Your ancestral connection workshop

By Cate Stillman

Raised in the postmodern, post-me, super-me X generation… my ears didn’t pick up on the conversation on why or how to honor the ancestors.

Fast forward to my Ayurvedic education where I learn we carry 7 generations of ancestral memory in the fabric of our body and in our genetic code That’s right… 7. Your great, great, great, great, great grandmother’s issues and major realization are within you.

Fast forward to Sunday, when my virtual assistant in the Phillipines, Dianne, informs me she won’t be online again until Wednesday because of serving her ancestors souls throughout the extended All-Souls Day Celebration. All I have planned is to take my child out for a costume and candy binge.

Couple all of this with a deep dive into reading about Pagan rituals. I’ve been cracking Starhawk’s the Spiral Dance and Circle Round continuously over the past few months. (We got permission from Starhawk to share some of the stories in our upcoming Evolve Your Winter Traditions.)
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After trick-or-treating on Monday night, my husband and I sat down for our postmodern, post-me, super-me X generation version of Samhain, the Pagan New Year’s celebration transmuted into Hallo’ween. We had a simple discussion based on these topics:

We gave thanks to our ancestors. We recalled their hardships and their triumphs. We gave thanks for their sacrifices that we may have a better life. We named specific attributes we received from past family members. We called on their strength to nourish our vision. We connected our consciousness into the generation continuum.
We did a year in review. What thrived… what failed. Lessons learned. Milestones to celebrate. We both noted we are within a ig shift… a change in life. A field of potential is opening through a shift in structure. We are both 38. We paid off our mortgage this year. We are free to create.. untethered.
We put forth a year of intention. I named what is clearly my evolutionary edge this next year. My husband did the same. We named how we can support each other. We felt our ancestors behind our vision.
It was really beautiful!