Ancestors

Every one… Every single person…. Needs to have an ancestor altar.

Why Do I need an ancestor altar? You can interact with the spirits that are MOST interested in helping you. And it is a conduit between this realm and the spirit realm. Your ancestors will help you before Jesus will. Jesus is busy…

Your ancestors are people that are bound to you biologically and spiritually. These are the people that you share DNA with who have transitioned. When they incarnate, it will be through their own line. Yes. They want you to do well because it will make their future lives more comfortable. They are always with you whether you invite them or not. The difference between people who keep an ancestor altar and people who don’t is the people who keep one have spiritual back up and the no altar people don’t.

If I have convinced you, keep reading. If I haven’t, enjoy the rest of your day!

Now that you’ve decided to keep an altar, what do you need?

Images/Pictures of your dead

Water

Live plants or flowers

A white cloth

Place everything on top of the white cloth.

That’s the basic set up. You can get funky with it by adding things that your ancestors liked and enjoyed, but the above list is the most basic of altars. Example: my father smoked and drank, so I keep brown liquor and cigarettes for him. His mother was a seamstress; I keep thread on the altar for her. My mother loved to play cards and gamble. I keep a bit of her gambling money on the altar and a deck of playing cards.

Do not place your altar in the bedroom or bathroom. I say the bedroom because most folks have sex in the bedroom. And it’s disrespectful to have sex or shit in front of your ancestor altar. If you are in school and live in a dorm or live in a studio, put a cloth or a partition up to separate you from the ancestors.

The next part is interacting with the ancestors. You’ve set up the altar. Cool. But now you must spend time with the ancestors. If you’re a praying person, pray in front of your altar. Think about this… Say your parents have transitioned. And you need something. It’s natural to ask parents for things. Why not ask them, even now that they are dead? They will be able to, in their realm, work on your behalf.

In addition to having an ancestor altar, you need to feed/venerate them. You feed them now that they are dead the same way, you’d feed them if they were alive. You put small amounts of food on your altar. I have noticed over the years, that food doesn’t collect insect and mold while on the altar. I don’t’ leave it there indefinitely either. 3 days tops. When I eat, they eat. The longer you interact with the ancestors; they will begin to tell you what they want to eat. And give them what they ate. I’m a vegetarian. The first in my family. I don’t feed my ancestors tofu. I give them what they would have eaten when they were alive. They will start telling you in dreams and in your mouth what they want. I don’t like root beer. But apparently my ancestors do. I got a strong taste in my mouth for root beer that would not go away. I bought some and drank some, and still I was wanting more. The whole time, I found the taste disgusting. I realized maybe one of my ancestors wanted the soda so I poured some in a glass and set it on the altar. Immediately my desire went away. It was the ancestors wanting that nasty root beer.

Don’t add new people to the altar if they have been dead less than a year. For those people, need to be honored separately. The newly dead are too hot for your ancestor altar. They aren’t settled yet. And you need to be lighting candles for them to light their path.

People who you don’t share blood with should not be on your ancestor altar. My 1st husband predeceased me. He was my HUSBAND! But he has no place on my ancestor altar. I keep a separate altar for people I loved whom I’m not related to. Say you’re adopted and don’t know your ancestors, set one for them anyway. They know you. I had my DNA analyzed and put that breakdown on my altar. Even if you have ancestors you don’t like…. Say you’re dead father molested you… You don’t have to add him on your altar. You can venerate him and try to uplift him so that he does better in his next incarnation but I wouldn’t. I’m petty like that.

I’ve heard folks say they only set and service the ancestors on Halloween…. Well…….. Do you only want to be blessed once a year? Yes the veil is thin then, but it’s thin in May too. You should service your ancestor altar at least weekly. This is an ongoing thing. You want to be blessed? You gotta put in the work. Remember their birthdays and death days. Give them something for Christmas if they celebrated that. Give them something foe Eid. You know your ancestors better than I do. Share your good news and your bad news. Treat them like the family members they are.