Traditional societies across the world see ancestors as living beings who are interested in the everday life of their descendants, wise ones who can be consulted.

If we think about it, our ancestry connects us to every living being on earth. If we trace the parents of our parents and their parents back just seven generation we already have an immediate circle of 246 ancestors without counting all the brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. Beyond them, the broader circle of Common Ancestors holds a vast amount of collective wisdom – keepers of the family soul who stand between our recent forebears and the most distant ancestors. Further back still are the Deep Ancestors from whom everyone alive is descended – the matriarchs, patriarchs, gods and goddesses, archetypes we recognise whatever culture we come from.