3,409 words
Part 3 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 4 here)
6. The Presence of the Past: A View from the Margins of Science
Some of the above remarks might suggest that we should interpret the Germanic hamingja–fylgja teaching as a mythic, symbolic, or even superstitious way of understanding the phenomenon of inheritance – something our ancestors relied upon because they did not have the modern science of genetics. Read more …
Ancestral Being, Part Four
Siegfried & Mime, Arthur Rackham, 1911
2,325 words
Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here)
7. Concluding Reflections
I turn now to some thoughts on how the foregoing treatment of the influence of the past on the present ought to affect our own present, when we finish this essay and return to the real world.
It is a well-known fact that our ancestors acted with awareness of membership in the clan: trying to be worthy of their own ancestors, and not to disgrace them. Read more …