Motherline
left to right: Virgie, Neoma, Juanita, Ginger, Aggie & my mother, Jo Frances
I have been listening to and invoking sage wisdom to inspire my days. Mythologist Michael Meade, in his Living Myth Podcast, speaks of the Community of the Heart, in which we respect the rights of all others. He also refers to ancient African cultures in which whiteness represents the ancestors and if you want to commune with them, you hang a piece of white cloth. Ancestors are revered as the “living dead” because once someone leaves the body, the earthly plane, all the distractions, misperceptions, and desires leave also, and we become wise.
This week I have been calling on my mother’s wisdom as one of the living dead – asking what she sees from the other realms about the truth of this time. I have called in my connection with my deceased ancestors many times before, but none so significant as now. I listen for guidance to find balance in this hurricane of coronavirus, for tools to have fortitude and faith to permanently change systemic racism, and for whispers of next steps to take. My ancestors are watching. They can support me.
I am particularly close to my motherline which brings a far-reaching river of guidance through physically imbedded knowledge. I have bone memory of my noble ancestry – the struggles won & lost that my black & Indigenous ancestors survived; the immigration & poverty of my English/Irish ancestors. My black grandmother, Sarah Anasilistine King, born in 1878 in Sabine, Louisiana was educated through the 6th grade. With my grandfather Judge L. King, she built Memorial Tabernacle Church, overcoming persecution of her faith and skin color, while raising five children. That church stands today in Oakland, CA with branches across California, Texas and Washington.
My maternal English/Irish grandmother, Virgie Melvina Willis, was born in 1897 in Powell, Arkansas. She birthed five daughters and gave them spirits of fierce independence, as the family drove through California and Arizona laboring on farms, eating saltine crackers with canned stewed tomatoes for dinner. My mother said their much-anticipated treat was a banana on Saturdays.
There is so much inside me that allows me to live fully in this currently altered world. Jenn Johns, soulful singer of spirit hymns said, “My job now is to pray for the world.”
My motherline continues to open me as I create my own path, strong and unrelenting in the pursuit of personal peace and freedom for all.
But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.
- Rumi
With a grateful heart,
Deborah
