On to Chapter 5 of Kissing the Limitless. We are now in Part II of the book, and so far, it has been a very insightful book. As stated before, I am not doing the “work” of the book until after I have read through the book. However, Lisa (@WeiserBooks) has posted yet another soul searching question in our book club:
Before we move on to our discussion of Part II and Chapter 5 of Kissing the Limitless, I’d like to go back to Chapter 2 for a moment. There Thorn writes “Things may need to stay in the darkness for some time. There is power in darkness: the power of gestation, deep dreaming, and the sweetness of night.” In Chapter 5, Thorn asks us to access that power through divination, dream journaling, fantasy, and “Naming the Nameless” (taboo, thoughts/emotions that hide along the edges of our awareness). She also urges us to connect with our mythic and historical forebearers “Be they ancestors of blood or spirit, they can both gift us and ‘curse’ us with their legacy.” On this murky March day (a haunted month if there ever was one) let’s take Thorn’s advice and listen to the ghosts of our own past. If as Thorn suggests, you were to write a letter to your ancestors and ask for help in understanding your own journey, who would you write to and what would it say?
To be honest, I think I would probably write first to my Grandmother. Now my grandparents adopted me, and so the person I called Mom was my Grandmother and this is who I would write to. For her, I would simply ask if she knew that I was “different” from the rest of the family. The fact that I am drastically different from the rest of my family is quite obvious at times. I’m the only Wiccan/Pagan member of the family that I’m aware of. So I would ask her if I had always been different from the rest of the family in spiritual matters.
Another person I would write to would be my birth father’s mother. I want to know if the tendencies I have towards spirituality are from his side of the family, as I know they aren’t from my mother’s side. This may seem silly to you, but your spirituality is a large part of who you are. Whether you believe in the Divine or not, it is a major component of your self.
And believe it or not, it is greatly shaped by your ancestors’ spirituality and who they were. These things are passed down, whether by blood or by spirit, through the generations. Yes, you are your own person, your own self, your own soul. But who and what you are were shaped by those who came before you regardless. Knowing where you came from is as important to your journey as looking at yourself and your life in the here and now.
The past shapes the present, the present shapes the future. It is all interconnected. Knowing what is in your past will help you to understand what is here today.