Lessons Learned From Childhood

It's a New Moon in Leo and it's a really big deal. This new moon is taking place in Magha, a Nakshatra that rules the first 13 degrees of Leo according to Vedic Astrology. The ruling deities of this nakshatra are the Pitris [Ancestors]. All of this is happening today, on Saturday, ruled by Saturn. I know that was mouth full but stay with me I'm still lining it up for you all.

While Saturn consistently teaches us to let go of our fears, Magha connects us to who we are and where we are going. It reminds us to be of service. And most importantly to tap into the opportunities waiting to be bestowed to us from those whose shoulders we stand on.

With that being said, today is a special day to communicate with your ancestors and to express gratitude.

Why is any of this important?

When I was about fourteen my mother brought some "eccentric" people around. They smelled like sage, wore their hair natural, wore Afrikan garb and ate brussel sprouts and when they gathered together they all wore white, played drums and were actually jovial with one another.

It was weird to me.

I remember the last time we were around them... That day we [my younger sister and I] were beyond miserable. We were attending a rites of passage ceremony for a boy around my age. They were dancing and having a good time but my sister and I, with stank faces kept whispering back and forth to each other and wondering how long this thing was going to last. We judged those people because we couldn't understand their joy.

All we wanted to do was be anywhere but there, preferably somewhere eating Mc Donald's and minding our business.

We were hangry, uninterested and ignorant.

But it wasn't our fault. We were immersed in a European culture of fast food, tv, poor etiquette, and on that day we didn't see the blessing we were in the midst of. Back then I had no idea why I should care about the greatness of my ancestors outside of the paragraph we were taught in school about slavery. Spirituality was null and void to me. The only vague concept of God or Jesus I knew was what I heard when we went to church on Easter Sunday with my grandmother. She had a picture of a white Jesus hanging in the house, and a coffee table and china cabinet with figurines that looked nothing like us that we could not touch. It's like the subliminal messages were there but we didn't do culture, religion or anything definitively.

Back to the ancestors... Now I know that we are the ancestors and as we honor our ancestors we honor ourselves. I know now that we've lived many lifetimes and have had many struggles but also many successes, lessons, blessings all of it. And perhaps we are back now to finish what we started because energy can not be destroyed.

That earlier experience of a tribe was a reintroduction to the world of Afrikan spirituality, cycles and ancestor respect that I was supposed to know and understand but didn't get the memo. When I got another call I went through a Rites of Passage in my thirties [better late than never] and as an 'adult' I learned how to reconnect to our traditions. I am very much grateful for that experience but I still wonder what would've happened if I went about things a did way when I was fourteen.

Every other culture is taught their history from birth. They have altars, statues or images of deities up front and center in their homes. They live by their traditions and know what is expected of them by their parents and elders in their community.

We have to do better.

For me this particular day is not only about today. It is a time to teach your children that we are the children that our ancestors prayed for AND why they have a responsibility on this Earth that's not only about them. If we teach our children what we wish we knew sooner as a collective then we all get to learn about our greatness. When it's time for the next generation to pass the torch it will be lit with a fire that no one and nothing can destroy.

I'm here for it.