One of my favorite things about traveling on pilgrimage to ancestral lands and sacred sites is to be able to connect to the women of that land—the women who hold the secrets of the ancestors of that place in their bones. When I traveled to Ireland for the first time for the autumn equinox in […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing my intentions and preparation for a recent trip I took to Maine—the land my matrilineal ancestors first settled on in the early 1600s. (You can read those posts here and here.) It was important for me, as a European descended woman with ancestors who first settled Abenaki […]

I find that the more I share my experiences of connecting with my ancestors and traveling to the places they once lived, the more questions I get about my process and approach to doing this work. As a western woman who appreciates structure and likes to ask a lot of questions, I can really appreciate where […]

In my lifelong research of the people I come from, I have been drawn to the ways my people signified important moments in a human being’s life. For instance, the way they venerated their dead, birthed their babies, chose and committed to a partner, and (of particular curiosity for me) marked and honored their monthly moon cycle or menstrual bleed.

We are all in some sort of transition. Whether it’s a shift in careers, a new phase of parenthood, healing, birthing, grieving, graduating, completing a project, beginning or ending a relationship, or a period of deep longing. Transition is something we are all experiencing. I am in transition. Here are just a few transitions I’m […]

We live in a culture that venerates youth. The tighter and dewier the skin, the firmer the forehead, the more you don’t “look your age”, the more you are rewarded by our society. Combine that with the fact that we are less and less connected to our elders—whether by moving away from family or placing […]

The teacher began the class by giving her name, the name of the original lands of her ancestral people (Poland, Ukraine, Croatia), the names of her teachers, and her preferred pronoun. I appreciated this way opening the class—by naming her lineage, sharing her origin story, and letting us know how she would like to be […]

It’s interesting how, when beginning the journey back to your earth-based roots and diving deeper into deeper spiritual ways of being, we can feel unsure of what feels most meaningful to us. In our seeking of sacred, we can tend towards mimicking what we see those around us doing. That yoga teacher works with crystals? […]

The question I am asked most often these days has to do with the hows of connecting more deeply with your ancestral lineage. How do I connect to the lands and rituals and traditions of my ancestors? How can I use the results of an ancestry test to translate them into real wisdom? How do […]

I have learned that it is good to begin by naming your place and people. I am currently writing this blog post in the town of Mill Valley in California, on the occupied lands of the coastal Miwok people. My people are almost entirely from the European continent, representing the Celtic, Pict, Nordic, Slavic and […]

We’re getting to that time of year where they are starting stringing lights on the large redwood trees in the downtown plaza of my town, the ladies who own a local pie business are sampling bourbon pecan and gluten-free pumpkin at our local coffee shop, and pink metallic holiday trees are popping up in our […]

We are the living dreams of our ancestors. I’ve always been fascinated by food as an expression of culture and humanity throughout time. So much can be expressed through food—not just a love of gathering with kinfolk and loved ones, but also as a signal for what’s happening on the land and in your community. […]

I didn’t grow up feeling a lot of trust with the plant world. My family had a sweet little garden (growing mostly tomatoes and gladiolus—my father’s favorite), but I didn’t have a kindly old grandmother teaching me about the medicinal uses of the weeds surrounding our suburban tract home. I climbed trees and ran through […]

As much as I can feel like I was born in the wrong era and find myself drawn to earlier times of cobblestone streets or ancient temples, I am extremely grateful for technology right now. Let me explain. Not only is modern technology connecting us in this very moment through underground cables and wireless routers […]