Beliefs in Blood

Thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss.

A few months ago, my cousin was talking about her brother (Kameron) who passed away 7 years ago.

In her experience, whenever she felt really down about his passing, she would see an owl that day. She believes this is Kameron checking in on her. This has also led her to believe that an Owl was his spirit animal. But the reasoning behind this was because he had Native American blood.

When she was talking about that, I couldn't help but feel a bit angry. I've always thought that culture traditions don't really matter unless that person believed in them.

Kameron was a Christian. He never mentioned any Native American beliefs and traditions.

My anger came from her assigning beliefs to someone who never even mentioned that culture, but because "it was in his blood."

Thoughts on this?

Hello, Jaxies here!

This is quite interesting.

However, I do feel that most people who do practice their culture traditions don't really share because sometimes depending on the tradition it's better to not tell anyone about it for many different reasons but I think one reason it would have to be because it's a secret and those who aren't that race cannot really know about it. If that makes any sense.

But, I do agree with you. Like for me whenever someone says that person is this or that because of his or she's blood can get me mad and other people too.

Blessed Be.

~Jaxies~

As Jaxies had said earlier, your cousins brother could've just not shared all of his beliefs for any number of personal and social reasons. But I agree with both of you. Just because someone has it "in their blood," that doesn't mean that's their belief system, but you still have to keep in mind, and I'm not saying you don't have this in mind, that you might not know all their beliefs. Or at least that is my take on what has been stated.
-Olive Rose

My original post wasn't as clear as I would've liked it to be (I'm terrible with wording), so apologies for that.

To clear some things up, I highly doubt that Kameron held Native American beliefs. He was 14 when he passed away, he was open minded and wasn't one to keep secrets. We were also pretty close. So, while I know some families/cultures keep their beliefs and traditions to themselves, I seriously doubt this is the case here. Just because of how well I knew him, his mother, and his father.

I don't have a problem with my cousin believing that Kameron is visiting her in the form of an Owl. Her reasoning behind it is my main issue.

In her words, it was "I know he had Native American blood, and I know that spirit animals are important to Native Americans. " This is why she thinks an Owl was Kameron's spirit animal.

During this conversation, she did not mention his personal beliefs. So, even if he held Native American beliefs, I think it would've been silly to not mention them during our conversation.

I hope that helped clear a few things up :)

I don't think ones skin color matters. My husband is a mutt and has a spirit animal. Native Americans are not the only culture that have animal spirit guides. Not all of any race automatically has something. So I do not believe all Native Americans instantly have spirit animals the same way I do not believe all Asians are instantly kung fu masters. It doesn't work that way. By the same hand, people of varying races can learn kung fu and likewise have spirit animals. To think all of any race is instantly anything would be sterotyping and somewhat racist last I checked.

I agree with you Syren. The stereotyping was most likely the source of my initialanger (I just didn't have the words to describe my feelings at that time).

People in my family are pretty bad about that, unfortunately :/

I hear ya. I have horrible racists both ony my side and my spouses side of the family. But the good news is with each generation it becomes less prevelant. Surveys have been done that show younger generations have fewer racists. So this is something that though it will never completely be gone it is dwindling down and dying out. We are not like the horrid memebers of our family and this is something to be extremely proud of. <3

Bringing up an old post, I know, but I felt strongly about this.

A) I don't think it is acceptable to assign beliefs and hypotheticals to people, alive or dead.
B) Just because "your blood" is one way or the other doesn't mean you are automatically more drawn to or prone to believe in certain things.

One of the most infuriating things about the Heathen community is that there is a large racist branch of Heathens whom believe you have to have Nordic/Scandenavian blood in order to be a part of the religion and hold their beliefs and practice. To them, you should only worship deities and follow religious practices that are "in your blood". I.e. if you were native american, they would tell you that you had no business worshipping nordic deities and to get out. I think this is extreme ignorance and I fight it every time I see it. Race is not equal to predetermined beliefs.

I completely agree! To my knowledge I am not Greek but I'll be damned if someone were to tell me to gtfo. Like sweetheart, I probably know more about Hellenism than you. So who really does the Theoi proud and carries on the religion as well as helping spread accurate information to those who will listen?

Additionally, it's infuriating when people claim to speak for gods in a very baseless way. You may be racist but most Gods in my experience are not. If they choose to form a bond with someone of a different ethnicity, that is between them and that person. You don't get to tell them they can't be a part of something. If the God wants to work with them and finds them worthy of their time that is all that matters.

Your DNA does not determine your character nor what is in your heart. Many Gods are themselves anthropamorphic. They've been a fish, a horse, a woman, a human, an old lady, a boar, metamorpasized into a plant, etc. But yeah, the thing they care about is what shade your skin is lol. They do differ on morals and values but that is what you think and feel.

Without Gods/Spirits, there is no religion. They are the centeral premise of it all. So going, "hiss! Your kind don't belong here!' Does no good if said God/Spirit is in your dreams like, "sup bro? Like let's be friend and do magick together or whateves, lulz." Oh, a lot of good telling them to stay away did when your Gods have other things in mind.