The power of Ancestral Healing

In the fall of 2023, I went to a psychic fair in Port Townsend, where I had lived for about six months, and I had a brief reading with one of the practicing psychics there that day. We only talked for about ½ hour, and I don’t recall all of what she told me; however, one thing she shared with me that day struck me strongly, and then came back to visit me several months later.

This person told me that I had a disconnect from my birthplace and I needed to heal it. I agreed with her that yeah, I didn’t have much affection for Minneapolis, and I wasn’t very connected to my remaining family there; however, at the time it really didn’t seem to be that big of a deal to me. I had a feeling of ‘meh’ about it mostly and thought that was fine.

I made a mental note of her words, stored them somewhere in the back of my brain, and then went on about my life.

Fast forward a few months to January 2024 and I was doing a psychic reading/healing trade with two of my peers in my community and the same message came through when they were doing a reading for me. They shared the message from Spirit they were receiving at that time: in order to find and create a home of my own and truly settle, I need to heal this disconnect from my birthplace.

Now I was listening… It took me several weeks to remember where I had heard this message the first time, but I started to think about what that would look like and when I could make a trip to Minneapolis to do some healing work.

Around this same time, I started to get the sense that my uncle, (my dad’s only brother) who had been sick and declining for many years, was getting close to the end of his life. I reached out to my aunt to see if I could either talk with him on the phone or visit him in person. (I envisioned that connecting with him, even if only energetically or spirit to spirit, could be a part of the healing process.) However, she denied my request saying that he wasn’t capable of talking on the phone and that an in-person visit might disturb him, which she didn’t think would be a good idea.

I was disappointed and somehow just knew at that time that I would never see my uncle again. Indeed, I was out of the country the entire month of February and during that time he died. This unfortunate incident only deepened my sense of frustration of feelings of disconnect from my birthplace.

I pouted a little bit, processed and moved through my emotions, and then continued to go about my daily life. It seemed like the opportunity to do this healing work had somehow passed.

Sometime in mid-March my husband and I made an offer on a house in Port Townsend. We were pretty excited about it, thought of all the ways we could fix it up and tend to the beautiful yard, and even made a strong offer, just above asking price. I felt pretty confident that we would get it, and I even thought to myself slyly, “Hey, maybe I don’t have to go to Minneapolis after all.” 😉

Well, we did not get that house. The one other offer that came in went way above asking and we weren’t prepared for that.

The disappointment was real. I felt not only sad and defeated, but also very humbled by what seemed like forces outside my control influencing my life in ways that I didn’t have power to change. I felt disempowered.

And I felt that finally I had to follow the call of my Spirit who had been trying to tell me for months that it was time to heal this disconnect with my birthplace.

The very next day I booked my plane ticket to Minneapolis.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do during this visit, however, I had some ideas, and I completely trusted that it would come together as it was meant to. I booked an Airbnb halfway between where my grandparents lived and the area where my parents lived at the time I was born.

I decided to approach the whole trip in a couple different phases. First would be to honor my ancestors and the land, then I would heal the Rites of Passage of conception and birth, both of which took place in Minneapolis. All of this while connecting to the land and the water and re-establishing a healthy loving connection to my birthplace and my ancestors on my paternal side.

DAY ONE: (gratitude and reconnection to my ancestors)

I landed in Minneapolis midday and had the nicest shuttle driver who took me from the airport to the car rental facility. My first sign that it was going to be a good trip.

As the intention was first to pay homage to my ancestors, I headed straight to my grandparents’ old house (thanks to my brother for helping me remember the address!).

When I got there, I literally arrived at the same exact time that the current owners were moving out and getting ready to put the house on the market! They were so nice, and when I told them my grandparents used to live there, they invited me inside to walk through the house. I couldn't believe my luck!

It was incredible and the energy inside of me was beyond palpable. It was all I could do to hold back the tears so I could function in conversation; I'm feeling them rising in me again right now as I recount the story to you.

Even though there had been some significant cosmetic changes inside, I Immediately recognized the house. I had so many experiences there as a young girl and memories from that time of my life flooded back to me in a dizzying fashion. I felt so much love and gratitude and ecstatic energy within me. It was as if my ancestors were there with me in spirit; they were as excited as I was for this serendipitous visit.

I couldn’t believe the timing of that visit as the current owners would not be there the following day. Had I not chosen to begin this healing experience in Minneapolis by reconnecting with my ancestors, I would not have had this opportunity. As they say, it was in perfect and Divine timing. (In fact, I was originally thinking of going on a different weekend and I changed it to this one… talk about being in flow!)

The theme for this first day was gratitude; giving thanks to my ancestors as I came back to reconnect with this land and with them. Thank you for the love you embodied that got me here.

When I got to the Airbnb where I was staying, I created an ancestral altar that I used as a touch point throughout the weekend, both for my daily meditations and to strengthen my connection with my ancestors.

DAY TWO: (ancestral healing and conception)

I started this morning with a long meditation, as I do most every day; however this one was focused on conception and was from a private guided healing session I had on my own conception.

During my meditation, I felt myself slowly coming into form here in this very city, where I was conceived and gestated. I imagined myself in my parents’ home at that time, (which I planned to visit later that afternoon). I recommitted to come into this life in an embodied way. I danced and I hummed and felt the aliveness of my conception within me, all while acknowledging and remembering the land upon which I currently stood.

With a firm commitment to care for my physical body while doing this deeply spiritual work, after my morning meditation, I walked to get a massage to help anchor in newly felt sense of embodiment even more deeply.

After a truly delicious massage, I went back to the Airbnb and packed myself a picnic lunch. I then went to the cemetery where my grandparents were buried, whose location I had just discovered the week before. I had not been there since my grandfather’s funeral when I was a junior in college. After a bit of sola searching to find their plots, the nice people working the grounds helped me find where they were located.

There was only one other visitor on the entire grounds; she was sitting in a very somber state overlooking a gravesite. I had a sense she was feeling a very different energy than what I was bringing. I felt excited to spend time with my grandparents, there was a palpable eagerness to connect with them in this way!

Prior to my departure, a friend and colleague of mine intuited that I could bring a rose as a healing offering for the land. From my own guidance, I knew that pink was the color that would offer both the healing energy I was seeking and provide an aesthetic quality to enhance each ritual that I created.  

I had a beautiful picnic with my grandparents while listening to some music that evoked ancestral energy. It was a gorgeous day. The only other visitor left shortly after I arrived, and after that I had the entire cemetary to myself.

When I finished eating my picnic lunch, I did a long meditation to help heal my two paternal ancestral lines. (In earlier meditations prior to this trip I had seen that they needed some healing and both paternal lines were mostly in the dark.) I feel so grateful and lucky that I have the tools and skills to do this work. I was humbled by the opportunity and the privilege that this is to be the one in my family to do this healing work for my ancestors.

Lastly, I put on the music again and danced with my ancestors. It was actually a request from them. While in meditation I heard them ask for me to dance as they could not now, as they were never truly able to do even when in human form. It was a sweet, soft dance that felt so free and flowing in my body. I felt the healing of generations before me come to fruition with this act of embodiment and freedom and joy and pleasure.

I truly did not want to leave, but it was getting late and the cemetery would be closing soon. As I departed, I left a pink rose for my grandfather and my grandmother on their grave sites.

Afterwards, I drove to my parent’s old house, the place where I was conceived. It's the last remaining house in a strip of now mostly apartments and businesses, (was it waiting for me to come visit??) so it was interesting to see. My mom said it used to be a duplex, but it looked like they made a studio on one side instead. I took in the energy and sat there a bit but didn't linger too long. I left a rose in the front yard in acknowledgement and went on my way.

Then I went to Minnehaha Creek and Minnehaha Falls, which is the closest body of water to where I live and is a tributary to the Mississippi River. I remember going there as a kid when we would visit my grandparents. This, as my friend Jennifer explained to me, is my Mother Nature, my waters of origin.

I whispered prayers of healing and connection for myself, my ancestors, the waters of the world, and the Earth into the pink rose. Then I tossed the rose into the creek to carry my prayers. 🌏💦🌹

After that, I felt like my 'work' for this day was complete and I proceeded to take the long walk in Minnehaha Park. It was a gorgeous day and there were so many people outside enjoying nature. (I walked over six miles all told that day!)

I had intentions of doing some journaling when I returned to where I was staying, but I felt more like I needed a break and to just relax and be. I went to sleep tired and with my soul feeling full.

DAY THREE: (birth healing)

On the morning of the third day, I started to notice my energy and feelings about this place, my ancestors, and my family here softening. I felt like I had already released so much tension, resistance, resentments, and energetic blocks in the short time I had been there. I woke up feeling so glad I said yes to this journey of embodied ancestral and personal healing.

On day three I focused on my birth, while continuing to tend to my own personal self-care.

In the morning, I did a guided meditation that was one I had received on my own Rite of Passage of birth. Then I went to a yoga class and took myself out for breakfast.

Afterwards, I went to the hospital where I was born and to connect with the land there and reconnect with my own birth experience. I sat in the hospital park right across the street from the Children's Hospital wing. First, I meditated for a while and listened to a portion of my Rite of Passage personal guided meditation on Birth again and just spent some time connecting with the energy of the place and the land there. I had thought I would feel something strong, but mostly what I noticed was a feeling of neutrality. I didn't have strong feelings about anything here.

I actually saw this as a positive thing, it didn't feel like I had a lot to release in terms of having negative feelings about this place or my birth.

However, while I was here, I was guided to do some healing for/with my mom, and myself, around my birth.

For context, when I first started focusing on healing my birth several months earlier, I reached out to my mom to ask her to tell me the whole story of my birth, as she recalled it now (~54 years later…)

So, a couple months prior to this trip, I had spent a few hours with her and heard her account of my birth in all the details she could remember. One of the things I most remember, and that she recalled with some distress in her voice, was her telling me that towards the end she and her body got very anxious, as if she didn’t know what to do, and she started tightening and contracting and couldn’t stop it. She said it was stressful and that because of this I had to push extra hard to get out of her body.

I know that I absorbed this anxious energy at this time, and I believe it has influenced me on some level throughout my life; indeed, I have struggled with anxiety on and off for most of my life.

So, I knew now was the time to heal this for her and for me.

I called her on the phone so we could do this together. We both grounded and then I started connecting with her energy. I asked her to tune into the memory of it so I could more easily connect with the energy of that day, and then I started to heal it. I won’t go into more details about it here, but I used the tools I’ve learned from my teacher to get a symbol of the energy and the lesson my mom was learning at that time so we could both understand why this happened and integrate the spiritual lesson into our lives at this time.

After clearing, releasing, and healing my birth event, we both felt a deep sense of calm and peace wash gently over us. We lingered a few minutes more describing some of what we felt and sharing a bit more, then she went off to lunch and I sat in the garden a while longer.

Lastly, I took one more pink rose and offered prayers into this rose. I asked for all babies to have calm and easeful births; for all babies to come out of the womb and feel their mother’s skin and heartbeat immediately; for all babies to come into this world knowing they are loved and knowing their own worth.

Then I went home, made another picnic and headed to Lake Bdé Makhá Ská (formerly called Lake Calhoun and now renamed to its original name given by the native people here, the Dakota people.) This lake is where my parents used to sail together on their little sunfish sailboat while my grandparents played with me in the park by the lake. I walked all around the lake - it’s big! - about 3.1 miles around, and then I sat on the earth and had a picnic dinner.

It felt SO good and so incredibly calming and grounding to sit on the earth and spend time here. I imagined my parents sailing and me with my grandparents, and just tuned into the energy of it all. It was so sweet. It felt so good I didn’t want to leave. Eventually I pulled myself away (when I had to pee…)  and I left a pink rose with my prayers and gratitude on the banks of the lake.

That was most of my day. I feel so humbled and grateful that I can do this work and so glad I can palpably feel the shifts in my body and whole being. I am also so grateful my mom is also willing and able to participate in this ancestral and generational healing.

DAY FOUR: (embodied joy and pleasure)

I had one more day in Minneapolis and it was mostly a day of embodiment and of play and pleasure. I went to a morning yoga class, then a bike ride along the parkway to Minnehaha Park and Falls again, a beautiful ride on the bike path through the park.

Later I got together with a college friend from many years ago. We had dinner at a supposedly famous diner in Minneapolis and then he took me to the George Floyd memorial, which was so stirring and beautiful. The energy of that place was palpable and I was so glad to be able to go there and bear witness and offer love. It was a sweet reconnection from a different time.

On the plane returning home from Minneapolis my heart and soul felt so full, so happy and content, and downright joyful.

I am SO glad I went on this journey. I feel like I've matured decades in spiritual and emotional wisdom. I feel a calmness and openness in my physical and energetic bodies that is more grounded in me now.

I returned home with a knowing that I've taken a significant step of my soul's purpose in this lifetime. Yes, I hoped that this would help me align better with the energy of my new home with Harlan (and that it would come quickly! 😊

AND separate from that, I feel this was a step in and of itself that needed to happen regardless.

RETURN TO PORT TOWNSEND:

The results of this trip and ancestral healing were significant and immediate.

While I was still in Minneapolis an MLS listing came through for a new home in an area we had not yet considered. I forwarded it to our realtor and Harlan and proposed that we check it out upon my return. I arrived Tuesday and we went to see it on Thursday. While this home was no longer available, another one was that we ended up liking even more.

We made an offer on Friday, and it was accepted. The energy of our home buying journey shifted just like that.

Our home was new construction, so all the time/energy/money we thought we would have to put into remodeling could instead be put into gardening and creating our own sanctuary with a focus on birds and wildlife, something that brings me so much joy.

FINAL NOTES:

Throughout this journey, including before I departed, I was held by a group of soul sisters who were holding space for me energetically. I created a WhatsApp group where I could share my daily experiences and observations as well as photos from my time in Minneapolis.

The experience I had was so much more potent because of their witnessing. Their reflections of my experience enhanced what I was doing and feeling. This was truly a co-creation of healing unlike anything I have experienced. To me, this is what sisterhood looks like and I can't believe the lottery tickets I've won in the sisterhood drawing!

My wish is that everyone may feel this type of connection and support from their friends/chosen family and know that they are worthy of receiving this.

Sending love to all of you. 🌟✨🌟