The past, distant and close, is embodied in all of us and this is a knowledge that affects us consciously or unconsciously as it interacts with our present in whatever way it can. We may be called upon to ‘pay our dues’ in some way unpaid from the past, to repeat sorrows and seeming injustices, or we may find ourselves delivering the produce of many harvests; delivering our gifts in the present so that our transgenerational lives can continue to work themselves out.
When you put into practise the act of remembering your true-self you touch the links and connections to your ancestors and may come to understand your present needs and challenges, or at least have a wider perspective on how to proceed to mend any broken threads of your intergenerational web; to rejoin and heal the wounds of disconnections and imbalance.
By using shamanic techniques one may seek information about situations and then progress to what may be done about them to regain lost harmony. If appropriate actions can be undertaken and completed, then scars heal, even if the wound inception was generations ago. As causes of unresolved conflict and trauma come into the light, work in the worlds of your ancestors and your spiritual inheritance will reveal the synchronicity, interconnectedness, and purposefulness of the co-incidence, across time, of seemingly unrelated events.
Transgenerational work offers the finding of an appropriate way forward, at least as a first step, for individuals or groups, that can be developed and built on to heal trauma. It may be necessary to work in spirit with one or more of your past generation members so that the healing is effective into the present. In family or community work it is best, and often essential, that all can willingly participate with consent. Unwilling, hostile or negative minds may disrupt completion of the healing task. If working in a private home then seek permission from all living there – and the shamanic practitioner skills necessary to consult the spirits of the place.
For individuals, families and communities there are three levels on which healing and repair may need to take place: on the ordinary physical everyday level, on the unconscious soul level of every day, and on the spiritual, energetic level – the location of the deep issue. Not easy work. It takes love, compassion, commitment and a willingness to take responsibility, sometimes over a long period of time.
In working shamanically with current life difficulties, deceased ancestors may reveal the burdens gifted to their line. These revelations should be taken seriously and dealt with in a way that brings them into the light, names them, and finds a way to enable them to be addressed. Thereby freeing the encumbered lineage. By doing what needs to be done on a spiritual and physical level release may be found for the living and the deceased, so that the present life is no longer expressing the burden of which it previously knew nothing.
Individual solutions may be found, but these still leave the mountains of societal, cultural and global wounds to be addressed. There are good people around the world working to help us understand and ease the pain of intergenerational conflict and trauma. They provide healing of all kinds and on all levels to those caught up in the psychological, social and spiritual conflicts that engender communal trauma. May their work be blessed with the strength to continue.