Ancestral Lineage Healing
Ancestral Lineage Healing is a type of spiritual repair work that addresses deep attachment and cultural wounds through contact and meditative time with your ancestral lineages.
I guide you as you cultivate your capacity for deep connection with blood-lineage ancestors that are well in spirit to invoke their support for healing generational trauma and cultural wounding through your ancestral lines.
Why should one consider Ancestral Lineage Healing?
Well, off the top of my head: it’s fun. But I’ll go on…
If you consider yourself a Spiritual Person, or On the Path, or if you identify with someone who has Done a lot of Work, and have daily direct ritual connection with the Hawthorn, Green Tara, Osiris, and the Moon, it’s entirely possible that you’ve yet to give attention to your own ancestors of bone and body. That’s okay, it’s fairly normal in Western culture to skip this part. And this lack of attention is imposing some limitations on What Is Possible. It’s unsafe to not do it. It’s unsafe to do it. Just like staying in the house vs going out. This is relational. There is nothing safe about relating— with the living or the dead. Relating is not something we can very successfully opt out of.
Your ancestors want you to live out your destiny. They are going to bless all of your creations— children or creative projects or contributions to the world. Your legacy. This is true of all of your living family members as well. The powerful spirit of the Wolf that you connect with sometimes may not give a damn about your personal destiny, they likely have other priorities.
So much interference can be addressed at this level. The dead have a lot of impact on the living. Using an ancestral lens when we’re struggling can help us to recognize previously unconscious burdens. It can create space for, and facilitate, transformation of those influences. This can be anything from insomnia, anxiety, depression, addiction, attachment wounding, poor boundaries, even physical aliments.
I’m still finding again and again that this work is container for for having emotionally corrective experiences (a different kind of attachment) that may not be possible with other living humans.
In July 2023, I completed Ancestral Medicine’s sixth cohort for the Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner training.
Let me tell you a secret: you can talk to dead people. Your ancestors!
No previous experience required. No religious affiliation required. No family trees required.
Let’s get on the same page.
These are cross-cultural pillars that anchor this work:
Consciousness continues after death.
Not all the dead are equally well.
The living and the dead can communicate.
The living and the dead can strongly affect one another.
The dead can change, just like the living.
The Process
I act as a facilitator, helping to foster your connection with your ancestors and offering prompts for where the session might go, but allowing space for your ancestors to really lead the process in connection with you. Some folks feel the process is similar to some forms of guided meditation or somatic experiencing. Each session will unfold a bit different, but the overall framework for the method is:
An assessment of 4 initial lineages (think of your grandparents) and selecting a lineage to start the process with
Connecting with an ancient, wise, and vibrant ancestral guide on the lineage of focus
Working with the guide to tend to the span(s) of the lineage where repair is needed and fortifying that work with offerings or actions in your everyday life
Working with the guide to come to know the blessings and the burdens of the lineage more intimately
Working with the guide to formally and ritually ancestralize the dead who have not yet crossed into the ancestral realm
Working with the guide to bring the blessings down the lineage to the remains and lands they lived on as well as the living and allow yourself to become the living face of the lineage
Once a lineage has a certain level of vibrancy, you can begin to address the deep attachment and cultural work. This can look like invoking their support for healing generational trauma and cultural wounding through your ancestral line.
One one or more linages have made the transition from repair work to relational work, you can harmonize between the lines often addressing deeper between-lineage issues like historical trauma occurring between cultures, genders, and more.
As the work unfolds, clients have reported:
sharper intuition and discernment
stronger boundaries with the living and the dead
addressing intergenerational trauma and dysfunctional family patterns
feeling more connected to your identities and cultural heritage
experiencing more secure attachments
a wider capacity to be with uncertainty, grief, and loss
more clarity and blessings for stepping into your own power and destiny
a grounded sense of belonging, especially for those who feel like they don’t fit in
vivid intuitive guidance from your ancestors
renewed and vibrant relationship with the Earth and the web of life
greater synchronicity, blessing, and protection in your life
cleansing release of grief, shame, and fear
a new sense of self-acceptance and worth
support to shift addictive behaviors
FAQs:
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I recommend planning for at least three initial sessions to understand how this process unfolds and to ensure safety, support, and integration.
You can book a session, or a pack of sessions, here.
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We drop into the shared ritual space together with a prayer.
We chat a bit about your sense of where the work will go that session (meeting a guide, healing the recent dead, understanding the blessings and burdens, etc.)
I walk you through a grounding practice.
I guide you through the ritual step we discussed above.
We spend some time discussing and integrating together.
I assign some next steps to further the process and integration of what transpired in the session.
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There can be many reasons why names, dates, locations, and stories are lost, forgotten, or hidden. You do not need to have any information about your ancestors to do this work.
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Humanity has been around for long enough that in each of our lineages, we have a mixture of oppressed and oppressor. The exact recipe is unique to each of us. To judge our ancestors is not a particularly interesting or transformative stance. If they have not already gotten right with the spirits, then you ask the older ancestors to step in and they can handle it because they're the ones in a position to do it.
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No.
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I do! The Ancestral Healing Practitioner Code of Ethics:
Ancestral healing practitioners prioritize personal well-being in ways that enable them to effectively serve others. This includes being willing to ask for and to receive support.
Ancestral healing practitioners sustain active and generative relationships with their ancestors and seek to embody the principles of ancestral and family healing.
Ancestral healing practitioners model cultural self-responsibility, fairness, and respect and do not discriminate with regard to ethnicity, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, mental or physical ability, political views, nationality, immigration status, or socio-economic background.
Ancestral healing practitioners adhere to the Ancestral Healing Practitioners Code of Ethics and related agreements as well as ethical codes and agreements relevant to their credentials, professional associations, and other forms of service in the world.
Ancestral healing practitioners commit to proactive communication, personal responsibility, and regard for impact when navigating relational and structural power differentials with clients, students, practitioners and colleagues, and Ancestral Medicine teachers and staff.
Ancestral healing practitioners maintain and affirm healthy boundaries and practice active consent in sessions and teachings and in discerning when, how, and with whom to offer their services.
Ancestral healing practitioners encourage others to relate directly with their supportive ancestors and cultures of origin and foster cooperation and mutual respect among colleagues and practitioners from other traditions.
Ancestral healing practitioners seek to resolve conflicts in proactive, direct, and generative ways. This includes using established channels for conflict resolution, avoiding gossip, and encouraging good outcomes and repair.
Ancestral healing practitioners commit to a path of life-long learning and professional growth. This includes participating in continuing education, inviting feedback, and welcoming support.
Ancestral healing practitioners practice respect both for diverse types of human ancestors as well as for our other-than-human kin, seen and unseen, terrestrial and beyond.
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I am not a licensed counselor or healthcare provider. Clients are asked to maintain a network of support as needed for mental and physical health. This can include therapists, mentors, spiritual facilitators, etc.
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It can vary a lot. If you are making it a priority by committing to a session a week to plug away at it, it would probably take a few months with each. About a season per lineage with diligent tending.
If things aren’t in a really troubled state, you could likely work through your initial four lines in about a year.
It can take longer if one or more of the lineages is really impacting what you might be sorting through personally —your personal healing and developmental work and ancestral work play off of each other.
It’s certainly a process, not something that can be checked off a list quickly in a handful of sessions.