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by Anthea Durand
Humanity has been the witness to thousands of years of trauma. The distorted aspect of the shadow can be created from experiences in our own timeline, past life, a collective trauma, or from our ancestors. The pandemic has cast its shadow – and has triggered the shadows of all within its net.
Illuminating the shadow is a way of engaging with an aspect of the soul, which we are often reluctant to look at closely. Yet, distortions within the shadow keep resurrecting themselves to create repeating patterns, illnesses and limitations in our lives, and continue enveloping us. Navigating and illuminating the shadow provides a golden opportunity to heal and to propel us on our path for healing and transformation. It is the key to creating new sets of behaviors, healing illness and ensuring that they are healed for future generations.
Mastering our own energy fields, and healing the shadow is also the key to reconfiguring the DNA. By the studies of epigenetics, scientists recognise the influence of the environment on gene behavior, including trauma, which can continue down the generations.
The human script and ancestral trauma
The human script, or DNA, was created to function in a harmonious world. The disharmonious form of the DNA is created by trauma and behavior, which, in turn, can inflict trauma on other people. And, as an individual experience is also a collective experience, one trauma in someone’s life can feed into another life. We all have ancestral stories of pain and trauma, which require to be made conscious in a safe way so that we can heal the pain from the past. Individual trauma, in fact, can act as a catalyst for change to finally heal the past.
Illuminating the shadow from the ancestral lineage is to connect to ancestral stories that are affecting you. This can be completed by talking to your own living relatives regarding ancestral stories, or seeking healing from an experienced ancestral healer, who is able channel healing and guidance. Patterns will keep repeating until the origin of the story in the ancestral field is healed.
I worked with a client who had depression. Using energetic processes, I found that this was linked to a time when an ancestor was a slave in Africa. The trauma her ancestor experienced created many negative thoughts forms such as fear, and trauma which continued down the generations.
The origin of the trauma was healed by sending healing to the ancestor and healing the collective of traumatised slaves, who were with her ancestor at that time. This resulted in the client’s depression being healed, along with those in her father’s ancestral line, who had also been affected by this trauma.
Hearing and listening to ancestral stories also enlivened our lives. It is also healing to understand the origins and the trauma that an ancestor endured. This also allows for the oral transmission of ancestral stories to future generations. Information is transmitted through the eternal song of life, which exists in various ways down the ancestral line. Many indigenous cultures transmit their ancestral stories and wisdom orally down generations. Our ancestors walked before us, illuminating the way through joy and sorrow, and we not only inherit their gifts, but also their shadows.
There is a need to illuminate the shadow in our present lives to make it visible to heal and transform in a safe way with support from friends or experienced practitioners. The shadow becomes visible when ushered to do so. The present pandemic provides us with a great opportunity to go inwards to connect with that which is ready to be healed.
Navigating the shadow requires resilience, determination and support. When our worlds are turned inwards, our internal infighting is made conscious. Only by looking inwards can we explore the stages of our evolution and challenges at different times in our lives. We then can connect with those aspects of ourselves that are causing unhappiness by repeating negative behavior and suffering that need to be healed.
The collective shadow
The pandemic has illuminated the collective shadow. The soul is greatly affected by collective trauma. Many different periods exist throughout time on Earth of collective trauma, which can have an impact on the individual, society, and indeed the planet. The world is currently going through a global pandemic, with the coronavirus, bringing individuals, societies, and economies and the world itself to a standstill.
Collective trauma serves humanity’s expansion, because it forms a bridge into different aspects of consciousness light and shadow. The shadow is staring us in the face during the current pandemic and shaking many people to their core. When pandemics hit, they create a frenzy of people trying to keep others safe and to minimize the loss of life. The pandemic can feel like a stranglehold, where people feel restricted and face their fears head on, for example, fears of the virus and of financial ruin and so on. It is also a trigger for aspects of the shadow that come up again for healing.
The ripples of these periods of trauma linger and continue to have an impact on those affected. This binds the world together into a collective shadow consciousness, which envelop lives, and creates mass trauma. Trauma fragments energy and leads to behaviour that creates destructive patterns and behaviors. Navigating and healing throughout this time involves being aware of what needs to be healed in the collective, and in turn, looking at how this collective trauma has affected each of us, and what has been brought forth for healing.
The alchemical journey is the resurrection and rebirth of the soul. It is through shadow experiences, that evolution and transcendence to the next stage of the soul journey takes place. When we illuminate the shadow, we are initiating healing on all levels. There are many common experiences that humans have had. Shadow work is the energy of now and ancestral work is the doorway.
Our ancestors have been through similar times to those we are experiencing now. A great start for healing is to light a candle for both your mother and father’s ancestral lines. Hold them in your heart and state the ancestral healing prayer below, to help to heal, connect and give you strength through any challenging times. This will also help shift the burdens of the aspects of the shadow which do not serve you anymore and help your ancestors lift these aspects too.
Ancestral healing prayer
The stars before me
The earth beneath me
The creative force that brought me into creation
The bloodline that brought me into being
I honour my father’s line
I honour my mother’s line
I choose my ancestral lineage
I honour them from afar and in the present moment for giving me life
Your blood runs through my veins, it is the link that always connects
It always protects and guides
I send blessings and thanks to my ancestral line, my mother and
father and beyond
I seek forgiveness and hear their forgiveness
I reflect on my soul
It knows this cycle of life
I honour the cycle of life and give thanks
I set myself free from the chains that no longer serve me
I am a vessel to partake in any help that is needed to support my ancestors at this time
I call in the gifts of my ancestors to connect
I am grateful and thank you for your wisdom
And so it is.
Find out more:
London-based Anthea Durand is a shamanic practitioner, alchemist, and non-fiction writer. An authority and expert on ancestral healing, she holds regular meetings with prominent genetic scientists. The aim is to commission a scientific study in the future, using the theme of epigenetics to show the influence of ancestral healing on gene behaviour.
Anthea’s first book, Illumination of the Shadow, Ancestral Wisdom From the Past for the Future, based on her pioneering ancestral healing work, was released in 2020. The book has won three international awards, including the New York Big Book Award 2020.
