Revive!

Practices for connecting with your ancestors, tending to your beloved dead, and observing the shifting of the seasons in this 16-week class spread out over the weeks just before the Autumnal Equinox through the Winter Solstice .

Revive! is for people seeking to breathe new life into the old ways, learn about how to connect with their ancestors and beloved dead, and practice folk ritual customs as the light wanes. As we reach back to the past to better understand what we’re made of and where we come from, we begin to understand a fuller picture of how we got here and what we want to practice moving forward. Ancestral work, ceremony, and folk practices centering around earth-based lifeways is needed now more than ever as we push back on systems of domination and control and seek to build culture for ourselves and our descendants.

This course is open to all, but will be centering around folk practices coming from my European lineages since those are the lineages I practice within and can teach on. This class is intentionally taught through an anti-racist, anti-facist lens. You will hear me speak a lot about colonialism, revival of folk customs needing to meet the times we’re in rather than harkening back to a (fictional) fantastical past, and how what we practice and how we move through the world is inherently political.

Revive! was created for beginners to ancestral work and ritual arts but you’re welcome even if you’re seasoned! It’s a sweet place to connect over shared values and folk practices. Many students happen to know each other or decide to form bonds outside of class which feels like such a lovely part of culture building. My hope for this class is that people join year after year- these are customs and practices I’ve been cultivating for the last decade and it feels right to invite others into the sweetness of sinking in to the dark part of the year.

Class is held every-other-week and runs for about 90 minutes. If you took the workshop version of this back in 2022, have taken RETURN, or are an EAI graduate let me know! You’re entitled to a discount!

About your Teacher

I’ve been practicing lineage repair for the last 10 years and have actively been practicing ancestral connection and remediation for 6. Through this work, I’ve learned about seasonal observances, the moon + plants + land as ancestor, folk customs and traditions and make a conscious effort to bring these practices back to life. I have found that marking time in this way, connecting with ritual and the rich tapestry of my lineages, and (re)creating culture for myself outside of the constructs of colonization has given me a sense of belonging I’d been missing. It’s a way to mindfully work with life (the present, past, and future) and has contributed greatly to my liberation and joy.

My work places me at the intersections between somatics, ancestral connection, and ritual. In this virtual 16 week course, you will get a bit of each of those threads.

This class draws from my own syncretic spiritual, somatic, and ancestral practices. I’ve learned from many teachers with varying approaches and modalities and what I offer is a synthesized version of this knowledge and these wisdom traditions. I do my best to name my teachers and honor lineage. You can read more about this on my About Page if you’re curious about who my teachers are and what I draw from.

Because my own ancestral lineages are largely mixed European, I’ll be sharing folk practices from those regions (ones that are open to the general public). But mainly I’ll be offering students the tools they need to craft their own rituals and connect with their ancestry in a way that feels true and unique to them.

This course is designed with beginners in mind, though I aim to teach to everyone in the room. So whether you’re a seasoned ritualist or brand new and curious, you’re welcome.

Revive! // Class Topics and Dates

Class will be held on Wednesday evenings at 5pm pacific, and we’ll be meeting every-other-week from early September to mid-December. Class runs for about 90 minutes and consists of teachings, small group activities or reflections, and a ritual or crafting element. I do my best to add in two breaks for each class, but students are always encouraged to do what they need in order to feel comfortable during class time.

Landing + Welcoming the Turning (9/18)

Our first class will be spent orienting to each other and our time together. There will be some time for introductions, reflections in small groups, a teaching from me, and time for questions. We’ll begin here to turn towards the land and the fallow season. We’ll learn about harvesting customs, share what signs of the turning we see on the land we’re on, and create an effigy to carry us through winter.

Ancestral Arts (10/2)

We all come from people who practiced ritual, embodiment, seasonal reverence, or craft within a specific context and lineage. We’ll touch on song, cooking, and crafting and engage in an “ancestral gifts” guided journey to feel into your doorway into ancestral arts practices.

Ritual Basics (10/16)

In our third class, we'll go over some Ritual 101! We'll talk about ritual components, the ritual arc, how ritual intersects with ancestral and somatic work, and then have some time to design your own ritual in small groups. We’ll also be setting intentions for the New Moon through a short and beloved salt ritual.

Ancestral Altars & Reconnection (10/30)

Here, we learn the basics of building an ancestral altar, discuss practices for inviting in your ancestors, and begin the process of embodied ancestral research.

The Songs of Our People (11/13)

One of my favorite personal ancestral connection practices is to learn the songs of my people. In this class we’ll be learning about ancestral singing styles from different regions, the somatics of song and singing, and listening to some ancestral songs.

Dreamtime (11/27)

The dark part of the year is naturally condusive to deep dreaming. We’ll talk about dreamtime as a time for connection, best practices for dreamwork, and map out the landscape of your dreams.

Winter Gates (12/4)

In our second to last class we’ll discuss practices for wintering while the land is fallow, and look back on what some of our ancestors did including looking at holy days and winter deities.

Closing & Yule Log Ritual (12/18)

During the last class of the season, we’ll complete a closing Yule Log ritual together and reflect on what we’ve learned and what you’re taking with you as the light returns.

Bonus Classes taught by Guest Teachers TBD

Dates

All classes are held on Wednesday evenings at 5pm pacific and meet every-other-week

September 18th

October 2nd, 16th & 30th

November 13th & 27th

December 4th & 18th

Guest Teachers

This year we’ll also have four Guest Teachers coming to share about folk traditions they hold dear. These Guest Teaching Sessions will be held outside of class time (dates to be announced) and serve as ancillary drop-in classes. This is a great opportunity to learn from folks whose customs vary regionally and from people I’m in community with who practice differently than me. We all have so much to learn from each other!

Sarah Arantza Amador

Spanish folk traditions for meeting the dark with levity and light: hogueras de navidad, santos inocentes, caga tió, & reyes magos 

An introduction to Spain's winter solstice celebrations, mischief-making on the day of the Holy Innocents, the Catalán Christmas poo log, and the arrival of the three magician kings on the day of Epiphany.

Sarah Arantza Amador is an author, tarotist, and creativity coach of Spanish and Cuban descent living on the Monterey Bay of Northern California. She believes that the world is imperfect and beautiful; that humans are wired for curiosity, empathy, and change; and that you are magic! A former university professor with a background in nonviolent communication, psychoanalysis, literary analysis, and philosophy, Sarah works with tender-hearted creatives to explore inter and intrapersonal connection and understanding. Find her online at hawthornmountaintarot.com and on IG @hawthorn_mtn_tarot 

Em Palumbo

Cooking For Dead People: Exploring Ancestral Re-Connection through Creative Collective Expressions of Grief

Exploring Em’s generative, community project, Cooking for Dead People (CFDP) as a case study for ancestral re-connection, encapsulating specific Italian folk rituals and customs. CFDP is a cooking series and creative project that explores the connection between grief, ancestors, love, food, ritual and relationship through oral, visual and written story-sharing. CFDP is informed by Em’s lived experience with chronic illness, surviving CSA, loss and grief, the embodiment of home as a container for safety, dignity and belonging, and the regular practice of ritual and connection through the lens of the Italian diasporic experience.

Emma (Em) Palumbo is a white, queer, gender fluid writer, somatic psychotherapist, group facilitator & educator, and gatherer of people and plants. Em’s ancestors are settlers who immigrated to Turtle Island from both Italy and Scotland in the early-mid 20th century. Em grew up across the street from their Nonni (Italian grandparents) in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada where spells, smells and recipes were passed down through ritual, gathering, ceremony and folk-catholic medicine. Em currently lives in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (also known as Halifax, Nova Scotia). 

Em believes we all have the capacity to heal and transform through individual and collective curiosity and creative practices that bring us back into connection with ourselves, the land and each other. Their practices and teachings are informed and guided by abolition, harm reduction, grassroots community organizing, love as an action, and noticing the beauty that co-exists with our struggles for liberation.

Pricing + Registration Details

Class time is to be determined. CC will be provided and classes will be recorded and sent out to all participants within 24 hours.

**A note: participants will get infinitely more out of each class if you attend live. There is ample room for questions and reflections and students really help to shape the work. That being said, a recordings will be available.

Revive! is $400 and can be paid in full or through a payment plan. *Due to the digital nature of this course, no refunds will be available. Please reach out if you have questions about this class or want to see if it’s the right fit for you.

After you register you’ll receive an email from me (hello@weaverandrose.com - save it to your contacts so it doesn’t get lost!) with details about what to expect and the link to join.

Contact me here if you have any questions