When we first encounter a spiritual path that speaks to us we think, "This is fantastic, everyone should be doing this!" It changes our lives, gives us purpose and meaning, we feel safe and content. As we travel on that path everything about us changes many times over, the way we feel about ourselves and others, how we handle situations, how we eat, what we find important, and all of this is good. Then something happens, we seem to get to a place that feels stuck, maybe it's not as easy as it once was to be tolerant, change seems to be more of a challenge. What's happening? As we become more aware of ourselves, we are understanding and dealing with the issues that are inherent in our personalities and interactions. We are learning what makes us tick... what makes us do what we do, why we feel the way we do and what motivate us to take action. We are bringing the things we hold in our subconscious into our conscious awareness. This is what we call "raising consciousness".

There are things we discover about ourselves and the world that we have to "deal" with, we have to understand them, accept them and come to a place of peace. Then somehow that issue that we have seemingly resolved returns. How can this be? We've already dealt with this, surely we don't need to repeat ourselves. What did we miss? Why is it happening again? Evolution (or e-volution -- energy turning) happens in a spiral. And that spiral is always moving to a higher place, higher meaning more aware. So as we travel on the spiral we encounter these things, these issues that we've previously resolved. Now remember, the spiral is about awareness, it's about consciousness. You may have passed over that issue, that you now think you should be done, with twenty-five times (or perhaps twenty-five thousand times) before you were even aware of it's existence. Now that you know about it you think it should be immediately resolved. There are layers to the patterns we hold and when we encounter them time and again we release them at a different level each time.

Once we've starting dealing with our personal issues we find there are other layers of the patterns. There are the interactions and patterns of behavior we have with others; with our family, friends, coworkers, with the institutions we're involved in; school, work, government and some patterns we carry forward from other lifetimes. We realize that some of the things we are exhuming from our consciousness come, not necessarily from our experiences, but from the experiences of others. So we come to a place of awareness of our family patterns and issues, of generational patterns, of cultural patterns, inherited patterns. These patterns are old, and they are sticky and they are ingrained in the very structure of our cells. It seems whomever in the family that becomes aware first has the most to transmute, they lead the way and create a pathway, for those they are connected with, to follow.

So how do we change the patterns? Here is a very simple ritual designed to change the family genetic and generational patterns from our mother's and our father's sides of the family.

This is a nine week process. Take the first paragraph and hand write it, read it aloud and burn it. The next week take the second paragraph, hand write it, read it aloud and burn it. The third week take the third paragraph, hand write it, read it aloud and burn it. Repeat this entire sequence two more times so that you've written and burned each paragraph 3 times. Make sure the entire paper burns.

I now release all negative emotional control from my mother's side of the family, known or unknown to me. All forms of negative mental manipulation, all forms of fear of intimacy and impatience, all forms of depression or any forms of emotional or physical suffering. I release negative rebellion and all fear of abandonment. I release any form of violence between a woman and a man. I return this negativity to its rightful place in the creative order. I release any form of disturbance I free myself and all relations connected to me. I now experience genuine feeling. I am open, I am tender, I am appreciative and I am without judgement.

I now release all negative mental control and all forms of emotional manipulation from my father's side of the the family, know or unknown to me. I release this negativity and all forms of competition, all forms of sexual abuse or any violence between a man and a woman. I release all criticism. I release this negativity and return it to it's rightful place in the creative order. I release any form of disturbance in my masculine vibration. I now express and feel joy. I return to the knowing of who I am. I honor and acknowledge my own bliss. I am thankful and grateful.

I now release from my mother's and father's sides of the family, any and all cellular and genetic memory of physical injury, disease, trauma or limitation. I know my body to be complete and whole in every way and that manifests in radiant and abundant health and wellbeing. I release this from any and all lifetimes, embodiments and planes of existence.

A few suggestions with this Ritual. Mark your calendar. We all live busy lives and it's easy to forget to do your once a week Ritual. Once you start the ritual, finish it. Make the commitment and complete the process, you'll feel much better than if you stop in the middle. Make sure the entire paper burns. Once the energy starts to move you will see changes in your attitudes and behavior and in the attitudes and behaviors of those around you. Rejoice! This is leading to positive forward movement, don't be put off by the unexpected... Spirit and Energy work in their own ways.