Female Genomic Chimerism

This is incredible! DNA Double Take

... inside our body, a genome is a genome is a genome. Scientists believed that they could look at the genome from cells taken in a cheek swab and be able to learn about the genomes of cells in the brain or the liver or anywhere else in the body.

In the mid-1900s, scientists began to get clues that this was not always true. In 1953, for example, a British woman donated a pint of blood. It turned out that some of her blood was Type O and some was Type A.

Chimerism, as such conditions came to be known, seemed for many years to be a rarity. But “it can be commoner than we realized,” said Dr. Linda Randolph, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles who is an author of a review of chimerism published in The American Journal of Medical Genetics in July.

In other cases, two fertilized eggs may fuse together. These so-called embryonic chimeras may go through life blissfully unaware of their origins.

One woman discovered she was a chimera as late as age 52. In need of a kidney transplant, she was tested so that she might find a match. The results indicated that she was not the mother of two of her three biological children. It turned out that she had originated from two genomes. One genome gave rise to her blood and some of her eggs; other eggs carried a separate genome.

Women can also gain genomes from their children. After a baby is born, it may leave some fetal cells behind in its mother’s body, where they can travel to different organs and be absorbed into those tissues. “It’s pretty likely that any woman who has been pregnant is a chimera,” Dr. Randolph said.

As scientists begin to search for chimeras systematically — rather than waiting for them to turn up in puzzling medical tests — they’re finding them in a remarkably high fraction of people. In 2012, Canadian scientists performed autopsies on the brains of 59 women. They found neurons with Y chromosomes in 63 percent of them. The neurons likely developed from cells originating in their sons.

To read the full mind-blowing article, click the link above ...

Othala - First Family Rune

Othala - My First Family Rune

In follow-up to my previous post, I want to quickly post that I drew my first family rune in tonight's nightly rune drawing - it's Othala! So perfect!

In it's form, Othala clearly contains 3 additional runes - kenaz (torch), ingwaz (seed) and gebo (gift).

Two of the three additional runes (torch and seed) represent my genetic U5b1b1 motherline and I-M223 fatherline respectively, extending back and forward through all time. The two continuous lines of Othala (and my motherline and fatherline) intersect in gebo (gift) and kenaz (torch), giving birth to all that I am and raising up in me creative illumination - a gift to me from my ancestral mothers and fathers, those past, those who are, and those yet to be.

My first family rune surrounds with sanctity all of my ancestries and spiritual inheritance clear back to the beginning of life itself and forward into the future. It is not simply Celtic, Germanic, Slavic or any other ethnicity - it is the fundamental living essence of consciousness.

Three Aettir / Three Soul Families

Aettir

I just had the coolest idea! I am going to take the three aettir of the futhark (the 3 rows or families of runes) and link them to my 3 primary ancestral ethnic families! Now, I am saying right from the get-go, this is my own personal gnosis. I make no claims that what I am going to do applies to everyone. This is my personal path, blazened toward the knowledge I am seeking within the depths of my own soul and kinfolk Folksoul.

The first aett (which I consider to be the eldest) I assign to my likely eldest European roots - my Slavic ethnicity.

The second aett goes to my ancestral family between my eldest and youngest European roots - my Germanic ethnicity.

The third aett goes to my youngest European roots - my Celtic ethnicity.

As I learn more, I will weave together my families by linking each rune also to one of my ethnic roots. I will evaluate each rune independent of the family aett it is in, thus weaving together the runes and my ethnic families. Who knows, maybe some runes will be wildcards from one of the smaller ethnicities found in my genetic ancestry. The future is open and I'm anxious to see what I will discover about myself and my tribes as I do this.

My Ethnic Families

Slavic Witch

I'm taking a new turn in my own soul crafting. New genetic Family Finder results from Family Tree DNA have come in for me (they update results when new techniques become available, see my previous post for the graph), showing my autosomal ancestral ethnicity to be at least 16% Central European - in places like Slovakia, Hungary and the steppes of Russia in other genetics results - and up to 21% adding in my Finnish Saami results (who closely share genetic roots with the Slavic peoples). While my ancestral ethnicity is predominantly Celtic-Germanic (31% and 35% respectively), both my ancestral genetic motherline (U5b1b1-T16192C!) and fatherline (I-M223) have deep Slavic roots, as do the Saami - making my Slavic ethnic ancestry to be at least 21%. 

The large majority of my ethnic ancestry I now know to be Germanic, Celtic and Slavic. Given this, I now am calling myself a Celtic-Germanic-Slavic heathen witch. I need to find out more about Slavic folkways, so the future holds a turn to discover the folkways of my Slavic ancestors . At this point, I know very little about Slavic paganism, but new offerings in my witchcraft shoppe for this tribe of my family are in the works. A pretty complex task, but I'm sure I'll be able to weave all of my ancestral streams together quite nicely in my own soul crafting practice. After all, it's who I am, and I think I am woven together very well.

Archaic Consciousness

In follow-up to my previous post (From the Race of Ancient Stones, linking the mysteries of Newgrange to my experience and remembrance of my preincarnate existence), it is relevant to the ideas expressed in that post (that pre-modern humans experienced consciousness differently than do modern humans, and that the modern human brain functions in some areas to screen out perceptual data that may have been perceptible to pre-modern humans) is the fact that scientists tell us that the reason for a long childhood in modern humans (in contrast to Neanderthals and other primates, for example) is to enable our large brains to continue to grow outside the womb for a significant period of time (a large brained modern human baby could not pass through it's mother's birth canal, so it has to finish growing its brain outside the womb). Consequently, this means that the brains of human children are not fully developed at birth and continue to grow throughout childhood. This biological fact supports the possibility that the modern human brain's "perceptual screening capacity" has not yet developed in babies at birth and only develops as modern humans grow through childhood into adulthood. This may be why children can still easily relate to the subtle worlds that adults cannot perceive (as the adult brain has developed its capacity to screen out perceptual data as a function of modern human biological processes).

If all of the above is true, then it stands to reason that genes at some level influence the development of the modern human adult brain's screening capacity. In modern human adults with unusual experiences and remembrances of other kinds of consciousness then, it may be that genes that control development of this biological screening function in the modern human brain are atypical in outliers like me. My brain never fully "turned off" my ability to relate to and remember other kinds of experiential consciousness (as children typically "turn off" and don't remember most of the experiences of childhood). Unlike most people, I also can remember events I lived through as a baby (as well as experiential consciousness prior to physical incarnation). So, in this area of brain function, I may actually be more like my Neanderthal and pre-modern human ancestors, than I am to most other modern humans. Additionally, while my own experience of consciousness clearly informs me that consciousness is fundamentally independent of physical existence (including the brain), consciousness is nevertheless influenced by the limitations of physicality once it becomes tied to physicality as a function of incarnation.

From The Race of Ancient Stones

My 100% European Ethnicity that reflects up to the last 2,000 years (about 80 generations).

In follow-up to an earlier post (Soul Saga), in considering the origin of consciousness and my ability to remember events of my existence prior to physical incarnation, I've come to the temple mound of Newgrange, a construction of my ancestors.

In addition to the fact that on the longest night of the year (the winter solstice, hence my connection to the goddess Hela, and shedding light on the memorial line in my Soul Saga poem "in this darkest place"), I have learned that within the inner chambers of Newgrange are carved stones grouped together in groups illustrating in stone cell divisions seemingly symbolic of genetic reproduction following fertilization of an egg by a sperm as my poem and memory Soul Saga also describes). The long entry passageway from which light enters the mound of Newgrange on the longest night of the year symbolizes the reproductive process of fertilization of the egg, suggesting that conscious memory of these pre-incarnate events may have been common among my ancestors, namely, my ancestors who built Newgrange.

That these processes of the beginning of human organic life are clearly evident in the symbolism of Newgrange, underscores for me (like for the author of Ireland, Land of the Pharaohs) that the creators and builders of Newgrange experienced consciousness unlike modern humans (nearly all modern humans that is, excluding those who, like me, carry memories of preincarnate existence).

In the book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, the idea is posited that modern ways of thinking are rather recent in the evolutionary history of humankind. Ancient humans experienced consciousness much differently.

Neuroscientists also posit that the modern human brain functions as a screen of information. In addition to enabling the human mind to focus thought more effectively into a single unified stream of consciousness, the modern human brain filters out a mass of deeply intuitive and sensual information potentially available to conscious perception that would otherwise bombard us (a mass of potentially perceptible information which would make narrowly focused modern human rational thought difficult). In other words, our modern human brain screens out things we might otherwise perceive so that modern humans are more rational and consequently, less intuitively cognitively perceptive to our full environment.

Taking all of these facts together, and given the fact that my modern human ancestors are ethnically 100% European according to my most recent autosomal Family Tree DNA results, and that both my genetic Doggerland fatherline and motherline are indigenous to Old Europe (all genetic data further supporting the antiquity of my ancient European roots and connection to Newgrange), I am thinking that the reason that I can remember preincarnate existence is linked to the idea that my brain may phenotypically express (normally dormant) ancient characteristics of the pre-modern European human brain - one which does NOT filter out the kinds of perceptions and memories which may have been common among my ancient ancestors - the ancestors who commonly experienced incarnate memories of preincarnate existence as evidenced by the temple of Newgrange.

I may write more on this later when my mind is refreshed, as I've been up all night thinking about this, and need to get some sleep now.

Doggerland Fatherline From Europe's Atlantis

Historical Doggerland stretched from Britain's east coast to the Netherlands and the western coasts of Germany and Denmark in the area now under the North Sea.

Perhaps part of the reasons why it is difficult for me to pin down a location of emergence for my Dad's I-M223 fatherline is that, according to one academic researchers' website, haplogroup I-M223 emerged in Doggerland (the European Atlantis, a land in ancient Northwestern Europe that now is submerged under the North Sea) -

Haplogroup I-M223
Time of Emergence: 15,000 BP, 600 generations ago
Place: Doggerland

The founder of this marker lived somewhere in the northwestern regions of the European continent, perhaps even in what seems a very unlikely place:  the bed of what is now the North Sea. At the time of the great post-LGM European expansion of 15,000 years ago, there was no North Sea. Instead, there was a flat grassy plain stretching all the way from England through southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Frisia and Holland across the North Sea. In fact, had they wished, our forebears could have walked in a straight line all the way from Berlin to Belfast, although they seemed to prefer wandering along beaches.

Doggerland would have covered an area about the size of England, a tundra landscape across which vast herds of reindeer and horses plodded, where salmon spawned in its prolific rivers. As the climate warmed, oak woodland colonized the valleys and hills. Red deer, roe deer and wild pig replaced the barren-ground reindeer. It remained an ideal hunting ground.

Around the shores there is still plenty of evidence of these coastal changes: waterlogged stumps of prehistoric trees in the Thames estuary, or Cardigan Bay, where the sea has drowned magnificent ancient forests.

Today about 25 percent of all northwest European men are members of this haplogroup. The lineage has three primary sub-clades, and each one is prominent in a different geographic location.

How cool! My Dad is a real Atlantean!

Soul Saga

Yggdrasil

Contemplating the mysteries of the European soul complex and how it aligns with my preincarnate memories, the runes, and ancestral tradition. First, let me share (once again) this poem I wrote about 20 years ago concerning one of my preincarnate memories:

and reflecting then
on the thought, shaking my tail
vowing remembrance

of my own story
through the fire river around
the world I came in

remembering back
before, how I can I tell it
my whole story, how

contemplating how
feeling this what, suddenly
who, is here with me

asks from the head who
around in circles I turn
unwinding myself

turning turning I
looking I pause to do what
who is here with me

in this darkest place
cool water in night, winding
around me your voice

spiraling about
binding me up speaking some
what say you to me

I trying turning
looking pausing to hear you
what say who to me

where have you rested
in wait for me, only me
you waiting for me

struggling down through worlds
into edges of edges
hearing your voice call

me into being
binding me about voicing
here I am, I am

Given the structure I chose for this poem and more importantly, the idea that the ability to remember these events evidences the existence of Mind before birth, I am first (but not solely) linking the series of events this poem describes as being aligned with the rune Isa (the ability to experience the "I" Self as a distinct being) and to the soul "part" personified by the two ravens (Huggin-thought and Munnin-will/intellect) of Odin in ancestral tradition.

Secondly, these events are describing my experience of being thrust into existence prenatally. In other words, in my experience particularly, the part of my personal soul corresponding to my initial experience of mindful self-identity, to Isa, and to the two ravens of Odin, seem also clearly corresponding to an experiential attachment to the journey of a single sperm, a seed of my father:

I reflected (Isa). I shook my tail (the little tail of Raidho), disengaging from the other tail part which had thrust me through and kept me attached to the river of fire (the membrane of my mother's egg which "I" alone had successfully penetrated), I then became experientially mobile (Fehu) as an individual "I" separate from all others (in contradistinction to my experience of Folksoul in the Ginnungagap). I took an oath (Gebo). I had a head (the head of Raidho). These things about myself I recognized and realized (Uruz) even then. My sense of "I" and these runes I carried with me as I experienced consciousness as an attachment to one of my father's sperm, one carrying the X chromosome making "me" a girl. This part of my newly incarnating soul and these runes I inherited from my father.

I remembered back before (Eihwaz). I needed to tell my whole story (Naudhiz), to become "I" more fully, incorporating soul parts from my mother. In the world I came into successfully (Tiwaz). Contemplating how, being creatively able (Kenaz). I inherited these runes and soul parts from both parents.

Suddenly who is here with me ... these transcendental parts of my soul (perceived proximal to the thinking part of me and contrasexual to my "I" at this point of mindfulness), I inherited from my mother:

Suddenly who - I perceived polarity (Dagaz). Around in circles I turned (Ingwaz). Unwinding myself (Othala, unwinding strands of DNA I inherited from both my father and mother), turning turning (Jera). Who is here with me (Berkano, as DNA from both parents come together to form the blueprint for my physical body -

Othala again) - these runes and associated soul parts come from the uniqueness I inherited as a descendent of both my father and mother:

In this darkest place (Thurisaz). Cool water in night (Laguz, Hagalaz). Winding around me your voice (the transcendent and folksoul parts of my soul) to guide me (Sowilo). Spiraling about, binding me up (Wunjo). Speaking some (Ansuz).

Resting in wait for me, only me, I struggled down through worlds into being (Ehwaz).

Hearing, listening, voicing - communicating (Elhaz).

Here I am, I am (Mannaz) - able and creative (Kenaz), all of the runes fully placed within my own unique stream of consciousness (Perthro).

SNP P78 Negative

In follow-up to a previous post, my Dad's Y-DNA test for SNP P78 came back negative, so Dad is not in the I2b1c subclade of I-M223.

So, with the other SNP's tested so far which have come back negative (M379, P95 and now P78), the only other I2b1 subclade he could possibly be in is the one found almost exclusively in the British Isles (as well as in Northeast Ireland where it is found among men with Gaelic surnames and in Western Scotland), namely I2b1a-M284.

Where M284 is found in Ireland, it is found particularly in baronial families with a credible pedigree back to a Cruithin (British) origin, suggesting an ancestor who arrived in Ireland from Celtic Britain:

For example it is found in McGuinness and McCartan men descended from the Uí Echach Cobha, a lineage considered Cruithin (refers also to the Scottish Picts) in the 6th century AD.

Dad's Y-DNA hasn't been tested for SNP M284 yet (I just ordered it). If Dad's Y-DNA tests positive for M284, it can also be tested for other more defining SNPs.

It's also possible that he doesn't have the "native British" M284 transition (the marker for subclade I2b1a) and is simply in haplogroup I2b1 (I-M223) without any of the defining markers of the currently known subclades of I2b1.

So, I will wait for the test results on the M284 SNP before making any conclusion, but I am leaning toward believing that if Dad's Y-DNA tests positive for M284, my Dad's fatherline may most likely be a (proto-Germanic influenced) pre-Celtic line (later becoming Celtic-Gaelic), whereas if his Y-DNA tests negative for M284, his paternal line may be more Anglo-Viking (originating in Northern Germany / Southern Sweden and coming into Britain during those invasions).

Whether M284+ or M284-, it is clear from the scientific research that my Dad's I-M223 Y-DNA fatherline is indigenous to Europe and arose from among the native European populations archeologist Marija Gimbutas calls "Old Europe."