Season 1, Episode 9: The Cave of the Ancestors

This meditation is a disco party with your ancestors.

I wrote this after my teacher, Yoli Maya Yeh, challenged me to come to terms with my ancestors after I had a bad reaction to an ancestor meditation in class. Many of my ancestors are problematic, even judged by the standards of their own times, and some are deeply troubling figures to me living in this one. I was inspired by Dr. Sará King in a lecture I heard her give where she gave some broad outlines of her own ancestor practice. I created mine to focus on her principles of forgiveness and gratitude, and I also opened it up to make it applicable to anyone, since many folks do not have the kind of negative feelings toward their ancestors that I do. My hope is that this will be helpful to people who are seeking peace, as I am, or seeking wisdom, as others may be.

I also added in language about seeking wisdom and sending love to your descendants, because I like to live in the hope about future generations. And it’s helpful to remember that one day, I will also be an ancestor.

I wrote this one before The Night Palace, but I see there are several similarities, which are totally unintentional other than a general theme running through my head at that time. I was also inspired by Headspace’s grief pack, which uses similar visualization to make peace with the deceased. And the lights flying off to spread love was taken from my favorite scene in The Good Place (no spoilers).