Ancestors Walkâ˘
Pathways to Forgiveness
One significance of ancestors is that they speak to us from death. We forgive people in death in ways we could not in life. The wisdom we receive from our ancestors is the wisdom of forgiveness. The message is to forgive others in this way while we are living.
One significance of ancestors is that they speak to us from death. We forgive people in death in ways we could not in life. The wisdom we receive from our ancestors is the wisdom of forgiveness. The message is to forgive others in this way while we are living.
Shamanic spirituality is rooted in the belief that the soul is eternal and never dies. Therefore, ancestors are the historical manifestations of our eternally evolving soul. Ancestors make up the very fiber that constitutes what we call wisdom.
Shamanism's view is that spirit and ancestors are synonymous... one and the same, our organic connection bound together by a timeless line of reincarnations that govern all aspects of nature. Somewhere within the evolution of western culture we lost appreciation for the importance of these genetic, organic connections. We walked away from our relationship to ancestral wisdom.
Instead, humanity began to embrace various forms of religion simply because what religion promises is life beyond death. Meanwhile, in this lifetime we frequently feel spiritually fragmented and incomplete. Believing in a future concept of spirit has slowly eroded our capacity to detect wisdom... and re-establishing our capacity to cultivate deep wisdom seems to be directly linked to personally re-experiencing our ancestral evolution. Perhaps the 'self' we seek is not one self but rather a deeper, collective 'evolutionary self'... an organic wisdom which appears when we atone and thereby embody the spiritual lives of our ancestors. DNA research continues to validate these physical connections we have to
Instead, humanity began to embrace various forms of religion simply because what religion promises is life beyond death. Meanwhile, in this lifetime we frequently feel spiritually fragmented and incomplete. Believing in a future concept of spirit has slowly eroded our capacity to detect wisdom... and re-establishing our capacity to cultivate deep wisdom seems to be directly linked to personally re-experiencing our ancestral evolution. Perhaps the 'self' we seek is not one self but rather a deeper, collective 'evolutionary self'... an organic wisdom which appears when we atone and thereby embody the spiritual lives of our ancestors. DNA research continues to validate these physical connections we have to
each other. it suggests a relatedness between all human beings, a common genetic code within everyone.
© Wilbert Alix
Dancing With The Dead • Death As Celebration
New Orleans Jazz Funeral, a contemporary example of
communicating with an ancestor through
rhythm, dance and celebration.
communicating with an ancestor through
rhythm, dance and celebration.