#ancestral work

[decafanddivination]

Anyone have any suggestions on getting started with practicing ancestral work? Feeling bit of a block right now; and have felt a bit off since maternal grandmother passing six years ago.

[sweetlibradreams]

jan 29, 2026

i learned abt my great grandma recently: her herbalism, connection to nature, and rejection of the west. i felt so blessed to know that history and that she exists within me. the yearning to learn more; to reconnect. the yearning to embody her best traits.

a couple days later, i had a long phone call with my mother in which i learned that my great grandma was very cruel to my mother, her siblings, and my grandma. she encouraged my grandpa to kick my grandma out of the house. she told my mom and her siblings (just children at the time) that they were wasting her son's resources.

i learned more of my mother's upbringing. the coldness and unfeeling nature of my grandpa's family. i saw how she felt as a child mirrored in how i felt as a child parented by her. i saw how the way she received care was incredibly lacking and rife with abandonment, emotional neglect and cruelty. a hardening of the inner child. the only way to survive was to hold it all in and keep moving. maybe mask the pain with a laugh and changing of the topic.

it is really sad. it is really heavy. it shows up today in how i behave. i see myself in her. there is deep pain there. these cycles repeat. i am grateful to receive this information despite the pain and gravity of the harm.

may we break these cycles. may we be free to be ourselves. may we remove ourselves from situations in which we are disrespected. may we respect, love and care for ourselves. may we be free 🖤

[heyfortunae]

🗝️🕯️💀 ancestor work mini-survey 💀🕯️🗝️

Sorry, I just saw this and feel like doing it. Tagged by @ironandrue & @sheydmade for this fun ancestor work mini-survey!

Answer the questions below (as much as you’re comfortable sharing!) and then tag a few other members so we can keep the conversation going.

Questions:

Do you work with, honor, venerate, or worship your ancestors? Do you observe a distinction between these four modes of interaction? I do venerate my ancestors in a way that my spiritual practice centralises honouring and working with them. I honour them by giving them offerings from time to time, and I work with them to be guided on my spiritual path.

Do you communicate with your ancestors as a collective group, recognize them individually, or some combination of both? It's a combination of both. I communicate with my ancestors as a collective group, I also recognise them individually especially the ones who just passed recently (immediate family members).

What things do you do in your ancestor-focused practice (that you are willing to share)? I have an altar dedicated to them. I also pray to them and communicate with them daily. When I have a petition to make, I will offer a libation. I don't worry about immediate ancestors who don't agree with my spiritual practice, as I come from a heavy religious background. Instead, I reached out to ancestors in my heritage, from the oldest religion, who are willing to work with me to guide me on my spiritual path. Working with far-ancient ancestors, I also place some items that symbolise their origins and cultures on my altar, too.

What are some lessons you have learned from your ancestor work? Plenty I'd say. But the most significant ones I'd say is to lean in to the music as it is the oldest language of the world, and my ancestors communicate with music too. So I learn to pay attention to music more when I start to deepen my practice, and understand that a part of trance work starts with getting lost in the music.

💖✨Tagging: @queerkagome (because you're the only online friend I constantly talk to, so I'm curious to know more about your ancestor work, but absolutely no pressure! You don't have to share if you'd rather not!)

If any of my followers or members from #PathandPractice would like to join in and share their own answers to these questions, feel free to do so and say @heyfortunae tagged you! Feel free to answer in as much detail as you’d like or to ignore this if you don't feel like it (no pressure!).

[gogonis]

Dragon, Snake, Horse

Year of the Snake reflections The snake has such primordial ancient energy which can serve to honor and awaken the deep feminine and tin energy here on planet earth. Moving in cycles and being in harmony with the earth, noticing what may be deemed as inconsequential under fast paced systems of authority whose primary objective is domestication and control of what is wild and what is free.  True…

Dragon, Snake, Horse

[hillbillybubbeleh]

Having a little midnight porridge because I was fixing some up for an ancestor offering t'ing and ended up having to make some for myself too, as it simply smelled too good. 😊

[yorubaby]

My wife told me I make the best collard greens she's ever had in her life (literally verbatim), and it just made my heart so happy.

I taught myself how to cook, and I was never confident in making soul food because my mother never really made it and had removed me from a lot of my culture outside of visiting extended family for holidays.

Learning how to cook soul food has been something that's been emotionally hard, but also healing. Mainly because it opened a lot of old wounds and trauma (both first-hand and generational).

I'm so proud of the soul food dishes that I've really perfected, and whenever I make them I give the first plate to the ancestors because I feel that they have helped me learn to embrace learning these things, and unpacking the damage that was done to me by my mother's internalized racism and her removing me from culture, and healing those things.

Being told I make the best bowl of collard greens just... Made me feel... Happy.

[sheydmade]

"Ancestral work is, at its very root, incredibly personal. No two practices will be exactly the same. It’s a journey, one that never truly ends. You’ll be shifting within your practice, finding what feels right and comfortable at that point in time and growing within that space; until it’s time to expand the space and broaden the practice. Then, you shift and dabble and explore some more, incorporating new ideas and new methods, getting comfortable there before again growing, moving, changing. All the while, strengthening the connections and bonds with your ancestors, deepening your understanding of the self, and building a magical and spiritual craft that is entirely your own."

—'Ancestral Work for Beginners' (2025), Keziah Zibelmann ( @sheydmade )

[theweightofdivinity]

Ancestors remind us: When we feel far from our power, our confidence, our fire, dance. The body remembers the mysteries the mind forgets.