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Communing with My (Your) Ancestors:
A Samhain Meditation
by Boudica
As we come to the End/Begining of
the next Turn of the Wheel of the Year, a personal, private
meditation on those who have come and gone before us can give us
perspective and direction as we start on yet another cycle.
In a room where you feel most
comfortable, on a couch, in a chair or on the floor, day time or
eventide, in front of a window, or beside a fire, make yourself
comfortable. Patchouli incense, or maybe you have a favorite
oil that you can warm in a pot, throw some herbs on the fire, wear a
perfume that has meaing to you, or to someone who has passed through
the veil, some candle light, or sunlight, whatever it is that makes
you most comfortable and connected with those you wish to
remember. Music can bring back memories, recent or old.
While you may want to have this rememberance of someone special, you
can use it to connect with all your ancestors, not just someone
specific. You may want to have pictures of those who have
crossed through the veil around, gaze at them a while, fix faces
and/or names in your memory if you wish to include them.
Once you are settled in and
comfortable then close your eyes. The first thing you want to
do is relax. My favorite relaxation technique is walking along
a beach, breezes off the water, smell of salt air, sand beneath
your feet. As you begin to relax, scoop up a handfull of
sand. Feel it in your hand, open your fingers and as the grains
of sand fall between your fingers, allow them to represent the cares
and worries of the day, and let them drop from you to the beach,
freeing you of any burdens or concerns you may have.
Allow the scene to shift to a
place you love, or move to where you feel most comfortable. A
grassy meadow, a wooded forest, pick a season that you associate
with. Fall, with the leaves covering the ground, cool, this
would be appropriate to most, as Samhain falls at this time.
But you may have a season or place you hold special for someone who
has crossed the veil. Place yourself where you feel the most
attraction for what you are about to do.
Seated in your comfortable place,
call to mind the face(s) of the one(s) you want to remember. Think
about what they looked like, what clothes they wore, how they did
their hair, what scent they prefered. Give them special
consentration, looking into the distance. Look around
you. Do you see someone coming forward out of the
distance? Can you make out someone coming towards
you? Are they waving? You can run to meet them, or
you can wait for them to come to you. Is there something you
wanted to say, something special you wanted to share? How about
just a hug, or a smile. This is your personal rememberance,
there is no need to tell you what to say or do, you know what to do.
If you look around, you will find
many more people coming towards you. Aunts, uncles, moms and dads,
brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, grandmothers and
grandfathers, husbands and wives. There will be faces you will
recognize, there will be others you will not. Ask them who they
are if you do not kow, I am sure you will find out they are a distant
relative who you may or may not have heard of or remembered. Smile,
and remember that we are made up of the genes of many people who have
gone before us who's names have been lost in time. It is good
to thank them all for coming and sharing their special place in your
family with you. I have found from time to time that if there
is music playing in the background, Ancestors will dance, and you
will be swept up in the dance. Some may even sing. Look
at all the people who have come before you, who have laid out the
chain of events that have lead to you being reborn this lifetime as
you are. They may have different forms from their different
lifetimes, but they will show all them to you as you dance and talk.
You may even glimpse a past life of your own that you may have been
part of.
There will come all too soon in
your meditation a time to return. Again, thank them all for coming,
kiss the ones who are special to you, and ask that they come again
sometime and share a special evening with you. Wave
good-bye to them as they return to the other side of the Veil.
It will darken as they go, and you will realize that it had been much
lighter while they were there, it was the merryment and mirth that
they had brought, it will go with them, but it will not be darkness
you are left with. Some light left from the laughter and joy
you felt having enjoyed their company.
Allow the special place to fade,
as you bring yourself slowly back to your sitting room. Walk
back along the beach, feeling the sand under your feet, the warmth of
the sun, then the warmth of the room, the softness of the chair or
the carpet beneath your feet. Open your eyes slowly to the
sunlight or the candlelight. Feel the joy left in your heart as
you feel connected with a bit of your family, your ancestors, those
who have gone before you and will be with you again.
One of the things I feel I need to
do after a meditation is to have something to drink, something warm
and relaxing while I ground and come back to the mundane. I
also want to take a portion out to the back of my house, and leave it
with some sweets for those who wish to join me in a snack. If
it is on Samhain, leaving food for those who have crossed the Veil is
not unusual, and for the most part, it is usually gone by the
following morning.
While this is meant as a
meditation to be had with relatives whom you can joyfully associate,
there are those of us who have relatives with whom we have
issues. Sometimes in a meditation you can work out those
issues, other times it can be a serious issue that can not be worked
out in meditation. This can lead to a problem with the
meditation and I suggest that if such a problem exists, maybe you may
want to wait till another time to approach this relative, a time when
you may have support from another on this side of the veil and you
can work out this problem with help. Not all relatives are easy
to deal with, and issues of this nature should be dealt with on a
more professional level. But sometimes, when we do this
meditation, a relative with whom you have had an issue may come over
to work out the problem, it can be resolved easily enough and this
meditation can be a usefull tool. If you suspect you will be
dealing with issues that are not easily resolved, look to a
professional who can walk you through this meditation, guide you,
talk to you as you work out your issues, and help you to resolve, or
try to resolve the problems.
If you find you are alone, and a
relative tries to force an issue, back away and suggest that they
wait for another time when you can deal with them on a one on one
level. Many will agree, and wait till such a time.
This is a time of renewal, when we
will rest the winter, and gather our strength for the next season of
growth. It is a time to celebrate the year, and look forward to
another new one. We learn from our successes and from our mistakes,
and we move forward to face what challenges we may have. Celebrating
the season by remembering those who are our ancestors is our way of
connecting with the earth, our roots and our heritage |
