Following the wisdom of our blood

Ancestral wisdom, the power of "really" and a quick apology about this space.

A bunch of deep red flowers against a blurred backdrop of the same colour and texture. Photo by Alina Sofia S. on Unsplash

The Divine Feminist started with blood.

Specifically menstrual blood back inn 2014 when I finally tuned into my menstrual cycle and what it meant for my body.

I vividly remember the sense of connection that gave me to my ancestors; specifically my maternal ancestors – something I hear from clients over and over again.

But over the last few months, as I’ve stepped back a bit from being out in the world to really connect with the next chapters of my work, it feels that I’ve really taken a deeper turn into the realms of our blood and ancestors.

Why does this link back to Divine Feminism, you may ask?

Well, because I believe each and every one of us is not only capable of breaking out of the bounds and binaries the modern world has imposed upon us, but that the keys to do that live within our blood.

Every one of us carries the legacy of countless generations within our veins. Not only those generations we’ve met, know the names of, or whose lives we can imagine, but so many more besides.

Within our veins are the genetic messages left to us by those who existed long before humans liked to draw lines on the Earth and claim them as immovable borders; who existed at a time when we lived in community rather than competition; and for whom ideas like “colonisation”, “capitalism” and “patriarchy” would have been entirely baffling and ridiculous. (I know, they’re still baffling and ridiculous, but you know what I mean!)

And though I’m not suggesting that we should see the insights held within our deep genetic memory as an invitation to head backwards, I firmly believe those memories hold gems of wisdom that can offer us a pathway forwards if only we know how to access them.

How do we do that?

How do we tune into and understand that wisdom? Honestly, that’s still a work in progress for me.

After all, I was told last week by Spirit that the month of August will be a time for me to “tune in daily and understand what these primal insights really are”, so I guess I’ll be able to share a fuller picture with you in a month from now?!

But I can tell you where and how I’ve begun to do this over the past year or so, because it comes with one word:

Ironic isn’t it? That was a word I used at the start of every episode of the Divine Feminist podcast when I used to ask “how are you, really?” And now here it is again, this time appearing in a more direct form than ever with an invitation to connect even ore deeply with ourselves and the wisdom and stories that live within us. 

Learning to trust

For me, last year was all about self trust. I decided at the outset of 2023, a time when I was still in the depths of grief over losing Kali and a maelstrom of chaos due to family illness, that this would be the year I really cultivated trust in myself.

It led to some big shifts. I stepped away from a significant friendship that had become controlling rather than empowering; I ventured to Ireland and reclaimed parts of myself that had been left behind there almost a decade ago; I brought Lagertha home at a time many people were telling me to wait; I temporarily took a second job to allow me to make decisions based on my truth rather than my fear; and within that job I took action against a colleague’s behaviour that went against every one of my morals.

And as the habit of doubting my own insights and choices began to fade, I began to hear deeper within myself than ever before. Helped, in no small part, by that single word  which came up time and time again to question the patterns, beliefs, stories and ideas that I found to be holding me back.

“Oh I can’t do that.” Really? Or is that based on something another person once declared you were ‘bad’ at?

“No, that’s not possible.” Really? Or is it something others around you believe that you’ve taken on as your own limitation?

“But surely that would be silly.” Really? Or was that message given to you by a society you’ve already unpicked so much conditioning from?

In short, the more I came to trust myself, the more I began to pull down the inner walls within me that had been blocking obscure my own wisdom. And with every “really” that I asked myself, I found that those walls – so many of which had been erected to protect rather than diminish me – fell away to reveal a more powerful connection with something I'd always considered to be important but decidedly unspiritual thank you: The beat of my heart.

Getting back to basics

Of course the challenge with breaking down walls is that, so often, we’re left with empty spaces within us.

But in this case, not only are those spaces exciting, but they’re also filled with something incredible potent: The rhythmic echo of our ancestors’ legacy as it makes its continued pilgrimage around our body.

You might well be rolling your eyes at that, thinking “Ceryn for goodness’ sake, it’s my heartbeat. It’s really not that spiritual.” But stop, for just a second, and think about it? What is a pulse really, but the drumbeat that carries us through life?

And where does that drumbeat begin? With those who came before us. With the woman whose own heart kept us alive even before our own was fully formed, and with the chain of other hearts that did exactly the same for our ancestors right the way back to the very dawn of time.

I’ve learned over this past year that when we stop listening so hard to the noises and instructions that can be so loudly sounded by the outside world, that primal drumbeat becomes more noticeable than ever before. And with it? A call from our most ancient ancestors to be guided by their ways of being.

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting there that we should go back to only eating what we can forage (unless you want to), or to walking hundreds of miles to relocate for Summer (though again, there might be benefits to that…).

Instead, it’s about us turning inwards to our most basic instincts and knowing that, as long as we have food, water, fresh air in our lungs, the Sun on our faces, and no impending danger to contend with, the most important things have been checked off.

I don’t mean for that to sound condescending. And I know that as a white woman with good health and a roof over her head in a generally safe part of the world, that sentence comes seasoned with more than a little privileged.

But there is a truth in it.

In the modern world – particularly here in the West – we’ve complicated life so damned much:

We can’t relax without screens to constantly entertain us.

We can’t look our best without expensive treatments and cosmetics.

We can’t consider ourselves “good” without checking all of the philanthropy and activism boxes (and don’t get me wrong, I am ALL for a bit of activism!).

We won’t be happy unless we’ve faced every inch of our trauma and decided to make every thought in our brains a positive one.

And we can’t call ourselves successful until we’re able to do all of the things that everyone else says are positive.

Yet it’s funny isn’t it? Because I can’t imagine that my ancient ancestors walking barefoot around the forests of the old supercontinent were permanently stressed, ugly, bad or miserable, nor that they felt like failures.

Collectively and individually those barriers we’ve built within us were always meant to protect us. But those walls have become towers which are doing anything but. That are instead putting the things that make life truly worth living seem almost impossible to reach.

That was never meant to be the case. Our ancestors knew it and, if we take a moment to listen to the core wisdom within ourselves, I think we’ll find that we know it too.

The map to breaking down those walls and towers lives within our blood.

Finding it, decoding it, and following starts with putting a hand on your heart and allowing the rhythm you find there to be the thing that drives you forwards. The drumbeat to which you make your choices, and the path through which you can keep asking yourself “really?”

I’ll report back with more on this soon. But for now I’ll say that if you’re interested in tuning in more deeply to the wisdom held within your own blood and that of the Earth, it’s something I’ll be working with this Autumn in Glastonbury.

Over a beautiful Equinox weekend, I’m coming together with my Project Earthwork sisters Yolandi Boshoff and Charlie Edwards for a weekend spent Re-Awakening the Gaia Within by connecting with the different energetic systems that comprise our own bodies and those of the Earth. You can learn more about the weekend on the link below – I’d love to see you there if you can make it.

An apology

For now though, before I go, let me say one last thing.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had messages from two new subscribers about the fact that this space isn’t as user-friendly as it could be.

To those people and that feedback I say I know, I’m sorry, and please bear with me.

Last year I paused the paid element of this space because a number of personal factors meant I couldn’t commit to sharing the content I had previously, and it didn’t feel good to me to take money for nothing.

My intention was to pause for three months. But ongoing things at home together with the changing focus of my work meant it didn’t feel as simple as to just restart what I’d been doing all along; the paid element of this space needed a re-think.

I’d like to tell you I’m there with that now but it’s still very much a work in progress. However please know that I am working on it. And I’m also actively looking at ways to make the previously paid content more accessible while still staying respectful to those who originally paid to access it along the way.

I hope to be able to give you a clearer update in the next month or so but for now, please accept my apologies and thank you, as always, for being here and for being you. After all, you is exactly who the world needs.

Love,

Ceryn xx