The past, the dead, the chain

[thelerner]

I'm quoting 9th quoting Jung.  Other cultures from Chinese to South American have holidays to communicate, honor, do things for the sake of their dead.  In general we don't.  We tend to ignore our elderly and even more so, our dead. 

 

We consider ourselves, self made and lose our lineage.

 

There is one necessary but hidden and strange work - a major work - which you must do in secret, for the sake of the dead. He who cannot attain his own visible field and vineyard is held fast by the dead, who demand the work of atonement from him. And until he has fulfilled this, he cannot get to his outer work, since the dead do not let him. He shall have to search his soul and act in stillness at their behest and complete the mystery. Do not look forward so much, but back and into yourself, so that you will not fail to hear the dead."

 

- Jung

 

I'm just wondering, what could and should we do to for the sake of our dead?  To reclaim and relink our heritage? 

 

I'm not a big believer in hungry ghosts and the like, but with my parents in there 80's and ailing, it seems like I need to tell there stories more to my children.  To do something to reconnect with my ancestry. 

 

Personally, there is something like a family plot, its full now.  One nice thing is each grave has protected locket with the deceased picture on it.. of my great grand parents and my grandparents and there brother and sisters.  I've taken my daughter to it.  Next time we're all together we need to visit it as a family.  Put down stones on the markers, sit there, in remembrance.

 

[silent thunder]

Wow timing... this really resonates...

I was just saying to my gal a few months back, that I would like to take some of our ancestral talismans and create a focused shrine in our home.

 

There is a palpable drive that continues to gather inertia, to reach out with conscious intent through the objects from my life, around my home, that are filled with the potency of living memory and connection to those who walked before me, rather than just to keep them out and around in a loose, decorative manner.  Birth and death do not seem like opposites to me, I've never had an experience of the fear of death, due to early childhood experiences, birth and death seem to me the two extreme expressions of the unity of the life process.  That process does not seem one way to me, nor static and never has... early experiences rendered me incapable of fearing body death.

 

After my son and wife had fallen asleep the night of the burial, I went back to the cemetery and sat on my mother's grave.  All around me were my ancestors, blended with the soil, her brother, her parents, grandparents...  and I just sat there, no projections, or questions, just me, sitting there, offering my attention and presence.  Just me, alive, sitting on the soil where my ancestors rest. 

 

Powerful.  Resonant.  Freeing. 

 

For the next week, we traveled back across the country toward 'home', stopping in yellowstone and the black hills and the canyons of utah... and everywhere we went, I would look at the soil and think... someone's ancestors are here, everywhere and they're mine too... we are all of us, one race and there is one earth and we are buried here when we pass...

 

Crazy Horse when asked "where are your lands now Crazy Horse?"

He stretched out his hand and pointed "my lands are where my people lie buried..."

 

one people

one earth

honor all that pass and who are passing

so potent.

[Marblehead]

I don't do rites, rituals and such but I do believe that we should remain somewhat connected with our heritage.  I enjoy seeing and hearing other peoples' cultural expressions as long as they are honest and presented with good intentions.