Steps for the ritual: 

• Unless you’ve been instructed otherwise by a trusted guide, prepare to do this ritual for 9 days. 

• On Day 1, place the book on the floor*, and put the candle and glass of water on top of the book. Light the candle. If applicable, state your intention to elevate a specific ancestor by name, and then say the prayer. 

• Repeat this ritual daily, adding a new book to the stack of books each day. This is a visual representation of the elevation process. 

• At the end of the last day, clear the space. Give thanks to your ancestors and yourself for showing up. Acknowledge that the ritual is now over. 

• You’re encouraged to take note of synchronicities, surprises, confirmation, sensations, expanded senses, shifts in your life and family, etc. (journal/voice memo)

• *I place my book(s) on the floor because it gets higher every day. However, any clear, child-proof, pet-proof surface is fine. I use the white pillar candles from the Dollar Store and leave them lit for the duration of the elevation ritual. But if it’s safer, you can light it every morning, and blow it out when you leave the space. Our ancestors are very understanding of the conditions we’re living in.

This is an elevation prayer I wrote for myself after researching a few others. You are welcome to use it verbatim, or as a guide to writing your own. Personalizing it is encouraged! (note: many of us doing Shadow Work feel like the only ones in our families doing so. In my personal experience, Ancestor Elevations always lead to obvious shifts and turns among the living. Which is to say, the Ancestors have your back and are eager to assist you in all matters. Including challenging family members, cycles and patterns that seem to have no solution.) You are also encouraged to document this process via the medium that works best for you.

Elevation Prayer:

Loving Ancestors, 

Names known and unknown. Of Blood, of Water, and of Spirit. Back back back as far and as wide, up and down, over and under, within and without, in alignment with my highest good and the highest good of the universe, I say thank you. Thank you for your lives. Thank you for living. For your choices, your sacrifice, laughter, pain. Thank you for loving in the ways you knew how. For love. For teaching. For existing. For surviving. Thank you for rituals, spells, gifts, prayers, and magic. Thank you for our elders. For our children. For wisdom and understanding. Thank you for keeping us. 

I know many of you have lived unspeakable horrors. Contortions. Crooked rooms. Trying to fit the unfittable. I don’t consciously know this pain. But in my body I do. In my stomach. In my gut. In my womb. In my back, shoulders and neck. Behind my eyes. I know your pain. I carry it. And I wish to lay it down. We don’t have to carry it anymore. 

I honor, affirm and embody you in the present. I praise you. I lift you up. I offer this ritual, water and a candle, to hydrate you and light your path. I grieve the pain and trauma passed down through my bones, DNA, genetics, and knowing. I honor the sacrifices made. I lament the violence experienced and perpetuated by those gendered female, across time. I lament the violence experienced and perpetuated  by those gendered male, across time. I mourn for each of you who knew a gender binary was too small for your vastness. I lament the blood shed, the abandonment, the neglect, and disillusionment. I grieve for those in my lineage who caused harm. Who only knew harm. I grieve those who could never fully be themselves or integrate all of their parts.  I offer the apologies and forgiveness you were never given. Let us lay these burdens down. 

I speak healing, wholeness, safety, liberation, abundance, security, wellness, joy, rest, wealth, pleasure, community, creativity, flow, health, guidance, love. Intuition, magic, understanding, protection, peace, equity, accessibility, ritual and right relationship with each other and the natural world over myself, my lineage, my family, and loved ones. I ask for ancestral support, and move toward healing myself, our lineage, and all who will come after me. I ask to know the plans you have for me. I ask that I understand how you speak to me. I ask that my protections, shields, and charms are high. My intuition and discernment are sharp. My heart is soft. My portals are guarded in love. I am guided in my purpose. 

I elevate you to elevate me. I practice presence for you. I affirm a connection to you and the creator that nurtures and affirms the work I came here to do. I am mine. I am all of me at once. And I am yours. I am all of you at once. I am more than enough. Each and every one of you, back back and forward forward, are more than enough. Thank you for being. I love you. Ase