"Alienated ancestors gather, drawing close
To our bicker and complaints, to knock at aggrieved hearts
Their plaint to our ears is 'restore, restore."
___ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"
We have many ancestral inheritances that contribute to our condition. Some are genetic and highly visible; others are not so obvious but are still part of the ancestal bequest - the unfinished business that members of our ancestral family have put off until it comes seeping out in our own lives.
Many deep, atavistic, or unwelcome urges that have lain dormant within our family line are activated when we reach a certain age or condition of maturity - when we are trying hard to put our life on that right track to purposefully avoid legacies of failure, fear, anger, or control. There often comes a point when we have to consciously decide not to buy into the negativity of past scenarios and expectations but to turn towards the illumination of the heart.
The ancestral bequest can be cleared when we stand back and look into the issues that have been haunting our family line. The ability to recognize ancestral failures and expectations for what they are is exceedingly helpful. With that ability, we can acknowledge that our ancestors, like us, were vulnerable, frightened, and attached to their unfinished business. It is not our part to blame them, but rather, in our amending, to leave out hatred and revenge; it is not our part to recreate spirals of exclusion, but rather to pray for the ancestors to be released and to attend to our own lives with the help of our spiritual allies.
"Looking into your recent family history, what issues show signs of being ancestral bequests rather than personal problems?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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