I was adopted twice — once as a child by my step-father and his clan, and again as a wife by my husband’s mother before she passed. Both times I felt something ancient move through me — a recognition that lineage is not a closed loop of blood, but a living circle of love.

Each act was an initiation. When my step-father claimed me as his own, I inherited his people and their stories. When my husband’s mother adopted me into her line, I felt the continuity of her ancestors welcoming me. Neither moment was legal ritual — it was shamanic ritual, the ancestral web widening through intention and recognition.

In shamanism, ancestry is alive. Every bond — marriage, friendship, mentorship, community — is a thread in the great tapestry of continuity. Adoption teaches that love itself is a channel through which ancestors move. When we acknowledge one another as kin, we extend the reach of the sacred family of earth.

This truth belongs to everyone. You don’t have to be adopted to know the power of being chosen. Every time we open the circle — by welcoming a child, a partner, a student, a friend — we perform a living act of ancestral magick. Belonging beyond blood is not a metaphor; it is the way human lineage actually works.

Today, on my altar, I honor both of my families — the one that raised me and the one that received me through marriage. Their names stand side by side in my prayers because each line taught me a different language of love. The web is wide, and through it flows the unbroken song of the ancestors.

Belonging is a choice we make again and again. Every time love widens the circle, the ancestors rejoice.

The path of remembrance doesn’t end here — it deepens. Begin your next step at ShamanicMagick.com