Remembering as Ceremony – Bridging Worlds Through Ancestral Presence

As the vibrant days of the 25th EUROTAS Global Transpersonal Conference in Oaxaca now recede into memory, a quiet reverence remains. The land, the people, and the ceremonies have imprinted their wisdom deeply — weaving together diverse voices and traditions into one living field of consciousness. The theme Xolotl – Innovations and Traditions in the Arts and Sciences of Being became a lived experience of weaving and being woven, where dialogue transformed into ceremony and the collective psyche met the pulse of the Earth.

Now, as Mexico enters the sacred season of Día de los Muertos — the Days of the Dead, this field opens further. Even from afar, one feels the vibration: the scent of cempasúchil (marigold) flowers guiding ancestral souls; the luminous altars adorned with candles, photographs, and offerings; the laughter, songs, and tears blending into one dance of remembrance.
This celebration does not mourn death — it honors continuity. It invites a reawakening of relational consciousness, where life and death, past and future, human and more-than-human are seen as interdependent threads in the cosmic weave.

Transcultural Ceremonies of Remembering

Across the world, cultures mark this liminal time when the veil between realms grows thin. The Celtic Samhain calls the ancestors home through fire and story. In Japan, the Obon festival welcomes ancestral spirits through dance and lanterns. The Egungun ceremonies of West Africa enliven ancestral wisdom through embodied remembrance. Indigenous peoples across the Americas honor the lineage of land, river, mountain, and star — recognizing all life as kin.

These transcultural echoes remind us that remembrance is not confined by geography or belief. It is a universal transpersonal practice of belonging — a return to relationship with the lineage of life itself. To remember is to restore continuity between visible and invisible worlds, between generations and species, between psyche and cosmos.

Remembrance as a Transpersonal Path

In transpersonal psychology, remembrance is not only psychological but cosmological. It expands the boundaries of self toward the greater whole — what may be called interbeing.
When we remember, we re-member: we gather the fragmented parts of human consciousness into wholeness. This process of integration echoes the Ethics of the Heart — Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, the triad guiding the work of Birthing an Ancient Future – Multidisciplinary Council of Peace-Builders.

Through remembering, healing occurs not only individually but also collectively and transgenerationally. The ancestral, ecological, and planetary dimensions of consciousness reveal themselves as one interwoven field.

Looking Forward: Birthing an Ancient Future

As the altars in Mexico fade and the marigolds return to the soil, we carry their light into future seasons of peace-building, education, and ceremony. The path ahead calls for a planetary remembrance — not only of human ancestors but of the wider web of life that sustains us.
To remember the ancestors is also to remember the Earth as our oldest teacher. It is to listen again to the rivers, mountains, and forests as living archives of wisdom.

In this way, remembrance becomes ceremony — and ceremony becomes activism.
Through each gesture of gratitude, each offering, each story retold, we participate in the renewal of life.

The ancestors remind: life and death are not opposites but partners in creation.

A Living Invitation

As we move from Oaxaca into the next cycles of our collective journey, may remembrance accompany us as a daily practice of peace.
Let us cultivate spaces — in body, community, and Earth — where ancestral wisdom and transpersonal insight meet in creative dialogue.
May our remembering be fertile ground for what is yet to come — a truly ancient future, rooted in continuity and guided by care.

Dr. Regina U. Hess, Ph.D., NL/PT
Visionary Founder/Director – Birthing an Ancient Future – Multidisciplinary Council of Peace-Builders
EUROTAS & ITA Board of Directors | Clinical Psychologist & Transpersonal Psychotherapist
EUROTAS 2025 Conference – Oaxaca, Mexico