Why Our Movements Will Be Stronger with Grounding in Our Ancestral Ways
A song to play as you read: Arbolito Divino by Nick Barbachano. I recommend self-care and softness as you read.
Many of us have always felt very affected by what is going on in the world. In my experience, I would feel frustrated and powerless when we continue to harm our earth, our people. When we continue to repeat our history of oppression, give our power to corporations. I would daydream about how we could build a different future.
While walking and picking some flowers for a spiritual cleanse, I practiced the ancestral ways of reciprocity and honoring the plants. I practiced developing a relationship with the flowers and asking for permission to pick some of the flowers. (I call this a practice because it is an ongoing learning and remembering).
The more disconnected we are from the land, the more we stop listening to our bodies and natural cycles, the more we go along with modern day programming that has us stuck in survival (there are more reasons and nuance, but that is a truth for many). Our culture disconnects us from our inner knowing, from our true selves. Our true selves have a natural affinity for the land and animals around us, but we must be disconnected from that, to prevent us from moving away from these systems that overwork people for just enough money to get by.
The movements, the movements for sustainability, equality, and true justice, could be even more power and effective with rootedness in our ancestral ways. The natural world has so much to reteach us. It can show us the way life can and should be- life where everyone has access to what they need, access to true abundance, beauty, the ability to create their reality, to live their unique calling. And the abundance of nature can, and is meant to, help us guide us to a new way.
As Gabor Mate speaks about in his book, “The Myth of Normal,” our modern day society is a traumatized society, we are not well. Unhealed trauma is the norm. With less wise ancestors, sometimes trying to heal our systems or create new systems, leaves us feeling alone. We question how we can keep moving forward when we have limited models to look up to. When we have limited support. Less nurturing grandmothers.
Plants are here to support us. Herbs can nourish our bodies into health when we are run down from dealing with unhealthy work culture, they can help us stand in our healthy boundaries- so we can be of greater service. A walk outside in the middle of the forest reminds us of our truth, that we are important. Watching the stars reminds us of the magic of our experience on earth, to help us remember we deserve ease. Herbs can hold us spiritually, like a hug, in hard times. They can help us program our body to safety. I’ve been working a lot with the herb Motherwort for nurturing, and the book The Body in Balance is my favorite herbal reference guide, in addition to all that I’ve learned in my herbalism school in Austin (Sacred Journey School of Herbalism). I’ve been slowly collecting knowledge about the wisdom from my ancestral lands.
Our ancestors also practiced collective healing in different ways, they practiced sound healing and movement. Somatic healing was at the core of our ancestors’ beliefs. The wisdom that the emotional is not separate from the physical, which is not separate from our collective realities.
When we are disconnected from our ancestral ways, our ancestral ways of connecting with the land, living in reciprocity and gratitude with the plants and animals around us, it is easier to get burned out by the current systems, even if you see the injustices in them and are crying for something new. We need the natural world to help guide our collective healing.
I ask you to make a compassionate inquiry: If we deepened our relationship with the wise tree, the tree that has hundreds of years of wisdom, from supporting life all around him, while providing us oxygen and groundedness, would we use paper so mindlessly? This question is made with compassion dear one, because I can deeply relate to the challenges presented to us by our culture. When we are undernourished, a state our on-the-go culture puts us in, it is so difficult to worry about one more thing. We don’t have the capacity. How can we have one more thing on our plate, like trying to find alternatives to throwing away things, like our wise tree? I’ve thought “I can’t think about it, it’s overwhelming”, or we think “it’s not my problem, it’s a societal problem.”
But it is time to take our power back. The nourishment of connecting with the earth and the trees helps counteract the undernourishment society puts us in. It takes intentionality, but it is time for us to step into our power of culture making. So our grandchildren can have a relationship with wise trees, as well.
Remember that this culture has been created, and each day, creating something new for ourselves, our families, our children, and communities is possible, and for many of us, what we know in our hearts is needed. When we are rooted in our ancestral, land-based knowledge, we can have the emotional support to move through challenges, to slow down and nourish our nervous system enough, to choose differently, to be stronger. Because while I gave the example of what we are throwing away, we cannot put these issues into a vacuum. Sustainability and our overuse of the earth’s resources directly negatively impacts poor people of color. The indigenous people in the Amazon are trying to fight for less deforestation, environmental pollution always negatively impacts people who are poor and people of color the most.
We must find ways to resource ourselves to work through our collective shadow. We can be nourished and guided to do this shadow work by building our relationship with the natural world. These ways allow us to take our power back.
This is my invitation.