well as a stripping away of the cultural and spiritual aspects of embodiment. This too is our ancestral inheritance.
Ancestral Embodiment is about re-weaving European folk and pagan ways of knowing back into the practice of somatics, and about bringing the intentionality of embodiment offered through somatics back into our folk and ancestral practices. It is a reconnecting of past and future. It isn’t about nostalgia, idealization, or cosplaying as our ancestors. It is about listening for the possible intentions and somatic states evoked through ancestral practices, offering an opportunity to embody the values and ways of life of our ancestors, and listening for the wisdom they have to offer us in these turbulent times.
Ancestral Embodiment Includes:
• Five audio lectures + corresponding embodiment practices that explore European folk wisdom through Story, Song, Trance and Movement.
• Guest module with Danica Boyce of the Fair Folk podcast
• Live workshop at the end of the course to integrate learnings and develop our own practices
• Fully transcribed and downloadable lessons for lifetime access
• Reading list and resource library
We begin July 13th ✨
