FOR ANCESTORS
Beloved Ancestors, your memories and wisdom live in my bones and my heart and help guide me in nourishing Mother Earth
Ancestors Gratitude Ritual
This ritual of connecting with our ancient Earth lineage creates the opening to experience our unique human identity as caretakers of life on Mother Earth. Rituals and ceremonies help to cultivate us so we can be contributors to healing and nourishment for our families, communities, and Mother Earth-Good Relatives.
We are grateful for the courageous people that felt the fires of inequity, trauma, and forgetfulness burning, long before now. We are grateful for the wisdom carriers who protected their traditional knowledge and helped it to grow. We are grateful for the ancestral wisdom we carry in our blood and bones.
Inviting relationship with our ancestors can help to reconnect us with the Earth-honoring wisdom that is needed now for us to have more harmonious and reciprocal relationships with each other and all life. Because the ancient memories stored in us are also held in the Earth, connecting with our ancestors can lead to deep healing within ourselves and also with the land where we live. Creating an ancestral altar and ritual provides an opportunity for a deep re-membering.
Ancestor Connection and Healing Ritual
We embody the continuation of life. We can be good relatives and a blessing for a thriving, vibrant future for Mother Earth and the following generations. In this ritual, we have the opportunity to connect with our wise ancestors and begin awakening the ancient memories that inform our unique human identity as caretakers of Mother Earth.
In the universal spirit of ritual and remembrance… Set your intention and put into motion these simple, sacred actions.
GATHER
Small offerings: candle, small bowl of water, flowers, and homemade food.
If you have them, include photos, stones, soil, water, herbs, foods, or flowers from the lands of your ancestors.
Gather dried herbs for smoke purification. Research which herbs were used by your ancestors. Grow and/or harvest the herbs, if possible.
CREATE
Locate a quiet spot in your home to become a dedicated altar space.
Mindfully clean the area.
Gather a small table or a cloth to define the altar space.
Gather a notebook and a pen.
Lovingly assemble the altar and offerings. Light a candle and burn the herbs. With the smoke, cleanse yourself, the altar, and the offerings.
ENTER SACRED SPACE
Stand or Sit before your Ancestor Altar
Acknowledge the Indigenous peoples of the land on which you live. Give thanks to the ancestors (plant, animal, elemental, and human) of the land.
Sing ancestral (or family) songs/chants.
OFFER YOUR INTENTION AND BLESSING
Greet your ancestors and introduce yourself. Give thanks for your life and your family.
State your intention to work with ancestors who are available to support the well-being of life on Earth. Speak from your heart - would you like to connect with your ancestors’ wisdom? Heal family traumas? Receive assistance in realizing your purpose?
Here is an example of an ancestral prayer.
Ancestors,
I am the seed of your precious lineage. I know that your memories and wisdom live in my bones and my heart.
I feel grateful that through you I came to be and I want to be a good relative for my small and big family.
Through this ritual, I invite my healing and wise ancestors to be present in my life
and to help awaken the ancestral memories carried in my blood.
Somewhere close to me or thousands of years ago I know that I have ancestors who were Earth-honoring People
and that they shared the breath of this knowing through the sacred helical strands that are my physical blueprint.
Thank you, beloved ancestors.
Thank you for my life and our Earth lineage.
Thank you for your sacred ways, and connection to the Earth and the cosmos.
Thank you for planting the sacred seed that I am today
I feel immensely grateful for the medicine that was your life and your dream.”
LISTEN
As you sit with your altar, listen intuitively. If you see, hear, or feel symbols, directions, or images, write
or draw them in your notebook. Connection with our ancestors is usually not straightforward or literal, so gently pay attention.
CLOSE
When you are complete, thank the ancestors for their presence. Extinguish the candle. Now or later, offer the water, food, and flowers back to the land. The land herself is one of our strongest allies in recovering our ancestral memories and this act of nourishing Mother Earth with our small offerings helps to awaken our ancient memory of living in balance.
CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIP
Continue to work with your ancestor altar. Regularly sit with the ancestors, make offerings, and ask for guidance.
When we ask for their help, ancestors may respond with synchronistic events, dreams, and intuitive guidance.
Their messages are often symbolic, nonlinear, and archetypal. Over time, their assistance can become
a tapestry to support our lives, our families, and Mother Earth. Ancestral wisdom lives in our blood and bones.
To go deeper and continue your journey with your ancestors we recommend
Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, by Luisah Teish
