Narrator (00:09):
This recording is an offering of Networks for Training and Developments Online University.

Tracy Lapreziosa (00:23):
Welcome, everyone to today's Healing Circle Call, a time when like-minded people can get together and just kind of breathe and share a meditation, trying to keep positive in this busy, crazy world that we're in right now. Just a reminder that this call is anonymous and everyone is muted except for me. My name is Tracy Deprezeosa, and I'm coming to you from Pennsylvania, where it is autumn right now, and it's beautiful, beautiful days and cold nights, crisp. There's a fire burning in my fireplace tonight to keep warm because we don't have the heat turned on yet. So it's a really cozy, warm time of year.

Tracy Lapreziosa (01:11):
Typically, when I lead a healing circle call, I kind of reach out to my spirit guides, the universe, to try and figure out what's the best message for today. What is it? And last week I had a couple little tinges of little nibbles thinking, oh, I think this is it. I think this is it. But then last week, I was just floored. It just like came upon me every single night. I went to bed last week and every single night I was somewhere else. I was in my past. I was talking with my parents, my grandparents, my great grandparents. I was in their house - I was in their houses. I could smell the smells. I could hear the sounds. I could see with great detail my environment, all around me. And it was every single night last week. Didn't really hit me.

Tracy Lapreziosa (02:17):
Then my grandson, towards the end of the week, sent me a text message. And he had created this picture collage for school project of all of his deceased ancestors that he knew, his grandparents, great grandparents. He created a collage and he says, "I'm doing this for a school project because we're celebrating the Day of the Dead and we're creating an ofrenda at school." Oh, wow. Yes. That's why I had all of these vivid, vivid images and memories that came back to me all the last week because you know during this time period, it's kind of a magical time that the belief is that the portals are open. The boundary between the two worlds becomes more muddled and there's the crossing over back and forth of the spirits.

Tracy Lapreziosa (03:13):
Then last night, to put the icing on the cake, my youngest daughter sent me a picture of my youngest grandson who's 11 months old, holding a photograph of my parents who have been gone for a number a couple of years now. He's never met them and he's like babbling and talking to them, patting their photo, moving the photo up and down, smiling, laughing and was just filled with so much joy. And I'm thinking, "Oh, my gosh, they're visiting him." He's communicating with them right now. So it's like, of course tonight's meditation is going to be on honoring our ancestors, honoring who we are in our ancestors, how we came to be who we are.

Tracy Lapreziosa (04:04):
I think back to growing up and the ways that my family honored our ancestors as I was growing up, and maybe some of you have experienced this too, where your grandmother drug you around from one cemetery to another visiting grave sites and telling you all about the people who were buried there and the relationship she had with them and who they were and celebrating holidays by taking flowers and things to all of the different memorial sites as well.

Tracy Lapreziosa (04:38):
Then as a young girl growing up in a Lutheran church, we always had All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. All Saints' Day is November 1st when you are remembering and honoring those who have passed before you and have gone on to heaven, and All Souls' Day is those who have passed recently and are on their way to heaven. And they would ring the bell and recite the name of every single person who had passed within the last year that had a tie to someone in the congregation of the church.

Tracy Lapreziosa (05:18):
But my family has meshed with another culture. My daughter has married a man who is of Mexican and Native American descent. So I've become more and more aware of other celebrations and I'm probably going to say this wrong, but the day a Dia de los Muertos, which is the Day of the Dead. It's a time when the veil is lifted and the souls can cross over, back over. It's kind of funny. My grandson and sister, "Remember the movie Coco, grandma? Remember the movie Coco?" Which is a movie about just that.

Tracy Lapreziosa (06:06):
So I thought I need to just kind of look at this a little bit for like, how did this start? Where did this come from? And the Day of the Dead started with the early Aztecs in Central Mexico and where they used skulls to honor the dead. This began even many, many, many, many years before the actual celebration actually occurred. My thought was why skull? Why skulls? And so I kind of looked that up a little bit and skulls remind us to celebrate our lives and mortality and to look at the past and the future while still being in the present. The skeleton is kind of a reminder that we are all made up of bones and that after we pass, all the selected bones, so life and death are equal rights of passing and that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter. So I found this all very interesting.

Tracy Lapreziosa (07:09):
Then I looked to see when did it come to be celebrated as the Day of the Dead? And when did it come to be celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. November 1st being the day when they celebrate the souls of young children and the second being the day of celebrating souls of adults. So once the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in the 16th century, the Catholic church moved all the indigenous celebrations and rituals honoring the dead throughout the year to match up with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. So that's how that all came to be. I found that very interesting.

Tracy Lapreziosa (07:51):
Then I looked at the celebration and over the past couple of years, I've built some of this into my daily routine, and some of you may have too, to remember people in your past by having like a special space in your home where you may call it an altar or just a table where you have pictures of people who have passed. I have a piece of furniture that had been in my parents' house. It was a focal point. It's kind of beat up and worn, but it has a lot of sentimental meaning to me and a lot of memories attached to it.

Tracy Lapreziosa (08:30):
So I've used that as kind of my place to set up and put their photos and put some of the trinkets and things that make me think of them. So when people are celebrating the Day of the Dead, they typically build an altar or a temporary altar in their home where they will place photos of people who have passed before them, and they'll put candles on the altar to kind of lighten up those photos. There will be items left there by people who have passed, maybe it's jewelry, maybe it's mementos of some sort, anything that would remind them of that person. They may place food items, the person's favorite foods, their favorite beverages, water, anything that would be there to sustain them, the spirit's journey from the other life to cross back over.

Tracy Lapreziosa (09:29):
A lot of times there are marigolds or other flowers that are really brightly colored with a very strong fragrance that just help to guide spirit back, or incense. And again, maybe some of the skulls, they make them out of sugar and they may be painted and have people's names on them. There might be some tissue paper or something that'll blow in the wind because everything on the altar kind of revolves around the four elements of life: the water; the food representing the earth; candles, representing fire; and the little things that might kind of show the breeze to represent the wind.

Tracy Lapreziosa (10:23):
There may be other symbols, too, similar Christian symbols. There might be a crucifix. There might be an image as the Mexican patron saint the Virgin of Guadalupe, and I believe that the souls of the dead return to visit family members as long as they're kept alive in their heart and in their mind because people are only truly dead when you forget about them. They're alive in your mind and in your heart. Some celebrations include dinners where people bring photos of people who have passed before them, where they take turns telling stories and jokes and funny things about the person. It's overall a very upbeat celebration of life. There's music. There's festivities. There's festivals and lots going on during this time period. Very, very positive time.

Tracy Lapreziosa (11:24):
I look at that. I really, really like that whole celebration idea of remembering our ancestors, remembering who they are, being happy, inviting them back over. It's like this past week, I didn't have to even do the inviting. They were coming. They were coming and I had kind of forgotten about it. It's like, wow, this is the time they are here. They are here right now.

Tracy Lapreziosa (11:51):
So I'm going to lead a meditation now for honoring our ancestors. So I'd like you to just kind of find a comfortable spot, get yourself nice and comfy. This meditation has been adapted from the meditation was originally done by Patty Wigginton that I found online.

Tracy Lapreziosa (12:14):
So get comfortable and close your eyes and take a deep breath. Focus on your body. Focus on your bones. Focus on your skeleton. Envision that skeleton within you that stays for a long, long time. Imagine yourself floating, surrounded by white light. Think of who you are, or what you're made of. Who are you? What's your personality? Are you gutsy? Are you timid? Who are you? And just know that everything within you is a sum of all of your ancestors, generations of people over thousands of years have come together to create who you are right now in this moment, your strengths, your weaknesses, your hangups. They came from somewhere long, long ago.

Tracy Lapreziosa (14:01):
Now is the time to honor those ancestors who made you who you are today. They created you. They formed you. So one by one, think is the ancestors that you know that are departed, ones that you can put names to. Might be your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, an uncle, an aunt. Say their names in your mind or out loud and say something about them, about who they were. For example, I might say, my name is Tracy and I am the daughter of Constance and Levi. Constance and Levi were very hard, hard workers. They worked for everything they had. Constance was a caregiver and gave of herself everything that she had to those around her. And then I could go on and on back through my family tree. I want you to do that right now.

Tracy Lapreziosa (15:23):
Go back as far as you can. And when you can't go back any further with remembering, I want you to stop and express gratitude to all of the ancestors that you've just named and thank them for all that they've done to create the person that you are. I also want you to express gratitude to those whose blood runs in you, but whose names that you didn't know. Continue to sit quietly. Take deep breaths. Ask for any guidance or message they would like for you to receive right now. What message would you like me to receive right now? Just breathe and be with your thoughts. Let your thought go where they may. Be aware of them.

Tracy Lapreziosa (17:54):
You may see an image. You may see someone that you don't know. Ask them for their name. Thank them for visiting you. Express gratitude, and thank you to all of the ancestors that popped up in your mind during your thoughts right now. Write down any information, thoughts, or impressions that you may have received. It's important to write things down because maybe it doesn't make sense right now. Many times when we do these meditations and we start having thoughts, they don't make sense. They don't make sense in the moment, but if we write them down maybe a little bit later, when you're giving it some more thought, the answer might come to you. Or it might come to you when the time is right for you to know.

Tracy Lapreziosa (19:17):
So take a minute to just kind of wrap up your thoughts. Take a deep breath. Come back to this space. But before we leave this space, I want you to take a few questions with you to think about over the next couple of days or the next year. What would your ofrenda or altar look like? What items or memories do you think that you will leave behind? What will be on that altar? What legacy do you wish to leave to inspire future generations? And lastly, how are you building upon the work and ideas of your ancestors? Just some thoughts to think about on this All Saints' Day, Day of the Dead.

Tracy Lapreziosa (20:45):
So thank you all for coming and being a part of our meditation this evening. Be sure to join us every first Monday of the month at 8:00 PM. And remember that we have many, many past calls that are recorded as podcasts on our website so that you can listen to anytime, or you can come back to this one anytime, and you can go to the website, or you can go to https//networks-healing-circle.pinecast.co, and all of the Healing Circle Calls will be there for you to choose from. So again, thank you all for coming and enjoy the rest of your evening and enjoy the visits over the next couple of evenings. Goodnight, everyone.

Narrator (21:45):
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