Communing with the Ancestors: Your Spirit Guides, Bloodline Allies, and the Cycle of Reincarnation
224
Communing with the Ancestors: Your Spirit Guides, Bloodline Allies, and the Cycle of Reincarnation
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Overview
Explore the realm of the ancestors with author and Pagan scholar Raven Grimassi. In this fascinating and far-ranging guide, you will learn practices and rituals both ancient and new for communing with the ancestors, specifically:
- How to build shrines and altars and make offers.
- Where to find and work with sacred sites, power places, and special portals to the ancients.
- Guided imagery that will take you into the “Cavern of the Ancestors,” the spiritual corridor where the ancestors can be directly approached.
- How to access the Spirit-Rider, an ancestor that can travel between the realms of mortals and ancients.
- How to see and understand the restless dead who remain bound to the Earth realms.
- The role of reincarnation in the soul’s relationship to ancestral lineage.
- Plus some of the extraordinary folklore, legend, and superstition surrounding the topic.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633410176 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 315,076 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Communing with the Ancestors
Your Spirit Guides, Blooding Allies, and the Cycle of Reincarnation
By Raven Grimassi
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2016 Raven GrimassiAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63341-017-6
CHAPTER 1
Spiritual Heirlooms
I perch upon the old tales of my Ancestors. Not all of them are recorded in myth, legend, or ballad. I hear now, as I have for most of my life, the inner stories whispered to me by my Ancestors. I do not find them to be less than the published books containing recorded Ancestral ways, beliefs, and stories. These printed tales themselves originated from an earlier "inner knowing" before any Ancestor or descendant ever penned them on paper. Some memories are recorded, some flow silently within the blood, and others are carried on the Voice of the Wind.
My eyes look out upon a modern world but see an ancient one. Our lineage is spiritual; it is an heirloom preserved within us. Your soul and mine, in many bodies, once walked upon the Ancestral lands, tread over the bones of our dead, and stood in the center of what our Ancestors once knew as sacred. Through various people, our souls have witnessed what is often called history, as well as all that escaped the attention of history and historians over the ages.
Old primitive stories tell us that the Ancestral gods came to Earth and scattered bits of flame from within themselves, which went on to become the human race. These spirit flames that were passed from the gods then flowed through the generations of humans that followed this ancient time and mystical event. Perhaps the heart of this theme is reflected in the custom of people seated before a fire sharing stories and family tales.
The Ancestral flame is inherent in each living generation; its light is within you at this very moment. It can illuminate the past, present, and future if you carry it there.
Stars were once thought of as flickering flames in the night sky. Here the mythical Seven Sisters danced in the Pleiades, and from their influence mortals created the rites of night. These descending daughters of May are the departing daughters of November's Eve; they are half-sisters to the Hesperides who tend the garden in which the fruit of immortality grows and is guarded by a serpent. These Seven Daughters of Night are also half-sisters to Hermes who escorts the Dead. There is more to say about all of this in a later chapter.
Death is inevitable. As the last breath of our body leaves us, we go out with it to the mountaintop that looks out upon the realm of our Ancestors. At birth, with the first breath of our new body, our Ancestors have returned us to the world of mortalkind. Once free of the womb to draw that breath, we cry out with sorrow, knowing that our feet fell short of reaching the Hidden Realm, and we also cry out with astonishment at the road we must travel once again in the flesh; the way to the Ancestors and to the starry path beyond. When newborns wail, pathways open.
It is the life breath that unites us with our Ancestors. On our breath is carried the memories of them when we speak about those who came before us; on our breath is carried the prayers and chants that we raise for the Ancestors. Breath passes through the blood within our lungs, and in our blood is the connection back to bone; back to all that comes from within the bone. The Ancestors are the marrow of the bone memory. Breath allows the Ancestors to rise within us and for us to submerge within them.
In the human fetus, marrow first appears in the clavicles (the collarbones). The name clavicle comes from the Latin word for "little key" and is descriptive of the shape of the bone, which looks much like an old-fashioned skeleton key. Within bone marrow is a membrane that prevents cells that have not matured from passing into the greater body through the bloodstream. In metaphysics there is also a "membrane" that prevents immature souls from eluding the Wheel of Rebirth and slipping into the greater body of Reality. Guardians and keys are always present at the gates between life, death, and renewal.
When our breath carries the words we speak to someone about our Ancestors, they hear us on the Voice of the Wind. The Ancestors are said to travel out upon our life's breath, which carries them into the next generation when their stories continue to be passed on from generation to generation. If we are faithful bearers of "the story," then we too are carried upon the breath of the Living when we pass from the world of mortalkind through the Gate of Death.
In the book The Cry of the Kahuna, Moke Kupihea describes himself as a "hereditary scribe" serving the Ancestral Voices of his lineage. This can be true for all of us if we choose to take on this role. The arm and the reach of our Ancestors is very long; its elbow is pressed into the past, its forearm extends into the present, and its hand reaches to touch the future.
It seems that many people think of the Ancestors as being something entirely of the past. This view can extend to thinking of the Ancestors as part of a dead and distant world, half-remembered if remembered at all. However, the Ancestors are conscious beings, and they are not detached from the world of the Living. We can touch them and talk with them because they are everywhere. They are part of the land, for they have passed into it; they are part of the air because their life breath was joined to it. When we remember the Ancestors, we literally "bring them to life" because they enter into us who are the living generation.
Walk upon the ancient sites, pause amidst the old standing stones, and touch the once sacred waters. In doing so, you can come to the realization that the Ancestors are part of the landscape as well as the dreamscape. Interface with your Ancestral land and you meet the first Ancestor. You will return to your origins. Looking up from the first altar set by the first Ancestor, you can see the stars, the moon, and the sun anew. Interface with your dreamscape and you will enter into the presence of the Source of All Things.
You exist today in the material world because each of your direct Ancestors lived long enough to procreate. The seeds scattered by the Ancestors have become you; you are the sprout and the future seed-bearer of your lineage. You may choose not to procreate or you may not be able to do so. This need not end your role in passing on the seed-lineage because your soul can return to the bloodline again in a future lifetime. There are many byways that cross the sacred landscape.
The landscape of our Ancestors presented a much richer vision than that of modern humans. They knew of older races on the earth before the reign of humankind. One of them was the Faery race. The old tales and ancient beliefs cast a mystical mist, and in its periodic parting we catch glimpses of Faery mounds, secret lake islands, and doorways to the Hidden Realm itself. In the mixing and overlapping lore, the lines blur between Neolithic burial mounds and Faery mounds, and even between faeries and spirits of the Dead. In the gathered mist the world of the Dead, that of the Faery, and the realm of the Ancestors becomes almost indistinguishable.
Among our Ancestors were the seers, those with what is often called the Second Sight. They saw that the Sacred landscape was both material and non- material. In this light the realm of Faery is the inner landscape of Nature. Because humans are a part of Nature, a threshold to the realm of Faery exists within us as well. It is an inner place and so it cannot readily be seen through the physical eyes unless they look through the heart of the innermost self. Perhaps this is the Second Sight, the moving away from the physical eyes to their counterparts that see the landscape in our dreams.
Dreams are footpaths and portals to the Otherworld. The dreamscape colors the myths and legends passed to us from our Ancestors. It adds the imagery that connects the world of mortalkind to the eternal world that is its counterpart. Through the old stories we find a mirroring. Just as a forest or a city is reflected upon a lake or another body of water (in reversed position) so too it is with the outer and inner worlds. Bodies of water mirror the upper world of humankind and suggest a parallel realm beneath in which the spiritkind dwells. Thoughts of other lands, other worlds, have always compelled exploration.
Mystical passageways and inner realms are featured in most tales of quest. In them the hero is gifted an object (or obtains it through self-effort) that makes success possible in completing the goal. In Northern Europe one example is the Silver Bough, a magical apple branch with silver apples on it. This is given to the hero by a Faery Queen, and it grants safe passage to and from the realm of Faery. In Southern Europe the object is the Golden Bough, a mystical oak branch with mistletoe on it. This bough allows safe passage to and from the Underworld. Both of these myths or legends point to a belief that once a mortal enters the inner realm, no return is normally intended in any way that is natural to that realm.
The stories of our Ancestors tell us that the Otherworld Realm is a land "fairer than any known to mortals." In this land it is always Summer, with clear flowing water and breezes perfumed with the scent of flowers. The meadows are always in blossom, and the trees are hung with ripened fruit. Birds are in song, and honey is abundant simply for the taking. From time to time the beautiful sound of a harp with silver strings drifts by and stirs love in the youths and maidens who enjoy this wondrous realm.
The faeries who were known to our Ancestors were not the small winged beings sitting on flower tops as seen on modern greeting cards. Some old tales depict them having a fair complexion and their long yellow hair is fixed back with combs of gold. They wear a mantle of green cloth inlaid with wild flowers; their pants are green and they wear silver shoes. In one disquieting description the faeries carry quivers of "adder slough" and their bows are made of human ribs, which are taken from graves where the lands of three lords come together. Their arrows are made from bog reed, tipped with white flints that are dipped in the dew of hemlock. The faeries ride on steeds whose hooves do not disturb the meadow flowers. This is quite a different depiction of faeries from that of modern minds.
Other accounts, such as those of Robert Kirk in the 17th century, provide a wider view of the Faery race. His journal depicts the faeries as consisting of tribes and orders. Kirk refers to faeries as the Sith (Sidhe) and separates them into "good" and "bad" in terms of their interactions with humans. He writes that the Sith are divided into two different courts known as the Seelie and the Unseelie. The former title means "blessed," and the latter means "unblessed." Kirk describes the land of the faery as being similar to the human world with its own terrain and light. However, time is different in their realm and is not measured in the way of humankind; the cycles and tides of their enchanted landscape have their own rhythm.
The inner and outer landscape of our Ancestors was vital because it connected them with the tides and cycles of not only Nature, but also the Cosmos. Renewal and continuation were the lessons taught each year as the Four Seasons gave way to one another during the course of the year. This pattern extended to erecting standing stones designed to track celestial events. Through this, humankind learned it could participate in the repeating patterns, and that it belonged to something greater.
Great emphasis was placed upon the family and tribe. Rituals and customs grew around these units. One old practice was for a baby to be brought to the oldest matriarch. She would look into the eyes of the baby to see if she could recognize a reincarnated member. A return to the bloodline was considered to be an important event as we will see in later chapters of this book. One related practice was to name newborns after someone who had passed into the Otherworld. This was intended to honor the memory of the individual, but it is also a stepping stone between the past and the present.
Memory is an important connective element in the theme of the Ancestral Spirit. We see this even in simple ways such as keeping photos of departed loved ones on the fireplace mantle or somewhere in the home. This practice may come from more than just the desire to remember them; the Ancestors do not want to be forgotten. They influence us in ways that escape the attention of a great many people.
In days of old it was a common practice for people to try to fulfill what a loved one had not completed in her or his life. In part this was believed to help the deceased "rest in peace," but there is another larger idea underlying the quest. What I refer to here is the Ancestral Mission, the collective goal of a lineage. Just as individuals work to create change in their lifetime, to make a difference, so too does the Ancestral Spirit. Each newborn member of a lineage is seen as another agent sent to help accomplish the goal. This ties into the three components of living one's life, all of which are ultimately connected to the Ancestral Spirit.
The Threefold Currents of Life
Humans have long pondered the question as to whether or not life has any meaning. Is there purpose? Do our lives matter in the larger picture? Is our existence just a fluke? All of these questions are strongly egocentric and seem to bypass the higher thought that our existence is part of a larger theme. In one sense this is like a skin cell wondering about the meaning of its existence as though there is no body in which it lives, operates, and functions.
One view that can help to try to sort this out is the idea of three components to life in the material world. They are called Participation, Being, and Purpose. Each has its own polarity of active and passive, projective and receptive. While each one can stand apart, there is greater realization in understanding them as three parts of a single whole. Integrating them helps create a state of consciousness that is conducive to communicating with the Ancestors. That is to say, it builds internal bridges between our body, mind, and spirit, which in turn allow for full access by the Ancestral Spirit entering into our consciousness.
While there is no particular order for the components, let us begin with Being. This is the state of awareness of one's environment through which existence is the acceptance of life itself. To embrace Being is to not question in the moment. We are, instead, basking within the gift of pure being. We can liken this to sinking into a genuine warm hug from someone we love; it is an enveloping feeling and not something thought out or pondered in the moment. We cannot sustain our daily lives in that mindset, but we should accept there is a reality that does not call for questions or discernment. It exists, and unlike all other relationships, it asks nothing of us in return.
The Gift of Being is to know for even just a fleeting moment that life is its own answer. When we are in Being, there is no expectation, no disappointment, no gain and no lack, no need or desire. One might say that this is what we glimpse through the things we hold as sacred. It is the soul's sanctuary; it is the place of rest from the demands of the human condition.
The next component is Participation. This is the savoring and the appreciation of the Gift of Pure Being through action within our lives. We can observe this in the reactions of small children who are experiencing anew the world in which we live. They can have such wonder at the things we have come to take for granted or minimized to the point that we no longer give them any meaningful attention (if we give them attention at all).
When a child looks upon the world, everything enters her or his consciousness through the eyes. The features in this world, the sky, the land, the flowing waters, the lakes and oceans, are the things once known to our Ancestors. Those who came before us are imprinted in the Spirit of the Land, and through this their life shines forth into the eyes of the child. As these things become the memory of the child, the Ancestors climb them like the rungs on a ladder. This joins the Ancestors to the child, and he or she is watched and guided as the child enters into participation with life.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Communing with the Ancestors by Raven Grimassi. Copyright © 2016 Raven Grimassi. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface,Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Chapter 1: Spiritual Heirlooms,
Chapter 2: Ancestors: Old Lore and Memories,
Chapter 3: The Long Winding Road,
Chapter 4: There and Back Again (The Soul's Return),
Chapter 5: Death and Rebirth.,
Chapter 6: Ancestors and the Serpent Wisdom,
Chapter 7: The Starry Path of the Round,
Chapter 8: Through the Gates of Evening,
Chapter 9: The Rites of Connection,
Appendix 1,
Appendix 2,
Bibliography,