Honouring ancestors

[David19]

I've got a question, i heard that Kemetics honour their ancestors and it's something i'd like to do but i'm not sure how to start, like would you do any particular rituals like purifications (before you start or something), also what would go on a altar, i have many different ancestors like Irish, Iraq, Turkish, English, etc, would i need seperate ones or include things from each of those cultures on it.

Thanks.

[Zephyrstorm]

Personally, I don't have room for a separate ancestor altar, so right now mine is kinda simple. I commune with them formally during Senut on occasion, and I commune with them during my everyday moments - especially when I'm outside at night and the stars are brilliant and beautiful.

In my own case, I'm hoping to be able to incorporate my various ancestries into one altar, but really that's a matter of personal taste (as well as the tastes of your ancestors and their histories.) Sometimes the ancestors will ask for things to be added.
I know money (assuming said money does not have the likeness nor names of any living beings on it) is kept by many of us in our ancestor shrines.

In fact, the only rule I have heard is that you don't keep the likeness nor names of the living in the Akhu Shrine.

No problem. :)

[Romani Vixen]

I have a little shelf in my living room for my ancestor shrine. I have a little dish for offerings, a candle holder and some stones that felt right to be there.

For a basic altar I'd recomend a candle holder and an insence burner. Pictures of family members who have passed on and you wish to honor, water and food offering dishes, vase for flowers... all are good ideas to expand.

Basic start to commune with them.... Talk to them! Set up your shrine (I think candles are a bare minimum, but it's really what feels right to you) and talk... offer them anything that seems appropriate.

[David19]

I have a little shelf in my living room for my ancestor shrine. I have a little dish for offerings, a candle holder and some stones that felt right to be there.

For a basic altar I'd recomend a candle holder and an insence burner. Pictures of family members who have passed on and you wish to honor, water and food offering dishes, vase for flowers... all are good ideas to expand.

Basic start to commune with them.... Talk to them! Set up your shrine (I think candles are a bare minimum, but it's really what feels right to you) and talk... offer them anything that seems appropriate.

Thanks, that actually sounds really cool, but just one question, do you have to have pictures, as i don't have any of them (i might have one of one of my grandma's, but i think that's it), also what type of offerings do you use?

Thanks.

[instinct]

you don't have to have pictures.

maybe some of their old belongings if you have any.. otherwise maybe do like they've done at the temple - they've written the names of departed friends and family on gold stars and stuck them all on a section of the wall in the main shrine room :)

as for offerings, if you can think of food they liked, then that would be good now and then. flowers always go down well. items that they'd like.

you can also write letters to them and put them on the shrine. :)

it's a place to remember them as well as a place that they can feel at home :)

[Romani Vixen]

I actually don't have any pictures currently! I'm working on getting some from my mother (who's doing the family geneaology). They are certainly not required, but can be used as a way to focus on those specific ancestors.

I offer whatever seems right. Candles are a constant. Insence. Water. My dinner (offer it and give it a few minutes before chow time). They have asked for stones (as in, I get the impression that they would like gemstones). Chocolate (Mine like dark!). Flowers (when in season... I particularly like offering fresh flowers from my own garden).

Guess what... the same goes for the Names! :D Bast likes chocolate, as does Serqet, Yenipu loooves dark and caramel (love the reaction from milky way midnight!). Bast adores a fresh boquet of flowers, and anything that smells good.

The idea is to take your time... and give them attention. At first, your sence may not get much of a reaction, but with time and devotion, you'll start feeling more of their responce. I think that in our mundane lives, we get detached... and it takes time to open up. Some people get mental images, some people actually hear things... you may get neither... you will get something though... even if it's just their emotion (thanks, love... it varies). I often feel like my aura is getting a hug! Akhu also like to communicate through dreams... I need to start a dream diary (it's proven that you remember your dreams more if you write them down just when you wake up).

[instinct]

Daddy has a sweet tooth. he loooves candy :lol:

candy and steak (and rum)

what a boy

:razz:

[TaysatWesir]

I have two shelves one with photos of my dad and me plus some of his religious iconography.