outline for ancestor paper

 Abstract: This autobiographical essay serves as a means to explore and reflect on identity, spiritual legacy, and cultural heritage centered around self examination and an interview with my mother and sister. Influenced by Cynthia Dillard’s framework of “(re)membering” I examine how spiritual knowledge has been passed down in my family through acts of ritual and spiritual philosophy. Although I experience discomfort when approaching ancestor work, upon reflection for this essay I began to recognize examples of spiritual legacy that have been passed down from my Grandmother, a practicing Native American Medicine woman, through my mother, unto my sisters and I. Through embodiment practices that I have cultivated, such as drumming and prayer, I have come to understand ancestor work not as reclaiming the past but as building a relationship in the present. By examining this topic through the lens of (re)search, (re)cognizing, and (re)claiming, this essay shows how spiritual legacy survives through lived practices, embodiment, and direct contact with one’s ancestors. 

Key Words: (re)membering, (re)claiming, animism, embodiment, ancestor communication, reciprocity, spiritual inheritance, shadowwork, genealogy, 

Outline:

Introduction: Discomfort and why (issues with identity), what the our lineage is, who I chose to interview and why, realizing that spiritual legacy is not always about reclaiming one’s culture and identity but rather lived practices.  Dividing the paper into 2 parts; the Native american and the irish. 

Part 1: Native American: explain our connection to the Abnaki tribe and why this information was stolen from us. Explain how my Grandmother, as an adult, found teachers and reintroduced herself into the culture. She taught my mom. My mom taught us, although my sister remembers it differently - saying she recalls it coming directly from my grandmother. Mom was raised Catholic and through my grandmother later in life? On her own? We were raised with the fundamentals of Indigenous faith and then taken from it when we moved to NC and raised in the baptist church. This influenced both my sister and I in different ways. Enter Sister interview - which mixes secular, native, and some christian perspectives as she does not identify as christian but acknowledges the influence of it. Add in anything from my mom’s interview as well. 

Part 2: Irish: explain our irish roots and how my mom believes this is where our spiritual gifts come from - “our gifts come from our fathers people but my mothers people taught us how to use them”. This is the lineage I felt more at home in, although I know almost nothing about modern irish culture. Explain the Geneology my mom has been doing and her connection to the Irish part of our line. Explain how this ultimatley reinforced my pagan path. While Irish deities were not my first guides, they are where I found the most familiarity. Talk about my faerie faith - distinctly Irish and Scottish.

Part 3: My reflection: This is where I will reflect on how I view ancestor work - through building relationship, not reclaiming culture that I feel I have no right to claim. I am too white and siconnected to try to reclaim my native lineage - although I claim the bloodline. I am too american to seek community and identity with Irish heritage. I am a mut and feel I have no home. My ancestors are vague but supportive, and like my sister I can only go off faith. For the longest time I doubted our Native herritage completely until I had a spiritual experience in which my ancestors protected me - after that I had no doubt... but even my ancestors confirmed the Native Culture was not for me in this life. I needed to persue my Irish roots more... but I feel like I don't know where to start and ultimatley there is a lot of searching the past. I agree with my sister the past has too many holes, I want to build a future instead. I do this through lived practices. This is where I talk about my artifacts and embodiment - The drum (both ancestors) and earrings (Native), cleansing ceremonies (native), prayer (both), faerie faith (irish), and bardic witchcraft (Irish perspective). conclusion: I do not like going too deep into ancestor work because most of the time there is a focus about reclaiming the past. I do not feel the need to do that, as a large portion revolves around reclaiming identity. My mom and my sister have a strong identity rooted in our lineage - I do not. But, like my sister I am rebuilding with using myself as ground zero, and like my sister my beliefs will probably die with me (from her interview). In the meantime I will do ancestor work through remembering specific practices and incorporating them, as a means of maintaining my living connection with my ancestors. I will forever feel this hole inside me, but it is as much a part of me as my actual bloodlines.

Sacred Thread - Facilitator Bio

Title: Mystic and Sacred Authenticity Facilitator

Pixie Sawyer is a mystic whose vocation centers on helping others reconnect with their personal power, embodied presence, and fostering the connection between the sacredness within one's soul with the sacred web of world around them. While her personal practice is rooted in animism and polytheism, she relates to the Sacred as the ground beneath all existence, something experienced through relationship, nature, creativity, and the movements of the heart.

Her work centers on sacred authenticity, with a special focus on glamour magic as an intentional expression of one’s inner essence. Pixie approaches this practice through embodiment and energy work, allowing for one to embrace their reality with lived confidence and joy. She emphasizes embodiment, self-understanding, personal sovereignty, and creative expression rather than expertise or authority. This work is collaborative, honoring each person’s pace, inviting exploration without pressure and growth without expectation. 

Her offerings include guided meditations and ecstatic journeys, co-creation workshops to explore the divine self, and creating warm, grounded spaces for reflection and connection. Lisa is currently training in spiritual companionship and will soon offer one-on-one presence-based support for individuals moving through transition, seeking deeper spiritual meaning, or longing for a more authentic relationship with themselves and the world.

Drawing from academic study in religion and folklore along with many years of lived spiritual practice, Pixie aims to help others notice the sacred threads already present in their hearts, weave those threads into a tapestry that reveals their inner beauty, strength, and love for life. 

mock up ideas for smokey tattoo

 i'm torn between realism and fine line abstract. These are just mock ups i would show the tattoos artist for her to do in her own style. 

I think I might actually go for optoin 3 

I am wondering if she would be willing to look into an option combining option 3 and option 2 in her own style vs just option 3. 

A Letter from Smokey.

 

Smokey — A Poetic Tribute

Mom,

I walked with you through so much life,
and I always knew where home was—
in your arms,
against your heartbeat,
in the quiet space between your breaths.

I felt your love in every moment:
in the nights you held me,
in the way you watched over my aging body,
in the gentleness you showed
even when your heart was breaking.

I wasn’t afraid.
Not once.
I trusted you to the very end.

You honored my dignity.
You kept my world soft.
You gave me peace
when I could no longer keep it for myself.

And now I stay with you
in the warmth you remember,
in the echo of my purr in your chest,
in every place we ever rested together.

Love doesn’t disappear,
Mom.
It just changes shape.

I’m still yours.
Always.

— Smokey

Life update.

 Charlie and I move into our new apartment in 33 days. 

We have 3 kittens - Maui, Banshee, and Valkyrie.

As of Friday February 27th 2026…. Smokey is gone. 

His kidney failure has progressed to where he was throwing up constantly and was in pain. So I had to make the very hard decision to say goodbye. He went to sleep on a good day. 

I am struggling. 

Snow is sad and needing extra love. She wears her heart on her sleeves. I think this is her first death and I know she misses him. 

Humu is grieving more subtly. He sleeps on the bed regularly now. He is a lot more open to affection. 

The kittens probably aren’t even aware. I think Banshee is. I think she was sent to me to help me process Smokey’s loss. 

I want to love them all. But I bounce between disassociatingly numb and overwhelming grief. I’m going through the motions but I don’t know how much I can give them all. 

Sacred Flame - About Me Tab

 About Me

I am a faerie-souled bardic witch and pagan mystic devoted to the path of Sacred Authenticity.

My spiritual life is rooted in animism, polytheism, and a panentheistic understanding of Spirit. I experience Spirit not as a conscious being who intervenes, but as the ground of being itself — the animating force through which all existence arises. Spirit is not separate from the world; it is the underlying process and substance from which gods, spirits, land, ancestors, and human lives emerge. It does not make choices for us. Rather, it is the field within which choice, becoming, and destiny unfold.

The world, to me, is ensouled — not because Spirit directs it with intention, but because everything participates in this deeper current of being.

Faerie-Souled?

The language of faerie-souled is the closest I have found to describe the mythic current that runs through my life. I hold a personal belief in reincarnation and experience my soul as resonant with the archetype of the Leannan Sidhe — an Irish faerie figure associated with inspiration, beauty, and the fierce intimacy between art and spirit.

In folklore, the Leannan Sidhe is remembered as muse and enchantress — a being who inspires poets and artists with imbas or awen: divine inspiration that moves like fire through the bones. She is radiant, creative, and bound to the unseen currents beneath the visible world.

While I am fully human in this life, that archetype shapes how I understand my gifts. My work is rooted in inspiration, creative devotion, enchantment, and the honoring of beauty as a spiritual force.

My Practice: Bardic and Glamour Magic

I define magic as the expression of will, desire, and life force experienced in the material world. It is not spectacle or domination. It is participation — a conscious engagement with the currents of becoming.

Bardic magic is the use of creative expression as spiritual technology. Poetry, music, dance, storytelling, and visual art become portals through which intention moves. Through art, emotion becomes invocation, longing becomes spellwork, and inspiration becomes embodied change. Creativity is not ornamental — it is operative.

Glamour magic, as I practice it, is not illusion or superficial attraction. It is the intentional shaping of how one’s essence is expressed in the world. Because Spirit is the ground of all being, tending to the self becomes an act of metaphysical alignment.

Glamour is the art of embodiment — refining the vessel through which will, identity, and presence move. Adornment, voice, ritual self-tending, aesthetic choice, energetic boundaries, and disciplined self-knowledge all become tools for coherence. When inner truth and outer expression are brought into resonance, the world responds accordingly.

Both paths return to the same understanding: the Sacred is not elsewhere. It is the very fabric of existence.

My Ministry: Sacred Authenticity

"Ministry” may not be a word commonly associated with pagan mysticism, yet it best describes my vocation.

For much of my life, I suppressed parts of myself in order to survive. Living in fragmentation fractured my spirit. The cost of concealment was disconnection — from my body, my creativity, and my sense of belonging in the world.

Through healing, devotion, and disciplined spiritual discernment, I came to understand that Sacred Authenticity is not self-expression for its own sake. It is the disciplined courage of living in alignment with one’s deepest nature. It asks us to shed inherited masks, to confront the places we have hidden, and to bravely embrace the fullness of who we are — then to live from that place.

When we deny that core, we fracture.

When we honor it, we begin to burn cleanly — and clean fire reshapes everything it touches.

Sacred Flame is not something I give to others. The ember is already within you. Your own devotion, honesty, and willingness to live authentically are the breath that feeds it. My role is not to ignite you, but to tend the fire as it grows — offering structure, reflection, ritual, and witness as you become more fully yourself.

The name Sacred Flame arises from my devotion for Brigid — goddess and saint, keeper of the eternal flame in Kildare. Brigid embodies healing, poetry, and smithcraft. She is a bridge figure, spanning pagan and Christian traditions, hearth and forge, inspiration and discipline. Her flame is not passive light, but creative fire.

Through Sacred Flame, I create spaces where people may encounter the sacred — not as abstraction, but as something that asks something of them: the courage to live as they truly are.

My Formation and Qualifications: (by the time I will be publishing this) 

I have been offering spiritual services since 2018, including home blessings, guided meditations and journeys, and spiritual companionship. I have provided divination readings since 2012.

My background includes:

• B.A. in Cultural Anthropology (focus in religion and folklore)
• Master of Divinity in Spiritual Direction
• Ordained Minister through the Universal Life Church
• Currently in the process of ordination as a Deacon and Lay Minister with the Sacred Well Congregation

I was first introduced to animism through indigenous spiritual frameworks in early childhood. That connection was later interrupted when I was raised within the Baptist church, where I developed a deep understanding of Christian theology. As an adult, I consciously returned to animism and polytheism with greater theological awareness and personal agency.

This formation allows me to move comfortably between traditions — honoring structure, mystery, and the many languages through which humans seek meaning.

Sacred Flame - Home page Tab

Sacred Flame - A Ministry of Sacred Authenticity

Sacred Flame is a devotional spiritual care practice rooted in animism, creative mysticism, and the courageous pursuit of authenticity.

At its heart is a simple belief:

There is an ember within you — a sacred core that longs to be lived fully and honestly.

Sacred Authenticity is not self-expression for its own sake. It is the gentle and disciplined courage of living in alignment with your deepest nature. When we deny that core, we may feel fragmented or dimmed. When we honor it, something steady begins to glow — and from that steady flame, real and lasting transformation becomes possible.

Through spiritual companionship, ritual care, divination, and creative practice, I offer spaces where that ember can be tended with patience and respect. I do not ignite the flame for you. The ember is already yours. Your devotion, honesty, and willingness to grow are the breath that feeds it. My role is simply to help tend it as it strengthens.

This work is not about becoming someone new. It is about aligning your inner truth with the life you are ready to live.

Sacred Flame welcomes those who find themselves between worlds: spiritual but not religious, religious but questioning, rooted in alternative paths, or simply longing for a deeper connection to their own becoming.

This is soul-to-soul work.

It is grounded, relational, and unfolding in process.

It asks for courage, nurtures in safety, and gently witnesses change.

Whether you are seeking a single conversation, seasonal support, or ongoing companionship, you are welcome here.

You are not here to become someone else.

You are here to live fully as yourself.

The ember is already yours.

Sacred Flame is simply a place to tend it.