"The one whose solitary boast is his lineage, has no
descendant of any virtue."
____ Welsh proverb, (CM)
The Celtic people honored the keeping, remembrance, and repetition of genealogies and family lists. Such genealogies were 'memory tesident' in bards and poets, one of whose chief tasks was to recite these ancient lineages on important occasions. In our society, we generally leave such matters to the professional genealogist or herald, and so our own memory dwindles. As a result of this neglect, strange obsessions sometimes develop. People with no knowledge of their lineage sometimes invent family trees or make outrageously unsubstantiated claims regarding their descent. Such acts have a terrible pathos about them. At the other extreme, we find those who dine out on their ancestral achievements without any attempt to make their own mark. Both they and the people who invent their lineage fall into the trap of ancestral dependence. Whether actual or invented, our lineage is a path that moves through us to our own descendants. Our physical bloodline may have many great and good ancestors among its number, but their deeds do not flow through our veins or belong to us unless we make them ours by similar doing.
Dependence upon the ancestors is often just a manifestation of laziness, a way of absolving ourselves from total engagement in life; it is also a form of theft that robs our hard-working ancestors of their credit. We cannot live in the reflected glory of ancestral honors without absconding from our own lives and missing the very real opportunities to become worthy ancestors in our turn.
"Honor your ancestors, known or unknown, by a worthy act of your own."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
Honouring unknown ancestors is very difficult for adoptees who may no nothing of their heritage, have no clues at all to their identity.Honouring the unknown requires at least a clue or two.Worthy acts are necessary for our wellbeing but life is not so simple for some.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is a difficult situation to deal with at this time of the year. But as Hecate mentions in her blog this morning in an essay titled 'Honoring The (Sometimes Dysfunctional) Ancestors, we can do an honoring of the Ancestors of the Heart. I am sure there are many of those in Pagan ancestory files that have influenced you in search for spiritual awakening. Think about it. After all, aren't we all 'related' if we search back far enough.
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