If you missed Part 1 – which is about personal story with intergenerational and ancestral healing, you might want to go there for context. If you want how to’s – here you go. I recommend printing this one for reference, and storing it where you meditate.

 *    *    *   *   *   *   *    *    *   *   *   *   *    *    *   *   *   *    *    *    *   *   *   *

The guru of our time on ancestral healing is Mother Maya Tiwari. Let’s start with her words. She set up a website with a vow to help people heal their ancestral patterns and enter deeper peace and harmony as world citizens. Her devotion to healing humanity is second to no one I have ever connected with.

The Ancestral Healing Context from Mother Maya

“Why Honor the Ancestors?

In the Vedic tradition Honoring your Ancestors that have passed releases negative memories and unproductive ancestral patterns that prevent you from owning your personal freedom and ability to love and prosper.  Take pause now and reflect on the memories you may have locked within for lifetimes! Personal hurt stems from the karmas of our past, and are indelibly linked to our ancestral heritage. Honoring Ancestors as a proven ahimsa-practice is one of the most effective way to free ourselves from the pile-up of ancestral hurt, illness and despair.

Honoring your Ancestors helps unearth traumas and hurt of the past carried through family lines. Without realizing it, we often carry the ancestors on our backs; their memory patterns deeply embedded within our vital tissues and cells. We continually re-enact patterns that originate in the history and memory of our family lines. When we do not recognize ancestral traumas we are likely to ferry them into every aspect of our lives. But we can resolve our karmic history through honoring ancestors; we can trade in hurt and grief and illness for celestial guidance.

If you are striving to break seemingly impregnable blueprint of being ill and stuck and unhappy in your life, you can use this precious occasion to invoke and re-orient your ahimsa psyche. By so doing, reorder your living freedom from ancestral baggage and hurt.”

Start with the the Vow of Ahimsa (non-violence)

I take the Vow of Ahimsa

i make inner harmony my first priority.

I take the Vow of Ahimsa

In my thoughts, speech and actions

Why the vow of ahimsa provokes ancestral healing

When we set our intention to not do harm forward with these simple words inevitable, for most of us mere mortals, we will quickly violate the vow. Later in the day we’ll notice we have a non-harmonious thought. Or we say something that falls under “toxic language.” It may be a small put-down of another human being.

The dichotomy between how we want to be and how we are creates an opening. The distance is required for the perspective. Once we have the perspective of the discrepancy  – we can blame our ancestors.  Just kidding. Making sure you are paying attention here.

Once we see the discrepancy we can often see the pattern of our judgement, or our anger, or our selfish tendencies, or whatever your pattern is.

We get curious about where the patterns come from – this hurt from the past we may be perpetuating. In the desire to reflect, to dive deep into the dissolution, we become whole. We become more harmonious. And we get more connected with why our ancestors were the way they were.

A Desire to Make Amends

The beauty about ancestral healing is comes first and foremost from a desire to connect to one’s past. Then, a desire to understand. Then, a desire to make amends. Then, a desire to give something back, or to heal, or to gift backwards, into the past.

When I create a space and a time to reflect on the impulses I came in with – the anger, the hoarding, I tap into a gift. I learned this through Ayurveda and we guide the process in the Living Ayurveda Course. It’s a simple exercise called Tarpana.

Set your Space
Like anything worth doing, you want to carve out a time and space for it to go down. Wherever you meditate will do. Give yourself an hour. Light a candle for illumination.

Connect with your Intention
Then, take a pause out of time. Connect with your intention to connect. Connect with your intention to understand. Connect with your intention to learn or to heal yourself or offer healing to your ancestors.

Let the session begin
Now you can visit with your ancestors, living or dead. Start with those closest – mother, father, maternal grandparents, maternal grandparents. Call your peeps forward, one at a time. Give them a compliment or an earnest thanks for something. Ask them a question. Listen. Ask them another question. Listen.  Follow your intuition. Don’t worry about getting lost or going too deep – you’re in your safe space. Keep this going until your questions are answered. Then offer gratitude or a mental gift (like imagine giving them their favorite food).

Then you can be done – or go on to the next ancestor.

Treat yourself gently
When you are done you may feel sensitive. You may feel raw. Take care of yourself. Take a bath. Have a cup of tea. Meditate or do a quieting yoga practice. Journal any insights that feel precious. Go to sleep. Above all else, trust your process. Trust your experience. Trust any insight you gained.

Resources:
http://www.acrossdimensions.com/ancestors.htm
http://www.acrossdimensions.com/article_peace.htm
Image credits: http://www.nonsolomassaggi.com/punti_marma.html