COMMUNING WITH THE ANCESTORS Written by Tanwa Omisanya (Maria Owl Gutierrez)

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1 COMMUNING WITH THE ANCESTORS Written by Tanwa Omisanya (Maria Owl Gutierrez) Ifa teaches Ori, personal consciousness, is eternally linked to Egun, the collective Spirit of our ancestral lineage. This means the life lessons of each individual are absorbed by the collective Spirit of Egun in the process of atunwa, meaning reincarnation. The elevation of an individual life has an impact on the elevation of the entire family lineage which in turn has an impact on the quality of life everywhere on earth. Improving the quality of life on Earth, literally improves the condition of the planet, affecting the quality of interaction between humans and the Spirits of Forces in Nature Ifa calls Orisa. In simple terms the development of good character affects life on Earth and life in the realm of the ancestors. ( Published March 29, 2012 Awo Fa lokun ) WHY COMMUNE WITH YOUR ANCESTORS? - Because the elevated Ancestors are devoted to our thriving, well- being, health, and fulfilling our potential. - Almost all cultures, peoples and tribes on the planet acknowledge, worship, tend to, and honor their Ancestors. There is a good reason for this. Our Ancestors are the reason we exist! - When we honor and tend to our Ancestors, we are honoring and tending to ourselves. One day we will all be Ancestors! - By communing regularly with our Ancestors we can develop a healthy relationship where we constantly receive guidance, loving support and interventions of healing and balance in our lives. COMMONLY HELD BELIEFS ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE At death, we are birthed into another plane, a spiritual plane close to the Earth and for a time we must review our Earth lives and heal any wounding to our etheric bodies, psyches, and Soul s. Eventually, once we have, for the most part, resolved our pain from our lives, we may decide to return to Earth and continue evolving as a Soul through another experience of form. Some or all of the beliefs stated in the previous sentences are commonly held among many indigenous tribal people (Tibetan, Native American, Native Mexican ), as well as various religious traditions (Hindu, Spiritism, Ifa- Orisa). It is also commonly believed that we do evolve and transform into more and more elevated beings.

2 In Ifa- Orisa tradition from the Yoruba culture of Nigeria, it is believed that the term Ancestors only applies to one s blood lineage. When I refer to Ancestors in this article, this is how I m using the term. HUNGRY GHOSTS When we die without resolution of our suffering, still clinging to fears, addictions and pain, we can fear death so much we deny it, even amidst the truth of our departure from form. These spirits roam the earth as hungry ghosts, looking for something to satisfy their cravings or passify their fears. The wandering dead belong to families, many are loved and missed, but they themselves are tormented and not ready to heal or move on. When we invoke the Ancestors during ritual work, we are not inviting the wandering dead. This would be dangerous to sensitive alive humans, who are unaware they are channels and could acquire hitchhikers - hungry ghosts who cling to one person and live vicariously through them. Unfortunately for the human who is unaware, they cannot tell the ghosts pain from their own, and can fall into confusing emotional states of torment themselves, as they process the ghost s anger, fear, grief, etc, through their own bodies and nervous systems. I worked with a client years back who struggled with chronic bouts of depression and always felt there was something in her that wasn t her. After seeing her for a couple years, I wondered if there could be a possessing entity, a hitchhiker, in her body. We did a simple depossession protocol one session that revealed that when she was a little girl, another little girl who lived on her street was hit by a car and suddenly died. The dead girl s spirit immediately jumped into my client s body, as my client felt sadness and connection to the dead girl, being the same age. The girl identified herself and I spoke with her. With the help of my guides, we opened up a portal of light and the elevated Ancestors of the dead girl reached out their hands to her and invited her out of my client s body and into their arms. This happened while my client also affirmed her sovereignty over her own body and told the spirit she had to move on. After the session my client had a few days of feeling confused and foreign in her emotions. It was as if a whole entrenched piece of her emotional density had been lifted out of her. There was a sense of freedom and lightness, and an understanding of what part of her chronic depression was actually hers. With this clarity, she could embark on her healing journey in a new light. At this point she also began learning how to protect herself from wandering spirits who recognized her as a channel. Wandering spirits do recognize people who are channels and they hover around them, hoping to be seen, heard or possess their bodies. Children are generally very sensitive, psychic beings and can sometimes be caught talking to Ancestors or ghosts. Another very vulnerable population is that of addicts and alcoholics. By becoming inebriated or sedated by drugs, one vacates their body, leaving it open to

3 any passing hungry ghost. Ghosts who were addicts in their lives, will tend to hover around living, waiting for the inebriation to kick in. I have a friend who was an addict for eight years. It was a dream of an Ancestor, his great- grandmother, that showed him he had to stop running in circles and start living his life. He stopped using after that dream. In the early weeks of his battle to stay clean and sober he found himself driving down a desert road where he lived and suddenly his own hands turned his car off the road, into barren desert, accelerating to a dangerous speed. My friend recognized immediately this was not him, that it was the entity who was possessing him when he was using. He yelled out, all the while trying to slow the car down pumping the breaks, This is MY BODY! By the power of Jesus Christ times one million million million, twenty million, leave me NOW!! At this point, he felt something heavy and dense lift from his body and fly out the crack in the window. He regained possession of his body and he stopped his car. He never craved drugs again. Today he is an energy healer. There are also disembodied entities who have intention to distract humans away from awakening their consciousness and can cause great harm to humans. Grand Master Letian of the Tian Qong lineage from China teaches that the relationship between humans and these types of entities is usually karmic. In Tian Qong these kinds of disembodied entities are called Ya Mo Gue Gue. I am not telling you these stories to invoke fear. I m telling you these things to empower you and invite you to own your body and life fully. There are plenty of dis- embodied entities that crave to be in form. We are the one s blessed with life. Let s not take it for granted. THE ROLE OF THE ELEVATED ANCESTOR Ancestor spirits have a spiritual responsibility to protect and guide their living descendants. Some of them are more active than others, depending on what their own Soul s evolutionary needs are for elevation. There are levels of elevation, according to renown teacher and founder of Spiritism, Allan Kardec. He was a medium who channeled a group of spirits called The Spirit of Truth. From them he learned that, The different corporeal existences of the Spirit are progressive and not regressive. The pace of their progress, however, depends on the effort made towards betterment. Spirits can stagnate for so long that it seems to be an eternity and it can even appear that they have retrograded (The Spirit s Book, 1857). All of the levels include service work as the vehicle through which elevation happens. Once a Soul achieves one level, they work towards the next. ANCESTORS ON THE ROAD TO ELEVATION There are Ancestors traveling towards elevation as well, who are no longer hungry ghosts, but not quite illuminated yet. These Ancestors can come through in ritual space and ask for help from us, such as prayers for them to be healed or lighting

4 candles for a certain number of days. Because these Ancestors are not yet elevated, they are on the road, so they can be trusted; but they can also carry heavy energy from what is still unhealed in them. It is best to not invoke these Ancestors, but to pray for their elevation, or for elevated Ancestors to intervene and assist them. CREATING AND TENDING TO AN ANCESTOR ALTAR It is beneficial for everyone who asks for help from their Ancestors to keep an Ancestor shrine. This is a way to show respect for the relationship and gives you a focused place to nourish it. It is where you can go to commune with, pray to, and give offerings to your Ancestors. As you sit with your altar, the energy will build. Over time, it will become something like a vortex specifically for connecting with your elevated Ancestors. On the altar it is common to place photos of your Ancestors, heirlooms, or anything else that helps you connect with them. On my altar I have Mexican fabrics, my Grandpa Grant s chisel set, photos of my Ancestors, a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and flowers. OFFERINGS Here are some ideas of what you can offer to your Ancestor Altar to practice reciprocity and feed your relationship with your Ancestors with respect. 1. A white candle 2. Food offering 3. Libations or water 4. Sacred smokes copal, incense, sage, etc. 5. Fresh flowers REMEMBER: It s the heart you put into your offering that brings the energy to the relationship, not how perfect, elaborate or expensive your offerings are. GUIDELINES FOR THOSE NEW TO WORKING WITH THEIR ANCESTORS When you set up an Ancestor altar in your home, use your intuition as to how often to commune with it. You may feel comfortable with once a month. Perhaps you d like to leave an offering of food once a week. Some people, like me, experience their connection to their Ancestors as an important part of their Soul work or mission in this life, and so I tend to my Ancestor shrine almost daily. Often when you first create contact with your Ancestors, it s good to spend extra time with them for a few months so the relationship can open, blossom, and show you it s potential. Everyone will have a different way of relating to their Ancestors. In the beginning stages of building this relationship, I would recommend that you NOT INVOKE your ancestors. I say this because at this point you may not know at what stage of elevation your Ancestors currently exist at. And if you are at all sensitive, you may find yourself with a house guest who is reluctant to leave or has a

5 strong agenda for your love life. To get to the point where you can invoke your Ancestors, I highly suggest finding a teacher or guide, perhaps a medium, who can help you contact your elevated Ancestors and speak with them. Another simple way to call on them that is safe is to call on your collective elevated Ancestors, rather than individual Ancestors. For example, Loving, elevated Ancestors who support my thriving and fulfilling my potential, I welcome you here with me for my morning prayers. If you want to be sure, you can re- iterate a couple of times that you re only calling in your most high elevated Ancestors who are aligned with God/Creator/The One, or something similar to that. REMEMBER to release the Ancestors from the space at the end of the prayer or ritual: Thank you Ancestors who love me unconditionally. I thank you and say goodbye to you now. And so it is. ANCESTOR POSSESSION As a medium who is called to specifically work with Ancestors, it is my responsibility to understand all these levels of non- elevation and elevation within the Ancestor realm, so that I can protect myself. It took me three or four Ancestor rituals in the Orisha tradition, to get a taste for what elevated Ancestor s feel like in my body, and what unelevated Ancestor s feel like. Elevated Ancestors are full of joy, they want to sing and dance and visit with everyone, sometimes going around to everyone in the circle to talk to them, give advice, or do a healing. They are full of love and often come as a collective, rather than just an individual. They always leave my body easily with no discomfort for me, in fact I feel energized and my heart feels very open. Unelevated Ancestors would make me feel very nauseaus and would take a long time to leave my body, because they didn t want to leave my body. After these possessions I would find myself processing out that Ancestor s pain, grief, and anger through my body, for days afterward. SETTING BOUNDARIES I learned that even with Ancestors, I had to set strong boundaries. These boundaries were needed for many reasons: 1. The Ancestors are in a spiritual plane of reality where there is no sleep and one can be doing spiritual work nonstop. Sometimes spirits forget we are in limited bodies that need sleep, nourishment, play time, and we can t constantly be working with them. The way I learned to set a boundary around this was to ask them to step 100 miles away from me as I slept, or at anytime I was feeling overwhelmed, or anytime I was struggling feeling grounded. 2. These boundaries were self- loving and helped me create a mutually respectful relationship with my Ancestors. I stopped putting the Ancestors on a pedestal, prioritizing them over myself. Instead I prioritized my health

6 and need for balance while I did my mediumship work, and this led to a balanced relationship with them. The Ancestors WANT us to be healthy, happy and thrive! They celebrate when we act from self- respect and self- love. 3. I found that I could facilitate deeper and clearer contact with the spirits when I set a prescribed and mutually understood time and place when we would work together through mediumship. Such as, only at Orisa Ancestor rituals, and every 9 th day of each month I will talk with them without going into possession, (In Orisa tradition the number nine is the connected to the Ancestors.) FULFILLING OUR POTENTIALS AND THE POTENTIAL OF OUR ANCESTORS Our elevated Ancestors desire to help us reach our potentials. Reaching our potential includes fulfilling the potentials of our Ancestors. It s as if we are the alive member of the bloodline, able to express all the beauty, glory, power of all who came before. This includes our potential to fully give and receive love, embody kindness, be of selfless service, express our joy, and also to accomplish the Soul Mission we came here to accomplish, whatever that is. It could include rising up out of poverty consciousness and attaining financial prosperity. It could be that you are the first in a long line of alcoholics to not drink. It could be that out of your family of extroverted leaders who abused power, you re the one who becomes a compassionate and just leader. It could be that you are the daughter who steps out of the pattern of telling herself she s worthless. Or, it could be carrying forward all of your Ancestors healing powers to become a miraculous healer in your life. When we follow our deepest desires and reach for our greatest visions, we are fulfilling our Ancestors potentials. They are alive in us simply because their blood runs through our veins. Their DNA is in our every cell. When we thrive and embody our full expression of joy and love, they elevate even more and celebrate your success. Our true love and true joy blesses our Ancestors and lifts them even higher. Just as their successes on the spiritual planes bless us and lift us higher. And both of these bless all humanity, for we are all one! And therefore our beautiful planet elevates in consciousness as well. ADOPTION If you or one of your parents or grandparents are adopted and you can t trace your Ancestral line back very far, it is a relief to remember that even if you don t know them, they know you! And they will come if you call on them. One way to call on your unknown Ancestors is just to say, I ask my elevated, illuminated Ancestors of my Mother s Mother s line, my Mother s Father s line, my Father s Father s line and my Father s Mother s line to recognize me and be with me hear my request for support. You could ask them to come in your dreams and reveal who they were to you.

7 BACKING UP YOUR INFORMATION: SYNCHRONICITIES, DREAMS, AND FAMILY STORIES Triangulating is a term Professor Apela Colorado of Wisdom University uses when she teaches about doing Ancestral research. It is a way to have proof that the information you re receiving in true. Such as, perhaps you do a shamanic journey and meet an Ancestor named Eloise from the 1700 s. This alone is not enough to prove this is accurate information. But then, during a ritual, one of the mediums says to you, there is a woman Ancestor behind you. Her name is Eloise. This is a strong synchronicity. Perhaps then you also have a dream. Or the next day your friend tells you to see this great movie with a heroine named Eloise. Here is enough synchronicity to prove you really do have an Ancestor named Eloise. It s great to follow up any dreams or visions with trying to get historical proof as well, through stories from family members, old letters, old journals, family trees, newspaper clippings, certificates of birth, death, marriage, property sale. I ve heard plenty of stories of students diving into Ancestor work, and once they open that door, the Ancestors come rushing in and the synchronicities kinda go off the charts. One woman I talked with made her Ancestor shrine and the following week received a photo of her Great- Grandmother in the mail from an Aunt who thought she just might enjoy having it! And remember, if the energy gets too intense, set a boundary. For more information go to: or info@mariaowl.com.

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