Soul contracts and life lessons
Much of the wounding we carry is the product of our childhood experiences. Our recurring problems can often be traced back to the beliefs, behavioral patterns or attitudes that we have inherited from our ancestors. Maybe our mother was too self-involved and neglected our emotional needs. Maybe Dad embodied the Saturn archetype– overly restrictive and punitive. Perhaps it didn’t start with them though. What if the seed was planted much earlier with their parents or grandparents? And the resulting trauma was carried down the ancestral line, leaving heartache and pain in its wake. No matter what unique family dynamics you grew up with, very few of us rise to adulthood utterly unscathed.
What meaning can we find in all of this? I believe that before you incarnated in this lifetime, your soul chose your parents and the circumstances you would be born into. Our parents mold us through their choices, personalities, flaws, gifts and capacity to provide love and support. It wasn’t an accident or a roll of the dice, but rather a crucial insight into your soul contract and the lessons you are meant to learn in this lifetime.
As we walk further along the path of healing, we become increasingly aware of the hidden blessings that shaped our unique journey even when they presented as hardship and adversity. The lessons we learn as a result act as fertile soil for some of our most profound gifts and soul growth.
Exploring your ancestral lineage and liberating yourself from harmful ancestral patterns is a potent starting point for self-healing. Some of the benefits include: letting go of inherited patterns of consciousness that are hindering your soul’s development, discovering the true essence of your ancestral lines and aligning with the highest outcome of your ancestral lineage to help it evolve in a positive direction.
Dissolving karmic ties
Your ancestors are anyone who is related to you on a soul level, biologically or otherwise. The vast majority of souls join their primary ancestral line by choosing to be born into its family tree. Alternative ways include being adopted or joining a family through marriage. Regardless of the circumstances through which your ancestral group is linked, you will remain together for better or for worse until your karmic work is finished.
Your choice to be with them is intentional and for a distinct soul purpose. Every soul in a particular ancestral lineage has consented to be a member of that line to raise its collective consciousness. If the line’s task is especially difficult, its resolution can take many lifetimes. The ultimate goal of a soul group is establishing peace amongst all of its members. Once this is complete, the karmic ties will dissolve and healing will take place down the line. Afterwards, the souls will be free to travel onwards and join other lineages.
Healing is an inside job
Ancestral healing starts with you. As you do the inner work in this lifetime and cultivate compassion and inner peace within, you release judgment of yourself and the other members of your ancestral group. Ask Spirit to show you your role and function within your ancestral lines. Focus on yourself rather than other people and see situations for their soul-level purpose and greater karmic benefits.
The more you’re able to attain this, the more capable you are of magnetizing growth and transformative healing throughout your entire lineage- past, present and future. Even if you’re the only one aware of what’s going on, the changes in you will create space that enable others to shift too and the entire line will ascend. Be courageous in your love, respect and gratitude for everyone in your family, especially those who you struggle with. As you accept your ancestors wholeheartedly for who they are and are not, you are set free. This is the way you support the process of ancestral healing.
Sources:
Howe, Linda, and Juliette Looye. How to Read the Akashic Records: Accessing the Archive of the Soul and Its Journey. Sounds True, 2010.
