Mark Bockley

Despite being born and raised in Minnesota, West Africa will always be the home of my heart. I have spent many years in Dabakala, Ivory Coast and in Dano, Burkina Faso and have many friends — active to this day and still collaborating with our numerous projects that thrive to this day.

In 1996 I met Malidoma Somé and his sister Martine Somé in Northern California, and have worked with both of them for many years. This was the beginning of an amazing opening of the sacred road to Dagara medicine. In 2002 I went to Burkina Faso with Martine to be initiated as a Dagara stick diviner. I am very fortunate to have Martine as a remarkable mentor and very close friend to this day.

It is safe to say that prior to the arrival of Martine and Malidoma Somé, there were very few proponents of indigenous animistic traditions to be found in the West for non-natives. They helped set in motion a new trajectory for animistic Dagara medicine that continues to thrive and grow to this day, even though Malidoma crossed over a few years ago. The road he and Martine opened up lives on today. There are hundreds of people who have found their way to this medicine and are actively practicing it now…

For 25+ years now I have had an ongoing divination practice in Marin County, California. I teach and share this remarkable technology for those who are called and confirmed as Dagara medicine holders.

The West, to me, feels spiritually threadbare. The absence of spiritual gnosis in and on our lands is a blight on our spirits and our individual and collective imaginations. Nonetheless, I believe there is a way forward, that allows us to reclaim what we have allowed to be lost. Animism is an ancient, supple and inclusive framework for reclaiming our own indigenous heritage. It remains deeply planted within all of us and will respond.

I worked internationally as a brand strategist for 30 years and have been working as a diviner in Marin County, CA for just as long.

In The Healing Power of Animism: Teachings from the Spirits of the Dagara, I share the animistic practices and beliefs I learned firsthand by working for decades with members of the Somé lineage of West African Dagara shamanism — exploring the ritual structures that shape everyday Dagara life and the place of ancestors, animals, and dreams within it.