how do I connect with my ancestors?
2022. I recently was doing a cacao ceremony in my usual natural spot. I was closing the ceremony by lying in Shavasana doing reiki on myself. I remember being in one of those deep relaxing states where nothing seems to exist other than calm and peace, almost entirely unaware of my body or that I am even me anymore. Lucy (my dog) began whimpering very loudly. I came back into my body a bit and decided to try and ignore her as I was a bit frustrated she had pulled me away from work. She continued to whimper progressively louder and with more fear. At this point, I knew something was wrong. I sat up and saw what I thought were two incredibly outlandishly large coyotes about 30 ft. away, sitting down with a piercing stare directly at me. If they had been sitting next to me, the tops of their heads would have gotten close to reaching my sternum ( I am 5'9'). I thought, 'There is no way a coyote is that large.' The one that was a bit smaller began to walk off, and at that point, I saw its black tail and realized holy shit, these are greys wolves. I immediately began to shake as the adrenaline and cortisol began to course through my veins. There was a brief period of 10 seconds where I couldn't think or move; all I could feel was my body beginning to vibrate and tremble intensely. Without any thought, I began to scream at it, waving my arms as intensely as possible to scare him off, but nothing. He just sat there like a stone, no movement at all. This went on for a couple minutes until the rush of hormones began to subside, and I realized I wasn't intimidating to this beast. I got down on one knee next to Lucy and started an attempt at calming her down, as she was uncontrollably shaking and whimpering still. This went on for at least another few minutes, just us, what felt like gazing into each other's souls. As I began to calm down, I could feel the most calm, old, wise man presence in the wolf I had ever witnessed. I went to reach for my phone to take a photo of what I thought might be a statue. Finally, extremely slowly and gracefully, the leader began to sit up and turn to walk away. I fumbled to get my password into my phone with my hands shaking. I was able to capture these two photos as they had already walked another 20 ft away by the time I had got my camera to snap a photo. I contacted multiple of my older, much more experienced hunting mentors and asked them to help me verify them as black wolves. They all quickly confirmed. Come to find out, only three recorded sightings of grey wolves have been recorded in Nebraska in the last 20 years.
Ironically enough, within the year, I had been informed that my last name Vuchetich means 'Pack of Wolves.' I spent the year reading about these brilliant animals who are caring, playful, and devoted to their families. Did you know wolves can hear up to six miles away? A wolf's jaw has a crushing power of nearly 1500 pounds per square inch and can eat 20 pounds of meat in one meal. They can run at almost 40 mph and swim for 8 miles. Is this a coincidence or not that I had this encounter after being educated on the roots of my last name? All I know is this was one of my most epic and exhilarating experiences. Maybe it wasn't a wolf, but from my considerable experience with coyotes, this was definitely not a coyote. The friends and hunting mentors that identified them are in their 50s and have been pursuing their entire lives. My gut tells me one of my ancestors was paying me a visit; I recently spent a lot of time with a dear soul sister who had blessed me with being more attuned to the animals and their capability to be messengers for us. I am forever grateful. Life is so fucking beautiful and magical if you just allow your heart to see it.
