transformation & transmutation

"Transformation comes when I'm not in charge, when I don't know what's coming next, when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me." ~ Pico Iyer, TED Talk, 26 Feb 2023

After a recent sonic immersion - as we sat around the table to break bread together before heading off - our conversation steered toward what we carry within. In our muscle and sinew, blood and bones, DNA and cells, ancestry and history.

Prayers for Turtle Island © Dana Wheeles 2020 - We'Moon 2023

Our life is intimately interwoven with ancestors and descendants of past, present, future - gone, current, forever. All our relations - anyone and anything that contribute to our life.

Connecting with our ancestors leads to healing when we are in alignment and collaborate as allies - even when we disagree or misunderstand.

As we learn to make peace with all elements - exploring, absorbing, immersing - we get up close and personal with our ancestors. When we allow space and drop resistance healing possibilities unfold.

It's about time we start conversations that explore the centrality of ancestor work to the collective liberation of humanity. Decolonize ourselves. Declutter our perspectives and processes. We let our soul soar. We set our spirit free.

The social, political, cultural and environmental crises of these times call us to reckon with the legacy of colonization, genocide, slavery and the continued violence against the oppressed.

Our healing requires that we transform intergenerational trauma using the wisdom, perseverance and resilience of our ancestors and lineage.

Once we trust that all that we need is here for us healing can occur - what is transformed is transmuted. By acknowledging all that is, in agreement or not - it is all offered to the sacred fire, good with bad - burned pure and released to the ether purified.

Our ancestors need to be recognized, honored, acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions - whatever those were. After all we would not be where we are were it not for them.

Our ancestral blessing is the knowledge that life is here for us - supporting, loving, co-creating with and rooting for us - that is a tremendous boost that is readily available to each of us.

How we relate in life is how we are in relation with our ancestors and all living beings. All our relations indeed. A'ho!

natural progression

The recent Ancestral Healing Summit hosted by the Shift Network was  five days of revelation and insight that led wonder | wander | women into deeper conversation about our own lineage and heritage. 

We'Moon 2020

What constitutes a family really? In cultural anthropology this varies across the globe depending on a variety of factors including subsistence practices and economic behaviors.

Flathead family (United States)

Family defines obligations that group members have to one another, both economically and socially. Generally, family members live together, but that is not always the case.

The ancient souls of modern art: Musée du Quai Branly

The Paris museum of indigenous culture, Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, was created to showcase the art and artefacts of non-Western civilisations. In the classical art paradise of Paris, visitors tend to focus on European painters and cultural history, and less on the cultures that heavily influenced modern movements like Cubism and Impressionism.

Days of the Living, the Dead & the Sainted

Dating back to Pre-Columbian times, Dia de Muertos honors the mysteries of life and death, through both celebration and reverence.

Prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration took place at the beginning of summer. Gradually it came to coincide with the Western Christian triduum of Allhallowtide: All Saints' Eve (Halloween, Oct 31), All Saints' Day (Nov 1), and All Souls' Day (Nov 2).