Are All Spirits Ancestral?

I was recently asked: “You often say that angels were humans in the past? Is this present in the grimoires as well? I haven’t seen it.”

Nope, it’s not in the grimoires. It’s an idea I have come to over many years of both studying the historical record of the development of religions and mystical systems and actively interacting with these entities. As I recall, it was a concept Jake Stratton-Kent was flirting with as well – as some of the grimoires seem to hint at a connection between the demons and things like human graves. (Even the practice of conjuring spirits is called “Necromancy.”)

However, to say that I believe “all spirits are human spirits” is way oversimplified and not exactly accurate. I grant there are spirits who embody non-human concepts. I grant that what we call “the spiritual universe” didn’t just pop up when humans appeared on the scene.

BUT:

As with all things, we humans can’t experience “the real thing” in its pure and raw form. All of our experiences take place through human-friendly filters that we create for ourselves. And that absolutely applies to the spirit world. We imagine that the forces of nature organize themselves into courts and choirs and grant one another ranks and titles just like we do here on Earth. We assume they understand our languages, and we assume they think like us and understand our needs and desires. We even assume they look like us!

But, think about it: do you really believe all the gods and spirits of the universe looked and acted that way before humans came along? You think there was, for example, an intangible white guy with wings named “Michael” flying around keeping track of dinosaurs?

Sticking with that example: We humans can’t talk directly to “the Sun”. The Sun doesn’t have a personality, a language, or any experience that could be remotely comprehensible to a bunch of hairless monkeys three planets out. However, we CAN talk to the Archangel Michael. He knows our languages, he knows our needs and desires, he understands humans. And, historically, Michael traces back to a very ancient tribal god who was originally an ancestral spirit.

Michael is a human ancestor who, at some point, bonded with the Sun. As such, he becomes the point of contact you and I can use to communicate with the Sun. Humans didn’t create the Sun nor all of its spiritual virtues – but we did create our method(s) of interacting with those forces.

So, yes, in that sense I do believe that any spiritual entity you can talk to, and expect to get answers back from, is likely ultimately an ancestral spirit who became bonded to the force you are invoking.