This is one very fascinating branches of healing that at present gets very little attention. A significant part of our life patterning stems from our genetic inheritance.
The Importance of the Ancestors
In many cultures, both sophisticated and primitive, a great deal of attention is given to the ancestral family; ancestor worship is one of the most widespread of all religious belief systems. In Ancient Egypt, specific requests were made to the ancestors to help resolve daily problems. The ancestors were seen as having a direct link with the spiritual world and therefore in a position to bring positive benefit to the family. It was perhaps also intuitively realised how directly their energies affected the world of the living family.
The Importance of the Ancestors
In many cultures, both sophisticated and primitive, a great deal of attention is given to the ancestral family; ancestor worship is one of the most widespread of all religious belief systems. In Ancient Egypt, specific requests were made to the ancestors to help resolve daily problems. The ancestors were seen as having a direct link with the spiritual world and therefore in a position to bring positive benefit to the family. It was perhaps also intuitively realised how directly their energies affected the world of the living family.
Modern cultures have forgotten much of this inner knowing. How many of them think about or remember their grandparents or great grandparents? Only some do; but it is more in terms of their achievements, prestige and position in society and the like.
At a spiritual level, time and space impose no restrictions so, in one sense, your ancestors are living concurrently with you. This can be a hard concept to take on board, for the Western mind has become conditioned into thinking only in linear terms.
Revering our ancestors
Most indigenous cultures believe that their ancestors are a vital force in their lives. This is especially true among Native Americans and the Aborigines. For example, the Navajo honor the perspective of seven generations of their ancestral lineage when making a significant decision that affects their family or community. Even though the ancestor's body is no longer alive, that person's soul is thought to be very much alive.
Most indigenous cultures believe that their ancestors are a vital force in their lives. This is especially true among Native Americans and the Aborigines. For example, the Navajo honor the perspective of seven generations of their ancestral lineage when making a significant decision that affects their family or community. Even though the ancestor's body is no longer alive, that person's soul is thought to be very much alive.
In his book, Karma and Reincarnation, Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, says:
"The parent/child connection manifests as one link in a long chain of ancestral karma that stretches back through time. Your link to your family allows you to be born into that specific line - it is a link that needs to be understood and respected. In this modern scientific age it is very difficult for people to accept the fact that they are responsible to their ancestors, that they are actually liable for the actions of their ancestors if the resulting karma has not yet been dissolved. Many find it absurd to think that the actions of an unknown ancestor could possible have anything to do with what is happening to them today. But time and time again when investigating someone's karma, I find problems that stretch back generations. Their spirit is not just an individual entity, it is also part of the family spirit that births and nurtures it."
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Ancestral Healing
Ancestral Healing involves Healing your ancestors' unresolved emotional issues, problems or trauma. In so doing, it releases you from any energetic patterns that link you to them - patterns that can have an inhibiting or disruptive influence on your life today.
This Healing process is important because we are impacted by emotional and energetic patterns from prior generations in our family. Some of these can create obstacles in our lives, blocking our pathway to joy, abundance, authentic power and unlimited possibilities.
Since energy is never lost, but simply changes form over time, emotional issues or problems that were not dealt with by your ancestors, or not fully resolved, can 'hover' in your energy field today, creating an imbalance or roadblock - also known as a Healing opportunity.
Ancestral Healing can transform energetic patterns that are not in your highest good, or are preventing you from carrying out your soul's mission and life's purpose. If you are experiencing recurring patterns where things get in the way of feeling satisfied, enriched or successful, then ancestral Healing may be the missing link that can free you to attain personal fulfillment.
We carry in our bodies the stories, illnesses, tragedies, pain, and grief of our ancestors. Oftentimes we are unconscious of how the energy of old family wounds informs how we think and act in everyday life. This is why we see patterns of abuse, incest, addiction, poor health and many other traits passed down through generations. From a shamanic perspective, these traits are seen as energetic imprints in our Luminous Energy Field (read Illuminations) which need to be cleared so the ancestral pattern ceases to inform our behavior or health.
Many people with traumatic family histories may need ancestral healing for personal healing to occur.
Ancestral imprints may manifest as:
- A debilitating belief or emotion (eg., patterns of grief / sadness, aggressiveness, betrayal, etc.) which you share with other members of your family lineage.
- A particularly destructive behavior such as substance abuse, addiction, incest, stealing, etc. which runs through your family
- Health problems, accidents or episodes that appear in “themes” along a male or female lineage. For example: men of the family having heart attacks in their mid 40’s or back injuries that befall women of the family at a particular age.
- Patterns of being abused, hurt, unsupported, unavailable or betrayed in relationships.
Clearing Your Ancestral Blocks
Ancestral Patterns
The concept behind this form of healing is quite simple. It suggests that where traumas, problems or strong types of behaviour have occurred with one or other of your forebears, the energy from this experience gets passed on to future generations. This is so even if the experience happens after the direct offspring have been born. Conversely if you heal one of the ancestral patterns it becomes immediately available to your own offspring. The reasons why this should happen is I believe based on 'resonance'. We carry at a genetic level the resonant patterns of our forebears which, like a radio set tuned to our ancestors, allows a transfer of energy or information to take place. Healing this type of situation can be carried out in exactly the same way that you would apply 'distant' healing. You do not need to have a clear picture in your mind of the way that your ancestors looked for the healing to be effective.
In his book "Healing the Family Tree" Dr. Kenneth McAll recounts a case of a woman in her early thirties who suddenly developed a fear of water. Researching into her family patterns she found that an uncle had died in the Titanic disaster. A healing service was carried out in which the uncle was "committed.... to the Lord". Healing this ancestor freed the woman from her phobia. In most cases it is only necessary to deal with your direct ancestors, that is your parents, grandparents and great grandparents, but in some cases, such as the one just cited, healing another relative may also be appropriate.
Sometimes the traumas carried by our ancestors can be very powerful and in these cases it can be beneficial to work with a therapist or friend.
Ancestral Myths
In the Ancient Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris, his brother Set cut Osiris into 14 pieces. This is a curious number that does not find echo in other traditions. However, it is worth noting that 14 is the sum total of your ancestors back to your great grandparents generation. Adding your parents (2), to your grandparents (4) and your great grandparents (8) gives 14 ancestors in all. It could well be that part of the symbolism of this myth is to do with healing our genetic patterning, through our forebears. In the myth Osiris is reconstructed by Isis which relates to the "love" principle within.
Many of this cleansing and integration is done in an involuntary and unconscious way, but it take up a diverse range of life experiences, and often many incarnations, to be fully cleared up.
When this is done, the karmic residues, stagnated energies of old contracts and dense energies of basic fears and feelings such as guilt, unforgiveness and resentments can get released and healed permanently.
Making peace Ancestral Healing is based on the belief that what happened in your family, before your current life, is present or alive in your energy field today. Accordingly, any unresolved conflict your ancestors had - including unhealed emotional wounds, damaging judgments and other limitations - may be in your energetic grid, since this is part of the larger energy pattern of your entire family. Ancestral Healing allows us to make peace with the members of our family, going back many generations. From Lily's experience, ancestral Healing usually starts in the 3rd generation, or two generations before your current life - at the grandparent level. Occasionally Healings involve 10 or 15 generations of family members, dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years. How the process works If you are feeling held back, stymied or blocked in some way, and usual methods for clearing or opening up the congestion have not worked, Lily will check to see if any one of your ancestors is 'calling out' for help. If she gets a confirmation of this, Lily will ask you to call in your Higher Self along with the Higher Selves of your ancestors who wish to be healed. Having the intention to co-create this Healing experience is key to its success. Since energy is not constrained by time or space, it is possible to connect with the Higher Selves of ancestors who have crossed over, even if they have since returned to this side, or reincarnated.
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Spiritual Intrusions & Extractions:
Spiritual intrusions are caused by negative thought forms, such as anger, grief or other unresolved feelings, that we have taken into our bodies in response to hurt or a projection from someone else. An intrusion can also begin from chronic self abuse and negative self talk or from a physical injury. The expression of being “stabbed in the back” is more than a simple metaphor. In the shamanic perspective, these are psychic darts and arrows that we encounter when negative thoughts and feelings are directed towards us. An Intrusion can manifest as localized pain in the body, illness or depression. Left untended an intrusion can turn into a chronic illness. Intrusions often appear in situations where our Spirit has been weakened and made vulnerable by soul loss or power loss. A spiritual extraction involves removing and releasing the intrusion, clearing the affected area and is generally followed with a soul retrieval.
Spirit Releasing & Clearings: (Cutting Chords)
Severe grief or trauma at the time of death can leave a soul confused, angry, or disoriented. Rather than moving into the light these suffering beings remain on the earth plane attaching themselves to people (possession) or places (hauntings).
- Symptoms of possession may include:
- Depression
- Inexplicable mood swings or personality shifts,
- Substance abuse, binges, or uncontrollable addictions
Spirit releasing compassionately helps these souls move to a place of peace and frees the client from the influences of the suffering being.
Our physical body is surrounded by a Luminous Energy Field (like an aura) which is an invisible matrix that holds the imprint of all our karmic, personal and ancestral memories, traumas and wounds. These imprints can become activated to mirror a personal history that repeats itself by compelling us towards behaviors, relationships, accidents or illnesses that replicate the original trauma. An Illumination is the shamanic clearing of the negative imprints in our Luminous Energy Field, it is an ancient energy healing technique that comes from the Q’ero shamans of Peru, the descendants of the Inca.
An Illumination is helpful when:
- You feel stuck in a behavioral pattern which continues to repeat itself
- You are struggling to heal from traits (health or emotional) that are part of your ancestry
- Emotional traumas of your past continue to haunt you and do not respond well to other healing modalities
In the Inca tradition of Illumination, the imprints to the Luminous Energy Field appear as sluggish energy around the chakras. During the healing, the heavy emotional energy of the imprint is drained through the chakra, then the imprint itself is erased through the use of focused intention and breath. When the imprint is erased, we are no longer informed by the wounds of our past or ancestry.
Bibliography:
http://www.thehollowbone.com/healing.html#illuminations
Taken from the book Healing Your Family Patterns
Practical Shamanism, 15 November 2012