discover key cultural and religious ideas of the Christian middle ages that shape the way we live today
UnearthEd
This course is for you if…
YOU’RE AN ARTIST, WRITER, CREATOR, OR TEACHER and you know a deeper understanding of the Middle Ages will enhance the value of your work
YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR CULTURAL INHERITANCE as a westerner, so you can shed harmful societal norms and cultivate a more nourishing worldview for yourself and your community
YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT THE LOSS OF TRADITIONAL CULTURES through Christianization, and you know that learning about this history is a foundational step in cultural regeneration
YOU'RE PAGAN, A WITCH, POST-CHRISTIAN OR OTHER, and you desire a greater awareness of Christian influences are so you can make informed choices in your spiritual life
YOU'RE CHRISTIAN AND YOU SEEK GREATER HISTORICAL CONTEXT for how you practice your faith
YOU'RE CURIOUS TO KNOW which aspects of secular western culture originate in Christian religious ideas
YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE FORCES THAT HAVE DISCONNECTED PEOPLE from their bodies, the land, and one another, in order to initiate re-connection with sources of pleasure and joy in your life
YOU WANT TO RECEIVE A FASCINATING OVERVIEW OF MEDIEVAL CULTURE and history without enrolling in university courses or completing assignments!
Sign up for $160 CAD
4 units of Audio instruction, readings & Educational materials
Empire and the Cosmos
Gender and Materiality
Christianization of Europe
Antisemitism and the Persecution of Jews
looking frankly at the painful aspects of history helps us to see the many ways in which that history was never inevitable.
with that knowledge we hold the key to the endless possibilities of our own historical moment.
Explore the origins of these modern ideas in the Christian Middle Ages
Misogyny, disgust with women's bodies & slut-shaming
Association of women with materialism and earthiness
Association of Jewish people with stinginess and greed
Conspiracy theories about the theft of children and babies by minority groups
Fear of paganism
Fear of demons, evil forces, and Hell
Western cultural preferences for the linear & hierarchical
The origins of race and racism in medieval Christian thought
The spread of patriarchal nation states
Evangelism and mass conversion
Do you want a clearer view on the past?
For countless generations self-interested leaders have twisted Christian ideas, originally oriented toward liberation and equality, into tools for mass domination and control of resources.
Christian imperial thought permeates Western culture, influencing notions of goodness and right relationship, beliefs about the value of the earth, shaping our public holidays, our language, and our legal decisions about human rights.
Despite this enormous influence, few of us get the opportunity to peek into the archives and see where these ideas came from, or how exactly they came to shape our society.
This course is a chance to bring more definition to your understanding of the medieval period in European history, so you can make informed decisions about how you wish to engage with the matrix of Christian thought, whether as a spiritual practitioner, an artist, a parent, a leader, or a voting citizen.
Our human cultural worldviews quite literally shape our world. Learning together about the origins of our ways of seeing helps us to reclaim our agency, so we can use it to create a society that we, and all beings, can truly belong to.
Danica Boyce
My work is inspired by an insatiable desire to uncover the reasons behind the conditions of our daily lives, so we can use that knowledge to create greater freedom, optimism and joy in the face of rigid and cynical systems.
I hold a Masters degree in Middle English and Early Modern literature, and a Bachelor's degree in Education, with a specialization in indigenous pedagogy.
For six years I have been creating Fair Folk Podcast, a research-based offering that shares accessible information about northern European folk tradition and paganism, with a focus on folk song.
You can also find me on Instagram.
teaching and coaching feedback
As a student of history and amateur historian, I’ve always prized literal, empirical facts. [Danica's course Abundance Paganism] helped me to sort through the limited historical information that’s available on paganism and folklore, and glean what really resonates for me personally. I’m now better equipped to identify historical and contemporary biases in the information I read -- like the idea that all Scandinavians were vikings and believed in a fixed pantheon of gods, for example.
john bracken
Danica is a wonderful teacher, and thoughtful guide. Abundance Paganism infuses scholarly and historical perspectives with relevant emotional tools for modern practice.
Sam O.
Before learning from Danica, I was breathing the sorrow of the world, eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then she cracked all these mini-doors down a hallway for me. She showed me how to have that despondent moment, but then also to find and work toward the world I want to build. Not by ignoring pain, but by opening to hope, which is so profound. I now know the small simple things I am teaching people in my work are good. I had ripples and ripples of effects from just two small workshops and one coaching session with her. She calls me back to myself, reminds me to return my walking towards my purpose. There’s no greater teaching than that.
Sarabeth larrimore
unearth the roots of empire today