Ancestor Work - Blog Posts

Lighting two tea lights before bed as an offering to my ancestors (the more visible one) and mokosh. It's not something I do often but I just felt like it tonight. What little things offerings do you do with your spirits tmblr?

(Also to preface i am very new to Rodnovery so pls feel free to give advice if you'd like)

Starting Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration by Mallorie Vaudoise today! Ive only read the introduction so far but I love the idea of journal prompts at the end of each chapter!

I’ve finally sat down to read my ‘Italian Folk Magic’ book and I can feel my chest getting warm and almost heavy in way that feels like a hug. Im excited and grateful to go on this journey with my ancestors

Some of the research I have been doing, has been revealing some interesting results. The connection between my ancestor Mikael and I is interesting and sort of complex.

At the base of it all, it's a spiritual attachment. Our emotions are separate, and I am aware of how he feels during certain situations. And under stressful situations, I can choose to fully channel him. I rarely do this, because my posture, tone, attitude, etc. changes due to Mikael. Mikael is a no bullshit kind of man, I mean he's a 800 year old mercenary, I expect nothing less. When it's like this the best way I can describe it like Eddie Brock and Venom. I'm aware with my hands on stand by, but he is very much present.

Now, most of the time it's just communication via dreams and automatic writing, and he can communicate through channeling as well. This isn't a 24/7 occurrence, it is tiring and I have to keep snacks on deck. For the clearest results, I do need to be in a calm/relaxed state.

When I was in the kitchen, I did partial physical channeling. Mostly to help me be ambitextris, I'm right handed, he's left handed, and he would help give me a boost of energy if needed. But that would be taxing for the both of us, and we both would need a rest. Also, I noticed some mental perks. Other family members that don't believe in the esoteric, noticed I have a calmer, more serious demeanor, but also great at giving sound advice.

Sooo...I'm Just Throwing This Out To The Void

While working on my Grimoire and drawing inspiration from other Tumblrs, I'm trying to go back to my roots and where this journey truly began. It seriously started with my search of my family history. Again, goes back to Assassin's Creed. The protag Desmond, is essentially strapped to a machine, the Animus, that studies his DNA and triggers his memories found there. But the kicker is, him and the other subjects before him that were in the machine too long would suffer what the game calls the Bleeding Effect. Essentially, subject and their ancestors memories would become muddled and the subject would begin to have hallucinations or act as their ancestor. Which typically had dire consequences.

Game mechanics aside, I began researching DNA, memories, past lives, dreams, etc. So, with my trusty pendulum and my newbie witch books at the time. I began with meditations and visualizing my own Animus. Then, I would calmly wait for something. Eventually, that's how I came across Mikael.

Now, when this began I was able to see Mikael's memories via dreams. If these dreams ended, the dream would continue the following night. Like an Assassin's Creed save file. And since we have bonded over the years, I can do partial to full channels if needed. I haven't need to yet. But, would all of this be classified as? Are there actual terms for this? Is this spirit work? Is it mediumship? Ancestor veneration? Or did I FBI breakdown the door to my spiritual senses as a rookie?

Ancestor Work and Research

This process was tedious but it was effective for me. I had a hand drawn keyboard with letters and numbers, and used my pendulum a lot for this. While getting to know my ancestor, I would ask the pretty standard questions like:

What's your name?

A: Mikael

How old are you?

A: 60

Where are you from?

A: Scotland

Did you move?

A: Yes

Where did you move to?

A: France

What was your profession?

A: Soldier (More will come about this later)

What time period are you from?

A: The era of wars and kings or wars and kings

I would finish the session, and thank him for his time. And let the research begin. My first big clue was the era of wars and kings. The late medieval period and the notable war that was taking place was the 100 year war. So, I researched that time period, and wrote down ideas for further questions if he wanted to talk. But here's the thing, he was also a person long, long ago. If he didn't want to talk about something, I did not force it.

But I think it's important to research anything that you are not familiar with. It's for knowledge but also since I was using a pendulum at first it was easy to detect if I was actually communicating with Mikael or something else.

My Ancestor Work

I can say for certain my witchy path may have changed over the years, this is one thing that has remained the same from the very beginning and I have been doing this for 12 to 13 years since my college days.

This was a very slow journey, between life happening a couple of occasions through out the years, living in other peoples' homes that were not witchcraft friendly, having to work most of the time to get back on my feet, it's a wonder I have remained a witch at all. But I digress, despite all that I found and remain in contact with one of mine.

Long story short, I was fascinated my the video game Assassin's Creed and all that followed. Particularly, the concept of ancestors and memories but mostly ancestors. It took some work, a lot of work actually.

It went from:

Mostly pendulum work, tedious but I was getting consistent results. And gradually I felt I was gaining his trust.

I began to have dreams about meeting him, in a time or place that was not familiar to me, and we wouldn't speak but we some how managed to understand each other.

After the dreams became frequent, and for a time I could practice without a care in the world, I began to invite him into my space. Bold, risky, kinda worth it.

But after getting married, and six weeks later my husband had a stroke, everything went to the way side. But one day, I was sitting alone in my bed at this point, I heard a deep, soft man's voice say "Hello, my dear." It wasn't a voice that I recognized, then I realized, I just heard him speak!

So, of course, this awakened my curiosity again, I began to research and work on my clairaudience on top of having dreams again. It was wonderful. Life was getting easier, and if there were difficulties I knew I wasn't alone.

Once I got on my own again/getting a roommate and getting adequate time, he and I have some how became similar to Assassin's Creed but with less consequences. I have certain access to his memories via dreams, I'm still clairaudient so even my boyfriend can have conversations with him, but also this the part where I can also channel.

Now, that I got that out of the way, I can share, who my ancestor is and some information about him. He's occasionally chatter box. So, this will be fun.