We are all born into stories — the stories of our families, our cultures, our lands, our countries. These stories live in our households and our communities, they live in our bodies, our relationships, and our genes.

Modern genetic DNA testing can trace our family history up to 1,000 years. Mitochondrial DNA (Mt-DNA) Haplogroup Testing enables ancestry companies to trace family history even farther, up to 100,000 years. Have you ever wondered, how do these traces of history live in us? How do they flower into our everyday life?Ancestors walk with us every day, whether we are aware of it or not. They show up not only in biological markers, but also in unconscious scenarios, repetitive patterns, family traditions, and told and untold stories. Intergenerational transmission of trauma has been well documented suggesting that psychological, biological, and epigenetic mechanisms of transmission might be at play. But we don’t only inherit our ancestors’ struggles; we also carry their resilience and strength.

Our modern culture embedded in the paradigm of capitalism, consumerism, and individualism, disconnects us from our land, fracturing communities and connections with our own sense of self and our lineages. As a society, we do not have rich ancestral traditions that help us remember who we are and where we come from. In indigenous cultures, rituals associated with honoring ancestors play an important role in the life of a community.

We find examples of integral ancestral practices in East Asian traditions, Indigenous tribes of North and South America, Europe (e.g., Celtic tradition), and other places. Sophie Strand writes: “We must remember that ecology comes from the word Greek word oikos, for household. We are always “inside” of a web of relationships. A household of beings.“

Tending to the threads that connect us to our family lineage is an important part of being a human on this Earth. By connecting to our roots, we connect to our vitality and the communities we live in. If you would like to deepen your connection with your family tree and family lineage and to explore forces, patterns, and stories that are present in your life, we invite you to join us in an in-person workshop “Rooted Connection” in a gorgeous space of the Sunstone Sanctuary in Chester, NY on October 21, 2023, 1-3PM.