A sound bath to honor our lineage

When we think about ancestry, it’s easy to imagine it as something distant... names in a family tree, old photographs, or stories passed down. But our ancestors live in us, in our bodies, our habits, our ways of moving through the world. Their struggles and triumphs, their songs and silences, echo through time.

One of the most profound ways I’ve discovered to connect with this deeper sense of lineage is through sound.

Why Sound?

Sound is vibration, and vibration travels through every cell of the body. Long before written language, our ancestors shared knowledge through voice, rhythm, and song. To sit in a sound bath is to be enveloped in those same waves: crystal bowls, gongs, and chimes resonating not just in the ears but in the bones. It’s a way of remembering, a way of tuning in to something much older than ourselves.

Sound Baths as Ritual

When we gather for a sound bath with the intention of honoring our ancestors, the experience becomes a ritual. The tones carry us inward, creating the spaciousness to listen to our own stories, and perhaps to the whispers of those who came before. The repetition of sound creates safety, a container where memories, emotions, and insights can rise to the surface.

Lineage and Healing

For many of us, lineage is complicated. There may be joy, resilience, and traditions we treasure, but also pain, silence, or disconnection. A sound bath allows us to meet all of it with compassion. It creates a bridge: a way to honor the sacrifices, release the burdens, and reclaim the strengths passed down through generations.

Echoes of the Ancestors at Garibaldina

This Friday September 12th at the Garibaldina Society, we’ll gather in a space rich with history, draped in velvet and memory, to step into this practice together. Echoes of the Ancestors is inspired by my own Italian American lineage, but it is not limited to any one culture or story. The intention is for each person to connect with their own ancestry — however near or far, known or unknown — and to honor the journey that brought them here.

Through sound, scent, visualization, and inner journeying, we’ll create space to listen for those echoes, to acknowledge what they carry, and to leave with a renewed sense of belonging and continuity. Because to honor our ancestors is also to honor ourselves as the the living expression of their hopes, choices, and survival.