Interesting. I feel that the ability came from my mother's side. It's just a feeling, because my entire family was very Baptist and would not admit to any sort of mysticism if they felt it. That side of the family is Irish, but I think they're Irish via Scotland and England (Scots-Irish, they call them here.)
Yes, there does seem to be considerable thought that psychic skills are passed down through the maternal line, like you say. I was always confused then, because my mother's family was very conservative, practical, and no signs of anyone believing in anything remotely along these lines. Religious like your family, but very Catholic.
Of course, I would never say a word to any of my mother's family about what I experienced, However, I was shocked when I attended a family reunion several years ago with my mother's family. A group of my very normal first cousins, now all in their 60's, were having a casual, matter of fact discussion about their strong life-long psychic abilities. Truly, my jaw dropped. I was so happy to hear this topic discussed out in the open. And I enjoyed hearing how their abilities manifested, in some ways very different from mine. But also sad, that for most of our lives, psychic abilities were kept secret. But I did confirm maternal line psychic heritage.
I do believe however that my psychic abilities come from both my paternal and maternal sides. These abilities are as different as night and day. I am half Irish (paternal), half French Canadian (maternal). I love genetics and genealogy, and studying my family history has helped me identify my own genetic memory as it relates to my natal chart. I am a watery chart, strong Pisces, with a Virgo Asc, and my Pisces stellium is in the 6th house. So Mercury guides me.
My maternal psychic energy is very Virgo. My mother’s family is French Canadian, descended from some of the earliest European settlers to North America. For over 300 years they braved a very harsh, isolated, dangerous Quebec environment. They are totally pragmatic, practical, no nonsense, down to earth, quite shrewd. I believe that they had to develop psychic skills in order to survive. A keen intuition loaded towards survival of the family.
One of my maternal cousins is a superb hunter/trapper, this is how he feeds his family. He can look at any animal and tell you exactly what the animal is thinking, what the animal will do next. He lives in a remote cabin on the Canadian border, amongst considerable wildlife. This has been a life long skill that I witnessed since our childhood. I love my cousin dearly, but he knows that I have never liked hunting or the killing of animals in any form. I literally cannot stand to kill a fly. Maybe I am making excuses for him, but he does have a strong love and respect for animals and only kills what he needs to feed his family. Sorry to digress here on the morality of hunting, but his psychic abilities perfectly illustrate what I am saying about the pragmatic Virgo focus.
Oh, the Irish side psychic ability feels very different to me. My family did some genetic testing some years back and our Irish line is rare and ancient. We are part of the original aboriginal Irish tribal groups, dating thousands of years ago. Pre-Druid, pre-Celtic. Builders of Stonehenge, etc. So I think some of my abilities connect to that time and place. The Irish line represents my strong Pisces, the energy I feel that is mystical, dreamy, ancient, pagan, breathtakingly beautiful, sentimental, romantic and profound. This is my Irish side. For some odd reason, I spend a good part of St. Paddy's Day crying, reading Irish prayers, and listening to Irish songs. I don't drink, but my brother teases me and says I would have a much better time if I spent the day knocking back some Guinness.
This paternal/maternal difference in psychic abilities illustrates the constant, never-ending Virgo/Pisces theme as shown in my natal chart.
Anyway, I never believed the things I saw were evil or Satanic, but if I'd mentioned them, I'm sure that's what I would have been told. So I kept it quiet. The things I experienced were scary because...I don't know, a feeling like I could disappear because there's this whole other reality people don't see????
I would have been told the same thing, or that I was crazy, so I kept quiet. I did have a feeling from an early age that I did not understand the people on this planet and why they did the things they did.
While I am not afraid of psychic things, I did experience kind of a panic attack and fear when I finally realized that there is a whole other reality. I was fairly cynical, but at the same time always fascinated by the occult and psychic things. About mid life, I did an enormous amount of studying on these topics and then bang, suddenly everything fell into place and I understood that there is another reality, etc. Every thing finally made sense. I had that same feeling you describe, wow, I could be swallowed up by all of this, into something most people don’t even know is there. That feeling thankfully subsided and I accepted all of it in a matter of fact way. Then I began training and studying various psychic areas.
I think some people are afraid of ghosts. They are really not anything to cause fear. This are merely discarnate beings, who for various reasons are stuck in the earth plane, and having trouble passing over. This can be caused by sudden, violent, young death, etc. It is not common. Most people pass fairly easily.
I'm trying to explain child feelings, and they aren't totally rational.
Even adult feelings aren’t always rational.
Julia, what do you think of the house dreams? I'd always thought of them as being symbolic of searching myself or my mind or other minds.
I have quite a few house dreams myself. The traditional Freudian interpretation of house dreams is that the house represents the self, or personality, and the rooms represent various parts of the personality. This could be one explanation. So, yes your house dreams could most certainly be as you describe, searching the inner workings of self or others.
My dream analysis training was not cookbook or Freudian, but more along projective lines. This means each dream is different and more about the unique psychology of the dreamer, which requires a discussion with the dreamer for the symbolic meaning of the dream elements.
For me house dreams have several different meanings. My father was in the military, so we moved a lot. From 5th to 12th grade for example we moved 8 times! So houses can represent anxiety for me. Also I think they represent new beginnings
but I had this scary feeling last night...all the houses I remember were in a certain area. What if I remember being a person who hunted for people...like hidden slaves or something. I don't like this idea at all, because I'd much rather think I was always a hero, but it feels “right".
Most of us with strong psychic abilities have incarnated on this planet many many times. And we have to face the fact that we have been saints/sinners, victims/ abusers, etc. These are the flip side of the same coin. The point of incarnation is to learn as much as possible about the human experience, the good and bad of the signs and planets. And so we have. Our lives as bad folk are just as important to understand as the good lives. But usually our lives are a mixture of good and bad.
Often we bring remnants of the bad we have done in some way. But it is all grist for the mill of learning. We can sit in a classroom and learn about morality in an abstract way. But to incarnate in human form is to be in the trenches, learning about good vs evil from all angles, deeply personal and heartfelt. These lessons are then imprinted on our souls for eternity.
I believe the lives that come to us in dream work, regression, or spontaneously are important to use for some reason at the time we receive this information. So perhaps you might try to flesh out the slave hunter dream. There could be a message for you.
I have a normal anxiety dream. It's standing in front of a group of people and suddenly realizing I'm naked. And I have an abnormal anxiety dream. It's my baby sister hurting herself in a very peculiar way. I hate that dream. I started having it when I was about 4.
The naked dream is a fairly common anxiety dream. It may occur when you are feeling vulnerable, exposed, or unprepared? The dream about your sister sounds more like a possible trauma dream? A dream occurring at age 4 is also a preverbal dream, and you may have trouble putting words to the feelings.