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The first step into the future takes place when we dare look into the past. Westerners may tell you that they do not worship their ancestors and consider this to be a primitive custom. We do live in a society which promotes fear of death, tries to negate its existence and deifies youth and the physical body. Yet all civilized societies in the world do worship their ancestors, through the maintenance of burial grounds, monuments, statues and plaques. In our homes we keep portraits and photographs of our deceased family members, mementos and souvenirs. In reality there is nothing more familiar to us already or more logical than ancestors' worship. our ancestors are the root cause of our very being and to truly understand our place in the miraculous chain of life, we must look back upon our origins, understand them and thus determine the course of our destiny. Understanding our destiny can be tricky because we all have a physical past but we also have a spiritual past. In African spirituality they teach the doctrine of reincarnation. A soul eternally inhabits various bodies at various times. This very doctrine leads us to some very serious considerations:
The soul is eternal but the body is ephemeral. We are not this body. The body is subject to disease, old age and death. After death the soul joins the realm of the Ancestors, the spiritual world that is closest to ours. Those souls who were particularly elevated through spiritual discipline and actions may become Loa (Orisha or Voodoo Spirits or Angels)
By keeping the body healthy, free of contaminations and in a peaceful environment , we are more apt to discover our eternal soul qualities
It is especially important to keep the family,the society and the environment healthy, balanced and spiritually elevated as to encourage great spirit souls to reincarnate among us. thus the population becomes increasingly more advanced on all levels.
In Voodoo it is believed that Ancestors often come back into the tribe or family if it is kept in good and harmonious order. The ancestral soul, newly born into a child, brings all of its ancient wisdom and eternal qualities, though a few months after birth the child will have seemingly forgotten all that came before and will have to overcome the usual trials of life like everyone else. Often a great spirit soul will reincarnate in the second generation, skipping one, so that natural gifts which endowed an ancestor are seen anew in a grand-son or grand-daughter. "
There are also many cross-cultural reincarnations. Today with the advent of fast travel and instantaneous communications, we may come across souls who obviously have taken birth again in an altogether different part of the globe and in a different culture.
That is why it is so essential - yet often difficult for us to examine our spiritual past. Who were our physical ancestors? Where did they travel? Who were their friends, companions, mentors? What were their actions, karmic paths? It is very possible for us to trace our physical ancestry to one continent but to feel irresistibly drawn to the spiritual practices of another continent altogether. In the end it is as it should be:
If our ancestors hold the key to the fulfillment of our individual destiny, they have also left us laws which must be obeyed so that we may maintain the harmony and purity that are both necessary for us to catch a glimpse of this destiny. Our freedom to be as we were created resides in our ability to enforce the sacred laws upon ourselves.
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