In indigenous cultures you will often find a major symbol known as the medicine wheel or the four directions. It approximates to the compass of north, south, east and west. From these four points it is possible to create some of the oldest symbols we know, such as the circle and the cross.
The circle reminds us of the reciprocity and connectedness of all things. It is the representation of creation. The cross has been appropriated in more recent history by Christianity.
The motif of four is also a strong motif in many cosmologies. There are 4 seasons, 4 elements (air, fire, water and earth), 4 directions and Jung introduced the 4 archetypes (warrior, magician, sovereign and lover). Why 4 occurs this was is a mystery.
The map of the four directions can be used to create a framework of ancestors, through which we can find ourselves. This is not of the past or history. It is about being in dynamic relationship here and now.
We begin in the West - This is our lineage ancestors, our genetic or blood line. Who is our lineage? How do our lineage relationships work? Modern science has confirmed what traditional cultures have always known, which is genetics plays some part in forming who we are. Our existence is contained within a paradox. Something science does not like, or want to accept, although quantum science is pointing towards an expanding creation story that includes the mythic, the hold of two polarities. It is not an 'either or' duality. Rather an 'and both' understanding of life and the mystery. In this way we are not seeking certainty or coherence. The One can only know itself by making a reflection of itself.
Tides go in and tides go out. The moon waxes and wanes becoming full and becoming new. Now you see it and now you don't. The pendulum swings one way until it reaches it's maximum point before swinging back the other. At the maximum you get the poles. But what connects them? CJ Jung introduce the idea of the transcendent third. Life is a spectrum of polarities. They related to one another through their otherness. The meeting of opposites results in friction, which creates heat, as heat rises it coalesces and this brings the opportunity for unity. In other words, as consciousness emerges through conflict it unifies though the transcendent third. This is also known as the alchemical principle. In this way the quality of the conflict relates to the quality of the reunification.
The above diagram relates the four directions to this unifying effect. If we take the male elements of Air and Fire, they represent progress, spirit, growth and an upward motion or rising of temperatures resulting in Heat. Eventually they meet the feminine elements of Water and Earth which begins a downward motion thus falling temperatures and the soul descends flowing the cycle round again.
[WEST] Lineage of Ancestors - Air - are those that went before, our parents and grandparents. In the matrix of our blood family an awful lot of who we are can be understood. Family constellations created by Bert Hellinger follows this lineage by offering an alternative therapeutic method drawing on elements of family systems therapy, existential phenomenology and Zulu attitudes to family. The idea is trauma, anxieties, complexes, memories and experiences can be passed down the family line in ways that effect us today, but we may not know from where the traumas come.
Rituals that deal with psychologies and complexes are therefore dealing with the ancestors of air. Breath is given to us by our ancestors, they breath through us. We are the physical form our ancestors carrying on characteristics of blood relatives. Much of this lineage descending down the line can be worked through by the living.
Rituals are tools or practices to engage with the world we live in. We learn most by creating a dynamic interactive space, also known as Play. The Tarot begins with the number 0 and the character of the Fool. As babies we naturally interact dynamically. Through provocation and response relationships emerge and in that way we learn. There is great beauty in possessing a playful nature. It's poetic and poets hold the paradox with no need or desire for resolution. Wilderness is in constant dynamic interaction - a form of play - serious play maybe, and yet Play nevertheless. Play has the quality of allurement. This is the invitation to interact and relationships form and develop. If you look you will notice that allurement is everywhere.
Be playful.
Open windows and doors in a room and hope the breeze will come in. Chant, sing, make music, drum, dance and hopefully we will meet the divine and we will begin a relationship.
In animus cultures everything has life. Thereof everything can be allured and aroused to be present and to be in relationship. The spirit relates to another and joy is born invoking our souls. Our spirits want transcendence. This is from where our hype-maculine culture comes wanting more, bigger, out and above. Our souls want belonging, presence and immersion. The creative principles inherent where conflict exists.
Our present day rituals, our modern indigent has to be dynamic and contain movement. In this way we don't have to re-create rituals exactly as they were practiced in the past. They can be adapted to our modern contexts.
Where there is trauma or a blockage energy can no longer flow and cycle round as nature and the divine intended. When in ritual we make offerings. be mindful of your context. What is a meaningful offering? it could be gold, chocolate, wine, beer, water. Next when you make an invocation you are bringing animation, dynamism, activating a meridian thus accessing and freeing up the flow of energy again. By freeing up energy we can heal our bodies.
Rituals are repeated practices unlike ceremonies which are a one off remarking a transition or event. The more ritual is repeated the stronger it becomes. Sacred ritual carries an intent to connect with the non-visible. When participating in a lineage ritual call in your blood ancestors staring with your mothers family and then your fathers family. Calling them in to be present is the invocation. Then make your offering and make your request or offer your gratitude for some event in your like. Tears are the best offering when making a request. Tell your ancestors your troubles and ask them for help and guidance in resolving these issues. Dawn is the most powerful time to practice such rituals. If the issue is huge then do your ritual before dawn. If you wish to make a ritual of gratitude then offer this at dusk.
This ritual is also called a Patla. Place a cloth over your shoulders, knell down with your head over your knees and between your invocation calling in your ancestors clap your hands twice at the end make your offering and then sing. If the issue is connected with the home an family then patla to your mother's lineage inside the house. If your issue is connected to work, money, reputation then pal to your father's lineage and do so in the garden.
Do not invoke a relative until 2 years after their passing. If you want to get grand you can add in a feast element to the ritual. Always set two extra places at the table for your grandmother and grandfather. Always be open with those you invite to the feast that they are attending a ritual. It
is not a party.
[NORTH] Ancestral Lineage of Those Who Lived on the Land Where You Live - Fire
Some say it takes 10 years to completely belong to a place. By then the ancestors of that land come through you in the food you have been eating grown on that land. In the modern world we now regularly eat food grown or produced in many different lands. What effect this has is unknown. It is not necessarily bad. We are living in a time of breakdown, breakthrough and emergence. Take the metaphor of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is the imaginal cells that contain the vision of the butterfly. What are the imaginal cells of our time? Our indigenous past is cut off from many of us. the books are behind locked doors. Our young civilisations does not have much in terms of maps. Our futures will be dreamt by the present and the past.
Now we have to track our future indigeny with intent. What is it we are looking for? All of nature contains medicine. Animals, plants, rivers, sacred places bring potency, power, medicine that is restorative to humans seeking healing and balance. When traditional cultures would hunt they would first invoke the spirit of the animal they were seeking, using the practice of trance dancing the spirit of the animal is allured to the hunters.
Be Daring
If we allow our indigenous self to become a vessel for spirit to manifest and speak through us then the imaginal cells could become embodied, magical and overtly present to our communities. Invoking the dream tangle. However, for most of us we push our imaginal cells to one side n the interests of normality, conformity an acceptance in the modern world. And yet there is method in our madness. How can we let our creativity come through and be a vessel for our imaginal cells? How do we bring the mythos present again? When we are a culture and people driven by our intellect and reason this can be difficult. There is nothing inherently wrong with our left-brain reasoning as long as we maintain a connection with our periphery. There are riches at the edges. At the transitions points between land and water, air and fire we can find abundance, diversity and new life.
The periphery is also known as the shadow. If we don't recognise and acknowledge the shadow it will appear in unexpected ways. Shadow spirits want to be part of conscious expression. they will grab our attention. Therefore do not separate the dark. How do we bring the shadow into expression? Here ritual is about bringing what is beyond taboo into view. Jung wrote about modern arrogance denying possession states and reclassifying them as complexes. Possession by spirits still exists.
The types of ritual that relate to ancestors of the soil or fire include pilgrimage. Contemporaries it for yourself to make it relevant for the times in which you live. Travel to lands that your ancestors lived and bring back soil and/or other offerings to the land you now live in. In essence we need to re-dream our relationship to land and the places we live to connect ourselves to those that lived there before us.
[EAST] Ancestral Lineage of Far Off Places - Water
When we drink water we pick up the spirits and energy of those who it has passed through before us. Water and the hydrological cycle connect lands, people, everything. This is similar to the morphic resonance theory developed by Rupert Sheldrake. Water spirits travel fast and can emerge in many places simultaneously. This is where the saying 'don't tell a secret by a river' comes from, for it will travel and be heard by many.
Water moves things around. Commitment is one of the qualities of water because it is uncompromisingly connected to the force of gravity. The ultimate destination of water is the ocean. The ocean represents baseline consciousness, the enlightened self and unified consciousness. It is where we came forenamed where we will return to. Water will get to where it needs to go, as will all beings.
Water purifies by helping us let go and get back to our fundamental nature. Water also has to do with the coherence of community. The circle represents community, water and the human psyche or soul. Solute sin water and it lives in our blood. The elements of Air and Water are polarities on the horizontal axis. Water is connection, it plugs us into things and it heats into air which is vision and understanding, which then cells back into water and round we go.
Water tells us where we are and where everything is at. The knowledge of who and where we are resides in our blood. Nothing in an animate world happens by accident. Everything has intent. Whatever polarity or direction you are in the opposite is also present.
[SOUTH] Ancestral Lineage of Animate Nature or Land - Earth
This is about all the animating forces of the natural world which we principally interact with through sacred sites.
This can be done by pilgrimage or vigil.
Many of us are not consciously aware of the separation and disconnection within and without resulting from the industrial world view. Many of us no longer acknowledge or respect sacred sites.
What do I remember out of the dark?
When we vigil we render ourselves vulnerable to the place. In so doing the place seeps into us. We get dreamt by the land. We lay ourselves down. Preparation is key. To communicate with the divine, with the invisible we have to create a natural resonance to be seen. The spirits of nature function at a lower temperature that the seen world. Somehow we need to lower our temperature too. This is why many sacred sites feel cool. Think of Notre Dame. Coolness is experienced internally. When we vigil we need to cool ourselves. This means avoiding behaviours that raise our temperature, such as, sex, menstruation, conflicts and particular foods.
If we go back 13.8 billion years to the point of singularity we would find the temperatures were cool. Then there was a sudden temperature inversion resulting in an explosion of light. Infinite heat is infinite creativity and infinite cold is infinite potential.
A ritual recipe for lineage to earth and sacred sites:
Select a sacred site that you resonate with.
Through visioning and dreaming ask the site how to prepare and what it wants from you.
Pilgrimage to this site on foot as best you can.
Ask your question, present your issue at the site.
Listen
Present your gratitude and make offerings of thanks and appreciation.
Conclusion
If we are going to track our modern indigeny we need to consider 5 things on our journey.
1. We have to know our story, our cosmology.
2. We need to dance to embody the states and expressions that need to move through us.
3. We need to practice sacred rituals to connect us to the unseen and bigger body.
4. We need to resonate and proclaim ourselves through music and song.
5. We need to converse with the divine, the sacred through our own form of prayer.
As the modern world moves into a state of anarchic disintegration, meltdown and breakdown prove all that is new and emergent through experience. The new cosmology, the new story, new rituals, new indigent and traditions is a relational process of emergence and unfolding.
Find ways to express and hold the paradoxes around you in a meaningful way. Experiment, be playful, be dynamic, be daring, pilgrimage, create and practice ritual, listen and track everything that has power and resonance. Do not push too quickly for meaning or understanding. Stay in the overwhelm. Sit in the discomfort. Stay present. Everything changes. All passes through eventually.
Tracking means paying attention. Track your passions. Track what you love.
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