Originally published: Great Britain: Simon & Schuster, UK, 2013.

Our ancestry influences more than just our physical characteristics - it can also have a profound effect on who we are as people. The success of TV shows likeWho Do You Think You Are?has prompted a massive interest in people tracing their family roots. But researching into our forebears' lives can often unearth turbulent histories. The past 250 years has seen more change and upheaval on a global scale than at any other point in history. The legacy of the holocaust, of slavery, indentured servitude and of two world wars, has seen a massive migration of peoples across the world, and almost all families know of a recent ancestor whose life was turned upside down by these events. Discovering more about our forebears, and identifying inherited traits, can help us realise our potential and assist us in overcoming obstacles that may be holding us back. As we learn about and honour our ancestors, we can reclaim who we are, discover our creativity, and find our true soul path. In this extraordinary book, readers will find out how to: discover and honour their ancestors, heal their family histories, reveal inherited creative and inspirational gifts, discover their guardian ancestors and learn from inspiring case studies of personal growth. The Ancestral Continuumwill take each reader on a journey through the labyrinth of their own ancestral legacy. As we explore our family tree, we can begin to see ourselves as just one strand in a never-ending tapestry of history and emotion, personality and achievement, birth and death, that will continue into infinity. The book is a powerful and revolutionary blueprint for transforming how we feel about ourselves.

Identify old family wounds, communicate with your ancestral guides, heal your lineage and achieve wellbeing for yourself and loved ones. To understand who we are, we must know where and who we come from. Discover powerful practices to honour and heal your family lineage. Ancestral healing is the process of revealing and releasing inherited wounds and traumas that have been passed down by our ancestors. Anyone researching their heritage will uncover both positive and negative issues that pass through the bloodlines from one generation to the next. Once we understand the effects our family has had on our wellbeing, we can find ways to heal their influences and celebrate their legacy. Renowned soul rescuers Natalia and Terry O'Sullivan have distilled an array of practices, rituals, exercises and meditations to help you: explore what ancestral healing is and how it can aid you recognize how unresolved ancestral wounds have impacted your life learn how to use rituals and practical exercises to honour and communicate with your ancestors balance your physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing through healing the family wounds The journey of ancestral healing is one of evolution and restoration. Each step, ritual and prayer will take you closer to the life your ancestors have dreamed for you.

Healing imbalances in our family patterns is crucial to health and wellbeing. In this book international healer David Furlong explains the relevance of our ancestors to the healing process. He shows how the character and experiences of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents shape our lives in all sorts of subtle ways and stress the importance of healing the patterns from past generations which continue to affect us today. By learning to connect with these energies from the past we can free up and balance their impact on our lives and of future generations.

Have you ever had an unexplained phenomena - a knock at the door but no one is there; the hairs on your arm standing up, as though you're suddenly chilled; a gradual aroma arising from nowhere; an abrupt noise; a strange sensation on different parts of your body, like someone stroking your hair; or dreams of your deceased loved ones? These are just a few examples of how your ancestors and spirit guides may be trying to gain your attention.Perhaps you've felt empty or unfulfilled at some point in your life. Have you ever wondered if there is something waiting for you beyond your sphere of existence - your friends, your job, your loved ones, your church - do you pray for a deeper understanding of the world around you? Priestess Aladokun was a newcomer to spirituality, but through curiosity, dedication, and perseverance, she has learned to let herself be guided by the spirits of her ancestors. She has studied various schools of spirituality, primarily Afrikan, Latino, and Native American spirituality. She has made many deep connections through these forms of study and worship. Much of what she learned did not come easily, whether through a lack of resources, qualified teachers, or negative energy in her own life that blocked her spiritually. Despite the obstacles, she emerged stronger, wiser and more prepared than ever to guide others down the path paved for us. She has given us "Ancestor Paths." Simply put, "Ancestor Paths" is about ancestor reverence and communication. If you have an interest in spirituality, do not let the complexity of the ideas confuse and discourage you. Do not be disheartened by misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Let Aladokun be your guide to finding your own spirituality, through the veneration of ancestors and the spirits you can learn to access. Let your life become enriched by the knowledge and understanding that "Ancestor Paths" will give you - no matter your race or heritage."Ancestor Paths" is a tribute to all divinities within the universe that continue to guide, bless, and elevate our souls toward higher consciousness and enlightenment. No matter what path you walk, it is the ancestors and the guardian spirits who protect and guide you. This book was written to spread knowledge of how to acknowledge and communicate with your ancestors and guardian spirits on an everyday basis through cleansing rituals, constructing ancestor shrines/altars, suggested prayers, encountering spirits, and fundamental divination. For those interested in spirit contact, this book is for you!

A practical guide to connecting with your ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing • Provides exercises and rituals to help you initiate contact with your ancestors, find ancestral guides, and assist the dead who are not yet at peace • Explains how to safely engage in lineage repair work by connecting with your more ancient ancestors before relating with the recently deceased • Explores how your ancestors can help you transform intergenerational legacies of pain and abuse and reclaim the positive spirit of the family Everyone has loving and wise ancestors they can learn to invoke for support and healing. Coming into relationship with your ancestors empowers you to transform negative family patterns into blessings and encourages good health, self-esteem, clarity of purpose, and better relationships with your living relatives. Offering a practical guide to understanding and navigating relationships with the spirits of those who have passed, Daniel Foor, Ph.D., details how to relate safely and effectively with your ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing. He provides exercises and rituals, grounded in ancient wisdom traditions, to help you initiate contact with your ancestors, find supportive ancestral guides, cultivate forgiveness and gratitude, harmonize your bloodlines, and assist the dead who are not yet at peace. He explains how to safely engage in lineage repair work by connecting with your more ancient ancestors before relating with the recently deceased. He shows how, by working with spiritually vibrant ancestors, individuals and families can understand and transform intergenerational patterns of pain and abuse and reclaim the full blessings and gifts of their bloodlines. Ancestral repair work can also catalyze healing breakthroughs among living family members and help children and future generations to live free from ancestral burdens. The author provides detailed instructions for ways to honor the ancestors of a place, address dream visits from the dead, and work with ancestor shrines and altars. The author offers guidance on preparing for death, funeral rites, handling the body after death, and joining the ancestors. He also explains how ancestor work can help us to transform problems such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious persecution. By learning the fundamentals of ancestor reverence and ritual, you will discover how to draw on the wisdom of supportive ancestral guides, heal family troubles, maintain connections with beloved family after their death, and better understand the complex and interconnected relationship between the living and the dead.

""In the Light of Likeness - transformed" by Dana A. Williams looks critically at the work of contemporary African American author Leon Forrest. Not only does she bring to the critical table a well-known but as yet understudied modernist author - an important endeavor in and of itself - but she also explores Forrest's novels' cultural dialogue with black ethnic culture and other African American authors, as well as provides in-depth readings of his prose and interpretations of his narrative style." "Forrest's highly experimental narrative style, his reinterpretation of modernism, and his transformations of black cultural traditions into literary aesthetics often pose challenges of interpretation for the reader and the scholar alike. As the first single-authored book-length study of Forrest's novel, this book offers readers pathways into his fiction. What this culturalist approach to the novels reveals is that Forrest's fiction was foremost concerned with investigating ways for the African American to survive in the contemporary moment. Through a variety of characters, the novels reveal the African American's art of transformation - the ability to find ways to make the wretchedness of the past work in positive ways."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Continuum Concept introduces the idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings - especially babies - require the kind of instinctive nurturing as practiced by our ancient relatives. It is a true ‘back to basics’ approach to parenting. Author Jean Liedloff spent two and-a-half years in the jungle deep in the heart of South America living with indigenous tribes and was astounded at how differently children are raised outside the Western world. She came to the realisation that essential child-rearing techniques such as touch, trust and community have been undermined in modern times, and in this book suggests practical ways to regain our natural well-being, for our children and ourselves.

Continuing the comparative survey of pre-industrial family formation undertaken in The Development of Family and Marriage in Europe (1983), Professor Goody looks in depth at kinship practice in Asia. His findings cause him to question many traditional assumptions about the "primitive" East, and he suggests that, in contrast to pre-colonial Africa, kinship practice in Asia has much in common with that prevailing in parts of pre-industrial Europe. Goody examines the transmission of productive and other property in relation both to the prevailing political economy and to family and ideological structures, and explores the distribution of mechanisms and strategies of management across cultures. The book concludes that notions of western "uniqueness" are often misplaced, and that much previous work on Asian kinship has been unwittingly distorted by the application of concepts and approaches derived from other, inappropriate, social formations.

Teaching Indigenous Students puts culturally based education squarely into practice. The volume, edited and with an introduction by leading American Indian education scholar Jon Reyhner, brings together new and dynamic research from established and emerging voices in the field of American Indian and Indigenous education.