Lineage Recovery: Online Course for Women of European Descent | Remembering Ancestral Wisdom

Lineage Recovery Online Course

for those of European Descent

THIS COURSE IS FULL — PLEASE USE THE FORM BELOW IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE NEXT ONE

A Four-Session Journey of Remembering and Reconnection

This four-session course is an invitation for those of mixed European descent—or anyone carrying European ancestry—who are ready to explore and recover pre-medieval, land-based practices from their lineages. In a modern context that often obscures or erases these ancestral connections, this course offers a space to reclaim them with care, intention, and community.

Led by Maija West and Hilary Giovale and guest teachers, we will explore pathways into lineage recovery through Celtic, Latvian and other European traditions, while also making space for other practices to emerge. This circle of learning is rooted in respect, reciprocity, and the belief that it is the birthright of all peoples to remember and carry forward the life-affirming traditions of their ancestors.

Who This Course Is For

This course is designed for women and non-binary folks of European descent who:

Are already tending to regular self-care practices.
Are committed to deepening their ancestral remembering in community.
Are ready to participate fully in all four sessions.
Are open to honoring both their own lineages and the shared wisdom of the group.

We also welcome BIPOC women with European lineage who wish to reconnect with their European ancestral practices in a supportive, affirming space.

Course Details

Format: Four live sessions, once per month
Informational session: Thursday, January 15th 10:00–11:30 a.m. PT
Schedule: Two times a month, 10:00–11:30 a.m. PT

January 29th
Feb 12th
Feb 26th
March 19th

Duration: 90 minutes per session
Facilitators: Maija West and Hilary Giovale + Guest Presenters (click here for more info)
Recordings: Available upon request and based on group consent and agreement
Contribution: $60-120, and no one will be turned away due to lack of funds (contribution link is here)

What You’ll Experience

Guidance in uncovering pre-medieval practices from your ancestral lineages.
Teachings from Celtic and Latvian traditions, and imagery from Paleolithic rock art.
Shared space for reflection, connection, and integration.
Support in weaving ancestral remembering into your daily life.

Lineage recovery is both a personal and collective act. Join us as we reconnect with what has been forgotten, honor our ancestors, and remember the wisdom that still lives in our bodies, lands, and stories.

A portion of proceeds will go to two Indigenous-led organizations of the presenters’ choosing, and to the guest speakers as honoraria.

Reflection Questions

Before registering, take a few moments to sit with these questions:

Do I feel a longing to bring more meaningful traditions and practices into my daily life?
How connected do I currently feel to the wisdom of my European lineage?
What practices of care, ritual, or rhythm already sustain me—and what might be missing?
Am I ready to step into a circle of women and non-binary folks committed to remembering together?
How might reconnecting with ancestral, land-based traditions support my sense of belonging and wholeness today?

Use the form below to pre-register for the next course and we will send more information as dates & registration become available:

Meet The Facilitators

Maija West

Maija Danilova West is a business consultant, advisor, and peacemaker, drawing on 15 years of practice as a former attorney and strategist. As the founder and managing partner of Maija West Consulting, she combines leadership training with a fierce commitment to elevate and support women’s voices during this time of great change.

Maija’s leadership vision is guided by the cultural practices of her Latvian heritage—she was raised to honor and support relationships, traditions, and life’s many transitions. Professionally, she has been advising nonprofits, foundations, businesses, Tribes, and government agencies for over 25 years. Maija uses reconciliation, peacemaking, and other forms of conflict resolution to support advanced communication and leadership in diverse communities. She is also the co-founder of the Healing and Reconciliation Institute.

Learn more

Hilary Giovale

Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, facilitator, and community organizer who holds a Master’s Degree in Good and Sustainable Communities. She has taught improvisational dance and has served on the boards of philanthropic, human rights, and environmental organizations. Descended from the Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe, she is a ninth-generation American settler. For most of her life these origins were obscured by whiteness.

After learning more about her ancestors’ history, Hilary began emerging from a fog of amnesia, denial, and fragmentation. For the first time, she could see a painful reality: her family’s occupation of this land has harmed Indigenous and African peoples, cultures, lands, and lifeways. With this realization, her life changed.

How can I become a good relative?

This inquiry guides Hilary’s work, including her writing, teaching, and reparative philanthropy. Divesting from settler colonialism and whiteness, she seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of healing, mutual liberation, and equitable futures. She is the author of the award-winning book Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair. Connect with her on Instagram.

Learn more

Guest Speakers

Sara Axtell

I am the descendant of Norwegian settlers living in Imnížaska/St Paul, Minnesota on Dakota land in a place where there once was an oak savanna. My partner and I navigate life with my two fabulous adult children, their wonderful partners, and our beautiful, complicated network of family and friends.

I love to learn and teach with others, and I am fortunate to live in a place where there are lots of opportunities to create and share knowledge together. I am part of a learning community called Healing Roots, which brings people together to learn about the role of culture in our lives, how it can support our well-being, and be a resource in our racial justice work. I am deeply grateful to be guided and nurtured by elders and teachers in my community.

I also teach about culture and community in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.

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Sìne McKenna

Sìne McKenna is a singer, teacher, song writer and storyteller who is devoted to sharing her ancestral treasures with other kindred spirits. Although born and raised in Montreal, she was immersed in the culture of her Celtic ancestors from a young age.

Sìne began her work in 1990, after living on the Isle of Skye and working with language activist Sir Iain Noble. She is devoted to working with song, blessings, and ritual associated with death and dying, as well as paying homage to the cycles of the moon.

Since 2018 she has been sharing these ancestral treasures online with groups and individuals. She has also been travelling with her songs and stories to western Canada, the eastern United States and the Italian Alps.

At the present time she is working on a CD called: “The Wisdom of Grief: Songs of Loss and Longing from Gaelic Scotland”

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Max Dashú

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives (1970) to research and document global women's history. She teaches with images from her collection of some 50,000 photos of female cultural heritages across time and space. She is internationally known for her expertise on iconography, matricultures, patriarchy and systems of domination; medicine women, shamans, witches, and the witch hunts. Her books include Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Culture, 700-1100 (2016) and Women in Greek Mythography: Pythias, Melissae and Titanides (2023). Among her videos are Woman Shaman: the Ancients (2013) and Women’s Power in Global Perspective (2008).

See www.veleda.net for these and for her Female Heritages posters.
Open access videos: https://www.youtube.com/@maxdashu/videos
Stream on demand: https://suppressed-histories.teachable.com/courses/