Honoring Ancestors, Honoring Embodiment
We are coming upon the time of year when the ancient Celts honored the ones who walked before them - the Ancestors. The Celts believed that the presence of the otherworldly spirits of the Ancestors made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the coming New Year. To the Druids, dying crops were synonymous with the return of the dead to Earth. As we approach the time when the veil is becoming very thin, it's easier to connect with the Ancestors who have fully ancestralized - those have passed on into the Light and are willing to commune with us as spirits who are well and wise. It is accepted that Samhain is the time when the ancestral spirits are more accessible to the living to connect with us, to share wisdom with us, and to honor how we are descended from those who now reside in the sacred Otherworld.
Traditionally celebrated as a festival for the dead, spanning three days beginning October 31, Samhain literally means, “summer’s end.” The Celts were not limited to the area that is now just the UK, as most of western and central Europe inhabited dispersed tribes and clans. Most cultures at one time in history made a practice of honoring Ancestors before colonialism occurred - and some still currently do. And, they do not wait until the end of October to do this. Rituals are performed and offerings are given frequently - sometimes daily.
In our Western world, we have become quite disconnected from honoring the recent dead and the long-past Ancestors who are well and wise. Within the last few hundred years, we have unfortunately lost touch with the traditions of our own homelands and people, whether the events were welcomed or forced.
Why is honoring the Ancestors important? Because they still exist in Non-Ordinary Reality and they are all around us. It's important to remember that the Ancestors who are well and wise no longer operate from their egoic attachments to this world. They want to be honored as a part of who we are, and acknowledged as a part of everything in this multidimensional universe we exist in. We carry them in our bones and blood. We carry the blessings of our Ancestors: their hopes, dreams, and visions of their own lives.
We also carry their burdens: their traumas, dramas, and stories. We even can inherit illness, whether genetic or “frenetic.” Some descendants, who are Highly Sensitive, can be the the repository of accumulated familial dysfunction, which can present as dis-ease. I know this to be true through my own personal experience through a severe illness.
Through healing ancestral traumas, our Ancestors’ suffering can be shifted, which ripples back to the initial negative events all the way forward to ourselves, and our descendants - whether or not they have been born yet! Working with the Ancestors can shift the ways in which we relate to the world and our own bodies in this present time.
The practice of honoring our Ancestors gives us an opportunity to not just focus on the burdens, but the generational blessings bestowed upon us. Zen Buddhist Master, Thích Nhất Hạnh, recalls the death of his mother in one of my favorite books, No Death, No Fear:
Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet... wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually "our" feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.
From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.
As Samhain approaches, we can take this time to place offerings on an ancestral altar to honor those who have walked before us. If you don’t have an altar, you can set up a small table and place a cloth over it. We might offer favorite family recipes passed down through the generations, as well as wine or “spirits,” their favorite candies, and photos of the departed. In addition, we can honor our bodies, as they hold the cellular memory of our beloved ones who have long since passed, yet are ever present around and inside us.
This morning while communing with the Well and Wise Ones, I asked if there was a message from them that I might relay at this time. They replied: Tell the living that no matter what stories they hold in their hearts and minds about the recently deceased, that it's important to know that we love our descendants: we are so proud of them, and we surround them with our deep, unconditional love today - and always.
Remember that spirits who are well and wise are surrounding you now. Despite how your ordinary world appears, you are always surrounded by the love and support of the Ancestors.
