elemental kinship | re-indigenizing climate healing (pt. 1)
In 2020, in the depths of ancestral healing, I began to reconnect with stewards of lightning in
my lineage. Ultimately, I was guided to remember
the living lineages of folks who still work in
protocol and ritual with lightning today
Earlier in 2020, I cried on a plane while watching two films, Fast Color and Ulan, which struck memory in my bones of the ancient technologies we carry in our dna to steward the transformation of weather through kinship with various elemental beings.
Fast Colours follows a lineage of African-American women in the Midwest who are forced over generations to hide their power to transmute and influence the elements. The film takes place during an eight-year drought when we meet protagonist Ruth, whose seizures trigger supernatural earthquakes. Ruth is in the process of rekindling a relationship with her her mother and daughter, who both have the ability to telekinetically disintegrate and reassemble objects.
Ulan is a coming-of-age story about a young woman named Maya, who grew up fascinated and fearful of the rain, stalked by storms and the “tikbalang” (half-horse, half-human creature), and guided by her Lola who had the capacity to communicate with and influence the rain
Just a few months later, I was led to work someone who I still consider a mentor to this day. In a “tracking session” with her, I was guided to remember a specific ancestor who worked with the lightning beings, one of the last in my lineages to do so before having to go into hiding. In the months following this session, there was an effortless and organic retrieval of memories around this part of my lineage that worked with lightning. Not too long after that session, I visited Tepoztlán, Mexico with the specific intention and opportunity to sit in ceremony with elemental stewards, specifically those building relationships with the lightning
Don Aurelio of Tepoztlán
There are still many lineages of wisdom keepers and ritualists around the world such as Don Aurelio of Tepoztlán, pictured here, who embody kinship with weather beings through ceremony and traditions passed on since time immemorial
This is the first of a multi-part blog series on “Elemental Kinship | Re-indigenizing Climate Healing”, intended to share reflects on my/our collective journey of healing in times of climate crisis through building relationships with ritual, rites of passages, and the natural technologies of our ancestors
Part 2 in Divine Time 🙏
