Amadlozi – Ancestors

By Makhosi On April 20, 2012 · Add Comment

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Zulu words and meanings

Sawubona – ‘I see you’; pronounced – Sowu– bone – nah
Amambhulo – dream-vision-thinking; pronounced – amam – bhoo - lo
Amadlozi – Ancestral spirits; pronounced – amad –shlo -zee
Umoya – spirit energy or air and wind, life force; pronounced – u-moy-yah

The Ancestors – Ancestral Consciousness

Simply put Ancestral Consciousness is the dimension of wisdom, knowledge, awareness, Umoya, and frequency of manifestation of the Ancestors or Amadlozi; from family members to other ancestral beings such as animals, trees and star nations. This is a collective consciousness which is accessed either by individuals or soul groups of beings.

Not all spirits become ‘active’ ancestors; in other words, ancestors that positively participate in the life of a person still in body.

“Generally speaking, not everybody becomes an ancestor in the true African life. For example, those who lived lives and caused harm can never be considered as ancestors when they die. In Africa, death does not represent the end of human existence, but rather a change in its status. The notion of death creates a solution of continuity between the living and the dead.” MJS . Masango

This is an important part of interacting with ancestral consciousness, to understand that what we do in our physical lives has a greater affect than just the current life time. It is not about crime and punishment or judgment; it is about cause and effect, action and consequence and at what point we become aware of thoughts and actions. The amadlozi are primary teachers when it comes to this offering of wisdoms and greater perspective so that we can be aware and conscious of ourselves and choose in a balanced way our creations.

“It is a natural consequence of the strong belief in African spirituality that human life does not terminate at the death of the individual, but continues beyond death. It follows, therefore, that there must be myriads upon myriads of spirits. Many of them appear in legends, myths and folks stories; others are spoken about in normal conversations among people; and some appear to people in visions and dreams”. Mbiti

The ancestors are about self-knowledge; they walk with this purpose in hand as a gift from their own life times and the dimension of spirit they exist in as Ancestors. Their world resonates with all kinds of ancestral manifestation, creation and beings, each with a valuable store of information which is accessed by the Sangoma or Shaman. Yet it is not entirely confined to the Sangoma as each African or Zulu home has a spiritual place for the Ancestors called the Makhosini and each family is in an active relationship with the ancestors of giving and receiving.

This makes available the wisdoms of the ancestors from the ancestral dimension to all who choose to consciously interact and have a conscious relationship with the ancestors. In African tradition this is greatly valued although in modern day Africa it is being less valued as social structures change.

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This conscious interaction is not confined to the African people only and many other cultures consciously work with the ancestral consciousness, but for the African tradition it is a central part of the spiritual belief, life practice and awareness of the spiritual or divine dimension. Ancestral wisdom and relationship is intrinsic in the practice of Ubuntu. Traditionally the ancestors would be communicated with on a community level as well as an individual level. The collective of greater ancestral consciousness considered vital to the community or village and the welfare of the people.

“Each man gives to his own ancestors; each clan, through the shaman, to the ancestral heads of the clan; the whole tribe to the ancestors of its chief. In the latter case the gifts can only be offered by the tribal priest-shaman, or by the chief in those rare instances in which he is not only the ruler but the high priest also.” Rev James MacDonald

Our communal connection to the amadlozi is fundamental to our relationship with the ancestors; it means that we are not separate, unconnected. What we do to each other reverberates in the ancestral dimension and through the greater link to the planet we live on which is also our ancestor. In recognizing the ancestral consciousness, we recognize ourselves and in turn each other. We can see that our individual knowing is but one string in a web of being that when plucked resonates and affects the strings next to it. Each string connected to hundreds of strings and ultimately thousands of strings as our collective ancestral being meets and crosses time and again. The motion of the ancestral consciousness is cyclical, spiral and multi-dimensional so that time ceases to have any meaning.

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“Dreaming and thinking have always been synonymous terms to the African from the beginning of their history it is proved beyond a doubt by the fact that the African word for ‘dream’ is derived from the verb ‘to think’.”

W. J. Edmonton -Scott

Dream time is an important tool which deeply connects to ancestral consciousness. The dream space moves beyond perceptions of time and space and so is an accessible frequency to the amadlozi. In African and Zulu tradition and the practice of the Sangoma-Shaman, conscious dreaming and awake-dreaming is a primary skill to master and a gift learned from the ancestors.

The Zulu have a word Amambhulo which means ‘dream-vision-thinking’, it is the state we can find ourselves in when staring into space, receiving thought, contemplation, day dreaming, meditation or the space between being awake or asleep. It is not the same as the state of sleep and the dreams which occur through this process which are also valued but seen as received in a different process from Amambhulo, and it also differs from the process of shamanic journey which has a whole different word and meaning associated with it in terms of ancestral consciousness.

Amambhulo is vital to the Sangoma-Shaman; it permeates all areas of their practice and awareness and can be entered into at any moment. Throughout the training of the Sangoma, this state is encouraged, heightened, worked on and adjusted according to the frequency and teachings of the ancestral lineage of the Sangoma mentors. It is seen as being co-created and affected by ancestral consciousness, and many ceremony and ritual processes are required to concentrate Amambhulo.

Offerings are another vital part of ancestral consciousness. The ancestors are known to stand with us as closely as the living, they see, hear, and smell our world. Smell especially is a spirit sense that is deeply connected to interacting with them and is important in regards to the offerings made to the amadlozi. Offerings are a heartfelt exchange, recognition of the heart and of giving and receiving; the process of cyclical manifestation as the motion of giving and receiving is never static. The ancestors are able to ‘smell’, although not exactly the same way as we smell or perceive smelling. It is a spirit sense which is associated with the intention behind the offering; meaning that food with intention of abundance and gratitude can be smelt and that this is one of the many ways the offering is received during ritual and ceremony process.

Ancestral consciousness covers many ‘spiritual beings’ and the manifestation of such beings. The ancestral guides are a group of spirits which have been specifically called to work with you as an individual in the life time you are currently living. This group of ancestors can be placed in groups of varying vibration, frequency or harmonic field.

This separation is not to be misunderstood or taken as an absolute as all levels of ancestors can and do work with one another for your wellbeing and the welfare of the human race, the Earth dimension and its place in the universe.

The basic main Ancestral guide groups AMADLOZI

Family Ancestors

These ancestral spirits are passed family members which have been called by the divine source to work with individuals from the same family line. This can include adoptive parents and siblings.

Not every member of your family will become an ancestral guide although all may pass through the ancestral dimension in which they exist.

Past Life incarnation Ancestors

These ancestral spirits are individual spirits who have a past life connection with you and have not reincarnated; they have agreed through the calling to work with individual souls they have been connected to through past life incarnations who chose to reincarnate.

Soul Group Ancestors

The soul group ancestral spirits are spirits who are passed family, friends or colleagues who have no family blood tie but are part of your soul group; therefore having a choice to agree to guide you while you are still incarnate.

Angel Ancestors

These ancestral spirit guides vary in, Angelic dimension and purpose. As messengers of the source they are believed to have an intense ability to communicate the divine messages, quickly and instantly.

Land Ancestors

Land ancestral guides are a group of beings and guardians who have been specifically assigned to work with the Earth dimension and the planet Earth. They have complete memory and knowledge of the Earths life time and purpose; they also help connect people with the Earth consciousness and the voice of the earth itself.

Animal Ancestors

These ancestral guides are animal spirits who have chosen to work with you in your incarnate life time. They can be individual Animal spirits, including pets that have passed or they can be from the greater Animal Spirit Group consciousness of the animal they represent and the gifts of spirit they have to give. They are multi-dimensional and so can exist simultaneously in many worlds.

Star Ancestors

The Star ancestral guides are from various Star systems in our universe. They have a great vested interest in our well-being on a personal level and on an Earth level. They are believed to be direct ancestors in terms of wisdom and spiritual teachings here on the Planet Earth.

To connect with ancestral consciousness and know your ancestral connections is to know you’re self and who you may become as everything moves and turns. As you deepen your connections with ancestral consciousness you will find that you have a different way of seeing and thinking; layers of connectedness will offer to open your heart. This is a deep ‘love’, love in the sense of ‘heart-core-knowingness’ of seeing yourself and the people who surround you. The seeing will come from the heart or core of your being, not the mind.

The Zulu word which is used for greeting each and every person and is used as we would use ‘hello’ is Sawubona; yet it is so much more than hello because its translation is “I see you”… Many interpret this as a literal physical seeing, but when you understand the African–Zulu way of being in the world and their connection to the ancestors, you understand that they mean ‘they see you from the heart’ and this includes the ancestors that walked before you. By saying Sawubona they honor your being and the value you have as a human like themselves.

It is the hope of the ancestral beings that we may meet ourselves in all of the life forms we live with, so that we can see that we are beings that walk with other beings; that our Ubuntu should not divide us from the other beings, but inspire us to reach deeper into our harmony with other beings. Not alone, but hand in hand with the roots of what we are and what we may become, ever kindred and beautiful in the Umoya which links us like a weaving of infinite expression.

TASKS – Amadlozi

Please give your answers in written form to your mentor with the other homework on your hand in date for module.

Up until this point of starting the mentorship; what was your awareness of ancestral consciousness.

Write notes and send to mentor on hand in date.

How does your ego personality feel about the fact that not all people become active spiritual ancestors… what does it have to say about it?