--- title: How do we recognise and work with ancestral burdens? description: Most of the teaching on working with ancestral burdens is for students, but some of it is public. Shamans have always known that we are affected by many generations of ancestors, and journeying down timelines is one way of doing… url: "https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/wiki/how-do-we-recognise-and-work-with-ancestral-burdens/" updated: "2026-11-10" category: Ancestors tags: - ancestral burdens - ancestral healing - blame - consent - drama triangle - family constellations - forgiveness bypassing - grief - journeying - multiverse - psychotherapy - safety - seven generations - the dead - timelines --- # How do we recognise and work with ancestral burdens? Most of the teaching on working with ancestral burdens is for students, but some of it is public. Shamans have always known that we are affected by many generations of ancestors, and journeying down timelines is one way of doing family and ancestral healing; psychotherapy can help too, though it usually stops at childhood. Indigenous cultures saw resolving their own trauma as a responsibility to the generations after them, and the past itself cannot be changed. ## How do we recognise an ancestral burden? The public sources say little about this directly. Paul Francis's own healing went beyond his childhood: having already done a lot of work on his childhood earlier in his life, his hunch was that he needed to explore deeper still. Beneath the childhood layers he found those of earlier generations.^[1](#note-1) Our choices are shaped by unconscious patterns from past hurts and traumas, including the ancestral burdens we often unconsciously carry. How to recognise them is taught in more depth to students. See [What are ancestral burdens and how are they passed down?](/wiki/what-are-ancestral-burdens-and-how-are-they-passed-down/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "Digging Down to the Soul". ## What is ancestral healing, and what is it for? Healing the burdens that have come down to us, by learning "to journey down timelines and do family and ancestral healing".^[2](#note-2) Indigenous cultures saw resolving their own trauma as a personal responsibility, to prevent passing it down through the generations. Healing has its limits, though: the past cannot be changed. 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "Digging Down to the Soul". ## Can shamanic journeying help with ancestral burdens? Yes. Shamans have always known that we are affected by many generations of ancestors before us, and this is what led Paul to learn to do ancestral healing by journeying.^[3](#note-3) The practices themselves are taught to students. In one journey Paul made to address "some particular ancestral and family stuff", his [Human Guide](/wiki/what-are-human-guides/) simply told him "Be Kelp"; the story is about the value of being rather than doing.^[4](#note-4) See [What is shamanic journeying?](/wiki/what-is-shamanic-journeying/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "Digging Down to the Soul". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Eight, "'Being' (Not 'Doing')". ## Can psychotherapy help? Yes, though it usually stops at childhood. Psychotherapy can go deeper than the childhood layers, but usually it does not. Looking further led Paul "to epigenetics, the work of Bert Hellinger and Family Constellations", and to shamanic ancestral healing.^[5](#note-5) Therapeutic Shamanism brings psychotherapy and shamanism together. See [Why does Therapeutic Shamanism bring shamanism and psychotherapy together?](/wiki/why-does-therapeutic-shamanism-bring-shamanism-and-psychotherapy-together/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "Digging Down to the Soul". ## Does releasing an ancestral burden mean blaming the ancestors? Not in Paul's own example. The neglect that ran down his family is told not to criticise or judge his parents, but simply as the truth of what happened.^[6](#note-6) Understanding why something happened does not undo its effects: "Reasons do not cancel out impact." Nor does 'forgiveness bypassing', a term from the psychotherapist [Jeff Brown](/wiki/who-is-jeff-brown-and-what-is-grounded-spirituality/), "actually resolve anything."^[7](#note-7) The fuller teaching on releasing burdens without blame is for students. 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Three, "Emotional Neglect". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Seven, "Neither Judging, nor Forgiving". ## Can ancestral work become a drama triangle? The [drama triangle](/wiki/what-is-the-drama-triangle/) of victim, persecutor and rescuer "can be passed on for generations, centuries even." It ends only in one way: "a drama triangle**Drama triangle.** The persecutor-rescuer-victim pattern; the poison of unhealthy groups. [More about this](/wiki/what-is-the-drama-triangle/) only stops when people within it have the courage to put their grievances down and stop looking for things like apologies, justice or retribution."^[8](#note-8) How this applies to ancestral work is taught to students. See [What do tribe and belonging mean, and what is the shaman's role in a community?](/wiki/what-do-tribe-and-belonging-mean-and-what-is-the-shamans-role-in-a-community/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Five, "The Drama Triangle". ## Are our ancestors automatically wise? No. Wisdom belongs to the Ancestors**Ancestors.** The human Oversoul: the whole of humanity held as one Lower-World being. Distinct from individual dead ancestors (small a), who are not worked with in this approach. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-difference-between-an-ancestor-and-an-ancestor/), not to individual ancestors. The healthy stories we need come "from our ancestors. Not from our recent ancestors, though."^[9](#note-9) It is the Ancestors, and not our individual ancestors, who are wise and transcendent beings.^[10](#note-10) See [What is the difference between an ancestor and an Ancestor?](/wiki/what-is-the-difference-between-an-ancestor-and-an-ancestor/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Three, "What Stories Shall We Choose?". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Branches on a Tree". ## What are the ethics of ancestral healing? Consent comes first in any shamanic healing: none is done on any living person "without that person's express and conscious consent".^[11](#note-11) Working with individual biological ancestors is middle-world**Middle-world.** Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. "If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world." [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-middle-world/) work, outside the scope of *Finding Your Deep Soul*.^[12](#note-12) The books do not speak of giving a burden back to the ancestors, and the fuller teaching on permission is for students. See [What does consent mean in shamanic work?](/wiki/what-does-consent-mean-in-shamanic-work/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Eight, "Important! A Word about Ethics and Healing". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Five, "You Belong to a Lower-World Tribe". ## Can ancestral healing be overwhelming? The public sources do not discuss this for ancestral work in particular, but they are clear about safety. For anyone prone to things like schizophrenic episodes or severe dissociation, "or anything else that makes it hard to keep a grip on ordinary, everyday reality, then journeying for yourself could make matters worse", and an experienced practitioner is the better route. Being firmly rooted and anchored in ordinary reality is an essential prerequisite for being able to journey safely for oneself.^[13](#note-13) See [Is shamanic journeying safe?](/wiki/is-shamanic-journeying-safe/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Introduction, "Very Important - Mental Health and Shamanic Work". ## How is ancestral healing connected with grief? Unresolved grief is one of the things families carry. One of the Patterns of healthy groups is "Every member of a group is acknowledged (even the dead)." Drawing on [Hellinger](/wiki/who-was-bert-hellinger/)'s [family constellations](/wiki/what-can-family-constellations-offer-shamanic-work/), a dead child, "and the associated and unresolved grief or shame around them, can cast a deep shadow over families until they are acknowledged, and any feelings are faced and resolved."^[14](#note-14) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Five, "The Psychological Patterns of Healthy Groups". ## How is ancestral healing connected with the future? Through the choices we make. Shamanism is "essentially a multiverse model": "the future is not set, and there are an infinite number of different futures, all of which happen."^[15](#note-15) Our choices between those futures are shaped by unconscious patterns, including inherited ones. Indigenous cultures considered their influence on the [seven generations](/wiki/what-are-the-seven-generations/) that would follow. See [What are future selves, and are there many possible futures?](/wiki/what-are-future-selves-and-are-there-many-possible-futures/) and [Can we change the past?](/wiki/can-we-change-the-past/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "The Past Has to Die". - [What are ancestral burdens and how are they passed down?](/wiki/what-are-ancestral-burdens-and-how-are-they-passed-down/) - [What is the difference between an ancestor and an Ancestor?](/wiki/what-is-the-difference-between-an-ancestor-and-an-ancestor/) - [What does consent mean in shamanic work?](/wiki/what-does-consent-mean-in-shamanic-work/) - [How does Therapeutic Shamanism understand death and what happens when we die?](/wiki/how-does-therapeutic-shamanism-understand-death-and-what-happens-when-we-die/) - [Why does Therapeutic Shamanism bring shamanism and psychotherapy together?](/wiki/why-does-therapeutic-shamanism-bring-shamanism-and-psychotherapy-together/) - [Who is Bruce Lipton and what is the biology of belief?](/wiki/who-is-bruce-lipton-and-what-is-the-biology-of-belief/) - [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/) (Chapter Four, the deeper layers; Chapter Five, the drama triangle and healthy groups) - [all courses](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/shamanic-courses/)