by Ruiseart
I believe that before we can truly appreciate what
we have in the present, we must first honour our past. By this I do
not mean that we should live in the past, or even try to recreate it
in any way, as it is essential that we live fully in the present with
our energies focussed on our lives as they are now. In order to do this
however, we must understand that who we are in the present is a direct
result of who we were in the past, both individually and as a race (this
is also true of past lives, which may or may not be of the same bloodlines).
It is our ancestors, both spiritual and racial, that have got us to
the point that we are at now, and by connecting with them emotionally
and spiritually, we can begin to understand who we are. They can provide
us with a solid foundation upon which we may build our future.
In countries such as Australia, unless a person is
of Aboriginal descent, they have their genetic roots elsewhere, with
the majority of non-Aboriginals being of European origins. Unfortunately,
many of the pagans in this country, when trying to adapt their spirituality
to the new land, abandon their past in the belief that they are establishing
new roots in their adopted home. Some of them even try to incorporate
Aboriginal practices into their workings, which on the surface is good,
as it shows proper respect to the original Guardians of the Land. I
personally have worked with many spiritual groups that do this, however
the problem is that we only have a little more than two hundred years
down here. To be able to understand the Aboriginal ways, and how they
relate to the land, we would need at least forty thousand years, and
attempting to do this after only two hundred may even be seen by some
Aboriginals as disrespectful. By leaving our history behind, and starting
completely fresh, we would be removing everything that has made us what
we are, and would leave us as spiritual and cultural orphans. It would
be like standing with our backs to the edge of a high cliff with nothing
behind us for support.
Conversely, there are those that refuse to alter their
practices in the slightest, believing that they are honouring their
ancestors by forcing northern hemisphere ways onto the southern lands,
regardless of the fact that some of them simply don't fit. Rather like
trying to fit a round object into a square hole. This is particularly
true of Christians who refuse to understand the origins of Christmas
and Easter. It is quite comical to see some people happily tucking into
their roast Christmas dinner, in the middle of the Australian Summer,
not to mention the Easter parades in Autumn. Unfortunately, these people
aren't honouring their ancestors at all, as they are turning their spiritual
practices into an anachronism. Our rituals and ceremonies should be
as they always were, relevant and relating to our culture in the land
in which we live. So what is the solution? How do we maintain our culture
and spirituality, whilst living in a new (for us) land? How do we
continue our customs, beliefs and seasonal festivals in a land where
the seasons are reversed (and in places are totally different)? How
do we relate to a land where the energies and Spirits of Place are
different, and there exists an ancient people who has been living
and working with these energies and Spirits for over forty thousand
years? I believe that the answer is quite simple. Instead of leaving
our culture and spiritual practices in the old country, or bringing
them with us but stubbornly keeping them fixed and static, we should
adapt them to suit the new environment, just as our ancestors did
many times. They managed to maintain their beliefs and culture as
they settled new lands, and so can we. We simply have to translate
our ways into the "language" of our new lands. Sing the
old songs, whilst writing new ones. It is very important that we honour
our ancestors, the ancient Druids, who have given us our foundation,
but we must also understand that we are the ancient Druids of the
future. What we do here and now, will affect the actions of our descendants.
We are responsible for the future of this planet, as that future is
being made, by us, now.
Ruiseart is Joint-Chief of the Gaelic Druid Order of the Southern
Cross, whose webpage can be found at http://gdosc.mybravenet.com/druidorder.html
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