#Ancestor worship.

[taratarotgreene]

Spiritual healing for children, Mercury trine Neptune

All content is copyright of Tara Greene. ©️and must credit back to her, this blog site and http://www.taratarot.com July 9 is a very imaginative, dreamy, creative idealistic, sentimental energy as Mercury in Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces at 27 degrees. What do you have at 27° Cancer Pisces or Scorpio? Scorpio gets a grand water trine from this. This makes us feel highly emotional, sensitive,…

[emeraldislewitch]

i cannot say it enough: RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP RESEARCH IS WORSHIP

research your ancestors, research your gods, research the land you come from, listen to the stories told by your family, your community, your elders and take notes. research research research.

[southernmermaidsgrotto]

There's levels to ancestral connection, and you shouldn't skip any of them.

Take this as your reminder to first of all, spend time with your spirits, without expecting anything in return. Heavy on that last part. You don't make and maintain a genuine connection with someone just by showing up to their doorstep every time you need something from them. Treat them as people because they are. Your people. You should care for them as much as they care for you.

Be it ancestors (specifically direct blood lineage or adoptive family, any deceased human relative) or ancestral spirits (in general, that is, all ancestral allies and hereditary connections not just your ancestors). Just make time to hang out. Walk up to their space, a cup of your favorite drink in hand, give them their preferred drink and just chat. Don't ask anything in return. If you have an altar for them, do that. But it can be just going to visit their graves and giving libations and flowers, and telling them how your life's going, sharing memories together, remembrance, or just to listen. It can also be going to the beach or a river, and same thing, pour a drink and talk to them, and listen back. It can be your plant allies, while you're watering them, or putting eggshells or honey or sugar water or other good nutrients and fertilizers on their soil. It can be visiting your ancestors in dreams, and spending time with them there. There's so many ways to do this.

The second level to this is letting them sit in your body too. Listen. Become familiar with how they make you feel. With the signs of their arrival and presence. With the signs they communicate with and what they mean to you. With how they let you know they have a message, or that they're in for a visit. And let them in. Dance to your grandma's favorite beats. Sing your grandpa's favorite songs. Make a family recipe and share a meal with them, enjoy it for them and with them.

Ancestral reverence isn't just the big rituals and they're not the most important aspect of it, it is the everyday coexistence, in your little but constant everyday ways.

Do as you do but also as they did. You're an extension of them and they're an extension of you. They not only walk with you, you carry them within you.

Honor that.

[lailoken]

I have recently learned that my paternal grandfather's memorial marker—a small shrine in the Paraguayan jungle that denotes the spot where he died in a hunting accident over 42 years ago—is now used by locals as an important spiritual/folk magic site. Apparently, over the last few decades, his memorial marker has come to represent a place where locals visit in order to light candles and pray for rainfall, abundant wild game, and a successful harvest. They're not praying to him or anything either—they just view his memorial as a place which they can use to intercede with the divine.

I'm not entirely sure how this came to be, but I would guess that with how intensely remote this mountain village is, it's not always easy to get to a place of religious/spiritual significance when you're needing to. But after my grandfather's memorial shrine was erected decades ago, it became a "visibly spiritual" site in the area that ended up drawing in villagers hoping for an accessible place to seek spiritual propitiation/intervention. At least a handful of locals still remember who my grandfather was and know what the shrine originally represented, but I don't believe most people know anything beyond the fact that a man died on that spot in a freak accident many years ago.

I'm not sure how my grandfather or his death factor into the establishment of this sacred site—if they do at all—but I find the whole thing so unspeakably fascinating and surreal.

[cursecuelebre]

Coins are Essential to Hellenic Worship and Witchcraft

In Ancient Greece Drachmae (the coins/currency of the time) were used not just in everyday life but honoring the dead. It was believe that coins were offered to the deceased right before they were buried. The coins were given to grant the spirits passage to the underworld by paying Charon who will ride across Acheron, a river in the underworld to the afterlife, fearing they will get stuck on the shores if they don’t have the payment to cross. Though it is a very old superstition it is still very important to offer such a gift to the spirits that crossed over, though whether you don’t believe such a belief or do about paying the ferryman the act of the gesture is a sign of great respect and admiration for the departed. Collect your spare change and don’t be afraid to use them for various reasons:

- Offer them to your ancestors.

- Place a coin on gravestones when you visit a cemetery.

- Offer coins to your deities as money being one of the great sacrifices to give to them even if it’s just a penny.

You can also do spell work with coins as charms, divination (flipping heads or tails), talismans, focal point of power, etc.

[thetranstexasgal]

Poor quality photo but I moved my queer ancestor altar inside and updated it a bit

Current ideas:

1.) Keep my HRT on the altar so taking it becomes a (more) sacred thing

2.) put pins from queer history on the altar

3. Get pictures of Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Amelio Robles Avila, etc and put them either in frames or in a digital frame on the altar

4. Buy the most dramatic goblet/wine glass I can find to replace the $2 tea cup (I do have a drinking horn but it looked wrong on the altar)

[helyeahmangocheese]

guys do you know how absolutely cracked the british!Grace siblings dynamic is... punk british Thalia who is so anti establishment bc look at the fucking monarchy and the british empire.... BLACK JASON GRACE, SON OF THE KING OF GODS, GRAPPLING WITH THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, THE BRITISH EMPIRE, AND THE EMPIRE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. the implications... and yet they're just kids who want to fit in... the family story, yall, fucking ouch.

[samwisethewitch]

Friendly reminder to witches and pagans who want to incorporate ancestral beliefs into their practice: be mindful that a lot of modern nations and their current dominant culture are relatively new, and even the concept of a national identity is very, very modern. Modern borders may not necessarily reflect the world your ancestors lived in.

For example: immigration documents record my great-great-great grandparents immigrating from Germany in the 1870s. But my ancestors weren't German -- they were Bavarian. They were both born in the country of Bavaria and fled to the USA after the unification of the German Reich (no, not that one). They wouldn't have spoken German as a first language -- they would have spoken Bavarian. And if I wanted to incorporate their culture into my practice, I would need to narrow my search to Bavarian folk practices. Other regional practices from other parts of modern Germany wouldn't have been relevant to my ancestors.

There's a similar situation with another great-great-great grandfather, who immigrated in the 1850s iirc. He was from Lombardy, near Milan, and was fleeing the unification of the Kingdom of Italy. He probably very much did not identify as Italian.

And on the other side of my family we have a Northern English line we've been able to trace back to the 1100s, and those ancestors from the Middle Ages probably identified as Northumbrian rather than as English. My "Scottish" ancestry probably actually comes from that same line, because Northumbria was a border state between England and Scotland.

Modern resources like Ancestry.com and other genealogy sites will use modern country names and borders, which can sometimes give us false understandings of where our ancestors actually came from. This is why it's important to do your own research and fact-check outside the ancestry documents.

[buriedpentacles]

Why I Don't Have An Altar

One definition of an altar is:" in religion, a raised structure or place that is used for sacrifice, worship, or prayer" from Britannica and they have a number of different forms but typically in Pagan or Witchcraft communities they're a surface dedicated to a deity, spirit, ancestors or just their general craft. They're super common and a lot of people take real pride in them, as they should.

But I don't have one.

I used to have one just a year or two ago. So why did I get rid of it?

In a way, I didn't. Not entirely. I no longer have a set place to worship Mother Nature or Commune with my Ancestors but my altar is now scattered across my living space - my plants sit on my windowsill, my tarot cards are wherever I choose to keep them that day, I have crystals all over my room and pieces of nature on my bedside table and desk. I don't have a dish for offerings, or a place to perform spells.

The reason is because I realised that my altar would never give me the feeling of closeness and connection as the world outside gives me. When I prayed before my candles and crystals I felt connected to my Goddess of course, but praying to the wethered old oak in the woods, or to the waves that crash onto cliffs, or to the mother fox that watched me from across the stream is when I *knew* that she was there, that was when I felt her so intensely and deeply.

My altar was performative, it was an act I put on because I felt like I had to. Now, I don't feel that pressure. Now, I feel my ancestors more deeply because *I* am the altar - I am their blood and soul, so I worship them through myself. Now, I feel Mother deeper than before because I am actually experiencing her - not the faux version I had built inside a box.

It is, of course, all personal preference. In the future when I hae a more permennat home I may built an outdoor altar or have a small one for my ancestors, I might not. But, you don't NEED one, and you definitely don't need to spend a lot of money building the biggest and "prettiest" altar. If you want one, build an altar that suits you and whatever purpose it will serve, not one built for a performance.

[mannyblacque]

"They're all around you, all the time"

Reservation Dogs S2 E9 "Offerings"

[antikristvs]

Since I'm sharing belated pictures, here's one from my Vėlinės/Samhain altar 🖤

[witchofthenorthernshores]

Hail to those who have passed through the veil

From life to Death, to Earth from Breath.

Hail to those who suffered to gift me with blood,

Hail to those who survived to gift me with body,

Hail to those whose songs gift me with inspiration.

Hail to those whose memory I carry with me like a word of comfort,

Hail to those who left this land long ago,

Whose names I honor like a word of hope,

Or if I know not their names, whose lives I honor still.

I live and love because you lived and loved,

I speak and struggle because you spoke and struggled,

You live in me, as I will live in those who come after me.

Grant me the patience, O my beloved dead,

To see the long view, and remember that what I do

Affects a million million souls I will never know.

~ from “Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner,” by Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera

[light-of-delphi]

Here's a Valuable Part of My Practice

I just learned you can change the color of titles. My life is changed for the BETTER!!

Anyway! One part of my practice that I hold so near and dear to my chest is the concept of Hero Work.

Being a Hellenic Pagan, I work very closely with a lot of aspects of Greek mythology specifically. I have worked closely with a few different Greek heroes and it's very different than working with Deities.

Hero Work Summarized

I tend to equate Hero Work with ancestor veneration. It's very similar in the sense that you're honoring souls, not divine beings. Therefore, it should be treated differently. I still set up smaller altars for them, and little trinkets and things. The two heroes I work with are Patroclus and Odysseus, so I set my copy of The Iliad and The Odyssey next to their altar back when I had the space for one. The altar was a little shoebox that had their names written on the inside in Greek, and when I had people over, I'd shut the box with their offerings inside and put it away somewhere to protect it.

How Can I Do Hero Work?

First, I identified if any heroes were reaching out to me. I typically do this with a tarot reading, though, everyone has their own methods so you should use whatever method works best for you! Always make sure you're asking clarifying questions though. Ask questions about their myth, specific ones to help vet and ensure you're working with a spirit and not a trickster or dangerous entity.

Second, I try to discern what the spirit wants to aid me with. Lots of these spirits, especially Heroes, are there to help guide you and help you learn valuable lessons. Patroclus entered my life to help me with self-care and learning about first aid and other medical facts. He also helped me learn that I don't have to be physically strong to still be strong. Odysseus continues to help me with my journey of physical strength and he's helped me learn how to be a little bit more cunning and witty. They're there to help you, try learning these reasons early on! It helps with the relationship!

Third, remember that they may be very in-and-out in your life. Patroclus only ever interacts with me when I'm on my college campus and Odysseus typically pops in when I'm going through a rough patch in life. They may not be consistent in your life, and that is okay. Like physical relationships, communication with the metaphysical is key.

You can treat hero work however you'd like. If you want to equate it more with working with Deities, go for it. But remember that these are mortal souls that are more aligned with ours than they are divine, with some exceptions (think of heroes who are demigods or gave up their mortality for immortality). This brings a level of humanity with the partnership and it's very refreshing. I can joke with Odysseus about things that Apollo or Neptune may not understand. I like to have fun with my practice. Otherwise, what's the point?

So... What Are The Benefits of Hero Work?

I've found that Hero work is particularly fun because of the humanity of it. Odysseus and Patroclus, while they may be works of fiction, have to be grounded in some form of reality. Based on some warriors and soldiers in the wars they come from. So they're... a bit better when it comes to expectations. Not that my deities are misunderstanding, but sometimes it can be hard for a divine being to understand human limitations. At least, in my experience.

Another one of my favorite parts about hero work is simply talking with them. Clairaudience makes this easier than it is for others. I didn't have a roommate in my first year of college, and this meant that I was able to have a plethora of conversations back and forth with Patroclus and Odysseus, and they're always the best!

Obviously, your practice is yours, and it will be different from mine which is different from yours which is different from someone else reading this post. At the end of the day, do what works best for you. Do what works best for you and your lifestyle, because not everyone can be as open about your practice as me or others on the platform.

I'm in the mood to yap today, so... there may be another post coming up! If you have any requests, feel free to comment them or ask :) Blessed be, may the Sun be your guide! A domani!

[god-blog]

My altar!

Some of the images are my own, some are from the internet, and some are from the following artists: @eclipse89, @eluneth, @darkearthsuggestions, @hymntoapollo, @apolloforetoldus, @just-pagan-things, @obsidian-pages777, @etherealtrash

[lailoken]

An act of simple but loving veneration, given to the spirit of my grandmother on the anniversary of her birth. ♡

[thetownsendsw]

It has occurred to me that, given the number of options in Pathfinder that are or could be flavored as drawing power from one’s ancestors, you could conceivably build an entire party of ancestor worshippers. And wouldn’t it be fitting if they were all family?

A phantom Summoner who’s a kid,

Their parent is an Ancestors Oracle,

Their parent is a Spirit Barbarian,

Their parent is an Animist,

And THEIR parent is the kid’s Eidolon!