Hello everyone, welcome to today’s blog post, written on the day of a full solar eclipse happening in many parts of the world, alongside a new moon in Cancer.
I read that the energy behind these total eclipses is one of bringing things up things from the past to be felt and healed, and so the enquiry for our #breathetheworld last Sunday, fitted perfectly with the planetary energy around at this time.
We asked:
If you had a message for one of your ancestors, what would it be? What may have been left unsaid?
The answers were deeply moving, and highlighted to us that we often move through life leaving behind us on our pathway, a trail of unspoken words.
Here are some of the shares:
“I want to ask my Great Grandmother if she is Indigenous Australian”. This points to a desire to know one’s ancestry, discover the roots of our lineages, but what if we can’t get answers to those questions? How do we build identity without the sure and certain knowledge of where we came from? Can we accept ourselves in there here and now without this information available to us?
“I would tell my grandmother, how much I love her! Her warm and caring presence, her patience, her love.” So many of us never get to tell our loved ones how much their care meant to us, perhaps we didn’t even realise at the time, but in speaking this out we can feel the energy behind it as we let the gratitude infuse us.
“My message is to my fraternal grandfather – I am feeling sadness about the fact that I don’t know who you are, not even your name, actually whether you are even alive still. My father feels the same way. What is the reason for that?” Again, we bear witness to a longing to know one’s stories and history. Silence can be a difficult path to navigate when we have no signposts to direct us to the answers we seek. So how do we bring closure to unanswerable questions? Perhaps within the loving embrace of the communities and ‘families’ we create for ourselves instead?
“I wonder what kind of a person my great-grandfather was. Were you a kind man and a bold sailor?” We want to know the personalities of our ancestors – what were their passions and their stories? But what will we do with that knowing? How will the answers shape us, if at all?
“The message I will say is ‘let go of being a martyr and live your truth and authenticity’.” With this message we become the champion for those less able to perhaps see where they maybe trapped in their own story. What if that is our perspective and not theirs? If its true, how can we be of greatest service to those who are ‘stuck’? Is there a conversation in there which may help us understand that which we perceive as martyrdom?
“I would love to meet my mother who passed away almost 20 years ago, and just hug her and get a big hug from her too, give the love and forgive.” The longings of all that we missed and lost also rise up be acknowledged with the breath. Often these feelings are buried as we go about our lives, placing them somewhere safe where we don’t have to really experience the grief or feel the pain too deeply. And yet there it is. When we share in community in this way, there is a collective empathy which arises quite naturally as so many of us have similar experiences and feelings. We share in our humanity.
After the breathwork, the expressions continued to come forward.
“I felt the power of my ancestral line channeling through me. Thankful they have paved the way for me.”
“As I opened to Spirit with each breath, I felt it move through me and ask for more space! To slow down and make the space to be moved by Spirit. To stop worrying about the pressure of time, and create time for what truly matters.”
“Thank you so much. I so needed to release the grief for past and present. This morning has been beautiful so much gratitude to you.”
“Your words ‘I call myself home’ just cracked me open. Huge, beautiful and deep. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you so much! I needed to deeply feel guilt and regret today, and take them back to me, as well as the urge to ask for forgiveness, and the wish to forgive anything through all times.”
“Thank you breathing community! That was so powerful! Gratitude to my Ancestors & family lineage”
“Heart thanks it has been so absolutely powerful; it’s like I can see more clearly, as if the consciousness is stronger. Much love to this amazing group!”
“I have worked on ancestry before. I saw freedom and change from the darkness that my father dealt with.”
“Today I felt like I was breathing for all perpetrators, for anything I maybe have done to anybody in some lifetime, to really feel and hold guilt and regret.”
And finally, let’s end on this powerful testament to the breath and this work we do:
“I never knew my grandparents and mixed race roots, I always felt a disconnect and rootless…. this session cracked open my heart and I suddenly felt a link with my ancestry for the first time! So grateful, thank you!”
That alone would make every session worthwhile, but as you can see there is a rich and diverse field of experience for is all to sharing when we come together and breathe as one.
See you next Sunday for our Breathe The World session.
