How Do You Venerate/honour Your Ancestors? Options

Went on a trip to Zimbabwe last year and was shown a way though which I could both venerate (re-cognise) and contact my ancestors... being into Cerimonial Magick I have to admit that the whole thing came as a shock to me, from investigating complex rituals and systems to being involved in something deceptively simplistic that, in my opinon, had little grounding in meaningful occult science logically speaking nothing much should have happened, certain ascpets of occultism surpass logic being deeper than that and more right brain orientated....

The Story; Was basically told to bring a cloth with me to the local Sangnoma at a time around dawn, myself and my friend failed this task and turned up around noon busy looking for the right cloth to bring, we were then given a concoction that had me empty my stomach... puke for short... after the puking we were purified over a herbal steam bath... have to admit that during all this I was wondering if I was somehow endangering my magickal practice or if they'd suddenly peer into my aura and run me out as a traitor fearful some other fleeting story my mind was drumming up at the time would come to life enacted out before my eyes like a staged play with me playing the shortsighted director and, by extenstion, victim... it didn't... we were shown a few herbs in the local field which, at the time, I had little intrest in and had to embarrasingly pretend to be intrested in what what being talked about... I am now very much intrested in herbs and would like to go back to somehow redeem myself by being genuinely intrested and instead pretending to understand the language being spoken (Nedele).... anyway, we were taken to the local tree (think Avatar minus the usual hollywood propaganda) and were led to lay our cloth before it reciting a prayer while using snuff, there was more talk and some pointing at herbs before we returned in doors... is intresting being on the other side of USAID tins if you wonder why certain countries refuse aid or have the military confiscate it before it reaches people its because it destablises the local economy, you couldn't stand on the street of London handing out an unlimited supply of free food for long before Tescos and Walmart took notice and you upset the stock market, clever stuff is economic warfare... now inside the Sangnomaess prayed over our ancestrial cloth's (terrible use of english there) and we had a chat about life as in she read into our problems and offered advice, which was also embarrasing as I wasn't sure what to say if I felt she was wrong, was all in all an intresting experience as I'm disconnected from my roots as a Carribean African although I'm still 'in touch' as it were... we were told to put the cloth under our pillow at night after asking a question and using snuff, nothing happened for a few days but I used it while we were away visiting the waterfalls in the North of the country and, well, yeah... I've always been crap at astral travelling but ''someone'' came to my bed at night and literally took me out of my body, still half asleep, stuck between waking in the astral I was given a hug and told the answer to a LAME question I'd asked beforehand, really, you'd think I'd have something better to ask than to enquire about me liking the friend I was with, I mean, shes hot but shes also 40 and has children my age... on being told that it was her womanhood I was attracted to I was taken home (astral London, UK) to my sitting room which was being used as a portal for people or spirits, there was a que of sorts and a portal vortex was extending from a crack in the plasterwork in the ceiling, we jumped the que and I was put through the vortex which vibrated vividly (heh!) with that I woke sharply in my bed back in zimbabwe just as the person I was sharing it with coughed loudly... suppose thats linked to that other thread, the universe used the cough to wake me up as it was the easiest avenue through which to do so at the time... there... thats how I was shown how to contact my ancestors, thing is the cloth hasn't worked since, bit disappointing but I figured it'd be good to know how other cultures venerate (avoiding the word ''worship'') their ancestors in their culture as its not talked about too often.

Don't have to read all that up there, just the highlighted part, apologies for my writing style, I can't put pen to paper without going crazy at times .lol. Like to mess with words.

Any contribution is welcome.

Peace
.M.

This post has been edited by Mchawi: Aug 11 2010, 08:51 AM

I've never actually been acquainted with the 3rd generation above me and such, so, in all honesty I don't.

Being Asian, we do the whole "YOU HONAR ANSEEESTORRR. MAEKKK VARRY PRAWOUD" thing. It actually happens, people light incense, make offerings and stuff. Though most of it's really acknowledging their existence and is more like a "umm hey thanks for making babies so I can make babies" sort of stuff.

What's the advantage to working with ancestors anyways? I've found the 'Loa' (I've only worked with one formal loa) not really need an individual to be linked through the ancestor business.

I've never actually been acquainted with the 3rd generation above me and such, so, in all honesty I don't.

What's the advantage to working with ancestors anyways? I've found the 'Loa' (I've only worked with one formal loa) not really need an individual to be linked through the ancestor business.

... same, my lineage is scattered as my people were basically prisoners of war, enslaved in the West after being taken from Africa so I can go back a bit but it starts to get blurred, have to look at ''stock'' counts in databases of slave owners accounts etc, find that part difficult, have to trawl through some stuff and wouldn't have much by way of detail.

The ''advantage'', don't think it can be approached in that way... have a theory on it and genetics though, you are the material manifestation of all of your ancestors going back to the very first men and women on earth, we are as the beginning as we are the end. In recognising that you are linking yourself to those people and their experiences, as well as that philosophy. Its the modern world that has us think of evolution in the ''wrong'' way, as in without definition. Human evolution has nothing to do with cars, airplanes, the internet and subesquent access to free porn, thats societal advancement, nothing wrong with it... Human evolution though is genetic, if you were to go back in time with a book on calculus you could well teach it to humans back then, they wouldn't have the use for it but they were no diffrent to us as we are now, we still speak the same language...to further... if a nuclear war kicked off (God forbid) decimating countries for a few hundred years or so future generations would look at the ruins of society in bafflement now resorting to survival mechanisms the rules would have changed, the physically strong would rule etc them having lost the scientists and people who would otherwise know how to use those/these things left behind, a V8 engine would be of no use to them... TRUE evolution and human furtherment is then spiritual by way of genetics, working with ones ancestors works to that effect...

When babies are born with an instant knowledge of physics and how to remove cookies from internet cashe folders in the same way beavers are born knowing how to build dams and Gazelle are born knowing how to walk I'll be proved wrong .lol.

In certain traditions you can't simply venerate your ancestors, some of them are bad... its said that you're only to honour those who were enlightened, Shepsu, the beings of light in your heritage, these are the only ones who can help you, the experience of the others may be harmful.

My spiritual path at the moment has me into Cerimonial magick and Practical Alchemy... not too clued up on the Loa's, some would call me a traitor for that I suppose .lol. sounds like you've been assigned a Loa to work with in the same way diffrent areas of a country would have ''nomes'' back in the days, each nome had a diety which had rules and laws attached, each loa itself is an agent for God and thus enlightenment can be found through it... or something to that effect.

Someone talks about ancestors and genetics in one of the links below, not to cater to my ego but I do think it was borrowed from a thread of mine on another forum.

... would be good to know more about your traditional cerimonies btw, even if it only seems like something you have to do, at least you do it. What culture is it?

(Am very intrested in asian traditions)

This post has been edited by Mchawi: Aug 12 2010, 06:50 AM