Why the curse to the seventh knee was considered the most terrible at all times

In most cultures of our planet, it is believed that ancestors play a crucial role in the life of subsequent generations. And it's not even about the features of appearance and character traits that are inherited. Many religions claim that the fate of a person depends on the ancestors and whether he will be happy in life. Therefore, the seven tribes (generations), mentioned in a variety of cases, including in curses, have always been of great importance.

A curse to the seventh generation has been considered the most terrible among many peoples since ancient times. Even in the mythology of the ancient Greeks, such a curse is mentioned, imposed for infanticide on Tantalus, the king of Phrygia. But the concept of seven generations did not originate in Greece, but in Persia. It is set forth in the "Book of Ancestors", written by the founder of Zoroastrianism, the prophet, the prophet Spitama Zarathustra.

The Persian prophet described the family tree of Faravahar, which became the main concept of his religion. It was depicted as a disk with wings, or a winged sun. In a simplified version, the tree looked like a circle, in the center of which was a person living on earth at the moment. Lines-branches connecting him with his ancestors diverged from him to the sides.

Together with the man himself, seven tiers were obtained. Ancient philosophers believed that a person should know his ancestors up to the 7th generation. In this case, it is possible to determine the origins of certain character traits, find out the causes of troubles, and even predict the future with high accuracy. It was believed that people deprived of knowledge about their ancestors had lost their roots and were doomed to failure and interruption of the family.

There is nothing complicated in the structure of the family tree of Faravahar. The seven tribes of man look like this:

Obviously, in our time, very few people know their ancestors up to the 7th generation. Nobody requires this from us. But centuries ago it was a very important knowledge. In the Middle Ages, the nobles spent a lot of time and effort to confirm their ancestry. It also happened that some ancestors needed to be hidden so as not to spoil the overall picture. For example, if the ancestor of an aristocrat married a peasant woman, then he could be ashamed of this.

Pedigrees helped to confirm the purity of the blood of the family and often helped when it came to a disputed inheritance. But in ancient Persia, things were even more complicated. The pedigree had a religious and mystical significance. The ancient Persians associated each generation with a certain element and its energy. The first tribe, that is, the man himself, who was in the center of the Faravahar tree, was associated with the sun. Parents interacted with the energy of the Moon, which is responsible for health, emotions and social circle.

The third tribe - grandparents, convey the intellectual component, sociability and talents. The fourth is related to love scenarios and material well-being. The fifth is the will of a person, his ability to achieve the intended goals and take the blows of fate. The sixth knee determines the position in society. But the seventh tribe, that is, the great-grandfathers of the great-grandfathers, was considered the most important. They define Fatum, that is, Destiny.

The Italian criminologist and psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso, famous for his idea of a “born criminal”, once did an interesting study. He studied the bloodlines of several serial killers and found a pattern. Each of them had people in their family who committed murders or at least extremely aggressive and cruel people. But we are lucky that not only bad qualities are inherited. We inherit positive character traits and talents from our ancestors.

Given all this, it becomes clear why the curse to the seventh knee is still considered the strongest. Those who believe in the energy of their ancestors are sure that this will destroy not only their lives, but also the fate of many generations of their descendants. Some people are so serious about this that they can even bring themselves to experience “psychogenic death” and go to another world.