We all carry pieces of our ancestors within us. Some of those pieces cause great suffering, chaotic lives, addictions, abuse, and so many other low vibrational energies and experiences in our lives. However, we can change these things. We can heal and release these patterns and traumas from our lives and our ancestral lineage. The book, Emotional Inheritance, is one book that can help you heal.

I’m hosting a Book Club at the Ancestral Cafe Community at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School website in March and I am using this book. Join the free community and book club to participate.

In 2019 I made a conscious choice to study ancestral healing. I began taking classes with a variety of teachers, all of whom approached ancestral healing differently. I also began reading a lot of books about the topics of inherited trauma, collective trauma, and ancestral healing, again by authors with vastly differing thoughts on the subject.

One of the books I read was, Emotional Inheritance. It’s a short book with larger print. A quick read, but extremely powerful, especially if you are doing personal and ancestral healing work.

I and many others have said that healing is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Each layer we move through sends us deeper into ourselves, our lineage, and our traumas both personal and inherited. This book, like many others, can be consumed more than once and you will always learn or see something new. You will always heal a new layer of yourself.

The author Galit Atlas, was born in Israel, grew up there, then later immigrated to the U.S. where she lives and works in New York City. Of course she, like every inherited trauma author, talks about epigenetic studies and the Holocaust. She also provides case studies of clients with other presenting issues that link back to family secrets, family patterns, dead siblings, or choices that were made and covered up. She even hits upon what I discovered in 2019, that we can be living and recreating parts of our ancestors traumas, wishes, unfulfilled hopes & dreams, and pain in our own lives and relationships. I certainly did this with my late Dutch husband. He and I were repeating patterns and trying to fulfill dreams for my WWII grandparents.

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Through the Genogram tools, I discovered that the patterns, relationships, and some dreams I was living out, were not mine. They were connected to me by way of DNA inheritance. They were also mine in the sense I chose before coming into this body, that I would take on my grandparent’s pain and unfinished buisness and heal. Once all those dots connected, I began deeper healing work to unplug and release myself from it all. To heal the bloodline.

Galit also covers topics of immigration and what was expected in a new country, often the removal and hiding of who someone was and where they came from. She highlights Israel and the Jewish identity that was created after the Six-Day War, which then required anyone immigrating, to give up their old identity, language, customs, and become something new, whether they wanted to or not. Galit had a lot to say and explain about Israel and the Jews post-WWII that I think everyone should learn about and sit with.

Remember, if you look at immigrants to America from all periods of time, we more or less forced them to integrate, hide their former selves, and give up their languages so they would fit in. We see this pattern in most countries as a rule for becoming a resident or naturalized citizen – give up your identity and forget everything about the past.

The book really made me think more about my own genealogical research and personal healing path. It made me move into the depths of the relationship and lives of my WWII Navy grandparents, for whom I was in part, living. And it brought up more questions than I can share here. However, as I finished this book I wondered several things.

Is it really necessary that we ask immigrants to give up so much of themselves?
Do I, and others, understand that what we ignore, hold secret, shove down deep, still shows up and will repeat until healed?
Why is it so bad that each individual on this planet is just that – an individual? Why does society, religion, family, education, politics, etc. program us to be the same as everyone else?
Why do we have to give up who we are to fit a mold for a country we choose to live in?
What else am I carrying within me that is inherited from my ancestors? What patterns, beliefs, behaviors, and traumas?

These are all deep questions to consider. What are your thoughts? Have you read this book or other ancestral healing books? Please share in the comments.

I’m hosting a Book Club at the Ancestral Cafe Community at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School website in March and I am using this book. Join the free community and book club to participate.

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Ancestral Book Review: Emotional Inheritance