The Importance of Ancestral Healing in Womb Wellness
I would venture to guess that everyone reading this lives in a society that is fundamentally patriarchal. There are so many reasons why I say fuck the patriarchy, but that is outside the scope of this blog. Instead, I’m going to touch on how that affects our sense of community as women. In a patriarchal and capitalist society, we are not encouraged to know our matriline and be linked to our ancestors. In fact, in my country we are encouraged to take our husbands last names, passing the male legacy down to our children. We are taught to live and do live independently from our mothers, grandmothers, community, and wise women. But in order to heal our wombs, we need to be prepared to do the opposite. We need to open our hearts to our female ancestors to know and learn from them.
For some of us, the thought of connecting with our ancestors is scary or shameful. Some of us have bad relationships with our families and many of us have family histories and ancestors that did shameful things. I can completely understand and relate to that. Yet, this unresolved generational trauma exists in our bodies today. It is time to come to terms with these things and find a way to heal for our children and grandchildren. Did you know that we spend four months in the wombs of our grandmothers? When our mothers are just five month old fetuses, they begin to develop all of the eggs they will have and use throughout their reproductive years (that’s us!) In turn, whatever happens to our grandmothers creates a hormonal reaction in the body that then moves through our mothers and us. Our grandmothers are linked in this way to their grandmothers and their grandmothers before them. So whether you like it or not we are deeply connected with an intertwined with our mother line.
Ancestral Healing Exercise
All of that being said, the best way to connect with your maternal line is to talk with the ones who are living. Ask them about their lives and the women that came before them. Invite your mom, and grandmotherover for a warm drink, homemade snacks, and a loving conversation. You can start by using these simple questions.
What was your life like when you were a child?
what were the most joyful moments of your life?
what were the scariest/hardest moments of your life?
what was your life like when you were pregnant (with me/my mother)?
What was my birth like?
What was your birth like?
What was your mother like?
What was your grandmother like?
What’s the best piece of advice you ever heard?
what do you want your grandchildren/descendants to know about you?
what does living a happy life mean to you?
what does being a woman mean to you?
what is the best thing about women in our family?
what generational trauma do you wish to see broken?
Once you’ve taken the dive into getting to know your living ancestors, you can learn about their foremothers through stories and memories. You can choose to connect with them through prayer or meditation. There are countless ways to connect with your lineage.
If you come from an abusive or dangerous family
Obviously, if your family is abusive, dangerous, or otherwise bad for your mental health, I don’t want you to try to connect with them. Instead, choose another wise woman in your life. A friend, a friends mother, a mentor, etc. You may not share her genetics but you can share her wisdom. I also recommend joining a womens circle to connect with other women in a place that is safe and supportive of vulnerability.
