Housekeeping:
- The next Peer Healing Circle is November 25th from 9-11 .m. PST and is a Webinar!
- The next 2 weeks we will be Understanding and Collaborating with Ancestors.
- (The webinar PowerPoint is attached below)
- The subsequent week is Prayer
Weeks 10&11:
- Week 10: Read, Our Spirit Guides – the Ancestors. Pg. 38-47. Called to Heal by Susan Schuster-Campbell (attached)
- Week 10 Listen to Interconnection, Callings & Surrender Rebecca's podcast.
- Week 10 Read Ancestral Work & Profound Healing.
- Week 10: Read: (Socio-political) Ancestral Co-Presence. Cultivating Kinfulness as Reproductive Justice.
- Week 10 & 11: Read the ancestral message below.
- Week 11: Webinar: Teachings and discussion about who the ancestors are, why they are important, how they affect our lives, how to consolidate and tend to them as family, empaths and healers, as well as how to address the unsettled dead and un-welcomed spirits.
Ancestor speaks, March 20, 2017: “I won’t lie to you, I faced bad things. Being dragged to the mountains in Sotholand and being battered and thrust for too long [raped.] Oh, I suffered, and the journey after. I learned Sotho in an ugly way.
But those were the times. People forgot about those other battles; war is not only in one place. The area where I lived so long, never recovered. I had to help those people from these wars. For those that died, too much was taken. Oh, there was so much work to do to help them. Even then, they couldn’t be cured. Many of those dead people, left or I helped them.
When they came through me [“going into spirit],” I would get sick and suffer for days, especially in the beginning. Cleaning them, healing, saying those praises to help them to go. Some stayed; they liked my singing too much! Others just went. You have to do this work in a time after they have passed, or they stay and their pain and burdens fall onto those to come.
They come to make up the ancestors. They must be handled in a special way with very special plants. Each has its own words, not just any words. Some stay in the mountains, some in the sea, but they like to go near people because they still carry that fear. They race around in the forests but they are never still. Your people call them ghosts, thinking they are bad. Mostly they are just scared and hurt. They don’t know where to go back; no, they don’t, and that’s why they don’t come to the Sangoma easily. They want comfort, not to taste being alive again. Some are desperate and call out, or steal the energy from people; then the people are tired.
If those people died in battle or were killed in the fighting and never went home, the person and family can wander around trying to find each other in this place, even though their bodies have been eaten by the earth. Many people in the country you were inborn have this. Those spirits calling out through them. They have to be taken care of, given that care; that ceremony to bring in those ancestors. One by one to help those lost ones.
Then, the crops grow well and the water heals like it used to. At the rivers, especially where the sea and river meet, those ceremonies are good. Oh, people are collecting so many ancestors. It is good people are coming together, leaving small places, but each Ancestor must be remembered. If people come together, again and again, there is a large family; this is good. But the ancestors of each family, each person must be known, their name, where they come from and their children. Children are born not knowing where they come from. They must know all of their grandmothers’ and grandfathers’ names far back, then they can praise wherever their feet stand. People can remember; they can’t forget. These things live in them. They must open the door and say, ‘I’m ready!’, and wash and prepare, not just follow any curious thing. Then they wait.
I promise. You watch; each of those ancestors will come. They will wonder at first: ‘Why do I like this fruit? Why do I need the fire? Why can’t I go here or there?’ They think it’s because it’s what they want or like. No, it’s those living ancestors expressing themselves in every little way. They come, and when it’s opened, it’s more powerful.
But it’s listening, watching, and following those things: the ancestors, and how to take care of things. Even for those that feel dumb. Now people have to listen too hard because they don’t have those old people to tell you those stories all the time. Some here, some there. The people aren’t together.
So, listen carefully, past your own breath. It has to be done. The ones that are listening, understand these words. The others become those lost spirits. We may pray for those ones.” -Nomvusa Mmamaledi (or Namaledi) born or living in 1625.
Reflections to Journal and/or Reflect on
- Have ancestors/spirits been present in your life, if so, when and how?
- What kind of engagement would you like with elevated ancestors and spirit helpers and how do you hope to feel in doing so?
- What type of engagement do you feel is needed with your family (living and passed) and elevated ancestors and spirit helpers? What might these ancestors be seeking?
- What rituals and ceremonies have you participated in for your ancestors/spirits, and what happened?
©Rebecca Rogerson, 2022
コメント