Ritual for Healing Ancestral Patterns and Blocks

Clear and transform challenging family patterns with this powerful ancestral healing spell.

We are interconnected with our ancestors and our ancestors are interconnected with us. Some of the seeds of challenges we experience in this lifetime predate this actual lifetime, and their offshoots may even climb like unhappy ivy throughout the branches of our family tree.

I don’t profess to scientifically understand time, or physics, or relativity. But I do have the basic understanding that while time appears linear to us, and we interact with it as if it is linear, that is not the actual case.

Similarly, I couldn’t possibly profess to understand the dynamics of epigenetics and intergenerational trauma. But I can certainly grasp the idea of the effects of ancestral challenges, habits, disasters, and tragedies being passed down, both psychologically and in the physical expression of our genes.

That’s why I wanted to share this ritual for healing such an intrinsic, inherited dynamic. When I think about such healing work from an energetic perspective, I see it as working in all directions of time and space: healing our contemporaries, healing future generations, and even in a way reaching backwards in time to heal our ancestors as well.

If you’d like to heal ancestral patterns and blocks, this ritual is for you.

(There are some fun affiliate links in the ingredient list. Feel free to ignore them. But maybe you’ll like them?)

Here’s what you need:

• A white or off-white soy candle
• A lighter or matches
• A tied bundle or small, loose bunch of 3-5 fresh rosemary sprigs
• A notebook or journal
• A pen

Here’s what to do:

First, find somewhere quiet where you can work alone for a good little chunk of time, ideally where you can sit at a table or desk. Make sure the area feels clean, clear, and conducive to focus and relaxation.

Place all ingredients near your workspace. Light the candle.

Close your eyes and take three long, deep breaths.

Call on and connect with the Divine in a way that feels powerful and right to you.

Then allow your breathing to be natural, but keep paying attention to it. Focus on breathing in and out. Also notice your weight on the chair (or wherever you’re sitting). Come into an awareness of your body. Notice where you are holding tension and breathe into those areas. Continue breathing and relaxing consciously until you feel focused, grounded, and centered.

Pick up the rosemary and inhale the scent. Rub a needle between your fingers and inhale the scent on your fingertips to intensify the scent. Do your best to simply pay attention to the scent’s invigorating quality. Then place the rosemary back down again.

Now, pick up the pen. Take a moment to consider the pattern you would like to clear. See if you can tune into it energetically and emotionally. Then answer the following questions in the notebook or journal. Don’t overthink this process. Just get the pen moving on the page and write everything that comes to mind.

1. What are the behaviors or actions (or non-actions) associated with this pattern or block?
2. What are the emotions (blocked or flowing) associated with this pattern or block?
3. When you personally experience the effects of this pattern or block, where do you feel it in your body?
4. When (and if) you observe this pattern or block manifesting in others in your family, what do you observe?
5. What positive qualities do you believe you will be unsticking and freeing up by doing this ritual?
6. Pretend for a moment that this pattern or block is already cleared for you and for your entire family. What do you imagine that will be like? How will it look? What will it feel like physically? Emotionally? Energetically? And what modified behaviors or actions will you observe?

You don’t have to know the origin or understand everything about this pattern or block in order to clear it. You just need to get a sense of it, and to bring it into your present moment awareness as best you can. Which is what answering the above questions will assist you in doing.

Now, close your eyes again. Take 3 more long, deep breaths to reset your sense of clarity and calm. With your eyes still closed, do your best to become aware of the ancestors who are connected to you through this pattern or block. You might imagine yourself as light, and see concentric branches of light around you, reaching forward, backwards, and in all directions, connecting you to everyone who will benefit from healing this old pattern or block.

If you are less visual, you might simply consider your family: your ancestors, your contemporaries, and the family members who are still unborn. You might sense their presence, and feel your emotional connection to them through love.

Or, you can always simply set the intention to connect, and ask the Divine to support you with this.

Announce to this collective family consciousness: “I am now clearing this old pattern or block: on my own behalf, and on behalf of all of you. If you consent to this clearing, thank you for allowing me to do so now.”

Open your eyes, pick up the rosemary, and stand up. Still sensing your connection to the others in your family who are a part of this pattern, clearly state:

“With the help of Divine Power [or feel free to use whatever name for the Divine you choose], I am now removing this old pattern or block, as well as all limiting or painful effects of all related traumas, for myself and my family, in all directions of time.” 

Now, brush your aura or energy field (not your body, but the space that immediately surrounds your physical body) downwards and outwards with the bundle as you slowly rotate in a counterclockwise direction. End each brushstroke with a rapid outward/downward flick. As you do this, feel, imagine, sense, or simply know that you are removing the old cords of energy connected to this pattern or block, as well as every related energetic and emotional quality.

When this feels complete to you, stand still and say decisively:

“With the help of Divine Power, I have now removed this old pattern or block, as well as all limiting or painful effects of all related traumas, for myself and my family, in all directions of time. Thank you.”

Close your eyes, inhale the scent of the rosemary once more, and feel the joy and freedom of having released this old pattern. Also see if you can connect with the gratitude, freedom, and general positive effects that are rippling out to and through your family, in all directions of time. Gently smile.

It is done.

Extinguish the candle.

Be sure to drink plenty of water within the next hour especially and also for the remainder of the day.

You can place your rosemary bundle on your altar, or if it feels right, you can also place it or hang it near a family photo. After a week or two, remove any string if necessary and release it to the earth or a moving body of water.

…Did you try this ancestral healing ritual, or are you planning to? Or do you have any questions or thoughts about it? I try to respond to every comment if I can. So please don’t be shy! Chime in below.