When I first began my shamanic practice, I noticed early on that I had an affinity for ancestral healing. The client’s ancestors would appear in the session and share the story of the original wound in the family. Many of these suffering ancestors brought their pain directly into the room with them.
Some of these ancestors had not yet crossed to the light and would attempt to sideline the healing due to their fear and resistance. Others were eager for healing and would clamor for attention, sometimes in large groups. The challenges presented by this overwhelming, chaotic energy would sometimes derail the healing. Occasionally I would carry the heavy energy after the session had ended.
My helping spirits showed me a better way. They presented the concept of the Gathering Place of Ancestors. By working with the ancestors in a safe, compassionate location in the Lower World – rather than here in the Middle World – the healing work could be more effective and take less of a toll on the practitioner.
My spirit team also introduced me to two kinds of spirit helpers who work in conjunction with the Gathering Place of Ancestors. The family totem and the ancestor ally are intimately familiar with the energy and history of the lineage and readily share their wisdom and healing.
The Gathering Place of Ancestors
The Gathering Place of Ancestors is a large field of energy bigger than any one individual. It’s familial and tribal, with overtones of the family’s cultural roots. It holds the energy (the vibe) of the family as a whole.
It contains ancestral memory, as well as cultural and ethnic memory. The family records are stored here. The family lore, secrets, and stories can be retrieved through shamanic journeys. Events that impacted the family can be identified and brought out into the light for healing. It’s even possible to meet and do healing for a specific ancestor who carries a wound around something that continues to affect the family.
Each family’s Gathering Place of the Ancestors is unique. Each client would typically have two – one for their maternal lineage and another for their paternal lineage.
The family energy system is accessible through the Gathering Place of Ancestors. Assisted by family totems and ancestor allies, it is possible to identify original wounds in the family that have created pain and suffering down the lineage. These wounds can be healed and the dysfunctional patterns that have resulted can be released in the Gathering Place.
Unhealthy tribal agreements can be unraveled here. Ancestral soul retrieval can restore back the lost and missing soul of the family. Information about the gifts carried in the lineage can be remembered in the Gathering Place of Ancestors. Additional ancestral wisdom can be accessed through connecting with the Wise Council of Elders via a shamanic journey, and the client can receive support from the strength and resilience of the lineage.
Because the Gathering Place is a benevolent space with many spirit helpers, practitioners can also safely and effectively do the heavy work of releasing family curses, unraveling intergenerational soul theft, and releasing suffering ancestors who stalk the lineage as hungry ghosts. Maintaining neutral compassion in the Gathering Place is easier than in the Middle World.
At the end of an ancestral healing session, the healing work typically closes by inviting the ancestors, the current generations, and the generations yet to come to gather and receive the full benefit and blessing of the healing.
To make contact with the Gathering Place of Ancestors, go on a Lower World journey with your current helping spirits. Ask them to take you to the place where your ancestors gather for healing. Be specific about whether you would like to visit your maternal or paternal lineage. Be clear with the helping spirits that you want to go to the benevolent, compassionate space pre-dating the original wound in the family – to a time when the lineage was in balance and connected to their gifts.
Because the first journey to the Gathering Place is for exploration, I do not recommend interacting with any ancestors yet. Instead pay attention to the natural setting, both the landscape and any buildings or structures you might encounter. Notice the presence of any animals or birds, who may be family totems. You can also get a sense of the elements (earth, water, fire, air, and light) that your family resonates with and holds a special connection to. Also notice the presence of any divine beings who may be ancestor allies for your family.
Family Totems
Family totems are animal spirit guides who work with an entire family lineage. Family totems are very similar to power animals. Native people remember this connection clearly and speak of being part of the Bear clan or the Eagle clan, for example. No matter the heritage, the ancestors had a special connection to an animal helper that they revered as a source of power and wisdom. For European families, the family totem may be depicted on the family shield or coat of arms.
For many families these connections have gotten lost over time, so an important part of the family’s power and gifts may have been forgotten. Just like doing a power animal retrieval for an individual, reconnecting with a family totem helps a lineage to reclaim aspects of their power which have been lost or denied.
To meet a family totem, make your way to the Gathering Place of Ancestors (described above) with the intention of meeting the family totem. This is usually a straightforward journey because these spirit helpers are eager to be remembered and once again start helping the family. They might even be waiting at the doorway to the Gathering Place. As usual when meeting a new potential guide, ask your trusted existing spirit team to confirm that this family totem is a benevolent being in the highest good of your family.
Some questions to ask your family totem:
* How did they come to be associated with the family?
* What role did they originally serve in the family?
* What wisdom and medicine do they offer that’s currently needed in the family?
Ancestor Allies
Ancestor allies are divine compassionate beings who help with the healing of a family lineage. Ancestor allies can be spirit teachers, angels, nature spirits, heavenly bodies like Grandmother Moon, and any of the gods and goddesses from any of the world religions including mythology.
Reconnecting to the divine compassionate ones who have assisted the family in generations past is helpful in restoring a connection to the family power. For instance, a family whose service included psychopomp work might have a connection to Charon or Hermes, well-known gods from mythology who help the souls of the dead cross to the other side. A Scandinavian family of warriors might work with Odin or Freya.
Occasionally an ancestor ally is an ancestor from before the original wound in the lineage. For instance, they may be a loving grandmother from several generations earlier who witnessed the original wound unfolding and couldn’t do anything about it at the time but now wants to lend her assistance with clearing the heavy energy from the family. Ancestor allies might be an ancestor who recognized the dysfunctional pattern for what it was in their lifetime and did their healing work around it. Now that they’re in spirit, they can be a helpful ally in doing further clearing in the family lineage.
To meet an ancestor ally, make your way to the Gathering Place of Ancestors (described above) with the intention of meeting an ancestor ally. These beings are also usually eager to be remembered and start helping the family once again. As usual when meeting a new potential guide, ask your trusted existing spirit team to confirm that this ancestor ally is a benevolent being in the highest good of your family.
Some questions to ask your ancestor ally:
* How did they come to be associated with the family?
* What role did they originally serve in the family?
* What wisdom and medicine do they offer that’s currently needed in the family?
* What stories do they have to share about events that have affected the family?
Case Study
Here’s an example of how the Gathering Place was used in a recent ancestral healing. (Shared with the client’s permission.)
The client scheduled a session because they were feeling a loss of joy and disconnection from the world. They wanted to reconnect with their sense of purpose.
In the diagnostic journey, the helping spirits showed me an image of an indigenous ancestor standing outdoors and looking up at the night sky, marveling at the beauty and the vastness of the northern lights. The helping spirits told me that the family had lost the sense of joy and connection to their magic.
I journeyed again and the helping spirits brought more information. They told me that the ancestor shown in the first journey had gifts of healing and could cast their awareness to other locations and do healing work for people, animals, and their community. This was highly revered and respected.
One evening, when this ancestor was using their healing gifts, a family member cursed them. This was at the time of the turning when the old pagan ways were being challenged by the spread of Christianity. The ancestor’s father wanted the family to fit in to the new paradigm and cursed them to lose their gifts. Since they were out of their body when this happened, the part of their soul which carried their gifts was trapped and unable to return home.
In the healing journey, I was taken back to the scene of the night sky and the northern lights. This time the helping spirits showed me in greater detail. We were standing on the top of the cliff with the sea below, and a mountainous, hilly area to our back. There was snow on the ground, and it was cold. This ancestor was wearing a coat made out of fur. I understood this to be the client’s Gathering Place of Ancestors.
I asked if there was a benevolent ancestor ally who would help us with the work. An elder grandmother stepped forward. She had been a powerful healer in her time, living several generations before the loss of the ancestral gifts. She was eager to help and came with her familiar, a reindeer, the family totem.
She worked together with the reindeer to unravel the curse, recover and heal the missing soul peace, and bring the gifts and the magic back to the ancestor who experienced the original wound, as well as the client and the lineage.
Together with my spirit teachers, we also helped the original ancestor who had been trapped in the Middle World without his soul piece to cross to the light.
All of this work was done in the Gathering Place of Ancestors with the support of the ancestor ally, the family totem, and the family’s connection to the natural landscape and to the elements of air and water.
At the end of the healing, we invited all of those who are interested from the ancestors, the current generations, and the generations yet to come to meet in the family’s Gathering Place of Ancestors and directly receive the full benefit and blessing of the healing.
This healing benefited from transpiring in the client’s Gathering Place of Ancestors. It safeguarded the client and me as the practitioner from any angry ancestors and from taking on any heavy energy from the curse. The healing unfolded in perfect timing, and it was easy and effortless with the aid of the family totem and ancestor ally.
This work is real, and it matters.
+ + + + + + + + + + +
This article was written for publication on the Society for Shamanic Practice website (shamanicpractice.org) in September 2023.
Debra Morrill is a shamanic practitioner and teacher located in Baraboo, WI. She specializes in ancestral healing, compassionate depossession, and curse unraveling.