A number of months ago, on the eve of our Unapologetic book launch, I had 11 generations of female ancestors suddenly join me in a coaching session.
Their energy was palpable and they poured like a torrent through my the vessel of my mentor.
They came with a strong message. More of a command, really.
Have you any idea of the luxury with which you live, now? They asked.
Of the freedoms you have… as a woman in western 21st century?
How are you harnessing this blessing?
Life was so very different for them. Life still IS so very different for many women around the world.
Societal norms braced like a vice, restricting what they could and could not do, dictating what they could and could not say.
They were
Persecuted for their gifts.
Banished for their differences.
Suffocated from speaking their truth.
Their stories died with the deaths of their physical bodies.
These 11 generations of ancestors came with a command for me to take seriously my role as community-builder and facilitator.
Storyteller.
Storyweaver.
They told me that holding space for women to write and share their bravest stories with the world is an honour, the depths of which I had most certainly not truly understood.
They told me that we must
Write our stories… for our ancestors who could not.
Harness our gifts… for our ancestors who could not.
Heal our wounding… for our ancestors who could not.
Over the weekend – on retreat and in sacred space with a group of incredible women – we released these ancestral chains, stored deep in our cells.
The old stories, programming, conditioning that quietly but persistently instructs women to
Tone down their wildness
Shrink to fit in
Please the collective with their platitudes
Be a good woman/mother/wife/daughter
Not be too successful
Definitely don’t be boastful
Be mistrustful of men/god/the universe
Within the safety of this space, I felt these 11 generations of ancestor’s pain-grief-sorrow-betrayal-relief-joy-gratitude rip through my body and crack open my heart.
I realised that we are the gatekeepers of ancestral wounding.
When we heal at the cellular level, we heal
not only for ourselves and those that come after us, we also send ripples of healing back through the ancestral lines.
It takes great courage to do this work. A surrendering to the emotion stored in our DNA and a permission to give that emotion a voice.
Permission to LET GO.
It does not come naturally to me but impact is profound.
We break the ancestral chains for our children, our grandchildren, our mothers, our grandmothers and the women who came before them.
