Honouring The Ancestors

Welcome to Ancestor work! In today’s session we will explore some of the concepts around ancestry and Ancestor work, bust a couple of myths, look forward to the topics that we will approach in this course, and discover how you might add Ancestor work to your own spiritual practice. Our meditation for today creates sacred space for our practices on this course.

Ancestors of Family are perhaps the ones who come to mind most immediately when we think of our ancestors. These can be our blood or genetically related ancestors, but also can be ancestors of the family with whom we grew up, even when not genetically related. In today’s session we will discuss learning about and connecting with our Ancestors of Family, and share a short practice to help facilitate this.

Ancestors of Spirit are those who went before us in our practices. So they might be our teachers, or people who were like us in some way, but who are not directly related. These ancestors have had some influence on how we experience and engage with the world, and should also be honoured. In today’s session, we identify and acknowledge our Ancestors of Spirit, before connecting with them in a short practice.

Ancestors of Place are those who lived before us in the places where we live now. They too had lives and stories in our landscapes and cityscapes. These places are theirs and ours. In today’s session, we explore how we can learn more about the Ancestors of Place, and we honour them in a short practice.

Most people alive today will have someone who has gone on before them, whom they loved and who they miss. In today’s session, we make space to remember our Beloved Dead and to keep space for them in our hearts.

Being human, of course our ancestors suffered, sometimes with things that we cannot imagine, and sometimes with things that we may know well. In today’s practice, we take the strengths that we have in this life and at this time, and use them to send healing to our ancestors.

Did you know that everyone alive today is biologically descended from one woman, and also from one man, and that they never met? Today, we’ll meet Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent common ancestor in the female line. In our practice, we cultivate compassion for and connection with all humans, each one our cousin, and charge that mitochondrial DNA so that we may each receive its blessings.

You already know that everyone alive today is biologically descended from one man, and also one woman, who never met, right? Y-Chromosomal Adam is our most recent common ancestor in the male line. Today, we’ll meet him and explore ways to honour him and our shared lineage. In our practice, we’ll get in touch with our cousins on the Y-chromosome side.

Research has shown that our psycho-physiological responses can be passed down for generations. We carry our ancestors’ patterns! When we know this, we can begin to recognise them and choose which ones to continue and which to ditch. Today’s practice supports those choices.

Some of the Ancestors were not good people, did bad things, or hurt us, other people, or our planet in ways that can be difficult to forgive. In today’s practice, we cultivate a safe space from which to explore this, and look at ways we can begin to redress the balance.

Ancestor Work is sacred work, and part of this work is to recognise that we, too, will one day be ancestors, whether of family, of spirit, or of place. It can be fascinating to imagine our descendants, and of course we need to take some responsibility for the world that we leave them. In today’s practice we do both.

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the course, and your relationship with your ancestors, and with Ancestor Work, may have changed over the last ten days. In today’s session, we integrate what we’ve learned and give thanks to the ancestors for choosing to work with us.