The Call of the Wild: Ancestors, Dreams & Animal Medicine

Join traditionally trained African shaman (Sangoma) John Lockley for this interactive series of six classes, combining ceremony & meditation, to explore your inner 'wildness' and reconnect with the wilderness around you.

Through this course, John teaches you an indigenous worldview centred in the heart and spirit. He does this in an experiential way through storytelling, rhythm & chanting. Each week, he will initiate you through ceremony and meditation into this worldview and wisdom, guiding you to your destiny as a safe custodian of our planet and the animal kingdom.

Week 1 | Feel the Call of your Bones: Connect with Your Ancestors

• In traditional South African shamanism, the spiritual journey begins with invoking our Ancestors and spirit guides. John will lead a guided meditation to the realm of our forefathers, our Ancestors. 
• Discover ways of connecting with your blood and bones. In many cultures, they form the gateway to nature spirits.

Week 2 | The Art of Dream Tracking

• Learn how to understand your dreams and develop a relationship with your spirit. Our dreams are constantly teaching us and beckoning us to go deeper. How can we listen more deeply to the quiet murmurs of our soul? 
• John will teach the three levels of dreaming and how to identify prophetic or teaching dreams that help us navigate our soul's path. As we track our dreams to deeper levels of clarity, so we learn also to track our waking lives and develop the capacity for experiencing more soulfulness.

Week 3 | Invoking the Wilderness Within: Creating an Earth Altar

• Create a personal ceremony with an earth altar, incense and a white candle. 
• To connect with the wild outside, we need to connect with our own wildness, the shadow lands of our spirit. In most shamanic cultures, our ego is diminished through initiation. Often initiations involve trials of discomfort. This involves befriending our shadow, our unexpressed pain and sorrow.

Week 4 | Befriending the Wild Ones

• How to befriend wild animals? Gentle steps in animal communication and appreciation. 
• Feeling the heartbeat of the land and listening to the wind. 
• Learning the language of the animal kingdom. Animals communicate through their bodies using movement and sound. 
• Noticing which animals cross our path.

Week 5 | Animal Helpers, Guides & Medicine Friends

• A meditation on the power of animals to transform our spirit. Which animals do you befriend and dream about? Have you noticed a pattern? Animals are communicating with us all the time. Unfortunately, many of us are not hearing them. How can we change this?

Week 6 | A Prayer for the Wild

• Today, many animals are threatened with extinction. Every relationship involves reciprocity. For humans to regain their place as custodians of the planet, we need to learn to give back to the wilderness and the animal and plant worlds. As we give to animals through acts of kindness, empathy and unconditional love, we experience their medicine. 
• This session invites you to hold space in your heart for the wilderness through prayers, stories, poems. 
• John will guide you in African chants to invoke healing for the animal kingdom and all those animals that are suffering right now.

This course is inspired by John's pioneering work in Botswana where he has teamed up with a local safari guide and tracker to run the first-of-their-kind eco-spiritual safari retreats, Dreams & Tracking in the Kalahari. It operates in the heart of Africa, the Kalahari Desert & Okavango Delta; one of the 7 wonders of Africa. To date they have completed 5 retreats.

"What the world needs are alive humans, connected to their seven senses and natural born intuition, only then can we be true custodians of the planet," John Lockley

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Here's what to expect:

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We will not be recording these classes. One of the unique aspects of the College's online courses is that they are highly interactive. Participants are encouraged to discuss and share with the tutor and the group. These sharings can be very personal, and some may not feel comfortable with them being recorded. If you need to miss any sessions, your tutor will be happy to offer a brief outline of the material covered.

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Previous participants say:

"I really loved the course with John Lockley. It felt very special. He was very engaging and inspiring in the way he taught his teachings." 

"I loved his drumming and singing as it was a unique way into the meditations."

"Very informative and interesting. He is a very good teacher."

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