There are many gifts that come through a Dagara stick divination, but for the majority of my clients, I would say that the most important part is finding a connection to one’s ancestors.  The majority of us are of mixed heritages.  We barely know the stories of those who came before us, their triumphs, their hardships.  What remains even more hidden, are the medicine or craft traditions.  These gifts either went underground due to persecution, or were completely shut down so that the ancestors could fit in to new lands and new communities.

This is the season for the Remembering. Samhain time. The Day of the Dead. Why, you may ask, do we need to honor the ancestors? To live this life in balance in this world, we must be in gratitude. We would not be here if it were not for our parents, grandparents and the greats before them. Many people are challenged with this concept of gratitude when there is a history of abuse or negative patterns in the lineage.  Rightly so. It is a difficult journey to find gratitude towards an oppressive character. But much healing can come from the clearing work involved in discovering gratitude. If we do the work of healing a lineage, we can clear it forwards for our children, laterally for our siblings and cousins, and even backwards for the ancestors themselves. We hold the energetics in our bodies of the traumas that affected our ancestors or were afflicted by our ancestors. The memory persists until it is acknowledged and transmuted. So how do we transmute ancestral trauma? With offerings.

Offerings are like payment to the spiritual realm.  There are so many forms of offerings. Prayer itself is an offering.  Spirts are offerings (vodka, gin, whiskey or wine). For Lineages, I find that they like the spirit that may have been regional to where they lived. You can set out a glass on an altar table- but do not drink it yourself. You also can pour the alcohol to the Earth.  When offerings are made with a specific purpose in mind, it is best to create and ash circle and speak about who you intend to be fed by the offering. Otherwise, the many neglected and hungry energies of the land may come to feed off the offering.  Water is a great tool for clearing.  You can pour water and ask for an energy to be cleared.  Water can always find its way, moving sand and rock as it cuts a path.  It is the great equalizer.  Fire is also a wonderful transmutation tool.  Burning fuel into ash.  You can write out the story of your ancestors and burn it. Thanking the fire itself and feeding it as an energy that is helping you with your healing journey.

When the ancestors step in to a divination space we sometimes get wild stories, and often it makes me squirm to speak their words out loud. I have learned that a parent isn’t a genetic match, that a grandparent may have killed their own child to hide an affair, that they were slave traders or involved in dark magic. Stick divination is prescriptive. This uncomfortable news is followed with a ritual that has been crafted by the elementals to clear the trauma. Often, once a client carries out the ritual, that ancestor then becomes “freed” from what generally translates as Karma and it allows them to become a helpful ally on the other side. This brings some levity and often opens up more “inner gnosis” for the client.

If you are aware that there has been an unspeakable deed done in your family lineage, and do not find yourself wanting to seek out a divination session- The Strega Tree team was assigned a product that could bring lineage healing.  Our diviners have done the rituals and added the ingredients to the product. It is called the Big Offering and it is just that.  It is a potent feeding tool that can be offered to the Earth with the request that it be the fuel to clear your family lineage. We would like to make this available to you, if you feel called to make such an offering, at a 20% discount, thru the end of 2021.

use code: supplychainblues at check out

Read more about Strega Tree Apothecary’s The Big Offering here.

So Sláinte Mhaith, Prost and Cheers to the Ancestors. And Áse to the Dagara peoples that have gifted the stick divination system to this land so that we can learn more tools for honoring the Ancestors.

©Sarah Wieland 2021

This Week’s Mini Ritual from Strega Tree Apothecary:
Prayer for the Unremembered

At this time of year, where so many are remembering and lighting candles to their ancestors, how about lighting a candle for all the unremembered and ungrieved, and other spirits needing help who are not receiving it.? Light a candle or two or three and make a prayer over them to the unremembered, the ones with no names, the ones forgotten. Send your love and prayers their way with the intention for them to receive what it is they need. Our prayers are always made with the highest and best intentions for all. If you feel extra generous you can also set out some food for the unremembered and ungrieved with the greatest and highest intentions for all.

 

Sarah Wieland is a diviner and cofounder of Strega Tree Apothecary.  She considers her divination work to be a tool to discover what is needed to tend to the Earth at this time.  Sarah feels that she is a star being living in a human body to understand how to move the light from the higher dimensions through the human body and into the Earth.  Her divinations help clients to understand how to be in right alignment.  The Wedeme and Kontomble craft beautiful rituals with her through these sessions that bring those that are willing to step into the mystery back into relationship with their elemental allies, ancestors and the Greater Powers.  She is based in Sebastopol, California but available for online sessions.