Voices Of The Ancestors

כ"ט טבת תשס"ט
Grael 30

In illustration of my spiritual journey as it pertains to the tradition of Celtic Witchcraft (see links for personal examples of experience), a select excerpt on Voices of the Ancestors and the Three Conditions of Consciousness, from Power Within The Land (R. J. Stewart):

The word 'conditions' refers to states of consciousness, but also refers to conditions of being, to states of existence.

The first condition is the voice of the land or, if you are strong, the voice of the world. It speaks through deep places ... and utters directly with prophetic power. When prophetic power flows through a particular place, it also speaks directly through the prophets and poets of that place. This is called the Voice of One.

The second condition holds the voices of teachers. They communicate a steady flow of clear tuition, either as instructions for your work or as tales and verses. They will issue images and glimpses of places within the words, for those that see. One listener may hear several teachers or only one, but usually a small number, well defined. This condition is known as the Voice of the Few.

Most voices heard in the silence come from the third condition known as the Voice of the Many. This sea of many voices may be heard briefly as you fall asleep, but it is lost when you cross the threshold in either direction. As a child learns to shut the ear to all voices and sounds but those that have meaning in life, and to respond only to sounds within certain zones of distance, so must you. The zones of close, intermediate and distant are reversed in importance in the Underworld. There, the furthest and deepest voice is the most precious.

You yourself embody all three conditions.

Ancestral voices may be heard in any of the three conditions, but they are most often heard in the Voice of the Many. When you hear ancestors speaking with the Voice of the Many they will [may] cry out for revenge against past wrongs. You must resist this demand however just it is.

Ancestors in the second condition will reveal how the sorrows and trials have led to slow changes, how the secret currents of life and the land flow through you and your people over many ages, through generations. One generation or more may cry out for revenge, but beyond their own time they cannot extend unless they are awake in the second condition. Ancestors speaking with the Voice of the Few will reveal the true powers of your people and their holy places, which are not always those assumed and taught on the surface. Those speaking with the Voice of the Few will lead you to other ancestral lines hidden within your main line, and enable you to open the way to those memories also.

When ancestors speak within the first condition, the Voice of One, they are the land. These are the First Ones embodied within the land, and they are, or become, the prime parents of any and all who live within the land for any number of generations. Today, the prime parents of any one land and the multiple parentage of many hold the keys to the first condition for the entire world.

The prime parents of any one land or of many lands lead the way to the Original Man and Woman. The Original Woman and Man are not of this world at all, so deep contact with ancestors in the first condition leads through the Earth to other worlds. This is one of the Mysteries of acceptance that you shall find within the Underworld, but you are not able to follow its path until you have truly accepted your own land and world.