Ancestral Healing

Healing the Red Thread

As we learned in junior high health class, genetic information passed to us from our parents determines our hair color, eye color and physical build, among other things.

We also receive our ancestor’s unfinished business and unhealed wounds. This energetic transmission through the family genetic stream is referred to as “the red thread.” It explains why a family line may carry a tendency for a certain addiction, trauma, disease or pattern of abuse.

Some common examples of ancestral energy patterns include:
  • physical and mental illness
  • suicide
  • violence
  • a certain injury, such as a head wound
  • addictions
  • abusive relationships
  • incest, sexual abuse
  • relationship to money
  • emotions such as fear, grief, anger, sadness, shame
  • soul loss

Imagine a woman whose husband abandons her with three young children to care for. Her whole life becomes focused on working to feed her children, so the wound of being abandoned never heals. Her bitterness and anger become a pattern that continues even after her children have grown and left home.

If she dies with the wound unhealed, the abandonment, anger and bitterness enters the family genetic stream energetically. Generations later, the story of how great-grandmother raised three children alone may be long forgotten, but the energy of it still passes to future generations.

Each family member may experience the energy differently, based on their gender and birth order. In our example, oldest sons may abandon their families, while youngest sons may become timid men who marry angry, bitter wives. The women in the family may show a pattern of being abandoned, or they may feel bitter and angry toward men for reasons they don’t understand.

Until someone pursues healing for the issue, the energy continues in the family line.

Because of a concept called circular time, just one or two family members healing and shifting the energy can break the pattern and heal the wound in the family line. The usual view of time here on Planet Earth is linear – first A happens, then B, then C, a chronological thread of past, present, future. But in the spirit world, the ordinary concepts of time fall away, and time becomes circular. All time – past, present and future – exists at once.

Through traveling to the spirit world and healing the energy of the original wound, a shamanic practitioner acting on the client’s behalf can bring healing to the family line. Ancestors who have long been deceased, current generations, and generations yet to come all receive healing outside of the ordinary view of time.

By working in the spiritual realms, we can clear deeply entrenched energy patterns and create an opening for our whole being to come back into balance. By working on an energetic level to shift the energy at the source of the original wound, miracles can happen.

Some of us make agreements on a soul level before we incarnate in this lifetime to be the ones to do the healing for the family. It’s part of our destiny, and in doing so we’re fulfilling our purpose in this lifetime. We heal on behalf of current generations, our ancestors and those yet to come.

“Healing myself through my ancestors has been one gift and blessing after another. When I first began seeing Debra for shamanic healing, I didn’t expect ancestral healing to play such a large role in my healing process. But, wow, it did! Many of the wounds I worked with were women-centered: disconnection from my pleasure, fear of men, and disbelief in my ability to be financially abundant as a single woman. Each session helped me embrace my femininity with a new sense of power, safety, and beauty in a surprising and life-changing way. 

“I feel deeply loved and protected by my ancestors, and I know that the compassionate healing work I did with Debra ripples out and heals not only the past and present but also the future generations. Many of us drawn to this work carry more than we realize. Ancestral healing is a loving, compassionate way to bring freedom, joy, and power into our lives and into our families!”

To learn more about ancestral healing, or to schedule a shamanic healing session, please contact Debra.