You are the result of the love of thousands who came before you. A beautiful thread, woven into a tapestry of ancestry rich with experience. The names of our great grandmothers and grandfathers may have been forgotten long ago, but their successes and trials are awakened within us, reborn in our hearts and carried upon the ripples of our first roar.

Our talents are not random—they are inherited. We are offered a tremendous privilege to choose which of these to foster and which to blanket. Some consider it to be one of the greatest atrocities to humanity when we decide to contribute nothing at all. But just as these talents enrich our cells, so do the remembrance of centuries spent in poverty, in sickness, and in war. Knowing what lessons are ours to live and what energies we may be just living through can create a vast difference in our quality of life. Each of us carries the opportunity to expand upon the lessons of our ancestors that walked before us.

It might be helpful to compare our ancestry to the growth rings of an old Oak tree. Starting at its core would be the record of our very first ancestor, the Cro-Magnon, and each subsequent ring thereafter would be representative of another life lived. Rings spaced far apart would indicate a soul who experienced tremendous spiritual growth, whereas lines placed close together would denote a life with very little evolution. Even though these growth cycles are considered separate, how each life is rendered affects the health of the tree overall. It is in this way we can see that our actions do not affect just us, but all the descendants that are yet to come.

Ancestry healing can be very complex. It takes a lot of faith in Spirit and in the Shamanic practitioner to trace current energies back into centuries of unresolved, and often undocumented, struggles that continue to manifest in present day lives. Addictions, abuse, abandonment and dis-ease, many of these are cruxes we come into this life already pinned to our bodies. While at times this may seem unfair, this is just part of the responsibility of the spiritual adult: to address and correct the energetic triggers and patterns that cause conflict, resistance, and disharmony.

This is the energy we can expect not only in this week but the next three to come. If you find yourself speaking or being asked these words, "Why is this happening again?" consider it a cue from Spirit that you might be living a ripple effect of the growth ring. You can begin to work on healing these instances yourself by acknowledging that a pattern is happening. Next, consider the source of the ripple. Is this something you began in your life, or can you trace it to a parent or a grandparent? There may not always be an obvious answer to this, so you might have to trust your gut.

Ask yourself, what it would require of you to get different results?
This is where we shift out of the blame game and take responsibility for our futures. Sometimes taking different actions requires extraordinary amounts of courage, but in many instances, it is this type of courage that is required to change the way you live. What type of imprint do you want to leave on your ancestral tree? A big ring or little ring? The choice is yours.

-Jamie Homeister