A Sacred Bridge: Ancestral Healing Through Plant Medicine and Ritual
As we move into this time of year, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is said to be at its thinnest. This is the season of Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, a time to honor the dead and prepare for the darker days ahead. Similarly, Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, celebrated primarily in Mexico, is a vibrant and colorful tradition where families come together to remember and celebrate their ancestors with altars, offerings, and festivities. Both of these traditions remind us of the cyclical nature of life and death, and how deeply intertwined we are with our ancestors.
Across cultures, ancestral practices are as varied as they are profound. In Japan, the Buddhist festival of Obon involves lighting lanterns to guide ancestors' spirits back to the afterlife. In West Africa, many cultures perform elaborate funeral rites to honor ancestors, believing that the dead continue to influence the living. Indigenous cultures across the Americas practice ancestral veneration through storytelling, offerings, and sacred rituals to maintain their connection with those who have gone before them.
One way to maintain a relationship with your ancestors is through creating an ancestral altar. This space can be simple or elaborate, adorned with photographs, personal items, or symbols that connect you to your lineage. Offerings of food, flowers, and candles are common across cultures, representing the care we still extend to our ancestors.
This practice allows us to honor the complexity of our ancestral relationships—acknowledging that while we carry their gifts, we may also carry their wounds. Our ancestors did not always live by the values we now hold dear, and part of ancestral work is learning to take the good while forgiving the bad. This is deep work, a practice of acceptance and forgiveness that transforms both the past and the present.
In my own experience when my parents passed away, it was a deeply personal as well as archetypal experience—a powerful initiation into a new understanding of life. Many who go through this loss speak of feeling both liberation and grief. There is the freedom that comes from no longer being defined in relation to your parents, but also a profound loss that makes you confront your own mortality. This experience can open the heart in unexpected ways, such as it led me to be more present with the living. We realize how fleeting time is and how important it is to nurture relationships with those still here. It also deepens our connection with those who have passed on.
Epigenetics reminds us that our ancestors live within us, not just in memory but in the very fabric of our being. Science shows us that trauma, resilience, and adaptation can be passed down through generations, shaping who we are in ways we may not fully understand. This is both a gift and a burden, as we inherit not only the strengths but also the unresolved pains of our lineage. Yet, this awareness also offers us an opportunity—to consciously work through what has been passed down and to heal what remains unfinished.
This is where plant medicine and ceremonial work can be profoundly transformative. Through ceremonial settings, we are able to step outside of the everyday and gain a more objective perspective on our relationships. These ceremonies often open doorways into the spirit realm, allowing us to connect more deeply with our ancestors and with the unresolved elements of our personal and collective histories. In this sacred space, we can untangle the threads of what is ours to hold and what belongs to those who came before us. Through this work, we not only heal ourselves but help to heal the generational wounds we carry in our DNA.
As the veil thins, let us take time to honor both the living and the dead, offering forgiveness, acceptance, and presence for all those who walk with us—seen and unseen.
