It’s very fashionable these days to trace your blood ancestors, and there are many organisations online who charge to look up those in your past. There is even the TV program Who Do You Think You Are?, which can be interesting or boring, depending on the person involved. It seems fascinating, looking up those in your past, but of course most of us will find that we were descended from humble farm workers and labourers, and nearly all of us have foreign ancestry, proving the racists wrong that anyone is really ‘English’ (even the patron Saint of England wasn’t).
But is it really necessary? Could this time spent harking back to the past be better spent looking to the future? Many step-parents make loving families, could they be hurt if you spend your time looking up those in your past, simply due to a blood link? Most of us would say that anything that happens is more how you were brought up, not the blood relatives linked to you.
There is something called ‘ancestral trauma’, which suggests that ‘the sins of the fathers’ can pass on to the ancestors. Like a Greek tragedy, things that happen in your life may well have happened in your blood relatives of old. But less to do with Biblical prophecy, it’s more likely to do with DNA (their traumas can literally ‘give birth’ in their children). Which is why it’s good to practice self-care and inner healing, to try to break the link and build a better life.
Lastly, we see that ancestral obsession can cause some silly laws. The most silly of course is that if you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you get to dictate to others how to live (the most obvious example is monarchies worldwide, where babies are born and destined to rule over us). And most often the women in the family are then pressured to have children (especially sons) to take over. It would be interesting to see what would happen if some of the top Royals had decided to adopt or foster children, whether they would then ‘qualify’ for the top job!
