Death Work

Healing the Dead, Working with Ancestors, and Tapping into the Death Current

How We Meet

Death Work is a year-long class. We meet one Thursday a month at 7 PM: 12 monthly sessions across the year. The bulk of the course is psychopomp work - helping the dead heal and move on - with ancestral work and the death current filling out the rest.

Session 1 - 01/14/2027: Introduction to Death Work, the Shamanic Journey, and Building Your Spirit Team

We open with what makes this work possible in the first place: where we come from, what survives death, and the team of spirits who'll walk this path with you all year.

• DNA lineages - why we're related to nearly everything on the planet, not just other people
• The three-soul model: the body soul, the spirit soul, and the one that survives death
• Daniel Foor's four foundational points of death work
• How death became feared, and what got lost when the handoff out of this life stopped being a shared, spiritual act
• Grief, and how it affects the dead
• Belief-system conflict as another way a soul gets stuck
• A journey to begin building your spirit team, starting with your spiritual protector

Session 2 - 02/11/2027: Ethics and Working with Death Deities

With the groundwork laid, we turn to how this work is held responsibly, and to the deities who guide it.

• The core ethics of death work: neutrality, and working for the dead, not the living
• How death work differs from death doula work and from mediumship
• Message delivery and consent - the dead, the living, and the line between them
• Death deities across traditions
• A journey to meet the death deity you'll partner with

Session 3 - 03/11/2027: DNA Lineages and Ancestral Work

We start close to home, with your own bloodline.

• DNA lineages, and what "ancestor" really means
• A 1-10 healing scale for assessing an ancestor
• Why we don't work directly with known ancestors
• A journey to discover your spirit tracker

Session 4 - 04/15/2027: Ancestral Altars

Hands-on work building the altar that anchors your ancestral practice.

• Working altars vs. honoring altars
• Opening and dedicating your ancestral altar
• Consecrating the items that go on it
• A journey to meet your healing spirit ally

Session 5 - 05/13/2027: Finding Your Ancestral Guardian - Office Hours and Offering Practices

Our last ancestral session closes this chapter and carries you into the rest of the year.

• Office hours: keeping an ongoing relationship with your ancestors
• Offering practices and the ongon
• Reciprocity: what the ancestors ask of us in return
• Open Q&A on ancestral altar work
• A journey to find your ancestral guardian

Session 6 - 06/10/2027: Building Your Psychopomp Team

This is where the heart of the course begins. By now you should have relationships with your full spirit team - this session is where it all comes together.

• Maintaining your relationship with your psychopomp deity
• How to walk a soul across the veil
• Bringing your full spirit team together
• A journey to meet with your whole team and learn how they'll work with you

Session 7 - 07/15/2027: Diagnosing a Stuck Soul

Everything that can leave a soul stuck, and how to recognize it.

• Grief-tethering, in both directions
• The broken handoff and the trauma it leaves behind
• Belief-system conflict at death
• Physical disturbance and strong emotion as waking mechanisms
• Institutions, collective stagnation, and the dead who lean on them

Session 8 - 08/12/2027: Healing the Dead

Soul retrieval, cord work, and the techniques of healing - all done through your spirit team.

• Soul retrieval, facilitated through your spirit helpers
• Cord work: living-to-dead vs. dead-to-dead
• Message delivery and consent, revisited
• Keeping the secrets of the dead
• Banishing, as a last resort
• A journey with your death deity: your first one-on-one healing

Session 9 - 09/09/2027: When It Doesn't Go as Planned

Fieldwork gets complicated. This session is your toolkit for the complications.

• Handling angry spirits: confidence, patience, and why we don't banish first
• Constructs - deliberately created spirits - and their weak points
• Spirits tethered to an object, a story, or a living person
• Spirits woken by a traumatic or triggering event
• When a second spirit turns out to be attached to the one you're working with
• A journey with your death deity: another one-on-one healing

Session 10 - 10/14/2027: Land Spirits, House Spirits, and the Full House-Clearing Method

Your full house-clearing method, step by step.

• Land spirits: what they are and how to honor them
• House spirits: a distinct category, and how to honor them
• Why land and house spirits are always your first stop in a clearing
• The complete house-clearing method, start to finish
• A journey to meet the spirit of the land where we hold class

Session 11 - 11/18/2027: Magic of the Dead I

Cross-cultural lineages of death magic, and your own death altar.

• Hoodoo
• British folk magic
• Norse, Slavic, and Celtic traditions
• Greek and Roman necromancy
• Building your death altar

Session 12 - 12/16/2027: Magic of the Dead II

Cemetery work and the death current - our closing practical work for the year.

• Understanding the cemetery guardian
• Graveyard dirt and its ethics
• Skull and death-current divination
• Death work herbs and crystals
• A journey to tap into the death current itself

Frequently Asked Questions

✓Can I take this class remotely?

Yes! Remote students join every session live over Zoom, with no exceptions - this class runs fully the same whether you're in the room or dialing in.

✓What if money is an issue?

If you feel called to take this class but money is an issue, please visit our Tuition Options page and contact us for other tuition options. We offer work exchange for this class. You can also finance your tuition with PayPal Credit by choosing PayPal at checkout, or ask us for an AfterPay invoice. Possible discounts vary based on your situation.

✓Are the classes recorded in case I miss one?

Yes! However, keep in mind that recordings can be subject to technical difficulties. We always encourage students to attend live if possible. If you are out of town or under the weather, you can dial in by Zoom.

✓When does registration close?

Registration closes on Wednesday, January 13, 2027, the day before our first session on January 14.