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Chapter 2. Connections 53
own lineage, he may be denying himself access to that source of power/ luck. But
more crucially, since, in this worldview, people are born with both payments and
debts of the family line, accepting one’s starting point also has much to do with the
knowledge of personal ørlög. The debts which were already settled prior to one’s
birth give access to power/ luck making the journey from birth to death comfortable
and significant for the individual. Without luck, life is little more than a series of
wishes or daydreams. Unpaid debts and obligations, however, are very important
though mainly because they can and often do drain away power/ luck from the
individual often resulting in the development of psychological or physical problems
as described above.
Ralph Metzner, a successful clinical psychologist, ran into some of these problems
in his own life. He had spent years trying to find his place in the Tree by studying
eastern religions and philosophies such as Zen, meditation, experimentation with
mind-altering drugs, etc., while at the same time he was turning his back on a
“shameful,” unwanted past.
“For some years, I have been gradually coming to a deeper realization of
the importance of connecting with one’s ancestors. My own inner work and
the experiences of my students and my clients in psycho-therapy have long
convinced me that, while the origins of many disturbances can be found in
patterns of relationship with one’s parents (who are, after all, our ancestors
too), one often needs to go beyond biographical factors to prenatal and perinatal
conditions, to multigenerational family patterns, and to ethnic, cultural,
racial, or national influences \dots. A few independent minded psychologists
and psychiatrists have occasionally ventured to suggest the existence of an
ancestral complex, or something like a family curse, that could be affecting
the inner psychic life of individuals and, hence, their relationships and general
attitude toward life.” 41
Metzner spent many years coming to grips with his ancestry both in understanding
the need to do so and in the acceptance of his own starting point, his ørlög. The
result of this decades-long search is the book cited above, which, although containing
some historically inaccurate information regarding Germanic spirituality as it was
apparently practiced by the early Teutons, is an excellent internal view of a man’s
thought processes while in search of his individual source of power/ luck, and it
remains as a record of a man’s personal experience with the Gods and philosophies
of his ancestors.
41 Metzner, Ralph The Well of Rememberance: Rediscovering the Earth Wisdom Myths of
Northern Europe (Shambhala; Boston) 1994, p. 5.