The Ancestral Pilgrimage - what, why and how
What’s an ancestral pilgrimage and how does it differ from a regular pilgrimage?
A pilgrimage is when we say yet to visiting a holy place. A place to connect with the sacred during a time in our lives when we are ready for change. We say yes to a pilgrimage knowing that we will never be the same, and that this will stay with us upon our return home.
An ancestral pilgrimage is very similar. But with an ancestral pilgrimage, one chooses to journey to a region of our near where their ancestors may have called home. It can be the same country, same continent, or even the same village your ancestors came from.
Why take an ancestral pilgrimage?
Our ancestors stories do not end when they die. Our ancestors experiences and stories still flow within our living blood. These stories come with unhealed trauma, magic practices, and memories of their resilience. Our ancestors energy and imprint still live within us.
We are the entirety of those who came before us — plus everything we are— in these current human bodies we call home.
It’s truly a profoundly beautiful and painful cacophony of experiences within these flesh and bones of ours.
Our cellular history goes back… to the beginning of time. We can ask ourselves; Who have we been? What have we been through? What experiences are still vibrating through my cells? What did my ancestors love? How did they worship? What wisdom did they pass on? What harmed them? What did they eat? How did they connect with the land that sustained them? What plants were their medicine? What prayers did they utter?
When we decide to take an ancestral pilgrimage we are taking our ancestors stories, contained within our own bodies, back to their most original connection; the land they lived, birthed, and possibly died on.
By bringing ourselves to ancestral land we are able to access and remember/express the lived stories within our bodies in new, and hopefully healing, ways.
When our ancestors left their land of origin for the “new world” (speaking specifically for those with European ancestry) they landed in a place that had been already been an “old world” for indigenous people. They also landed in a place that had been colonized by others, and by showing up, our ancestors became part of that colonization process, whether they knew or understood it fully or not. They landed in a new place and had to assimilate. This entire process has been unhealthy for everyone — and has created a deep and fatal disconnect… from land, from body, spiritual practices, cultural ways and mythologies (just to name a few).
Taking a pilgrimage back to where our people had deep roots, and long lived experiences, and healthy and well relations with their communities and their own ancestors— can be extremely healing for the loss and wounds that happened both because of immigration as well as the trauma caused by the various reasons our ancestors had to flee (famine, starvation, wars, fascism).
When we pilgrimage to ancestral lands, we can spend time in places where our grandparents (however far back they go) struggled, loved, survived, sang, work, made things with their hands, grew food, and cooked meals. Pilgrimages allow you to immerse yourself in nature and culture and give you the space and experiences to retell the stories that are held in your body— stories from hundreds or thousands of years ago.
You can bring your body to the temples, the salty sea, the long farm tables, to the caves, to the music, to the plants, and to the people still carrying on your ancestral traditions. You can come as a pilgrim, knowing nothing, but leaving changed forever, and changing the stories within you forever.
We take these pilgrimages to honor who came before us. And to honor ourselves and our own healing process— as well to bring joy and togetherness into our lives. We take these pilgrimages to re-pattern our brains and to (re) learn something new. To discover a new story about the self. To become better at being human and bringing the new found wisdom and change back to our families and communities. We also go in offering— to offer ourselves back, to remind those left behind we are still here, we still care, we have not forgotten them.
How to become an ancestral pilgrim?
(This is clearly a very basic list, but here are some things to remember and know before making an ancestral pilgrimage)
Don’t try and take on large land masses to tour in short amounts of time. The more simple, the better. Root and anchor in one or two places. Get to know the locals well and the landscape even better. Learn to feel belonging. Basically: don’t be a “basic tourist” trying to see sites.
Stay away from the busy tourist towns and cities.
Find guides that understand and practice ancestral medicine, who can hold space, who understand the harms of colonisation, and are deeply rooted and part of the local culture and able to integrate and ritualize with you.
Bring offerings for the land of your ancestors in gratitude.
Bring offerings for the people you will meet along the way who will be your teachers.
Study the history of the culture, the layers of reasons why your ancestors leff the land, how that affected those who were left behind.
Practice leaving your own cultural programming behind. Be open to being present to something different without judging or centering yourself.
Practice the language of the land.
Learn prayers and food names and sayings in ancestral languages.
Decide to connect and develop relationships with those you meet on the pilgrimage and especially those of your ancestral land.
Be ready and willing to open up to the spectrum of healing and intensity being on ancestral land and how that will affect your body; be prepared for euphoria and deep grief and everything in between.
Know that if you do this, your ancestors have helped make this happen for you and want this as much as you do.
However you choose to become an ancestral pilgrim, hold close to your longing. Stay open to that longing. Allow that longing to be your guide.