Roots.
They have become such a powerful metaphor for me as of late. As I continue to contemplate my deep connection and calling to the egungun (collective ancestors), I realize why I love trees so much now. They are the perfect totem for how this whole ancestral thing works as well as what the system of Egungun or ancestry actually is.
I once thought it was "error" to approach the ancestors before we ever approached The Creator for anything. I thought it was error to approach the ancestors for anything at all, honestly. I thought talking to the "dead" was a waste of time and that they couldn't hear me because well... they were "dead." But now I innerstand it so much more and am continuing to learn and remember more and more each day.
You see, this entire modern way of life has taught us that the only thing that matters or even exists is the here and now in this physical realm. But that way of thinking is so linear and limited that we place shackles on the abilities of the divine to make an impact on our lives and in our world. But hear me out and allow me the chance to shatter your spiritual paradigm for a second and liberate your mind. Let's think about this "linearly."
We, being the human beings we are, are what we are because of those who came before us. We carry many of our parents traits, their looks, their characteristics, some of their gifts and talents, etc. It's simply genetics. And their parents contributed to who they are, and their parents parents contributed to who they are, and so on. It's commonly called a "family tree," is it not? But depending upon how one looks at this tree, determines a lot.
You could start with yourself at the top of the tree and the branches of your progeny going down. Or, you could start with yourself at the bottom and the tree going up. Either way, the greater number of possible genetic traits from individuals in your bloodline is concentrated and focused into YOU, as the ultimate "end," unless of course you old enough to have children or grandchildren and they (or even their children) are the "end."
The point is, the tree can be inverted and viewed from 2 or 3 different perspectives. The Egungun can be our roots/origin, and they can be our branches too, because it is they who are reincarnated after so many generations back into the population of living souls. They are our past AND they are our future. Present souls living in the now tend to forget because we live a very limited existence.
We have temporal, dying bodies that house our eternal, living spirits. We tend not to see past the confines of these bodies because time forces us to look at what we are doing or not doing with this limited space we have, to accomplish what we came here to accomplish. And so we think with our conscious, logical minds that this realm is all there is - all while searching endlessly and externally for our origins, to no avail.
Well, our origins are our ancestors. And their origins are their ancestors. And THEIR origins are THEIR ancestors. Further and further back into antiquity, we trace them all the way back to the very first humans. And further and further forward into the distant future, they are reborn becoming the ever-changing cosmic consciousness of humanity. Until... they create again on yet another earth, teeming with new life. When it comes down to it, it is a cycle that will not end. When it comes down to it, the Egungun are the foundation of all things. They are the four elements. They are the gods. They are the protoplasm. They are the atoms. They are the solar systems and the galaxies. They are the flora and the fauna. I mean this quite literally.
So when we honor the sun, moon, and stars, we honor Egungun. When we honor nature around us, we honor Egungun. Likewise, when we honor Egungun, we are honoring the microcosmic building blocks of all creation. When we honor Egungun, we are honoring the infancy of The Creator before it ever makes one ocean, or sky, or earth, or cloud, or plant, or animal, or human. We honor them before they become the all powerful being they were meant to be.
