How I honor my ancestors

"To know our ancestry is great, but we have to know and accept as well that we are not those people."

Hey there!
I wanted to share with you guys some thoughts I have about honoring our ancestors. Some of you may have thought about it already, but for those who haven’t, there’s an important aspect of this part of my spirituality that could be of use for you as well.
To know our ancestry is great. We all deserve the right to know where we come from, and honoring those roots could be a total experience, but we have to know and accept as well that we are not those people and, therefore, that we have total freedom on our choices.
Let’s take for example my case: A bisexual, male witch that comes from a traditional family, my Beloved Dead. I honestly doubt my ancestor would have accepted me as part of their family if they had met me in their time, but that doesn’t mean I do not appreciate their memory: It is because they came before that I am here.

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884 - 1964)

The same applies to my ancestors of choice, the Mighty Dead. For example, I’ve learned a lot from Wicca, but, surprise, Gerald Gardner was a homophobic. He stated that LGBT people couldn’t be Wiccan because they do not represent the duality of the Goddess and God: Wicca is about a Goddess and a God who are lovers. However, Wicca has changed, and I feel thankful for it, regardless of the original thoughts of its founder.
My ancestral work could be summarized in three sentences: Celebrate their good choices, forgive their mistakes and learn from their actions. They were humans just like me, just like you, just like any of us. They had the good and bad decisions, good and bad beliefs. You simply need to internalize what you can learn from them, accepting all of their sides and accepting you will do it differently.
What about you? How do you honor your ancestors? Any thoughts you would like to share? I’m still learning about this and constructive comments are welcome!

Kinky regards, K!

PS: In case you’re wondering, the classification of Beloved Dead and Mighty Dead comes from “The Witch’s Book ofSpirits”, by Devin Hunter.