Blog

(Unsplash Photo)

Sometimes people ask me, “How do I pray to my ancestors?”  Of course, there are different ways of praying, formal and informal, spontaneous and ceremonial.

But a simple way of praying to your ancestors is to just talk to them.  They are your people, who happened not to be incarnate in a body at this time.  You may call individual names, or address the collective.  Here’s an example of a prayer that I might pray to the grandmothers of my lineage:

Greetings, Ancestral mothers! … all of you from across space and time, throughout the ages….

Much gratitude for your prayers, your yearnings, and strivings on my behalf, though I have not always listened.

No disrespect.  I mostly just don’t think about the fact that you are there/here, longing to be active members of my supporting cast.

You know how it is, I’m independent, fiercely independent sometimes, and I’ve always wanted to demonstrate my competence, my ability to take care of myself.

Well now that I’m in my wisdom years….looking back with 20/20 vision, ohhh my goodness! I see how it could have been different, so much different!

As I think about all of the time that I spent stumbling along in the dark when I could have turned to you, I chuckle…in fact I laugh.  I guess you see that all the time…how your children make their lives difficult because they don’t know better.

They say, “When you know better, you do better!”  Now, I know better so I’m doing better.  I’m calling for all the storytellers, the freedom fighters, the scholars, the activists, the writers, the teachers, the healers in the ancestral lands to come forward. 

We need your help here in this crazy, chaotic world!  Help me to do my part well!  Help me to release my genius in the world, to make my contribution to the healing of the land and the emergence of a new human story.

I promise to keep my ears to the ground, to always be in listening mode, to keep my eyes open, to always be in discerning mode, and to keep my heart tuned in to sensory perception.

Thank you for supporting me in my efforts, even when I fail!

Asé o!

PS…Looking forward to hearing from you!