Collective Ancestors

If you are familiar with the four directions, you can give these ancestors a place on the Wheel. In general, our ancestors are in the direction of the North. In this direction, we can find again a complete wheel with four types of ancestors in each direction.

East – the collective ancestors of practical ideas

Here we find our collective ancestors who discovered something important that we still benefit from today. For example, people who invented fire, invented medicine, electricity, train, aeroplane, and computers. We can meet here various teachers, inventors of tools and things we use.
However, in this field, we don’t only meet our collective ancestors that invented valuable materials. In this field, we also meet people who formulated essential theories in psychology, philosophy, and sciences, for example. These thinkers developed ideas that still influence how we look at the world. These people have shaped our lives. They have made the world a little more comfortable.

South – our biological ancestors – personal

Our biological ancestors gave us our bodies, our biological blueprints. We are in the world because of them. Read more about this in the article: ‘Our ancestors, who are they?’.

West – the collective ancestors of the dreamworld

We can also call them the ‘Ancestors’ from the world of myths and dreams.
These are the people we meet as guides and friends in dreams, in stories, songs, books, and mythology. They are made from dreams, we can meet them when we dream, and they create dreams.
They are ‘characters’ that have come to form a collective dream or concept, for example, Gandalf, Greek gods or goddesses, etc. These characters help us dream, help us to use our imaginations and help us hope for a better world.
In that sense, they belong to the West.
They can serve as role models in our daydreams and reflections.

North – collective ancestors of spiritual traditions

These are “ancestors”, guides and teachers of our spiritual traditions. They have kept the lineage alive and passed the teaching on. We can meet Jesus or other saints who shaped Christianity in this field and teachers from other traditions: Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Rumi, Gandhi ….. . Gurus, shamans, Christian saints, Tibetan lamas, rabbis etc. all belong here.
It may be that we came to a tradition through birth, or we may have met later in our life a tradition that inspired us and for which we made a conscious choice.

An individual practice

Take as the ‘focus’ of this exercise your work, or the work you would like to manifest.
Then think about the Ancestors of the East – the inventors. Which ancestors of the East can help you?
Then think about the Ancestors or the South – which biological ancestor can help you?
Do the same for the Ancestors of the West and North.

While doing this exercise you will probably experience that one or two directions are very developed and one or two are less clear or strong. What does this mean for you?

Inspired by the teachings of Daan van Kampenhout