Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by soldes Foor, Daniel NEUF

Daniel Foor, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist and a doctor of psychology. He has led ancestral and family healing intensives throughout the United States since 2005. He is an initiate in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has trained with teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and different indigenous paths, including the older ways of his European ancestors. He lives in Asheville, NC.

List of Figures



Acknowledgments



Introduction



Part One

Foundations of Ancestor Work



One My Personal Journey with the Ancestors

Making Initial Contact • Family Research and Personal Healing • Learning and Teaching Ancestor Work



Two Who Are the Ancestors? The Dead Are Not Dead • Family and Remembered Ancestors • Older Ancestors and the Collective Dead



Exercise One: How Do You Feel about Your Ancestors?



Three Spontaneous Ancestral Contact Dream Contact • Synchronicity • Waking Contact in Nonordinary States • Waking Encounters in Ordinary States



Exercise Two: What Are Your Experiences with Your Ancestors?



Four Ancestor Reverence and Ritual Common Intentions for Ancestor Rituals • Practices to Sustain Ancestral Connection



Exercise Three: Ritual to Initiate Contact with Your Ancestors



Part Two

Healing with Lineage and Family Ancestors



Five Family Research and Initiating Ancestral Healing Gathering What Is Remembered • Considerations before Working Directly with Your Ancestors • Choosing a Focus for Lineage Repair Work



Exercise Four: Attuning to Your Four Primary Bloodlines



Six Meeting with Ancestral Guides Ancestral Guides • Using Ritual to Contact Ancestral Guides • Ways to Deepen Relationships with Ancestral Guides



Exercise Five: Seeking an Ancestral Guide



Seven Lineage Ancestors and the Collective Dead Ancestral Lineage • Assessing the Lineage • Making Repairs with Older Lineage Ancestors



Exercise Six: Getting to Know the Lineage



Exercise Seven: Ritual to Assist Lineage Ancestors



Eight Assisting the Remembered Dead Emotional Healing, Forgiveness, and Unfinished Business • Psychopomp, Elevation of the Dead, and Ancestralization • Work with the Very Troubled Dead and Related Spirits



Exercise Eight: Ancestral Forgiveness Practice



Exercise Nine: Soul Guidance for the Remembered Dead



Nine Integration and Work with Living Family Prayer for Self, Family, and Descendants • Embodiment, Channeling, and Mediumship • Completing the Lineage Repair Cycle • Ancestor Work beyond the Lineage Repair Cycle



Exercise Ten: Embody the Lineage and Offer Prayer for the Living



Exercise Eleven: Harmonizing Your Four Primary Lineages



Exercise Twelve: Ritual to Feast Your Family Ancestors



Part Three

Honoring Other Types of Ancestors



Ten Ancestors and Place Home Is Where the Bones Are • Public Memorials and Monuments • Ancestors and the Natural World • Nine Suggestions for Honoring Ancestors of Place



Exercise Thirteen: Cemetery Practice with Family Ancestors



Exercise Fourteen: Ritual to Greet the Ancestors of a Place



Eleven Affinity Ancestors, Multiple Souls, and Reincarnation Ancestors of Affinity • Multiple Souls • Reincarnation and Past Lives • Integration Work with Family, Place, and Affinity Ancestors



Exercise Fifteen: Celebrating Ancestors of Vocation



Exercise Sixteen: Harmonizing Ancestors of Family, Place, and Affinity



Twelve Joining the Ancestors Preparing for Death • Funeral Rites and the Body after Death • Ritual Tending in the First Year after Death



Exercise Seventeen: Conscious Participation in a Burial



Exercise Eighteen: Ritual for the First Anniversary of a Death



Appendix

Distinguishing Talking with Spirits from Psychosis



Notes



Bibliography



Index



List of Figures



Figure 5.1. Family pedigree chart



Figure 5.2. Family pedigree mandala



Figure 7.1. Layers of lineage through time



Figure 9.1. Ancestral mandala