Connecting with Ancestors

Sitting quietly this morning I thought, I connect with Sarah’s mom, my mom, and my grandmother but I don’t connect with Sarah’s dad David or my grandfather Eddie, two men who were positive role models in my life. Perhaps Sarah’s dad has been reaching out to me but I haven’t been listening. Thirty minutes later Sarah and I were in an unrelated conversation and she said she could sense her dad coming through me. The way I was talking and the energy I was emanating reminded her of David. I thought, this is David letting me know that he is with me and helping to guide me. 

David was against Sarah marrying me first and I could hardly blame him. I was an ex-marine with a high school diploma who drove a truck for the Salvation Army. He was a Quaker and a professor and head of the Psychology Department at Harvard University. I was not the man he was hoping for. But over time, when David got to know me a little and saw how Sarah and I helped each other, he became a huge support and loving father-in-law to me. One thing David and I had in common was our love for and devotion to God.

In 2021 I studied a book titled, The Celtic Way of Seeing, Meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel by Frank MacEowen. I incorporated the Irish Spirit Wheel into my prayer for several months and it was a very positive experience. The spirit wheel is kind of a  meditative map, a circle or mandala if you will, with a center and four points representing the four directions of a compass. Each of the directions requires something of us and each has its reward. The West is the place of knowledge, it requires that we surrender, and its reward is wisdom. Jane Burns explains it this way in her class on the Celtic Medicine Wheel: 

This [is the] place of knowledge where we aim to be seekers on a path towards greater self-knowing and awareness, to carve wisdom from our experience, to make wise choices for the benefit of all, to be good students and to be good teachers.

In The  Celtic Way of Seeing MacEowen writes:

In the Celtic traditions the West is associated with the spirits, the Otherworld, and the ancestors [both biological and spiritual]. Each of the sacred directions of the Irish Spirit Wheel demands that we step outside ourselves, and in the West we are asked to connect with the wisdom and knowledge of the invisible world. . .The archetypal figure that sits in the West of the Irish Spirit Wheel is the Seer. A seer is any individual who seeks to acquire sacred knowledge, whose heart is filled with longing for it, and whose path is a living expression of this sacred knowledge. 

The older I get, the more I reach out to my ancestors for help. I know it makes a difference and every once in a while I see evidence of their involvement. And a few times the deceased have reached out to me for help. Here are a few memorable examples:

• • I was sitting in the back seat as we drove North on Interstate 5 towards Grants Pass, Oregon. My mother and Char Borema, a Grace Chapel congregant who had recently passed away, visited me. I didn’t see them but I was very aware of their presence and we communicated without words. I was delighted that Char was with mom. I had carried some guilt about neglecting mom in favor of serving my church and this visit encouraged me that my mom understood and she was doing fine.
  • This happened in the ’90s after Bob McClane passed away. Sarah and I were the last ones to see him alive other than doctors and nurses. One day I was traveling South on Interstate 5 and out of the blue I shouted out in a frustrated response, “All right Bob! All right! I’ll do my best to help John Judah.” Bob had been bugging me to watch over his son but I wasn’t aware of it until that moment. I was no longer John Judah’s pastor but I did manage to spend some time with him. Now I am the one in need of help and John and his wife, Kelly, are a tremendous blessing to me. 
  • More recently I was sitting quietly in my Eugene home when a spirit started fluttering around my head. After a few minutes I decided I should pay attention and listen. I can’t go into details but it turns out that a deceased woman I know was asking me to reach out to her daughter and offer help. I contacted her daughter and we had a good long talk. It meant a lot to both of us and it was a fun connection.

Connecting with ancestors has been a real blessing to me. Their presence is subtle but real. Relationships don’t have to end with the passing of a loved one. And this is one reason why I enjoy the Irish Spirit Wheel and what the West has to offer.