Ancestor Veneration For Beginners: How to Honour Your Ancestors
Anthropologists speculate that ancestor veneration was the first primal expression of spiritual belief.
Ancestral veneration is old.
Like as old as the hills, old.
It’s speculated that ancestor veneration was the earliest form of animism and dates back to the palaeolithic era.
Let’s take a look at modern ancestor veneration.
And why you would want an army of the dead at your disposal.
Why Honour Your Ancestors?
No other spiritual being is going to be as interested in you as your own ancestors.
Put simply:
Your ancestors give a shit about you.
They’re less harrassed with prayers (especially compared to deities).
They can help you with stuff.
Chaos magician Gordon White talks about how the dead are less trafficked spirits, so perhaps they’re more likely to help when peititioned.
Our ancestors valued community, and they have a vested interest in you because you’re their descendant.
White also suggests that honouring the dead is a potent form of luck magic.
I’ve engaged in ancestor veneration for several years now.
I do feel like things run a little more smoothly when I honour them regularly.
Having a team of the dead backing you up certainly can’t hurt!
What About About Ancestral Trauma?
Anytime we start talking about ancestor veneration we run into generational trauma and abuse.
I completely understand that for some people, ancestor veneration isn’t something they’re going to want to engage in.
That’s completely fine and you have to do what’s best for you.
But seeing as you’re still reading this post…
I’m going to assume that you’d like to interact with your ancestors, at least in some form.
For those who descend from people who made very questionable choices in their lives (I mean to some extent, that’s all of us) here’s a way around that.
Only call upon the elevated dead.
This will exclude all those abusive idiots who don’t deserve your time and attention.
But I don’t Know My Ancestors Names?!
Don’t know the names of your ancestors due to adoption, migration or because your mum lost the family tree sometime back in the 1980s?
You don’t need to know their names.
Just refer to them as my ‘elevated ancestors’.
Ancestor Veneration in Ancient Greece
Persephone and Hades Vase (2007) Marie-Lan Nguyen
Sisyphos, son of Aiolos, who by his wits came up even from Haides. No one else has ever contrived this, once Thanatos’ dark cloud has enveloped him and he has come to the shadowy place of the dead.
Theognis, Fragment
As a Hellenic Pagan, I like to check in with ancient Greece.
Unsurprisingly, the ancient Greeks, had elaborate funerary rites to the dead.
The gravesites of deceased family members were visited by relatives and libations were poured directly onto their graves.
Possibly as a way to feed the dead.
Below you’ll find information on how to create an ancestor altar, make suitable offerings and how to petition your ancestors.
I’ve chosen to explore this through a Hellenic lens.
But feel free to adjust as appropriate for your personal beliefs, culture or tradition.
Ancestors Summary
Festivals: Genesia (Hellenic), Samhain (Celtic), Halloween (modern)
Colours: Black, red, white
Crystals: Onyx, obsidian
Deities of the Dead: Hades, Hekate, Hermes, Hermanubis, Persephone
Plants: Asphodel
Symbols: Coins, memento mori
Traditional Hellenic Offerings: Honey, milk, olive oil, water, wine
Non-Hellenic Offerings: Cakes, candles, coffee, coins, fruit, flowers, tea
How to Create An Ancestor Altar
If you want to invite your ancestors into your life more permanently, then try setting up an ancestor altar.
If you practice Hellenism, keep your altar to the dead separate from any Ouranic altars.
These shouldn’t be mixed because Ouranic deities aren’t supposed to come into contact with the dead.
Ancestor Altar Ideas
Black candles
Incense burner
Fresh flowers
Offering bowl
Memento mori
Photographs of ancestors
How to Give Offerings to Your Ancestors
Dig a pit of a cubit’s length this way and that, and around it pour a libation to all the dead, first with milk and honey, thereafter with sweet wine, and in the third place with water, and sprinkle thereon white barley meal.
Homer, Odyssey
The ancient Greek practice of directly pouring libations onto gravesites isn’t a practice most of us can replicate today.
We can solve this by either creating an ancestor altar.
Or by just regularly giving offerings to ancestors in a similar fashion as we would to Kthonic deities.
It’s common to honour your ancestors on the same day as the Agathos Daimon.
Offerings should ideally be made after dark, outside and poured whole into a pit in the ground, with eyes averted.
Failing that, into an offering bowl on your ancestral altar and then onto the ground.
Ancestor Offerings
Grains
Honey
Milk
Water
Wine
How to Petition Your Ancestors
Hades' Ankunft am Tartaros (1640) by Joseph Heintz
We’re going to petition our elevated ancestral dead for help.
Because who couldn’t use a little extra help now and again?
If you’ve never made any offerings to your ancestors then I recommend doing so for several weeks before formally petitioning them for aid.
Once you’ve built a relationship with them, you can petition them for assistance.
Who doesn’t want a bit of otherworldly help?
Hopefully you’ll notice your circumstances improving with a consistent ancestor veneration practice!
Timing
On a Sunday.
What You’ll Need
Offering bowl
Milk or water
Black candle
Piece of paper
Pen
Method
Wash your hands, then light the candle and the incense.
If you want to you can anoint the candle with olive oil or another oil corresponding to your goal.
Write your petition on a blank piece of paper.
You can choose to write it in a colour that corresponds to your personal goal or desire.
Write: ‘I petition you well ancestors, grant me… [insert request here].’ Then sign your name and date it.
Fold the petition towards you to make it smaller.
Place it safely underneath or next to the candle.
Pour out your offering and speak the following words:
‘Elevated ancestors of my mother’s line, elevated ancestors of my father’s line, I call upon your aid in granting me… [insert request here]. In offering I give you this oat milk, may it please you.’
Allow the candle to burn down completely if it’s safe to do so.
Never leave a lit candle unattended! Dispose of the offering down the sink or pour it out upon the earth.
Once you’ve finished your petition, it’s time to cleanse.
This is because you came into contact with the dead, and if you’re Hellenic you especially need to cleanse.
How to Cleanse After Ancestor Veneration
It’s wise to thoroughly cleanse yourself after prolonged ancestral rituals, petitions or contact with the dead.
(This isn’t necessary after simple offerings).
In ancient Greece, contact with the dead incurred a form of ritual impurity known as miasma.
This is easily rectified through katharsis or the state of ritual purity.
Which basically just means purification.
The following is a purification ritual utilising khernips, this bath isn’t a traditional Hellenic practice but more of a modern revivalist style ritual.
We’re making a giant khernips style bath to ritually purify ourselves.
Khernips involves extinguishing burning bay leaves, or rosemary into water, sometimes with some added sea salt.
In ancient sources, the herbs involved varied so using bay and rosemary isn’t a hard and fast rule.
In Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (1987) by Walter Burkert he states:
The purifying power of fire is joined to the power of water when a log is taken from the altar fire, dipped in water, and used to sprinkle the sanctuary, altar and participants.
If you only have access to a shower, create the khernips water in the way described below in a large bowl.
Then whilst standing in the shower, dump it over your head!
As you do so, say, ‘Xerniptosai’.
Or ‘be purified’.
Timing
On a Sunday, or as needed.
What You’ll Need
Bath
Bay leaves
Pure sea salt
The Ritual
Fill the bath with water and add handful of pure sea salt.
Say, ‘Xerniptosai’, or ‘be purified’.
Light a bay leaf and extinguish it in the bath water.
Say, ‘Xerniptosai’, or ‘be purified’.
Get into the bath and say, ‘Xerniptosai’, or in English, ‘be purified’.
Make sure to fully submerge yourself so your hair gets wet. When you’re finished, compost the bay leaves.