Your
ancestors are your foundation, in Vodou we say that “we are standing on the
shoulders of our ancestors” because the foundation they build before us, good
and bad, is still part of who you are today. This can be of materialistic value,
moral value, cultural value, skills, religion, and faith to mention some things
that you might have inherited.
An example is
that you inherited a house, which the ones before you had to really sweat blood
and tears over to build. It might even go generations further back, where your
great great grandfather who was a poor miner had to put pennies aside to pay of
a little piece of land that he bought, where he built a cabin.. where now today
is seated with big house.
Maybe you
didn’t inherit anything materialistic at all, but throughout your line of
making the same mistakes over and over again someone finally broke that cycle
by conquering the problem and this way elevating your line. Proceeding to fight
for that which is good and pass those teachings of good moral to her or his
children and eventually, you.
My point is
that who your ancestors were, what they did, what they achieved, what they
didn’t achieve, their mistakes, the lessons they had to learn, their hard work,
their mind, their heart, their actions.. Even if you are your own person, you
wouldn’t be the one you are today if it wasn’t for the once before you.
You ancestors
are in your blood, in the same way as DNA, and cell memory works, that is
stored, re-produced and passed on, throughout generations.
To remember,
give respect, and honor the ones before us is a very important part of it all,
but it goes deeper than this as well. Because when we serve our ancestors we don’t
just serve a memory or image of who they were. We acknowledge their existence
back then, and their existence still now, but now present in another form, and
that we can call and communicate with that form of existence, that is spirit.
An Important
thing about serving your spirits that few people pay attention to that I think
is important is the timeframe after someone pass away. It’s one thing to serve
your great grandfather who you know passed away for years and it’s another
thing to serve your grandmother who just passed away a few months ago. In the spirit
world there is no concept of time, but you don’t want to be evoking someone who
is dead instead of invoking their spirit.
Now what is
the difference between a dead or a spirit? well it’s a term used to define a
person that died that still doesn’t know that they are dead, meaning they are
still attached to materia in this world, and might not even know that they are
dead.. So by calling someone who passed recently you can risk of actually
entrap the recently deceased on earth (If the dead even hears you at all) and
we don’t want to entrap nobody that is not what a spiritualist does. In Vodou
we give the person at least 1 year and 1 day (1:1) before we call on their
spirit.
How to serve
your ancestors?
There are
different ways of doing it, but I am going to give you a basic example. Now
based on your background, culture, and religion first gather information about
your ancestors. Names, pictures, objects that belonged to them, symbols,
religious and/or cultural connections, flags, sword, shields, you personalize
it accordingly to what you know they liked in life. If you don’t know anything
about your ancestors, maybe you were adopted you can make it as basic as you
want, anything you know and also type or you can try to sense your way through.
You don’t need to overflow you alter with objects; give it time for the spirits
to come to you and speak to you. The most basic is a white alter cloth, a white
candle, a bowl of water (the spirits travel through water) and you sit down and
you talk to your ancestors as you would talk to any other living person, like
they are there, present with you, even if you don’t feel anything.
You light the
candle and you can say something like “In the name of my
ancestors, you who are in my blood, my roots of who I come from, who watch over
me, who guide me, who helps me, I call you to acknowledge your existence, to
pay my honor and respect and to let you know that I am ready to serve you. May
we connect; speak to me, come into my dreams, let me get to know you more, let
me hear you let me see you, sense you, understand you, so I can even serve you
better.”
This is the way I would do it, you don't have to go exactly by my words, you can- but the more it comes from your heart, the better.
In Vodou we
serve our ancestors on a Monday, the beginning of the week. But you can go talk
to them whenever you feel like it. When you in joy, when you in sorrow, when
you in pain, when you in a good mood or bad mood. Remember to at least attain
contact with your ancestors once a week, so every time you light that candle
and speak you feel the connection gets stronger and stronger. Eventually they
will respond.
Have a notebook by your bed, pay attention in your life you will
see they will give you signs and direct you.
Then after a
few times when you feel a little more connected you can start giving offerings,
like coffee, drinks (like alcohol vodka, rum – remember alcohol is a fluid as
well and spirits travel through fluid – you ever considered why alcohol is
called “spirit”? Think about that), food from your culture, share food once in
a while from your dinner, this is service. This way you involve them and invite
them to take part of the physical world, but you don’t entrap them, they are
free to come and go as they please and you will see that your life will improve
in many different ways.
