The Magickal Egg

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When I visited my Grandparents as a child, I remember being drawn to a wooden cabinet with glass windows in the corner of their living room. Kept safely inside were all of my Babushka Hedwig’s valuables; hand carved wooden plates, large painted spoons, and braids of dried palm fronds from church visitations. 

And eggs. 

Brilliantly painted eggs with intricate designs perched on brass stands. 

I was mesmerized by them. Who could put such tiny drawings on eggs in repeating patterns with such precision?

I fell in love with them. 

I cherished them. 

In my innocence I asked my Grandmother if I could have them when she died. Her hazel eyes transformed into the shape of crescent moons that expressed her happiness and she  smiled as she murmured something under her breath in Polish. 

The art of pysanky, or egg “writing” is a tradition from the lands now known as the Ukraine (as well as other Slavic areas). This ancient practice involves using a tool (kistka) made from copper and a wooden stick to heat beeswax with a candle flame. When the wax is melted, fine lines are then drawn on the surface of the egg in patterns and motifs that date back thousands of years. The egg is then bathed in dyes to create striking colors that tell the stories of families, history, and hope. 

Why did our ancestors choose the egg as the canvas for such elaborate designs? Is it any coincidence that spring, holy week, and eggs all converged in one giant metaphor for fertility and rebirth? 

Of course not. 

The egg has been revered for thousands of years as a symbol for the potential of  life. Egyptian creation stories positioned the egg as the origin of the cosmos. With no beginning and no end, the shape of the egg represents the unyielding continuation of consciousness beyond form. 

Our ancestors were keenly aware of life’s fragility and the delicate veil between  the living and the dead.

The shell of the egg embodies this veil while within its confines, it holds the mystery of the universe. The yolk represents the sun, while the albumin represents the moon.  As we embrace the myriad of metaphors, meanings, and symbolism associated with the egg, how can we incorporate this powerful item into our ritual arts? 

Pysanky

You do not have to be an artist to learn the art of pysanky. Here is a great Beginner Pysanky Video to get you started. You can buy quality supplies at Pysanky USA. Try your hand at designs that speak to you or create your own. This ritual writing is deeply relaxing and nourishing (like a mandala coloring book). During the forty days of lent, many Christain Slavs will write one egg a day until Easter and then place the eggs around their home and land as an invocation for fertility and abundance while also feeding local nature spirits. 

Egg Clearing

Eggs have been used cross culturally for cleansing and clearing negative energy, spells, curses, and energetic trauma. For a general clearing take a fresh chicken egg and drag it from the top of your (or someone else’s) head all the way down to your feet. Work counterclockwise from the front of the body to the side, to the back, and finish with the other side. The egg absorbs the energy that needs to be cleared and may then be buried in the earth, placed in a river, or in cases of very heavy energy may be thrown at a rock outside. 

Gifts for the Dead

In ancient times, both Greeks and Romans would leave eggs at the gravesites of loved ones as an offering to honor them in the afterlife. At a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, why would we honor the dead? By consistently paying homage to our ancestors, no matter the time of year, we more fully embrace our own mortality and tend to those who gave us life. Take eggs to your loved ones' graves, or place them on your ancestor altar as a way of including them during this precious time of year. 

Egg Shell Magic

Egg shell powder is a powerful tool to use in your ritual practice. Use the powder to cast circles, place protective lines at doorways or on driveways, add to a bath for purification, or sprinkle it around your  garden as a blessing. You may also use it like chalk to draw sacred symbols or sigils wherever you feel drawn. Consider grinding specific herbs into the powder to add additional medicinal/spiritual properties.  

To make the powder, place empty egg shells into a pot of boiling water for ten minutes. Drain the shells and leave them out overnight. Heat an oven to 200 degrees (F) and place the shells on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Bake for 10 minutes and when cool, use a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder (for a finer texture) to crush the shells into a powder. Store in a special jar or container. 

That day in my Granparent’s home was the beginning of my love affair with egg ritual.

I write pysanky as a way to connect to my heritage, honor my ancestors, and to remind myself of the sacred cycles of life, death, and rebirth. I give my pysanky as gifts, offer them to my ancestor shrines and altars, and make powder out of  broken shells for ritual use. I have used egg clearings in my private practice and to clear my children. The sacred nature of the egg is infinite, timeless, and full of hope. 

Personal note: Please consider making a donation to Pysanky for Peace. This project aims to help the ongoing humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, and to share this important cultural tradition of the Ukrainian People.

Jen Hudziec is an Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner, Death Doula, Ritualist and Teacher. A first generation American, her ancestral roots are Eastern European (Polish, Russian, Czech, Ukrainian), Germanic, and Scandinavian. She stewards traditional Abanaki lands in NH where she practices Celtic and Slavic Earth honoring traditions. She is also a student of the West African Dagara tradition. She may be found at jenhudziec.com

Photos via Unsplash

The Invitation: An Ancestral Calling To Come Home

Who Are our Ancestors?

The first time I heard the word ‘ancestor’ I was baffled. If I had a dictionary on hand, I would have immediately looked up the definition of the word. Finding myself dictionary-less, I relied on the expressions and body language of the people around me for a sign as how to give off the perception that I knew what ‘ancestors’ were. It was a spiritual “fake it til you make it” moment. When I finally could sneak a google search, the reality hit me: oh, they meant dead people. Not just any dead people though, my dead people.

I felt time slow to a grinding halt as all my synapses began to contort around the concept of the thousands and thousands of people who had made my life possible. 

In that same moment, the reality of how utterly disconnected I was from a massive part of who I am came flooding in. All my life I just thought of me, my immediate family, and my Grandparents. The tiny little autonomous bubble of pervasive individuality I had been living in had just been popped. I was still warming to the concept of ancestors when I found myself at a three day ceremony dedicated to none other than, you guessed it, the ancestors. 

Let’s pause here for a moment and consider how things like this happen. How did I end up in a place where I would spend 3 days honoring my ancestors at the same time the reality of them was settling in? How do things like that happen for any of us?

There are so many explanations for synchronicity, but one I find particularly fascinating is something called sympathetic resonance.

Wikipedia defines it as “a harmonic phenomenon wherein a formerly passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness.” In this instance I like to consider myself as the “formerly passive vibratory body” (it's not a super flattering description, but I am okay with that). The key word here is formerly, because I responded to the external vibration of my people, my ancestors. Their likeness to me (because I am them and they are me) is what brought us together in a very conscious way. And my awareness of them was about to get even more real. 

Releasing Ancestral Grief

When the ancestral ceremony commenced, I approached the unknown with curiosity and openness. As night fell and our group sat together in a circle, a question was posed to us; were any of us willing to release inter-generational ancestral grief through a ceremonial head shaving? I peered at the circle to see the reflection of my facial expression pasted on those around me; wide eyes with mouths dropped open. What happened next, I will never forget. A feeling deep inside my body began to take root. It was as if electrical impulses were making my internal organs quiver.  As the feeling grew in intensity, I tried my hardest to deny I was having a response, but it was indisputable. Overwhelm engulfed me as I felt my head begin to shake back and forth with the thought; “Oh no….ohhh no.” Then the realization came over me that if I denied THIS, this intuition, this invitation, that I would be denying something primal and necessary. Thoughts flooded my mind as I imagined my family freaking out, my clientele thinking I was insane, and the public sneaking curious looks at me.

Slightly dissociated from my body, I heard my voice utter “YES.”

When we broke for a break, I found it hard to speak. I could not latch onto clear reasoning or understanding. In passing, a friend mentioned her fear of being perceived as a Neo Nazi if she had a shaved head. I felt the blood leave my face and tears well up. My Grandparents has been detained in Nazi detention camps for four years during WW2. That is when the knowing came; my hair was a minuscule offering that I could make to honor the suffering my Grandparents and so many others had endured.

The long, blonde hair that my Grandmother would brush, braid, and twirl into ovals at the nap of my neck was a gift for these ancestors.

In the woods that evening, with song and prayer, a group of men and women took my hair. They gently cut every strand down to my scalp while a razor erased the rest. I sobbed as I felt the intention and care behind their craft, all the while knowing the atrocities that were enacted in the camps. The grief of generations streamed down my face and I felt oddly at ease. The quivering in my abdomen subsided as I sat on a tree stump, my bald head caressed like that of a newborn baby. My hair was my offering to them and the beginning of a lifelong journey with my people.

Our ancestors know how to get our attention in ways intrinsic to who we are.

Connecting with our ancestors does not have to be an intense experience like the one I had, but it was what I needed at that time. They know us and they know how to grab our attention. There are many ways that we can revive our relationships with them, and yet I have discovered over the years that there are techniques that will ensure ritual safety, healthy connection, and address intergenerational trauma in a gentle way. Since that time in the woods I have repaired my relationships with all of my lineages; despite the fear of what I might discover or my dislike for some of my deceased relatives, my connection to the thousands of vibrant beings within the energetic field of my DNA has been profound. With ancestral healing our sense of who we are deepens, incessant patterns that can hinder our evolution are addressed, cultural amends to heal systemic inequities can be made, and we find ourselves assuming our rightful place among a history of powerful people.

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see you parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive at this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. “

~ Thich Nhat Hahn

Jennifer Hudziec is a Certified Ancestral Repair Practitioner with the Ancestral Medicine Organization. She is a Ritualist, End of Life Doula, and Fire Walk Instructor. The ceremony she references is an Ancestralization ceremony brought to the West by Elder Malidoma Somé.

Jen offers private sessions & group work and may be reached at jenhudziec.com

Photo Credit: Om Prakash Sethia via Unsplash

Following Our Roots Home

As a diviner in the Dagara tradition, the lens from which I view life is framed by this West African tribal cosmology. The indigenous wisdom translated and shared by Elder Malidoma Some, has been in invaluable gift to the world and it is via this gift that I offer my own reflections. Let us turn towards the element of Earth (years 2020, 2025, 2030). At its essence, Earth years call us to find our way home.

We are invited on a pilgrimage to return to ourselves. When we accept the invitation of homecoming it is more than “an instance of returning home,” as defined by Oxford. We are guaranteed an unforgettable journey, one that is not always accompanied by rainbows and unicorns.

my homecoming required an excavatio into my ancient roots, but where was I to begin? With the earth, of course.

Earth connection

Considering my connection to the (literal) Earth as a starting point, I formulated some questions to ask myself:

Am I in right relationship with the land we live on?

Do I know who inhabited the geographical area I call home long before colonization took place?

Do I maintain connections to the spirits of the land and nature?

Do I source vitality from my connection to the great mother and if so, how do I reciprocate?

When we consciously tend our connection to the land with Earth honoring actions, we establish a sense of place. With a sense of place intact, we can go deeper and wind our way through the story of the Earth to the people who inhabited these beautiful lands: our ancestors.

Our Ancestors

I used to have no clue as to what this word meant. I was not brought up in an environment of ancestor reverence, but thankfully I learned through my experience with a Dagara Elder. There are various types of ancestors according to Steven Farmer, but I am speaking here to our blood ancestors; the people we are genetically related to over millennia. If ever there were roots to a tree, then these be them. Unearthing the story of our people is the ultimate homecoming. If you cut off the roots to a tree, it will die. As humans, we often cut off our own roots because we either don’t like what we see and/or it is too emotionally difficult to manage the pain of the last few generations. I totally get this, BUT it is important to remember that our roots go wayyyy further than just our remembered people. Our lineages are ancient. And those folks have some pretty amazing wisdom to share with us.

Our Identity

By this I am not referring to the social constructs that we often equate with our identity. What I am getting at here is the cultural heritage of our genetic make up. Our DNA holds vast stories upon which we are built. Checking into the epic tales of those amazing little double helix spirals can fill in the blanks of who we are and where we came from. With this knowledge and understanding we empower ourselves, not from an egoic or nationalist place, but from a place of activating a collective consciousness within ourselves.

We all long to belong.

When we unravel the mystery of who we came from, our sense of belonging matures and our identities expand into the macrocosm of human evolution. This understanding provides us a deep well to tap into when life requires courage and resilience.

Our roots give us resilience.

Without roots to anchor us, it makes it more difficult for us to grow strong and withstand storms.

Here I offer a possible framework should you feel called home.

Everyone’s process looks different, this is just one way to get started.

Ancestral Work

By using guided meditation, the drum journey, or whatever means you prefer to drop down into an altered state of consciousness (try substance free!) you can access some pretty powerful ancient beings along your lineages. Using your intuition to connect to a healthy ancestral guides is very empowering. The beauty of this process is not getting trapped in the misgivings of generations that are most recently deceased. By calling on the older, wiser, and healthier ancient ones to help heal your lines you’re:

1. Not going it alone and,

2. Helping to elevate your lines in general so you and future generations can have a solid, healthier root system.

DNA Test

Ahhh, the ongoing saga of DNA tests. I cannot recommend one over another, because honestly, I just picked one and submitted it. I didn’t want to expend energy toiling over comparing products. I went with Ancestry (it’s half price every November) and got my results broken down into percentages of ethnicity with regional mapping. I personally appreciated that the results came with a brief historical overview of each particular region. These snippets of historical information and ethnography are what you can use to dive deeply into the identities of your people.

Curiosity and Tenacity

These are two of my most favorite companion words (like how peanut butter and fluff go together if you’re from New England). I highly recommend mustering up lots of curiosity and tapping into a great well of tenacity to do this next task: getting super detailed oriented with the snippets of generic history provided by the DNA test.

Write down every word you do not understand.

This more than likely will apply to regions, time periods, and groups of ethnic peoples. By the time I had picked through one snippet of my heritage there were words, lines, arrows, and circles scribbled all over a pad of paper that made some sort of crazy sense. You too will be able to see aspects of your hobbies, interests, and vocation as reflections of your lineage. Further confirmation of your ancestral identity may arise from your body wisdom; chills, waves of heat, and sobbing are all indicators that your DNA is jumping for joy at your homecoming.

Paradoxically, as we unravel the tangled roots of our ancestry we concurrently weave together a stronger foundation to hold us up.

We spend so much of our lives looking forward wondering who we are, where we are going, and what we should do with our lives. In constantly looking forward, we often overlook the gifts from our ancient past. As interesting and amazing though they be, the revelations we receive along the way are not always fun. Our ancient past also includes travesties; our people have been both the oppressors and the oppressed. Acknowledging this part of our root system is difficult, but it is a part of us and is healthier to integrate than suppress.

The road to home takes us to a place where we stand in reciprocity with the land which holds us and our indigenous roots. Our homecoming is a journey to our elevated ancestors who are willing to offer guidance and inter-generational healing. It also takes us down a path to connect with the identity of our heritage and the story of our peoples. Our homecoming is not an instance. Rather, it is a lifelong process that, if undertaken, will strengthen the core of who we are so we can weather any storm.

Jennifer Hudziec is a Certified Ancestral Repair Practitioner with the Ancestral Medicine Organization. She is a Ritualist, Animist, and Fire Walk Instructor. Jen can be reached at jenhudziec.com

Credits

Ancestral Medicine: Daniel Foor PhD
Photography: Nick Fewings