Ancestry and Destiny Are Inextricably Linked

Ancestry and Destiny

Hello everybody and welcome to the Living Ancestor Podcast.

This is your host, Ramon Castellanos.

Today I would love to discuss the inextricable link between ancestry and destiny.

We’re going to explore this from a variety of angles, and I’m going to give you some really practical, extremely mundane examples that can help ground the utter reality of this phenomenon into your perspective in a way that is irrevocable, if you really absorb the example that I’m going to give you.

With that said, let’s jump in.

Ancient Cosmologies and the Structure of Destiny

The notion of destiny is something that populates the ancient world.

It is a very old idea that existed in a cosmology or a set of cosmologies that all shared certain phenomena together, certain commonalities, and these commonalities revolve around a cosmos that is multi-dimensional and that is populated with beings and forces that have agency across this multidimensionality.

The physical plane is but one world, and it is intersecting with other worlds or other dimensions.

The soul, or what we call the soul, is from one of these dimensions and inhabits a physical existence to some degree while we are here.

And the soul itself has an agenda.

It has a desire for coming here, and it hopes to unfold a particular set of experiences and actions and phenomena throughout its incarnation, and this is something that is happening in real time, it is a process that is emerging and unfolding as the moment unfolds, so in some ways it’s pre-planned, the way you might think of getting on a ship and sailing off to a distant land as a pre-planned process.

In another way, it’s emerging spontaneously because you cannot control how the trip goes.

Conceptualizing Destiny as Process

This overall process that we’re discussing here is one way to conceptualize and relate to destiny.

It’s how many of the ancient cultures that spawned the idea of destiny related to it.

Some iteration of this, although of course there are nuances and details and specific cosmological idiosyncrasies.

But that’s the core idea.

The soul undergoes an incarnation with an agenda of some kind.

This agenda is a potential as well as an underlying orientation.

And that it lives that existence and then there is an outcome, so to speak.

And that outcome is the result of the life lived.

And within that, there’s this interplay that’s occurring between the more powerful soul forces and the incarnate human being and the ego.

And that relationship is not perfectly synchronized.

The ability for the soul and the incarnate human being to harmonize together is a dynamic, ever-evolving process that is not reproducible or predictable and that shows up for different individuals differently, even at different times in their life.

Technologies for Harmonizing Soul and Incarnate Human

A lot of the codified systems that you encounter in ancient traditional cultures and indigenous tribal cultures understood that.

And they had technologies that were consistently working, to the best of their ability, to keep the soul and the incarnate human harmonized to some degree.

Because when that occurs, then the ability to actualize a destiny becomes much more possible.

Amongst many other things.

Destiny as Auspicious and Fortuitous

And this destiny is consistently apprehended in these cultures to be considered auspicious.

Fortuitous, meaning that it brought with it good tidings and that that potential was something that, if we were able to lean into it and actualize it, would make the world here better for the person living it typically, but also the people.

Sometimes there was a degree of sacrifice required by the person inhabiting the destiny, but overall, this phenomenon was considered to be auspicious.

The Ancestral Layer and the Destiny Layer

And also within these cosmologies, you encounter an understanding, and that was that the ancestral layer and the destiny layer were inextricably linked.

And while different cultures understood this differently, the fundamental truth was that the link was there.

Now, this is especially interesting because in most modern discussions of destiny, you do not encounter this link.

And this ties into the overall loss of ancestral lifeways and the relegating of ancestral forces to the background that is a common feature of modernity, and that is also, of course, a byproduct of the Abrahamic traditions of Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and how they impacted the human being’s relationship to other dimensions.

Religious Totalitarian Force and the Loss of Ancestral Relations

And sort of became this totalitarian force.

Now, that’s not to take away from some of the beneficial things that those traditions have added to the world, but the fact of the matter is that they were a part of why ancestral relations and veneration are not a core feature of the modern world.

But nonetheless, the point being that in these cultures, destiny and ancestry were linked.

Now, I’ve encountered this in a variety of traditions.

I’m going to talk about two just briefly.

The Ifa and Orisha Tradition and Ori

The first is from the Ifa and Orisha tradition of the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

Now, they have an energetic map that is similar to the Chinese meridian system or the Indian chakra systems, in that they are an energetic system mapped onto the body that we work with at some level for energetic and spiritual cultivation.

The map is a little bit different in that it has only a couple of handful of active points that you consistently work with.

It is also simultaneously a multi-dimensional map.

So built within the understanding of how the points work, some of them are linked to spiritual forces and other dimensions by default.

That’s a core part of their function.

And two of the points, the two that are found on the feet, on the big toes, are directly connected to ancestral forces.

They are the ancestral points.

Now, the reason this is important is because you cannot talk about this energetic map called Ori, spelled O-R-I, without also discussing destiny.

That’s a core aspect.

They are completely and utterly considered to be almost the same phenomenon.

So within that map, connected to destiny, mapped onto the body, and connected to ancestors, you already see a notable, inextricable link between ancestors and destiny.

Jing, Essence, and Destiny in China

Now, moving a little bit to the Far East, in China, there is the understanding that one of the core energies that we inherit from our ancestors is called Jing, spelled J-I-N-G.

Now, this energy essence is considered to be a foundational substance that holds the potential of your entire life.

In some ways, it is a blueprinted fuel that, as you cook it and as you use it to live your life, you burn it up.

And when your Jing is depleted, you die.

But within your Jing, there is the potential for your destiny.

Your Jing and your destiny are inextricably linked.

And you get your Jing from your ancestors.

Now, this is just a couple of examples of a phenomenon that the old world understood.

No Destiny Without a Body

Now, there are a variety of layers to why this is the case, and I’m going to talk about just a couple today that are transmittable in the context of a podcast like this.

So the first of which is that there is no destiny without a body because you are here and you are incarnate, and the soul is living out a destiny through a body and experiencing the phenomenon that it came to experience in the context of embodiment.

And you get your body from your ancestors.

But not only that, the portal that the soul takes to come into the world, the doorway, is the ancestors.

Literally, the body comes out of other bodies and is a continuation of an ancestral line.

So there’s that layer of it.

Fate and Destiny

And the other layer I wanted to discuss has to do with fate.

Now, I’ve talked about this a lot, and I’m going to repeat myself because I never know who’s just popping on to these podcasts for the first time.

Fate and destiny are not exactly the same phenomenon.

Fate are the inherited phenomena, circumstances, and patterns that you have acquired without your direct input.

So those can be anything and everything that has not been the result of direct choices that you have made in life from a conscious, active participation place that is actually making real choices, not just reacting to what occurs.

So within that, the scope of the ancestral is vast.

Because one way to relate to the ancestral, and I’ve talked about this before on this podcast, is that it is everything and everyone that has come before you.

So that means that the lives of people and animals and forces that existed long before you have established a set of limitations that you must contend with.

Now that shows up at a lot of levels.

Fate, Body, and Circumstance

So the time and the place that you were born in, the culture and the society that you're a part of, the body that you have inherited, the familial stories that exist that have become a part of your story, and all of the other layers that we can imagine that have to do with the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

And all of that is fundamentally ancestral.

It has established a ground substance that you stand on and a container that you are held within and that your choices must act within.

Now, this is fascinating because it shows us that our lives do not start off completely with a blank slate.

There are already patterns in place when we step into this world, when the soul comes into this world.

Now, the soul itself as a force does already come with a preceded nature within it already.

But on top of that, there is this ancestral layer that is a part of what has to be alchemized into destiny.

And these things are inextricable.

The Human Body as Inherited Pattern

Now, I'm going to get to this super practical, almost mundane, very grounded example.

You were born into a human body.

Within that, there are certain predispositions and orientations that are non-negotiable.

They are a set of limitations, so to speak.

They are bindings because you are bound to this body when you are here.

And this body has certain features, certain abilities, certain benefits and drawbacks that simply are a matter of fact.

I can't go breathe underwater just because I want to.

I can't fly through the air because I choose to.

These things are not possible.

They might be possible for a fish or for an eagle, but not for us because we're human.

The Squat as Ancestral Design

And there are a lot of ways to understand this, but I want to talk a little bit about an ancestral pattern that we have inherited at the level of the human structure.

That is, the way that the human body is designed.

An upright creature with two arms and two legs, with hips and shoulders and a spine, etc.

Just the structure.

And a movement pattern that is deeply ancestral.

And that is squatting.

Now, I'm referring to the flat-foot squat that you can often see babies doing when they're moving around and they're getting ready to start standing up.

They'll often squat.

And for them, it's often effortless.

But for many of us, it's usually not because of disuse, especially people in modern Western culture.

Now, the squat is actually built into the design of this human structure.

It is a feature of it that is meant to be a pattern that is engaged with our whole lives.

Now, in a lot of other cultures in which sitting in chairs is not a predominant pattern, you still find people squatting.

And if you go to places where you see a lot of people from Japan, for example, you often see adults squatting as perfectly as a child.

Even if they're not quote unquote in shape or fit or something like that, they can still squat easily.

But I have seen and experienced this myself, very fit and athletic people who can't squat.

And this is a core pattern of the human body.

Mind you, this is a pattern that's really challenging for me as a person because of the way that my hips fused together when I was growing up and also because of some of the injuries that I've had and some of the damage that I've taken over the years.

It's a pattern that's tough for me to do and I still do my best to engage with it.

Designed to Squat

So there is this faded level aspect of your body.

It is designed to squat.

And because it is designed to squat, the squat pattern itself plays a big role in regulating the health of your digestion, the health of your lower back, your hips, your knees, your ankles, and your feet.

And there is a direct link between how well you can engage with that pattern and the health of your lower body.

It's not necessarily a one-to-one ratio, but there's definitely an impact.

Now, the fact that people don't squat in today's world has affected the health of that part of our body to a large degree and can certainly be linked to a lot of the injuries and pain that people experience in later life in those areas of the body.

The loss of the squat is an evolutionary mismatch between the way we evolved to be and the way that evolution predisposed us to orientate physically and the modern world.

It's a lot like a phantom limb, and I talk about phantom limbs in my book, In Praise of the Wild Spirit.

That it is something that is meant to be there and no longer is.

And because of that, there is this shadow pain that occurs.

And in this way, it's actual physical health outcomes.

Choice Within a Faded Pattern

Now, here's the thing.

If you are aware that you were designed to squat, if it became something known to you in some form or fashion, then you are faced with a choice.

You have the ability to choose a how and if you will engage with this pattern.

And this is super interesting because you see a little piece of destiny here in the sense that you are given a faded set of circumstances.

You live in a human body and it is designed to squat.

And the squat is a necessary aspect of the body if it wants to remain healthy.

And there are so many different ways to engage with it that have a lot to do with how you yourself orientate towards movement and health.

You might be able to work with it as a mobility drill that you work with just to maintain the basic function.

You can do it flat-footed on the ground or you can do it with blocks underneath your heels that raise your angle of tilt to make it easier to squat if you have really tight ankles.

You can do it single-legged and what people call pistols or a single-legged squat.

You can do it with a heavy bar, a barbell on your back or held at the front of your body.

You can do it for high intensity reps as in high intensity interval training.

You can do jump squats if you wanted to.

You could work with a kettlebell or any number of different weights to work the pattern.

So the point being that all of those are potential avenues for you to explore in maintaining the squat position and the squat function.

And some people I know do all of those things, and then others just do one of them.

And a lot of that has to do with how you're orientated as an individual.

Are you somebody more concerned with health and sustainability and ease and flow?

Or are you someone more interested in pushing hard, in being athletic, in building muscle, etc.?

Fate, Choice, and Outcome

Very simple, grounded, mundane examples.

But right there you can see the direct interplay between fate, something you inherited that's a part of your circumstances whether you want them to be or not.

You see choice in the sense of do you engage the pattern or do you not.

You see the ability to bring your innate nature of predisposition to how you engage with the pattern and what you do with it.

Hence, then the outcome that you eventually get.

And how you engage with that process eventually unfolds a little tiny piece of destiny at the level of the body.

Extrapolating the Pattern

Now, the reason I'm giving you such a funny, mundane example is so that you can see how this plays out in a very practical way.

Now I want you to extrapolate that to all the different layers that we have inherited from our ancestors.

Both the collective ancestors, the human inheritance, the squat being just one piece of that.

And then also your own family line.

And the way that they raised you and the stories that they gave you and the orientations that they seeded into your perspective.

And what they told you was possible, what was not possible.

What kind of body you inherited from them and what that body wants to do, some of its innate gifts but also some of its curses, so to speak, or what we might call strengths or weaknesses.

You could take that framework for it.

Or you can just see the things that it's good at or the places where it is debilitated, so to speak.

Where you have to shore up certain things if you want to stay healthy.

That might show up as genetic predispositions to certain diseases, for example.

But the case being here that the soul came into this body and it has an orientation to this body and that it came into a line and it came into a time and a place and it came into a set of stories.

And those have a ground effect on how we get to choose and what we even get to choose from to then move into destiny.

And destiny is about making conscious, active, participatory choices grounded first in faded circumstances, the circumstances that you find yourself in here and now.

Closing Invitation

And this is hopefully something that can help you relate to destiny and ancestry a little bit differently and see how they are fundamentally inextricably linked.

Okay, my friends.

I hope that this was a helpful podcast for you.

And if you appreciate what I'm doing here and you like my style, so to speak, and you want to stay engaged with what I do or you want to support what I do, then coming over to my Substack at eatingancientvirtue.substack.com and just joining the mailing list, staying a part of the work that I do and staying connected to what I release is something that I would love and encourage you to do.

All right, my friends, be well.