![\"\"](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-eVZs9xlF_WI\/T4bgH01qIyI\/AAAAAAAAAEA\/RfooRPCEXUs\/s1600\/tarot_Justice.jpg\" "\\"Justice\\"")
<\/p>\nBy Luna Pantera<\/p>\n
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Greetings.\u00a0I have been working on this essay\/blog for several months.I wanted to wait until the anger subsided, and if I waited for that I would never get this piece written! Once again I received not only inspiration, but also strength from Crystal Blanton, who I\u2019ve only recently gotten to know from working with her on her anthology \u201cShades of Faith:\u00a0Minority Voices in Paganism\u201d where I contributed a poem.<\/p>\n
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I was originally going to entitle this piece, \u201cWhy I Believe It\u2019s Time for My White Brothers and Sister to start working with Their Ancestors,\u201d and I realized it wasn\u2019t just White people who needed that juju!<\/p>\n
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I first got the message that we needed to work with Ancestors as community magik after 911.\u00a0I was a member of a community whose Elders put a call out on the morning of 911 for those of us who felt lost, alone, and disempowered to come together to do some magic.We met and tranced down to talk and help guide some of the dead across.\u00a0This proved to be a very powerful and very draining process.The message I got after \u201ccoming back\u201d was it was time to start working magic in union with the Allies who had been waiting for our \u201cawakening\u201d to work with us.\u00a0This included the Fey, the Ancestors and the Deities we all worked with.<\/p>\n
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I had already started doing Ancestors work on my own.\u00a0Of course each tradition has their own way of working with the Ancestors, and in my family if you are open they just tap you on the shoulder and say, \u201cWhat took you so long?\u201d literally!\u00a0I had been going through a very heated custody battle with my ex husband.\u00a0I felt beaten down, and alone.\u00a0I was lying in bed one night unable to sleep, and just sat up, grounded and just started talking to Spirit.\u00a0I broke down and started crying saying I felt weak, helpless, alone and broken.\u00a0I knew there was strength in my blood line and that the women in it didn\u2019t give up, we always found a way to make it through the worst of times.\u00a0I asked someone to come to me to remind me of the strength in the blood that ran through my veins.\u00a0I asked that they come to me to remind me that I was their daughter!\u00a0By this time the tears where flowing and the passion and the need was deep! All of a sudden I felt someone sit on my bed.\u00a0I need to point out at the time I was totally alone in the house and the bedroom was pitch black.\u00a0I took in my breath and didn\u2019t move a muscle.\u00a0I felt something grab my foot and give it a gentle put firm squeeze!\u00a0I closed my eyes and willed my heart not to jump out of my chest!\u00a0I thank the Spirit that came to me, and I politely ask the Spirit to give me a moment or two to take in this amazing and powerful manifestation!\u00a0I felt the Spirit leave and realized once again\u2026.Magik is real!!!\u00a0A few weeks later my mother gave me a ring that she had come across as she was cleaning up.\u00a0It was a ring that had belong to my Great, Great, Grandmother Celina St. John.\u00a0The ring was gold with the middle initial of C, and as \u201cmagik\u201d would have it my birth name is Clothilda so the initial matched.\u00a0The ring also has a leopard motif with claw marks, Pantera\/Panther, which is my magikal name.The significance of this would come later.<\/p>\n
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Celina was a Vodun Priestess in Louisiana.\u00a0Now I\u2019m not sure if she would have referred to herself as such, but she was the one that people came to for herbs\/healing bath salts etc.\u00a0She was also the \u201cprotector\u201d of the family, and heaven help those who caused harm to her \u201cpeople.\u201d\u00a0Through working with Celina I learned about magik, deep magik.\u00a0I learned how to call in Spirit, how to manifest and make things happen with just thought.<\/p>\n
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As my magik became stronger, and more importantly as I became more comfortable with it, my dreams became more intense.\u00a0I started to feel a sense of urgency.<\/p>\n
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A few of us who had been at witch camp that year upon returning to the \u201creal world\u201d started have apocalyptic\/prophetic dreams, and two months later 911 happen.<\/p>\n
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One of the messages that has become a common thread for those of us who do \u201cdeep magik\u201d is that the era of \u201cplay\u201d is done.\u00a0Now we need to heal and come together for the \u201ctimes ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Now coming together and working for the transformation of all that we know; it should be easy right?\u00a0Not so much!\u00a0We have never been more fragmented as we are today.\u00a0And this is actually a good thing!\u00a0I believe we have been \u201cfaking it\u201d for sometime.\u00a0All of us!<\/strong> I think it\u2019s very interesting as I write this we have:\u00a0Mars, Saturn, and Pluto all retrograde.\u00a0We are also waiting for what George Zimmerman will be charged with.\u00a0The magikal community has been divided on the issue of gender, and the country on the issue of race.\u00a0The poor are becoming the majority and the rich have convinced some of us that it\u2019s our fault we\u2019re poor.\u00a0Women, Poor, and of course People of Color are under attack.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Have you ever watched rats in a barrel?\u00a0Yes, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the term, but have you ever watch how they behave?\u00a0I have.\u00a0You see when rats are in a barrel and being poked by a stick until they bleed, they eventually stop attacking the stick and start attacking each other.Guess what y\u2019all we are those rats in the barrel!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The thing about it is I\u2019m not sure if I agree with some of the sentiments I\u2019ve seen on line and in the news.\u00a0I don\u2019t believe the intense exposure of the Trayvon Martin case has \u201cstirred up racial tension.\u201d\u00a0Point of information\u2026my lovelies this country has never known a time\u00a0free<\/em><\/strong> of racial tension since the first person of European descendant sent foot on this land!\u00a0There is this feeling among White people if all the People of Color are quiet and not complaining everything is cool.\u00a0Actually it just doesn\u2019t manifest itself where it can be seen all that clearly.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n High Blood Pressure among Blacks is the highest of all racial groups:43% among Men and 47% among Women.\u00a0The next closes group was Mexican Americans 27.8% among Men and 28.7% among Women.\u00a0When you are constantly having to swallow your anger, frustration, shame, and all the while trying not to offend people it builds up inside of you and eventually eats away at your very soul and kills you.!\u00a0Blacks once again have a high rate of death in regarding to heart disease with 24.4% and they are not the highest group to fall prey to this problem, that honor is saved for Whites which have a 25% statistic! These statistics are from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).<\/em><\/strong> So, it looks like White folks suffer too!\u00a0It\u2019s hard \u201cpretending\u201d not to see the pain, anguish, suffering, and yes hatred from another group directed towards you and not take it personally, consciously or not.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So here we are.\u00a0Two groups who have so much to lost if they don\u2019t come together and who deep down in their DNA don\u2019t truly trust each other.\u00a0Now I\u2019m not going to get into the history of that.\u00a0There are books, websites; hell even friends can fill you in on \u201cour joined history.\u201d\u00a0Let\u2019s put it this way, we have a hell of a way to go, and not much time to do it!\u00a0Hence, where the Ancestors come in.\u00a0First off as mentioned earlier we got a lot going on energetically.\u00a0Things are moving and coming up.\u00a0We need to look deep inside ourselves, I\u2019m talking\u00a0\u201cshadow work\u201d<\/em><\/strong> here, and really be honest with ourselves, our true feelings, and where those thoughts, feelings and believes come from.\u00a0What do we really believe to be true, and what do we not question because it would stir the cauldron of our essence, our core of what we have been conditioned to accept?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While reconnected with my family in Louisiana I found out some deep and disturbing things.\u00a0The core of it lies in the work that I have taken on, and my own healing.\u00a0Let\u2019s just say there is a history of abuse that runs long and deep in my family tree.\u00a0My Guides told me that it is up to me to work and heal the cancer on my tree.\u00a0Remember that ring:\u00a0Birth name combined with Magikal name?\u00a0Spirit told me that the work I do on this plane, in this generation would reverberate back to heal the roots all they way to those who made it across the middle passage and became slaves in a strange land.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I can not recall all the times I have heard from White Pagans\u2026.\u201dOh, I would never work or give reverence to my Ancestors.\u00a0They were\u201d\u2026fill in the blank<\/em>.\u00a0Newsflash!\u00a0Your Ancestors were not all:cattle thieves, rapists, slave traders\/owners\/overseers, etc.\u00a0You had Ancestors who sold the herbs, who were the Wisewomen\/Alchemists\/Healers.\u00a0WE<\/strong> are Witches\/Shamans\/Healers, and\u00a0WE<\/strong> are the ones\u00a0WE<\/strong>\/THEY<\/strong>\u2019ve been waiting for!\u00a0All of our Ancestors are still in chains\u2026yes even your white ones!\u00a0They are stuck in their hate, fear, loathing and a lot of that has been turn inward which means you carry it in your DNA.\u00a0Yes, my sisters and brothers you are not immune nor am I.\u00a0I find myself at that place of deep anger, hatred and wanting to lash out,\u00a0and<\/strong> because of my magik and my connection to those who have gone before me I can find compassion and patience.\u00a0And that patience only goes so far!\u00a0The time is now\u2026start healing yourselves and then work out to heal your bloodline.\u00a0Once you start you will find you\u2019re not alone.\u00a0Those Wisewomen\/Alchemists\/Healers in your line will rise up to help you!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Would you take refuge under a tree with no roots in a windstorm? The \u201cstorm\/winds of change\u201d is coming and it\u2019s are going to be massive!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We can do this\u2026We will do this.\u00a0The alternative is much more terrifying!!!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Blessings on all our healing of our family line and ourselves!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n