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Last week I took part in a course called Introduction to Nature Communication by Ecofluency, run by Dr. Saskia von Diest. I loved it and found so many correlations with the ritual and shamanic work that I do. This was part of my preparation for the Becoming a Good Ancestor programme creating nature medicine rituals for each month.
One thing we discussed was beauty and how it harmonises our state of being and brings us in alignment with the world around us. Beauty holds a particular frequency that our soul recognises and gets nurtured by. Nature is the best place for this food for our soul, but it could be found anywhere. Ritual: A quick ritual you could do being anywhere, for example on public transport, is to call in the Four Directions and invite the beauty of each direction to manifest and surround you. Being on the tube, become aware of the directions, where is East, South, West and North (quickest way is to use the compass on your phone). Close your eyes for a moment, centre yourself, create a safe space around you (imagine being in the middle of a sacred safe space of divine energy), set the intention to connect with Beauty and call in the powers of the Four Directions. Open your eyes, look to the East, imagine saying "I invite the Beauty of the East to be present for this ritual" and notice what shows up in that direction. It might be a beautiful person, item, view of the window, situation, etc. When you see it, welcome it and say thank you for showing up. Move to the next Direction. Notice how your body feels when you get in touch with Beauty of each Direction. Breathe. End the ritual when you are ready. The more you do this ritual, the more you start seeing beauty in any place, any situation, creating more space for gratitude and grace. Let me know if you have any questions and I would love to hear how this worked for you. This week we started the Becoming a Good Ancestor programme. If you missed joining the full programme, you have a chance to join only the live monthly rituals. The link is below. The first one is on Monday, 24 January 6-8 pm GMT. We will work with ancestors of the Four Directions and our dreams for this year. On Saturday, 29 January we are meeting for our first family constellations circle of the year. There are some representative places available. Wishing you a flowing weekend, Aleksandra Shymina
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One of the things our distant ancestors excelled at was their intuitive connection with nature. For them it was a question of survival, they had to be in tune with all the signs of nature to be able to produce food and stay safe. I imagine they were more of a one organism with the world around them, in reciprocal relationship of give and take.
We, on the other hand, started to forget how interconnected we are with our environment, losing the sense of its importance for our survival. Looking at what it takes to be good ancestors we also look at our relationship with nature. Our inner children will be our guides in this. When we are children we look at everything for the first time without trying to label it or have agenda for it but just explore, feel, sense and even taste it sometimes. They have genuine curiosity and wonder about the beauty, movement and amazing ways of nature beings. In Becoming a Good Ancestor we will take gentle steps to connect to the wonders of nature around us, whether we live in a super urban environment or close to trees or water, we’ll aim to build this reciprocity and learn to feel into its supportive presence. We’ll do it in a ritual way working with the four directions and in everyday way going outside and being in nature, exchanging gifts and learning to see, hear and sense. In the video I guide a short meditation to connect with the four directions and their gifts. Becoming a Good Ancestor (BaGA) programme starts this month. Together we will be going on a journey to inspire a more meaningful, wholehearted life in full connection with our ancestors, inner child and nature. You can find more information on BaGA here Have you ever wondered what kind of an ancestor you are?
A resourceful, powerful, well ancestor, that offers strong support and wise guidance for the future generations or a burdened, entangled, confused, and lost ancestor who is just not available to offer anything, still being preoccupied with personal and systemic unfinished business? Or possibly a bit of both? The legacy we leave to the future, starts with ourselves in the present, in this very moment. The more we are loving our life, the more we are connected to the world around us and ourselves, the more rooted we are into our bodies and lineages - the more our legacy will be supportive to those who come after us. Learning our lessons, processing our feelings and pain, resolving our own entanglements - all contribute to our wellbeing and to our being resourceful ancestors. Just as our present moment is influenced by all those who came before us on a personal and collective level, our here and now will impact the future generations in more ways than we can imagine. So, in the Becoming a Good Ancestor programme we begin with looking back to release the entanglements, looking into the now to step fully into our power to be able to look into the future with a peace of mind. On this journey we are weaving together our personal inner work and the ancestral work. In the video above I guide you into a mediation to connect with your parents and ancestors to see how available you are to your own life. When parts of us are staying with our parents, for whatever reason good or bad, especially if there has been a lot of pain and suffering in childhood, we are not fully available to our own life and to the future. Our inner child still feels responsible for fixing parent’s life, rescuing, atoning, being loyal to be fully accepted, to belong, to survive. If we step up to become our own best adult to support our inner little one to feel safe and belonging no matter what, it will be possible for us to leave the parent’s fate to themselves. And not just parents - previous seven generations of our ancestors are still influencing our lives on so many different levels and most of them are unconscious, hidden among our ego, defences and limiting beliefs. Becoming a Good Ancestor (BaGA) programme starts this month. Together we will be going on a journey to inspire a more meaningful, wholehearted life in full connection with our ancestors, inner child and nature. You can find more information on BaGA here Let's talk about ritual. In 2015 I trained with Daan van Kampenhout in Systemic Ritual – a method that brings together shamanism and family constellations. Since then I have created and ran multiple rituals on a variety of topics. Because this is so much part of my life it also sipped into all other areas of it. Adding ritual aspect to anything you do creates meaning and depth contributing to your wellbeing. It changes the way you see life.
We do ritual in a sacred space, working with the environment around us, so we are always aware of our surroundings. We do ritual with an intention and prayer – intention is something that guides the movement of the ritual, that gives it direction and forms the outcome. Prayer, like poetry, changes the way our brain works and perceives the world, it also invokes the spiritual resources we don’t even know we have. Link to a conversation on ritual This year we will do monthly rituals that would be structured around the wheel of the year and the wheel of four directions. Every season on the wheel has its energy, and the themes of the rituals will follow it. Spring has the energy of new beginning and rebirth – we will work with our inner child, abundance and trusting the world. Summer has the energy of feelings and community – we will work with the themes of relationships with our families, partners and community. Autumn holds the energy of introspection, intuition and release – so we will work with trusting and developing our intuition, releasing what is unfinished and learning to listen to our body. Winter is about our connection with the spiritual, about rest and stillness – we will work with stepping into our power, connecting to our lineage and the spirits of the four directions. Throughout the year in most rituals we will be in close touch with our ancestors as this is the primary relationship for healing the present, and we will be constantly connecting with nature, with the land we are in, with local other-than-human beings, doing small rituals outside. Working with inner child we will then take them with us into the rest of the year, including them in most rituals. So, to summarise, in Becoming a Good Ancestor journey this year we will have twelve themes, do twelve monthly rituals aiming to bring harmony to our lives, feel more rooted and connected to ourselves, our lineages and nature. Each month, besides a live ritual on zoom, you will also receive a guided meditation to do during the month as many times as feels right to deepen the experience. And I will send you small rituals to do on your own out in nature or inside to connect with the theme of the month more. You can find more information on BaGA here In the video above I walk you through a short ritual to set the intention for this year being supported by well-wishing ancestors. I hope you find it inspiring. When you set up the representative for the Intention be specific in formulating it. Let me know how it goes for you. See you in the programme! Wishing you a flowing week, Aleksandra Shymina Happy New Year! Tomorrow we are going to say goodbye to 2021 and welcome to 2022. I am planning to do a quick ritual for myself tomorrow at midnight and I thought maybe you could join me wherever you are in your own way.
Ritual: As the clocks will be moving into the next hour at midnight I will imagine that behind me is the year that is leaving, and in front of me is the one that is arriving. I will look back, acknowledge all that happened, fill my heart with gratitude for all the love I received and will say farewell to this year, with intention to leave everything that doesn't belong to me and is not serving me in it. Then I will turn to look ahead, at the new year, and taking a step forward I will say something along the lines of Welcome to the visible and invisible beings, guardians and ancestors of this new year. I come with peace and I wish you well. May all that is to emerge comes with love and all that needs to leave, goes with ease. May the way forward be open and smooth. I will tune into all the beauty of the coming year, and invite it to surround me and be my friend. This wont take more than a couple of minutes and will create an inspiring meaningful beginning for the new year. I wish you a complete and full ending of this year and a creative loving beginning of the next year. I am looking forward to our journey together in 2022 and beyond. With all my love and gratitude, Aleksandra Shymina This is such a powerful time of the year. When you think of it from a collective energy point of view, almost everywhere on earth people have been marking this time of the year in some way, whether prehistoric ancestors greeting the sun as it begins to bring back the light, or the millions of people in more modern times praying and celebrating in churches everywhere, or the celebration and anticipation of the new year. Collectively we carry this time in our DNA as very special wether individually we agree with it or not. Tune in to the collective field, notice the patterns and be clear about what is yours and what doesn't belong to you. Below is a ritual you could do on 22 December to mark the return of the Sun. It also includes your inner child. This time is especially magical for our inner little ones.
Ritual Use as many stones to represent as feels right. Set up a circle of 'sunny' ancestors. One by one, call each of them in - all those ancestors who are shining warmly at you from the past. At least nine. Around that circle create another circle with a scarf or a piece of wire, to represent the loving hands of the Grandfather Sun. In the middle, set up yourself as an adult and your inner child. Set your intention to honour the Sun that gives life to all on this planet and connect with your loving ancestors. Begin the ritual by standing as your adult self and feel into it. How doest it feel to be in this circle and to have your little one there too. Use simple sentences to welcome the ancestors and to let them know who you are. Then stand as Inner Child and see what you notice. It might be that the adult self needs to reassure the little self, or maybe the child knows all ancestors already. Move to stand in the place of the loving hands of the Grandfather Sun, looking at others within your arms. Notice how it is to represent the sun. Then move to represent somebody from the 'sunny ancestors', notice who you are drawn to.As you stand there, look at your own representative - the adult and the child, notice what comes up. Maybe there will be gifts coming, blessings and support. And again, stand as your own representative, the adult and the child. Receive all the support, busk in the sunshine, dance as a child in sun rays. Fill up your batteries and pour your gratitude onto those around you, including the loving arms of Grandfather Sun. Use simple sentences to acknowledge, honour and celebrate your lineage, your life, your ancestors and Grandfather Sun. Stay there for as long as feels right. End the ritual. The image above was created by an incredibly talented artist - Agnese Aljena from Latvia who also illustrated the Wheel of Four Directions Cards. We are coming close to the end of the year and I wanted to thank you for walking this journey with me. We have together done more than 70 online circles this year, multiple individual constellations, had lots of healing insights and learnings and gifts. It doesn't make sense without you. Thank you. Next year I hope to see you again and continue this adventure in the world of ancestral support and healing. Wishing you a flowing week, Aleksandra Shymina My neighbour is turning 98 next week. She goes to choir twice a week, sings at home the whole day and gardens when the sun is shining. This week she invited me to attend a regular group meeting she goes to on zoom (before it was in person) that has been running for the last 50+ years. As I was sitting with these people the youngest of whom was 75, I couldn’t help but imagine sitting around the fire in a circle of elders. For about 80 minutes they were expressing concern and praying for various situations around the world. They haven’t complained once about their lives or health, all they talked about was what they could do to make things better for others. They also shared some good news from their communities and celebrated their friend who turned 101 that day. I wondered whether this is what good future ancestors look like.
I’ve interviewed most of them before about their lives. One thing that struck me was how freely they talked about their past. How eagerly they shared their wisdom and life lessons, from the most painful to the most joyful ones. Not every elder, in my experience, is so open to share. My grandmother, for example, would not talk about anything in her life at all, unless I asked to see her old photos. Then she’ll at least tell me who is who and I’ll make up some of the story. I wonder whether our ability to share our story relates to how much pain is still unprocessed in it. It is a well-known fact that those who came back from war rarely talk about it. My great grandfather is said to never have spoken about what he'd been through, he started drinking instead. The family is, to this day, discovering bits and pieces of his story from various sources. The elders I interviewed all had a way to process pain, grief and suffering and had a belief system that supported them in finding meaning in all of it. So, one of my thoughts for becoming a good ancestor is to do as much processing of my own stuff, to be able to share what I know with others without leftovers of pain and shame. That will also clear away unnecessary burdens passed on to future generations. In Becoming a Good Ancestor programme next year we'll dive deep into what it means to be a good ancestor, and how through ancestral healing, inner child work and trusting ourselves we could step into that place - becoming so resourced that we'll be able to share it with others in the future. Registration will open first week of January and I will tell you more details before then. I am really hoping to walk the next year with you, weaving ritual into every day life, continuing to build a co-creative relationship with ancestors and getting more connected with our own beautiful powerful selves. |
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