Remembering Ancestors

Why is so much emphasis put on this in cultures all over the world, that speak of this connection with the past, those who came before us? What is the relevance of this for me? So many things I could say - but for now, I will mention this. I feel that time, is a pool, with ripples. Time is a web. Time is a tree growing. Time is a landscape. Time is an ocean, with its ebb and flow. Nothing is lost in time. Just changed. Natural forces of change, pushing from seed to fruit to fall. Life a weaving, the stories are our threads. Not only ours. Never just me. Never just my lifetime. So I honour the ones who went before. I am in debt and thanks to them. I am also working my way out of patterns and puzzles that were started before me. Trying to be me, unique and one of many. Ancestor love is rooted in the human heart. It's how we feel to see a new life born, or to say good bye when dear ones die. Ancestor love is remembering we are of spirit as well as blood and bone. Samhain is the time of transitions, of Autumn and a time to deepen and contemplate the whole circle of time. Our own life and the lives that were, with reverence to the mystery.

Today I had a glimpse, a flashing thought in my own awareness of how important ancestors are to me in relation to learning traditional ways of healing and tending to self and community health, I feel the importance to connect to the wisdom, that came before me. That maybe came from way way back- knowledge upheld, discovered, practiced and integrated into times beyond and before my own. In many stories and myths, the ancestors left us advice and knowledge on how to evolve, how to live our lives with open eyes.

Trauma is a word - that can trigger many responses and definitions. Before the trauma, the knock to the nervous system, the disturbance to ones sense of capacity & peace, before the psychosis, or a threat to life or before the harsh currents of abuse or cultural expressed abuse (colonial, imperial, invasion). All of these things leave traces, in our being - that can get stuck, repeat again or sap our life force. Before the trauma there was a time, and to remember there exists this time before the wound can be healing. So reaching to ancestors for support we reach to the wisdom of those times. Calling on the ancestors who lived well. Also we acknowledge the pain in our lineage, and we ask to carry on, to move on from that pattern, to do better, to find the strength to overcome. We reach to the wisdom ways that know how to get us out of the mud and into a place compatible with the life a human needs to be well.

At Samhain, and when I remember the ancestors, I remember the interconnectedness of this moment and resonate with the ones with whom my roots relate, connect and hold me. Here I am in the physical world, this incarnation of me. I hope that I may do my happy ancestors proud and leave a good path to follow for those who may come next. I am following the paths that the ancestors left for me, and cutting away over grown thistle, bramble and nettles of time that grew where the space was not tended to.

Today may I tend the ancestors with love and be tended in return.

There are many ways to tend to the ancestors, through ceremony, feasts, offerings, dance, meditation, drumming, pilgrimage, song, art, storytelling and prayer. Many cultures and many ways to do this, and I am exploring ways that come to me as well as learning and studying this rich and complex topic. More to follow... remembering to remember more. .

All blessings x