The Three Kindreds

The Three Kindreds

We tie the Kindreds together in ritual. The Shining Ones, The Nature Spirits and The Ancestors. I see the Shining Ones as the Gods and Goddesses that have always been and always will be. We tie the Kindreds together in ritual. They are my deities that I look to, honor and respect. In search of myself, my path, when among my deities, I have learned why they would be the Shining Ones, or at least for myself. I understand the shining light that would emit from beings as benevolent as they. Yet within that same light I am made fully aware of the power and strength that also emits from such as them. I am given a trust to be able to converse with the Shining Ones. A trust that I will honor and respect them, as I would ask of them to honor and respect me. I take my requests to them, asking for their wisdom in all matters that I seek answers for. There is a simple guidance among them, if only one will take the time to interact and then listen. In my search for myself in any Spritualism, I looked to the heavens. Not to "A" God, but for the answers I was searching for. When I had finally allowed myself to open up and hear what was being said to me...they were there. The Shining Ones. The Gods and Goddesses. I will not now be without them. To think of anyone forcing us to "witness" before ONE TRUE GOD, definitely would have kept me seeking for truer and deeper meaning of what that God meant and where he would be in my life. Without the Kindreds, the Shining Ones, I would be off kelter. They are the order of things in my daily life. The Shining Ones ARE the ones that I respect, worship to and honor. I am of the Celtic pantheon and have found my Shining Ones. They are a part of me and my hearth. I have had the opportunity to meet Isis and Bast. And I seem to please them in my honoring and respect of them. They are no less than my own deities. I find, as I learn more in my Dedicant Path, that I am coming into an awareness of being surrounded in and of, within and without. The Shining Ones are a wonder to behold, once you release yourself to just be, so you may know. My life has deeper meaning knowing who I am with, in ritual and prayer. It took me a long road to come into a place where I could be comfortable enough to say, I know who I believe in. My Patron is with me and knows me. I feel my Matron with me. And I have a family of Shining Ones with me, at all times. I cannot and will not be able to express the feelings knowing that I understand the Shining Ones with and of me. (491)

The second of the Kindreds are the Nature Spirits. I believe Nature Spirits to be all encompassing of nature in every example, as within the ADF views; trees, rocks, grass, air, water, Dryads, Nymphs, Fauns, etc. The Nature Spirits are on, in and of the Earth Mother. The Nature Spirits keep the balance between nature and the living. To not ever forget they are there, we must remember to go out into nature and spend time with them. They are tied to us and into the very fiber of nature and in being so, they must work on keeping the order of things together, for their own world and ours depends on it. In a world of reality, it has been to easy for the modern age to lose belief in so many things. Magic is set aside, elves, sidhe, leprechauns...lost into a world of minds that only see what they have been and are being taught to see. Without the true Nature Spirits, one must understand, our lives as we know them, would not be stable anymore. In that space, in that time and place...that is where balance lies, for all of us. In the mid-realm, I find comfort, peace. It is such internal pleasure just knowing the Nature Spirits are there, with each step I take further away from my own front door. Modern peoples do not refuse to know this, they have forgotten how to remember this. The delight and pleasure of the Nature Spirits is now lost from so many. Time has eroded their thoughts and beliefs. The Ancients believed and knew they were there. They honored, appreciated, listened, learned and respected the Nature Spirits. In this, they all lived in a beautiful balance of harmony. The ages have taken that away from too many. When I cannot go to the Nature Spirits, the mid-realm, and relax...have a delightful conversation with a tree or a Fairy...then time will be no more. The Nature Spirits are all in nature that we can see, know and believe. Without any of them, the total, natural balance is off and could be lost forever. (358)

The third and last of the Kindreds is the Ancestors. The Ancestors are the past generations in each persons blood family, back to the first of each family line. If you have ever tried to do genealogy, then you understand just how difficult this is to track down. I have been doing my parent's family histories for twenty nine years and although I am so far advanced into each family line, I am still very far from advancing towards my Ancient Ancestors. My blood Ancestors are not the only Ancestors that I respect, accept and claim as my own. Each country has families that began towns, counties, states and often even countries themselves. If it were not for these families of foresight and vision, many places around the world would not be what they are today. What if America was not what it is now? Where would we all be? Where would my own Ancestors have come to when they left the countries of their births? I take these others into my own Ancestral family in thanking them for helping to make sure I am here. I know I am not the first person in the world, in any given time, to have 'adopted' Ancestors, in praise and thanks of their achievements. My view of my Ancestors is family, historically and culturally added over time, until I am here. Without the Ancestors, not only would any of be here, we would not know one solid thing. It is through the Ancestors that we have learned through the centuries. That we can build, read, write, speak all of these languages, yet still interact with each other. Who taught them? Their Ancestors. This is how we know our basic survival skills. How we know our basic domestic skills. How we know our basic husbandry skills. The Ancestors. They built foundations of living and everything grew from there. I always remember my Ancestors. I am very proud to be from the stock they came from. (332...1,041)