Walking The Path Podcast

What’s good ya’ll,

I hope April has been treating you well. In this episode of Energetics of Collective Liberation, we discuss the importance of interpersonal dynamics and building trust as we work to build liberated futures.

Here’s a quote from the reading that sums it up:

“If we can’t be brave in our relationships, we cannot confront empire.”

Check out the spread below:

Let me know your thoughts about this reading in the comments or replying to this email.

Peace,

Mila💫

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe

Today I am musing on the idea that the way to honor some ancestors is not to build an altar to the memory of who they were in the lifetime that we knew them, but instead to dream about the lives that they might have now that they are free of the life that they had to live.

I’m thinking particularly about my paternal grandmother, and how we don’t really talk when I come to the altar. She’s not that communicative with me. She will pop in from time to time, but she has no interest in being around me on a consistent basis or sitting on the council of elevated ancestors that has spiritual custody of me. My paternal grandmother does not have spiritual custody of me. My paternal grandfather does. He is actively here all the time. He is actively someone that I speak to and call on.

And part of that is because in their lifetimes, my grandmother birthed nine of his children, raised these children, never got a chance to do any type of professional work. Although she did a lot of community work, which is still work. And she was honored by the city of Detroit for her work, specifically with Operation Get Down, which is a very important community organization on the east side of Detroit (look it up). But she labored a lot in her lifetime doing child rearing. So now that she has transitioned, she has no interest in rearing her grandchildren from the ancestral altar.

My grandmother was also a Sagittarius. I suspect she had a lot of fire in her that she wasn’t able to use and explore in the ways that she wanted to. Because she said that every time that she would get ready to go back to work, she would get pregnant.

And so I say all that to say that I think, as an archivist, as a Black femme, I think that honoring her spirit is not so much about endlessly talking about and remembering everything that she did while she was alive in that lifetime. I can remember those things for myself and utilize them for how I want to move forward and things that I want to do (or not do). It’s not about the memories having no function. They can still have a function for me. But in terms of ancestral veneration, I don’t believe she gets anything out of that. Because she has pretty much said, “I don’t need anything from you”. I don’t need you to be at the altar giving me anything or any offerings or anything like that, because I’m not even here for real. I’m out there. I’m St. elsewhere.

And she’s not the only one of my feminine ancestors that I feel this with. Most of my ancestral court is men. And I’ve talked to people about this before. That’s largely because the women were the ones doing all of the work when they were here. The men, spiritually, emotionally, were very absent. And so them being in the ancestral realm now and having certain insights that they were blocked from while they were in the flesh, they now have the time and the energy and the wherewithal to do for their children and grandchildren what the mothers were always doing. And even if [the mothers] didn’t do it, what the mothers were at least trying to do or tasked with doing when they were living.

And so I wanted to say that sometimes honoring an ancestor isn’t about remembering them - it’s about forgetting. Sometimes it’s about laying to the side what you knew about them and allowing them to live so fully through you in a different direction. Sometimes it’s about dreaming them forward rather than remembering them.

I don’t really think about time linearly or anything like that, so we know that their experiences and that these timelines can be layered on top of one another. It’s not just about backwards and forwards. But this is about the philosophy of how we think about ancestral veneration and the technology of memory. Dream technology is also a thing.

Sometimes the function of the memory is for us to realize that they don’t get anything out of us just going over it again and again, talking about it over and over, and giving energy to a version of themselves that they’re done with. That is not serving their spirit.

These are things that you will only come to these kinds of realizations through the work of relationship with with your dead. This is not something that you can apply across the board to all your grandmothers. This is something you will only know by showing up to the altar and talking to them or trying to make contact, honoring them and then listening to hear from them “I’m not really here for that”.

And then you will start getting revelations about how the DNA they passed on to you wants to operate through you right now. And if it wants to operate through forgetting versus preserving those memories, at least as it pertains to veneration, which is supposed to be for them, then you need to honor that. Your relationship with that ancestral spirit could get stronger through you listening and honoring something like that, honoring the space between you and who they are now.

This made me think about my trans sisters, people who were assigned male at birth and then transitioned into womanhood or my trans brothers and trans siblings who were assigned a gender at birth and transitioned into someone else. This is why some of y’all relationships with y’all ancestors is not going to go very far or be very fruitful if you’re transphobic. You don’t have the right mindset to honor people’s autonomy.

It’s not about whether your granny was secretly a trans man or whether you had queer ancestors. If there were parts of them that were queer, not necessarily in the sense of who they wanted to sleep with, could be that, but maybe that they lived a very traditional type of life, but there were parts of them that didn’t want to live that way, and the only way that you engage with them is by putting the traditions that they upheld in their life on a pedestal. Constantly giving it energy and feeding those memories versus listening for who they are now, who they have transitioned into once they left this earthly realm.

Some of y’all are not going to understand the connection between what I’m saying about the ancestors and our trans siblings, but I was moved to say that for a reason and I’m not going to censor myself. That’s all I really had to say. Thanks for listening.

Check out my other articles on ancestral relationships:

Need personalized support in connecting with and building relationships with your ancestors? Access the Familial Energy Workshop recordings, one-on-one readings and consultations below.

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Note: At the 27:00 mark, my audio cut out. Please scroll down to read my brief explanations of what I talked about for the rest of the reading.

Peace ya’ll.

January has been a LOT and February is fast approaching. As we enter this month, we are called to holistic understandings of collective truth/reality, energetic/mental manipulation, and the importance of returning to ourselves. It’s a short month, but there’s a lot to be contended with.

The reading starts at around 5:30, the written portion of the lost audio, & the cards for this reading can be found below.

Starting with insight from The Devil card that came out in this reading, I talked about how we need to be vigilant against the manipulation tactics of the powers that be, media (including social media) and guard against being manipulated even by well-meaning people around us. This can look like being made to think about liberation and collective struggle as the opposite of your actual well-being. Addiction also came up with this card and I discussed being careful not to get addicted to watching everything play out, allowing the constant stream of news to hijack our nervous systems and ultimately paralyze us.

The oracle cards that came up were Stillness and Purification. The Stillness card underlines the message that The Hermit card on the bottom of the deck brought us. This is about the importance of quieting your mind and returning to yourself as an intentional strategy for your own wellness and for the good of those you are responsible to in your communities. The Hermit is not hiding or ignoring what is happening externally. Being still is not the same as being frozen due to fear. It is not learned helplessness. Understanding the importance of taking time to yourself to recharge, nourish your being and truly understand yourself is key to how you show up in your work in service to others. To know what you are offering and why, to study, train, and fight with purpose.

The Purification card comes to remind us of the importance of detoxing - from screens, harmful or unhelpful perspectives, thought-processes, routines, and habits. February is a time for cleansing ourselves of what is no longer helpful - look at it as a internal pre-Spring cleaning. Use your time in the shower and the rain to purify yourself, your heart, your mind, and your intentions. Express gratitude to the water spirits on your spiritual team and ask them to assist in this purification. And while you’re at it, ask for guidance on how you can be of service to the water spirits in your community.

Friends, this is not the time to abandon your methods of self & communal care, nor is it the time to zone out with no plan of returning to your role in revolutionary work.

Lately, I’ve started writing letters to my mind every day to create more intentional processes around what I’m thinking and why. I’m sharing of my letters here:

Upgrade your subscription for more insights on the lunar transits in February & how to utilize the energy in your spiritual integration.

Click here to visit the Ritualizing Radical Imagination Board.

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That’s all for now.

p.s.:

Access your free Creative Spirit Workbook, Familial Energy products & services here.

Love,

Mila 💫

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Walking the path, after starting the day with a re-opened mother wound:

Today, we purged.

There was pain. There was…an attack.

We fixated for awhile and bore witness to some hurts that resurfaced starting on the first of this year. We faced some fears surrounding vulnerability and taking up space. But just like earlier this month, after letting the hurt and the anger come up to be processed with presence and authenticity, that energy quickly left. It was replaced with joy, curiosity, and nourishment.

The urge to ruminate and drag out the emotions simply went away. The desire to make the person who hurt me take back some of that hurt dissolved.

At a time like this, it is extremely important to hold dear the fact that we are not an entity that bitterness can easily take root in.

Yes, we feel. We emote. We complain.

But we have crafted ourselves in such a way that love and gratitude flourishes in such abundance that healing is not only possible, but very accessible based on the growth that we have prioritized.

We did good today. Thank you for functioning and being on my side.

Love,

Mila 🩵

Letter to my Mind is my current method of documenting the relationship between different parts of my body and how I am experiencing my thought processes at this time. I am praying this internal navigation assists me in Walking the Path. And I hope that through sharing, it services you as well. Share if you feel so called. Thank you.

Auditory Offering:

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What’s good ya’ll,

I pray your New Years Eve is safe and enjoyable! Get cozy, grab some tea and settle in to listen to the reading for how we need to be approaching our spiritual and collective liberation in January 2026.

Listen, re-listen, chew the meat and spit out the bones.

If you’re looking for more guidance specifically around the full moon this week and the new moon on January 18th, check out the paid subscriber content here:

Love ya’ll 🫶🏿

Mila💫

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe

(somewhat) Related: Contextualizing Ease in Your Spiritual Walk

soundtrack:

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Peace, gods.

I hope you all are ending September with peace in your hearts and fire in your spirits. As we look ahead to October, which is Hoodoo Heritage Month, we are reminded of the power of our choices. How do we choose to show up for ourselves and those we are responsible to? How is our perspective keeping us rooted in learned helplessness and narratives that serve the interests of our oppressors? We need love, art, and a commitment to studying and honoring the people who did revolutionary work.

Article mentioned: Only Revolutionary Love Can Save Us Now

TikTok mentioned:

8 of Swords post mentioned: Escaping the Trauma Trap

Nubia’s post mentioned:

Honorable mention: More on the energy of Libra by Fifth House Bloom

See ya’ll on the other side.

Mila💫

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe

What up doe,

Blessed Jupiter day. I hope you all are expanding in all the ways that nourish you and those you care for. We’re gonna jump right into it.

There is a lot here in terms of using this eclipse energy to shift our state of mind in the pursuit of true freedom, peace rooted in energetic literacy, a strong mind, and sustainable, interconnected models of success.

As always, I appreciate you for listening and walking this path with me.

More Resources

Replays of the Familial Energy Workshops and corresponding materials are available for $25, you can access them here.

The specials I’ve been running are coming to a close as August wraps up. If you are in need of one-on-one support with Familial Energy Work, this is your last opportunity to get it for the price of $125 dollars (or $100 if you have attended one of the Familial Energy Workshops). Purchase the Familial Energy Work bundle here.

Let’s end this Black August on a note of clarity, determination, and love.

Peace,

Mila💫

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkingthepath.substack.com/subscribe