Announcing New Certification Program In Indigenous African Tradition

ALBANY, N.Y. - March 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Malidoma Somé, PhD., native of Burkina Faso, West Africa, modern-day shaman, teacher and acclaimed author of several books, including The Healing Wisdom of Africa, created an intensive certification program – Into the Heart of African Shamanism (IHAS) - to bring credibility to the practice of the Dagara wisdom tradition in the United States. The certification program, launching August 2013 in Cherry Plain, NY, is designed to be a 3-year training resulting in a Certificate of Advanced Practice which is "akin to an ordination into indigenous priesthood of the African Dagara brand," says Dr. Somé.

For nearly 25 years, Dr. Somé has devoted himself to being the voice from out of the continent of Africa dedicated to the inclusion of its Ancestral wisdom in the concert of world culture and spirituality cradled by the West. Through lectures, workshops, residential trainings and several acclaimed books, Dr. Somé has been sharing the ancient wisdom and practices of his tribe, the Dagara of West Africa.  
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Dr. Somé notes however, that many people have distorted the culture and traditions of his people, thus contributing to "diminishing the value of the medicine making it homeless and vulnerable to capture and distortion at the hands of spiritual wanderers." The certification program, explains Dr. Somé, " is a response to, and a reaction against, the danger of misrepresentation."

The Certification program, entitled Into The Heart Of African Shamanism will be completed in two stages:

• The Foundation Series, a yearly series of training intensives into Dagara cosmology and practice for beginners, specifically elemental rituals and introduction to indigenous African divination systems.

• The 3-Year Certification Training, a practitioner-oriented program featuring a core curriculum into advanced practices such as rites of passage and traditional healing. Certification candidates have the option to earn a specialty certificate as a Diviner, Ritual Leader, Traditional Healer or Master Teacher.

This educational program will be administered by the Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering people through the practices of indigenous African spirit technologies as brought to the West by Dagara Elder, Dr. Malidoma Somé.  

For more information, visit the webste at http://eastcoastvillage.org