Recovering perfectionist. Unicorn Fairy Godmother. Passions: women's empowerment, creating connection, sustainability, authenticity in life and work Check out the resources I offer below, and sign up for my newsletter!
How many ancestors do you actually have?
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About 10 years back I went to Ireland and was floored by how many more cousins I had in Ireland than I did in the U.S. Imagine, I thought, if I had grown up in Ireland, surrounded by hundreds of generations of my family’s history, instead of just 2. There are thousands of years of my heritage that I don't know about, because I don't normally think of my "family" as more than the people I grew up with. But how much family history do I *actually* have? How much do *you* have? Let’s do some math! Right now, the average human life-span is like 75? But for most of western history (which is the amount of history most of us hold in our heads at one time without thinking about it) that life span was substantially shorter. Like 30 or so. So say it’s 35 (generous if you ask me). Then since Jesus there’s been roughly 57 different rounds of humanity. Even without counting extended family, that’s … WELL OVER A BILLION direct ancestors. Ok. I cheated and used NOT ONLY A CALCULATOR, but the internet, because I had to re-teach myself some light math. And in the end I got to a number so big I am HONESTLY UNSURE of how much more than a billion ancestors it is. Here’s the screenshot: (If you can tell me what number that actually is, please respond to this email and I will literally buy you a cookie.) THIS is what we're talking about when we talk about inherited trauma. With that many ancestors, and because of the way they spread out through time, if we look back far enough, basically, a whole country, region, or culture might be your ancestor. We're going to unpack this even further in my workshop on October 30th! And the more I learn about this topic the Juicier it feels! Sign up now to save your spot, even if you're not a direct descendant of Maria Owens. Because if you are a white woman of European descent, or if you have any known ancestors of white european descent, then you DO have Witch Trial Drama in your bloodline.
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Hi! I'm Megan Gillman!
Recovering perfectionist. Unicorn Fairy Godmother. Passions: women's empowerment, creating connection, sustainability, authenticity in life and work Check out the resources I offer below, and sign up for my newsletter!
In 1532 the Holy Roman Empire (i.e., the Pope and the Catholic church) adopted a new law about witchcraft - it made it harder to accuse someone of witchcraft because you needed to have actual evidence of harm, AND you had to have at least 2 accusers. Scholars think this was done largely to curb the ridiculous number of witch trials and executions (over 25,000 people were killed in Germany alone!). But King James (yup, the one who made that Bible) ignored the new recommendations in favor of...
Now, if I were coaching someone else I'd probably have stopped here to honor the feelings of powerlessness and frustration and let them be felt, but i'm a human and so I was like FUCK IT LET'S JUST POWER THROUUUUUGH!" I was journaling this morning on a prompt about designing your ideal daily schedule. Normally this kind of thing would be fun for me! I love to daydream about cozy mornings drinking coffee on the porch. But I found myself procrastinating and making excuses. I would start...
Do you remember when you first learned about the Salem Witch Trials? I asked a few friends (aka I made an instagram poll) and we all seemed to agree our first encounter with this particular historical event was in elementary school, age 7 or 8 maybe. I'm not surprised we learn about this so early, because HOLY SHIT what an effective tool to teach young girls to behave, be "good", and not cause trouble. We learn about it again in High School, where Arthur Miller's The Crucible is still...