Healing our fractured humanity through A gentle meditation on Ancestors, looking at family trauma, forgiveness and adopted lineages

new Monthly webinar series - healing family trauma

In my travels around the world I often come across people who struggle to connect with and honour their ancestors. The reason is due to trauma. This results in low spiritual self esteem. The effect of this is a lack of trust in oneself and the spirit world. People quickly replace their ancestors with teachers or lineages from different backgrounds or indigenous roots who are seen to be more holy, special or magical compared to their ancestral roots. To truly heal our fractured world we need to look at broken families and do the work to heal them.

We all have three groupings of ancestors; biological (Mom and Dad), and non-biological or adopted. The third grouping can include spiritual lineages or wisdom teachers who have adopted us or whose communities we follow to gain spiritual food.

A key question is ‘how can we honour our ancestors with a legacy of violence and bad behaviour’? In traditional shamanic culture the realm of ancestors is marked by thousands of years. In more modern communities people look at the last few generations of ancestors and feel pride or sorrow depending on the behaviour of their departed. I would like to encourage people to dig a bit deeper and go beyond the history of trauma. We will explore this together.

Webinar 1 - Sunday 1st November 2026

Honouring our blood Ancestors Through a Legacy of trauma

International Times: 10am PST (Los Angeles); 1pm EST (New York) ; 5pm UK (London); 6pm Zurich & Paris; 7pm South Africa (Cape Town). If you can’t make it live, don’t worry, you will receive the recording afterwards.

The Focus: How to approach and honor bloodlines marked by severe trauma, child molestation, violence, or drug addiction without bypassing the pain or condoning the behavior. Including ancestral lineages that might be marked by extreme violence towards other groups of people. This leads a stain on the living and reduces spiritual self esteem.

Key Teachings:

➡️ Separating the personality/actions of an ancestor from their consciousness and your biological DNA.

➡️ Navigating ancestral connection for adoptees, orphans, or those completely estranged from or ignorant of their biological family tree.

➡️ Using ritual and breath to look back across a heavy lineage without taking on the shame or guilt as your own.

➡️Transforming inherited ancestral pain into insight and personal power.

Webinar 2: 29th November 2026

The Adopted Ancestor: wisdom keepers offering soul food

Looking at the third grouping of ancestors, or non-biological family. Expanding the definition of lineage beyond blood to include "adopted ancestors"— wisdom keepers and lineages different from your biological family. This might include indigenous shamanic traditions from South America, Africa, Siberia, Mongolia, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism etc.

Adopted ancestors or teachers can also come in the form of nature spirits, land, plants, animals, and spiritual guides.

Key Teachings:

➡️ Expanding the definition of lineage beyond blood to include "adopted ancestors"— wisdom keepers and lineages different from your biological family. This might include indigenous shamanic traditions from South America, Africa, Siberia, Mongolia, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism etc.

➡️Adopted ancestors or teachers can also come in the form of nature spirits, land, plants, animals, and spiritual guides.

➡️ How the earth itself and the elements act as primordial parents.

Webinar 3: Monday 28th December 2026

The Alchemy of Forgiveness: Reconciling the Unforgivable

The Focus: Practical shamanic and mindfulness tools for forgiving those who have deeply harmed us, and making peace with the ghosts of the past.

Key Teachings:

➡️ Understanding forgiveness not as an emotional band-aid or condoning cruelty, but as an energetic release to free your own vital life force (umbilini).

➡️ Working with the "Don't Know" mind and grief to let go of the need for an apology that may never come. 

➡️ Holding space for dual realities: holding people accountable while softening the heart to break cycles of intergenerational vengeance.

➡️ The Xhosa concept of khanya (inner shining) and how healing backward in the form of our ancestors heals forward for future generations.

➡️ Creating a simple, daily domestic altar and anchor practice to maintain spiritual self-esteem and grounding. 

🔥AS we step out of survival mode and into conscious creation we heal our ancestral story and stop family trauma from being repeated and moving into future generations.

NB: This webinar series is an invitation to rediscover the living intelligence of the plant world.

Through traditional sangoma teachings, guided journeys, and practical rituals, you'll learn to cultivate a respectful relationship with plant spirits, deepen your connection to nature and your ancestors, and bring greater healing, protection, and balance into your everyday life.

Each Webinar runs as a ceremony with a guided meditation, some chanting and an invocation in isiXhosa to lift the energy. They last 75 mins.

John will give a 20 min talk to introduce this month’s theme. People can then ask questions.

NB: These Monthly Webinars are part of a monthly subscription of $33 USD, cancel anytime.