Belonging to Place
How to Tend Your Ancestors - Ritual Skills for Bloodline Healing
We all have wise Ancestral Elders to be in relationship with, to receive guidance from, and who want to support us in breaking the cycles of the past and living the most vibrant and fulfilled version of ourselves.
Most of the hurt in our world today stems from our lack of belonging
Belonging is our deepest ground
Belonging to place does not just mean belonging to a stretch of land or even region. It is how you belong to yourself and the rest of creation. Our bloodline family is our first, deepest layer of ground. This ground gives us a sense of ourselves and of belonging in and to the world. The way we live in the world today (modern civilization) has interrupted this and wounded our foundation. So, for many of us, this deepest ground is missing.
Our wisest ancestors can see and acknowledge us in a way that no one else can
The foundation of a felt sense of belonging to place lies in the embodied knowing that we belong to the non-visible, other-than-human world. Being in right relationship with the wisest, most vibrant ancestors of our bloodline, our Ancestral Elders, provides a sense of belonging that gives us back our clan and returns us to our people.
Our ancestors live in our bones and our bellies
Literally. We don’t have to travel through time and space to connect with them. They’re still alive, they’re just not in physical form. They’re alive in the present, affecting us and our world.
Our wise Ancestral Elders can guide us back into Right Relationship with ourselves, with the land, and with humanity. Together with our Ancestral Elders we can heal our bloodlines, release the burdens passed down to us and receive our ancestors’ gifts for us in their fullness.
We are never alone
When we know the people and place we belong to, we can better know ourselves, our place in the cosmos and our path.
No matter what our upbringing looked like, we are never alone. We all have wise Ancestral Elders to be in relationship with, to receive guidance from, and who want to support us in breaking the cycles of the past and living the most vibrant and fulfilled version of ourselves - if we only know how to connect with them.
10 Skills for
Bloodline Healing
To effectively and safely connect with our Ancestral Elders and then work with them to bring harmony and balance to our bloodline, there are skills we must develop and cultivate.
Seeing Clearly - Clarity of vision and radical honesty. In order to heal anything, anytime we have to clearly see what is - especially when it’s uncomfortable.
Boundaries - To trust ourselves, others and the world we must have a felt sense of where we end and other begins
Discernment - Is what I’m sensing, intuition, imagination, or is it trauma?
Altar Tending - Nourishing relationships with other and self
Growing Capacity - Tending the body for emotional and energetic stability and resiliency
Alignment - Aligning with what is most gentle, easeful and nurturing
Cultivating the Soil - When we need a healthy garden, we work the soil
Compassion & Complexity - Compassionate curiosity without bypassing
Trusting the Sacred - Letting go of doing
Tending the Threshold - Allowing something new to emerge, not fixing what we deem broken
Curriculum
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Lesson 1 - Foundations
- My journey to working with the Ancestors
- European ancestor honoring ways - today and yesterday
- Learn the difference between ancestors and ghosts
- Safety measures when engaging with spirits
- Creating Sacred Space
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Lesson 2 - Cultivating Clarity
- Boundaries - exercise to feel where you end and other begins
- What does it mean to be a good ancestor?
- Discernment - trusting your intuition
- Individual and Collective responsibility, what is yours to do?
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Lesson 3 - Seeing What Is
- Allowing that to exist which does
- Intent & Focus
- Seeing Clearly - truth telling & dark secrets
- Deepening discernment
- Ritual - Assess your bloodlines
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Lesson 4 - Aligning with Wisdom
- Ritual - Connect with Ancestral Elders
- Creating anchor object
- Aligning with wisdom - what to know how to discern
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Lesson 5 - European traditions
- Tending altar and relationships
- Cycles & Seasons
- Cultivating the Soil
- Honoring Ancestors of Place
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Lesson 6 - Growing Capacity
- Ritual - blessings & burdens - inquiry with Ancestral Elders to identify and understand the trauma and gifts that are expressing through us
- Intergenerational trauma and pathways for healing
- Compassion & complexity
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Lesson 7 - Healing Happens
- Trust in the Sacred
- Allowing the Elders to know better
- Focus on what nourishes
- Right Action
- Ritual - Healing the Bloodline
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Lesson 8 - Grief & Gratitude
- Assisting the recent dead
- Assisting the unsettled dead
- Safety protocols
- Problematic inheritances
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Lesson 9 - Embodying Belonging
- Weaving the threads into the fabric of Belonging
- Tending the Threshold
- Ritual - to embody the gifts of our Wise Elders
How the course is delivered
Here is what you get when you join us:
9 live online teachings: Each recording is available within 24 hours of the live session - to give you the knowledge and introduce the skills you need to effectively and safely engage with your wise and vibrant ancestors.
5 recorded guided rituals: Audio recording with transcripts - to guide you through every step of connecting with your ancestors at your own pace, in your own sacred space.
2 guided exercises: Audio recording - Settling into Safe Space and Boundary Keeping - to engage with each ritual and the ancestor spirits safely
All classes are 90 minutes long and consist of a lecture and Q&A. Practices and Rituals are recorded and done outside class time.
“When I heard people speak about contacting their ancestors, I felt like it wasn’t for me, since I have a lot of mental health issues in my lineage.
It wasn’t until I got in contact with Belonging to Place and Ro’s teachings that I understood that I have well ancestors I can connect with and get supported by.
This course changed my life forever, and I look forward to retaking it this year to deepen my relationship with Place and those who came before me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reconnecting me with my lineage in a safe and attainable way. ”
— Karna Liv Nau
I’m Ro Marlen
Since 1997 I’ve been helping people create healing, stability and vitality in their lives.
I spent my childhood talking to ants, trees, fairies, and dead people. After a near-fatal car crash in my late twenties, the crushed bones in my hand healed overnight. It was beautiful, and it was awful.
I spent the next decade unraveling why and how that healing happened. I started sharing what I’d discovered and learning more as I did so. At that time I was one of the only “miracle healers” I knew of.
Over the course of 30 years, I’ve studied with dozens of respected curanderos, wisdom keepers, experts, scholars and teachers but most of what I’ve learned came from my own lived experiences of working with my ancestors, the spirits of the land, the seasons and cycles and one-on-one with clients and people in my workshops, seeing what worked and what did not.
Register Now for Belonging to Place
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One Time Payment
$495
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3 Monthly Payments
$165
About Payment Plans:
I believe healing should be held in a way that honors each person’s capacity. That’s why I don’t charge extra for payment plans—because I know that ease looks different for everyone, and we all walk with varying rhythms and resources. If you’re able to pay in full, please know that it directly supports my work as an independent guide and helps make this path more accessible for others. It’s a quiet act of reciprocity that ripples outward.
And if you need a different pace or a longer payment plan, just reach out. I’m always open to finding a way that feels doable and dignified for you.
Email me at ro@romarlen.com, and we'll find a solution together.
Dates and times for live online classes
*Recordings will be provided within 24 hours of the live class!*
Monday October 27 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday November 3 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday November 10 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday November 17 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday November 24 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday December 1 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday December 8 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Monday December 15 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin
Sunday December 21 at 12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 18hr Berlin