A big focus in many people's spiritual practice is working on healing old trauma in their lives. Working with our Shadows, and finding ways to work through issues that may have developed in our childhood. But another place that many people are starting to look, for the roots of things that are manifesting in their life today, is back to their ancestors.
There is a lot of stuff that has happened in the past that can ripple forward and effect us now. We are still seeing the effect of wars and atrocities that happened generations ago. And especially if we are tuned into it, we can feel the hurt that was sustained so long ago.
The interesting thing is that we are poised in a position where we can do something about this. We can turn towards the past, and look and see what things might need healed, both in our direct ancestral lines, but also in the lines of the human race in general, because if you go back far enough, we are all related, and irregardless, we are all connected like threads on a giant spiderweb.
I find that it is best to start close to home. I know that my parents have effected me in many ways, some of which I am still unraveling. There are things that I have learned that happened to them, when they were little, that influenced how they approached things, which in turn influenced how I learned to think about things.
By working to heal things in my parents' past, I can help not only improve their lives, but improve the relationship we have, and my own attitudes towards some things. Think about it like trying to keep your garden clear of weeds. If I only work on the things that have happened to me, I am clipping off the leaves of the weeds...it might keep them from having seeds and spreading further, but those leaves will keep growing back, until you work on digging them out by the roots.
This same work can be extended backwards, through your family tree. Part of the reason for starting close to you is that the further back you go, the more growth there is on the issues. It is the difference between trying to dig up a huge tree, or trimming the branches, then chopping down the trunk in sections, and finally digging up the root system.
There can be a lot of old trauma in your family line. Our ancestors lived in very different times, and things that they did, either because society encouraged it or because they literally didn't know any better, can make us uncomfortable. We look back and have a hard time connecting to our ancestors, because these issues are coming between us.
If we work to clear out the trouble issues, to heal those old wounds, we can develop a better relationship with our ancestors. It gives us access to wisdom that might have been blocked from us. It also helps create peace in our lives, and I believe, in our ancestors.
I like working with visualization for this. Taking a journey to not only experience what our ancestors lived through (because how can you work on healing an issue, if you don't know what the issue was...from as many sides as possible), but to work with them on moving through and past it, gives us the ability to change how the past ripples forward.
The really powerful side to this is that you can absolutely work on things that go back generations, things from centuries ago that are still effecting us. There is so much in our history that we see echoes of today, so many things that continue to effect us, long after they should be done and buried. We need to take a look into the past, and not just see what happened so we don't repeat the same mistakes, but to actually heal the transgressions of the past so that they don't continue to haunt us.
I feel like a big part of the healing process comes from being able to see what is going on. And sometimes, in order to do this, we have to be able to take a step back, to be able to look objectively, and not be caught up in the middle of the emotions that are being brought up. This is often why such trauma exists in the first place: because the people involved were too emotionally invested and weren't able to think clearly and calmly so that they could start to set the healing in motion.
As we look back, we need to allow the emotions that arise to flow around us, to pass over us, but to not stick to us. Sometimes this takes a bit of time, like becoming accustomed to the cold waters of the ocean. If we just jump in, it's so cold we freeze, and we aren't able to act. But if we dip a toe in, let it get used to the water, and then go a bit further, we can slowly adjust, and then be free to act instead of being locked in place, overwhelmed by your emotional reactions to things.
We can't blame all of our personal reactions on the traumas of the past, but it is wise to acknowledge when things that are long gone are still effecting us. We can break this chain of hurt by working on healing, not only our own lives, so that our descendants don't inherit our issues, but also by looking back and seeing what we can do to help heal the wounds that hurt us all.
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