Ancestral Healing & Clearing:
by Irma Kaye Sawyer
How to turn the Sins of the Father into the Blessings of the Children.
There are so many expressions in our culture to exemplify the power our ancestors have in our lives, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the Tree” or “The Sins of the Father are passed to the children” which is taken from a biblical passage.
So what does this mean for us? Can we expect to make the same mistakes our relatives did? Not necessarily. We can make different choices. We do carry our ancestors with us in a deep way. Chinese medicine speaks of something that is called our ancestral chi (energy).
My friend and acupuncturist Lisa Gibilie offered this information:
Acupuncture points and meridians simultaneously affect mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health. Richard Gerber, "Vibrational Medicine" mentions that the etheric body may communicate with the physical body via the acupuncture meridian network. In the area of the crown chakra is the acupuncture point known as Bai Hui, "one hundred meetings." This is a point that is physically and mentally uplifting, a meeting place of the Yang meridians of the body. It is also where we meet with our ancestors, the place the soul exits the body at death, the place we connect with the Universe.
Man is a microcosm of the universe, the synthesis of heaven and earth. We have an inherited essence, which is known as our Ancestral chi(Yuan Qi), also called Source or congenital chi. This includes specific physical traits such eye and hair color, past life cellular memories, as well as our connection with the Divine. Over work, over stress, poor lifestyle choices, environmental toxins, aging, and unresolved desires and emotions are financed by our inherited essence. We cannot alter our Pre-Heaven Qi (pre-natal, constitution), but we can guard and protect it with right lifestyle and treatment aimed at resolution of those issues that deplete it. There are points and meridians that act as reservoirs of this Ancestral Qi.
In one very powerful treatment that I had with Lisa, she needled the Bai Hui acupuncture point to “call my people to me.” This was very perceptive of her, as I had been feeling quite alone in the struggles that I had been going through. The support of my family whether living or passed, was a great gift to me.
Our ancestors are accessible to us through our constitutions, our gifts and even our challenges and issues. These influences can be friend or foe depending on our consciousness, our flexibility and our willingness to work with these aspects.
The topic of ancestors and their power and influence is something that is very personal to me. My beloved stepfather passed away in 2003 and that was a wonderful opportunity for me to be of service to him and also to do shamanic “psychopomping” work, which is about helping a dying person safely across to the other side. As a shamanic practitioner, I do work with spiritual guides or helping spirits that can take the form of power or totem animals. My dad loved owls when he was here and I inherited part of his ceramic owl collection. He has appeared to me in the shamanic world several times now in the form of a lovely, brown owl!
Several of my clairvoyant friends have seen a woman around me who I figured out is my grandmother Irma who passed when I was 8 years old. She was a very strong, compassionate and capable woman. Guidance has told me that she has come to be with me this year as I was in need of some extra strength and protection due to the difficult experiences that I went through.
In my healing practice, I will often see a client’s relative(s) around them spiritually to offer guidance, protection and support to them.
There are instances when our ancestors can leave us with challenges or difficulties to work through. Oriental medicine mentions Gui or ghost points which are connected to parasites either physical or emotional, which can disturb the mind and health. These points can be used in treatment to remove negative energetic influences that can come from other beings.
A weak constitution can make a person more likely to be affected by negative congenital problems. When we don’t make positive changes or move chi than our energies stagnate which can produce sickness and even death. We can positively affect our energy through diet, self-nurturing, healing treatments and a positive attitude.
An example of this is in a healing treatment with a client that I will refer to as Jenny. She was a cigarette smoker and wanted to quit. Jenny had tried many methods, all of which had been ineffective for her. She was told by a psychic reader that there was a foreign energy affecting her that was possibly connected to a family member. In the course of our session she told me that her grandfather was a smoker and died from lung cancer. His death traumatized her family greatly and they were all quite upset that she had taken up the habit of smoking.
As I looked at her energy clairvoyantly, I could see an intrusion in her solar plexus area. I felt strongly that this was connected to her grandfather and was some type of thoughtform regarding addiction and smoking. I felt that she had picked this up when she was a young girl. We worked together to release it which was quite easy and painless for her. She called me a week later to tell me that she had not smoked a cigarette and had no desire to do so!
Our ancestors are part of our personal legacy, our path and our promise. In shamanic terms, we are all part of the “web of life” that connects each one of us to each other and the universe. Whatever our ancestors have gifted us with even the challenging things, we are called to be grateful as they help us fulfill our individual destinies and to be co-creators with Source.
Irma Kaye Sawyer is a Reiki master teacher, ordained minister, shamanic practitioner and intuitive counselor. Her healing practices are located in Huntington Beach and Yucca Valley, CA. She can be reached at:
Rev. Irma Kaye Sawyer
16787 Beach Blvd, #334
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
(714) 271-0052
