Wildheart Club | connecting with our ancestors

Podcast notes and journal prompts for S8E10

Welcome to Wildheart Club! For those who enjoy our podcast, these posts include extensive notes on each episode, as well as journal prompts to deepen your exploration of the words and themes we chat about.

Today’s post relates to Season 8, Episode 10: Ancestor

We recommend listening to the conversation first, before exploring the notes and prompts below.

NB: There were so many threads to this topic that we couldn’t weave them all into the final conversation! You’ll find a couple of extra ideas in the notes.

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This week’s notes

Why is the idea of the ancestral connection so relevant right now?

Samhain marks the start of what we might think of as ‘soul season’ - the deepest, darkest, most inward-focused time of year. Associated with themes of shedding, composting and going beneath the surface, it has a downward energy and a focus on simultaneous endings and beginnings that encourages us to look to the past as a way of supporting the future. This time of year has long been associated with the concept of ‘life beyond death’ - we see it not only in Samhain’s ‘thinning of the veil’ between worlds, but also in the Christian context of All Hallow’s Eve, and Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead.

November is also the first month of winter from a Wheel of the Year perspective, and the seasonal archetype for winter is the Sage: our inner wise elder. This connection is mirrored by the tree we have chosen to represent November on our Rewilding Wheel, the Elder - the witch’s tree, known for its great power and insight. Elderhood is, of course, very much related to the idea of ancestral wisdom and the way in which we can learn from the generations that came before us - not only in the sense of our immediate family lineage, but also in broad societal terms.