Present in the past : honouring the ancestors and the indigenous way

I love the aboriginal idea that our ancestors become part of everything when they pass over and so there is really no separation between us and them and in their tradition they honor their ancestors and elders which is sadly something not at all common in our modern society

I was very moved listening to the aboriginal woman interviewed yesterday who spoke of how we always carry the past within us and she also spoke with great humor about how ignorant a lot of us ‘whiteys’ are.. She says it gets to her a bit when Australian people who are not indigenous reach out to ‘help’ her and her people.. She actually said sometimes she had to go to the bathroom and try to manage her anger in such situations. Her advice : we need to practice our own self care and learn to live in a more grounded way..

I get it. In this country so many of us have not truly honored the way we dispossessed the ancient custodians of this land and we, living in a highly materialist and separatist way, also do not have a strong connection to land and earth, no longer seeing our beings as seamlessly interwoven with the environment..

This woman’s opinion on Covid was that it was a lesson from Mother Earth to get us to slow down in our materialism and its interesting to me that Covid attacks the lungs and so it concerns the breath which is spirit. The Indian mystic who I listened to earlier this week claims that when we can slow our breathing down far enough we actually can come into a deeper connection with the earth, nature, plants and animals.

I am practicing a lot more with grounding, breathing and going slower this weekend. I recognise one of my defects can be impatience and I learned this from my Mum who carried a huge backlog of emotional frustration and fury. So lately I am taking time just to be. I am noticing how busy and active my mind gets which can then lead me to abandon my body. I have also just been noticing if difficult thoughts come up and naming them in such a way “having an anxiety about the future”, “criticizing and judging myself” this has helped me to stop the anxious thoughts and I have not been having all of those spins.

I watched this very helpful video from The School of Life on Thursday which claims so much of our modern anxiety comes from over scheduling our life and not having enough quiet and down time.. In a world where cell phones and other technology rule I am making sure I limit my use to about 2 hours a day.. I am actually feeling better for it.

My ancestors have also been on my mind as well as Mum and Dad, I talk a lot to them lately and apologize for the things I could not understand or ask about their lives before… Earlier on our walk Jasper and I ran into a lady who was talking about how quiet her husband is and I mentioned how my Dad never spoke about his experiences in his early life in Holland or in the War much. She actually said to me “I think that was for the best, after all it was far too painful!” I didn’t argue but wished her a pleasant walk and then smiled to myself after we got home and thought of the scene in Fawltey Towers were Basil shouts “don’t mention the war”. Its sad really the grief over that then goes underground and the person cannot unpack it.. And sometimes I do question if there was more grieving allowed about past war and atrocities if the amount of war taking place on our planet in retribution or to claw back power would be as much.

It also occurred to me considering the earlier post about Pluto in Gemini that it was in the year 2001 that the Pluto in Gemini of my great great grandfather got transited in opposition by Pluto in Sagittarius and Saturn in Gemini.. I am not sure if you are aware but the Saturn Pluto opposition of that year motivated the attack on the twin towers which appear as a kind of Gemini symbol. I had very powerful dream at that time about being crushed in a birth canal and a spiral stair case on which a couple, man and woman, were both ascending and descending.. My husband and I had descended back to the ‘old world’ two years before and in that year we were pulled back. The other couple ascending I equate to my great great grandparents to immigrated to New Zealand in 1874. I feel such compassion for all they endured leaving so much behind.. and on some level see myself as both a carrier of it as well as a voice.. I find it so important to honor my ancestors because only in that way by seeking wisdom and understanding can I become aware of just how much in my own life has been dictated by patterns playing out across the past 4 generations. It also occurred to me last night that he and my great great grandmother Eliza lost the first baby Eliza as the Sun in Aries transited their natal Pluto’s in Aries.

To live well now I have to gain a deep understanding about the forces that led my family to here on an evolutionary developmental journey. Mum and Dad were later immigrants to Australia, I believe my great grandma and her daughter, my Nana came here in around 1910 Dad decided to make his life here with Mum instead of in Holland after the end of World War 2 and left behind so much loss. My older brother was taken there in around 1948 – 1950 due to the fact he had rickets and his legs were not developing and as Mum and Dad were then stationed in Indonesia they could not get adequate nutrition or medical help. My therapist always reminds me my brother was and often still is the young boy who had rickets. Going to Holland then had to leave my father behind in Java and be in a small house with a poor family who spoke not one word of English. He also had to share a bed with my Dads youngest brother. Mum told me often Gary wet the bed possibly due to fear.

Achieving materially became a primary concern, frugality with money despite his enormous creativity that saw him become one of the most popular medium density housing designers in our town despite having undergone no study. I do owe a lot to my brother and I forget that at times when he gets emotionally avoidant due to feeling overwhelmed by his sisters seemingly erratic and mysterious emotions.

Anyway slowly I am coming to peace with it all. I live in a country where we whiteys were invaders, so I also acknowledge the aboriginal ancestors around this area. The aboriginal people lo g for us to be open to learn, to not be so shallow and cavalier in turning our back upon a painful.psst that contains important understanding and wisdom for us all.