This weekend I’ll be part of the support team for the Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensive – in person – in Hamburg, Germany, so I’ll be wanting to post some about this Ancestral Healing process I’ve been working with for a number of years, especially since people here are not familiar with it.
There are lots of approaches to working with family issues and intergenerational baggage that are more widely known. The approach used in Ancestral Medicine is less western and more aligned with older ritual traditions.It’s based on a few premises:
- The dead are still around.
- The dead and the living (particularly in blood lineages) influence each other, whether this is acknowledged or not.
- The dead are not necessarily well (or safe to relate with), but they can and do heal, grow, and change.
- Direct communication is a normal part of human experience.
From this, the Ancestral Healing process seeks to reconnect us directly with our well ancestors (we all have these somewhere, no matter how screwed up our families may have been), and engage their help to bring healing to the rest of the lineage. So yes, this is the method that involves actually talking directly with our dead ancestors, in a ritual framework that both keeps things safe and clear and provides structure in which that intuitive communication can develop.
I find this a well grounded path that is naturally integrated with the very physically grounded animism I work with, despite the fact that we’re talking with disembodied folk. Because we’re not seeking out just any spiritual communication – we’re seeking the well ones of our own lineage, the ones who did a lot of work so we could be here today, and are very much invested in our success. These are also the ones who influence us the most, and have the greatest potential to help us out. We’re reestablishing a relationship grounded in the very real connection of parents to children, generation after generation. This means a direct relationship between the living person and their own ancestors, without any intermediary – the practitioner is “only” there to facilitate the connection.
This is important. Even though the connection is ultimately between each of us and our own ancestors, even when the only thing the practitioner does is hold space for it to happen, this makes it immensely easier. Even in cultures where talking to our ancestors is commonplace, it’s often done in a communally held ritual framework. In our society, where this practice breaks cultural taboos, even just one other person holding ritual space makes a big difference in accessing the connection. And a facilitator can show us the basics of how it’s done, helping us out of a tight spot if that’s needed, and reigning us back in if we start losing either focus or touch with reality.
And last, for now, the point of it is to bring healing to our lineages. Yes, we all come to it out of good old western self-interest, and that’s generally served, but it’s not the main point. And that’s a nice antidote to the extreme focus on self that our culture inculcates.
Much more to say on this, but enough for now. I expect I’ll be away from the computer most of next week, and will have lots to say when I return!