Altars to the Ancestors

Altars to the Ancestors, What is the Process?

Altars to the Ancestors, What is the Process?

"Before making a decision look back seven generations, and look forward seven generations." Native American advice.

There is an amount of talking setting the background to this activity, so that the process can be understood. Then we build altars, cairns or if you wish, memorials to those ancestors who have gone before, back to 7 generations if you wish go that far. We stand before each of those memorials and observe our internal experience as the memory traces of those ancestors emerge into awareness. We work with a collaborator who takes notes of the internal experiences that we report, so that in some quiet moments we can reflect on these internal experiences, or memory traces, and ponder their "reality status". What I mean by this is considering questions such as: "Did I manufacture this experience?" "How organic was the experience; from which aspect of me did it emerge? eg., body, feeling mind, mental mind, etc?" "In what ways are these experiences similar to those types of experiences often called 'past life" phenomena?" "In what ways do they differ to that category of experience?" "How can we tell the difference?" "Might we be mistaken?" "How could we tell if we were?"

Often there are profound revelations as we discover information from several generations ago that seems profoundly pertinent to the lives that we have lived and some of the desires, obsessions and predilections that we have in our lives. Past participants have found this process of investigation to be exceptionally revealing as we reveal ourself and our biological, emotional and spiritual inheritance to ourselves. We can come to see that some aspects of our behaviour and desires come from the past, that they are inherited and still live in us often outside of our conscious awareness. As the light of awareness comes to areas that have previously been hidden, change can happen. There is also the possibility of wonderful surprise as some participants have found to their amazement that they had previously been incarnated into the family to which they now belong. Recognizing the signature of their soul as one of their ancestors, to their and my surprise they recognised that they had previously been incarnated into the family of which they are now a member. Interestingly some indigenous shamanic cultures hold this perspective as valid. So we all learn by paying attention to our experience.

There is also another profoundly beautiful aspect in this work where we discover an ancestor that has been an amazing source of spiritual beauty in the family and whose blessings make their way down to us. Feeling their blessing, love and guidance is always a great gift of Spirit. Often we will choose on the day to explore a particular lineage eg, the women in our mother's, mother's line. All participants will have opportunities to explore their family lineage.

Participants are encouraged to come to their own conclusions in this investigation. There is no "party line" that has to be accepted. This work is forensic investigation of some of the subtle breezes of our profound internal experiences. Participants are continually surprised by the ease with which these experiences emerge and the light that they shine on their life.

Explore the way in which the spirit in the genes of your ancestors has reached down through the centuries and influenced your own life in "Altars to the Ancestors" a weekend seminar program conducted by Deva Daricha the editor of Shamanic Thought for the Day, director of the Centre for Human Transformation.