The Healing Power of Animism

A guide for connecting to the spirit world for healing, guidance, and empowerment

• Explores the ancient animistic beliefs and rituals of the Dagara people of West Africa, including the importance of ancestors and dreams

• Examines Dagara animistic magic in depth, including examples of divination methods, spells, and healing practices

• Describes the author’s spiritual apprenticeship with Martine Somé, sister of bestselling author and spiritual leader Malidoma Patrice Somé

Spirits are everywhere: in every animal and plant, every rock and shell, in the sand, soil, water, and wind. By acknowledging and interacting with the spirits around us, we can discover deep healing, profound guidance, inner knowing, and spiritual empowerment. This is the premise of animism, humanity’s most ancient system of spirituality.

In this guide to Dagara animism, Mark Bockley shares the animistic practices and beliefs he learned firsthand by working for decades with members of the Somé lineage of West African Dagara shamanism. He explains how, to the Dagara, everything is alive and worthy of respect. He describes how he was chosen by the spirits and underwent a rigorous apprenticeship and initiation with Martine Somé, sister of bestselling author and spiritual leader Malidoma Patrice Somé.

Revealing how to integrate animism into your spiritual practice, the author explores the ritual structures that shape everyday Dagara life, including divination, healing practices, birth rituals, and transformative death rituals. He reveals how ritual itself helps you attune your consciousness with other beings. This is the basis of animism. He looks at the importance of ancestors, animals, and dreams and explores Dagara animistic magic in depth, including divination methods and spells.

The antidote to the spiritual amnesia of the West is an awakening to animistic consciousness. This guide offers a connection to a vibrant living spiritual tradition and helps restore our ancestral awareness of the spiritual intelligence of Nature.