Gratitude for Our Ancestors: Healing Ourselves and Our Lineage

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom keeper Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look at our ancestral lineage and how our ancestors continue to influence and affect our lives today. 

Gratitude for our ancestors! We are the reality of their dreaming, and we are the tip of the arrow of our entire ancestral lineage, which traces back to the beginning of time. 

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and this is your opportunity to explore what that means while sharing healing wisdom and practices. This workshop will offer you healing tools to transform and transmute ancestral trauma, as well as other forms of trauma and unhealthy life patterns.

We are all bridges between our biological mothers and fathers. We need to balance these dual origins and lineages so we may live in harmony and balance. This is especially true for anyone who is of multi-cultural, multi-racial, or multi-religious ancestry. We all inherit our ancestors’ talents along with their traumas so how do we heal and embody these within ourselves?  

In this workshop, you will learn how to identify and honor all of your ancestors’ positive attributes and heal the discordant or destructive energies you have inherited from your racial, social, cultural, religious, and/or historical heritage.

Together, we will examine the origins of “dis-ease” in our bodies, minds, spirits, and souls and how to heal and realign them. We will discuss the importance of ceremonies, sacred altars, and medicinal plants in this healing process. You will be offered the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing and “doctoring” ceremony, and a water blessing prayer ceremony.

You are invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.

Note: Please bring a journal to write in and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.

Special Note on Gift Economy: For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feelings of gratitude and value and their desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.

BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops. For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com.