11 Comments

Good post and we all need our Baba Yaga's. Do I think trauma is passed down in our DNA? NO! If that were the case don't know how we would survive at all. Trauma is handed down to others by direct actions which perpetuate the cycle of trauma endlessly. For a great movie series which illustrates how we perpetuate trauma in the modern world or choose to overcome it see "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."

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If you are interested in learning more about epigenetics, check out Bruce Lipton's work. I just wrote about Baba Yaga for my November newsletter since her feast day is next month, so it was interesting to see this pop up in my mail.

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I just bought a Baba Yaga book by a woman I met at a recent writing conference! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709718/the-witch-and-the-tsar-by-olesya-salnikova-gilmore/

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There are some studies around the grandchildren of holocaust survivors that seem to show that generational trauma is indeed a physical reality. I suspect it’s true - and doesn’t really change anything. There are so many factors affecting gene expression we will never know them all.

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I believe sperm are the big site for epigenetics, because they get replaced every 48 hours or sooner, creating the window for chromosomal alterations due to 'current events' that doesn't exist in female eggs.

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Nov 3, 2022Liked by Robyn Ryle

Fortunately or unfortunately, I always go for the magical thinking view. I do think we're affected by our parents/ grandparents trauma. I was thinking how I was influenced by the depression although I was born much later but it certainly had major impact on my parents and then on me.

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