There aren’t adequate English words to describe the great loss of an initiated elder like Malidoma Somé. His life was an offering from his ancestors and the Dagara to us, in the West, who are in great need of the technologies and medicines that the Dagara and their Otherworld friends have to offer us in these times.

My heart has been filled from Elder Malidoma’s kind, humble, patient, potent, and radical presence in the World. And now my heart is filled with grief and gratitude that knows no depths. I will honor his life by living my purpose and my medicine in the sacred ways he showed us by teaching us the language and choreography of ritual. 

Elder Malidoma is a person who walked in multiple worlds at once and traversed many mountains and seas to accomplish what his ancestors tasked him with in this lifetime. He has truly made friends of strangers and enemies. The healing that I have witnessed and experienced in radical ritual is exactly what souls are begging for right now. May these sacred ways continue so that we can experience true peace— an experience far different than what we go to war for.  

In Malidoma’s transition, we all gain a Great Ancestor. A great tree has fallen in this world and a mighty ancient being has risen in the world of the Ancestors.

Puor-ah Sâan miné, dear Elder.
Asé.