need advice from different beliefs

i am having problems accessing my real ancestors. It feels like once i was adopted i was cut off from them. I can talk to animal guides all the time, powerful spirits, but in the people ancestor department i am alone. Nothing i do, no prayers i say, bring them to me. how else do i find them spiritually? Where are they, and who are they, i don't know. I don't know anything about my ancestors, i don't even know my birth mom. i'm so confused. how do i fit in this world, and how do i fit in my spirituality and culture when i don't know where i belong?

can i accept a different race as my ancestors? is that possible? in bloodline sense, am i really part of my adopted families ancestor power and family crest? should i even think of them as my ancestors, which would be nice to belong to my adopted family, or should i continue trying to find my bloodline.

do you think its weird, if you are adopted, to take on your adopted families ancestors? For me... i always have a hard time with it. My grandpa passed away, and he came to visit me afterwards many times, but i still couldn't bring myself to include him in my prayers and ceremonies or ask him to help me, because i feel like i would be disrespecting his religion. He is christian. And the way i do things is different, and i don't think he would like it. I'm not one to argue that his heaven does not exist. perhaps it does. i know i believe in a death realm, but for all i know, he probably still believes he's in heaven, they are the same thing i guess, but maybe his thought process hasn't changed. all i know is that native culture is not what he believed, so i don't feel comfortable with bringing him into it. What should I do?

I know on my adopted moms side, she has a lot of native ancestors too. But i still feel uncomfortable trespassing on a bloodline i don't belong to. Those ancestors don't know i exist, which brings that question, do your dead ancestors even know you are alive on earth, especially if you are distanced from your real bloodline family?

will my adopted ancestors see me as family, even though i am adopted?

Listen, it is a well known fact that in every generation about 10% of the people don't know their real parents. Either their father or mother or both are different from what they believe. I'm a genealogist and I trot this one out on a regular basis. I see people every day who are so proud of their lineage and ancestors and it could all be false. DNA studies bear this one out.

I see nothing wrong in asking that whatever god loves or cares about your grandpa please take care of him. I try to word my prayers for other people that way. If your grandpa cares enough to visit you, why do you think he wouldn't or doesn't help you? In my religion, we take the help of whatever god or spirit is willing to help us and don't worry too much about blood relationships that may or may not be accurate. I mean, how do you explain the person who thinks he has one man for his father and includes that man's ancestors in his rituals, but that wasn't really his father? How was he supposed to know? Do you think that matters?

keokutah wrote:i am having problems accessing my real ancestors. It feels like once i was adopted i was cut off from them. I can talk to animal guides all the time, powerful spirits, but in the people ancestor department i am alone. Nothing i do, no prayers i say, bring them to me. how else do i find them spiritually? Where are they, and who are they, i don't know. I don't know anything about my ancestors, i don't even know my birth mom. i'm so confused. how do i fit in this world, and how do i fit in my spirituality and culture when i don't know where i belong?

can i accept a different race as my ancestors? is that possible? in bloodline sense, am i really part of my adopted families ancestor power and family crest? should i even think of them as my ancestors, which would be nice to belong to my adopted family, or should i continue trying to find my bloodline.

do you think its weird, if you are adopted, to take on your adopted families ancestors? For me... i always have a hard time with it. My grandpa passed away, and he came to visit me afterwards many times, but i still couldn't bring myself to include him in my prayers and ceremonies or ask him to help me, because i feel like i would be disrespecting his religion. He is christian. And the way i do things is different, and i don't think he would like it. I'm not one to argue that his heaven does not exist. perhaps it does. i know i believe in a death realm, but for all i know, he probably still believes he's in heaven, they are the same thing i guess, but maybe his thought process hasn't changed. all i know is that native culture is not what he believed, so i don't feel comfortable with bringing him into it. What should I do?

I know on my adopted moms side, she has a lot of native ancestors too. But i still feel uncomfortable trespassing on a bloodline i don't belong to. Those ancestors don't know i exist, which brings that question, do your dead ancestors even know you are alive on earth, especially if you are distanced from your real bloodline family?

will my adopted ancestors see me as family, even though i am adopted?

keokutah: If you are seeking your ancestors, have you considered looking inside yourself? You are the result of everything that came before, and your ancestors live on in you. In almost every aspect of yourself, there is a hint of your bloodline. Your laugh echoes the laughter of grandmothers, whether you've met them or not. Your physical appearance, your thoughts, your curiosity, your likes and dislikes, your quirks, your finer attributes -- all of these make you unique, but each one of these elements was passed on to you by those who came before. Examine yourself, and you are examining them.

As for your adopted ancestors, they have left marks on you, too. The people who adopted you are echoes of their own blood ancestors, and that makes them who they are. The things they've taught you and the love they've shown you and the way they've guided you -- all that makes you who you are, too.

You have a doubly rich ancestry and the more you learn about yourself, the closer you will be to your ancestors -- on both sides.

I like gillyflower's approach to the prayer aspect, too.

Good luck in sorting all this out.

keokutah wrote:i am having problems accessing my real ancestors. It feels like once i was adopted i was cut off from them. I can talk to animal guides all the time, powerful spirits, but in the people ancestor department i am alone. Nothing i do, no prayers i say, bring them to me. how else do i find them spiritually?

You may not be able to contact various ancestors. They may be at a level of spirit or doing work in spirit that does not lend itself to communication with those on the physical plane. Don't press the issue; you're likely to end up frustrated and feeling obstructed with no possible resolution, I believe.

Where are they, and who are they, i don't know. I don't know anything about my ancestors, i don't even know my birth mom. i'm so confused. how do i fit in this world, and how do i fit in my spirituality and culture when i don't know where i belong?

I guess I don't understand your concerns about who your biological ancestors were. I don't see that as at all important knowledge on a spiritual level although it might well be on a social and personal one.

Where you belong is as who you are and what YOU make of your life. Nothing else matters very much, I don't think. Sure, having decent parents whether biological or adoptive who prepare you in childhood to live a productive adult life is important, but ultimately, you make of your life what you will it to be. The point of power is in our choices moment by moment.

Asatru knows those born of the blood are kindred, those married into the folk are kindred, those adopted by the folk are kindred. Any who are made family by the living kindred are bound to the first of the sacred ancestors, the gods, right down to the last of the future descendents as yet unborn.
Once you have been claimed, you are bound to the bloodline not just for your life, but for the lives of all descendants that may spring from you. This does not sever your connection with your blood ancestors, any more than marriage would do so. We are not part of a family tree, but of a skein, a web of interconnections that binds disparate families and people into a single race known as humanity.
Spirit guides are more common in modern times than they were in ancient practice for the same reason that direct contact with the gods is more common; more of us got lost or cut off from our sacred ancestors, and thus more of us need guides home. If you have guides (mine were Ravens, a fact which made sense when they lead me back to Odin). Do not despair if you cannot make direct contact with your blood ancestors, often we simply have lost the understanding of how to call out to them, but the guides will lead us back to the bath we need to be on.
The Alfar (male ancestral spirits) will be with you in the challenges you face in this life; whispering advice if you listen closely enough, and taking pride in the strength with which you meet your challenges. The Disir (female ancestral spirits) watch over your line, guiding and protecting wether you call them or not, watchful that your line continue and prosper.
When you die, you will have an eternity to catch up with your ancestors. While you live, it is enough to take the foundations of the family you have, or choose, and work towards the future. Your ancestors, the whole untidy lot of them, will be beside you anyway.

Look inwardly for those that speak to you, not outwardly at where you think the speaking should be coming from.

Let the gods and the ancestors guide you.

all

The gods call their own. Family is more than genetics.

ZenYen wrote:

keokutah wrote:i am having problems accessing my real ancestors. It feels like once i was adopted i was cut off from them. I can talk to animal guides all the time, powerful spirits, but in the people ancestor department i am alone. Nothing i do, no prayers i say, bring them to me. how else do i find them spiritually? Where are they, and who are they, i don't know. I don't know anything about my ancestors, i don't even know my birth mom. i'm so confused. how do i fit in this world, and how do i fit in my spirituality and culture when i don't know where i belong?

can i accept a different race as my ancestors? is that possible? in bloodline sense, am i really part of my adopted families ancestor power and family crest? should i even think of them as my ancestors, which would be nice to belong to my adopted family, or should i continue trying to find my bloodline.

do you think its weird, if you are adopted, to take on your adopted families ancestors? For me... i always have a hard time with it. My grandpa passed away, and he came to visit me afterwards many times, but i still couldn't bring myself to include him in my prayers and ceremonies or ask him to help me, because i feel like i would be disrespecting his religion. He is christian. And the way i do things is different, and i don't think he would like it. I'm not one to argue that his heaven does not exist. perhaps it does. i know i believe in a death realm, but for all i know, he probably still believes he's in heaven, they are the same thing i guess, but maybe his thought process hasn't changed. all i know is that native culture is not what he believed, so i don't feel comfortable with bringing him into it. What should I do?

I know on my adopted moms side, she has a lot of native ancestors too. But i still feel uncomfortable trespassing on a bloodline i don't belong to. Those ancestors don't know i exist, which brings that question, do your dead ancestors even know you are alive on earth, especially if you are distanced from your real bloodline family?

will my adopted ancestors see me as family, even though i am adopted?

keokutah: If you are seeking your ancestors, have you considered looking inside yourself? You are the result of everything that came before, and your ancestors live on in you. In almost every aspect of yourself, there is a hint of your bloodline. Your laugh echoes the laughter of grandmothers, whether you've met them or not. Your physical appearance, your thoughts, your curiosity, your likes and dislikes, your quirks, your finer attributes -- all of these make you unique, but each one of these elements was passed on to you by those who came before. Examine yourself, and you are examining them.

As for your adopted ancestors, they have left marks on you, too. The people who adopted you are echoes of their own blood ancestors, and that makes them who they are. The things they've taught you and the love they've shown you and the way they've guided you -- all that makes you who you are, too.

You have a doubly rich ancestry and the more you learn about yourself, the closer you will be to your ancestors -- on both sides.

I like gillyflower's approach to the prayer aspect, too.

Good luck in sorting all this out.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me your opinion, this is very helpful. I love the way you view it. I was too caught up in the black and white i never thought to look inside myself and view it in that way. I also, like to think of it as you phrased, a doubly rich ancestry... i guess i really don't have to choose. Very helpful indeed.

DotNotInOz wrote:

keokutah wrote:i am having problems accessing my real ancestors. It feels like once i was adopted i was cut off from them. I can talk to animal guides all the time, powerful spirits, but in the people ancestor department i am alone. Nothing i do, no prayers i say, bring them to me. how else do i find them spiritually?

You may not be able to contact various ancestors. They may be at a level of spirit or doing work in spirit that does not lend itself to communication with those on the physical plane. Don't press the issue; you're likely to end up frustrated and feeling obstructed with no possible resolution, I believe.

Where are they, and who are they, i don't know. I don't know anything about my ancestors, i don't even know my birth mom. i'm so confused. how do i fit in this world, and how do i fit in my spirituality and culture when i don't know where i belong?

I guess I don't understand your concerns about who your biological ancestors were. I don't see that as at all important knowledge on a spiritual level although it might well be on a social and personal one.

Where you belong is as who you are and what YOU make of your life. Nothing else matters very much, I don't think. Sure, having decent parents whether biological or adoptive who prepare you in childhood to live a productive adult life is important, but ultimately, you make of your life what you will it to be. The point of power is in our choices moment by moment.

Thanks for the advice. I recognize it may be true i cannot contact them for that reason, but even if it's not that reason, i don't think i should keep on it if it isn't meant to be. If they wanted to be known, i am sure i would know. Perhaps i am to be learning something else from it all, like what you say, finding out how i belong and who i am without worrying about everything else, i think you are right, i am worrying too much about aspects which are not necessary for my spiritual growth, i am usually lost in nostalgia or caught in the future, instead of focusing on the here and now. Thanks for the reminder, i tend to get too caught up in the big picture and become disorientated.

John T Mainer wrote: Asatru knows those born of the blood are kindred, those married into the folk are kindred, those adopted by the folk are kindred. Any who are made family by the living kindred are bound to the first of the sacred ancestors, the gods, right down to the last of the future descendents as yet unborn.
Once you have been claimed, you are bound to the bloodline not just for your life, but for the lives of all descendants that may spring from you. This does not sever your connection with your blood ancestors, any more than marriage would do so. We are not part of a family tree, but of a skein, a web of interconnections that binds disparate families and people into a single race known as humanity.
Spirit guides are more common in modern times than they were in ancient practice for the same reason that direct contact with the gods is more common; more of us got lost or cut off from our sacred ancestors, and thus more of us need guides home. If you have guides (mine were Ravens, a fact which made sense when they lead me back to Odin). Do not despair if you cannot make direct contact with your blood ancestors, often we simply have lost the understanding of how to call out to them, but the guides will lead us back to the bath we need to be on.
The Alfar (male ancestral spirits) will be with you in the challenges you face in this life; whispering advice if you listen closely enough, and taking pride in the strength with which you meet your challenges. The Disir (female ancestral spirits) watch over your line, guiding and protecting wether you call them or not, watchful that your line continue and prosper.
When you die, you will have an eternity to catch up with your ancestors. While you live, it is enough to take the foundations of the family you have, or choose, and work towards the future. Your ancestors, the whole untidy lot of them, will be beside you anyway.

I am very grateful for this response, I am intrigued and believe in the ancient beliefs however don't have much understanding, you answered everything i asked. I remember, in most traditions i delve into, the aspect of being adopted into a different bloodline rings true to that. It's good to hear that this is a common similarity. I am bound to this bloodline, yet i still have the other. Thank you for this, it has helped me a lot, and i now know what i should do.

I have a question for you. Do you have any knowledge to share of how you developed a strong relationship with your guides?

My main spirit guide is Raven too, when he first came to me he shape shifted into a tall dark man that scared me deeply, began talking in a different language, but communicated with me through eye contact, and i am still confused to this day of what he said. i remember he was mentioning too many things at once, saying i belonged to him, talking about burials for some reason, and loads of other things i can't remember.
Yet i find he likes to talk to me in code that is confusing to decipher, and i know he likes the puzzles but it frustrates me and I never seem to get it. I feel like i'm stupid.
A lot of the time my visions come in different languages that make no sense to me.
For example, ( i don't know if i'm writing this language right) a spirit was telling me
"have you ever noticed that the crows and ravens sing, almost too happily,
Mister Rali Ola Rava, and began chanting that line repeatedly. What is "almost too happily" supposed to mean?
ive tried google translater, but nothing seemed to match up, the closest i could get is olah rawah means "through the swamp" in indonesian,which could work because my first meeting with raven was in a swamp, but i was sure it was pronounced with a v.

I have know idea what this sentence means, it sounds like a puzzle i have to figure out. I don't even know what that language is. This other time Blue Deer, a diety from Huichol tribe in Mexico, came to me and said he was my spirit guide. I think, for that reason, i could originate from the tribe in mexico, also because i have other visions of aztec.
I seem to be getting a lot of guides from different cultures for some reason. Maybe it's because i'm mixed race? All i know is i'm intrigued in all of them.
I get a lot of visions from ancient egyptian spirits, also Mayan. A man spirit came to me trying to tell me a story about the "River of the Nile" as he called it. To make it more confusing he was singing me the story holding an instrument ive never seen before. He began singing about how the "river of the nile" drowned many people, and how it was actually an amazing and sacred event, which creeped me out at the time, but to my knowledge of research that never happened. while he sang this he was grinning at me, and let the river drown him at the end of the song. anyway just an example of how confusing this all is to me.
I have a hard time in trying to comprehend all of the information these guides and spirits are telling me, and i also have a hard time communicating with them in proper ways. They usually respond to me when i ask them to come to me in dreams, but i still have no answers to my questions.
in all i think im having a hard time strengthening my spirituality in every general area and it frustrates me, because i'm sure, as you can tell by my question, i'm focusing on the wrong things.

anyway, i'm always open to learning more about different beliefs and ways, because i am sure i am connected to more than one culture, and it seems the spirits want me to learn as much as possible about different beliefs, unless i am deciphering it wrong. So if anyone gets enjoyment through talking about what they believe, i'm all open to hearing it

keokutah: Welcome to this forum!

keokutah, to understand the metaphor of your dream you must look into the symbolism. Now those of scholarly bend will have the option of tracking down the mythology of the culture the dream images come from. Do not do specific research on your images yet; read the children's stories, the base myths of that culture first. These are the underlying assumptions, the meaning and context of the symbols you are being given.
Once you have done that, it is time to get creative. Some will meditate, some carve, some paint, write songs, or poetry. In each case you are taking the symbols you have been given, and the language of their metaphor and seeking to find our what it draws from inside you.
When the gods and their guides talk to us, they are limited to what tools they find inside us. There is the lore that they shared with our ancestors in the past, and there is the mind that they are communicating with. The lore you may study as a first step, but the next step is always inside; what does this mean TO YOU. The gods do not speak to everyone at once, they speak to you using what they find inside your mind to build with. It is most important to find out what these images mean to you personally. Let the lore provide context, and your own mind provide definition.
If you have many guides, understand different parts of you will reach out to that which resonates with them. You may not find the same tool reaches out equally to all directions. You may meditate to heed one message, but be able to reach the state to hear another only while swinging the axe and chopping wood, or knitting in your comfy chair. Different parts of you are brought to the forefront by different activities, the ones that resonate with the images you are contemplating will be the best to focus yourself for delving deeper into them.
The journey takes a lifetime, don't worry if it starts slow.

John T Mainer wrote:
keokutah, to understand the metaphor of your dream you must look into the symbolism. Now those of scholarly bend will have the option of tracking down the mythology of the culture the dream images come from. Do not do specific research on your images yet; read the children's stories, the base myths of that culture first. These are the underlying assumptions, the meaning and context of the symbols you are being given.
Once you have done that, it is time to get creative. Some will meditate, some carve, some paint, write songs, or poetry. In each case you are taking the symbols you have been given, and the language of their metaphor and seeking to find our what it draws from inside you.
When the gods and their guides talk to us, they are limited to what tools they find inside us. There is the lore that they shared with our ancestors in the past, and there is the mind that they are communicating with. The lore you may study as a first step, but the next step is always inside; what does this mean TO YOU. The gods do not speak to everyone at once, they speak to you using what they find inside your mind to build with. It is most important to find out what these images mean to you personally. Let the lore provide context, and your own mind provide definition.
If you have many guides, understand different parts of you will reach out to that which resonates with them. You may not find the same tool reaches out equally to all directions. You may meditate to heed one message, but be able to reach the state to hear another only while swinging the axe and chopping wood, or knitting in your comfy chair. Different parts of you are brought to the forefront by different activities, the ones that resonate with the images you are contemplating will be the best to focus yourself for delving deeper into them.
The journey takes a lifetime, don't worry if it starts slow.

Thank you again, you have been extremely helpful to me, I am grateful for this. You've given me some good ideas i can use.

So I am to search within myself. I've always had artistic and poetic gifts, where i am able to create things which do not always come from me. I believe I could use those talents as a way of accessing further information. Thank you, i did not realize i could have the answers within reach. I am almost definite i am going to run into problems with my overreactive imagination, and trying to differentiate between the two, but at least i will find some answers there. It's a good start towards awareness, so i will work on that.

Trying to figure out what symbols and images and what anything means to me is a step which hinders me, because my mind gets in the way. Poetry, writing or art might help solve my confusion. Over stimulation makes me confused.

I never used to think i was analytical, but i am coming to the conclusion that I question things too much, even my own thoughts. It drives my motivation, yet leaves me hopeless trying to solve overwhelming mysteries, constantly. I become vastly impatient, and end up ruining my serenity by spastically running every which way, because i am mislead, and then leave myself hopeless. it is almost worse than trying to prove something wrong, because it is like i need to prove something right. i hope to find a way to put my mind to rest, but i think i will always be exploring. in a way, my curiosity leads me to suffer, but without it, i would be bored.

Thanks.