Spiritual Genealogy

Lo, there do I see my Father

Lo, there do I see my Mother, and my Sisters and my Brothers,

Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning,

Lo, they do call to me, they bid me to take my place among them,

In the Hall of Valhalla,

Where the Brave, they live forever.

– Viking Jarl Buliwyf
(in the movie The 13th Warrior, based on the book by Michael Crichten)

At the end of this month, we will observe a celebration of Samhain (Ancestor’s Night, All-Hallows Eve) and enter into the traditional family time of the year, when you and your loved ones will gather together physically, and if not, in treasured memories of past gatherings.

At the same time, we are in the midst of a great surge of interest in the field of genealogy, the tracing of family roots back as far as records can be researched. As a runic practitioner, you should not only be searching paper trails (which may take you back into the 1800s and even the 1700s, if you are lucky) but also be addressing “spiritual” genealogy which will carry you back a thousand years or more in your ancestral stream using the energy of the runes and your Elder Northern tradition.

PHYSICAL GENEALOGY

First off, let’s talk about what you can do right here and now to discover more about your family roots.

STEP 1: In the next few weeks, develop a list of those things you want to know about your family tree that you can ask your relatives when you have the occasion over the holidays to talk or write to them. You’ll be surprised as to how much you can learn of your family tree by just this exercise.

But, I recommend you do not leave this exercise to chance. Write down your questions, and write down their answers. I also do not recommend tape recordings of conversations as your first choice, unless you plan to transcribe the recordings within a few days. Tape recordings sit around for years on the shelf, and by the time your children will want to access them, Ill bet there won’t be a tape machine around (it’ll be digital voice recordings or something newer).

I recommend you write down your questions in advance and write down the answers in brief shorthand type notes that you can flesh out later. Prepare a special journal to contain your notes. Write as if you were writing, not to your children or grandchildren who know you already, but to the third generation away.

STEP 2: Draw out a family tree diagram so that the linkages are obvious. I will bet you have a family tree in your baby book that ends with YOU. Now, it’s time to give this same gift to your descendents.

STEP 3: Don’t hesitate to make contact with your older relations this season. In many cases, whole family histories disappear with the unexpected passing of an elder in your family. If you have a “skeleton in the closet” between you and an elder, now is the time to deflate that energy with a sincere inquiry into their past and what they can remember of the generations before them.

GENEALOGICAL SEARCHES

After this effort, if you choose to do so, you can begin to search back beyond your living relatives and their memories of past generations. The Internet is the resource of choice for genealogists-just enter the term “genealogy” in a search engine and you will find hundreds of web pages offering quality services at no charge. You can initiate a search in your own name. You are limited only by your imagination and the time it takes to follow through on each lead.

SPIRITUAL GENEALOGY

Spiritual genealogy begins where the physical research leaves off, back beyond the past century or two of family records. Fortunately, you are in a spiritual tradition that not only includes but recognizes exploration of ancestral streams to benefit your present life in Midgard, as well as to reveal the variety of experiences you have stored in your family treasure box.

To be clear, we are NOT talking your personal rebirth or reincarnations within the ancestral stream. While you can expect to have incarnated more than a few times in the broad ancestral stream that you now belong to, we are paying special attention to the OTHER souls that have been weaving in and out of your ancestral stream that has left traces of their energy in your inheritance.

The runes that quicken your consciousness to awareness of your ancestral stream are:

Othala (primarily) as rune of the Kin-Fetch and Disir.

Ehwaz as rune of your Fylgja or Fetch (which contains your personal wyrd/orlog and connects to your Kin-Fetch).

Tiwaz to restore inheritances which are justly yours.

Four questions to quicken your mind in meditation:

1. Where did I get my spiritual “genes” Â to explain my interest and pursuit of esoteric mysteries and runic tradition, especially if none of my present family exhibit such tendencies? Think deeply on this runesters, for this question will lead you back to the ancestors that practiced the tradition openly. NOTE: you may have to leapfrog back and bypass those ancestors who were (are) dogmatic in their religious beliefs and/or fearful of straying from strong Christian dominance (don’t underestimate this element).

2. Who else “owned”Â my name?

3. What traits have I inherited that are certainly “family?”

4. Are there any “like-minded” ancestors alive today in a distant thread of my family stream that I have yet to meet in this lifetime?

NOTE: Those of you who are of non-European ethnic heritage, consider:

(1) your fascination with symbols and a Yggdrasil-type cosmology from a similar type ancient tradition that has since disappeared from your present ethnic heritage; or

(2) leaping back to a thread of your ancestral stream that was part of or dealt with Northern cultures; as well as

(3) your past incarnations that may have been in Northern realms or overlapped with the Northern tradition.

We provide in-depth coverage of ancestral stream dynamics integral to our tradition in Rune Master lessons, as well as a full chapter in our Rune Mentalist Skills book which is further described on this site.