CONNECTING WITH ANCESTORS & GUIDES #3

We are watching from endless space
We are waiting in timeless order
Chant your way across the Veil
Spiral into existence those spirits that are needed.

HOW THINGS WORK

The main realm that concerns most of us is the Astral realm. Within it are countless other vibrations as there are in all the realms. We go to the vibration we have earned and usually the realm most familiar to our heritage, religion and culture. We will meet our loved ones again and even our pets. For those who are not Buddhists but study Buddhism, the Dalai Lama recommends that we keep our religion. This might be because we do not want to be confused when we cross over the veil between worlds. If we are not clear about who we are we may end up in the wrong realm or vibration. We create our reality almost instantaneously on the other side. On this side, being time bound, it takes much longer.

An Astral spirit guide who may have been fairly dysfunctional in life may become far more functional once they have gone through the spiritual tribunal when they are in a sense 'purified.' We need to recognize that these guides have abilities they did not have when in real time, and they can be of great assistance to us. We may have had an illiterate grandparent and believe they cannot be of help when they can be much more powerful than we may be able to concede. We should not disregard the advice of these spirits.

We are all given special talents and a distinct destiny or purpose with which we are meant to help the planet. 'They' have a much better idea of what that is and if we are receptive they can nudge us in the right direction and save us precious time. Its futile and a waste of time trying our best to perfect a talent with hard work that we have not been given by the Creator. Our guides can help steer us down the right path. They will try to open doors in line with who we truly are. Free will disallows them to close doors that are not to our benefit. We have to make our own mistakes. Tricksters do not abide by the law of free will. They will try and open the wrong doors for us and close the right ones, so we have to be wary. Anything of the light is a reproach to them. They are necessary, however, and are a part of our testing ground.

Our guides downloads may come in dreams, as an intuitive one during waking hours, as a feeling or even occasionally as a visitation. Sometimes a person goes to bed with a question and wakes up with the answer. There may be no dream as such but they may have scripted the answer and we need to give the credit and gratitude where it belongs, rather than it being self-reflected. One may spontaneously wake up with a feeling of anxiety and not be able to go to sleep. They may be telling you something vital need attention. Some messages can be critical such as; not to take an upcoming flight, go into a particular relationship, or enter a disadvantageous business venture. They can see all the variables, the characters involved, their integrity, and those dysfunctions that could arise that may impact us.

Ask and you will receive.

Free will allows them to operate on our behalf. We have to be careful of minimizing important or especially life-saving advice. Free will also determines what we do with this information.

Our guides tell us what to see and what can be - but only if we do not take action!

...The choices are ours and there are consequences to our choices...

Dysfunctional ancestors and others who have abused us should be forgiven and released. We may not want their presence around even if they can be of help.

Our guides are usually earth bound for a short period of time before they cross over. They want to check out how things are now they are gone. Sadly when death is sudden, confused, traumatic, ..., they can become earth bound and not see the light or hear the ancestors calling them home. It is much easier for E.B.S. to be present and to download information, visit or script dreams when they are earth bound rather than after they cross the veil between the worlds. However, they will have to return to the light to continue with the transmigration of their souls. It might require expert help to facilitate this. Some E.BS.'s remain voluntarily for a while to assist their loved ones in the early stages of grief.

Sometimes guides seek out conduits that are more open and accessible to receiving and sending a message. This can be dire or important or just meant for support. This is called 'getting someone else's mail.' If it happens to you, it must be passed on but be careful of how you give the message if its of a critical nature eg. 'you have cancer and are going to die,' rather than, 'it seems you may need a medical check up...'
When we allow them to help us, we give them purpose. We give them something to do, and they are able to improve their karmic profile by doing service for us on the other side. In return we give our gratitude , love and if needed forgiveness.

As relationship with our guides subtly develops (you may nor see, hear or feel them,) there will be certain signs that you may dismiss but are related to their communication.

Synchronicity is one. Jung described this as occurring when an inner event coincides with an outer one. For instance you are thinking of a college friend whom you have not heard from in years and suddenly the phone rings and its him or her on the line...

Power animals are another. They are not behaving normally because they are being manipulated energetically to encounter you. They are often within their usual 'safe space,' or cross your path when you least expect it or are looking at you in a strange, maybe focused way; a butterfly perches on you nose, a humming bird circles around you when you are meditating... They are often the animals that were special to the person when they were alive or are special to you. If there is something to convey they may have to use an animal that is the immediate vicinity that may be less impactful but necessary at the time. For instance a skunk is an animal of power and is usually a good sign but depending on the circumstances it could also be a warning. Your heart will tell you which. Sometimes they come just to support and tell you they are there. The animal may be empowering, like a stunning raptor or it may be a warning to be careful - a coyote or a rattlesnake or other poisonous snake depending on your habitat. A non-poisonous one may be an endorsement of a new beginning especially if its shedding its skin.

Einstein said there are two ways to live your life; one, that nothing is a miracle (and a butterfly is just a butterfly) - and the other that everything is a miracle.

At other times especially if you have a strong inner practice you may experience superfluidity or being in the 'zone' and something complicated you are doing just flows like you are in contact with the help of the cosmos.

"People are like tea bags, you only know how strong they are when you put them in hot water." Unknown

They cannot, however, protect you from all of life's conflicts and sometimes 'shit happens.' Everything that happens to us is a test of our spiritual fortitude and of our karma. Its not what happens to us that counts but what we do with it. There cannot be growth without conflict, light without dark, positive without negative, sacred without profane, good without evil. It all about polarity balance and riding the waves of affliction with competence. Sometimes something that is really bad happens and we may wonder what happened to their help? I like to think that if it was not for them it could have been much worse.

"No matter how long the night, the dawn is sure to come." African proverb

My experience is that often terrible life altering times and long nights, later on are replaced by something so positive that never would have happened but for that calamity. Sometimes they help us turn the shit into manure and we never look back. Gratitude is still appropriate in cases where because time has elapsed it didn't seem obvious cause and effect. We have to keep remembering there is no time in the Astral.

 

CONNECTING WITH ANCESTORS & GUIDES #2

My personal experience has indigenous origins related to my sangoma initiation at the turn of the millennium. The first teaching my Zulu mentor stressed was;

"Many of you in the West have forgotten your ancestors - some do not even know who they are. You are unsupported in life from the spirit world, like papers blowing in the wind." P.H. Mntshali

For this reason, even if a bit strange to some, this is a very important blog.

THE SPIRITUAL REALMS

When it comes to the different realms of spirit, there are literally countless realms and realms within realms. The ones we need to pay attention to are the Astral realms, occasionally the Causal realms, and hopefully not the Lower or the Hell realms. The Celestial does not practically apply.

The Astral is the most pertinent for most of us.

The ancients would ask of you to perform good deeds, speak good words and think good thoughts in their memory.

Our Astral guides can help us but the gift in not entirely unconditional. Since they are now refined, love and have high aspirations for us they can turn away if we misbehave. If we pay them no attention they will also leave except maybe in extenuating, life-saving circumstances when they feel they have to intervene and are 'allowed' to do so in spite of the law of free will.

Karma rules!

You should wish for yourself not what you want but that what you want is for your good.

The choices are yours and there are consequences to your choices.

Consequences are neither reward nor punishment; they simply are consequences, often not immediate but always inescapable… 

Not all guides are savory. These tricksters (sometimes called 'evil ancestors') may have their own agendas, sometimes on behalf of favoring their immediate progeny at our expense. They can sometimes shape shift into a persona that resembles a guide but usually we will know they are phony. If we go with heart we will know the truth when they come with a false message. Some of these may show up in seances (best avoided) and because they have access to non-local information, may know enough to pretend to be a loved one.

Lesser vibrations emanate, some more from degree of narrow (monkey) mind. They are often viewed as needing to sort out and work through their own calling. Beware of those on either side of the veil who would make you their resolution, much less their absolution.

Mostly we will be dealing with spirits from the Astral realms - commonly our immediate blood route ancestors or others that loved us in prior incarnations that are not in fact 'foreign.' 'They want to direct us to the light and the good.

They would want us to be a repository of their instructions, teachings and their righteous and loving ways. 

Our guides, when they come to us, are in a sense ' purified', having encountered a loving tribunal of a higher order. This is not judgment day. They are shown the error of their ways and judge themselves. After this reconciliation they are released from their various prior dysfunctions.

However, once reborn we must all start anew and face again the challenges of monkey mind, shadow and ego. We do have that knowledge stored in what the Buddhists call "Store Concsciousness" or if you like Soul-ular memory - we just need to remember. Hence, the Ancestors teach; with all your strength get knowledge! (that of a spiritual nature.)

Usually our guides come with a persona that we recognize. They retain their appearance, languages, apparel and their own idiosyncrasies. They might appear as they were before, or they might be younger or older. Some of their quirks do not change. However, they are now better informed and do not want us to make the same mistakes that they made. They have knowledge that can advantage us, now especially, since they are non-local in time and space.      

In the Astral they lose free will and will need to reincarnate from the Astral. However, they can graduate to a better Karmic vibration by being a guide to the living and doing work through their free will. In this way they may earn a better next lifetime. We are are all in the ongoing cycle of Samsara; death and rebirth until our karma is respectable and we can inherit the Causal. Buddhists pray, meditate and practice loving kindness so that they can continue their practice at a higher level in the next incarnation. Better still they strive to inherit the Causal or the Pure Land of the enlightened Buddhists

The Causal Realms

Enlightened beings, perfected souls have full use of their faculties and so do not have to reincarnate although they may choose to incarnate to support and guide. 

Those in the higher Causal realms can make themselves known to those in the lower Astral realms. However those in the Astral realm cannot vibrate to a higher level at their own volition or aspiration. Those of higher vibrations can hear and respond to lesser ones in addition to seeking them out.

 

Spirits in the Causal realm do not need to reincarnate unless they choose to. They have done their karmic duties and fulfilled their destiny. The Ancestors describe it as a process of 'Becoming" because it is never finished. It even continues in the beyond. Some may choose to come back for a special mission, understanding that it is not going to be easy for them. For instance, Gandhi who suffered immeasurably but knew that this was going to happen and did it anyway.

To have a Causal guide or guides offers even more of an advantage to those on the spiritual path. Depending on one's tradition the Causal has different names; the Pure Land to Buddhists and the Garden of Eden to Kabbalah.

In the Creation story in Genesis we were kicked out of the Garden when we ate of the Tree of Knowledge and lost our innocence. There was, however, another tree in the Garden - the Tree of Life though which we can regain our rightful place. For the Yogi negotiating the Chakra hierarchy is similar.

“The sages who have died are present in this world to a greater extent than when they were alive.” The Zohar 

THE LOWER OR HELL REALMS

The hell realms are places where dysfunctional spirits exist. The Lower or Hell realms also have many varying vibrations. The worst have lost the option to reincarnate because of their unrelenting evil ways, life time after life time.  

Those that are demonic who have refused to reconcile repeatedly with their karma may no longer be redeemable. Hence, they are stuck in the lower realms without any possibility of coming out. Their cravings - for instance, 'sex, drugs and rock and roll' are exaggerated.

These spirits may come out of the lower realms and can possess a human body and be in a toxic sense 'incarnate' again. In this way they are able to experience sentient pleasures and escape from a ‘hell’ where their overwhelming desires are never fulfilled.
It is only a person that has a broken aura and a shattered ego - usually with 'soul loss' - that can be possessed. This is an unusual occurrence, but it does happen.

Exorcism is effective and the church does good work in this regard. Exorcists are reporting that they have never been busier than they are now - probably because of the current state of the planet. Others not of the Christian faith may have to seek out a powerful shaman trained in these methods. It is dangerous work and should never be done alone.

 

CONNECTING WITH ANCESTORS & GUIDES #

  "The most robust of democracies are those in which the no-longer-living still have their voices heard. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes - our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” G.K. Chesterton 

Spirit guides are not subject to time or space as are we. They are always around but not always to be known. Always within call but not always to be heard. Always present but not always to be sensed. Always holding us but not always to be felt.

Ancestors or/and our guides are not localized in space and time. Since they can bi-locate and be in any place on the earth plane, they can tell us things we do not know. They also have access to a past lives and know who we are supposed to be. They can help nudge us towards our destiny but because of the cosmic law of free will, they cannot tell us what to do. They can, however, advise us what not to do. They have broader vision and if we give permission they can help us walk the right path. It helps to regard the words ancestors and guides as one and the same.

The ancestors cannot save but simply alert, advise and warn and only according to your openness and willingness. They cannot change or deter you from your own insistency no matter to what it's due. Only you can choose to change. Such is the design of free will.

The Ancestors cannot help you neutralize anything you have not freely, willingly and deliberately given up. 

Long ago and the future will meet to know themselves as one.

“That which already has been - and that which is to be - already is.” Ecclesiastes  

In other words what is happening now or what will happen in the future has already occurred in some form in the past. Everything past, present, and future exists simultaneously within the divine plan or cosmic order. Einstein confirmed that the distinction between past, present and future was an illusion, albeit a stubborn one.

Most of us will go to one of the many the Astral realms after death where after being subject to a reconciliation process we will eventually reincarnate to continue the soul's journey towards perfection or 'Becoming.' Once in the Astral, we lose free will. Our Karma is cut in stone and unalterable apart from working through free will of the living as guides. This service can improve our karmic profile and enhance the next incarnation.

In a way, our spirit guides are guides to our life path and our destiny. However, we need to ask to receive. Moreover, we have to be very specific because of the cosmic law of free will. We cannot ask; help me with my life...

We need to recognize that they exist in the present moment. Free will is also in the present moment. We have to keep in contact and keep affirming our intentions. If we want something, they need to know how committed we are. This means persevering in our prayerful requests. We help them by 'lifting them up,' - 'Pagamisa' in Zulu - as well as by giving gratitude, love and forgiveness. It is like any relationship or friendship, we cannot take them for granted and we need to continue to show respect and honor. Because our requests are not time bound we have to be patient. They can take longer than we would like.

We may have to look back in time to see results which may not look exactly like what we asked for. They want to help us in line with our greater good and may only open those doors for us. Free will does not allow them to close doors that we want to open no matter how disadvantageous they may be to us. Trickster will try and open doors that are not to our benefit because anything of the light is a reproach to them. Their job is to manipulate us in the wrong direction.

We also need to realize that they are not the same in the Astral as they were in real time. They have reconciled (lovingly not judgmentally) with a Spiritual Tribunal and a 'School for the Higher Self'. They have released from their prior dysfunctions, impulses, unhealthy desires and compulsions. For example a dogmatic belief that there is no life after death will be revised and the religious zealot will acknowledge there are many routes to God.They now understand the errors of their ways and their karmic blemishes. As guides they love us and do not want us to make the same mistakes they did.

The dead and the living can best meet in the Astral, (the intermediate stage of the Bardot), in the early hours of the morning when the veil between worlds is the most permeable. Mostly the dead that we encounter are reconciling with their karma.

Some are lucky enough to have enlightened guides from the Causal realm who have completed life's demands and no longer need to reincarnate. Their information is usually of a higher vibration, and less to do with the more basic challenges of living.

Sometimes our loves ones become earth bound due to a traumatic, confused or sudden death. They did not hear the Ancestors calling them home or see and follow the divine light. It is much easier for them to communicate if earth bound but they cannot tarry and need to return to the light to complete the transmigration of their souls. Sometimes the dead voluntarily remain earth bound to support the living because they know that once they cross over it will be more difficult to do so. They leave if given permission or once they realize they are no longer needed for support. Once they cross the veil between world contact is more difficult. Hence if they do come through with a message we should acknowledge and show gratitude.

We all have guides and ancestors with whom we are familiar or perhaps knew in the immediate past. However, there are also so-called “foreign guides,” which are not really foreign, and they can be exotic. They might be Egyptian, Tibetan, African, or Native American, representing perhaps fathers, brothers or sisters, mothers, uncles, lovers, friends or teachers from past lives who you loved and who loved you. We cycle in and out of different faiths, cultures ethnicities etc. over time. The music genre that speaks to one's soul may also help indicate which past lives we have had.

Love is the catalyst that allows them and our more recent guides to cross the veil between worlds and come to us in dreams, visitations, and intuitive downloads. Although some are foreign to us in this lifetime, they are not really foreign to us from previous lifetimes. They may only show up once in a dream but that could be life-altering or even life-saving.
We do, however, sometimes have a true foreign spirit guide or a muse. Usually, it will be your own ancestors or guides or a higher source who will help connect you with a particular guide or any other guides that you might need for your life path. They usually have a distinct talent that is needed for you to progress.

Our destiny is different from our fate. Fate is the cards we are dealt in life, and we have to negotiate our fate in order to find our destiny. Our guides can assist us in trying to connect with that destiny.

Our destiny is the hunt of our lives: stick to the spoor and stay on the scent.

Our life trajectory can look very much like a treasure hunt. We need to look for the clues that our ancestors are sending us from the other side and that may point us in the right direction. In reality, sometimes a clue may seem to send us in the wrong direction, but if we did not go there, we would not find the next clue. Hence, the path is convoluted, complicated, difficult, and takes time. This is a bit like a cybernetic, negative feedback system where we are corrected by the message to go right instead of wrong. There is no easy way.

Those that are dead are never gone

They are there in the thickening shadow

The dead are not under the earth

They are there in the tree that rustles

They are in the wood that groans

They are in the water that sleeps

They are in the hut

They are in the crowd

The dead are not dead”

Bizago Diap (Mali poet) 

 

THE MAGICAL POWER OF NATURE # 10

THE PRINCIPLES OF MANIFESTATION

(USING THE ELEMENTS,

THE CHAKRAS AND THE FOUR BEINGS

AS CATALYSTS)

THE 'ETHER ELEMENT'

GOD

JESUS

SPIRIT

'FIELD'

ANCESTORS & GUIDES

For simplicity one can also use the word 'Field.'

"Whatever being comes to be, be it motionless or moving,

derives its being from Field and Knower of the Field. Know this!" Bhagavad Gita

The 'Field', Spirit, our guides respond more powerfully to passion,

will, and strong intention. The more the attention to detail the better !

Ritual involves effort. Effort signifies strong intention.

The Field will reward us for a strong effort.

We are not just influences but also recipients

of influences from distant places and distant times.

We all have guides and ancestors who want to help. However, being bound by the law of Free will, we need to ask to receive, as well as develop a relationship with them built on gratitude, love and forgiveness.

In Kabbalah the Creation was described as occuring in Four Stages

or the Four Worlds of Reality or Manifestation through the Tree of Life.

Emanation

Creation

Formation

Actualization

EMANATION 

arises from Source 

 from the Infinite One. 

"In the beginning was the word." Gospel of John

The Intention.

CREATION 

Requires - undifferentiated thought or Wisdom through imagination.

As well as;

 Understanding - differentiated or cognitive thought to supplement Wisdom.

Wisdom includes fantasy and imagination. 

Einstein wanted to understand the mind of God and acknowledged that his powers of imagination and fantasy meant more to him than his cognitive abilities.

We need both.

 

To think like God is to think with imagination.

 

What cannot be imagined, cannot be fulfilled.

 

As you think it, so it can be, as you imagine and believe it, so it will be.

Wisdom's imagination, requires cognitive Understanding to help it take form.

 

FORMATION 

The elements and the mystery of the unexplainable power of the Creator to make something out of nothing. This began with the Big Bang (Tzimtzum in Kabbalah) when (?...) the elements of the periodic table were infused into the void (Nothingness) to eventually become "Somethingness" and then slowly evolved into order through the world of Formation. This could have occured in seven periods of time (maybe billions of years) - the "seven days" (or epochs) in Genesis. There is no time on the other side of the veil in the Field, so that the number seven in the idea of "days" is arbitrary. Evolution took eons.

ACTUALIZATION

All of us in physical bodies (and the other Beings as well) living here on planet Earth where we manifest our sentient existence - as well as the planets, galaxies and cosmos.

Any process of Actualization whether from God or from us should correspond to these 

Fours Worlds 

- a template that can help us elevate our sacred intentions into manifestation.

If we acknowledge the importance of all these Four Stages and put it out into the "Field," to the Creator, Jesus, our guides in a sensory driven, active imagination we will have greater success in our ventures. 

 

Our own actualizing process for the spiritual and the material 

should follow the same Four Stages. 

Emanation 

Our Intent

Creation 

The plan or blueprint using

Imagination.

Formation 

With whatever is materially required.

  Actualization 

Making it happen. 

For instance constructing a building .

First the INTENTION (Emanation)

 ATTENTION to Detail (Creation)

The context of what one wants using Imagination 

 How it should look.

The architect. 

ACTION (Formation)

The contractor, workers, materials etc.

ACTUALIZATION (Affirmation)

The building is complete 

Staying the course - the longest part. 

Affirmation

 Assuring and Maintaining what one has Actualized

This ties in with the Three Deities in Yoga; 

The Creator, Destroyer, Maintainer.

Everything is in the process of being destroyed and dissipating. 

The Maintainer has the biggest job.

 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's advice can help us too.

 

"Know what you want,

 decide when you want it, 

figure your plan of action, 

follow through on it, and never doubt. 
Unless an action is rightly thought out and its steps rightly planned, every stage of its performance will probably remain vague and therefore unsatisfactory for the doer and all those concerned;" 

(as well as our guides, the Creator and Field.)

Ask and you will receive !

"Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." Matthew

 

To simplify and expand on the Maharishi and Kabbalah

INTENTION

ATTENTION 

ACTION 

AFFIRMATION

 

INTENTION

What one wants. 

ATTENTION 

USING IMAGINATION

Attend to the context of what one wants. The 'Field' will handle the details on behalf of your and others' greater good. 

Because of the cosmic law of free will you have to give the Field permission. 

Since you are working in and with the 'Light' they will only open doors that are in line with the Light. Hence, things may not turn out exactly as you imagined but probably better for the planet and one's karma as a whole. Because there is no time in the Field, results may take time. 

 ACTION.

Do your part. You cannot sit back and expect it to happen.

"Trust in God but tie your camel." Sufi saying

AFFIRMATION

Stay the course, maintain, sustain. Our guides are living in a non-space-time reality. They live in the present moment. Free will is in the present moment. They want to know how committed we are - do we still want it a month or longer. 

Persistence is essential in spite of the fact you may feel nothing is happening. Sometimes one has to look far back to find out how and where you eventually arrived. One might be surprised.

IN ADDITION

 NON-ATTACHMENT TO OUTCOME

Attachment has a stickiness that repels and can imply a lack of trust.

 Hence have Faith, Believe, Trust, Surrender, Hope. 

Subordinate any doubt or disbelief.

PASSION - STRONG WILL !

FEEL IT !

(use the senses in any way possible.)

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Ruach Hakodesh (the spirit/breath/wind of the Holy One) who is in you, whom you have received from God? Talmud

The way to God is through the senses. From my flesh shall I behold the Creator.

"You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." Corinthians

 

Many of these principles are being used by self-help “gurus” for the sake  actualization of the material which may or may not be successful. I suspect the stumbling blocks to success may be: 

No attempt to invoke help from the Field. 

The intention should be for the greater good - getting one's small self out of the way.

 To truly believe - and harder still have complete faith - in what will transpire is easier if we do it on behalf of others. Its difficult for most of us to believe that we deserve a Maserati or  our own private island.

"We are here on earth to help others,

what on earth others are here for, I do not know." W. H. Auden

These principles will have greater traction in the spirit world if it is about one’s needs on behalf of helping another or others rather than ones small self's wants. It can be for oneself if it will help others.

It should be for the purpose of soul work and not an ego-based attachment to a want rather than a need.

“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings by changing the inner attitude of their minds, can change the outer aspect of their lives.” William James

The ideal place to do this would be to do the imagining in a sacred bath supported by plants of power, music, incense or anything else of a sensory nature.

You could also do it anywhere else in a meditative state in nature or siting on a rock on the beach tuning in to the Soft Fascinations.

For Maintaining and Sustaining, a mantra may suffice some of the time.