Ancestors | The Portal of Learning
What My Ancestors Taught Me: Animism, Healing, and the Human Path
In about 2009 I had a series of visions and visits from my Ancestors. I wasn’t sure about it all at the time, but it’s what led me to begin travelling to Ireland so I could learn directly from the Land and Her teachers. During that process I took on this belief that it was my job to heal all my ancestors’ pain - all their sorrow, all their trauma - because they were calling me. Over time that belief changed as my understanding of ancestral healing and the deeper layers of Animist practice matured.
Although some spiritual paths focus more on our spirit than our humanness, what I love about Animism is that it reconnects us with the Earth and our place on this beautiful planet as part of the human family. We are reminded that as the human family, we are just one of the many families that share this big home.
In remembering my place in the human family, the spiritual path of Animism guides and inspires me to become a better and more skilful, caring human being. It inspires me to explore my own humanity as fully as possible.
Part of being human is that our infinite souls inhabit our finite bodies. Even though our souls are vast and timeless, in this lifetime we have chosen this human walk, and therefore, we get to embody this relationship and feel the edges between infinite and finite.
Some people might view this as a problem and spend their time trying to leave and escape their body. However, if we look at our journey in our human bodies as sacred, we get to explore our capacity while also accepting our limits – this is called humility.
Why Ancestral Healing Is a Communal Path in Animism
When I began the journey of connecting and healing with my Ancestors, I came up against ancestral grief. I had to really honour that I did not have the capacity as one little human being in a human body to process all of their unhealed ancestral grief.
Me even thinking for a moment that I could was totally rooted in ego, grandiosity, and ignorance for many reasons and here are two.
Firstly, the amount of grief or trauma still unhealed within my ancestral lineages was unknown. Therefore, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Even though I had taken training on Ancestral healing, really, I didn’t know. And secondly, it was a very individualistic way of thinking. I don’t give myself a hard time about that time. It’s simply a result of our culture where we are taught to be individualist rather than community oriented. That kind of thinking is quite typical in white spirituality, in spiritual practices not connected to Elders who are wise. The bottom line is that in Animist cultures, healing is always done with community. The community effort, the community prayers, the combined energies actually makes it easier.
Once I became clear on this, I made a prayer that I’d do what I could within the limits of my physical body, and asked Spirit and the Ancestors to spread the rest throughout the descendants. This is where the true essence of ancestral healing and shamanic healing revealed itself to me: collaborative, guided, and supported by Spirit rather than carried alone.
That moment freed me!
It reminded me to care even more deeply for my humanity, my human body. It reminded me to keep eating well, exercising, resting and have good sleep, to continue my commitment to my meditation and breathwork practices, and to continue being of service in my commmunities. To do my part and trust that I’m one of many walking this spiritual healing path with the support of the Ancestors.
I hope this is a gentle reminder for you to know that you alone aren’t the healer of your ancestors. You’re one of the many healers of your Ancestors. This is the nature of ancestral wisdom. It moves through the whole lineage, not one single body.
A PRAYER TO Honour Your Ancestors
May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.
Scottish Prayer - Author Unknown
Writing Prompts to Strengthen Your Ancestral Connection
Before you begin, take a moment to settle into your body and imagine the long line of people you come from. Let these prompts help you listen more deeply to your ancestral wisdom.
1. What ancient strength lives in my bones that did not begin with me?
Let yourself listen from the body first. Notice any sensations, memories, images, or subtle knowings that arise when you imagine standing in the long line of those who survived so you could be here.
2. If an ancestor were to place a hand on my shoulder right now, what guidance or truth would they want me to remember?
Invite a felt sense of that presence. Notice how your heart, breath, or posture shifts as you imagine receiving that guidance.
3. What part of my life is asking to be carried with more ancestral wisdom, steadiness, or humility?
Explore where your lineage wants to support you. This could be a relationship, a decision, a fear, or a threshold you’re crossing.
For more teachings on ancestral healing, animism, and soul work, you can explore upcoming offerings and community circles.