<p> Ancestor reverence, in this study, is considered to consist of reflecting on and honoring the women and men who came before us in our bloodlines, including those friends and chosen family who were part of our intellectual or spiritual lineages. Many traditions include beliefs that our consciousness continues after death, and some traditions hold that ancestors may influence the events of the living or intercede with the gods on the living's behalf. In many traditions ancestors are honored through altar building, rituals, and trance journeys. Rituals performed for the ancestors create strong familial and community bonds. This thesis work is important because it expanded the opportunities for me to understand my family dynamics and to develop relationships with my deceased foremothers and forefathers. I learned about myself in understanding my families' past and felt stronger connections to my lineage and progeny. The literature revealed that genealogy research is a form of ancestor reverence; especially in Western cultures that no longer have formalized ancestor reverence rituals and practices. Through genealogy research, I learned the names and stories of my ancestors and ancestresses and, in combination with that research, on a pilgrimage to my ancestral homeland, I explored my matriline using an archaeomythological and feminist lens that combined archaeology, anthropology, mythology, folklore, genetics, ecology, and history to search for the evidence of what women did throughout herstory. I gathered the stories focused on how women worked, lived and contributed to society throughout history, because the stories of my ancestresses, like the accomplishments of most women from 1500-1900, were often omitted from written history. A sacred journey can catapult the participant into greater and faster spiritual growth; this was true for me in that I may not have gained this wisdom otherwise. In this paper I explored the idea that ancestors were revered through multiple methods, including pilgrimage and creative writing. While altar building, rituals, trance journeys, and genealogy were most often recorded in written form in regards to ancestor reverence, they are not the only methods that can provide experience and impact to the descendant who honors their ancestors. I have tried to prove this assertion through academic research: I used a heuristic approach to carefully examine my personal experiences with each of these forms of ancestor reverence and an arts-based approach through creative writing to pen short works about my ancestors.</p>

<p> In searching for restorative stories that elevate understanding and engender the capacity for seeing through the cultural chaos and confusion of modern times, this dissertation turns to Egypt at the beginning of its recorded history, approximately 3100 BCE. The ancient Egyptians faced many of the same challenges facing the world today, and they learned to weather them by creating a resilient cultural model that endured cycles of growth and decline. Their culture perpetuated while adapting and transforming. In their surviving records are some of their rituals, practices, and beliefs that provide much-needed perspectives, observations, and stories that contributed to their own renewal and capacity to regenerate their culture. </p><p> The mythological roots of renewal in ancient Egypt reveals one deity in particular who embodies the capacity to harmonize and balance the opposites&mdash;Ma&lsquo;at. She is central to the act of fostering daily reciprocal relationship and maintaining the flow of energy between the divine and the human realms. She is both the daughter of the solar god Re and his source of life. She is the embodiment of the cosmic patterns and natural laws. She is the incarnation of the offerings to the gods and their reciprocal response flowing back to the human realm. She governs the tides of justice, truth, balance, and harmony. </p><p> The collective psyche&rsquo;s inherent capacity for renewal and resilience is revealed through Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s story and prominence in Egyptian history. Their images and literature reveal that in the presence of Ma&lsquo;at, it is possible for human consciousness to discover the transcendent space where opposites reconcile to initiate new harmony, create unity, and guide all things to their rightful place. Balancing and harmonizing any duality creates a continuous circulation of energy in the psyche. This circulation has the potential to birth a conscious, ethical heart, an awakened heart which&mdash;as these ancient people would say&mdash;directs our saying and our doing. By recognizing Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s essential characteristics, understanding her relationship with her fellow deities, and identifying her foundational role within the ancient Egyptian civilization it is possible to participate in the awakening of Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s roots of renewal in our own times.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative study involved the creation and assessment of a seven-week heart-focused psycho-spiritual inquiry program, Map of the Heart. The program&rsquo;s curriculum was comprised of heart-based practices and theories designed to develop heart-centered awareness. The purpose of this investigation was to reveal and understand the personal experience and expression of heart intelligence and to define it and its personal meaning while illuminating the clinical relevance of Map of the Heart curriculum in the field of counseling psychology. </p><p> The curriculum was organized into six weekly themes based upon core heart feelings associated with the Four Immeasurable Truths, Buddhist virtues, and practices for cultivating the heart. Informed by East-West psychology, the curriculum highlighted perennial philosophy from both Eastern and Western religions and indigenous and psychological traditions, integrating spiritual discipline with Western neuroscience research and psychotherapy practices. </p><p> The research design used heuristic phenomenology and co-operative inquiry to explicate the individual and group experience of heart intelligence. Data analysis was primarily derived from a series of one-on-one semi-structured interviews and group dialogue sessions with nine state-registered psychotherapists. </p><p> Research findings indicated that Map of the Heart may support psycho-spiritual and clinical skills development and may encourage personal and interpersonal conflict resolution. Co-researchers reported increased experiential awareness of their own heart center and a defined ability to connect internally, reinforcing therapeutic intuition, perception, and sensitivity, subsequently strengthening the therapeutic alliance. Increases in therapeutic presence, empathic listening, attunement, and accurate mirroring were also reported. Co-researchers reported a greater ability to work more effectively with difficult clients and complex mental health issues. As a result, transformative changes in the client were observed. Co-researchers indicated that they were able to effectively use aspects of the curriculum for therapeutic intervention and clinical directives, where the heart became a focal point of the session. For example, the client focused on their own heart center by implementing heart breathing and other heart-related exercises to facilitate self-inquiry and emotional self-regulation. </p><p> Map of the Heart offers the beginnings of a theoretical template and experiential basis upon which psychotherapists, psychologists, and mental health care and other professionals can access and integrate the spiritual, psychological, and physiological terrain of the heart for therapeutic process and intervention. Further investigation is necessary to determine a more comprehensive psychology and theoretical orientation of the heart.</p><p>