BAD ANCESTORS – DO I VENERATE THEM?

The subject of death is scary to most people. It is a topic I have explored here on this site more than once, but have had comments which showed an unwillingness to venture deeper into the subject. When I was a child I feared death as I think most people do. I could never understand how some people took their lives or lived their life in such a risky way that death was sure to find them. The greatest thing that happened to me was when it became time for me to wake up.

Up until then I really believed death was final. Christian people would preach in church, “Where the tree falls there shall it lie, judgement shall find it same place,” and they (de Jamaican Pastor dem whey love frighten people an mek big ooman (me) roun ah back ah bawl) with the Bible in hand would shout “Oonuh stop it! bout duppy and dead can come back, whey de tree fall, ah deh so it ah tan fi eternity until de day ah judgement!” and the congregation would cry “Amen!”

In my mind I saw oblivion. Nothing. Death was final. But then I saw Jesus who rose on the third day, and when the disciples saw him, they were astounded (nuh duppy form him did inna?). Thomas (mi bredrin who doubtful like me) asked him to see his hand, he wanted to see the nail holes and touch them in order for him to believe.

I began to doubt Pastor. I began to doubt the Book which contained the word. I did something no good Christian should ever do. I began to question everything I grew to believe.

When I began my journey toward consciousness, it was the hardest thing I have ever been through in my life, to date, the hardest. Clearing out and throwing away all that one has been taught from birth is not an easy thing to do and as I have told you all before it nearly drove my enemy mad (always remember to throw any negative words on to your enemies and away from yourselves). But I came through, still in the land of the sane (if there is such a thing) and doing my work.

One of my greatest discoveries was that there was no death, only the shedding of the physical body and that we as conscious beings in spirit form can still stay connected with our people here on the earth plane, even if we have gone back home or have opted to travel the realms within the Universe. Consciousness has the ability to split itself into many. While I am here typing, someone some where maybe having a dream of me, or having a vision that I am in their room having a conversation with them, healing them or whatever. It is not their imagination, the dream world is real but if my spirit needs to visit someone, unbeknownst to me or the person, we can and will meet, it matters not where we are in the the world or what our physical bodies are doing at that time.

No matter who you are or what your belief is, it is important for you to have an altar. An altar is a sacred space created for your ancestors, which in truth if it were not for them, we would have no idea or concept of God or of our divine source. They are very important to our lives and to our journey. A great entertainer once told me that his career had gone down the drain at one point in his life. He had a divination done and it was told to him by the diviner that he needed to feed his ancestors, but he had to make the feeding great. He did this and wonderful things began to happen to him. He continued to embrace his spirituality, never again neglecting his ancestors. He has now been inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame.

Now what about “bad” ancestors, someone once asked me, do we venerate them?

“I had an aunt named Doreen who use to mal-treat me, so when I erect my altar, how do I block her from coming to eat and drink the food I put out for mi nice uncle Milton?”

You don’t.

Aunt Doreen, as wicked and evil as she might have been, was wicked and evil when she was alive. She is no more that person, (read this post). When your Doreen died, (hopefully she is not earth bound) her mission while on the earth was finished. She, in the form she now is as a light being, has gone on to greater things within the realms of time and space. Either toward another life (incarnation), or resting with her astral family before venturing off somewhere again. The possibilities of spirit while out of the body is endless. Aunt Doreen, is not the same miserable Doreen you knew.

Now you may say to me, “No Obara yuh wrong. Mi dream har last night ah pinch mi,” and you may indeed wake up with the pinch, your arm being black and blue. When a person dies, although they have gone on to their next life, their essence is left here. Like drinking from a glass and seeing the residue from the drink or smelling the fragrance of what was once inside there. Even if it was water, after you have drained the glass, if you hold it upside down long enough, you will find a drop or two will fall out. So follow me for a bit.

Doreen was wicked but after she died, she went where she was supposed to go; she did not linger on earth and tun duppy. Yet she terrorized the yard day and night. People in the community saw her in odd places (she all show up inna people selfies ah kin teet behind dem). Everyone begins to talk, saying Doreen has not gone anywhere. There is no way she has gone on to rest and people keep seeing her all about town and dung ah de bar ah drink and Mr. Perkins the local taxi man said he picked her up from church and dropped her home yesterday, (ok dah pawt yah ah duppy, but I digress) rub out Mr. Perkins part and focus on what I wrote before him, (keep de selfie).

Doreen’s essence, her residual self, her imprint has been left behind and is kept alive through fear, hatred and just plain talking about her as how she was when she was alive and a terror to all she knew.

So should you still call her name and pray for her at your altar? Of course you should. Should you keep in your memory the bad things she did to you? It is hard at times to forget or dismiss terror or pure evil suffered at the hands of anybody, but there comes a time when you have to make up your mind and heal. This cannot be done if you allow your mind to constantly re-visit those terrible times (I should know). You all must know that no matter how bad the circumstances or situations, these “bad” ancestors came to take you to another phase of your life.

It is up to you to see the lessons or understand why this happened to you. Only when you search deep through all the pain and sorrow, removing the hurt just for a little while so that you can get the full comprehension of why this woman hated you so much and was so hard on you. Only then will you be able to heal and even perhaps release her. No matter the circumstances, however harsh they were, they came to teach you or you had a debt to pay. Some people pay debts for their family line. They go through life crying why me? But if not you then perhaps your child. Perhaps you suffered a terrible situation to save your own child from the same fate. But if this becomes something that happens to you, your children, and their children then it becomes something deeper and it has to be broken, because the possibility of it being a generational curse is there indeed.

Release Doreen. Put her favourite food on the altar. Set out her rum, put out her favourite flowers, call her name, ring your bell, light a candle for her, and tell her to watch over you and yours. And she will.

Obara Meji