Ancestors Weekend One: Ancestral Guidance and Lineage Repair. Engagement with the beloved dead, including one’s recent blood relations, is an essential aspect of most shamanic or indigenous cultures; however, many feel disconnected from their ancestors or lack a framework for relating with them. The focus of this introductory weekend training is contacting ancestral guides along your bloodlines and learning to work in partnership with them for personal empowerment and family healing.
The training includes visioning/journeywork with the ancestors, forgiveness practices, song, prayer, and heart-centered group dialogue. Those with little knowledge of their people or a tough experience of their families are welcome. Prior experience with ritual is helpful, and some basic prep is requested. This weekend will be offered March 3-4th and Nov 10-11th in the SF Bay Area and Oct 6-7th in Ohio. Spaces are limited. Be in touch to register.
Shinto "torii", Gateway shrine
Ancestors Weekend Two: Soul Guidance and Family Healing. The focus of this weekend is learning to safely assist troubled ghosts, including our recent relatives, to become ancestors. We also explore topics of conscious dying and grounding ancestor work in relationship with the living family. This builds on the connections with the ancestral guides and lineage repair work from weekend one.
The training includes direct engagement with the ancestral guides and troubled dead, prayer, song, and heart-centered group dialogue. Completion of the Ancestral Guidance and Lineage Repair weekend is important if you’re new to working with the ancestors. This weekend will be offered Apr 14-15th in Seattle (link here for Seattle flyer), Apr 21-22nd in Austin, and May 19-20 in SF Bay Area. Spaces are limited. Be in touch to register.
Example of a personal ancestor altar
Honoring the Warrior Ancestors: A Series of Six Rituals to Greet, Honor, Elevate, and Invite Support from the Ancestors of War. In the last 150 years over a million Americans have died in war with many times this seriously injured in mind or body. When we fail to honor and elevate the souls of our warrior ancestors, our families, communities, and personal integrity suffers. When given proper care and respect, these ancestors can be a potent force for good in our lives and in supporting the vision of a world free from war and injustice. This care is a collective responsibility irrespective of our personal politics or degree of connection to war.
We’ll gather four Thursdays from 6:30-9:30pm (April 12 & 26, May 24, & July 12) and two Saturdays from 10-4pm (May 12 & June 23) at a private residence on the SF Peninsula and Golden Gate National Cemetery & the Presidio for our two Saturdays. Participants of all ancestries, genders, and political orientations are welcome including those with little recent connection to war. Ongoing commitment to your inner work and experience with (or at least a friendly attitude toward) heart-centered ancestor ritual are prerequisites. Spaces are limited; pre-registration and commitment for all six gatherings requested. Suggested contribution for full series is $350, flexibility as needed. Veterans and active service members welcome by donation. For the full flyer please see: link for Warrior Ancestors flyer.
Individual Sessions. I am available to guide individual sessions of ancestor work in person in Mountain View or through phone sessions. This work focuses on personal healing and empowerment through relationship with your loving ancestors and may also include learning how to safely and effectively assist the troubled dead. For those in the healing professions (e.g., psychotherapists, doctors, bodyworkers, clergy) your current services can be enhanced by acquiring the foundational skills to support others in relating well with both the loving and troubled dead. For more info see the personal sessions page.
Other Ancestor Trainings and Rituals. I’m available to lead clinical trainings for psychotherapists and events for bereavement groups. Ritual services that I offer include:
- healing ceremonies for ancestors of place in areas of historic trauma (e.g., March 2012 Livermore ritual)
- home/space clearings to support the transitioning dead in cases of hauntings or heavy energies
- rituals to help deceased loved ones become ancestors when needed (see minsterial services page)
- healing of ancestral disturbance in the lives and families of children and those with mental illness
Some of my paternal grandfather's people
Interviews on Ancestor Work. I’ve enjoyed being interviewed in 2011 on my approach to ancestor work by the Earth Medicine Alliance (link here). The Alliance’s Voices of the Earth Project includes other speakers on the subject of ancestors. I recommended checking out Malidoma Somé (link here), Orion Foxwood (link here), Hua Anwa six minutes into this clip (link here) and Darryl Babe Wilson seven minutes into this clip (link here).
Free Resources for Genealogy Research. I’ve had good results on Rootsweb by selecting Metasearch then WorldConnect then doing Advanced Searches (link here). One family research website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was helpful for me (link here). The work of Henry Louis Gates Jr is inspiring on the importance of our genetic and family ancestors: www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica. If you have basic information about your recent dead, there are abundant free resources to support personal research of family history.
