The Role of Ancestors in Peace Building

This is not going to be a one off post about Ancestors and Peace Building. It's just a start. The connections are myriad and complex. We might talk about the need to build peace between ourselves and our ancestors, or for peace to be found in the Unseen landscape (not even in this consensus reality). We might talk about atonement (at-one-ment) healing that is required by those living on behalf of those who have died. We might also consider that Ancestors may indeed come to our aid when engaged in Peace Building (and some may thwart us too).

The stories of conflict and war are never in this lifetime, never rooted with their genesis in a single person. Conflict is systemic and peace is systemic.

Consider that conflict and peace are not two separate states but rather I see them as cultures in a Petri dish and depending on the circumstances, environment and what they feed on one is going to grow stronger and faster than the other. The results of the Loss of Rites, the breakdown of reciprocal relations with other humans and the More-Than-Human, has created the optimum conditions for conflict to arise.

The process of Peace Building is about creating the optimum conditions for peace to rise and take its place in the world. Therefore mapping and acknowledging were peace exists and nurturing it - where peace did exist and where it will exist (as time is not linear) and nurturing that - then we starve conflict of the necessary drama it thrives on. And drama is always rooted in ancestral stories.