I am super excited to finally be able to share this!!!
Many are called to ancestor work when needing guidance, support, healing, or connection. I get the sense that they want to reach us as well.
Unless you come from a culture with specific practices around ancestors, you might feel called to connect with them but need a way onto the path.
Prayer is one way to connect. I’ve made many rosaries to connect to ancestors this way. For those of us with Catholic ancestors, praying the same prayers as they once did can be very powerful, even if one is not professed the same faith now.
I believe that we have an infinite connection to our ancestors and that they are not just those we share a DNA connection. I believe that we also have ancestors of *time, lives our soul is connected to in the past, present, and future.
Last year I was inspired to co-create some tools specifically for ancestor connection.
I made a handful of ancestor beads in October of 2021. These were blessed in a special harvest moon ceremony and put in a box on my altar. And that is where they stayed until a few weeks ago.
If you’ve gotten an intuitive message to do something and then wait, you’ll be familiar with this strange situation. I’m not a naturally patient person, but I also have learned it’s wise to follow specific guidance when it’s clear. And it was.
But now I finally have the “Green Light!” and have been busy making more of them.
I call them Ancestor Hoops.
They are a single ring of many different beads on a single strand without knots connected by a lemniscate or infinity symbol.
The number of beads, spaces, and colors between the beads varies.
Each is one-of-a-kind.
In addition to my usual blessing, they are imbued with prayers & chants for permission, connection, healing, and knowledge.
Another twist is that I will use my intuition to choose the hoop for the recipient rather than the buyer selecting a specific one. Orders on Etsy will require a first and middle name for this purpose.
They are tools for the beholder and, as such, won’t have a specific story like my other co-creations. I will include some ideas for using them in prayer, meditation, storytelling, chanting, etc. They are made for the beholder to follow their intuition.
I look forward to sharing more thoughts on using beads to connect to ancestors & guides in future posts.
*P.S.
Nancy Hendrickson’s book, Ancestral Tarot, was incredibly helpful and put more details to my intuitions. It also expounded on another path, that of ancestors of place that our souls might be connected with. She also has a new book furthering her work with ancestors.
Cover Photo by Daniela Horsley on Unsplash
Free Range Priestess 