The Ancestors
Five Ways to Honor Your Ancestors
This essay outlines five ways in which anyone can safely and effectively strengthen their relationships with the spirits of their loving and supportive ancestors. For more information on ancestor-focused trainings, talks, and personal sessions, please see: www.ancestralmedicine.org/ancestors. We all have ancestors, both of blood and of spirit, and each of our lives rests firmly on the foundation of their sacrifice. They are as near to us as our breath and bones, and when related with … [Read More...]
Who Are the Ancestors and Why Do They Matter?
One of the recurrent challenges of supporting others in the foundations of ancestor work is that most of us who were raised in the United States or other Western, industrialized nations totally lack a framework for relating with dead. I was not raised with an awareness of my blood ancestors or anything more than a passing awareness of ghosts, and I spent over five years actively involved with diverse European pagan, shamanic, and magical traditions, before greeting my own lineage ancestors. … [Read More...]
Earth Honoring Rituals
Earth Medicine 2009: A Year in the Guadalupe Watershed
In early January 2009, a dozen or so practitioners of diverse earth-spirit paths initiated a year of earth healing ceremonies focused in the Guadalupe Watershed. At the far southern end of San Francisco Bay, the 170-square-mile drainage of the Guadalupe River includes the site of the most productive mercury mine in United States history, a sacred mountain (Mt. Umunhum) whose summit is currently off limits to the public due to lead and asbestos toxicity, numerous dams on all creeks … [Read More...]
Despacho Ceremony at Black Diamond Mines
On March 27th, 2011, some 20 people gathered at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, in the Somersville townsite, for an earth-honoring ritual offered by the Earth Medicine Alliance. Executive director Daniel Foor shared about the Alliance, the intent for the day’s ritual, and the history of the Black Diamond Mines area. At the time of contact the land was inhabited by Bay Miwok-speaking peoples, specifically the Chupcan, Ompin, and Volvon. The land was ranched by Spanish … [Read More...]
Personal Story and Journey
My Journey with Buryat shaman Sarangerel (1963-2006)
Sarangerel and I met in the spring of 1999 in Athens, Ohio over a cold beer. She was in town to lead a weekend intensive hosted by my first teachers in earth spirituality, Bekki and Crow of the Church of Earth Healing. Of mixed Mongolian and European ancestry, Sarangerel was in the United States after spending most of the previous decade living in Russia and Mongolia training in the traditional ways of her Buryat Mongol ancestors. Her workshop provided my first experience with a shaman … [Read More...]
