We are living in an age of unprecedented access- with more and more online courses, social media gurus, circles popping up everywhere….
After one workshop, one online certification, one viral post — someone can call themselves a teacher, a healer, a guide, a priestess, even a shaman!
And yet… lineage matters. In fact, it may matter now more than ever.
What Is Lineage?
Lineage is not just a certificate, lineage is transmission.
It is the unbroken thread of wisdom passed from teacher to student, from elder to initiate, from ancestor to descendant. It is knowledge that has been tested, refined, humbled, purified through generations. It is the river that remembers where it began. Lineage is not always institutional — but it is always relational. It says to us- I did not arrive here alone.
Whist we are reclaiming the drum, it did not begin with us…..
The frame drum is one of the oldest sacred instruments known to humanity. It has been used across continents — from Arctic tundra to desert temples — as a vehicle for prayer, trance, healing, and remembrance.
When we make or hold a drum, we are not inventing something new.
We are entering a lineage of sound. The hide once belonged to an animal. The wood once belonged to a tree. The rhythm belongs to the Earth. To work with the Drum without reverence for its lineage is to forget the ones who sang before us, the ones who had their drums taken, burned, stolen. It’s vital we REMEMBER the ancestors of the drum.
Before there were Instagram herbalists, there were elders who learned through apprenticeship, through decades of observation, through mistakes that could cost lives. Plant medicine was traditionally transmitted through direct relationship — often guarded, protected, and earned.
Consider this as you walk on the earth- the land also holds lineage. Every hill, river, and stone has a history. To teach on land without acknowledging its indigenous wisdom keepers is to sever ourselves from the deeper roots of place.
Lineage humbles us.
It reminds us that we are students of something far older than ourselves.
We are in a time where discernment is essential.
Not everyone who “talks the talk” has done the work.
Not everyone who has trauma has transmuted it.
Not everyone who has attended a workshop is ready to hold space for others.
Experience matters — yes!
Sober alcoholics often help those still struggling. Recovering addicts can guide others through the fire because they have walked it.
But there is a difference between lived experience and embodied integration.
When someone is holding space for trauma, for initiation, for spiritual awakening — they must have faced their own shadows, walked through their dark nights of the soul, been held by someone more experienced than themselves, done their own healing work — repeatedly!
We cannot guide others safely into the depths if we have never navigated our own.
Here are questions we can ask when discerning a teacher…
Who trained you?
How long did you study?
Who were your teachers?
Do you still have mentors?
What lineage do you belong to?
How do you continue your own healing and supervision?
How do you handle projection, transference, and trauma responses?
These are not confrontational questions, they are wise questions.
I mean would you go to a nutritionist who does not embody basic health? Take yoga instruction from someone who has never practiced deeply? Receive Reiki from someone who has not been attuned to the proper level?
In traditions like Reiki, lineage is explicit — a direct energetic transmission from teacher to student tracing back to Mikao Usui.
The power lies not just in technique, but in the integrity of the channel, a teacher who walks her talk.
Lineage is not only external…..It is also ancestral.
We carry genetic memory, we carry unresolved grief, we carry strengths and songs and survival codes.
When we do our healing work, we are not only healing ourselves — we are tending the line behind us and the line ahead of us.
To claim leadership without tending our own ancestral field can unconsciously pass forward unprocessed wounds.
Doing the work is humbling, repetitive, often invisible, but it creates clean space and clean space is what allows real medicine to move.
This is about integrity.
Yes — lived experience is sacred.
Yes — we can rise from our own ashes and guide others.
But those who do so with integrity usually seek mentorship, remaining students, honouring the ones who walked before them.
Lineage strengthens us and protects those we serve.
In a time of spiritual consumerism and instant credentials, lineage is an anchor, it reminds us that wisdom is earned.
That depth takes time….Initiation is not a weekend event!
May we become teachers only after we have been devoted students.
May we honour the Drum, the plants, the land, and our ancestors.
May we walk with humility.
May we choose our guides with discernment.
And may we remember to listen to our inner voice and our body, for the belly and the bones know who is true.
edit… I also want to mention those “teachers” who have been put on pedestals, made into capitalist gurus… know YOU have the answers within!
This article….
https://lissarankinmd.substack.com/p/blowing-the-whistle-on-deepak-chopra
Connect with me….. *Online teachings * Drum Making* Videos* Blog * Instagram * Bone Breathing*
You must be logged in to post a comment.