“I have lived a thousand lives. Each one building upon the last. Blending and adding experiences and skills to the whole, passing it to the next incarnation. Unconsciously tapped, I seamlessly allow my knowledge to pass as something you naturally possess. Consciously tapped, I illuminate the secret knowledge that has danced on the fringes of your mind, unleashing your full power and potential. I am the Ancestral Soul.”
The concept of the Ancestral Soul is is older than any religion. The words used to describe it and how it works varies from culture to culture, yet the idea remains. There are a certain set of Ancestors that we carry within us. Ones that we are connected to in a unique way. Bound by memory carried within the blood, in DNA as genetic memory – the Ancestral Soul.
Reincarnation
It is not all your Ancestors, it is a specific set of them. They do not reside inside as individual consciousnesses but as one blended soul traveling through time. Every life lived – adding knowledge, experiences, and new skills that have been developed. Every death there is a growth, adding this life to the whole, a shedding of the skin, and another birth, emerging anew.
In many ways you can see it as a reincarnation or the concept of past lives. I believe when people experience past lives, they are really experiencing the past lives of the Ancestral Soul that they carry within. They are tapping the memories it. Our natural talents, skills we possess, are the abilities that our Ancestral Soul has already mastered in another life. Passing that knowledge to you in this life, this incarnation of its soul.
To us these things seem to come from the unconscious, or intuition, but perhaps those aspects of us are just the expression of the Ancestral Soul. When we access that knowledge, those memories, in an unintentional way.
Accessing It
The Ancestral Soul is a part of your soul, the part that carries on. You do not need to build a bond with it like other spirits/ Guides, because it is already there. The trick to the Ancestral Soul is pulling it forward, access it in a conscious way and pulling forth the skills/ power it possesses – what you possess.
You can use the same divination techniques that you would to communicate with any other spirit/ entity. For example – you can use your tarot as a conversation tool with your ancestral soul. A reflective scrying technique (mirror/ water) is another good way to begin that process.
A Guide
The ancestors that make up your ancestral soul are the best ones to work with, especially in the beginning. Out of all your ancestors, these particular ones have a heavy stake in your life, thus will be the most helpful.
They are a part of you, as you are a part of them, and you will be blended together in your death. So in the most literal sense, you are their true legacy. They experience this world through us and our experiences. They can sense the world through our senses. So out of all the ancestors/ spirits you encounter, they have a self-serving motive to want to help you, to protect you, to want you to have a rich life experience.
This does not mean they will always be right or not make mistakes – human – but they also won’t intentionally do anything that would also jeopardize themselves.
No Name Needed
For the most part you will probably not know their names. You may discover a few, but you are talking about the possibility of tens of thousands of incarnations. As your Ancestral Soul, they are also all blended into one by this point.
I believe you can access the person’s self soul – the echo left behind, the part of the soul that does not blend and stays as itself – as an individual. I believe this is where the aspects of ghosts and the spirits of the dead come into play. They are the self soul we are experiencing and seeing.
A Perspective of Purpose
I have heard people talk about “finding their purpose” in life. I personally think the purpose is to experience this world and to grow/ evolve through those experiences. If this is true – and the Ancestral Soul absorbs all that knowledge, those skills we develop, and the experiences – then it drives me even more towards this being the purpose of life. To experience, to learn, and grow, because all of that will be carried forward and become part of the next person this soul passes to.
People worry about leaving behind a legacy. Their name being remembered, something of them remaining in the world. For me, what will truly remain, what is most important, is the knowledge and skills I will be passing to the next life. This is the greatest legacy I can imagine.
Ending Thoughts
I was surprised by how much the concept of the Ancestral Soul has taken a center stage in my Death’s Emissary course the past couple of weeks. It has reminded me that even though this concept seems common for me, it isn’t for others.
Sometimes when we work with something for so long or so closely, we forget that at some point it was a new concept for us too. This is another reason why sharing with each other – our experiences, our practices – is important in my opinion. It allows others to discover and explore new concepts for themselves. It gives new perspectives to older concepts.
The Ancestral Soul is a deep part of my life and practice. There is so much to learn there, and the more I learn, the more whole I become – connected to myself, my inner power, and tapping new skills I did not know I possessed. It is an experience I hope others will explore for themselves. After all, inspiring ideas is one of the big reasons I write and share. Not to have people follow my way, but to experiment and find their own way and truths.
It is the season where the spirits stir more – this includes those you carry within. Listen to it, access it, and see all the possibilities that lay in front of you with it.
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