True Groundedness – A Physical Connection with Ancestors
Scientists have learned how to trace where a person has lived by analyzing the constituents of their bones. People really are a part of the land. The plants grow up out of the soil, capturing its nutrients. They marry them in their metabolism with the rain and the sun into life. Then we devour and digest that life, directly, or through the intermediary of animal flesh, and make it into our own living bodies.
I doubt, though, that this tracing technique would work well for placing modern Americans. We import our food so that we can eat in perpetual harvest time. Our food is no more indigenous than we are. And visa versa.
Consider the power in eating only food grown nearby. What if, for generations, we had lived on the same land, cultivating it, gathering from it, and then, finally, planting our own spent bodies back into it? What if we consciously gave our nutrients back to our local soil? Ancestors would not just be a litany of names and dates, arranged on a piece of paper, in a family tree. They would actually be living in our physical forms. Our genetic heritage would be fleshed out with the same raw materials that had cycled through our ancestors’ bodies. What true groundedness that would be!
No wonder that Native people know that we do not own the land. We are part of the land. And that land is the matrix of our truest heritage.
A Spiritual Connection to Ancestors
Regular connection with ancestors is by making an ancestor altar of recent ancestors, with pictures and objects with their energy. We can burn a candle, some incense to offer to them our attention and love. Special days we might offer their favorite foods and drinks to them, after which we might imbibe them.
We want to connect with Helpful Ancestors at first. After a seasoned life of journeying, we may want to heal ancestors who need it. The more recent, known ancestors may still be in transition and calling upon their limited knowlege may be helpful and comforting. The Ancestors of the Lower World are a template of Humans. They have the wisdom of the 2-300,000 years of sustainable life as hunter-gatherers. So they aren’t so helpful regarding technological questions and modern lifestyle queries. They are excellent at interpersonal and developmental questions about being a human being.
Journeying to the Lower World, accompanied by Power Animal, is a great way to meet with the Ancient Ancestors. If you are interested in learning to journey to the spirit world, contact Terra Rafael for a free session to begin.