How to Build & Tend an Ancestor Shrine
Chiron Armand
Chiron Armand
Quote:Many consider one’s Ancestors and personal spirit guides to be their primary source for gaining wisdom and clarity, as well as their first line of defense against attack. If one seeks to hone their mediumship abilities, then time spent at one’s ancestor altar can be of great help as well. After giving offerings and expressing gratitude, pray sincerely from the heart for guidance, wisdom, and clarity. Then, sit in silence before the altar for at least 15 minutes and, afterwards, record your impressions. These may be images, thoughts, and / or words that came to mind during the meditation. Performing this at least once per week can have a tremendous effect on one’s intuitive abilities and the grace with which one moves through life. If you “don’t experience anything,” continue anyway. They may make their messages known in dreams or in everyday signs and omens. Many psychic readers attribute their intuitive insight to the aide of their Ancestors and many rootdoctors believe their help is integral to the potency of their work.
Due to the extent to which I see the harmful presences and patterns left by unresolved ancestral dead in the lives of my clients, I personally call upon “my Ancestral Helping Spirits – those that lived well and died well, made it through the Veil and chose to accompany me in this lifetime” rather than Ancestors in general (words courtesy of Christina Pratt of Why Shamanism Now podcast). This ensures that I am engaging only those Ancestors of mine who resolved their lives before or after death rather than Ancestors of mine who remain ghosts, or restless dead who seek to hijack the living to fix their own unresolved lives. I also only place photos of those ancestors I know, through divination, to fall into this category of Ancestral Helping Spirits. If other Ancestors do show up, I consider it my job to move them on through Ancestral Elevation or other psychopomp acts so that they can work with me in a good way as Ancestral Helping Spirits when then are ready to.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell