Karma of seven generations: how children pay for the sins of their parents

Sins of parents

The sins of parents are transferred to their children. This is the spiritual law of life. And it works and extends to everyone, regardless of whether you believe in it or not.

This law states that the karmic consequences of your parents' sins will fall on you, your children, your children's children, and so on until the seventh generation.

Of course, karma will overtake those who do something bad. However, the same karma, unfortunately, extends to his children. The descendants of a person who commits evil deeds will also be overtaken by karma.

This means that according to a higher spiritual law, your own sins will also be reflected on your children and on your children's children. Thus, it turns out that karma seems to accumulate along the family line.

And since everyone has a father and mother, the accumulation of karmic consequences for subsequent generations often occurs in a very active form.

In addition, as you already understood, the family line begins not only with your parents, but with your grandparents (i.e. grandparents, great-grandparents and great-grandparents).

We are talking about the consequences of the actions of each person and the responsibility that each of us must bear for the actions committed.

This is why it is not uncommon to see some families suffering from a genuine family curse that spans multiple generations. For example, rich families become poorer and poorer until they reach rock bottom. Or, someone in the family will certainly die at a young age.

This can be observed in many families. All that is required to cause bad karma for an entire family is the wrong actions of one single family member, a person in one generation. It can lead to the decline of an entire family.

Orthodox Life

Priest Andrei Chizhenko answers.

In my opinion, the concept of “ancestral sin” is non-Orthodox. This is a term from the pagan world. The term is magic, a pagan religion, but not an Orthodox theologian, clergyman, Christian.

The term “ancestral sin” can be used by fortune tellers, sorcerers, and psychics in the hope of financial gain or gaining power over a person, but not by an Orthodox Christian.

Why? Let us, with God's help, consider this issue from the point of view of Orthodox dogma.

The only sin that a person inherits from his parents is original sin, sin as a consequence of the fall of the holy forefathers Adam and Eve. This is directly stated in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament: “With an evil heart, the first Adam transgressed the commandment and was defeated; so are all who came from him. Infirmity and law remained in the hearts of the people with the root of evil, and good fell away, and evil remained” (3 Ezra 3:21-22); “Oh, what have you done, Adam? When you sinned, it was not only you who fell, but also us who come from you” (3 Ezra 7:48).

This is evidenced by the Holy Fathers and the definitions of the Councils: “Just as from a contaminated source naturally flows a contaminated stream, so from an ancestor contaminated with sin and therefore mortal, offspring contaminated with sin and therefore mortal naturally flows” (Long Catechism. P. 34. Cf.: Augustine , Blessed One, On the City of God, Vol. II, p. 290, Book 13, Chapter 4.); “Whoever rejects the need for baptism of little ones and newborns from the mother’s womb, or says that... they... do not borrow anything from Adam’s ancestral sin that should be washed in the bath of rebirth... let him be anathema... Infants, who cannot yet commit any sins of their own accord , are truly baptized for the remission of sins, so that through regeneration, what they took from the old birth will be cleansed in them” (110th (124th) rule of the Council of Carthage 419).

So, original sin is the only genetic sin of a person that is inherited from his parents. All other sins are his own, acquired by him in life.

Why, for example, is a prayer of permission not read over a deceased baptized baby (a child under seven years old) during the funeral service? Because his original sin was destroyed in the baptismal font, and due to his age he has no personal sins. That is why such beautiful hymns are sung during the burial of infants: “He shows you the inhabitant of paradise, the blessed one who is truly a child, who was taken from the earth, and makes you appear with the face of the saints... About the blessed one: but behold, Christ opens the gates of heaven to you, uniting you to the elect, as He is gracious "

What if there was a generational sin? This means that this baby could not go to heaven. But notice: not a word about generational sin.

Moreover, on October 25, 2022, the VII All-Church Congress on Social Ministry was held in Moscow, which was attended by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. As part of the event, an article entitled “His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: The personal state of the priest’s soul is a decisive factor” appeared on the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church. Here is an excerpt from it: “One of the questions asked to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church by forum participants concerned pastoral consolation for families who have lost young children. Sometimes there were cases when priests told people that the loss of a child was retribution “for sins.”

“If someone says ‘for sins’, then such a priest himself should be immediately banned from the priesthood,” said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. - How is this possible? I don’t know what kind of heart and what kind of head a priest could have to say that to an unfortunate mother or father!”

That is, we see how His Holiness denies the relationship between parental sins and the deterioration of spiritual life (or, say, the death of a child, if there is no direct intent).

And the chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, said in one of his interviews: “If the fate of those who destroyed churches very often turned out tragically, then their children, I know such examples, grew up to be good, decent people, often believers. That is, there is no direct connection between the parents’ misconduct and the fatal predetermination of retribution.”

We return to dogma again. The concept of ancestral sin contradicts the essence of Orthodox dogma. The Lord created two types of creatures (Angels and people) as His employees, with free will - with the right to freely and voluntarily deviate into good or evil. Therefore, for God, the most precious gift is will, or, better said, free and loving will—the desire of a rational being to unite with the Lord, that is, to be saved. God in no way violates human freedom, the freedom of his choice.

That is why personal sin or personal virtue is always so important.

But where is the freedom of choice if parents (ancestors) imprison their future descendant in some kind of cage built from their sins - in a kind of prison torture chamber? And a child born from them is already doomed to misfortune. If we interpret Christianity from the point of view of ancestral sin, then the image of the Almighty is drawn as a kind of manic executioner who likes to mock innocent people.

A pure, beautiful baby was born - let's immediately throw him into the meat grinder of ancestral sin.

Excuse me, please, then how is Christ different from Molech, to whom the ancient Canaanites sacrificed babies? I mean precisely the point of view of the supporters of generational sin.

Or how does Orthodoxy then (from the same position) differ from the pagan fatalism of the ancient Greeks? Well, just think, he shot himself or was poisoned, that’s the fate... My parents sinned.

The concept of generational sin is very harmful from an ascetic point of view. It hinders the internal spiritual development of a person. Instead of plunging into his inner world, exploring it and trying, with God’s help, to build it on the foundations of God’s commandments, the experience of the Fathers of the Church and his personal relationship with the Lord, a person (because an authoritative “young old man”, or a psychic, or a fortune teller told him so) , often taking his judgment, as they say, “out of thin air”), he falls into a panic. He is overcome by a terrible confusion of feelings like: “How is it that my great-great-grandmother was a witch?!”

Or: “My great-great-great-grandfather was a blasphemer and a destroyer of the temple.”

So all my troubles, all my misfortunes are because of this. So I'm doomed. And then follow despondency and despair, black gloomy depression, and maybe even grumbling at God.

Where can one engage in spiritual life, the creation of one’s inner heart home? My ancestors blew it up before I was born. You just need to cry, suffer and die.

Truly, the thought of generational sin is terrible, satanic, detrimental to the spiritual development of a person.

The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament testify to this. Let us turn to well-known quotes on this topic: “Fathers should not be punished with death for their children, and children should not be punished with death for their fathers; everyone must be punished with death for his crime” (Deut. 24:16); “In those days they will no longer say, “The fathers ate sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge,” but everyone will die for his own iniquity; whoever eats sour grapes will have his teeth set on edge” (Jer. 31:29–30); “You say: “Why does not the son bear the guilt of his father?” Because the son acts lawfully and righteously, keeps all My statutes and fulfills them; he will be alive. The soul that sins, it will die; the son will not bear the guilt of the father, and the father will not bear the guilt of the son; the righteousness of the righteous remains with him, and the iniquity of the wicked remains with him. And the wicked man, if he turns from all the sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and righteous, he will live and will not die” (Ezek. 18:19-20).

Often supporters of the theory of generational sin cite the following quote from the Old Testament: “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth [generation] of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. "(Ex. 20:5-6).

But their interpretation of this quote is incorrect. Let us carefully read the verse of Holy Scripture. The Lord punishes children for the guilt of their fathers until a certain birth. So? So. But not all children. Which ones then? THEM WHO HATE ME. That is, those people who commit the PERSONAL sin of apostasy BY THEIR WILL are punished, and not all children.

Is there some kind of sinful heredity? Exists. But it does not consist in the fact that the child is guilty of the sin of the father or mother. No. Most likely, this depends on the atmosphere that reigns in the family, which the child absorbs from infancy, on upbringing, but not on the initial spiritual damage.

And, of course, we need to beg for our deceased relatives. Until the Second Coming of Christ, their fate has not yet been completely determined. And this task lies with us, members of the earthly Church. The Church provides a huge arsenal of prayer tools to accomplish this task. If only I had the desire and strength to accomplish this feat of prayer.

In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, I would like to say that the Lord has called us to spiritual freedom, and not to slavery to superstition. Do not tripod your soul where it is not necessary, do not bind it and do not plunge it into paganism. It is better to spend our weak strength on fighting personal sin, on eradicating our passions.

And God is the Light that enlightens everyone. And there is no darkness in Him.

Priest Andrey Chizhenko

Karma kind

On the other hand, one single person can put an end to a series of misfortunes and bad luck in a family. He can atone for the sins of his ancestors by living a deep spiritual life.

When a person lives an honest, true and pure life, spiritual blessings extend for 7 generations to come.

Consequently, the consequences of actions are reflected 7 generations back and forth and depend on the purity and strength of spirituality of one person.

One famous medium told a story about how, back in 1995, he performed a special ritual, with the help of which (in accordance with the tradition of the American Indians), for 4 days and 4 nights he contacted his ancestors and talked with them.

The ancestors told him that they were in pain and needed relief from their suffering. The relief depended on the life that the medium was living at the moment. They also reported that an ancestor who lived several generations ago once had knowledge that this particular medium would save the entire family line from misfortune.

Remember, everything you do with your life will affect not only you personally, but also the 7 generations that begin to report on you. Your actions are part of interconnected actions. Sooner or later, karma will definitely overtake you and your descendants.

When to pay attention to gender and explore ancestral stories:

If problems began to appear in your life for no reason, out of nowhere. These problems can be psychological, medical, or life-related;
If you know that your family is not very prosperous. There were problems in the family that should be paid attention to: alcoholism, early deaths, suicide, violence, murder, and the like;
Hereditary diseases in the family;
Strong unrequited love that makes you suffer can also be a reason to look for the sins of your parents and deal with it;
Unpleasant accidents, major failures for which there are no visible prerequisites.

Naturally, the reader may ask a question. Why should children be held accountable for the sins of their parents? And this question is very fair. But there is a reasonable answer to this.

We, as a soul, fall into the genus according to the principle of correspondence. Our inner essence, like a barcode on a product, coincides with the code, the essence of the family.

Why does the individual in the family need this? We, individuals, can only improve if something external takes our invisible deep mental programs out of the subconscious. And in this we are successfully helped by members of the clan, with their clan programs and actions according to them. There is a proverb: “Parents are not chosen,” as in principle the whole family is.

Why does the family need this? In the clan, the ancestral power is manifested through the descendants. Just as we, people, want to use our strength somewhere, play basketball, go on a trip, so our family wants to manifest itself. Through descendants, the clan manifests itself and cleanses the sins of its ancestors. A descendant can aggravate the negative if he ignores or supports the negative force of the family (sins of parents and ancestors).

So, the ancestral force is looking for a descendant through whom it can manifest itself and work out the negative. And if you suddenly feel weak or dizzy out of nowhere, if you suddenly lost optimism or luck, pay attention, perhaps some kind of situation has manifested itself in you now. It needs to be diagnosed and worked out.

Such diagnostics and development are well helped by the method of systemic constellations, which are successfully carried out in our center.