To slaughter an animal as part of traditional healing when doing rituals. This can be done as a sacrifice or an offering to ancestors. A lot has been said on this subject and I have decided to stay on lines and not comment so much in the past because I was interested in what the majority of the people would say. I am however very impressed with what people have said and I thought its’ about time, I also get my two cents worth of knowledge into the subject. Most people complain about slaughtering and then end with problems recurring in their lives. Others say that once you slaughter, it seems like you are fuelling the fire because your life usually takes a turn for the worse. However, I do not disagree with these views, altogether.
When I started out on this spiritual healing journey, I discovered a lot of things that healers had not told or explained to me before. I had never came across a healer who is willing to tell me how they work, why they do the things that they do and what does spiritual healing attempts to do in our lives. Healers have told us so many times before that when our ancestors are hungry, we need to slaughter. When I started working as a healer, I also thought that I was going to be involved in a lot of slaughtering and this left a bad taste in my mouth, somehow. This was because I had seen my father practice this ritual time and again, in the past but we did not get the inner peace that we all seek so much in our lives. We were always suffering at home. Life was a challenge and things got worse when we all grew older and became adults. It was a pleasure to me though that when I started this healing journey, I got in touch with the powers that be and they asked me what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it and what was I going to teach to the people. I asked for guidance and also for the ability to say and do the right things at the right time. I was scared that I was new in this field, had no experience or training so I needed a direction from up above.
My God came through so nicely and I must say that, I was so impressed. The messages came to me and revealed things I had suspected all along but couldn’t put words to it. Ancestors made it clear that they were in touch with the lord almighty and they needed to be set free of earthly burdens. Ancestors expressed that they were no longer interested in physical, earthly things but needed more spiritual help and understanding from us. When ancestors came through and they still do when I do readings, they may complain about the hunger or the cold feeling they are experiencing and they expect us to help them in that regard. On the same breath, they also point out that they do not want us to go all out and give them something big ,like slaughtering a big animal or something. They will always say that they just a small gesture and understanding from humans. Hence they get so much pleasure from the smell of braai meat. In all, what they want is that smell that sets them free as it gives them a last minute pleasure and satisfaction of earthly material things. We need to remember that our aim, when we set them free is to make them believe that they are dead now, so they need to move on and not look bad in dissatisfaction as they will create problems in the lives of the living. So when you give them this meat they rejoice in a very strange way, like someone accepting death.
At first, I was concerned because it was like I am experience the death of someone else’s guides but as time went on I realise that their death is what we need in our lives. The satisfaction that they get makes them accept death gracefully thus becoming very good spirits in our lives. Remember that if your guides have not accepted death, it means they are trapped and they cannot resume their main duty which is to be good spirits/ ancestors to us. So when you offer them braai meat in the presence of a spiritual healer, it gives them great joy and they thank you afterwards. Having said all that, it is very important never to do any offerings without cleansing them first, in case you feed the bad spirits and then fuel things in the wrong direction in your life. When we do slaughter is when we are dealing with guides who were sangomas or healers themselves.
You must remember that some people were supposed to be healers but died having not discovered this and came back to demand a calling to be followed on by the living. Others knew they had a calling but because of religion affiliations they decided to ignore it until the end.
So when we deal with these sort of ancestors it is imperative that we slaughter for them so as to satisfy that need in their journey. We slaughter because in the past it was a big part of spiritual healing to do this ritual. We also slaughter because they are powerful and will need something more than just a smell to set them free. Even then when we slaughter, there is no need to go all out and get a big animal. I asked my guides how will I know what to slaughter because no ancestors had came to me during a reading and demanded a cow or a goat from my patients and I was told to always go small. “Do not do anything that will make it hard for a person to get help from you, stick to the basics and concentrate on the end results”. From there on, I decided that when we slaughter we will not go beyond just white chickens and this has worked very well in the past. We only slaughter chickens for people with powerful guides who want to take them through an unfulfilled sangoma path/calling. What I like about my guides is that once they have done a reading for someone, they then open up channels of communication for that person with their own guides. Sooner or later a person get dreams and direct messages form his/her own ancestors.
So at times, your guides can come to you and demand that you slaughter something for them and I always say that, this is between you and your own ancestors, I definitely have no say in it. If you want to slaughter, you may do so but it is not part of my healing process. In other words, I do not necessarily need to slaughter anything for you to be healed. It is also unwise to slaughter too soon after you have done the cleansing of your ancestor, reason being you may never know if all your ancestors have been successfully cleansed by then. And like I said before offering blood is unsafe if you still carry bad spirits with you.
The only time I feel comfortable advising people to slaughter is when their lives have come right and they are happy with the results. Results being that problems have subsided and they feel financial able to do such a big function in their house. This is a thanksgiving function that one can do in honour of his/ her guides. When this function is done it is not necessarily part of the healing process, it is just a matter of showing appreciation when your guides have shown you joy in your life.
So if someone tells me they are going to slaughter an animal with the aim of cleansing ancestors, I always tell them to go ahead but I want no part of it. If it works for them, cool but in my book that is just a step in the wrong direction. We must also remember that when we do these offerings we are merely trying to change the state of our ancestors at the time of their death. So we can do what ever it takes just to change that state and not to do a feast and make our family and guests happy. When our ancestors die they may get stuck and wander about thus creating problems for us, simply because they did not do right by their own ancestors while they lived. Small gestures and giving hearts can do wonders if one fully understands that concept of ancestors.
What I like about powerful guides/ ancestors is that once their cleansing and the basics is done for them, they then come forth and tell you directly what they want. My ancestors, after I had cleansed and accepted them, they told me to slaughter a cow and I did. This was in celebration of the powers they had given me. I din’t even do umgidi on that day because they wanted it to be a dress up event with speeches. After that function my guides came and told me they were here to stay, and I had to start using these powers fruitfully. I have been doing readings since then but now I get to decide how I want to work because my guides are set free and they are happy with my conduct.
Which is why I am able to share all this knowledge I have learnt and I hope one day, my dream will come true, of running a successful NGO where people will get help for free especially the poor people, who are suffering and have no means to help themselves when it comes to these matters.
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