In this blog, I want to talk about the Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator. What is it? Who is this role on a creative project? When and why would you bring them on your team?
First, what is an “Intimacy Coordinator” in general? This is an Artistic role that you’ll find on film, TV, theatre, dance or multidisciplinary projects.
Usually you’d bring in an Intimacy Coordinator when your story contains sexual intimacy, nudity, or charged subject matter like abuse, trauma, injustice, or grief.
Their job is to act as an advocate for actors/performers, protecting their safety and consent. Sometimes they’ll provide choreography, active listening or on-site counselling. They’ll give ongoing feedback and suggestions for best practises to the creative/production team, ensuring a nurturing and supportive environment as a whole.
In the last several years, there’s been a rise in recognizing the importance of this role, especially due to widespread abuse of power, harassment & histories of exploitation on sets, stages and artistic industries as a whole.
More and more projects have been creating dedicated budgets for this role, and advocating for a culture where we see this work as an essential part of the process, as much as any other kind of department like lighting, costumes, etc.
Of course there’s tons of push back & varied opinions on whether a role like this is useful; whether it helps or hinders a process.
My opinion is that it is necessary, and also it is a body of work and craft in development. There are people who do it well and some who do it not-so-well – just like you have writers or directors who are excellent at their craft, some who leave a lot to be desired, and some who were raised in a paradigm that may not be helpful to what your project needs.
(That’s my very polite way of saying that a writer who only understands craft and cannon according to white supremacy, may not be able to support a writing process dedicated to racial healing. That’s the same in any discipline, including the craft of an Intimacy Coordinator.)
So what, then, is an Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator? When and why would you bring this role into your project?
This role is for Storytellers who collaborate with Ancestors, the Spirit World, our Earthly non-human relatives, and who bring in metaphysical technologies as a part of your creative process.
THERE ARE A FEW SCENARIOS WHERE YOU WOULD BRING THIS ROLE ONTO YOUR PROJECT:
1. You may be an emerging or established healer/spiritual practitioner, who wants to invest more in creating works of art that are currently knocking on your door.
But you don’t want to follow “the way things are done” in artistic environments that do not account for the spiritual realm of life. You want to build your entire creative process in a foundation of Ancestor Veneration and Ceremony, and as an extension of the medicine you already practise. An Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator can come onto your project and help you understand your project AND process as Ancestral movement & Ancestral medicine.
2. You may be an emerging or established Storyteller – a writer, director, showrunner, producer or artist of any genre.
You feel deeply connected to the Spirit World, and you’ve been opening up to more of the unknowable parts of life. You may even be experiencing new spiritual and otherworldly gifts coming online, or a nagging curiosity about your connection to the mysteries of the Universe. This will inevitably move and fill into your creative process. Here, you want a knowledgable Spiritual Advisor on your team, someone who has a lot of experience in connecting with the Spirit World, and who can speak to the nuance of your artistic craft. They can help you navigate your process safely, responsibly and enjoyably.
(*Be mindful that there are a lot of Spiritual Coaches & Advisors out there who may not fully understand the life of an Artist or Writer; they may not have studied spiritual technologies according to specific artistic craft, and thus might not give you appropriate advisement. They may even covertly or overtly undermine your process – I’ve experienced this myself. An Ancestral Intimacy Coordinator will have a practise and expertise in both spiritual and creative technologies.)
3. You may be deep in the game on both accounts – an emerging or experienced Ceremonialist/Spiritualist who has incredible creative talents and/or major creative projects that demand to be seen, nurtured, developed and shared with the world.
Here, you want to create your work within an ecosystem that explicitly understands & respects how your creative process is different than ones that do not connect to Ceremony or Ancestor healing. This way your process can be properly nurtured and enlivened, instead of undermined or led astray. Bring in an Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator because you want to set yourself up for extra support and optimal success.
LET’S DEMYSTIFY THIS MYSTICAL ROLE
First – contexualization. We have to recognize the time we’re in. We as an era, are in a massive spiritual awakening.
Humanity as a whole is in process of awakening to a deeper connection to the Spirit World. Millions of people are remembering the ways of our Ancestors. We are coming back home to the village roots of our lineages, where wild spiritual gifts & abundant cosmic relationships were a normal part of daily life.
We can talk about this in very practical terms, too. Where do you live? In a town or city – but that is part of a larger land mass where you also live.
Our planet doesn’t just float around in a void, it’s part of a wider Universe. Think about everything in our Universe we don’t understand. Our Universe contains multitudes: quantum phenomena, multiple dimensions and galactic history. This is also where we live. It’s what holds us, shapes us, and communicates with us.
It’s not weird or woo (except everything about it is weird and woo), it’s just the nature of the land we’re on. We’re on Cosmic Land.
One of the primary missions of colonization has been to sever and interrupt our relationship to the Spirit World, including severing the relationship between science and Spirit. Patriarchy has instilled this idea that intellect and “rational knowing” is superior to intuitive, emotional, interpersonal and spiritual knowing.
So, to engage in knowing our quantum universe through science and intellect alone is valued, respected and funded. But if you’re a healer, artist or human who has a direct, alive and reciprocal relationship with your Ancestors and the Quantum Universe – then you’re crazy and can’t be trusted.
It’s not just ableist, misogynist and white supremacist. Earth-based traditions and spiritual practices that see everything as alive are intentionally demonized.
We see this functioning primarily through anti-Blackness and religious trauma/dogma, if you look at how traditions like Hoodoo and Voodoo are stigmatized and seen as “evil” or “the devil’s work.” Not only is this untrue, Black-centered healing traditions throughout the ages have done/still do essential spiritual work to ensure the entire planet stays alive, and we all benefit from their labour. (If you want an example of this, just look at Annie from Sinners.)
Spiritual Decolonization means repairing our relationship to the Spirit World, our Earth-honouring lineages, and allowing our perception of what is “real” or “not real” to change. Many of us are awakened to the Ancestral realm and we don’t even realize it.
For example: you have a fight with your partner and it is super charged. You don’t understand why such a “little” fight feels so monumentally intense. You both may be channeling Ancestors in your lineage that have an ugly history. Moreoever, when you fight you may be releasing WAVES of Ancestors who have experienced repeated acts of harm and they’re all asking for justice.
In these types of conflicts, mainstream therapy will not be able to properly address the situation. Here, you need a Healer who can see and understand what complex dynamics are happening on the Ancestral plane.
You need someone who knows techniques, tools & protocols to safely release Ancestors, help them get what they need and move on.
We don’t often talk about how deep it cuts when we experience conflict in a creative process. Break-ups between beloved creative collaborators are devastating. A set that falls apart due to conflict brings up major pain and grief.
These types of conflict are similarly charged in moments where waves of unhealed Ancestors are activated through a conflict, but they don’t have a way of being processed, held safely or released. It’s even more heightened because there are multiple people on your team, and complex legacies and dynamics are unleashed in chaos.
In simple terms: Ancestors are being invoked, awakened & activated, but the Ancestral plane isn’t being properly cared for in the foundation of your creative process.
WORKING SAFELY & RESPONSIBLY WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD ON YOUR CREATIVE PROJECT:
What this takes is specific to each unique situation. But, there are some fundamentals we can talk about here. I’m going to focus on theatre, film and TV – but this can be applied for group projects across the board like educational spaces, activism and liberation movement work.
(There’s so much conflict in these spaces now, yeah? We need Ancestral Healing technologies to address issues currently arising.)
On a basic level, you have to be willing to treat Ancestors as valued collaborators worthy of recognition, respect and reciprocity, the same way you would hopefully treat any other collaborator.
If you were preparing a film set or running a rehearsal room, you wouldn’t want to invite an artist into the process, and then pretend they’re not real when they walk through the door.
You wouldn’t want to invite a beloved grandmother over for a dinner party then give her food she can’t digest, a chair that’s too hard on her body, and ignore her specific needs while the rest of you has a good time.
SOME BASIC GUIDELINES:
LANGUAGE: While benevolent Ancestors are very generous – they can and do go the extra mile to speak to us in a language we understand – we also want to extend ourselves to them as a gesture of love and appreciation. Be willing to speak in a language that makes sense to them, even if you feel awkward or unsure.
First and foremost, I mean the language of Ceremony and Ritual: singing a song at the start of rehearsal, salt in four corners, herbs at the door, etc.
INVITATION: Ancestors require a consensual, mutually desired invitation process. Sometimes they can’t show up the minute we ask for them – we have to go through a process in life to begin collaborating together. Just like we have auditions, interviews, and applications, we want to build a ritual space to invite intentional Ancestors, Guides and Guardians into a project. We can do other things to prepare like pull tarot cards, seek divination, keep water near the bed to connect in the dream realm, or sit in meditation and prayer.
CONTRACT: Ancestors want to study the fine print of a project just like any other collaborator. This is where a Healer can come onto your project and sit in divination with the deeper Ancestor prayers and promises coming into fruition through this Story. We can pin point Soul agreements or relationship principles that your Story brings to light.
RECIPROCITY: Artists need a living, thriving wage so they are fully supported to do their job – Ancestors need to be paid a reciprocity that supports their labour and presence too. We call these “offerings.” Each project will ask for a different kind of offering, just like Artists ask for specific payments and payment schedules.
MIND THE GATES: It’s very wise to begin and end creative sessions, rehearsals or performance events with a ritual to open and close the Ancestral gates. Otherwise it’s like inviting a bunch of people to your home and never kicking them out. You want to leave your spiritual space clean instead of leaving garbage all over the floor. These can be simple intentional actions, like a song, movement, prayer or meditation to begin and end a session.
SINCERITY: Most of all, Ancestors want to feel welcome and wanted when they are called into a project – not invoked and then ignored, and not made fun of or disparaged (as there is still so much stigma against those of us who work in these traditions). Ancestors need to be considered throughout the process. We have practices for this: we say their names, we light candles, we pour libations, we spend time with them, we sit in the quiet and tune into our bodies in order to listen to what they have to say.
There’s no need to fear engaging your process as a place of Ceremony and Ancestor Veneration from the get go.
If you already have the power to connect with the Spirit World, but you’re not taking responsibility for it – that’s where things get can get painful and dangerous.
It’s like getting on a rollercoaster and not putting on your seat belt because you think – putting on my seat belt will make this too real. No my friend, if you’re already on the rollercoaster, putting on your seat belt will make this a safe & enjoyable experience…and it’s the responsible thing to do, no!?
If the Spirit World is present, but you’re not taking proper care of it – you will not be able to protect yourself from unwanted and weird spiritual energies that infiltrate your set. They’ll show up because they DON’T want your project and its medicine to survive. This can show up as unnecessary conflict, delays, or actions that sabotage the process.
THE STORYTELLER’S ASTRO-CARTOGRAPHY:
My practise as an Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator is unique because I bring my long-standing experience with decolonizing astrology and a practise I call, “The Storyteller’s Astro-Cartography.”
Here, I sit in divination with the spirit of your story and draw a map of your project:
• geographic, astrological and political pathways & gateways running through your project;
• collaborating star systems, elemental & celestial Ancestors, non-human relatives, allies, accomplices and companions;
• primordial stories on the land you’re on & Indigenous agreements with the land
…All to understand how your project contributes something toward bigger LandBack, decolonization and planetary liberation promises. This map becomes a blueprint and guiding spirit for the entire process that we can re-visit regularly. Here we can illuminate specifities around ceremonial protocols, ancestral contracts, offerings, best practices and the spiritual structure of your project.
WORKING THROUGH ANCESTRAL CONFLICT ON A CREATIVE PROJECT:
A while back, a friend told me about an experience they had on a film set. It was a project where Ancestors were activated, and the Spirit World was engaged on some level. In the middle of the process a huge conflict erupted. Deep rage was present. The set fell apart and the team couldn’t come back from it. When my friend told me about this, I immediately saw and felt the core issue.
We are in a moment in time where everyone is going through a monumental shift.
Astrologically, we’re ending a 15-year era of Pluto in Capricorn, and shifting into a completely new 20-year era of Pluto in Aquarius. Everyone has something in their personal life under deep review and re-organization.
In the midst of this, we are being called to listen and unearth a deeper Ancestral voice – one that can help us collectively build more sustainability and power in our liberation movements.
In the process, so much is coming undone. We are being asked to deconstruct and redefine some of our foundational understandings of revolution & activism, what to do with our privilege, and our relationship to big things like loyalty, commitment, family, surviving, thriving, winning.
A central principle of energy healing is – when you reach a new level of healing & consciousness, you have to learn how to create boundaries in that new realm, too.
You have to confront the antagonists that live in new areas of awareness and commitment. This brings us to a deeper and older set of Ancestors, guardians, protectors and directors.
It brings older memories to the forefront how we lived and died in thriving villages.
Conflict isn’t “bad” in these situations – it’s inevitable. The concern is, does everyone have the care they need through the conflict? Do we have a way of processing what’s happening?
In these situations, an Ancestral Intimacy Coordinator can provide divination, assessment and clarity on what is happening on the Ancestral Plane.
From there, ceremonial protocols will be illuminated, such as a past life release process, to help the project move through conflict with ease.
Many times conflict will arise simply because Ancestors want a particular ceremony around something sacred – they are helping us find our way back to our Earth-honouring traditions and practices.
THE PROTECTION AN EXPERIENCED ANCESTRAL HEALER & CEREMONIALIST CAN PROVIDE:
I was recently part of this beautiful pride performance event for a Free Palestine, organized by my friends Sze-Yang and Trixi. The purpose of the event was to raise money to support folks who have been arrested or lost jobs for advocating for Palestine, as well as work with a collective helping to get water into Gaza.
The set of performers were queer and trans Arab, Black, Indigenous and people of colour. I performed as well as hosted the event. Each of us brought our hearts, grief, and guts to the stage.
Many, if not all, artists here have the ability to pierce through worlds and dimensions with our Storytelling.
Spiritual protection for an event like this is paramount. There is an enormous amount of energy that does not want any kind of Palestinian organizing to survive – and that energy extends to the spiritual plane. This must be addressed on the Ancestral level in order to protect the safety and thriving of the event and its sacred intentions.
When I walked on stage to begin hosting the event, I began by singing a song that was on my heart before I spoke. Many people would assume it was just a song, but it was more than that.
The song was a ceremonial protocol: a way to call in Ancestors, Guardians and Protectors into the space. Ancestors can’t just automatically protect us, because they operate via free will and consent. They need to be asked and invited in their own language.
Photos of me hosting, performing and providing energy healing: a black and red shiny background. Shaunga, a Bengali Multi-Gendered Artist offers an Ancestor-Guided “Bone Closing Performance Ceremony” at One Thread Weave’s the World: To Palestine with Love. These photos are from our first show in Novemer 2024.
IT’S ABOUT THE HUMAN BEHIND THE ACTION:
Some people starting out on their Ancestor healing journey get anxious about ceremonial protocols and focus on how to do things the right or wrong way.
I would encourage folks not to get stuck in that kind of thinking. The real question is, how sincere and committed are you to the full scope of your own healing journey?
All you have to do is meet yourself where you’re at. That’s the medicine. Invest in that sincerity and you’ll find your way. You do not have to be perfect. The most powerful ceremonial protocols & rituals succeed because they are heartfelt and generous.
When I sang the song for the Free Palestine event, it wasn’t just about the song – it’s the human behind the voice.
In other words, the Ancestral protection I was able to call into a space through my voice with a simple song, was only possible because of decades of dedication, investment and commitment I’ve put into my personal healing journey.
For example: I’ve learned hard lessons on my healing journey around theft. I’ve been stolen from, manipulated and psychologically abused by people I thought I could trust.
Through this, I’ve learned how to understand what was happening on the Ancestral plane through these experiences, and protect myself from theft on the Ancestral level. I’ve done deep healing to address my participation in these dynamics. I’ve completed initiations, apprenticeship and life cycles on this particular wound. I’ve paid my bills and my dues here.
Through this investment, I’ve been able to implement a “Soul Contract” in my personal energy field: if you try and take something from me that doesn’t belong to you, the energy of that choice gets sent back to you through my energy field before it makes a dent in my personal life.
If you come with ill intentions, deceit, the desire to exploit, or act without consent – that energy gets sent back to you, and you probably won’t have a good day.
I’ve integrated this knowing and re-membrance deep in my soul and bones. I can’t control other people’s actions, or stop them from doing shitty things. I don’t do magic on other people, I do magic on myself. Meaning, you can try to cheat me out of a fair deal, but I don’t recommend it. The energy of those actions get sent back to you because they are yours. They are not mine to wrestle with. Your choices are your responsibility to address.
The spell work I’ve done on myself means that even if people try or even succeed to treat me like this, none of it will impact my bottom line.
The fact that I have done this work means that now when I open my mouth to sing at a performance event, I immediately call those Ancestral protectors into the space.
Because I’ve done this work on myself, I’m able to offer it to the collective.
The fundraising event was held and grounded by an incredible amount of spiritual strength – that is a workload, even if it’s literally “invisible labour.” We were able to raise the money we set out to raise, and the showcase had an easeful, beautiful, powerful run.
BRING ME ON YOUR TEAM
It is a Rockstar Move to create an abundant, spacious budget for the Ancestral Intimacy Coordinator on your project, and in a spiritual + artistic + liberation movement as a whole.
The work we do IS invisible – we literally work with the unseen realms of life. But the labour shouldn’t be invisibilized, you know?
This is not the time to underpay this role. This is not the time to cut corners on this role.
Whatever you think this role is worth, give it extra space to account for generations of unseen, unpaid labour. Hold your investors accountable toward valuing this role appropriately. We need Ancestral Healing work on all realms of revolutionary contributions. That’ll be the Game Changer.
Personally, what would really heal my heart right now is the opportunity to work on some really amazing projects with really good people. If your project needs an Ancestor Intimacy Coordinator, let’s talk!
You can be in any phase of development – dreaming a new seed, writing your first draft, in the midst of a workshop or production, preparing for launch, preparing for a role, or even integrating or reflecting on a process.
If you’re interested in bringing Shaunga onto your project, you can send an email to mercury@shaungatagore.com
Please include a short description of what you’re looking for, and we will contact you for a follow up conversation. Note that we consider each request we receive deeply for alignment on ancestral, spiritual and energetic levels. In some cases we may discern that we are not the right collaborator for your project.
ORGANIZING AN ECONOMY
THE REALITY IS: in order to fully recognize, support and recognize the labour of our Artists, Ancestral Healers, Scholars, Teachers, Activists and heartfelt humans – we have to revolutionize the way we organize money.
We have to imagine different ways of moving money, sharing money, and building wealth amongst ourselves – to ensure that everyone called to do revolutionary artistic work on the planet is abundantly supported.
In 2026, we are hosting a Village Wide Artist Residency called “A Friendship That Can Withstand the Revolution.” This is a residency on Unlocking Ancestor Dreaming, Abolitionist Ancestor Theatre, and a hands-on research practicum on Shaunga’s vision for a Village Artist Grant Ecosystem.
This research is our contribution to co-creating the conditions for earth-honouring, ancestor-honouring economies to emerge, to build wealth for our life path, and revolutionize the way we share, grow, raise and organize money.
To learn more about the residency: visit this page.
THE WIZARD BEHIND THE CURTAIN
I’m Shaunga. Queer. Multi-Gendered. Bengali. Not Your Average Weirdo. You can read more about me on my ABOUT PAGE>>
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WE ARE THE WIZARD’S GREATEST ASSISTANTS.
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Questions? Email us: mercury@shaungatagore.com
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