Ancestral Guardians and Personal Guardians (Guardian Spirits)

Ancestral guardians are of the earth, and for some cultures, are an indispensable part of life. These guardians are the spirits of the family lineage that protect and guide the people as well as form a sacred bond between the land and the people. Ancestral guardians provide a legacy of sacredness that guides the people to a oneness of being with the earth, not separateness from the earth. Ancestral guardians connect people to the land. When this spiritual principle is not an integral part of a culture, the earth and its inhabitants are deemed expendable. This is exactly what has happened, and is happening today, resulting in an ecological catastrophe; the ramifications of which are still unknown. When people are separate and cut off from their ancestral lineage and heritage, the spirituality of the earth, as well as the values that such provides, become hollow, vague and in most cases, non-existent.

All is not lost if, and only if, we return to the sacredness of the land and look to the spirituality and values that are such an integral part of earth cultures—such as the Hawaiians where the elders (kupuna) were honored and revered. It was the kupuna who brought forth the voice of the ancestors. They were the well-source of wisdom and knowledge for the people of Hawaii. They taught the people and ‘talked story’ about the ancestral guardians (‘aumākua), and taught that the ancestors could manifest in physical form (kino lau) such as the Hawaiian Owl or Pueo:

The closest man-with-god relationship came in the ‘aumākua. The bond between human and ‘aumākua was very real….

‘Aumākua might take the animal form of owl, shark, lizard, turtle, caterpillar, eel, mudhen, or the indigenous field mouse…. Rocks might be merely sacred to a deity—but rocks might also be a deity.[1]

‘Aumākua may also be viewed as our divine self:

… the most important element in kahuna healing… is the god-self, aumakua, or, in simple terms, God. All healing, in the kahuna view, is really nothing more than the result of a natural communion with the god-self…. As taught by the kahunas, joyful cooperation with “god-in-everything” is the best medicine for all ills, the best solution to all problems, the best way to achieve personal fulfillment. To do this, however, takes a commitment to remind yourself constantly of the presence of God in all people, places, things and situations.[2]

In our journey to become Feathered Serpents, we need to embrace this knowledge of the kahuna and ‘see’ and remember that the divine is within all things of heaven and earth.

Ancestral guardians are distinctly different from a personal guardian, even though an ‘aumakua may be one’s personal guardian. Personal guardians are usually referred to as totems or power animals. In our fast-paced, performance-oriented society, these Otherworldly energetic guardians have been trivialized in different ways, with one being the use of the term “power animals.” A more appropriate name would be guardian spirits:

All spirit guardians belonged to the animate realm, or to what the Indians considered as animate; they all, that is to say, possessed vitality, for it was their vitality that conferred the blessing or power on the individual Indian. This animate realm included, in addition to animals, birds and fish, certain forces of nature, such as the winds and the thunder, which also had been human beings in the dawn of time….

West Wind.—Many coastal Indians in the State of Washington, but very few on the Frazier River, obtained this guardian spirit. Whoever succeeded, after long purification, in reaching its home became a great warrior, and by his prayers could ally a storm and bring fine weather.[3]

As we can see, guardians may take various forms other than animals. All indigenous cultures had a belief in spiritual guardians and in the importance that they played in the lives of their people. Guardian spirits, however, did not appear out of thin air; nor was it easy bonding with them, contrary to the ease of attaining power animals in New Age neo-shamanic workshops:

Each spirit… had certain powers or gifts that it could bestow, but it bestowed them in varying degrees, depending mainly upon the distance the man’s vitality traveled to reach it, or, in other words, the amount of purification and fasting that he underwent. The medicine-man’s guardian spirits—those that enabled him to cause and cure diseases—were in no respect different from others, but the majority dwelt much further away and were therefore less easily attainable.[4]

Personal guardians are powerful companions for us in our journey to become Feathered Serpents. These guardian spirits may help us become closer to nature and its seemingly wild and untamed forces. We are never truly alone in our journey of life. Our guardians are our constant companions as well as our helpers. A hummingbird guardian may help us move faster on our feet, whereas a serpent guardian may help us internally release/shed our past that is inhibiting our happiness and growth in the present. A jaguar guardian may help us in achieving a fearless state of mind, as well as giving us the courage to face our symbolic death so that we may be re-born as a ‘person of power.’

Guardian spirits, including ‘aumākua, may also protect us and our loved ones and keep us safe, as well as at certain times provide us with supernatural abilities:

Three enabling-strengthening concepts are associated with the aumakua: kīheipua, ho’oūlu ia and noho….

Kīheipua comes by itself, the unsolicited gift of one’s compassionate aumakua. A somewhat stronger possession that enables is ho’oūlu ia. This can be prayed for.

Ho’oūlu ia is literally the “making to grow.” Still far short of total possession, ho’oūlu ia is a kind of inspiration…. Laka, goddess of the hula and an aumakua, was invariably called upon to inspire the dancer to a better performance….

A third type of possession is the total—but not permanent—possession called noho or noho ia….

Noho by one’s aumakua may supply the sudden burst of “superhuman” strength that enables a mother to lift a heavy log before it crushes her child, or the “second wind” that helps the exhausted swimmer make it to shore. In the benign noho of the aumakua, normal capability becomes spectacular.[5]

Medicine power comes from a strong mind and a strong heart. A strong mind and a strong heart come from hard training; ascetic practices such as fasting and extremes of temperature. The power of the shaman to heal only comes from strenuous training and suffering, and only in the same manner are shamanic guardians obtained:

He Who Dwells Above… ordained that many creatures should never be visible to mortal eyes. They live in mystic… realms at varying distances from man, who knows of them through visions only, when his vitality leaves his body and travels to their homes. It is from these distant, invisible creatures, not from the common creatures around about, that man obtains really extraordinary power—power, for example, to cure diseases. The farther away they dwell, the greater the power they can bestow; but also the more difficult it is to reach them, because He Who Dwells Above will never allow a man’s vitality or thought to travel to their homes until he has undergone a prolonged purification, and prayed and fasted unceasingly. Only one who has undergone this strenuous training, and suffered innumerable hardships, has ever become a real medicine-man… with power to cure human ailments. As Old Pierre said: “Nowadays, I hear many of my friends say, ‘I am a medicine-man; my power is latent in this knife.’ But they do not speak the truth. They are not medicine-men; they have no medicine-power, but only the shadow of such power. Not one of them was willing to undergo the penance that alone gives admission to the really sacred realm, farther away than the realm of the ordinary guardian spirits, where dwell the spirits that give medicine-power.”[6]

Guardians may well indeed ‘stalk’ us. This means that ‘power’ recognizes our quest to become Feathered Serpents and is ‘waiting’ to bond with us. To be worthy of being ‘stalked,’ our quest must include keeping ourselves in balance, or what the Hawaiians call pono; prayer, fasting and rigorous mystical disciplines including misogi (water purification); death and re-birth experiences and many other forms of shugyo—austere training .   

All of these practices involve suffering and sacrifice. As a result of this training, a person will have accumulated a degree of spiritual/shamanic power and knowledge and the wisdom that comes from this practice and commitment.

There is no way around it. The earth, nature and shugyo are indispensable in our training to become Feathered Serpents. The training and commitment is not easy. It is tough and requires us to face the greatest foe that we have: ourselves. This type of training forces us out of the comfortable ‘boxes’ of our lives that provide for us a false sense of safety and security.  

Guardians also may come to us in our dreams. One benchmark is the occurrence of the same animal or creature in a dream. This must happen three times—the appearance of the same creature. The appearances must not be spread over months, but must occur within a short period of time.

Once we have bonded with a guardian, we need to put our attention on it:

·        Discover its name; ask what it would like to be called

·        Research knowledge and facts about this guardian’s species

·        Collect pictures and objects of your guardian

·        Honor your guardian on a daily basis; pray with it, go for a walk with it, spend time with it

·        Never kill or eat your guardian’s species e.g. shark—do not kill or harm or let others do the same to a shark and do not eat shark meat