Ancestral Healing: Connecting to the Power of Your Lineage
There has been an image floating around the internet recently. I do not know who created it, as it was posted without credit when I saw it, but it blew me away. I will share the text in its entirety with you now....
“Ancestral Mathematics
In order to be born you needed:
2 Parents
4 Grandparents
8 Great-Grandparents
16 second Great-Grandparents
32 third Great-Grandparents
64 fourth Great-Grandparents
128 fifth Great-Grandparents
256 sixth Great-Grandparents
512 seventh Great-Grandparents
1,024 eighth Great-Grandparents
2,048 ninth Great-Grandparents
In order for you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years!
Think about that for a moment...How many struggles? How many battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? What did your ancestors undergo for you to exist in this present moment?”
Can you understand why this text from the original image impacted me so deeply?
We tend to think our Ancestors lived boring lives. No electrical power, no cell phones with access to any restaurant via grubhub and multiple other delivery services, no instant running hot water. But they also had incredibly exciting and thrilling lives! They rode horses, and hunted their own food. They survived around campfires and connected through telling stories. They traveled by following the stars and the tides. Your Ancestors are unique, as are you!
Why is it important to connect to Ancestors?
We can learn a lot from our Ancestors and our lineage. We might have a lineage of warriors, or of healers, of Royalty and of Slavery. Most family lines will have both good and bad. Both light and shadow, both lover and perpetrator or destroyer. Sometimes for these reasons, it can be scary to considering turning over the rocks of your family tree to see what might be there. Know that, statistically speaking, we all have ‘bad guys’ in our family history. This doesn’t say anything about you or who you are now. You have the power to create your own story and break free from any pain created or caused in the past. You are your own person. It is okay to be mindful though, and the more we know about our lineage, the more comfortable we can feel working with our Ancestors.
We also have truly powerful allies in our family lineage who can help us find our own strength and resilience in trying times. They have overcome great battles, times of famine and food being scarce, times of uncertainty. They found a way through. They carried out traditions in hiding, facing persecution at times. Many found a way to thrive and experience joy, even if it was done in secret. These moments are rebellious and powerful. By connecting to our Ancestors, we can also be supported by their strength, how they held their ground. We can call upon these same parts that live on within us.
What is Ancestral Healing and Why would someone do this?
In last week’s blog I talked about Intergenerational Trauma and how this impacts family lineages over time. Ancestral Healing seeks to understand these past family traumas and how they may be impacting the person or their family today. Ancestral Healing requires us to take a deep look at the patterns that have shown up in our family over time as a result of past traumas, and consciously work with ending hurtful behaviors and creating new, more compassionate or healthy patterns. This is very courageous work, but it is not always easy to do actively with family that is still alive. It can require having a lot of clear boundaries. Even if current family is very challenging for you, I will also discuss how we can work with our Ancestors from times passed.
People may be doing Ancestral healing without necessarily being aware of doing so. Maybe you grew up seeing your Grandma talk down to your mom and you decided that when you became a parent you would never speak to your children that way. This is an act of healing our lineage. In this way you do not pass on the wounds you saw inflicted. People who do this type of healing work are essentially Cycle-breakers in their families, breaking free from the chains of the past. This is very powerful work and can have massive ripple effects on any who come from your lineage after you. However, many people in a family will shame or ostracize the Cycle-breaker. They can become a sort of ‘Black Sheep’ in the family, but only because they are doing something others in the family are afraid of and feel threatened by. Sometimes by working with our Ancestors who have passed, we can make more progress in the present.
If we know someone from our lineage experienced a trauma, we can actively give their soul love and support in this life. Cycle-breakers see the impact of pain in their family and they are capable of healing pain from others in the past, simply by acknowledging it and shifting it in the present. If someone does have a “bad” Ancestor who has caused pain, a person can decide to work on healing that for their lineage, but also for the people in which the harm was inflicted upon. I will talk a little more about this and how it relates to Shadow work next week. There are many souls who come to specific family lines because they are strong and capable enough to help heal them. However, it is also never our responsibility to heal other people’s wounds. Just because we can do so, does not mean we have to. It is always a choice, and there is already plenty to heal in the present experience, that we do not have to take it on.
How can we begin to work with our Ancestors?
As I mentioned, we can all have Ancestors we would rather not connect to and that is okay. There is actually a large part of the population that is related to Genghis Khan. He’s a pretty bad dude, as we know from history, and there is a reason his lineage reaches so far and wide. If you have relatives like this in your past, it is okay to go slowly with Ancestral healing work and be very intentional and mindful about who you connect to.
When working with Ancestors it is always helpful to start by sitting in a comfortable position, in a quiet space, in which you will not be disturbed.
You can light a candle or do some smudging to open up sacred space. As you open sacred space, call in protection by saying “In all four corners of this room, and in all four directions, I am Divinely protected and no harm or lower vibrations shall come to me during this time or ever.” This allows a wall of energetic protection to form around you as you open yourself up.
Then, you want to set an intention. This is where you want to be very clear about what you want. For me, I say, “I seek to connect to my Ancestors of the highest vibration of love and light...” This allows you to only connect to loving, healed, and benevolent Ancestors.
I then suggest you let them know your intention, for example “I am here to connect with you more deeply and honor your lives.” Find your own words and see what you feel called to express. Maybe you want to heal something with them, or maybe you want to collaborate with them more. Maybe you want to find a specific way to honor them.
After setting my intention I might ask a question or ask them to show me how to accomplish something or ask them for their support on working through a problem I may be struggling with.
Sit in quiet contemplation and see what comes up for you. See what you feel called to discuss with your Ancestors. Spend 15-30 minutes each day or several times a week to start to form a bond with them.
What are other ways to connect to Ancestors?
You can leave offerings for your Ancestors, like dried flowers, tobacco leaves, and/or food. There are still traditions, like Día De Los Muertos, that honor the Dead and how they are still with us in spirit. We can engage in honoring services or sending prayers certain times throughout the year by creating an alter to a specific family member or all our family members. We can honor specific Ancestors by placing their picture on the Alter or something that symbolizes them. For example, maybe you had a great uncle who loved Golf, you could place a tee on the Altar to honor them. You can leave a cookie or some chips out as an offering to them, just as we do with Santa. Anything really. This is a sign of respect and gratitude to our Ancestors for all they have survived so we could be here now.
You can also honor the Ancestors of the land you are living on. This land once belonged to other people. They tended this land, planted trees and crops that we now benefit from. They protected this land and fought for their right to exist as it was taken from them. We can honor the Ancestors of the land we live on by also leaving them offerings. Thanking them for all they did for the land that we now benefit from. Thank them for allowing you to live on the land that was sacred for them. It is important to acknowledge and honor. You can find out whose land you are on by texting your address to this number: 907-312-5085. A bot will respond with the names of the Tribes Native to that area. Then you can know exactly who you are speaking to as you honor the original settlers of this land and the harm they endured by Colonizers. Maybe some of those people are even your own people.
Anyone who engages in Ancestral Healing is adding to the collective healing of the entire world.
Think about that and really let that sink in. This work is incredibly powerful and meaningful. By honoring the past, we can create a better, more loving and compassionate, future for all!
I hope you have enjoyed this blog and learned a lot about how you can begin to work with this area of your life. If you would like support in navigating this deep and meaningful aspect, I encourage you to learn more about working with me by clicking here. I also recommend the book Ancestral Medicine, by Licensed Therapist, Daniel Foor.
Sarah Lustig is a Licensed Therapist in Colorado and a Holistic and Spiritual Coach living in Asheville, North Carolina. She is the owner of a Nurtured Essence, a healing center, aimed at helping people overcome their fears and live with more purpose and lightness. She specializes in working with wounded healers, empaths, and lightworkers.