This is my family crest. Per Aspera ad Astra, Through Hardship to the Stars.
As a child, I saw this ring on the little finger of all of my mother’s family; my grandparents, my many aunts and uncles and of course, my mother. Her’s was worn thin, from the decades of continual wear, and that itself told a story.
So when I turned 21 and was gifted my own, I was filled with a sense of belonging. As with many families, there were and are plentiful woundings and traumas that weave their way through the complexity of relationships and the pathway through my family dynamics is something I have struggled with for many years. So much so, that just before I had my first child, I decided to take my ring off. I no longer liked what it represented in my mind. It felt like an elite club to which I was accepted by blood but not love. A square peg in a round hole.
So this ring has sat in a draw for over a decade, every now and again I might open the box, forgetting what was inside, and then remember. Not once did I feel like putting it on again.
Until last week. Last week I felt a deep heaviness with the state of the world. Sadness that people I once called friends could willingly choose dictates that alienate and separate society; a hit of fear as I registered the huge impact the shedding from vaccinated individuals was making on so many; despair at the ease at which many choose their own comfort over wisdom.
I had a moment of deep vulnerability and quite frankly, sheer panic. And then I remembered that so much of that, if not all, is completely out of my control. I can only bring change in myself and perhaps a reflection of that out into the world.
So I dug into my emotional toolbox, polished off my resilience, took some lung busting deep breaths and called all my angelic protection into play.
And with that came a calling to ask my ancestors to protect us on this rocky road. I was drawn back to my ring, no longer a representation of all that I am not, but a symbol of protection from all those that have gone before me, whose spirits can guide and support. And of course, with the words deeply etched, both within the gold and my heart… it is onwards I go…
Through Hardship to the Stars.
#angels #spirits #ancestors #protection #hardship #stars #family #love #courage
First Written on Social Media 16 May 2021
