Quick Guide: How to Communicate with Your Ancestors ✨
- Issue: Most people feel disconnected from their ancestral lineage and don’t realise that unresolved ancestral patterns are stored in their nervous system and cellular blueprint, affecting their health, energy and sense of purpose.
- Problem: Without conscious ancestral communication, these inherited patterns of trauma, fear, and limitation continue to repeat across generations.
- Solution: Through ceremony, altar creation and daily ancestral practice, you can create a conscious alliance with your ancestors, transforming karmic patterns in your lineage and reclaiming the medicine, strength and wisdom encoded in your DNA.
- Key insight: Your ancestors want to communicate with you. Ancestral healing isn’t mystical or rare. It is a natural human capacity that transforms not just your life but the generations that follow.
- Ready to connect with your ancestral lineage more deeply? Book a private session
- Or read the FAQ to learn how I work with ancestral healing.
I have been communicating with my ancestors since childhood, long before I understood what I was doing. Growing up between cultures (Chilean- Italian), the ancestral realm was the one place where I always felt held, recognised and guided.
Over 30 years of shamanic and naturopathic practice, I’ve come to understand that ancestor communication isn’t mystical or rare. It’s a natural human capacity that most of us have simply forgotten. Your ancestors want to communicate with you. The question is whether you’re creating the conditions for that connection to happen.
Here is everything you need to get started
Through daily prayer, meditation, art, music, food, and ceremony, the ancestor spirits can communicate with the living. They can guide, protect, and heal across generations. Connecting with them can transform the past and heal future generations.
The days around October 31 to November 2, mark one of the most powerful ancestral portals on the wheel of life. It is when the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest. This period, known across many traditions as the time of the ancestors, is a potent annual opportunity to pause. Take time to honour and connect with those who came before.
The Traditions of Ancestral Communication
In Celtic tradition, Samhain is observed as a time of activity found in many cultures worldwide. These include Mayan, Celtic, Aboriginal, Indigenous American, Ancient Greek, Ancient Eurasian, African Tribal, Tibetan, and Vedic/Yogic traditions. Some major religions, such as the Catholic faith, honour the deceased on All Saints Day and All Souls Day through prayers, candles, incense, chanting, ceremonies, and offerings. In Mexico, they celebrate the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). The roots come from the Aztec Goddess Mictecacihuatl, (Lady of the Dead). In Celtic tradition, Samhain is observed as a time of transition between the two worlds.
Ancestral work can transform the karmas of past generations. As well as work into the current and future generations for healing. This ancestral transformation is at the heart of my cellular healing work. When we clear what has been held in our lineage, the body’s own blueprint of health can finally express itself.
To understand how ancestral patterns live in your cells, read my post on Mitochondrial DNA, the key to your maternal lineage.
How Ancestral Communication Heals Your Nervous System
When you establish conscious communication with your ancestors, something remarkable happens in your body. The nervous system begins to release the inherited stress patterns it has been holding on to for them.
Your ancestors’ unresolved trauma, their fear, their grief, their survival strategies, live in your cells as surely as their gifts do. When you consciously connect with them, acknowledge their struggles. Then release what is no longer yours to carry, and your nervous system can finally exhale.
This is the foundation of cellular healing. It works at the level of inherited memory to restore your body’s natural blueprint of health and vitality.
The energy alchemy of ancestral communication transforms what was once a wound into wisdom. This heals you, and for every generation that follows.
Halloween and The Day of the Dead
These two celebrations are traditionally considered ceremonial days and nights to honour and communicate with one’s ancestors. This is a time to create family altars and perform ceremonies with the ancestors. Also lay out offerings of flowers, incense, crystals, art and food. Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, literally means Holy Night or All Saints’ Night. It is a time to honour and communicate with those who have taken their spirit walk.
Who is an Ancestor?
The Lakota say Mitakuye Oyasin, “All are my relations”. This is the tree, water, sky, earth, animals, brothers, sisters, and those who have taken their spirit walk. There is a sacred hoop, a medicine wheel, a mandala of life. All is connected, and all has the essence of Love. You are children of the Great Mother and Father, in spirit and physical form.
An ancestor is one who took a physical body and experienced the loves, sorrows, joys and pains of being human. They are your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Anyone who has taken their spirit walk.
Anyone who is in your soul tribe.
Ancestors are those who intimately know what it is like to take on the human incarnation. They share their spiritual and/or physical DNA. Some have great empathy, compassion and sensitivity for what it is like to be on a personal earth journey. They can provide helpful teachings, guidance, protection, healing and forgiveness from the spirit dimension. Ancestors may also have their own ongoing healing and evolution as spirits. They are still considered part of the sacred hoop of life.
Different types of Ancestors
There are other types of ancestors, including Territorial Ancestors (aka Land Ancestors) and Spiritual Ancestors. Territorial or Land Ancestors are beings that incarnate on a piece of land. They are now connected to the land as spiritual guardians and stewards.
Your family ancestors can also be your Territorial Ancestors if you live or work on ancestral lands. Your Spiritual Ancestors are lineages of spirit beings that your soul repeatedly chooses to work with. This could be Archangel Michael, Buddha, Quan Yin, or White Buffalo Calf Woman. As well as Star Beings from the Pleiades, or the Egyptian wisdom spirits. There are infinite possibilities, and a particular ancestor could be in multiple “categories”.
For our ceremony on communicating with your ancestors, we will focus on your soul-tribe ancestors. It is perfectly all right to invite your other ancestral lineages to be present and assist as well.
Communicating with your ancestors requires personal work. It helps to dissolve old programming, emotions, grudges, and stories and transform on many levels. This dissolution of old programming happens not just in the mind but in the body. Ancestral patterns are stored in our nervous system and require somatic and spiritual healing to fully release.
Why Practice Ceremony to Communicate with your Ancestors?
There are many ways to communicate with your ancestors, and eventually, it may become a daily practice and dialogue for you. Simply calling them into your heart and having a quiet moment can be perfect. However, a ceremony can help to amplify the communication.
Spirit is energy and uses high-frequency vibrations to access the earthly realm. Ceremony is high vibration. The difference between offering ceremony and personal prayer is like the difference between playing a guitar amplified or playing a guitar acoustically. They are both beautiful and appropriate for different needs, but one has a stronger resonance and reach. Just as it is easier for us to hear the amplified guitar, it is easier for the spirit to communicate with us using the higher vibration of ceremony.
What is Ceremony?
There are many ancient wisdom traditions that share the gift of ceremony, and there are many ways to do ceremony- individually or in groups. There are three essential pieces that apply:
1. Intention: Declare your purpose, from your heart. It can be a positive affirmation, asking for an answer to a question or healing.
2. Attention: Be Present, be grounded in your heart and clear your mind. Energy flows where your attention goes.
3. Purposeful: Make sure what you’re doing is meaningful to you. Keep your attention on your inner intention, on what you are offering up from your heart.
Honouring our Ancestors and our dearly departed
Traditionally, altars are created with offerings, or “ofrendas”, of candles, flowers, such as marigolds, and favourite foods and beverages.
This is a beautiful time to create an altar/offering in dedication to those whose lives have touched ours, whether visibly or invisibly. For in this web of life, we are all connected, and we are here as a result of the efforts and energy of those who came before us.
We are the torchbearers of this time, and as we honour and integrate the ways our lives have been touched by others, we weave our own visions into this collective tapestry.
Consciousness does not die; it transforms. This is the essence of energy alchemy, understanding that the energy of our ancestors flows through us and can be consciously worked with, transformed and healed. What appears as death in one form dissolves to give way to a completely new form, but this is the cycle of life. And like every living thing on the planet, we too are a part of it.
So with devotion and with gratitude, call on your loved ones, your angels, your ancestors to guide and watch over all of us during this time of collective transformation.
“We are the dream of our ancestors.” Mariangela Parodi, Hobart, Shaman and Energy healer
In this sacred process, I guide you to create a conscious alliance with your ancestors. Drawing on the generations of strength, healing, and medicine encoded in your DNA. Receive what has always been waiting for you.
Sacred Ancestral Alliance: A Guided Process to Connect With The Medicine of Your Ancestors
Before we move into the practical steps, I invite you to receive this guided process. Allow yourself to be held by your ancestral lineage as you watch.
A Simple Ancestor Communication Ritual
You don’t need elaborate equipment or special gifts to begin. Start simply:
Create your space — Light a candle. Place a photo of an ancestor, a flower, or any meaningful object on a small table or shelf. This becomes your ancestral altar.
Open with intention — Sit quietly and speak aloud: “I open myself to receive the wisdom, love, and guidance of my highest ancestors. I call forward those who come in love and light.”
Listen with your body — Ancestor communication often comes as a felt sense rather than words. A warmth in your chest. A sudden knowing. An image that arises. Trust what comes.
Close with gratitude — Thank your ancestors for their presence and close the space: “I honour you and I carry your gifts forward. Thank you.”
Practice this for five minutes daily for 21 days and notice what shifts in your dreams, your intuition, and your sense of being held and guided.
How to Create a Day of the Dead Altar
In Mexico, people build altars in homes or at cemeteries. They are decorated with specific, meaningful items that loved ones enjoy. There are seven layers to a Day of the Dead altar, each layer having its own significance. The soul must pass through all seven levels to eventually rest in peace.
The beautiful altars are works of art:
There are altar items corresponding to each of the four elements.
The Four Elements of the Altar
• Fire: Candles
• Wind: Tissue paper designs (Because Tissue paper has fluidity of movement)
• Water: A glass of water
• Earth: Fruits, Marigold flowers
Families place trinkets the deceased enjoyed on their altars: toys, books, Copal or other incense, and religious items. They place marigolds, vibrant yellow and orange flowers, on altars to symbolise rebirth.
A simple way is to create the altar, smudge the photos of your family and the items on it, and focus on those who have crossed over.
Call in your Ancestors
When you are ready to begin, call them in and name them to summon all your ancestors.
Burn sandalwood or frankincense incense to bless them. Talk openly and freely about your hopes, dreams, fears, and/or troubles.
Speak about the memories you have of your ancestors, think back to the times you shared, laugh, cry and feel all the emotions. Clap your hands to end the ceremony.
For further luck, bless a bowl of fresh fruit with incense smoke, place a small bowl of the fruit on the altar, and then share the fruit with family and/or friends throughout the day to call in the sweetness of life.
Creating an altar or ofrenda, as Spanish traditions call it, gives you a meaningful way to honour someone important or connect with your ancestors. You can create your altar however it feels right; there are no rigid rules. It can be as simple or as elaborate as your creativity, time, and materials allow.
Be creative and make something that looks attractive and is meaningful to you. Here are some elements you may wish to include on your altar, along with ideas for putting it all together.
What You Need:
• A table, shelf or flat surface on which to build your altar
• Two long sugar cane stalks (or other material) to make an arch
• Boxes or crates to create different levels
• A tablecloth or paper
• A photo of the person to whom the altar is dedicated
• A glass of water
• Flowers, preferably marigolds
• Fruit, bread, and other foods
• Candles and incense
• Things that the person you’re honouring enjoyed in life
Here are some suggestions
1. The arch: If you have long sugar cane stalks, tie one to each of the back legs of the table and join them at the top (tie them together with string or use tape). Then, if you want, you can decorate the arch, attaching flowers to it. The arch represents the passage between life and death. If you can’t get sugar cane stalks, get creative and make your arch out of other materials.
2. The base: Place boxes or crates on the table where you will build your altar in such a way as to create tiers so that the elements of the altar can be displayed attractively. Put a tablecloth over the table and boxes so that the boxes are hidden. Then place the papel picado around the edge of the table and on each layer.
3. Photo: Place a photo of the person to whom the altar is dedicated on the top level of the altar, in the centre. If the altar is dedicated to more than one person, you can include several photos; if your altar is not dedicated to anyone in particular, the photo can be omitted, and it will be understood that your altar is in honour of all your ancestors.
4. Water: Place a glass of water on the altar. Water is a source of life and represents purity. It quenches the thirst of the spirits.
More Practices for Ancestral Connection
5. Candles: Candles represent light, faith and hope. The flame guides the spirits on their journey. Sometimes four or more candles are placed together to form a cross, representing the cardinal directions, so the spirits can find their way.
6. Flowers: You can place flowers in vases or pull the petals out and scatter them over all the surfaces of the altar. If you use cempasuchil (marigolds), the scent will be even stronger if you pull out the petals. The bright colours of the marigolds and their fragrance are synonymous with Day of the Dead. Fresh flowers remind us of life’s impermanence.
7. Fruit, bread and food: Seasonal fruits and special bread called pan de muertos are usually placed on the altar. Along with other foods that the person enjoyed in life. Mexicans usually place tamales, mole and hot chocolate on the altar, but you can use whatever fruit and other food are available to you. The food is a feast that is laid out for the spirits to enjoy. It is believed that they consume the scents and the essence of the food.
8. Incense: It is customary to burn copal incense, which clears the space of any negative energy or bad spirits and helps the dead find their way.
The equinox is one of the most powerful times to practise ancestral communication. Read my Ancestral Equinox Ritual for a step-by-step seasonal practice.
Receive Ancestral Guidance
Your ancestors have been waiting for you to turn toward them. Are you ready to go deeper to clear the inherited patterns and reclaim the gifts encoded in your lineage? We can establish a living connection with your ancestral wisdom. I’m here to guide you.
Read the FAQ to understand how I work with ancestral healing through the Alkymia Method™, then book your session when you feel ready.
With radiant love and steady presence,
Rewrite your cellular and soul blueprint, gifts, health & biz
Rise, Remember, Radiate ❤️
Mariangela Parodi BAppSc, ND
Mariangela Parodi BAppSc, ND is a Naturopath & Energy Healer based in Hobart, Tasmania. Specialising in nervous system recovery for women when exhaustion, overwhelm, or depletion no longer responds to rest. With over 30 years of experience in biomedical science, naturopathy, energy medicine, and shamanic healing. She bridges science and spirit to restore the body’s innate intelligence and rewrite the cellular blueprint.
The creator of the Alkymia Method™, a sacred fusion of naturopathy, energy medicine, and shamanic healing. #1 international bestselling author of The Mystic Woman’s Compass. Mariangela guides heart-centred healers and conscious leaders to transmute exhaustion, illness, and spiritual disconnection into sovereignty, vitality, and luminous purpose.
ATMS Fellow | Spiritual Biz Award Recipient | Featured in Aspire Magazine, Canvas Rebel, Hobart Magazine & Spiritual Biz Magazine | The Legends Series Podcast. Hobart & Online | alkymia.com.au
✨ P.S. Whenever you’re ready to restore, remember, and rise, here are three luminous ways I can support your evolution:
1. Begin with The Mystic Woman’s Compass 📖
For the sensitives, intuitives, and deep-feelers who are ready to remember who they truly are — The Mystic Woman’s Compass is a sacred guide home to purpose and inner light. Through story and soul medicine, it illuminates the pathway from wounding to wisdom.
Available directly from me, or through Amazon (paperback, hardcover, or Kindle).
📘 Explore The Mystic Woman’s Compass →
2. Tune into my YouTube Channel 🎥
Join me for luminous transmissions, healing activations, and embodied teachings to nourish your nervous system and awaken your cellular light. Your body is luminous biology, every cell emits a living field of light intelligence.
🌿 It’s medicine for your soul, your biology, and your evolution.
✨ Subscribe to The Luminous Template Channel →
3. Work with me — through courses or private mentorship 🌙
When you’re ready to embody your luminous potential, you can join a group healing course or work privately with me to integrate the next evolution of your healing gifts.
These experiences merge science, shamanism, and soul, awakening vitality, sovereignty, and radiance.
💫 Discover your next step →
