Tag Archives: Ancestral Healing Summit

I asked them not to air my session, but changed my mind

During many of the summits I host for The Shift Network, I am also interviewed as one of the experts in the summit’s topic. Afterwards, I always feel like I’ve overshared. I’m afraid that, to the mainstream world, I’ll sound airy-fairy and woo-woo, if not downright nuts. This is my most personal and vulnerable summit session to date, and I almost let my fear of judgment win. 


I’ve hosted five annual summits on the topic of ancestral and inter-generational trauma/healing and I’ve been doing ancestral work myself. In fact, that’s one  reason I suggested this topic to The Shift Network all those years ago, because I wanted to have conversations with experts and others who are doing the work. Countless people have been helped over the years with these free summits. Where else can you access so much wisdom, packed into one week?

Even while I was being interviewed for the Ancestral Healing Summit 2023, though, I was aware that I was saying things I would later regret and said to Vanessa Codorniu, the guest host, that I felt like I was sharing “too much information”. That’s apparently an aspect of being a Sagittarius … putting your foot in your mouth.

Before the interview, I was excited to talk about what I’ve learned. After many years of dedicated focus on my ancestors, my life has dramatically improved. I wanted to share tips and anecdotes to help viewers better understand how to not only heal ancestral trauma but also tap into the strengths and skills mastered by those who came before us, because it’s not all pain and suffering — there are a lot of juicy talents that can be passed down, but only if they’re not being blocked by all the damage done over the years by people just being people.

Because I was safe in my own home, just me and Vanessa chatting over Zoom, I allowed myself to forget that strangers will be watching this. I shared personal stories and private discoveries made while using tools like shamanic journeying, generational regression, genealogy research and divination. I think I even said something like, “I know this will sound crazy, but …” and kept plowing onward.

At about 3:30 that next morning, I was wide awake, worrying about it. “What did I say? Did I embarrass myself? Why can’t I just shut up?” I reached over to my nightstand and picked up my phone, and quickly sent a message to Amanda, my Summit Manager at Shift, saying that I wanted to cancel it. Please delete the recording. I don’t want it to air.

Fortunately, Amanda (one of my favorite people) suggested that I watch the recording and think about it, so I did. It’s funny how I didn’t look at all like I felt inside, like I was screaming at myself “Shut up! Shut up! STFU!!!” So I changed my mind about letting it air and decided that I just won’t promote it publicly. The Shift Network audience is like-minded. They’ll get it. I’ll keep it between us.

But here’s where some of that ancestral healing comes in. One of my dysfunctional ancestral patterns was that voice telling me to shut up: “Don’t air family laundry in public. Don’t attract anyone’s undivided attention. For God’s sake, just shut up.”

Out of respect for the person who pounded this into my psyche, I won’t name who it was, but she knows. I’ve spent the past several years making peace with what she taught me (which she was taught by those who came before her).

I’ve realized that this inner voice has been holding me back my entire life. For crying out loud, it’s in my astrological and numerological makeup to write, speak in public, and put myself out there. It’s not out of a vainglorious need to be seen, it’s just who I am. And this “STFU” voice is the absolute antithesis of who I am.

Because I’ve been doing the work — diving deeply into the stories of those who came before me, without whom I wouldn’t be who I am — I’m able to take a chance on me, and I feel one specific ancestor’s pride in both of us, for the healing work we’ve done together.

Here are some of the topics I discussed during my interview, which airs on Tuesday, January 31 at 2PM Pacific time.

  • you may have dormant psychic abilities that your well ancestors  mastered in their lifetimes, and they can help you strengthen and hone them
  • your greatest fears in this lifetime may be ancestral “memories”
  • this work may not always be easy, but the results can be miraculous

If you miss it, you can always watch it later as long as it’s within 48 hours of the original airtime. The Ancestral Healing Summit is a free event, which streams online the week of January 30 through February 3, 2023. The only cost is if you choose to purchase the upgrade package, which allows you to keep the recordings and all the bonuses in your digital library.

I’ll be in the chatroom, live, if you want to say “Hi!” I hope to see you there!

***

P.S. Here’s a sample of what the illuminating speakers will be sharing with you in the Ancestral Healing Summit

  • Thomas Hübl will explore how you can tap into your ancestors’ strengths while also acknowledging and healing the intergenerational trauma and patterns that have been passed down through your DNA
  • Jill Purce, known as a pioneer of ancestral healing work, will explore how to set yourself, your family, and future generations free from inherited traumas, transforming clamorous ancestors into supportive allies and powerful guides.
  • Renowned international shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman will offer tools to reverse karmic ancestral curses that may have been passed down through your family lineage, freeing you to live out your own destiny.
  • Dr. Velma Love will discuss how basic ancestral healing practices might be combined with the design justice approach to generate strategies for cultural healing.
  • Mayan elder, midwife, and shamanic healer Grandmother Flordemayo will talk about the sacred placenta fire ceremony, her family’s Uterus pot, and the womb’s wisdom connection to female ancestors.
  • Join Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone for an experiential journey into the ancestral realms to encounter and receive guidance from your spiritual allies there.
  • Masami Covey affirms that unhealed, painful family trauma legacies that lie dormant inside your connective tissues can be processed and released from your fascia.
  • Dr. Arielle Schwartz will introduce you to an integrative, mind-body approach to working with generational wounds that highlights the strength of the human spirit and cultivates transgenerational resilience.
  • As Christina Caudill will share, it’s important to establish and build trust with our ancestors, building a 2-way line of communication by treating them with respect, reverence, and humility.
  • Join ancestral healing practitioner Langston Kahn as he shares how ancestral connection and healing increases your capacity to experience joy.
  • Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona will explore the Indigenous North American concepts of honoring ancestors and our relationships with them, including how we connect with them and why they would want to connect with us.

… and many more!

RSVP here for the Ancestral Healing Summit, taking place January 30 to February 3 — at no charge.


Lisa Bonnice is an award-winning, best-selling author whose “day job” is as a Program Host at The Shift Network, where she hosts summits on ancestral healing, life after death, and intuition and medicine.

Her current passion-project is a series of metaphysical comedy novels. The first is entitled The Poppet Master (previously published as Be Careful What You Witch For!, now revamped and with a new ending). The Poppet Master is a modern-day fairy tale about Lola Garnett, a bored housewife and office drone who wakes up with unexpected psychic abilities, and no instruction manual, and Twink, the reluctant, sarcastic faery assigned to assist and educate her. The Poppet Master is available wherever books are sold. Its sequel is in the works.

Lisa is also writing The Maxwell Curse, a fictionalized version of a story she found in her own ancestral lineage about a witch trial, a generational curse, and massive mine explosion, all of which left ripples of destruction in their wake, devastating one family’s tree.

http://www.lisabonnice.com

 

How can you help change the world?

If you, like so many others, are wondering what you can do to help humanity find its way through these strange and transformative times — especially if your skill-set doesn’t include inventing new ways to adapt to climate change or running for political office — Ancestral Healing is something you can do to help.


Our current world’s condition is the culmination of centuries of built-up, unhealed traumas and our ancestors are clamoring to us to help right their wrongs, before it’s too late. 

It’s time for The Shift Network’s fourth annual Ancestral Healing Summit, a free online event from January 18-21. 

Many of us are finding that this powerful and important work is exactly what we’re here to do. We are, as Heather Dane calls us, Generational Pattern Shifters. We feel an urge … we hear a calling … to work with our ancestors to heal not just our own dysfunctional family patterns, but global damage done to and by generations past in the forms of plagues, diasporas, holocausts, slavery, colonization, wars and other extreme traumas that are still causing ripple effects today.

You can register for free here.

This year’s summit includes powerful conversations with luminaries like Thomas Hübl, Sandra Ingerman, Christina Pratt and Jill Purce. We discuss the big picture and our places in it, and what our contributions to global healing can be.

Even more conversations include practical tools we can use to communicate with our ancestors to ask for their help and work with them, hand in hand.

Shelley Kaehr talks about generational regression, which is similar to past-life work, except that we can be regressed into ancestral storylines. Masami Covey shares how our bodies demonstrate ancestral traumas, and how to interpret the stories they’re trying to tell us. Kelly Sullivan Walden offers an excellent method of tapping into ancestral messages via our dreams.

Carrie Paris offers a practice using phases of the moon to release ancestral family patterns, and Nancy Hendrickson talks about how we can use the Tarot to divine messages directly from Spirit, and our kin, to help us along our path. Fern Vuchinich and Christina Caudill both offer information about how astrology can help us dig in to our stories and untangle snarled webs.

Dr. Velma Love offers a beautiful and empowering reframing of the experience of enslaved peoples. Liza Miron discusses the repercussions we are all feeling due to generations of our grandmothers experiencing painful loss of pregnancies and difficult childbirths, and Langston Kahn offers a perspective on healing the “father wound”.

Ancestral Healing is breathtaking in its scope — once you’ve experienced the power of this work, you’ll never look at life the same way. You can see for yourself when you register for the event and check out the power-packed lineup of speakers for this year’s Summit. I promise, you’ll be glad that you did. And, it really is free to watch while the Summit is live. The only cost is if you purchase the upgrade package to add this collection, and its gorgeous selection of bonuses, to your digital library.

I do hope you’ll join us for The Ancestral Healing Summit, a FREE online event from January 18-21. I’ll see you there!


Lisa Bonnice is an award-winning, best-selling author whose “day job” is as a Program Host at The Shift Network, where she hosts summits on ancestral healing, life after death, and intuition and medicine.

Her current passion-project is a series of metaphysical comedy novels. The first is entitled The Poppet Master (previously published as Be Careful What You Witch For!, now revamped and with a new ending). The Poppet Master is a modern-day fairy tale about Lola Garnett, a bored housewife and office drone who wakes up with unexpected psychic abilities, and no instruction manual, and Twink, the reluctant, sarcastic faery assigned to assist and educate her. The Poppet Master is available wherever books are sold. Its sequel is in the works.

Lisa is also writing The Maxwell Curse, a fictionalized version of a story she found in her own ancestral lineage about a witch trial, a generational curse, and massive mine explosion, all of which left ripples of destruction in their wake, devastating one family’s tree.

http://www.lisabonnice.com

I’m not *that* bad! Are you?

Albrecht Dürer woodcut, The Penitent

Dig this: I’m not a bad enough person to feel as bad as I once did. While I’m not perfect, I’ve never caused enough harm to deserve the levels of guilt and anxiety I’ve dealt with most of my life. In order to feel this much guilt and fear of punishment, I would have had to commit a heinous crime. Guess what … not guilty.


So where do these unwanted feelings of unwarranted unworthiness come from? Societal conditioning? Brain washing by Madison Avenue and/or the Illuminati? Past life karma?

Or, it could come from ancestral trauma. The science of epigenetics has proven that traumatic events, which cause a fight-or-flight reaction, can change the way our genes express themselves. This physical manifestation of PTSD gets passed down through the generations. Here’s just one article explaining how it works, if you want more information. As the host of three annual Ancestral Healing Summits for The Shift Network, I’ve interviewed a ton of experts who agree on this so, for me, this is not in question.

My session airs Thursday, February 25, 1pm Pacific, and will stream free for 48 hours after.

Ancestral trauma can kink your hose in ways you don’t even realize. In fact, in my own session of this year’s Ancestral Healing Summit, the awesome Nick Mattos and I talk about how to rediscover and reawaken your magical heritage by looking into your ancestral past, to discover where/how your connection to your gifts might have been broken.

For clarity, when I used the words magical heritage, I’m talking about natural gifts and abilities that we all have, things like a green thumb or a knack for cooking, crafting, or even healing and intuitive abilities. Sharing these gifts in communities are how humankind survived for as long as we have before technology made life so much … ahem … easier. These skills were often the causes of accusations of witchcraft which, as we know, resulted in some pretty heinous behavior.

But because many of our gifts have been oppressed, we may not even know we have them. Or, we may be aware of them, but are afraid to demonstrate them for fear of reprisals or rejections.

You should check out the Summit. I had some amazing conversations with some amazing people, who had amazing information to share. It airs free during the week of February 22-26. My session airs at Thursday, February 25 at 1pm Pacific time, and will stream free for 48 hours after that.

And, at the risk of sounding like a crummy commercial, I also talk at the end of my interview with Nick about a new project I’ve been working on with the lovely and talented Carrie Paris. Since discovering her Relative Tarot and Oracle, I’ve become a big fan of her work. (Check out the interview I did with Carrie for Mind Yourself on the topic of communicating with ancestors.)

As Carrie and I got to know one another, she suggested that we combine our areas of expertise to create an oracle designed around ancestral healing, I jumped at the chance. Check out the Generations Oracle!

This divination kit (featuring Carrie’s gorgeous artistry), includes a reading cloth, casting charms, a pendulum, informational coins (based on the Lenormand oracle symbols) and an instruction booklet. Bring your own ancestors. We’ll be teaching classes in its use further down the road, so let me know if you’re interested in getting on the waiting list by subscribing to my blog. That will be the best way to stay in the loop.

Anyway, back to ancestral healing … I’ve talked about this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. By doing this work, I feel so much less existential guilt and anxiety. I understand my mom — the unintentional source of some of my pain — so much better. I grok how her family history dented her in ways that were beyond her ability to cope, or even repair without a lot of inner work. And people in previous generations didn’t know about the kinds of inner work we’re used to these day.

I see, now, how she felt as bad about herself — worse actually — than I did before embarking on my own inner work. She was, by all accounts, a good person who loved her family. She was a good mom. But she was screwed up by her family story, and passed it on to me … which I passed on to my kids, and they passed on to their kids …

What happened in my mom’s lineage to break her in just this way? I’m still scratching the surface (in fact, I’m writing a novel based on the fascinating story I discovered in my mom’s ancestral history about witch trials and mine explosions), but I can say, without a doubt, that her father experienced numerous mind-bending traumas in a very short time frame, at a fairly young age. He didn’t stand a chance to be a healthy individual, much less a healthy parent. The pain he was in could have easily caused my mom to feel the way she did, and for me to feel how I felt, and my kids, and their kids …

I’ve been working with my mom’s father’s ancestors because, in triage order, this branch needs attention more than the others — it’s the most wounded. Since beginning this exploration, my physical and mental health have improved tremendously. I used to keep my bottle of Xanax with me at all times, just in case. Now, I only rarely feel anxiety intense enough to medicate myself. That, in itself, is a tremendous shift.

What about you? Do you see anything in yourself, like this, that just doesn’t make sense until you look at your ancestral history? I’d love to read your stories in the Comments.


Lisa Bonnice is an award-winning, best-selling author. Her current passion-project is a series of metaphysical comedy novels. The first is entitled The Poppet Master (previously published as Be Careful What You Witch For!, now revamped and with a new ending). The Poppet Master is a modern-day fairy tale about Lola Garnett, a bored housewife and office drone who wakes up with unexpected psychic abilities, and no instruction manual, and Twink, the reluctant, sarcastic faery assigned to assist and educate her. The Poppet Master is available wherever books are sold. Its sequel is in the works.

Lisa is also writing The Maxwell Curse, a fictionalized version of a story she found in her own ancestral lineage about a witch trial, a generational curse, and massive mine explosion, all of which left ripples of destruction in their wake, devastating one family’s tree.

http://www.lisabonnice.com