Honoring Our Ancestors: Why Honoring Your Ancestors Matters More Than You Think

In many places across the world, ancestor acknowledgment is an integral part of social and religious life. Nearly every indigenous culture honors their ancestors, and ancestral spirits are woven into everything they do. They give great honor to their deceased forebears, the same way the grandmothers and grandfathers did before them. They understand that our ancestors hold a vast wealth of wisdom and knowledge, available to us the moment we choose to ask. This is the heart of honoring your ancestors: recognizing that the wisdom of those who came before us is still accessible today.

What Honoring Your Ancestors Looks Like Around the World

If we look at the oldest spiritual systems on the planet, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, the departed forebears are venerated by each passing generation. When Buddhists or Hindus perform acts of service, meditation, or pilgrimage during their lifetime, they believe they share these merits with family members who have already died. These acts are believed to help their departed loved ones move closer to enlightenment, blessing them in return. There is also a belief that honoring your ancestors in this way helps the present generation release negative karma for themselves and their predecessors (although my personal view is that karma isn't positive or negative; it's simply Akashic energy).

Ancestor worship is prevalent across many cultures. Within Asia, the extended family is central to society, and honoring your ancestors is a significant religious activity. Departed loved ones are highly revered, and great importance is placed on respecting parents and elders. Families often gather for a banquet in memory of the deceased, and many keep an ancestor altar where incense is burned and offerings are given, especially in times of need for guidance or counsel.

In India, ancestor worship is predominant. When a person dies, specific rituals take place during which the family offers tributes to the deceased. Each year, the family repeats the ritual on the anniversary of their loved one's passing, along with separate rituals to remember and honor all ancestors collectively.

Many African societies believe ancestors become spirits and gods who live in another world, capable of affecting the lives of the living. Ancestors are called upon for important events and ceremonies, and their presence is believed to bring protection and good luck. Ancestral spirits are also believed to reside in places like a tree, a rock, or a spring of fresh water, and shrines are sometimes built in their honor.

My Own Journey with Honoring Your Ancestors

Growing up in Australia, I never participated in any ceremony to honor my ancestors. In fact, it felt like a completely foreign concept. Why would I do that? If anyone told me they had contacted their ancestors, I assumed they meant a psychic, a medium, or a séance. Communicating with the ancestors simply wasn't part of my reality.

During my formal education, I learned about Aboriginal culture, and as a young woman, I dated an Aboriginal man for several years. During that time, I was immersed in his culture and became a member of his extended family. It gave me deep insight into the rich tapestry of family kinship within Aboriginal communities, and into how naturally honoring your ancestors is woven into daily life for Indigenous peoples around the world.

Nearly every Indigenous tribe holds a profound connection with nature, understanding their environment on a level far beyond anything I learned at university or during my years working as a national park ranger. To Indigenous peoples, nature is more than plants and animals. Nature is life itself, personified as Mother Earth, Pachamama, Gaia.

I've often wondered why the wisdom held by Indigenous peoples doesn't seem to have a place in our fast-paced modern world. So many of our Indigenous brothers and sisters have grown up in a society that places little value on the ancestral wisdom handed down through generations. Perhaps it's time for all of us to reconnect with what they already know.

Slowly, human consciousness is shifting, and we're beginning to recognize Indigenous peoples as the wisdom keepers of the Earth. Every Indigenous culture honors Gaia, and every one of them practices honoring your ancestors in some form. They intuitively understand that they are their own ancestors, and that honoring the ancestors is really a way of connecting with their own Akashic remembrance. Every Indigenous ceremony I have ever participated in begins with an honoring of the ancestors.

Who Are Your Ancestors, Really?

I have a question for you: who are your ancestors? Do you come from a family where ancestor worship is an integral part of life, or are you like me, where the concept simply doesn't exist within your family?

We often spend a great deal of time tracing our family tree or studying the lineage of our biological ancestors. Is it possible their energy still lives within us? But there's another, more esoteric piece to this puzzle. Instead of biological, what about your Akashic, or past-life, lineage? Is it possible that pieces of your past-life experiences are still alive within you today? Your Akashic ancestral line would be you, many times over, the lineage of your own soul.

Our Akash is a soup of energy, so there's no fixed list of who to pay tribute to. Instead, the energy of our Akash communicates with us through intuition. It draws us toward certain places. Someone who grew up in China within a Chinese family might travel to North America and instantly feel a strong connection to the Native peoples who once lived there. Our Akash often pulls us toward places that create a powerful sense of déjà vu.

So what if you've never been part of a family or an Indigenous tribe that honors its biological ancestors? Would you like to start? How do you even begin when there's no cultural protocol to follow?

How I Personally Approach Honoring My Ancestors

I'd like to share how I personally honor the ancestors. I'm a first-generation Australian. Both of my parents are Hungarian and immigrated to Australia in 1969, so my family tree reveals many generations rooted in Hungary. I was exposed to both Hungarian and Australian culture growing up, and I've also lived in New Zealand and South America.

Everywhere I go, I give thanks to Gaia for being here and for loving us. When I feel my connection to Gaia, I also feel my connection to the ancestors who once walked that land. When I participate in Indigenous ceremonies, I feel the love of their ancestors greeting me.

So my conclusion is this: I don't think it matters whether these ancestors are within my direct lineage or not. We belong to all of them, both biologically and within our Akash. Perhaps you feel this too. As we honor the ancestors of this planet, we honor God, and we honor ourselves.

As we get in touch with our ancestors, and as we connect with the templates placed within us and within Gaia, we open a door to a portal holding the wisdom and knowledge of the ages. This knowledge will be essential to creating a new humanity, a graduated, divine, and aware culture. The Ancients and the Ancestors are with you right now, celebrating as you read this. And, of course, some of them are you.

What Kryon Says About Honoring Your Ancestors

Kryon, the loving angelic entity channeled by Lee Carroll, has shared profound insight on this very topic. During a live channeling in Calgary, Canada, Kryon spoke of the importance of honoring not just our biological ancestors, but our Akashic ones too. Every one of us has had countless lifetimes, countless mothers and fathers, countless families who nursed us to health, gave us the spark of life, and loved us across time. Most of these ancestors we could never trace through biological genealogy, yet they remain part of our Akashic family. Kryon's invitation was simple but powerful: begin honoring these Akashic ancestors through meditation, and allow their wisdom to inform who you are becoming today.

Source: Kryon live channelling, "Evolution of the Human Soul," Calgary, Canada, May 23, 2015.

Begin Honoring Your Ancestors Today

Whether your family has practiced ancestor worship for generations, or the concept is entirely new to you, honoring your ancestors is available to every one of us. It doesn't require a cultural protocol, a bloodline, or proof. It simply requires a willingness to ask, to listen, and to feel the wisdom that has always been there.

Your ancestry is vast, and it is amazing. I invite you to look at it differently, and to start honoring your ancestors, both biological and Akashic, as the graduated, aware soul you are becoming.