Mark Bockley

Mark Bockley has spent decades studying and practicing the animistic traditions of the Dagara people of West Africa, working directly with members of the Somé lineage. The teachings at the heart of his work were not gathered as anthropology observed from outside; they were received from teachers, over years, with care and with permission.

Placeholder — expand with Mark's true biography: where he was born and raised, his early life and education, and what first drew him toward animism and the Dagara worldview.

His writing brings the Dagara understanding into conversation with the questions of the modern West — the loneliness of a disenchanted world, the hunger for guidance, the wish to heal what feels broken at the root. He is careful to present this work as a living practice held by a living people, not as a relic to be collected, and he writes with explicit acknowledgment of the teachers and lineage that made the book possible.

The Healing Power of Animism: Teachings from the Spirits of the Dagara is a new edition of his earlier work, Awakening Animism in the West: The Healing Spirits of the Dagara. The new edition Placeholder — describe what is new or revised in this edition (added material, reorganized chapters, new foreword, etc.).

Placeholder — note Mark's current work: whether he teaches, leads workshops or gatherings, where he is based, and any community or practice he is part of today.

When he is not writing, Placeholder — a closing personal detail in Mark's own voice, if he wishes to include one.