This spell is personal.
In the past few years, through a lot of digging, I’ve uncovered many things about my lineage. Against what I grew up believing, I am NOT the oldest of three siblings. It turns out I have an older brother who was born in 1960 from my mother who, during her “shameful” and “sinful” teen pregnancy, was “put away” in a convent in a rural town in the North of Argentina in order to hide her bump. At birth, her baby was taken away from her and put up for, most likely, an illegal adoption sponsored by The Catholic Church. This painful and traumatic episode was kept a secret between my mom, her sister, and my grandmother (who took it to her grave even though I gave her the chance to unburden herself). And as much as I would love to meet my brother, I was advised not to disclose that I know about any of this to my mom, as she is elderly now, and lives with mental illness (shocking!) and a frail health (duh). It was her choice to keep this chapter of her life a secret, and she built her whole adult life based on it.
But this is just an intro to what I really want to talk about. Seven years ago, way before we learnt about our “lost brother”, as we call him, my sister became a mother. She was the first one of us three kids to have a child, so this baby was the first (known) offspring of our generation. When the baby, a boy, was born, my sister could not NAME him. My nephew spent his first week of life without a name because she simply couldn’t pick one. She was paralyzed in a way that was inexplicable, illogical, nonsensical. Except we now KNOW why she could not name her first-born son: Trauma is inherited and passed down from generation to generation and epigenetics backs this up now (new to epigenetics? Look here).
Thanks to that science, I’m now aware I have 18% indigenous DNA. This revelation explains so much, including my connection with PACHAMAMA, Earth Mother and Inca Goddess of Fertility (I interpret fertility as the power of creation = creativity); and IXCHEL, Mayan Goddess of the Moon, Midwifery (which I interpret as birther of truth, assisting in people’s evolution through rites of passage), and Fertility (again, creativity), also known as Rainbow Woman, and Medicine Woman (healer).
It was recently brought to my attention that in many indegenous cultures around the world the role of the healer and medicine women coincided with the role of the storyteller, those were the people who told stories around the fire. They were storytellers, facilitating healing through story and bearing witness to transformation.
We live in a country that has caused and created unspeakable traumas that are now an irrevocable part of our history. We live in a country that is currently in the midst of uncovering and facing the atrocities of genocide, a country complicit in the massacre of hundreds if not thousands of indigenous children forced into Catholic boarding schools. We live in a country built on slavery. We live in a country that has historically valued land only as property, and is facing the consequences of that ecological destruction. A country whose economy is intricately connected to the prison system, and its economic exploitation. And so so so much more. There are so many ways to be hurt by our society, there is trauma laced into the very nature of our society, there is trauma in our epigenetics, in our bodies.
Much of this pain originated in our country’s “founding” as a settler colonial nation. Colonialism asks us to say what is mine and what is yours, to draw lines, to claim ownership, to draw false separation in our culture and communities. But there is not inherently a border between us, and in fact many of us hold both the genes of those who inflicted harm, and those who experienced it. This ritual aims to remove this binary, and help us realize that we can hold both energies inside of us in order to heal.
In this ritual, you will channel your inner healerstoryteller, and embody different aspects of our nation’s colonial legacies to energetically heal the earth, yourself and your fellow humans. This is a challenging emotional exercise with potent results.
INGREDIENTS
To do this ritual, you will need:
A small sacred object you can use to open the circle (i.e. a candle, herb bundle, special rock, or anything that holds magic for you)
Something to write with (i.e. pens, pencils, markers, crayons)
A notebook or journal
A tiny jar / frasquito
A glass of water for sipping between steps
Salt
Two cushions or seats, both for yourself
LOGISTICS
This spell can be undertaken alone, or with a partner or two as witness.
If you would like to do this in partnership with a witness, we suggest that you open the circle together (step 1), and then take turns going through steps 2-4, before closing together (step 5).
Your witness helps to hold you accountable to the story, allowing you to sink deeper into this practice. If you are witnessing, your role is to hold space, take notes and keep your partner accountable. Your role is to heal.
PREPARATION
To begin this sacred work, create a space for yourself.
Clear the energy with incense or motion. With smoke or energy trace circles in the corners of each room. Imagining bright white light clearing all unwanted or stagnant energy.
Light candles or draw blinds. Set the scene
Set up two chairs or two cushions opposite one another in the center of the space you’ve created.
THE RITUAL
Step 1: Opening the Space + Water as Witness
Using the sacred tool you have set aside for this purpose --
open a circle.
Hold the object in your hands, close your eyes, and ask your ancestors, guides, and spirits to create a safe and charged space to cast a spell. If you need an invocation to try, here’s one:
Welcome Fire -- the flame that shines on the teller of stories, the warmth around which we gather, the life force within us all.
Welcome Water -- the drop of a tear, the wave of an ocean, the amniotic fluid in the womb.
Welcome Air -- the space we need around our experiences, the breath of the world, the gasp of new learning.
Welcome Earth -- the soil we have cared for, the ground we have walked on, the link in time. The land we have occupied. From the Chumash, or the Tongva or the Lenape or the Arapaho or the Cheyenne or the Ute or the Dine or the Abenaki.**
Welcome to the four corners, the four directions, the alchemical elements of the medicine wheel. We honor you, your global lineage and your indigenous roots.
** For information on the community you live in please visit https://native-land.ca and add this name to your invocation.
Now, gather your jar, your water, and your salt.
Pour the salt into the jar. A teaspoon, a tablespoon.
Whatever feels right.
Pour some of the water from your glass into the jar. Set it aside.
Let the jar witness the ritual that is about to unfold.
(If you are working with a witness, they can hold the jar for you, or stand near it.)
Step 2: Begin the Dialogue
Now, sit on the first cushion or chair. This is your first perspective.
Carefully and slowly feel into the part of you that benefits from the way our current society is structured.
Then, envision a person sitting on the cushion across from you: the part of you that has been harmed.
Let the part of you that benefits from current structures and power dynamics speak to the part of you that is hurt by those same structures.
From a place of deep listening and seeing, begin to talk to them as the colonizer, or as yourself, as some parts of yourself that benefit from this structure.
Speak as if you were lending them your voice.
In what ways are you sorry?
In what ways do you know or are you aware?
Where are your blindspots?
Where is there room to grow? See what arises.
Feel into what you are saying, without judgement. It might not make sense yet. Trust it.
If you have ancestry as either the colonized or the colonizer, you might want to invite those ancestors to speak with you or through you.
Take a moment to breathe, cry, record, inhale + exhale. Take a drink from your sipping glass.
Step 3: Complete the Dialogue
Now switch places. Move to the other seat. This is your second perspective.
Take the spot of the part of you that has been harmed.
Let the part of you that is hurt by current structures and power dynamics speak to the part of you that benefits from those same structures. Let that contradiction be embodied within you. Feel both pieces as they begin to communicate.
Speak as if you were lending them your voice. Answer the questions, and respond to what you shared originally.
What still hurts?
What needs to be healed?
Is there anything you need to know?
Don’t put words in their mouth. Listen deeply. See what arises. It might be a symbol or a color, it might not yet make sense. Trust it.
Once you feel it’s time, you might want to switch places again, respond, or keep expounding. But make sure you don’t rush it.
The silences are as important as the words.
Pay attention to what happens energetically in the Body.
Thank them. Thank yourself.
Step 4: The Last Question
As a final beat, switching positions one last time if you need to, embody the part of yourself who benefits and ask the part of yourself who does not -- How can I actively help? What can I do that I am not doing?
Pay careful attention to the answer. Write it down. Circle it.
Take a moment to breathe, cry, record, inhale + exhale.
Now, close the jar.
Shake it. This is how you will seal your intentions.
Water + salt stores energy. It will crystalize as you work towards this small bit of energetic reparation. This will serve as a physical reminder of this meaningful dialogue.
Cracking the lid open, set the jar on your altar.
Step 5: Embodying Movement
[This step can be done now, if you have access to the outdoors, or it can be done later in a moment of quiet.]
Just as salt is a conductor of energy, so is your body. Let’s honor our Body as a Channel for Divine Healing Powers!
This can be best early in the morning, when the grass is still wet with dew, or if you’re lucky, after it’s rained.
Take off your shoes. Kneel down and place your hands on the grass.
Caress the grass. Place your hands gently on your eyes/third eye point. Then your heart.
Breathe. Stand up. Ground your feet on the ground.
Elevate your hands in cactus pose, like an antenna. Chin up, revering the Heavens. Like Ixchel, you are a Channel for Divine Healing Powers.
Breathe.
CLOSING
Now, holding your salt water, and your sacred object, close your eyes, and thank your ancestors, guides, and spirits for their energy.
Thank you Fire.
Thank you Water.
Thank you Air.
Thank you Earth.
We honor you.
Ritual by Dani De Carlo and Sarah Sellman
** FURTHER ACTION/ACTIVISM **
Buy and read the award-winning children’s picture book, “We Are Water Protectors,” by Carole Lindstrom. Carole is Anishinabe/Metis and is tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Her story was inspired by Standing Rock and all Indigenous Peoples fighting for clean water.
Once you read it, you might want to keep it forever (this book is so special), but you could also gift it to a kid in your neighborhood/family or donate it to your local library.
LANDBACK is a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands.
Learn more here.
BONUS TRACK RUMINATIONS VIA FELLOW ARTIST & ACTIVIST/ STORYTELLER/TRUTH DIGGER/POET/HEALER MARY OLIVER:
“SOME QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK”
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn’t?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?