I started this work with genealogy-trying to solve a few family mysteries. I found I loved that work. Census documents, birth and death records, old newspaper articles all felt like a way my great (and sometimes great-great-great) grandparents could speak to me. I would stay up way too late at night, getting oddly hot and feverish as I searched Ancestry.com, feeling like my people were telling me their stories that had been lost or hidden along the way. I did this for four years and I still love genealogical work. I was able to trace several lines pretty far back. Unfortunately, not everyone has this privilege and records are often harder to trace for people of color, people in marginalized communities, religiously persecuted groups, people who had to flee a homeland, people whose homelands were colonized by others…you get the idea. But, eventually, even for my family, there seemed to be less and less to find in the paper records.

But I didn’t want to give up this practice-these relationships really-that I had formed with my ancestors. So I took what felt like a big leap at the time and signed up for a class that focused on meditations to talk to ancestors directly. A more spirit focused approach. It did not come easily at first. It was frustrating, mystifying, and I was filled with self-doubt. I really wasn’t sure I was going to stick with it but again, I wanted…something. Relationship? To know? This vague desire was confusing but kept me coming back to meditation practice. Over time I let myself relax and realized a lot of the frustration I felt was me putting way too much pressure on myself instead of just letting things unfold. As I practiced regularly I got more information, feelings, visuals, phrases popping into my head. I learned to trust the process and recognize how I get information. I started to love this weird ancestor meditation thing I was doing.

This shift from historical documents to direct conversation meant the communication became spirit led, more soaked in symbol and story, and much deeper in time. While I still think about (and hear from) my grandparents and great-grands, the ones we tend to think of when we think of family, I started talking to figures that felt different. Guides. I got the feeling of something bigger-like I was actually talking with many people who were creating a symbolic figurehead to make it easier for me to talk with them. This rearranged my concept of what and who we are talking about when we talk about “ancestors.” These wise guides are who I aim to talk with in my Ancestral Readings, so if you are curious about what your guides have to say to you, I’m happy to help!