Waitlist for Fall 2026
Singing the Bones
Find Healing & Meaning through Ancestral Reconnection
6-Week Online Experience led by Lydia Violet and Leah Song of Rising Appalachia
On the left: Leah Song of Appalachian and Irish roots. On the right: Lydia Violet of Iranian and Armenian roots.
Faravahar - ancient Persian guardian of truth and righteous resistance. The eternal choice between light and darkness, carried on wings of ancestral memory.
Gather at the…
Wellsprings of Story and Song!
During this experience, Lydia & Leah will take you through an immersive curriculum of cultural self-discovery. You’ll participate in lectures, group discussions, vocal workshops, storytelling, and Q&A sessions. We invite you to come as you are, either participating live or catching our recordings.
We will support you with resources for researching cultural histories, harvesting both lessons from shortcomings and wisdom from life-enhancing traditions.
Lydia will teach on the nature of mythic truth, cosmology, and psyche, those things that can be hard to put into words, but are so satisfying when understood. You will dive into learning about the instruments and music styles singing in your blood, and see the connections and differentiations across cultures.
Most importantly, you will practice reconnection within the diaspora, defining what a relationship with your ancestors means for you.
Your lineage holds potent medicine
To be diasporic means to be a member of any group of people who have been dispersed outside their traditional homeland. Many of the world’s population, including most North American residents, exist within a diaspora. At the same time, there is also a phenomenon of ancestral cultural separation, rootlessness, and amnesia that many of us inherit.
With this separation can come disorientation from land, language, and tradition and assimilation into modern cultures based on capitalism and materialism.
Hangaku Gozen - legendary Japanese onna-bugeisha who commanded troops and defended Tossaka Castle with unmatched archery, refusing surrender even when wounded. Beside her, an Uzbek warrior of Safavid Persia bearing the shamshir - the curved Persian blade that became the soul of mounted resistance. Two warriors, centuries and continents apart, united by unbreakable spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
Celtic spear and torch crossed with horseshoe for protection, flanked by the eternal Celtic knot of unbreakable strength and the Triskele of forward motion; symbols warriors carried into battle. The amphora holds ancestral wisdom, the scroll preserves their resistance. What our ancestors fought to defend, we inherit. What they refused to surrender, we remember.
Study the Past, Inform Your Way Forward
But we do not need to resign ourselves to this assimilation. We can study the past to inform our way forward. Humans have always stored their lessons and medicines in stories and songs, and every culture has a thread in this tapestry. What is yours?
Learning about the cultures of our ancestors can give us powerful tools for healing toxic patterns, nurturing relationships, and creating a greater sense of meaning in our lives.
Because the medicine for the adversities our ancestors faced is often in their very culture. All humans gathered around imagination and creativity, confessing their life stories, wonderings, and prayers. Their humanity often came forward through these outlets, creating medicine for the hardships of life.
Your Ancestral Landscape Awaits…
Through studying the stories of these cultures, we have an opportunity to connect to the psychic, spiritual, and material landscapes of our ancestors. These stories tell us the flora and fauna they were surrounded by, the fundamental patterns of daily life they engaged in, the foods they shared, and the celebrations they marked.
In addition to these more literal truths, stories connect us with the psyches of our ancestors, the mythic worlds that engaged their thoughts and prayers. Learning their cosmologies allows us to reconnect with the cosmos they painted around themselves while inspiring us to reflect on who we truly are and what we are made of. This type of cultural learning is a pivotal step in connecting to our authentic selves and spiritual depth.
Ancestral symbols gather beneath the Orion constellation. The talharpa sings a reclaimed song of survival and memory, while the Chinese dragon embodies wisdom and protective strength. Lavender marks healing after battle, and the stars remain as guides through darkness; honoring the beauty the warrior protects.
Al-Burāq is a supernatural, winged, horse-like creature in Islamic tradition, best known as the mount that carried the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and through the heavens during the Isra and Mi'raj (Night Journey). take our aztec hummingbird and replace with this photo, which from what i looked at is public domain historic imagery
For you if...
❥ You LOVE mythology, land-based living, soul, and song.
❥ You want to learn about your ancestral culture and traditions in a supportive, immersive space.
❥ You’re excited to learn in a healing container, through practices that engage body, mind, creativity, and spirit.
❥ You’d love to build meaningful connections and a greater sense of belonging.
❥ You seek well-being through the healing power of cultural reconnection.
❥ You’re curious about finding wisdom and meaning in your cultural heritage.
❥ You’d like to discover the ancestral instruments and music singing in your blood.
❥ You want to contribute to your beloved world and community.
Your lineage holds potent medicine
To be diasporic means to be a member of any group of people who have been dispersed outside their traditional homeland. Many of the world’s population, including most North American residents, exist within a diaspora. At the same time, there is also a phenomenon of ancestral cultural separation, rootlessness, and amnesia that many of us inherit.
With this separation can come disorientation from land, language, and tradition and assimilation into modern cultures based on capitalism and materialism.
Hangaku Gozen - legendary Japanese onna-bugeisha who commanded troops and defended Tossaka Castle with unmatched archery, refusing surrender even when wounded. Beside her, an Uzbek warrior of Safavid Persia bearing the shamshir - the curved Persian blade that became the soul of mounted resistance. Two warriors, centuries and continents apart, united by unbreakable spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
Celtic spear and torch crossed with horseshoe for protection, flanked by the eternal Celtic knot of unbreakable strength and the Triskele of forward motion; symbols warriors carried into battle. The amphora holds ancestral wisdom, the scroll preserves their resistance. What our ancestors fought to defend, we inherit. What they refused to surrender, we remember.
Study the Past, Inform Your Way Forward
But we do not need to resign ourselves to this assimilation. We can study the past to inform our way forward. Humans have always stored their lessons and medicines in stories and songs, and every culture has a thread in this tapestry. What is yours?
Learning about the cultures of our ancestors can give us powerful tools for healing toxic patterns, nurturing relationships, and creating a greater sense of meaning in our lives.
Because the medicine for the adversities our ancestors faced is often in their very culture. All humans gathered around imagination and creativity, confessing their life stories, wonderings, and prayers. Their humanity often came forward through these outlets, creating medicine for the hardships of life.
Ancestral symbols gather beneath the Orion constellation. The talharpa sings a reclaimed song of survival and memory, while the Chinese dragon embodies wisdom and protective strength. Lavender marks healing after battle, and the stars remain as guides through darkness; honoring the beauty the warrior protects.
Your Ancestral Landscape Awaits…
Through studying the stories of these cultures, we have an opportunity to connect to the psychic, spiritual, and material landscapes of our ancestors. These stories tell us the flora and fauna they were surrounded by, the fundamental patterns of daily life they engaged in, the foods they shared, and the celebrations they marked.
In addition to these more literal truths, stories connect us with the psyches of our ancestors, the mythic worlds that engaged their thoughts and prayers. Learning their cosmologies allows us to reconnect with the cosmos they painted around themselves while inspiring us to reflect on who we truly are and what we are made of. This type of cultural learning is a pivotal step in connecting to our authentic selves and spiritual depth.
Al-Burāq is a supernatural, winged, horse-like creature in Islamic tradition, best known as the mount that carried the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and through the heavens during the Isra and Mi'raj (Night Journey). take our aztec hummingbird and replace with this photo, which from what i looked at is public domain historic imagery
For you if...
❥ You LOVE mythology, land-based living, soul, and song.
❥ You want to learn about your ancestral culture and traditions in a supportive, immersive space.
❥ You’re excited to learn in a healing container, through practices that engage body, mind, creativity, and spirit.
❥ You’d love to build meaningful connections and a greater sense of belonging.
❥ You seek well-being through the healing power of cultural reconnection.
❥ You’re curious about finding wisdom and meaning in your cultural heritage.
❥ You’d like to discover the ancestral instruments and music singing in your blood.
❥ You want to contribute to your beloved world and community.
Curriculum
Past Curriculum
Session 1
A Cosmological Home:
❥ Introduction to exploring the cosmologies and cultures held within the connections in your lineage.
❥ What is an archetype? Psyche? Soul?
❥ De-orphaning the parts of us that have been disconnected.
❥ The nature of mythic truth- how myths & stories may convey a different kind of truth than we are accustomed to.
Session 2
Myth & Folklore I
❥ The mythic and literal truths we find in these stories.
❥ The role of archetypes: who they are, and how we use them. Working with archetypes we are drawn to.
❥ Common themes/stories across cultures.
❥ Who were the storytellers? What was their cultural role?
Session 3
Myth & Folklore II
❥ Myth and tradition connections from all over the world.
❥ Q & A with Lydia and Leah.
❥ Folkloric Culture and it’s future.
Session 4
Healing the Split Through Song
❥ Incorporating folk music traditions in our research.
❥ Warming up the voice: healing the split through song.
❥ Vocal Exploration with Leah Song.
❥ Language: learning the sounds in our blood.
❥ Understanding the nuances of cultural inspiration, resonance, exchange, and appropriation.
Session 5
Folk Music II + Singing The Bones Celebration
❥ Continuing our folk music studies.
❥ Beginning our Singing the Bones Celebration, and kaleidoscope sharing of cultural artifacts from around the world.
Session 6
Singing the Bones Celebration
❥ We invite you (optionally) to share and celebrate on artifact from your cultural findings. This can be an image, story, mythic figure, instrument, or small song snippets that you were drawn to learn more about. No perfection needed, we are all learning how to do this together. You are welcome to either listen or share, and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Your Groovy Facilitators
Lydia Violet
(She/her)
Lydia brings robust scholarship in cosmology, archetypal psychology, and group facilitation centered around personal and collective healing. Through compassionate, playful, and grounded leadership, she integrates intellectual study, ancestral cultural reconnetion, and emotional mending. She creates learning spaces that are rigorous, relational, and deeply resourcing, offering steadiness and companionship amid ecological and cultural upheaval.
Leah Song
(She/her)
Leah, frontwoman of Rising Appalachia, brings over 20 years of experience in folk music and community healing. She blends music, storytelling, somatic movement, dance, and meditation into a soulful offering of embodied cultural exploration. Her facilitation invites people into embodied presence and collective remembering through rhythm, voice, and movement.
Join Waitlist
Leah and I will open the doors to our winter cohort very soon!
Testimonials
“Sending you BIG, BIG, love, gratitude, and appreciation. What you are doing with Singing the Bones is remarkable. I have long sensed that our people are always near to us and show themselves in a plethora of ways. In this class I have been able to foster that idea and begin to see a path towards sharing it. It has been so uplifting to see your work in action and connect with kindred spirits.”
— Beth Hutchinson
“Participating in this course has brought more love, meaning, and vitality into my heart. This journey felt as if I was falling in love for the first time, staying up late researching wanting more, more, more!” I feel somatically altered from the experience as the intelligence and wisdom of my Lithuanian pagan ancestors has been awakened within my bones…”
— Jamie Oksas
“This class felt like the opening ceremony for the rest of my life…”
— Hollyn Bermonde