I was just reading on another site a post about the Ancestors in terms of the
African American practitioner but what is said there can be applied to all. The person on that site brought up a question
which I will sum up as : *what IF your ancestors were Baptist, Methodist or whatever and strongly disapproved of anything
that was not in their own Protestant based traditional upbringing?*
The person continued to say and again I am summing up their point- *If we begin our practice by calling upon our Ancestors and they did not know about, understand or approve
of these type things -ARE WE BY CALLING UPON THEM CREATING PROBLEMS... (i.e. opening up a can of worms- no pun intended)
I see this as a two part question that involves: 1) ancestral veneration AND 2) religious tradition
Ancestral veneration is NOT dependent on what religion
your ancestors practiced or held as a belief in
their lifetime nor is it concerned with what you as a practitioner currently hold as a belief. Ancestral veneration gives
honor and respect to the blood-line via the maternal
and paternal lineages. Ancestral veneration is based on the principles of RELATIONSHIP.
As a ritual it functions to maintain family relationships so that they
are not disrupted or broken by Death.
Relationship metaphorically is said in the English language to be *the TIES that bind*.
The symbol of relationship is a cord. It helps to know that the cross
linguistic homonyms in the French and Kreyol marč
and the English marry are homonyms.
Homonyms (aka words that sound alike but are spelt differently) often take the place of African tonal speech in the
Diaspora/Dystopia.
Ties that bind
The umbilical cord is our first CORD our the life-line. When it is removed
as we start our separate life out of the womb. A cord is the rope ladder by which the Gods themselves first descended to the
Earth. That cord is golden the thread of DESTINY that moves through many incarnations and it is the property of the SOUL.
Some discuss the golden cord in the
form of a CUP or a golden bowl which
is our reproductive apparatus. The LION symbolizes the SOLAR PLEXUS in man, which is an organic processing and distribution center that maintains the life force and animates
a living being. When the golden cord snaps the life-force says farewell to the flesh. Animation becomes possible only in the more subtle bodies in the *next world*
The so called silver cord is of the *
double*. In the Vodou it belongs to the z’etwal , i.e. the silver star. The
silver cord is elastic as long as it is attached to a living physical body and allows one to travel during dreams to the starlands we are associated
with in the other world. Upon the death of the physical body, the immortal part of our awareness returns to those divine regions .
Now we see the why and how behind the process
of cords and tying as being BASIC to our magical practice. Cords connect and
disconnect. Cords are both visible and invisible ( i.e. WIRELESS).
It is the second part of the discussion
where things get a bit sticky and tricky. Tradition
is what is carried or transmitted from generation to generation. In the distant past we inherited our belief system along with our DNA. All of our life choices were based
on the previous choices made by our biological Elders. Their choices became tradition. This has changed. People no longer
automatically serve the God/s of their forebearers. People now choose their vocation, their mate, the city and place they will live in and what Spirits they
believe in. We in the 21st century are a different people, no longer
physically limited by the short ropes of
family, culture and environment
but still bound to them by finer
cords on the inner planes.
The second aspect of this point reminds me of a line in the secondary Matrix films
where Morpheus says to Commander Locke that * his beliefs do not require* that another share them this *ties* in with a
the line in movie *The Stand* where Ruby Dee's character when told that someone
did not believe in God laughs and says *but it's all right, He believes in you.* Belief, duty, responsibility, family and country
( read: nationalism) are what keep tradition and armed conflict alive!
Some say that we are *separated* by our beliefs on the other side. Christianity holds
that the house of God has many mansions. St. Theresa of Avilia spoke of the other side as a *castle* with many rooms. Even
the Monroe Institute says there is a separation or petitioning of the other side in terms of what one's faith or denomination was in life. The Yoruba say we come from an egbe or a
heavenly grouping. It is the
spiritual egbe that is the pattern or source of our cabildos, iles, societies, and guilds in the physical world. Perhaps that
is another reason is why some people find it difficult to get along here on the Earth.
To comment on the discussion for myself in terms of my own understanding - I find
the question above is a moot point that held sway only once the waters were crossed - not the water of death but those of
the Atlantic Ocean because when we move beyond the seven or so generations that were enslaved before us in the Diaspora
( at least nine generations for those of us with grandchildren )- ALL the African *ancestors* of Africans
in the Diaspora were at home and DID understand and participate in their indigenous tribal practices.
“Look to your children”
Elzora of Eve's Bayou
