So I have admitted that for a long ass time I did not do
magical exercises on a daily basis. There was actually a long period where I didn’t
do magick on a daily basis at all, just the occasional personal ritual and
writing and performing magick with my tribe. But over the past year or so I
have had a daily magical practice. Not exercises, but I do magick every day.
Most of that has to do with ancestors.
Every night, I visit my ancestor altar. What’s an ancestor
altar? Just a place in your home where you keep some things that remind you of
your ancestors. It can be pictures, something the ancestor owned in life, or
something that reminds you of them. It can be on any small shelf space and does
not need to be elaborate. It should have space for offerings. Three things cut
across cultures when it comes to making offerings to your ancestors: fire
(candles work fine), incense, and water. If you are looking closely you see
represented the four classical elements. Fire, Water, Air in the form of
incense, and Earth, which is the ancestors themselves because they have
returned to the Earth.
On most nights I simply bring them fresh water. I learned
this from a practitioner of Palo Mayombe, but further research showed it to be
a ubiquitous offering used by many African cultures, Buddhists. Ancient Greeks,
Egyptians, and probably a bunch of others I don’t know about. This makes sense.
Water is the one thing all life on this planet needs. It is the primal reminder
of their connection to life. What’s the one thing you can do to help another,
even if you have nothing to give? You bring them water. Nearly everyone on the
planet has access to water, and those that don’t have bigger things to worry
about than their ancestors, and the ancestors understand. I have a nice
offering bowl that I use, but you can use anything. As I write this I’m
planning a trip to Chicago with my wife, so no one will be home to take care of
the ancestors. I will be taking one item from my altar and use a plastic cup at
our AirBnB. If you have limited means, you can start out with something just
that simple. Just make sure the water is fresh and the cleanest water you have
access to.
Which brings us to a minor sticking point. What do you do
with the water from the previous day? It’s fine just to pour it down the drain.
Ancestor magick is practical magick, the magick of the people. Your ancestors
lived a life and they get it. Sometimes you just gotta go with the easiest
solution. You can also dump it on a plant to help them grow, which has nice
symmetry. Me, I pour it in my dogs’ water bowl. My dogs are part of my family
and I want them to participate. In fact, I have pictures and ashes on my
ancestor altar from my last two dogs that passed away. Interesting to note, the
dogs I have now love it. They have multiple water bowls in the house but I’ll
be damned if they do not prefer the ancestor water every time. It’s part of the
covenant between man and dog. I’ll write an entire post in the future about
dogs being closely associated with death and the underworld.
When I bring the ancestors the fresh water, I always speak
with them a while. They want to know about your day. They want to hear about
your successes and your problems. This does not obligate them to do anything
about those problems, but they want to listen. Telling stories about times you
remember with them and how the things they taught you help you now is good too.
You can ask them for help directly, but don’t be selfish. Your ancestors are
not a spiritual slot machine. You should treat it exactly as you would asking a
living relative for money. Only ask if you really need it and pay them back
before anyone else. That means more offerings.
So when the shit gets deep in my life, I light their candles
and burn incense for them. I may still not ask them for anything directly, but
I recognize the strength they have passed down to me and that it’s gonna be
that strength they gets me out of trouble. I also like to give a physical
offering each season, usually on a holiday. I may offer some dried leaves in
the fall, flowers in the spring, evergreen branches in the winter, anything
that will remind them of the time here on Earth. They seem to appreciate the
memories those things invoke.
Then I will move on to my other ancestors and speak with
them. They do not generally get daily offerings as they are busy magi doing
important things in the afterlife and don’t want to be disturbed that often.
They do get candles and incense every time I perform ritual, especially
divination. I’ll talk about them more in a future post.
Then I talk to the two major gods in my life, Thoth and
Babalon. I talk to Thoth about my current writing and magical projects. To
Babalon I speak about my love life and my goals to make the world a better
place (immanentize the Eschaton). They get offerings on an irregular basis.
Sometimes just candles and incense. Sometimes something special. Gods can be
vain and self-important. They will turn their nose up at anything common, so
for them I will spend some money: rose oil, expensive ink, crystals, and other
symbolic items (here’s a good example). For Babalon, I maintain a rose garden,
and in the summer I am constantly trimming blooms off of my roses and offering
them to Babalon.
Then it’s off to bed for old Frater Threskiornis.
Since I have been making daily offerings to my ancestors,
the best part about it has been keeping one foot in the enchanted world all the
time. I think about my ancestors more. I think about magick more. I recognize other
spirits more often since I have started doing these things as a daily practice.
In my conversations with my ancestors and gods, I have learned so much about
myself and the nature of spirits. Listening to the spirits is another thing you
must practice, and for me, it’s one of the most important things in my life
right now.
If you have a similar daily practice, or plan on starting
one, I would love to hear about what you do and your results.