My participation at the African Fire Ritual led by dr. Malidoma Patrice Some, the author of the book “Of Water & Spirit” has inspired me to share a few words on their beliefs.
Malidoma shared the views of Dagara people of Africa on Life. It goes like this:
One day God decided that he wanted to do something with the Earth in order to develop. He took the Earth as a project and he needed some help to realize his vision. So, all the souls in “heaven” wanted to go to Earth as engineers because being a soul can be boring. There is not much to do in “heaven”. So every soul wanted to apply. But they needed to have a good reason to go to Earth. If their application was good enough, it was granted and the contract was signed. Each soul applied for a special engineering work, a special mission to complete. There were 5 possible expertise (The African Wheel):
- Fire people – they look where others don’t look; they are the link between the Other world and this world as if they are walking on a thin line between the Ancestors’ world and this world. They were born in the year with the last number 2 (1962, 1972, 1982, 2002,…) or 7 (1967, 1977, 2007,…)
- Water people – their task is to do the impossible task of reconciling (people or things), bringing peace all over the place–and this is why a lot of them are into the teaching job. They were born in the year with the last number 1 (1961, 1971, 1981, 2001,…) or 6 (1966, 1976, 2006,…)
- Mineral people – they are the connectors, the communicators, they have the ability to translate things. It has a lot to do with social connections. In the indigenous world they are the Storytellers. Mineral is also something that we must see in terms of the conveying of energy, to convey energy that comes through you on its way somewhere else. This is why any person who is a Mineral person is supposed to be running energy. They also store information about the Earth. They were born in the year with the last number 4 (1964, 1974, 1984, 2004,…) or 9 (1969, 1979, 2009,…)
- Earth people – Earth is about nurturing, grounding, taking care of one another and unconditional love. It is also about empowerment, providing a sense of home and identity. Earth people were born in the year with the last number 0 (1960, 1970, 1980, 2000,…) or 5 (1965, 1975, 2005,…)
- Nature people– also called Witches. They are about transformation, major changes –life, death, rebirth. They help with the change to happen. They were born in the year with the last number 3 (1963, 1973, 1983, 2003,…) or 8 (1968, 1978, 2008,…)
The minute you are born, you are an expert on your field. Of course, you are also given a space suit (the body) to be able to do stuff here on Earth.
So, if you have arrived here, you need to know what you are going to do, what is your contribution going to be. The first people who arrived here found out that it is not so easy. They got confused…forgot about their promises. The Earth is a funny place…The Souls from Heaven were watching in disbelief. The second batch who arrived was even worse…
The ancestors on the Other side are trying to guide, to help, they give signs, they send problems for Earth Souls to learn. They hope we will listen, change and learn. If we change the terms of the contract we get affected energetically and physically and eventually we are called back. The death is the sign of a failure. It is said that we need 108 years for the mission to be completed. If we die before that, we couldn’t complete the contract. If we get to the age of 108 we transit, we don’t die.
This is why rituals are important. They are means of communication with the Ancestors. When we communicate with them we make them happy and we are never on our own. It is important for the psyche not to be on its own. Hence, the need for the community – which is about sharing, accepting and helping each other.
When talking to our Ancestors we don’t have to pray seriously and being hopeless – as it is seen in christian religion. We can talk to them in any manner we want, show them our character and some self-confidence. We should choose the manner that suits us best – they are never angry with us – where they are, it’s all about Love.
But, we should make contact with them on a daily basis. It takes time to get tuned on their frequency and become aligned with them and consequently aligned with ourselves.
We must not forget that we are never on our own. Unless, we choose to be.
Eva Debevec