Early this month I started to dig deep into my family tree. I have been doing family veneration for some time but I never actually knew who any of my past family members were. I know my aunts and uncles and great aunts and great uncles. I know my first cousins and their kids, but I didn’t exactly know who came before them.
A lot of the time I spent sitting in my stillness and catching up with myself has been answering these questions. Who am I? Who went into making me, my parents, my aunts, and my uncles? Who are in my ancestral lineage? Who went into making my partner, his siblings, his parents?
Sitting down and figuring these things out has been eye-opening. I have found toxic patterns in how my family has dealt with marriage and physical respect. I have also found positive patterns in how they celebrated each other in how my family chose to document each other. It’s been a wild experience that has opened my eyes to strengths, weaknesses, and traumas that have been passed down to me.
The research of my family has also aided in my family veneration practice. It has allowed me to open up to new spiritual energies or identify spiritual energies that have always been there. I have been able to draw karmic boundaries in ways that I never knew I could before. I can accept love in ways I never knew I could. I found inner power in a way I never knew I could.
I feel more personally whole. I have a better understanding that I might not agree with everyone in my family but others are rooting for me. All of my ancestors went into making me and my partner. Some family patterns still need healing, but knowing them and seeing them unfold through my family tree and spiritual connection has been a wonderful eye-opener.
It’s made me realize that family tree work can be a wonderful tool for self-empowerment to combat family trauma. I feel blessed that this work has come at such a wonderful time in my life. I wasn’t ready to examine these patterns before, but now I know what a lot of these traumas are and that a lot of them are going to be dissected and stopped by me.
Even though my family passed down generational trauma they also passed down strengths and it’s equally as important to acknowledge. It is within that strength I’m able to gain knowledge and tools to grow and heal my trauma. This whole experience has been powerful and eye-opening and again, I am blessed to have had it reach me at such a wonderful time in my life.
