Reincarnation
and the Ancestors
A Question & An Exploration
by Louis Martinie
Its Mardi Gras now in New Orleans and
I can hear what Mishlen and I call “parade signs.” Brass instruments
and police sirens announce beads and fun and blocked streets.
Carnival is a good time to think about the ancestors and their strong
place in New Orleans Voodoo. I honor my ancestors. I have a morning
rite in which they get their coffee before I drink mine. It ends with
the words, “To you from the living.” I also look to the Tibetans and
their spirituality to compliment the Voodoo I practice. I am not alone
in this kind of pairing. Sam Webster wrote a paper suggesting the same
type of coupling with Wicca (circa 1988). Owen Knight , a bard and a
Druid, has told me any number of times that a big strength of his
spirituality is that it readily accepts any spirit that may add to its
completeness. Peoples of the Pacific Rim have long brought what we call
“Buddhism” into the service of their local Gods and Goddesses.
This brings in the whole subject of
reincarnation; a bedrock of the Tibetan’s beliefs. So is it
incompatible to honor the ancestors and believe in reincarnation? Does
one of these practices/beliefs necessarily exclude the other?
I have heard that here is more power
in questions than in answers. Questions roam the mind freely, grazing
on diverse and often disparate bites of information. The mix, after
even a rudimentary digestion, can be amazing. Answers hold one a
bit closer to the solidity of home. Sureness is nice when you are
building a levee but can be confining in spiritual exploration. What
follows is a beginning attempt, for me at least, to bring direction to
this question. The purpose is not to find or construct some answer but
to bring power to the question by exposing its more obtuse angles or
angels.
Working Definitions:
Reincarnation – The rebirth of a
particular consciousness into another form. Ancestors – Particular
consciousnesses who have died and who have influenced you in an
important way.
Angles / Angels of
Exploration:
1. A particular consciousness can not
be dead and reborn at the same time. The conditions are mutually
exclusive. The ancestors are particular consciousnesses who have, in
the main, been reborn. They are no longer among the dead. The voodooist
can not bring benefit to reincarnated consciousnesses by making
offerings them. However, the Voodooist could receive benefit from the
intention involved. My mom is reincarnated; she has
another name, another personality. Offerings to her past self do not
bring benefit to the self which I knew and is now reborn.
2. The confusion lies with our
perception of time. We perceive time is a way that most allows
for our survival. Seeing what is truly there and seeing in a way that
helps us to survive can be two very different things. All that was…is
now …and will be. Chose your point of reference. Time is a choice, not
a given.
3. We live multiple lives all at
once. What was is always present. That consciousness that is the
ancestors is always there. The spirits are complex; their existence is
not linear. We are linear in our perceptions. (conversation Rosalinda)
4. The ancestors are real no matter
what we believe or do not believe. No matter what we do or do not do.
Faith is not the issue here. It is irrelevant whether we validate or
invalidate the ancestors. They exist. They do not need our approval to
exist. ( conversation Mgdln)
5. There is a belief that you die and
automatically become a ghost. A ghost is a sentient being of the
Invisible World. The ancestors can be perceived as similar to
ghosts. It may be that we die and have the possibility of
reincarnating as a ghost. At some point in time the ghost will die and
the consciousness may then incarnate in human or some other form.
Perhaps the ancestors are one of many forms into which we can
incarnate.
6. We perceive ourselves as single
beings; particular beings. Due to this perception we assume that we
will reincarnate as single beings. Maybe our “I” is more properly a
“we.” Certainly my body is not unitary but an environ supporting any
number of sentient beings. Our mind stream may reincarnate as multiple
beings one of which could be an ancestor. After a time, the ancestors
will die and reincarnate in another form.
7. As we carry a number of forms in
our physical DNA likewise we may carry a number of forms in a spiritual
DNA. One of these forms is the ancestor. It exists as long as the
DNA exists. (conversation Mishlen Linden)
8. The soul can be likened to a
pebble thrown into a stream. The ripples would be the personality,
circumstances of birth, etc. As the ripples go in all directions in a
circular manner, so time moves in a circular, all encompassing pattern.
The ancestors would be one portion of this circular pattern.
(conversion Mishlen Linden)
9. The North Africans divided the
being into a ba and the ka. The ba describes the portion of the being
that goes on and is eternal. The ka relates to the life force which
dissipates over time. The ancestors here would be within the ka and
their feeding would extend their life after death.
The above nine threads in no way join
to yield whole cloth. But they may act as an antidote to the
compartmentalization that restrained at least my thinking on the
subject for so many years. As priests, we can not be expected to have
all of the answers but we can be expected to honestly question apparent
contradictions in our liturgies. To say that such contradictions are
mysteries to be taken on faith is a travesty matched only by blindly
not caring.
The ancestors and their feeding is
not symbolic any more than the feeding of the loa is symbolic. In each
case, a sentient being comes from some realm to the rite to accept or
decline the offering.
Mishlen Linden suggests the following
rite for, among other things, contacting the ancestors. She received
the rite from TC.
HOLDING HANDS
Close your eyes. Raise one of your
hands with the palm open. Extend your aura
to the person you want to contact. Feel the warmth
of their hand upon your hand. Close your hand
on theirs.
Beyond any searches fueled by the
intellect; it may be wise to let success be your proof. I have come to a new appreciation of
this simple phrase from Liber Al.
Thank you, Denny. You are a silver
star.
Writing for the Silver Star helped me
after Hurricane Katrina more than the damn psychiatrist who insisted I
have post traumatic stress. I like to type, my inability to
hold a pencil steady any more has nothing to do with
anythinggggggggggg.
